Tea from Paris: Day Thirteen

Published Aug 8, 2024, 12:53 PM

You can call him “Old Macdonald”…a 51 year old just competed at the Olympics against teenagers!

An American sprinter jogged his entire race…part of a strategy that has him in the finals.

And both boxers act the center of the gender controversy make it to the finals…and both will be going for gold!

Hey there on this Thursday, August, the eighth team USA on the verge of cracking friple digits in the metal count. The US athletes have now won a total of ninety two Olympic medals, China has sixty two. France remains in third place with fifty one medals.

Welcome everyone to another t from Perry edition of Amy and TJ. And you know what You can call him Old McDonald, a fifty one year old just competed at the Olympics against teenagers. Also, an American sprinter literally and intentionally jogged the entirety of his race. It was all part of a strategy that now has him in the finals. And an athlete got sick after swimming in the sun and has now revealed what caused her illness.

Also, both boxers at the center of that gender controversy make it to their respective finals and both will be going for gold. Also, an Indian wrestler goes to extreme measures to make weight for her gold medal round, but it wasn't enough and miss the mark by just three and a half ounces.

A lot has changed in Tom Shar's life since he was a guest on our podcast Just a couple of days ago. Mainly, well, he has a new medal around his neck.

That's a that's a really cool story. We're all cheering for these athletes. But Rose when we talked to these guys, there was something a little more special when we watched them compete after having had a conversation with him, it just, I don't know, you feel like you know him in a different way. And we were rooting hard for our skateboarder guys.

Yeah, you get personally invested in them, and especially after knowing just how chill they were. They weren't out for blood, you know, they you know, and I don't I respect that when that's part of your strategy to win a goal. These guys were just doing what they love. They do it every day and they just got to do it on a big stage with the world watching and really shine a spotlight on a sport they love. And I feel like that's why they were in it. So you're rooting for them even more because it wasn't some high stakes competition. They were all buddies out there congratulating each other, genuine smiles, cheering each other on. I loved watching park skateboarding.

That's funny you said it's not a high stakes competition. I know what you mean by that. It's funny that even at the Olympics with a gold medal on the line, these guys are just as chill as if they're back at their parks in California somewhere. That was fun to see.

It's like the opposite of track and field, you know, you see these they are in it to win it, and I think that's special and amazing too. But it's just funny. The two sports couldn't be more different in terms of yes, yes, it's funny to watch both of them back to back. They're complete opposites.

We watched and we seems like every view'll know we were watching this morning. We've been watching. We watched the marathon swim this morning that starting.

You watched the marathon swim. Let's just be honest.

This one actually started earlier than the other event. This one is one thirty am.

You got up at two thirty this morning.

To literally watch women swim through a river.

Babe, you're insane. So he came. He put it on while we're both lying there, and normally we all know TJ likes the TV on it. I can drone it out. But for some reason the commentating, I just I started getting into it, and then I couldn't fall back asleep. So you had to go into the other room because you have to.

This is a sport. It's not like constant it's constant action, but you can't really see action thing. It's like watching a NASCAR race. At some point you just think they're going around in circles. You have to really pay attention for the nuance. And I had to have all the nuance explained to me.

So you had to turn up the volume a little. And that's when I was like, babe, can you turn down the volume? And so you just left the room.

Yeah, and I've been out here ever since. But that's right. But it was cool. Of course we'll get into well the river sin and all that going on. But the young lady who ended up winning, he called. I couldn't get They're out there in the water, you can't really tell what's going on. But he called her. You know, I love my commentators. He says, she's the Katie Ledecki of open water swimming. I said, okay, now I got it. Now I got it, And sure enough she wanted gold today.

Wow, that's incredible. I did make it out to the other room in time to see something. Oh, just devastating that failed dive. The Mexican diver, she says she heard a noise, something distracted her and so she asked for a second go at it, because she literally slipped off the diving board and the judges, the referees ultimately said no. And her Olympic dreams and she was a metal contender, So it was really just you could hear the commentators just they were expressing just how devastating this was.

