Yesterday should have been the closing ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Games. Instead they will, at least we hope, take place next year. I'm not the biggest Olympics nut, and the lack of Olympics in 2020 was more than negated by the surprising presence of teh NBA and NHL in July/August. I'll take that trade (of course, stripping away the 'you know why, right?' of it all.
That said, not having the Olympics does remind me how much I enjoyed it in 2016, when the Games were in Rio, a time zone that was perfect. It was a nice combining of a few elements as well, with me in the throes of a horribly sedate project that was in my own town, allowing me to come home each night with a few hours to kill. What did I do to fill the time? Watch the damn Olympics.
My enjoyment of the 2016 games wasn't about watching sports I didn't know existed - though seeing people shoot skeet and jog around on horses still has some charm. It was about finding a new appreciation, if not outright love, for sports that were there all along.
The sport that best defined 2016 to me was Volleyball - something Brazil apparently sees as second only to football/soccer as the National past-time. The volleyball played inside the Maracanazinho was incredible - mostly because the fans were bonkers. They would play EDM and techno in between points. They would thrown on random songs of the day, like 'This Girl' (Kung vs. Cooking), or 'I Just Came to Say Hello!'. There was this weird 'Monster-Smash' chant that broke out anytime someone just hammered a smash proper. It was bananas, it was amazing.
It took a while to really understand it, but that time it takes to learn and study a sport through is part of the fun. The athletic exploits of volleyballers is insane as well, just people diving around left and right and somehow, someway, getting the ball back up nearly every time. Women's Volleyball, equally popular in Brazil largely because of how good the Brazilian women's team was, became a favored pastime. It was amazing seeing these athletic godesses - almost all ridicuously tall - display their brilliance.
Outside of volleyball, I enjoyed some of the other middle-tier sports, like the velodrome stuff on the track, the fencing, water-polo, diving - all the hits. It was endless fun to sit back at the end of the day and flip through the dozens of Comcast/NBC channels that showed Olympics and go back and forth between them all. It's hard to say I was invested in outcomes, but moreso in curiosity and imbibing the feeling that was present enough in those arenas, gyms and fields that it shook through the screen.
Brazil had a lot of problems leading into the Games, as the period that went through them getting awarded the Olympics and actually hosting it was filled with unsettling times locally. It still is seen locally from what I can tell, as a horrible boondoggle. Don't care. The attendees, be them locals or tourists, created a great atmosphere at nearly every setting.
At the end of the day, Olympics are centered around gymnastics, swimming and track & field - maybe so because the US generally at worst does well and at best dominates at all three. 2016 was a prime example of just how good these sports can be and just how much drama and intrigue can be created by just showcasing on awesomeness.
2016 saw pinnacle performances in each area. First, you had the US Women's Gymnastics team, headlined by Simone Biles, dominate at a level never seen. Gymnastics calculus-level scoring system essentially assured that no one could match Biles if she just did what she planned to do - because what she plans to do is just technically better than anyone else. And she did just that. The whole team finished miles ahead of anyone else. Country limits may have been the only reason the US didn't go gold-silver-bronze in individuals.
Swimming and Track was about the same people that lighted up 2008 and 2012 - Phelps and Bolt, but not in the same way. 2008 was Phelp's coronation. His dominance was the story. His 2012 was similar - even if Phelps personally was in a low point as he would later reveal. Well, 2016 was a goodbye, but no one expected just that level of dominance in his final showing. More medals, more records, more amazing performances. Watching Phelps swim is one of the great viewing experiences of my life. It was insane in 2004 when he was 17, and it was still insane twelve years later.
Bolt showed up in 2008 and set world records. In 2012, he did the same. In 2016, much like Phelps, he wasn't assured of victory. Dominance wasn't the expectation - it just happened again. Much like watching Phelps swim, watching Bolt run is amazing, but more for its sheer audacity. The way his gait slowly just takes over. The way it looks like he is just playing a different game in teh second half of some of his races. The way he always is able to almost celebrate while running, that giant, infectious smile of his just beaming while everyone else is thrashing around to finish those last few steps.
I remember I was at a crowded bar in New York, The Blind Tiger (RIP bars), with a few friends the night of Bolt's 200m win. They had a small tv in the corner that was broadcasting NBC. No one really paid too much attention. That was until Bolt was about to run. Suddenly, this packed bar became a sports bar, everyone turning their eyes towards the small TV in the corner. We all unleashed in equal parts celebration and absolute amazement - seeing people n various levels of drunkenness try to understand how it is possible for someone to run like that.
2016 had stars, it had moments, but what it also had that prior Olympics lacked, was tennis played at a ridiculous level. Tennis has always been part of the Olympics, but was never really seen as too important. Certainly nowhere near the slams or even maybe secondary tournaments like Indian Wells. That all changed in 2016, largely because the players got really invested.
In 2016, Djokovic was the clear best player in the world, but had his Nole-slam ended in Wimbledon a few weeks prior - the start of a two year malaise (for him). Nadal was down in the dumps, relatively. Federer was playing well but not great. Murray had just won Wimbledon. Those four men were expected to be key parts of the 2016 story, but the fifth Beatle in this case was the one that changed everything: Juan Martin del Potro.
Del Potro had a cursed career, one that started with so much promise when he mashed his way to the 2009 US Open title. Various wrist injuries cost him pretty much all of 2010-2011 and 2014-15. In the brief periods he did play, mostly 2012-13, he returned quickly to being a Top-10 player. By 2016, he was far from that, but he came to the Olympics in his home continent, and was unleashed.
An interesting part of this cadre of Tennis stars is how nationalistic and prideful they are of where they came from. We saw it with Murray at Wimbledon - especially when he won Olympic Gold at Wimbledon in 2012. We see it all the time with Nadal and Spain, and of course with Djokovic and Serbia (especially pointed given how he grew up at the height of the unrest/war). And here we saw it with Del Potro.
The matches in that tournament were legendary. Del Potro's 7-6 7-6 win over Djokovic was probably the most memorable. Djokovic couldn't touch Del Potro's serve and epic forehand. It was a battle that should have happened so many times over the years. At the end, both players were crying, Del Potro with the emotion of the crowd and his own injury demons. For Djokovic, it was losing while representing his country - the Olympic Gold being the only real missing piece in his cabinet.
The Semifinal played between Del Potro and Nadal was similar, again with Del Potro prevailing. Once again there were so many 'Ole's' and chants. It was a world cup soccer match crowd, a high intensity we would have only expected in tennis in Ashe or Laver. It was beautiful, an unexpected glory of the 2016 Olympics.
The 2016 Olympics had it all. It had the personal stories and stars that you can easily get behind - I was able to get a newfound appreciation for the brilliance of Phelps and Bolt. It had the sport I love but never cared about at the Olympics become one of the best shows in the games, with legendary tennis players staging epic battles for a tournament that earned them no money or even ranking points (something that was there in prior Olympics). And it had those other sports you latch onto and ride for two weeks, with volleyball being the central star. For the next 200 weeks after it ended, I didn't miss it. But when teh Olympics didn't return on that 201st week, it became apparent to me again how special it is, and how much we do need it.
