Thoughts on the second week of the Summer Olympics

Well, I guess I have had my fix for watching the Olympics for another four years. It had some memorable moments to remember and enough exciting events to make it enjoyable to watch. The one point that stood out for me was how close some of the track running events were. Having been a timer at races back in the stone-age, where one person picked first place, another picked second, and another picked third and so on, the close finish of the Olympic 100-meter dash would have been impossible. Eight runners crossed the finish line at the same time. The difference between first and eighth place was 0.12 seconds. The first three runners had to have the time decided in thousandths of a second. I watched the race and picking first place out of a line of eight runners was impossible. Even the stop action photo made picking out first place a guess. Thinking back to the timers in the stone-age and stopwatches we used could not have timed this race. The reaction time of pushing down the button on a stopwatch cannot be done in a thousandths of a second. Technology at this level of competition is necessary.

It was exciting to see some of the other races and the close finishes. The 10,000 meter race was another event that was fun to watch. You hear the term “he had a good finishing kick” to take first place. Usually the finishing kick starts out between 200 and 100 meters from the finish line. With half a mile to go, the pace started to pick up with about eight runners. With 600 yards to go, it was a sprint to the finish. Having run almost six miles and then sprinting for a lap, and a half requires a level of endurance that is hard to imagine. Billy Mills had a similar finish when he won gold when the Olympics were in Mexico City. The difference between first and third was .02 seconds. Having a finishing kick that lasts that distance with the result measured in hundredths of second demonstrated the level of condition they had.

Watching the shot put was another close finish. It made me think back when shot putters just skipped across the circle to throw. Then Parry O’Brian turned his back to the circle and did a half spin to throw the shot. Now they spin like a discus thrower before letting that 16 pound ball of iron sail through the air. The one big difference, other than the throwing style, is that with the spin the balance is more difficult. The number of faults from many of the throwers was much higher. If I remember looking at the results of one thrower, he only had one throw count as he faulted on all of his other throws. The key to throwing the shot put or discus is the thrower has to be accelerating his throwing speed at the time of release. Being fast, but not accelerating, will not get you that gold medal. A researcher by the name of Gideon Ariel invented a machine that could measure your speed as you threw. My son was in the eighth grade and tried it out. The graph showed he reached top speed at about three quarters of the throw and maintained it to the end. The first comment from Dr. Ariel was, “Well, he will never be a shot putter.” So my son in the eighth grade had his future track event eliminated for him.

Another event that was interesting to watch was the triathlon mixed relay race. The man did the swim, bike ride and the run first. He then touched the hand of the woman member of the team, and she then did the swim, the bike and run to finish. Watching the triathlon with the men and the women was one thing, but having a mixed relay was one I had never seen. With mixed relay races on track, I guess it was just inevitable that the triathlon was next to give it a try.

I have to admit, I didn’t watch a lot of synchronized swimming but watching some of the movements they made was very much appreciated. Having taught swimming for many years one of my students was a synchronized swimmer. She wanted me to give it a try. It is hard to describe how hard it is to tread water upside down with your legs sticking out of the water. Your arms have to be doing a sculling motion as fast as you can move them. What an arm workout that was. And to have your body out of the water from your waist up is another challenge. You can’t do both legs at the same time because then your upper body will be bobbing up and down. You need to kick one leg at a time. Water polo athletes do this. Think of running as fast as you can with your legs underwater while they are also sticking out to the side. That is another good workout for runners needing a recovery from an injury.