You could argue, anybody who doesn't get a medal at the Olympics had their Olympic dream died. You could argue. But there are some, and we've watched them together. The one who was disqualified in sport climbing because he took off too early, the guy track who had a disqualification because of a false start, never even got to run in the Olympics. Those are even more gutting in This young lady from she's diving for a Native Mexico, but she's from North Carolina. She's won several national championships and one dive. You all know this. She's not supposed to have a lot of splash. She almost landed on her back, yes, in her dive, huge splash. She gets out of the water. As soon as her head comes up out of the water. Her hand is in the air because she's asking for, like you said, a do over. And we were I don't know this young lady. My fingers were crossed. Please give her a do over. Please.

My heart was actually beating, you know, so hard because you're hoping that they're going to give for a second chance. And they did. They did admit that they heard a noise, but they said it was before she took off, not in mid air.

So she got and I don't think i've seen this. She got a zero. It was called a what a failed dive? A failed dive all zero. She's essentially out. Aroanza Basquez is her name. But it got me to think about the noise thing in the Olympics that's been an issue. It's funny that the gymnasts we were talking about the other day they the.

Silence wasn't working for them. It doesn't work well, no, it's it's too intimidating in a way because you know everyone's looking at you.

So divers need dead silence. If not, I'm going to ask for a do over. It's just and then, of course, golfers, I mean tigers famous for cussing people out if you just breathe it too hard if he's about to make a shot. So it was the noise is interesting, but another gut ranging moment in the Olympics this morning. What else we watch? We got track and feel going today. It's going to be a big day, but we got an earlier start today, but I feel good. If anybody hears any noise in the background, we gotta let you know. We're sitting in our coffee table, not our coffee table, but our dining table right now, and we're washing clothes. So if you hear a little clunking in the background, it's just us being domestic.

Yes, just a very loud washing machine. Unfortunately that we can't do anything about right now. So oh and you know what, we also want to just preview that we get. We got to speak to a silver medallist, Hailey Batton. She won in mountain biking and she is a joy to listen to. And we can't wait to bring that to you either today or tomorrow or next Just be looking for it. Hailey Batton silver medalist, and she is. I mean, I can't wait for you all to hear just how she won, what she went through win, and what she's up to now.

She was she jumps off the screen when you talked to her. But we saw something really interesting, and I know you all been paying attention, but this repechage that's been happening in track and field, it played a part in what we saw with an American sprinter who decided to jog his entire race. We're talking about Freddy Crittnen. He finished dead last in his one hundred and ten meter hurdles. He't yesterday. He did this on purpose, and he did this literally jogging down the track and then he just gently kind of stepped over the hurdles. Clearly he wasn't trying to compete. And yet this guy Robes is still in the one hundred and ten meter hurdles final.

How did it happen? You ask, Well, if you've been watching any track and field, you've heard the word repechage thrown around. It's new to the Olympics this year. I had to look it up. I did not know what I was hearing, but basically it means as we're talking about second chances, you actually do get a second chance, and track and field runners who don't qualify out of the preliminary rounds all get put into an extra race for well, for lack of a better term, the losers, the people who lost the race, then the winning losers move on to the semifinals.

That's exactly right. So Freddy Kritnin took advantage of the system. The dude has an injury that he was nursing, so instead of going hard in the prelimbs, he just lost on purpose, saved his energy, saved his body, knowing that he would have a second chance in the repechage, and sure enough he got an extra day of rest on his body. He came back to the repechage, he ran a good enough race to get into the semis. He's now into the finals by taking advantage of a system. People some people like it, some people don't, some people love it, and some people absolutely hate the system.

Right now, yeah, but you know what, I look as a runner and having nursed injuries, you're nursing one right now. I understand. Man, If you're given that opportunity to rest up an extra day, why wouldn't you take it. I don't think he would have chosen you that, but why not let the rules work for you if they're put in place. So I don't fault him for it at all.

I don't, that's the rule. So but the other runners would fault him because, hey, you just took a day off. I now have to go run hard all these races and you only had to run hard in one in the repechage. I ran hard in my heat. I ran hard in the repechage to try to make it. So why should you have that kind of physical advantage over me by gaming the system? That's not what it's for, is one argument.

