Paris 2024 - Queue the medals, folks, it's Olympic time again!

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

Register Log in
And it's a disappointing Games for Andre de Grasse. In Tokyo, the Canadian sprinter was a medalist in both the 100m (bronze) and 200m (gold) as well anchoring the 4x100 relay team to silver but so far in Paris, Andre has missed making the final in both 100m and 200m. He has apparently said that an old hamstring injury came back to haunt him. If so, that's too bad. He still hopes to run in the 4x100.
 
Bronze for Alysha Newman of Delaware (just outside London), Ontario. First ever medal for a Canadian in women's pole vault and the first for any Canadian in pole vault since the 1912 Games (yeah, just a bit of a drought there, eh). In the history of the modern Olympics, Canadians have only won 3 pole vaulting medals, including hers. There will be some happy faces around this area today.


Also, the Canadian beach volleyball team of Brandie Wilkerson and Melissa Humana-Paredes plays Switzerland in a semi-final tomorrow, meaning a win puts them in striking distance of gold.
 
Canada's 20th medal is silver for Maude Charron, one of our flagbearers in the opening ceremony, in women's weightlifting, 59kg class (she took gold in 64kg in Tokyo but that class was eliminated).
 
A Canadian Press story detailing Maude's road from Tokyo to Paris. Coaching changes, class change, and a bum knee and she still managed to stay in the medal hunt. Good job.

 
After Maude's win, Skylar Park won a bronze in Taekwondo women's 57kg so Canada stands at 21 medals as of the end of competition today. And the women's beach volleyball team won their semi so they are guaranteed at least silver. The final goes tomorrow afternoon.
 
I can't resist posting this.
Apparently French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati is going viral due to the size of his, ummm package, and knocking the pole down with it.
It's going viral....no medal but he's getting offers from the porn industry and bragging rights. Lol!
 
Waterfall said:
I can't resist posting this.
Apparently French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati is going viral due to the size of his, ummm package, and knocking the pole down with it.
It's going viral....no medal but he's getting offers from the porn industry and bragging rights. Lol!
Click to expand...

The big stiff is heroic in some circles and surroundings ... cap that off! Thus we are always shafted by the powers of emotions ...
 
Waterfall said:
I can't resist posting this.
Apparently French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati is going viral due to the size of his, ummm package, and knocking the pole down with it.
It's going viral....no medal but he's getting offers from the porn industry and bragging rights. Lol!
Click to expand...
Well, he is a POLE vaulter and that requires a nice, long POLE, right? :ROFLMAO:
 
The two finalists for women’s boxing at the Olympics are Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting.

That speaks volumes about their skill, determination, and resilience. Despite controversy, they’ve proven themselves to be top-tier athletes in their sport.

It’s a reminder that talent and hard work can shine through, even in the face of adversity
 
Thoughts about Noah Lyle's bronze in the 200m? I mean, at Tokyo, there's no way someone packing a case of C-19 would have been allowed out of the village, let alone into the starting blocks. At the same time, the guy landed a bronze medal in a very intense event while sick with C-19, which is kind of amazing. I'm guessing that, had Noah been healthy, the gold would have been in play. So I'm a bit torn between admiring him and wondering WTF the Olympic officials were thinking.

On the Maple Leaf front, Katie Vincent and Sloan Mckenzie landed a bronze in 500m women's double canoe sprints today. This is Vincent's second bronze in the event, having also been in the boat that took the bronze in Tokyo. Come later, the beach volleyball team plays for gold, both of our 4x100 relay teams run in finals, and shot putter Sarah Mitton (here we go throwing things again) becomes the first Canadian woman to compete in a shot put final. Mitton qualified, and beat the rest of the field, with her first throw in the preliminaries. And those are just the medals (beach volleyball is getting one, just playing to determine the colour) or medal-hopefuls. There's always the chance of someone unheralded landing a medal, too.
 
