Imagine the horror of tuning into women's beach volleyball and seeing the American and Canadian women wearing leggings, not bikini bottoms for their preliminary match. The buzz on social media was quick and fierce, "I waited four years for f**king pants!" One X viewer complained. Another shot back, "And to all the creepers ... go away!" Turns out the young women weren't making a statement like the Norwegian beach handball team did last Olympics. They just felt more comfortable in leggings on a wet chilly day. When the sun came out the next day, they were back in their traditional bikini bottoms much to the delight of creepy X fans.
While no Olympics is without controversy, the Paris Games have had more than usual. It all started with an opening ceremony where much of the viewing audience was greatly offended by what they interpreted as a gross transgender parody of the Last Supper. Sacrilege, they cried! The French Catholic church, among many others, voiced their condemnation only to find out afterward that it wasn't the Last Supper at all but rather a homage to a painting entitled The Feast of the Gods by Jan van Bijlert. A simple count of the participants should have been enough to clue anyone in. I counted at least 18 participants, including what I took to be a blue Dionysus in the center. Nevertheless, the French Olympic organizing committee apologized for the confusion. No offense intended. Rather the aim was to celebrate diversity.
This Olympics is the first to have a virtual 50-50 split of men and women athletes, and they represent an astonishing variety of ethnic, cultural and gender identities. While there are no trans athletes, two intersex athletes received a great amount of unwarranted attention, as they had been previously barred by the International Boxing Association for failing gender examinations. Turns out this was a red herring purposefully planted by Russia to ignite yet another social media shitstorm when the Algerian boxer, Imane Khelif, hit the Italian boxer, Angela Carini, so hard her headgear flew off and she crumpled to the middle of the ring in tears refusing to fight anymore.
A year and a half ago, Khelif had beaten a young undefeated Russian woman only to be disqualified by a Russian dominated IBA, which subsequently awarded the victory to Azalia Amineva. The IOC stripped the IBA of its authority upon review of the incident and Khelif was given back her victory. Khelif has always identified herself as a woman despite having strong male genetic characteristics, namely high testosterone levels. Her situation is not much unlike Caster Semenya, who won the gold medal in the 800 meters at the 2012 London Games. Controversy hounded her as well. But, this was different. A "man" shouldn't be fighting a woman in the ring. It didn't matter that Khelif fought in Tokyo three years ago with no controversy.
Russia somehow finds a way to taint every Olympics. They haven't gotten over their expulsion from the Games and have now resorted to agitprop to stir up emotions. The IOC once again stepped in, only this time there weren't any apologies for the confusion but rather a stern reproach to those who would doubt Imane Khelif's gender.
These controversial incidents have overshadowed an otherwise great set of games. While the United States continues to rack up the medals, Americans are finding gold medals harder to come by. Daina and I were both thrilled to see the young woman from Saint Lucia win the first medal for her country in the 100 meter sprint. Julien Alfred might make it two gold medals, as she currently has the best time in the 200 meter heats. Competition is tough and comes from previously unknown parts of the world.
Almost everyone gets a vicarious thrill in seeing their countrymen and women perform well. We were hoping that the Lithuanian athletes would do better, but so far the best performance is a bronze medal in single women's sculls by Viktorija Senkutė. We thought Rūta Meilutytė got robbed this year as her premier event, the 50 meter breaststroke, was cancelled this year and finished a disappointing 11th in the 100 meter breaststroke. Just the same, we cheer them on as they are competing at such a high level.
You can take some comfort in sports that don't seem to require as much athleticism, such as sharpshooting. One of the favorites this year is supercool Kim Yeji of South Korea. She took the internet by storm with her eye gear, poses and baby elephant head dangling from her hip. Then there is the American Chinese table tennis team that became a sensation after winning an unexpected gold medal and earning the admiration of the US men's basketball team. You can't help but love these crossover stories.
Interspersed through the events has been the running sight gag of Snoop Dogg taking part in events. He and Martha Stewart got all dressed up for the equestrian events. He's made a big splash in Paris, and was even one of the torch bearers. Wouldn't you love to be in his shoes?
Probably the biggest star of the Games, certainly from an American point of view, is Simone Biles. We all remember the painful time she had in Tokyo as she struggled through mental doubts and withdrew from all but one of her scheduled gymnastic events. Most persons couldn't understand it. They felt Simone had let down the American team, which settled for silver in the team competition, but these doubts are real and Simone felt she couldn't go through with the events. Well, it was a very different Simone this time around as she led her team to gold and took the individual all-around gold as well. She further added a gold medal in the vault, boosting her career haul to seven gold medals over four Olympic Games, dating back to 2012 London. Yep, "they are really quiet now."
We have no real awareness of the strain these athletes are under, both physical and emotional. They literally put their whole lives into these events just to have that brief moment on the world stage. Even the unlikeliest of Olympians like "Auntie" Ni has put in incalculable hours to compete at this level and showed just how astonishing she is to have won her initial match against a woman half her age.
So, chill out and just watch and be amazed by what these athletes can do. Don't pass judgement, especially when you don't know the back stories, and quit looking upon these athletes as sex objects to arouse your libido. It truly is a feast of the gods!
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