The SportsThink Review #104
July 26, 2024: Olympic Time!
Welcome new readers! The SportsThink Review highlights my favorite sport-related reading and related content. Most things I share are recently published, but some are not; the only rule is that I’ve read or encountered them recently. Some are relevant to my day job as a professor teaching courses on the business, history, and philosophy of sports. Others are just plain interesting, relevant to my lifelong obsession with the games we play. I also occasionally share articles and assorted musings on Twitter. The newsletter is free, but comes with two requests. 1. I’m always open to suggestions, so send me the good stuff that you read! 2. If you enjoy the newsletter, please share it with other folks who might enjoy it as well. Finally, I try to focus on non-paywalled writing, but if you find yourself unable to access anything, just hit reply to the email and I’ll do my best to get you a copy. Thanks for reading!
Howdy folks, hope that summer is treating you well. And what a sporting summer it’s been….Copa America, the European Cup, a WNBA season on pace to smash records, F1 is interesting again, the Tour de France…and we haven’t even gotten to the Olympics yet (ok, technically some competitions started earlier this week). With the COVID delay of Tokyo 2020 2021, Paris 2024 feels like it came up rather quickly, and I am here for it, all of it.
Make no mistake, there is plenty to be critical of with the Olympic movement: the IOC is as unsavory and corrupt an outfit as any, hosting is fraught with economic gamesmanship that rarely benefits the average citizen, etc. etc. etc. But you can drape me in a flag and call me an apologist. Olympic competition is awesome. At the end of the day, I just like watching people do things at a high level. I like sitting at the bar and you better believe I’ve watched my share of power-washing svengalis on YouTube. As I’ve aged and become less obsessed with partisan results, sports still feed my obsession to watch highly skilled humans perform difficult tasks, all the more interesting given that sports are—at their core—truly unnecessary, inefficient tasks we perform for their own sake.
So, I’ll watch as much as possible, with little discrimination amongst events. I’ll watch breakdancing—sorry, “breaking”—because it’s the only new competition and while I have misgivings about countercultures turning square, I’m happy for the athletes (dancers?) and I love the idea of Olympic DJs and cheering for someone named Logistix. I’ll watch equestrian and riflery because I increasingly find joy in sports that I don’t really understand beyond the superficial level, trying to focus on the commentary and see beyond the obvious; I know the archer is trying to hit the target, but I want to know more about the craft of the archer. If you have any suggestions on must-see events, please leave a comment below!
Watching all of this is thankfully easier than ever. Gone are the days of using a VPN to log-on to foreign broadcasters (yes, I did this). You can still expect voluminous coverage of Team USA and the major events on NBC, but streaming on Peacock is a game changer. You can get a month for like 8 dollars, which seems more than fair (fellow educators can get it for $3, students for even less).
How about some Olympic content? 5ish things for the 5 rings…
It’s easy enough to find general coverage and event-specific previews, so instead here are some fun odds and ends as we get ready to watch the opening ceremony today/tonight.
DO BELIEVE THE HYPE!
I’ll admit that I was not aware that Public Enemy’s Flavor Flav is a water polo aficionado. Back in May, US Women’s Team captain Maggie Steffens posted an online appeal for financial support and Flav stepped up to cover all travel costs not covered by the USOC! (This is where I note that—like many Olympic athletes—our women’s water polo team is only partially funded by the Olympic committee. And I can further note that they are favored to win their 4th gold in a row.). Here’s Flav in the pool with the women.
(reminder that substack and X don’t play well together and you have to click the image to get to the post/video)
Somewhat related, here’s an amusing list of Olympian’s day jobs. Yes, it is somewhat tragic that the richest countries in the world can’t fully fund the best of the best, but I love the idea of these folks snagging a gold and then two weeks later pranking Bob from accounting by hiding his lunch in the breakroom.
And yes, US Olympians do get some perks for their effort. Madeline Hill has a fun look at the swag situation in the Team USA gifting suite.
A Historical Interpretation of the Team USA Opening Ceremony Uniform
At some point a couple years ago, the Twitter algorithm short-circuited and foisted Derek Guy (aka “The Menswear Guy”) into everyone’s feeds. I am a fan, especially when he dives deep into the economic and sociocultural history of fashion. Love this thread on the historical reference points for Team USA’s (fantastic) outfits, which are once again produced by Ralph Lauren. Also fun: this Women’s Wear Daily overview of various countries’ looks.
The Olympic Return to Normalcy
Ok, this is sort of a preview piece, but one that got me thinking a bit. Dan Wetzel for Yahoo! on the first mostly-post-COVID games and all that entails. Reads a bit like IOC propaganda, but worth a moment to consider our relationship with big-time sports as a barometer of what is “normal.”
Going The Distance
This is the second Olympics to feature surfing and while Paris doesn’t have sick waves, there is plenty of surfing to be had in France. But the surfers won’t be at Lacanau or Les Cavaliers, they’ll be just a bit further down the road in…Tahiti, a mere 9,800 miles from the host city. The wave is Teahupo’o, arguably the best break in the world, and—surf gods willing—should make for an amazing contest. As I understand it, this sets the record for furthest distance from the host city for an event, making it my favorite trivia of the games so far. Off-site events aren’t that unusual. Soccer at LA ‘84 was played in Boston and Annapolis, soccer this year is outside of Paris too. Softball at LA ‘28 will be in Oklahoma City, which is kinda like interior Orange County. As the article notes, equestrian at Melbourne ‘56 was held in….Stockholm (something about animal quarantine regulations). Less trivial is placing a sport with a complicated colonial legacy in what is effectively a colony (technically French Polynesia is an “overseas collectivity”), but hey, this what the Olympics are for. And the surfers are stoked.
My Favorite Olympic Moment (share yours in the comments below!)
What memories remain from childhood burn the brightest. The first Olympics I really remember is Barcelona ‘92. I was 9, didn’t need glasses yet, and obsessed with basketball. This was the year of big amateurism rule changes and the Dream Team and Charles Barkley being mean to Angolans. This was all awesome, but Atlanta ‘96 really made the lasting impression. Michael Johnson being the baddest dude around in his gold Nikes. The bombing and Richard Jewell’s eventual trial by media. But of course, the summer really belonged to Kerri Strug. My goodness. I’m not sure I’ll ever love an Olympic moment more. USA! USA!
As always, thanks for reading. Please share the newsletter far and wide and send me the interesting things you come across.
See you next time,
Tolga
96 Atlanta was my first Olympics as well and everything you mentioned are things I remember so well. Dream Team 2 will always hold a special place in my heart because I didn't get to experience the first one.
I think my favorite Olympic moment though came a little bit later in life. The first time I got to watch Usain Bolt run in the 2008 Olympics was incredible. It was just amazing to see how easy it looked for him. Him looking back to see how far back the rest of the field was as he crossed the finish line is such an iconic moment, and the first time I ever really cheered for a non-US athlete in the Olympics.
For the ATL Olympics, my dad woke me up early to go watch the men's road race (cycling). I got to hang out with my dad all day and see Lance Armstrong (before he was really Lance Armstrong).