Well, there's one not a lot of people saw coming. Canada's 4x100 relay team took ... GOLD!! And Andre de Grasse, who struggled in the 100m and 200m individual races, seemed back in form as the anchor. That gives him his seventh career Olympic medal, only the second Canadian Olympian to win that many (the other is swimmer Penny Oleksiak). This is the third Olympics in a row that a Canadian 4x100 team has medalled, following silver in Rio and bronze in Tokyo. It is also the first Canadian gold in the event since 1996 when the great Donovan Bailey was still running the anchor leg. Interestingly, of the two pre-Olympic favourites, Jamaica failed to qualify and the USA blew a handoff in the final and was disqualified. South Africa took silver and Great Britain bronze.

www.sportsnet.ca

Canada shocks field to win Olympic men's 4x100-metre relay gold

Talk about a stunner. The Canadian' men's 4x100-metre relay team of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse captured shocking gold on Friday at the Olympics.
www.sportsnet.ca www.sportsnet.ca
 
And a gold medal performance in individual 200m canoe this morning by Katie Vincent. That's Katie's second medal at Paris since she was in the bronze medal winning doubles boat yesterday.

Canada now has 25 medals total and 8 gold, our best performance in a non-boycotted Summer Olympics. And there's still a day to go, so who knows. Here is the full list up to the end of yesterday (i.e. minus Katie's Gold) from the official Olympics site. Not sure when today's medals get added.


The beach volleyball duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson landed a silver in the end, losing their final to Brazil 2-1.
 
Last day and things are winding down. Some more Canadian success stories yesterday with Marco Arop taking silver in the 800m and Phil Wizard winning the debut breaking (breakdancing) gold.

That leaves Canada with 27 medals total, 9 gold, 7 silver, 11 bronze. A great games overall for us, even if there were disappointments at times (e.g. de Grasse missing two finals where he had been considered a contender going in).

Flag bearers are no surprise. Hammer thrower Ethan Katzenberg won Canada's first ever gold in his event and won by the biggest margin since 1920 (just call him "Thor" and be done with it).

Swimmer Summer McIntosh was the first Canadian to win three gold at a single games and picked up an Olympic record (200m individual medley) along the way.

Closing ceremonies stream/broadcast live at 3pm Eastern.
 
So I did watch the closing ceremonies last night. It was a more traditional show in the Stade de France. There was the usual parade of flags followed by the athletes coming in casually. Spectacular stage show partway through as dancers on a stage set that was a stylized world map assembled the rings. A number of musical artists played in two musical portions. The first was in the stadium, with the French band Phoenix as the focus as various guests came in and out. Good concert. Then after the traditional handover from Paris to LA (both with female mayors, which I think may be a first) and some Mission Impossible antics by Ethan Hu...er...Tom Cruise, we had performances from California celebrating the next Olympics in LA, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers (damn, they are looking old), Billie Eilish, and some rap from Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. And I like how the extinguishing of the flame was done, with the amazing French swimmer Leon Marchand (four gold, one bronze) carrying a lamp with just one small flame in it, that he and other selected athletes then blew out. And the ending performance of "My Way" by French singer Yseult was amazing. The song is usually associated with Frank Sinatra and Paul Anka (who wrote the English lyrics) but is actually an English adaptation of a French song and the music is by French composer Jacques Revaud. So kind of a fitting ending given the handoff from France to the USA.

Generally a good, fairly typical closing. The Cruise bits were cool, especially when he went into the crowd of athletes to shake hands and take selfies, but also were a rather blatant plug for the M:I series, which has an eighth installment due next year. The Games in LA means Hollywood presence, though, so get used to it. Music was generally good, with Yseult's performance of "My Way" the highlight, but they should have brought back Gojira. :giggle:

(And did anyone else think Summer looked like she would rather be back at the cottage? She really did not seem as excited as Ethan.)
 
