Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
The “Fab
Five” or “Fierce Five” or whatever alliterative moniker they use this year to
refer to them. That is what today is
about. In four hours, I will be watching
them in the team finals, the most important event for me of these Games. I am referring, of course, to the five girls
on our gymnastics team, the five girls who will capture the heart of our nation
tonight. Simone, Aly, Gabby, Laurie, and
Madison, those are their five names, and it will absolutely be fabulous. “The Fab Five are going gold.” That was the single happiest moment for me of
the London Games. I still get welled up
every time I hear or think those words.
How marvelous will it be to see them in person in just a few short
hours? I can’t even imagine. We dominated in London. We are even better here in Rio. It is moments like these that can make
Olympic memories that will last a lifetime.
I can’t even begin to express how exciting it will be for me to see
them in person on the Olympic stage.
This event alone would have been worth the trip. I will write more about them in the venue,
but I just wanted to set the stage for this afternoon.
After I closed, I crashed almost immediately,
and slept in to almost noon. I had saved
my cigar for the morning. Oops, I forgot
to mention that I had lit a Partagas for last night’s entry. Okay, so I went to the room and sat down in
my usual spot to relight my cigar and publish my entry. I then proceeded to write this brief entry,
which I will now close so that we can head out to the Deodoro area and meet up
with Raymond’s new friend before I go to Gymnastics.
(Rio Olympic
Arena gymnastics venue)
Well, after
three rotations, our girls are killing it.
To call them the Fab Five seems an understatement. All that we have left is the floor routine,
helmed quite ably by defending gold medalist Aly Raisman and GOAT contender
Simone Biles. Yes, Simone is probably
the greatest gymnast of all time. She is
just another level of good. I have a
feeling that, after our first two girls do their floor rotation, the third
girl, be it Simone or Aly, could just walk out on the floor, wave, and walk
off, and still get the Gold.
That’s how
fabulous our Fab Five our, but I know our girls. I know how much fun Aly or Simone would have
with a routine that is essentially a victory lap. If they are a lock for first, they will take
even more risks and make it even more exciting.
That’s what our girls do. That’s
why they earned the moniker “The Fierce Five” often instead of “The Fab
Five”. I cannot wait to see them on the
floor. That is why I’m here, and the
fact that the floor routine will be the one that decides their fate makes it
even more special.
Okay, so that
concludes the third rotation for all teams, and we just dominating. There seems to be some kind of delay in
getting China’s final score, but I think it will leave China and Japan in
second third, each 7 or 8 points behind our incredible score of 139. This is not like football where a 7-point
deficit is easy enough to overcome.
Winning the team event by 7 points is considered a blow-out. One more rotation remains, and it will be
starting shortly, so I will write more about the event itself later, but for
now, I want to recount what happened since my last entry. Ooh, that was actually a good score for
China, and we are now only 5 points ahead.
I say only, but 5 points is still a huge lead.
Okay, so after I closed this morning, I got
ready and met Raymond downstairs for some coffee before we headed out. He wanted to meet up with his new friends for
lunch, and I told him I could do that, but I’d need to leave for Gymnastics by
2:30 PM. We headed to Deodoro, since
they were at the Basketball game. Well,
it took so long to get there that I couldn’t meet for lunch (or even have time
to eat lunch). I walked him to the
entrance and got right on the bus that would take me to the main Olympic
Park. I got there with some time to
kill, so I walked around and took a ceremonial picture at the Olympic
Rings.
Looks like the order for our girls on
the floor will be China doing their three first, then we have Laurie, Aly and
Simone. I fully expect Simone’s routine
to be nothing short of a victory lap, and it’ll be epic!!! Alright, so I took my picture at the Rings
and then headed to the gymnastics venue, picking up an ice cream bar on the
way. Now time was running short again,
and I had enough to get my souvenir but not enough time to get food. The hot food was sold out, anyway. After our girls opened with three excellent
vaults, I went out to get beer, chips, and water.
Our next routine was the uneven bars, which
is our weakest routine, but we are still one of the best teams in the world on
that apparatus, and I think Madison is the reigning World Champion. After that came the balance beam. Simone struggled a bit, but we got three
great scores, further cementing our lead.
I got more beer and chips (my reader will note that I have not recounted
any proper lunch, which is because I have not had one as of yet, nor did I have
breakfast) before heading back to my seat, where I proceeded to write this
entry, which I will now close so that I can watch the rest of the event and
cheer on our girls, the Fab Five’s second reincarnation, as they go for the
gold with their floor routines.
(Riocentro
Pavilion 2 weightlifting venue)
And the Fab
Five has gone gold, again, though they are calling themselves the “Final Five”,
since future Olympic gymnastics teams will only be comprised of four gymnasts
per country, in an attempt to stem US dominance, I suppose, and we sure were
dominant. That’s the only word for
it. Sheer and utter domination. We won by eight points.
After I closed, Laurie had a great floor
routine, and then came Aly. What a nice
Jewish girl. I think she might have
chosen Hava Nagela again, or maybe it was a different Jewish folk song. She killed it. Even at 22, she’s still got it going on. She scored above 15. That just left Simone. All she need was an 8 in order to win
gold. An 8. That would have been her walking out, doing
one tumbling pass, smiling, and walking off the floor.
She did her victory lap. She killed it. She broke 15 points. We won by over 8 points. The “Final Five” had gone gold. I cried.
A lot. I didn’t cry quite as much
as I did in London. That was not a sure
thing. This was a coronation. Anything less than gold would have been a
disappointment. We got our gold. Russia got silver, China bronze. Russia might give Madison a run for her money
on the uneven bars, but I have a good feeling that we could sweep the
golds.