Yeah, but I would just say that all of those runners had the same opportunity to do just what he did.

Okay. Problem number two for the races is what you said. A lot of them now are going to start, and some have just saying, huh, the hell with it, I'll take all if they're injured or not, They'll say I don't even have to run hard in this one. So now they are trying to get an advantage that's not based on injury, but just based on you know what, I'm probably not going to make it out of my heat. I might as well say my for the you.

Also got to run a second race though, I mean, even if you're lightly jogging it, you're still running a second race.

He could have skipped down if he wanted to.

All right, I tried. I tried.

But if you think about like the eight hundred meter right, if you have to run an extra eight hundred meters, that's true, that is tough. And then so now some guys make the repechage and don't show up for it because I'm gonna save my body for my relay. I'm not gonna do well in this individual race. I'll save it for my team relay. So then you have a repechage round with only three lanes occupied because some runners just don't show up for their repechage race because the hell with it, I'll skip it. So it's not it doesn't look good for the for the fan and the stand to see two or three people, four or five lean so they'll.

See it six.

Yeah.

I was like, we'll see what happens next Olympics. At that they'll see whether or not it worked. Well.

It's to your point, when you want a second chance, I didn't, I ran hard, didn't make it. You know what, I got a second chance.

I love second chances that I like third chances sometimes too. That's why it's so devastating for me to watch most sports in the Olympics because the majority of them do not get a second chance. That's why I like skateboarding. They get second and third chances. That makes it so much better for me. Yeah, I just feel like, yay, even if they messed up, they've got another shot. There's something about that knowing there's hope on the other side of a fall or something. I agree with you, it's not typical. Speaking of skateboarding, we had a lot of fun watching park skateboarding because I thought I like watching skateboarding because they get second chances and third chances. It makes me happy.

Have a difficult time with my transitions.

My transitions weren't as good as they almost always are. So anyway, the oldest Olympian in any event is this doesn't this makes a lot of sense in the equestrian events, right because they're riding a horse. So some of the athletes in the equestrian events are sixty five, sixty two, fifty nine, so you know they're up there. The event with the youngest Olympians. This also makes sense, is the aforementioned skateboarding a lot of teenagers. We mentioned the girl yesterday from China who's just eleven years old. That's the youngest competitor in these games. So when we tell you that we watched a fifty one year old compete yesterday, which of the two sports do you think he competed in?

Uh, Equestrian duh, Nope, nope, we got a fifty one year old skateboarder. Yes, folks, fifty one years old. His name is Andy McDonald, Oh McDonald, let's call him. He's he's skating for Great Britain. He is now the oldest person to ever compete in the Olympics and skateboarding. Now, he is not new to the game, and he has been around a while and some would even call him a legend in this sport. But he's been skating one dozens and dozens of X Games medals over the years, but his first time competing in the Olympics and ropes. I'm look, we've had a lot of fun. There's there's few you can name you've had more joy watching compete than this dude.

Yeah, we actually watched this in on separate TVs and separate homes, but we were texting back and forth because we were having so much fun watching him have so much fun. He's actually an American. I think his father is from Great Britain, so he has a British passport. Therefore he was able to compete four team Great Britain. But you know what, he was impressive and he most importantly, the smile on his face from start to finish was remarkable. And I love seeing Tony Hawk in the stands just going crazy cheering on his friend because they're buds from way back. I mean, this dude started skating in nineteen eighty five, I believe when he was competing, so that's how long he's been competing. But he was just a joy and a pleasure to watch, and I was rooting him on. He didn't make the finals, couldn't have cared less well. I don't think any of them did, to my point, they're all so chill. But I just appreciated his energy. It made me happy, It made me smile.

That was the Olympic spirit that he absolutely exuded. And this is a sport. All of the ones on the women's side at least that got medals fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen with the ages Wow fourteen, fifteen and sixteen, and as a fifty one year old still in that same spoy this is a skateboard park, their street skate and their skateboard park. Like our guy told us, just imagine a swimming pool, empty swimming pool on crap.