Last edited:
Oh, another non-Canadian Olympian I'd like to shout out. At the closing ceremony, they awarded the medals for the women's marathon and the gold medallist is quite a runner. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands not only won the women's marathon, but also took bronze in the both the 5K and 10K races. That means she ran about 62km over the course of the games, most of them in the last two days (there was only 35 hours between the 10K and marathon). In Tokyo, Hassan took gold in 5K and 10K but ran the 1500 (taking the bronze) rather than the marathon, so she now has six medals, three gold.
 
@Mendalla, you’ve done a great job of sharing with us all the best of the Olympics. However, what about the rest of the Olympics?

• Opening Ceremony Controversy: The opening ceremony featured a tableau of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” which sparked backlash from the Christian community. The scene was seen by many as disrespectful.

• Corruption Investigations: The Paris 2024 organizing committee has been under investigation for corruption. French authorities raided the hq and opened two preliminary investigations, one dating back to 2017.

• Environmental Issues: The quality of the River Seine was a concern, especially for events like open water swimming and triathlons.

• Athlete Disqualifications and Controversies: There were several high-profile athlete disqualifications. Additionally, a convicted child rapist representing the Netherlands in beach volleyball faced public backlash and was booed during his matches.

• Political Subplots: Various political subplots emerged, such as controversies over gender misconceptions and certain athletes' participation.

• Hijab Ban: France barred its athletes from wearing the hijab, sparking debates about religious freedom
 
Jae said:
@Mendalla, you’ve done a great job of sharing with us all the best of the Olympics. However, what about the rest of the Olympics?

• Opening Ceremony Controversy: The opening ceremony featured a tableau of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” which sparked backlash from the Christian community. The scene was seen by many as disrespectful.

• Corruption Investigations: The Paris 2024 organizing committee has been under investigation for corruption. French authorities raided the hq and opened two preliminary investigations, one dating back to 2017.

• Environmental Issues: The quality of the River Seine was a concern, especially for events like open water swimming and triathlons.

• Athlete Disqualifications and Controversies: There were several high-profile athlete disqualifications. Additionally, a convicted child rapist representing the Netherlands in beach volleyball faced public backlash and was booed during his matches.

• Political Subplots: Various political subplots emerged, such as controversies over gender misconceptions and certain athletes' participation.

• Hijab Ban: France barred its athletes from wearing the hijab, sparking debates about religious freedom
Click to expand...

These are questionable and we do not want to go there if resolved that we already know all about it ... a polar position as extreme end ... r' cis?!

Doesn't translate well ... at least in established connections and communications ... so it goes 't! Crossed ... its a mystery!
 
Jae said:
Olympics?

• Opening Ceremony Controversy: The opening ceremony featured a tableau of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” which sparked backlash from the Christian community. The scene was seen by many as disrespectful.
Click to expand...
I would not even have thought of it as representing the last supper had the controversy not erupted. To me it was representing the runway side crowds at a fashion show and was just shot from a angle that gave it the look of da Vinci's lLast Supper. So likely a tempest in the teapot unless someone has specific evidence that the resemblance to da Vinci's painting was intentional. And, to be honest, da Vinci's painting has been parodied many times. It is a widely recognized artwork and parodying it is hardly parodying the Biblical story. The painting is, itself, just a representation of the story by a famous artist and hardly a "canonical" version.

As for the rest, most of that is typical Olympic fare. I preferred to highlight the athletes and their hard work and leave the controversies to others.
 
Luce NDs said:
These are questionable and we do not want to go there if resolved that we already know all about it ... a polar position as extreme end ... r' cis?!

Doesn't translate well ... at least in established connections and communications ... so it goes 't! Crossed ... its a mystery!
Click to expand...
You’re grappling with complex issues. It’s graspable to feel uncertain when faced with such challenges. Sometimes, communication's nuances are elusive, making it difficult to find clarity.

Remember, it’s okay to acknowledge the mystery it brings. These moments of uncertainty lead to growth. If you ever need to talk more about it, I’m here to listen. You’re not alone in this journey. How are you feeling about it all right now?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top