If you missed the previous entries in the series, here they are:
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
Beach volleyball at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro at midnight with matches involving Brazil and the US was the perfect Olympic event at the perfect place at the perfect time with the perfect teams. It was the perfect conclusion to our long weekend in Rio at the Olympics.
 |
| Pre-match selfie |
The Perfect Olympic Event at the Perfect Place
I would like to imagine that when Rio de Janeiro was making their pitch to the International Olympic Community it went like this:
IOC: Rio, it is time for your proposal.
Rio: We definitely won’t have all of the infrastructure done on time because we're Brazil and we're corrupt and we never do anything on time. But we’re going to build a temporary arena on Copacabana Beach for beach volleyball.
IOC: We have a deal.
Copacabana was the perfect place for beach volleyball. Even though Rio had to build a temporary arena made completely of scaffolding and it was probably symbolic of the wasteful nature of the Olympic model of having cities build lots of facilities for obscure sports, Rio absolutely had to have beach volleyball at Copacabana. Rio is a beach city. Many cities in Brazil are beach cities. And Copacabana is one of the most famous beaches in the world. It is the heart of Rio. It had to be there.
 |
| It does not look anything like a temporary structure from the inside. |
The Perfect Time
Our evening started at about 7:30 pm when we walked from our Airbnb down the beach to a private party. Since Paul and I both had the Chase Visa United Airlines Explorer credit card, we each were able to bring three guests into the “private” party with "free" food and drinks. So it was a good way to tailgate. As a bonus, there were interviews and meet-and-greets with Olympic athletes. On this night, Summer Sanders, and Olympic gold-medalist in swimming in 1996, interviewed Connor Jaeger, a silver medalist in the 1500 meter swim.
 |
| Connor Jaeger and Summer Sanders, both Olympic medalists in swimming, talk about swimming. |
After eating and drinking our fill, we headed down to the ticketing center near the volleyball arena at about 9:30 so the Gifford’s could try to get some tickets for track and field the next day and maybe the rest could score a primo event at the last minute. While the rest of the crew were in line, I witnessed the most awkward scalping job ever as five Americans without enough currency tried to buy tickets to beach volleyball from a middle-aged Brazilian lady. I really should have stepped in to facilitate the transaction because the Americans were not experienced scalpers and the Brazilian lady certainly wasn’t...When the rest of our group had finished their legitimate ticket purchase, the secondary ticket exchange still had not taken place. Regardless, at about 10:15 we entered the volleyball arena for the first match which started at 11:00 PM. That may sound late, but like Chileans and Argentinians, Brazilians do everything a few hours later in the day than Americans. And Brazilians like to party. So whoever decided to play the matches at 11 and midnight was a genius because it perfectly fit the culture of Brazil.
 |
| I'm not sure what song they were playing in the pre-game when they turned off the lights and told us to turn on our phones. |
 |
| Paul representing the Stars and Stripes before the matches from his front row seat. |
The Perfect Teams
It could not have been any more ideal to have one match featuring Brazil and another featuring the US. The first match was Brazil vs the evil doping Russians. I think Brazil dispatched them with very little trouble. Unfortunately, it must have been cooler than 90 degrees because the Brazilian team was all covered up. All the other teams wore their eye-patch outfits (inside joke).
 |
| Ace! Ace! Ace! |
 |
| Ross and Walsh-Jennings. |
 |
| Here comes the BOOM! Here comes the BOOM! Here comes the BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! (That was a "song" they played after an emphatic kill.) |
The US match was made immensely more enjoyable by the arrival of four NBA players: Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler and DeAndre Jordan. At first they were sitting in a section reserved for Olympic athletes. They spent most of the time getting their pictures taken with Olympic athletes in other sports, social media-ing, and taunting Australia's cheering section. It was an entertaining spectacle. Sometime during the second set, they left and I had assumed that Coach K had had his grandkids send some texts with nothing but emojis to the NBA players telling them to get back to the cruise ship. (That one was a joke for myself.) Instead, they moved to court side seats.
 |
| Draymond sending appropriate Snaps. |
 |
| Draymond sending appropriate Snaps from better seats. |
 |
| Celebrating with the NBA players. |
 |
| Covered up for their post-match interviews |
 |
| Paul celebrating in the rowdy section. |
 |
| April Ross took a selfie with Paul's phone! |
The Perfect Olympics?
Far from it. As I mentioned earlier, Rio spent a lot of money on the Olympics that it could have spent in other ways. Which reminded me of a Sunday adventure I had a few weeks ago with my Uncle Ron and some of our friends.
 |
| Iowans dropping some cash in Minnesota at the first Vikings pre-season game at US Bank stadium. |
A few weeks ago, I went to the first ever pre-season game in the new Vikings stadium. The stadium is spectacular and I remember thinking to myself how incredible it is that I live during a time period where there is something so awesome. I've often had this thought before during (some) Hawkeye games or Kenny Chesney concerts or a Broadway play or beautiful day on West Lake Okoboji and especially at the Olympics in Rio. I just wonder "How is it possible that that something can be so awe-inspiring?"
A few weeks ago, as I was thinking about the stadium, and today as the Vikings are preparing to play their first regular season game there, I thought about how awesome it is but I also thought about how it was funded by Minnesota tax dollars and how that was very controversial since critics of the stadium believe that the state's scarce resources should be spent on something more vital than a billionaire's football stadium. I also thought about how critics of the Olympics believe that Brazil's scare resources should be spent on something more vital than a bunch of stadiums for sports people only care about every four years. Of course that stadium had led a carload of Iowans to spend about $500 in the state of Minnesota that they otherwise would not have. And the Olympics got a half dozen Americans to drop $15,000 in Brazil that they otherwise would not have. The stadium cost way more than $500 but it was so incredible that I want to go back and drop a few hundred more dollars in the state of Minnesota. The Olympics cost way more than $10,000 but it was so incredible that I want to go back and drop a few thousand more dollars in Brazil. So is a stadium like US Bank Stadium really worth it economically? Are the Olympics worth it economically? Are they worth it psychically? Hard to say? I'm an historian and amateur travel blogger, not an economist or psychologist. But at least US Bank stadium will be used multiple times a year for decades, unlike some of the Olympic venues.
So are the Olympics worth it?
Read my previous blog posts.
Look at those smiles.
Damn right it's worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment