Yes, I know, television viewership of the Olympics is down. There are several reasons for that (confusion with how to watch, time zones, and yes, the crushing pandemic)
Personally, I loved it when NBC used their US platform (MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports, etc) to give you a wide variety of stuff; I loved following, say, the boxing that way..and I didn’t miss the mainstream prime time nonsense with all of the “human interest” stories taking the place of, well, the sports.
This year, mostly I’ve watched Youtube clips “after the fact” to get highlights.
And what do I want to see?
I want to see genetic outliers who have dedicated their lives to be able to do awesome stuff and then deliver:
For the US readers: 491.6 lbs. IN THE SNATCH, 584 in the clean and jerk. MONSTER weights! For those who want to know: he went 6 for 6 for his lifts (lifters get three attempts in each lift)
Snatch: 208, 215, 223
Jerk: 245, 255, 265.
But..what do I see on my feed? I see stuff about the transwoman lifter (who failed to complete the necessary lifts to even get a score), or emotional meltdowns, athlete political statements, etc.
I watch the Olympics to see the exceptional. If I want to see mundane to incompetent political statements, I can go on Twitter. I can watch emotional meltdowns and failure in my own life.
No, I am NOT criticizing the athletes for having human sentiments, desires, and, well, lives. I am not criticizing them for expressing such things.
I am talking about what gets covered in the media; what I want to see in the press; what I want emphasized. The athletes are exceptional for their sporting feats and that is why I tune in, when I can.
Public scrutiny of the athletes Now, that is a tough one. We become fans because they are outlier-level good. Another example: here are the women superheavyweights putting up some eye-popping totals:
Sara Robles scored a bronze for the US.
Li Wenwen of China won the gold with 140/180 = 320, which are the sort of numbers that would make a D1 football lineman proud. (not quite 400 lb in the clean and jerk!)
Sorry..I got excited..back to scrutiny. The athletes are critiqued by the fans, and given that most of us (myself included) are light years from being elite at sports, the critiques are often, well, incompetent.
But..many of us do have questions.
On the US team (I won’t mention names), one lifter was in the following situation: they were competing in a weight class that was well above their body weight (20 lb!) because that lifter was the best that country’s team had to offer; so that lifter stepped up to the challenge. Kudos and respect!
That lifter also trained very, very hard. Kudos and respect again!
But in the days leading to the competition, said lifter was on tik-tok making “my goodie bag is awesome” and “look how good my butt looks in my Olympic underwear (a genuine perk..and yes, tik-tok deleted it for a violation)”. So, was said lifter really in the correct mental space to compete? Evidently not; that lifter needed three tries to make their clean and jerk opener which was below their recent international meet best…and was in tears…and yes, got some public criticism and was NOT happy about said criticism.
So..the price of being followed is being subject to “did they really take it seriously and do their best” type criticism. Most of us do not live with such scrutiny from the public.
Was this lifter a failure? Well, top 10 in the Olympics plus golds and silver in recent international competition (like the Asian, European, African or Pan Am games level) in a weight class above their own is hardly failure..it is extremely successful, by any reasonable standard. But they certainly weren’t at their mental best for the Olympics.
Back to the mundane Yeah, watching these strong guys did NOT make me stronger…I still suck, as bad as ever.
Last night: a tiny bit of shoulder pain, some butt stiffness.
Morning: pull ups: 10 singles, 2 sets of 10, 4 sets of 5. Ok.
Rehab plus twist cruches
push ups: 3 sets of 20, better range of motion (went ok)
deficit dead lifts (standing on 1 inch plates to get that deeper squat)
10 x 134, 10 x 184, 11 x 224 (PB for deficit)
shoulder presses (seated) focused on shoulder blade squeeze: 3 sets of 10 x 44 (I know..just the bar, for now..felt it in the upper back (good), slight sensation in the bad part of the shoulder)
2 sets of wobble board squats.
Videos: yes, some shirtless shots to see my shoulder blades and deltoid muscles; I wanted to see if I am using the “correct” muscles in the “correct” way. I KNOW those are highly non-flattering; I am not happy with how soft and floppy my body is.
Back to the push ups: better range of motion and it gets better the longer the set goes on; better depth toward the end. That is the opposite from pull ups where my final reps are too short (during my sets of 10)
Life of an old goat 