Rio Post #2: Qualifying Stages and Specialized Events

Here's a quick preview of my series on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio:
Rio Post #1: Women's Gymnastics Individual All-Around
Rio Post #2: Qualifying Stages and Specialized Events
Rio Post #3: The City of Rio de Janeiro
Rio Post #4: Saturday Night at the Blue Oval
Rio Post #5: Party on the Beach


We attended eight events in Rio and would categorize three of them as premier events: women's gymnastics, track and field, and beach volleyball.  In this post, I'll recount events which were either in the group or qualifying stages or more specialized events that makes one wonder "how do you get into that sport?"


Whitewater Canoeing and Kayaking, Thursday, August 11

I'm at the Olympics!

Whitewater canoeing and kayaking was our first Olympic event.  It was held at a manmade course that was like a lazy river only if half of it had whitewater rapids.  It looked super fun to do because the course was made of plastic barriers so it would be a lot safer than a real river where there are actual rocks and hidden rocks.  We only stayed an hour because we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the women's gymnastics so I have no idea who won.  Probably the Germans because they seemed to be dominating.

The rapids

The lazy river

The event was cool because it was my first Olympics event.  It was also cool in retrospect because I wore a patriotically themed Oak Hill Marina t-shirt to a boating event and I was featured on Oak Hill's Facebook and Instagram pages!

Representing Oak Hill Marina in Rio!

Indoor Volleyball, Friday, August 12

Our still-truncated group at indoor volleyball.

Of the five events featured in this post, indoor volleyball had the best atmosphere.  This event started at 9:30 in the morning and we were a little late. As you will see, the Olympics wear you out so we had a good excuse for being late.  We arrived during the second set and Serbia was in the midst of dominating China, which is ironic because China later destroyed Serbia in the gold medal match.


One of the reasons volleyball was so fun was because of the canned music clips they played after some of the points.  Our favorite, by far, was a song we will call "MONSTER BLOCK" which was played after, appropriately, a monster block.  It was so popular that FIVB (International Volleyball Federation) put together a YouTube clip of it.  Play it and see if you can get it out of your head.  The other song they played a lot of was "Boom" which was played after an emphatic spike. FIVB also put together a YouTube clip of it, but it's not quite as cool as "MONSTER BLOCK." 


Since Serbia swept China, there was a lot of time to kill so they threw out dozens of giant colorful bouncy balls for fans to hit around. These were not beach balls.  These were like giant red rubber dodge balls that are now banned in PE class.  So these giant bouncy rubber colorful balls were hitting kids in the head and knocking over old people and Brazilian women in gloriously impractical high heels.  Other than those being concussed, everyone was having a great time with the balls.  We, of course, accustomed to the hyper-litigiousness of the US were amused and bemused by the spectacle.  If the arena was in the US, lawyers would have been lining up to sue the Olympics or whoever they could sue.

Get our your checkbooks IOC or FIVB!

I also scouted out the line judges during the game.  In fact, for most of the China-Serbia match, I was as interested in the line judges as I was the game.  I line judge the ELC varsity volleyball matches so I wanted to see how it was done at the highest level.  I picked up some new techniques for in, out, and tip calls that I look forward to using this fall. 

This guy is ready go make the call!

In writing these last two paragraphs, it's strange the things that stick out about the event...


Because there were also  the matches!  In addition to seeing the eventual gold medal game participants, we also saw Argentina and Cameroon, two countries who had never won a match in their Olympic history.  And Argentina and Cameroon each did their best to lose the match to each other.  But it was a fun match because there were a lot of Argentinians there and the Brazilians in attendance rooted against Argentina.  Eventually, Cameroon blew a lead in the fifth set and the Argentinians celebrated as if they had won the gold medal.

Serbia in blue vs China in red

Cameroon in yellow vs Argentina in blue

Don't cry for me Argentina!

Indoor Cycling, Friday, August 12
Indoor cycling takes place on an extremely sloped structure called a velodrome.  This is not a sport you can go out and do with your buddies because it is a highly specialized structure. Like the whitewater canoeing/kayaking, this event was cool because it was the Olympics. 

That's a bank

One of the things I found interesting about the Olympics was the nationalities in attendance at the events.  Over all, Brazilians, obviously, were the most numerous, clearly followed by Americans and the British.  Other countries well represented included Argentina, Australia, China, and Jamaica (at least in track, though more on that to come in a later post).  At indoor cycling, however, the British dominated in the stands because, apparently, they're really good at indoor cycling.  We saw the Chinese women set a world record in some kind of doubles race.  We also saw the British men set a world record in preliminary round of what I'll call the four-man sprint. Then in the finals, they trailed the Australians for the first fourteen laps before passing them in the final two laps and breaking their world record again to the delight of the pro-British crowd. 

A world record!

Hail Britannia!

This was also notable because it was the first event the Gifford's were able to attend after the travel debacle. 


Diving, Saturday, August 13
Nap time.  We saw the semi-finals of the women's spring board.  There were eighteen divers who did five dives each.  Other than the two Chinese divers and a Canadian, none of them stood out.  We also discussed how someone gets into diving.  Are they lazy swimmers who don't want to swim and tread water for hours and hours?  Are they gymnasts who grow too much?  We were way off.  According to my friend Kirstin, a former collegiate swimmer "Divers are usually short.  Unless they are quick with tucking in their long legs.  It's just core, killer leg muscles, and excellent timing."


Since we couldn't answer that question and there wasn't too much drama during the competition, while the third round of dives took place, I caught a little nap...

I. AM. OUT.

Sexy

An American diver...I may or may not have witnessed this dive.

Into the green water she would eventually go...

I hope these tickets weren't too expensive...The Olympics are exhausting.

Everyone knew China would dominate so it's okay that I missed a round...

Water Polo, Monday, August 15
Water polo was our last Olympic event as the Gifford's and I had to leave right after the first game of our session in order to catch our flights back to the US (Of course our flights back to the US went perfectly).

One last group shot!

Fortunately, the match we were able to see was the US vs Brazil!  The US dominated Brazil, but I enjoyed water polo way more than I thought I would.  The objective of the competition appears to be scoring more goals than the opponent.  The objective is actually to see how close you can get to drowning and/or strangling your opponent without killing her and/or being called for a foul.

USA! USA! USA!

I thoroughly enjoyed the specialized sports much more than I thought I would.  The allure of the Olympics added to the enjoyment, but so did the excitement of the people from other countries rooting passionately for their teams.  I want to go to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in part because of the electricity of a premier event like women's gymnastics, but also because of the fun that can be had during the qualifying rounds and at specialized events.