August 7, 2021

"Iron sharpens iron."

I wonder how it feels to be the first ever Indian to win a Gold in Track and Field. To have a billion plus Indians going bonkers over your achievement. To pull off what many thought to be impossible. Neeraj Chopra’s 87.58m throw landed him and India a gold in men’s javelin. History has been made. My heart has exploded with all kinds of joy.

What can I say about Allyson Felix? She first ran as a teenager in 2004 in Athens. Five Olympics and a baby later, she cemented her GOAT status with her 11th Olympic medal last week, surpassing King Carl Lewis as the American with the most track medals. Paavo Nurmi, the “flying Finn” from a different era with 12 medals stays at the top for track and field. Michael Phelps, of course, remains the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time with 28 medals, of which 23 are golds.

After playing catch up throughout the games, Team USA managed to eke out a first place finish for golds, with 39. It hasn’t been a stellar Olympics for American teams, with a number of prospective golds turning into silver and bronze. I guess Rio (46 golds) spoiled us into thinking 40+ golds is the norm for the US. Also, the teams that gained at the US’s expense - Japan, China and Australia - had very different lockdown experiences compared to the US. I’m sure this had something to do with the final tally.

Italy is having its best month since 190 BCE when the Roman Republic conquered Turkey. It all started with the unlikely win at the Euro football cup finals. Then, the improbable high jump gold at Tokyo. Then the 100m men’s finals and the 4x100 relay. Italy had its best Olympics ever this year. If I was an Italian, I’d totally seize the moment and buy a couple of lottery tickets. Well done, Italia!

Here’s an incredible stat I saw on Twitter: The US has won about a thousand-ish gold medals in the Olympics over the years. About half of them have come from just 4 universities in California - UCLA (Go Bruins!) leads the pack, then USC and UC Berkeley, with Stanford adding to the count in the last 30 years or so. How crazy is that? A handful of American universities have outperformed all countries. There’s no country in the world that can match America’s collegiate athletics programs. It is why we are such a powerhouse in world sports.

It has been a strange but welcome Games. Lots of new and exciting events. Who doesn’t love a little skateboarding and BMX cycling? I wonder if it’s too late for me to get involved with karate and leave my mark on the world? I have to take care these days just coming down a flight of stairs. So, I’m guessing the balance beam isn’t for me. Shout out to the US women in volleyball, the first American women’s team to notch a gold in the Olympics. We watched nearly every one of their matches. They were awesome. Did you watch Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Mohammed in the 400m hurdles? “Iron sharpens iron,” said McLaughlin after breaking the world record. Great games. Great memories.

The most interesting non-sports story of the Olympics has got to be that of the Belarusian athlete who unwittingly found herself in the middle of an international incident. It all started with the coaches who decided to enter her into the 4x400 relay without her permission or knowledge. Why? Because the athletes originally scheduled for the event were disqualified after drug tests. I love a good relay as much as anyone else. But if I was entered into an event in which I had never competed before, and told about it on the morning of the event, I too would have a thing or two to say about it. Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, took to Instagram and complained. The next thing she knew, she had Belarusian officials visiting her room and bundling her off to the airport for a trip back home. Let’s just say that Belarusian officials don’t appreciate thoughtful feedback. If you’re a high jumper and your nation calls on you to run a quick and clean 100m, you just do it. That’s the Belarusian way. So far, this is a story of a day in the life of a Belarusian - you complain about the coach and he tries to disappear you. Here comes the plot twist. At the Tokyo airport, Krystsina pulled out her phone, composed sentences using Google Translate and read them out to the Japanese authorities. My guess, she said, “Help. I am being abducted by an insane posse of clowns.” One thing led to another... yada yada yada... she’s now safe in Poland with her husband, who wisely took off from Belarus the moment he saw his wife’s Insta explode. Team Krystsina 2, Belarusian strongmen 0. Some things in life are priceless. For everything else, there’s Google Translate.

In the meanwhile, vaccination madness continues unabated in America. Unvaccinated numbskulls called on Simone Biles to “take one for the team.” Vanguard, the mutual fund company, announced that they will pay $1,000 each to employees who get vaccinated. United Airlines will fire employees who refuse to. Google will not let you back in the office without a jab. I’m not sure what more it will take to get the 100 million unvaccinated Americans on board. A word from our friendly disinformation sponsor, Putin perhaps?

There is a time for libertarian arguments about free speech, bill of rights etc. This isn’t that time. Libertarian asshats are out there in full force and they are not doing anyone any favors with their dogmatic constitutional rhetoric. The typical argument goes as follows: “those who don’t vaccinate don’t endanger the lives of the vaccinated if you claim that the vaccines are truly effective. So, don’t force vaccines on the rest of us.” They forget the costs and loads on the health infra from the unvaccinated. They forget that the virus mutates if left unchecked, and will eventually endanger all. They forget the lives lost.

In the meanwhile, CDC recommends taking off your shirt and swinging it wildly around your head three times while entering indoors. Their flip flop on guidelines has cost America and the world dearly. Speaking of which, I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Fauci still has a job. His incompetence last year was masked (no pun intended) by Trump’s shenanigans. It’s now out there for the world to see. There is another reason for him to go: No Trump supporter will listen to a word he says. He’s damaged goods. The more he speaks, the more the Republicans will double down. A survey last week showed that nearly a third of Republicans believe the vaccine to be more dangerous than the virus. Which is insane. We all know that the Vaccine to be a delightful, uplifting experience, amirite? If you know a Republican, please forward the Vaccine to them.

Stay safe. Have a great week ahead.