The victory ceremony soon came,
and I sang along with the national anthem for the third time this Games. I’m not sure which felt better, this one, or
the M 4 x 100m Relay. I think if I see
Phelps win another individual gold, that’ll be the best one of all, especially
if it’s the one that gives him the most individual medals of all time. It was a packed house, so it was difficult
getting out of the arena, and then I learned that the weightlifting venue was
not being held in the Olympic Park, but in Riocentro, which was over a mile
away by foot. Ugh. I would be late. Very late.
I figured that I could miss the Snatch portion and still catch the Clean
& Jerk. I figured right.
There was a bit of a delay going up the ramp,
and I was interviewed by an American radio station that was not NBC. I was not sure if I could condone a
non-sponsor in such a way, but I gave the interview anyway. He didn’t realize that I was inside the
gymnastics arena, he just wanted to talk about the good feeling of Team USA
winning. Imagine his delight when he
found such a fervent fan of USA Gymnastics.
After the interview, the ramp cleared up, and I walked towards the
weightlifting venue, getting there while the Snatch was still going on.
I got a beer and, finally, a chicken
sandwich, before looking for souvenirs.
I was supposed to meet Raymond here, but we had no way of communication,
and the seats were general admission by block.
That made things difficult. I
showed a volunteer my ticket, and he said there was an open seat in the front
row and took me there, thinking he was doing me a favor by upgrading me. I tried to explain I needed to go to my
original block so that I could find my friend.
He didn’t understand. He
outstretched his arms and told me I could sit anywhere I wanted.
I looked everywhere for Raymond, but I didn’t
see him in the stands. I think it’s more
likely than not, though, that he’s still hanging out with his new friends (or,
more likely, just one of them). I took
the front row seat and watched the rest of the Snatch. After the Snatch, I took a selfie for social
media and returned to my seat, where I proceeded to write this entry, which I
will now close so that I can watch the rest of the competition and then figure
out what to do about meeting Raymond, though I suppose I will just have to meet
him back at the hotel. I really just
want to relax at the hotel for the rest of the night and start uploading my
photos to my Facebook album.
The thing
about taking such an epic trip like this with a buddy is that it provides you
with inside jokes and “Do you remember the time”s that will last a
lifetime. Everyone I have ever taken an
extended trip with, I have such memories and jokes. This trip is sure to provide plenty. For the rest of our lives, Raymond and I will
be able to say to each other, in an overexaggerated Brazilian accent,
“Cristo!!! Cristo!!!” and only we will get it.
No, reader, I will not be explaining that joke. We will always be able to talk about how we
snuck into the shooting finals or that night on the rooftop in Ipanema. Those memories last a lifetime.
My only question is, will this trip be the
GOAT? I am starting to think it’s a
strong contender. Even without the
Olympics, this could be a top five trip.
A New7 Wonder of the World visible from our hotel room, a Natural Wonder
of the World defining the cityscape, and making every night epic with one of my
best friends. That alone would make this
trip a contender for the top five. Add
in the Olympics, and I don’t see how it could not it could not contend for the
GOAT. The thing is, I have three more
trips upcoming that are sure top-five contenders, as well: Rome, Nepal, and
Australia.
The Summer of 2013 was the
most epic travel time period of my life, but these five months might blow that
time period out of the water. The Games
have been incredible so far, and it is just unreal watching all of it in
person. Tomorrow, I will be back at the
gymnastics venue for the M Individual All-Around, and then we’ll see Fencing in
the evening. I hope to wake up not too
late tomorrow so that I can publish some photos before I leave for
Gymnastics. Raymond will probably try to
hang out with his new friends. Oh,
right, so what happened with that?
Well,
after I closed, it was not long before Raymond walked down and found me. He sat down with me, and we watched the end
of the event. In the end, three red
flags were raised. Gold for China,
Silver for Turkey, and Bronze for Kyrgyzstan.
We were able to get autographs from the bronze and silver
medalists. I had been prepared with permanent
markers (my reader should note that, during the Games, I will not be mentioning
the brand name of any company that is not an Olympic sponsor) and blank photo
paper. Only too late did I realize that
I should have instead gotten my ticket signed.
Next time I’ll know better.
We
tried to figure out what we wanted to do next.
We were planning on repeating our Night 1 activities, going to the cigar
store, then to the rooftop in Ipanema. Instead,
we decided we’d just go back to our neighborhood by taxi and have dinner at the
old restaurant (est. 1874) by our hotel.
As were driving, I lamented that I would not get to watch Phelps’s 200m
Butterfly race live. I’m pretty sure I’ve
watched every single gold medal race he’s ever been in either live or during
the NBC Primetime coverage if not shown live, which would have only been the
case for Athens. Raymond suggested I
stream it. I didn’t even realize that was
an option, but it was, and I raced to put it on, catching the second half of
the race in time to see Phelps deliver a commanding victory.
We were soon at the restaurant, and we
ordered two caipirinhas, along with a steak for two. It was actually the same steak I had gotten
for lunch on Day 0. I had thought I was
ordering a different style, but it was so good I didn’t care. They showed Phelps’s second race, the 4 x
200m Freestyle Relay live on the TV, so we ordered some dessert, the house
specialty, as we wanted to stay to watch that.
We stumbled (I don’t know why the caipirinhas always hit us so hard)
back to the hotel. We relaxed for a few
minutes before heading up to the roof, and I sat down in my usual spot, where I
lit up an Hoyo de Monterrey and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now
close so that I can publish and get to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour and
actually catch up on my sleep.
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