That's exactly what it looked like. To and Keegan Palmer of Australia, who won gold, I had I had chills like the entire time watching him just fly up in the air and do things that I would think were impossible to do with a skateboard. And right behind him was our Tom shar I say hour because he was on the podcast, so he's one of us. He took silver, and we were rooting on the other Gavin and Tate and you know, we were just are just hoping so much that they could get into metal contention, and they got close. But there was so much talent there it was crazy.

I don't know how you can. I don't know how these guys, you know what, Maybe they're built for it in a way better than even some of the older athletes. Maybe they're so young they say, oh I can. Probably they're young, so they think they're invincible or I fearless vacu later, or they're not, or it's just the culture of skateboarding. They're all just It really looked like they could give a shit if they want to metal or not. I know that's not the case, but it looked like they were just having a blast with their buddies in the backyard.

That's what you hope for, right, I mean, if you're doing something at this level, well you better love it otherwise it's a painful thing to do. And they all love it, which just I was so impressed.

So congrats to them. We want to give an update about the river sind A lot of talk about it and how nasty it is and dirty and polluted and not safe to swim on some days. They had to cancel some practices and move some dates with some events. Well, one athlete who fell ill after swimming in the river since says it was a virus and it was not a coli in that water that made her sick. And we've been talking about this and we mentioned this that Belgium had to pull out of the mixed relay race because Claire Michelle got sick after competing in the triathlon, while she did put out a social media post saying that she had contracted a virus not e coli. This next part you want to read the quote because it gets into some specifics.

And now, well, you said, yeah, she was hospitalized. This was serious. She said she had three days of vomiting and diarrhea, which she says left her quite empty, and she ended up needing more significant medical attention. So she spent Sunday at the clinics slash hospital. So she I'm sure it was getting ivy fluids and all of those things, but she just wanted to clear it up because there was so much conjecture that the sin had made her sick, and she said blood tests proved that that was not the cause of her illness. However, there have been a couple other athletes who have been sick following that triathlon, but no one's there's been no proof that any of those illnesses are related to the sen specifically. I even noticed with all of the talk about it, Shape magazine followed us and interviewed a microbiologist. I'm laughing. We've been talking to my dad, who's a microbiologist, giving us updates about what equal like can do to the body and if the river sin actually could cause problems for folks, and he said unequivocally yes, if you swallow enough of that, absolutely it's possible.

So, yes, we had the women. The women's marathon swim was this morning. The men's is tomorrow.

Does that mean you're getting up at two point thirty again tomorrow?

You know, I'll see what time the men's is. I'm not sure what time theirs go, but yeah, I want to check it out. It's a they do. And again the triathletes, they only were in the water. They did a mile, mile and a half swim.

This is significantly.

This is a six mile two hours in the water.

Oh my.

So when you're watching it, every time you see them take us you go.

You can you see them swallowing water?

I mean they have to be I'm not paying that clothes of.

Attention, but yeah, how could you not.

You're two hours swimming with your head in the sine. So that one's tomorrow. Yes, I will be up and watching, but.

You let me know how it goes. I will be sleeping.

But even that, the commentators were saying this, they the swimmers, they want to be in the sin they don't want it to be nasty, but what a once in a lifetime experience. And the fans have lined that river and it looks other than the color of the water, the scene looks.

Oh, it's stunning. I mean just the imagery when they've got the camera shots of you know, the Eiffel Tower, and it's amazing.

All right, but yes, I watched that.

You suffer a little bit for your sport. There you go. You know what, this has been a story that we've been following throughout and it's been an ugly, nasty story out of the Olympics. But you know what, it is close to having a double golden ending. Wouldn't that be something after all this?

Yeah, finally see the two women who have been at the middleless controversy. We don't know, boxers Amani Khalif of Algeria and Lynn you Ting of Chinese Taipei. They are in the gold medal match in their respective weight divisions, and yeah, I applaud how given all they've dealt with the past. I think it's been a full week of this, has it not.

