I like the cycling* and racket sports. The women's road race was really engaging and interesting, which is not always the case with anything that is four hours long. They say this race will go down as one of the greats, as she was a lone rider in a team sport and led from the beginning. I'm looking forward to the track racing, but I also have no plans to look up when it is happening. If I see it, I see it. I've also watched some fencing and quick glances of other, lesser known sports. Also skateboarding, which I still don't understand because of how organized and regimented it is. That's NOT what skateboarding is. Skateboarding was a huge part of my life, but they've managed to turn it into watching paint dry. I never look up schedules or when certain events are airing. For me, that's a big part of the fun. Surprise me. Teach me something about a sport of which I know nothing.
The tennis has been OK, but the high temperatures and the way the stadiums were built are wearing on the players. There's no air flow in these things, so they're acting like ovens. The funny thing about the design is everything is hard. Meaning, the balls hit the back wall and spray all over the place, making it a pain in the butt for the ball people.
Oh, and the Australian swimming coach last night when his swimmer beat Katie Ledecky in the 400m was classic nutso testosterone weirdness. The poor Japanese Olympic worker didn't know what to do with him. I'm sure you can find it on youtube. I don't think I'd like to live in Australia. I've thought that for a long time, but little things like this make me think it isn't that far removed than Chechnya.
*When I was a kid, we were on family vacation and happen to be in an area where Olympic trials were in progress. We went to two events: a tennis match and velodrome bicycle track racing. I believe the velodrome was outdoors? My parents made that decision, and I have no idea why. The tennis match bored me to death, and because we seated ourselves in the middle, our necks got sore. There's a reason why the rich people boxes at tournaments are on one end and not in the middle. But I got the bicycling bug bad after watching the track racing. Fascinating, skilled stuff on a strange track. I was already a bike nut because of living in a tiny farm town where we biked everywhere, but seeing these Olympic trials coupled with the movie Breaking Away set me on a trajectory of dreaming about bicycles and touring the countryside rather than thinking about cars.