Perhaps it's motivated them, you know, sometimes that's the kind of thing that gets you going. But if you don't, I'm sure we don't have to update you, but just a brief as much as I can briefly update you. Both Khalif and you Ting have been accused of having elevated levels of testosterone, and the International Boxing Association, which is not an authority that the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee is even acknowledging. In fact, they've been disqualified from being a part of the Olympics. So there you go in terms of credibility. But they've claimed that these women have both an X and a Y chromosome, saying that they were essentially intersex. Both of these women have said they were born female. They are female. They have passports and birth certificates to prove it. Sadly it got to that point, but there are still people out there, of course, who are questioning their gender eligibility to be competing in a female boxing match, and.

Of course that's been a debate, a debate certainly this country having to do with trans athletes. This is not what this is. But all these things have kind of gotten mixed up together and became a messing guy, really ugly. But congratulations to them both. Len Uting's semi final and both these women have kind of been dominating their opponents. They have, they've had decent careers, pretty good careers, but they have had a pretty magical run, so congrats to them. Unfortunately, though len Uting's semifinal match, her opponent, I mean, the match went on, she won on all the judges cards, but her opponent at the end, even after U teen leaves the leaves the ring, comes back, stands in the center on her own and puts her fingers up and makes kind of a double X, and many people took that to say she's trying to signify that she's a woman and trying to make that point that.

She's a woman and that linting is not right. And that happened as well to Khalif with the woman she faced from Hungary, who previously on social media was putting out all of this hateful imagery. So they've both dealt with this in the ring outside of the ring, but they've got their heads on straight, so good for them.

Well, Friday and Saturday, those two will be fighting in their championship matches, so check them out, all right.

So you know, typically when an athlete gets to a gold medal match, you've got a gold medal on the line, the worst case scenario for that athlete is that they end up with the silver medal. But unfortunately, for India's Venesh Fogat, weighing an extra three and a half ounces not only cost her the opportunity to bring home India's first gold medal in wrestling, but it ended her entire Olympic dream. You know, the New York Times, I love put just for imagery to realize, Like, what's three and a half ounces? It's the way to a small banana or three sizes of bread, or a deck of cards, that's how much we're talking about.

Or one of our alpha fly tennis shoes, one stick of speed stick deodorant, one package of uncooked ramen. Now the reason I know that is because I was going around the house look at for stuff.

All these impressive impressive. But yeah, so that's what we're talking about. That's the weight in question. But according to the United World Wrestling rules, if you do not make weight after your second way in, you are eliminated from the competition. You essentially your name goes last on a leader board. And that's what happened to forgot. She was set to face ten USA's Sarah Hildebrandt for gold, which was her chance to become listen to this, the first woman from India, that is the world's most populous nation to win an Olympic gold medal in any event, I think about all of that, what was on the line. So when her staff checked her weight before her weigh in, she had gained three pounds from replenishing after her last three matches, which she handily won. And apparently that's pretty typical. So these athletes know what they do. They have their usual strategies for cutting these pounds. It's nothing out of the ordinary. So she stayed up all night. She was on the treadmill, she was going to the sauna, back and forth, back and forth. It didn't work. She was losing weight but not enough, so her team doctor said quote they tried all possible drastic measures throughout the night, including cutting off her hair and shortening her clothes, but to no avail. There have been other outlets who have said they've done even more extreme things. That's I can't confirm that, so I'm not going to report it. But they fell one hundred grams short, or three and a half ounces. Prime Minister of India tweeting this to their athlete, Vanish, you are a champion among champions, your India's pride and an inspiration for each and every Indian. But she was crushing it like she beat the former Olympic champion, the former world champion. I mean she was and like handily, like it wasn't even a question. So she was expected to win gold because she was disqualified. Well, team USA got the gold, and so congratulations to Sarah. But it certainly came at a large cost.

No, look, you wanted far and square. I'm sure the American didn't want to win it that way. But you win it fair and square because far and square are part of it is making weight. Yeah, and you see this in obviously boxing they take this very seriously because if you have any weight, I wait, advantage over your opponent, that is a problem. It's not a fair fight. And I don't know how this happens because I have been around boxers and fighters over many many years. Them dudes know exactly what to do to make sure they make weight, and they just this. This should not happen in a major event like no, no, no, no, no, I don't know how that happened. And this isn't a fluke thing like a scratch or disqualification of this. I don't know how you're not ready to go to your goal metal map.

That's devastating. Well, she so also she was. She did qualify in a in a lower than her normal body weight. She had worked really hard to get down. I think it's about one hundred and ten pounds and she was at one hundred and seventeen. So anyway, she had done the work to qualify for a lower weight and that ended up biting her.

I just said, somebody let her down. Yeah, I mean, that's just you cannot miss out on a gold medal because of the most basic of things do in fighting.

A deck of cards or a package of ramens that.

Little I've seen. They dehydrate, they starve, they put on those big plastic suits, they go to saunas them do whatever it takes. I just don't get it, and it sucks. Sucks, sucks for her that you make the gold medal match and not even allowed to fight.

Any I know. It was so much history on the line too. Yeah, that's a tough one. Well, we are watching so many fun events today as we have been every day. Track and field is going to be a big day today. The big event, of course the two hundred meter, the final of the men's We're gonna get to see Noah Lyles do what he does best. Is this considered to be his best match or at least.

Or he's better at this than some say than the one hundred.

Yes, so that's exciting. Although in the heats yesterday he did not win his heat.

But don't have to.

He's not sweating it.

Don't have to.

Nope, he doesn't.

No, you know, speaking of track and field, this is a little bit of breaking news depending on what time you're listening to us. The Jamaican team four y one hundred team didn't make it. Waimated. This is a everybody know, these are powerhouse sprinters. They had issues on the exchange. We were watching this live. Just what was this fifteen twenty minutes ago? Ropes and yep, sure not. They didn't drop the baton, but had exchange issues and had to slow down. Got smoked. China won the heat.

We saw it was remarkable smoked and you were saying they were precise in their handoffs and that matters.

Didn't have to be the fastest guys they had to be the most efficient guys in those handoffs, and they crossed first. It was unbelieva. That's a big deal.

That Yeah, that really is women's fifteen hundred meter semi finals. There's just so many events. I couldn't list them all, but just just no, starting now, all the way through the afternoon, you're gonna have whatever you'd like to watch. In track and field, You've got the women's long jump final, de mens javelin throw final, just to name a few. Also, men's basketball team USA versus Serbia at two forty five Eastern time, that'll be you're you're you're wobbling your head.

Well, I wonder and the tm USA is won it. You remember they blew out Serbia was an opening game. Yeah, blew them out. Yeah, Okay, Now they're wondering if Serbia held back a little bit, if they didn't show all their cards in that match, because they knew they might have to find the United States on the other side again. So of course Novak Novak Djokovic, well he's Servia Sera. But the other the other joker, Nikolai jok have easy that's an easy switch. But yeah, they're wondering if they're gonna play him more now now, it's so some intrigue for that reason, all.

Right, that's cool. Also, we' even just starting to sample a little bit. But this is also going to be going on throughout the day. Rhythmic gymnastics. It is a spectacle. I love gymnastics. I'm always just a little in awe of what they do in these events, and I'm I'm really intrigued by qualification rounds for the individual all around. They started already and they're gonna be going into the afternoon. So if you want to check it out, just it's fun to watch just the ball and they have a ribbon. They have a ribbon, they have a ball, but is.

That two different thing yet the ball is a different thing than the rhythm or they do both the ribbon and the they do.

I need to I need to watch more today and I'll be able to report back tomorrow. Yes, And I don't have all the answers because it's always been a slightly confusing sport to me. But I'm going to have some fun watching it. They're also replaying, by the way, I think it's an encore. Uh. If you want to check it out. The US did very well in artistic swimming or synchronized swimming, and that's again very fun to watch. Diving, men's springboard finals. Table tennis is going to be happening all morning, all afternoon. Some notables. The men's semifinals China versus France will be great. The women's semifinals China versus South Korea, those are both later this morning.

On that point, we were talking about the oldest Olympians. Yes, in the equestrian the other sports, we're the oldest tennisable tennis, and it's the oldest are the women.

Oh that's funny. Okay, that's that's fun to check out. I love that. All right, women's volleyball team USA made it to the semifinals against Brazil. That's ten am. That'll be good. I know, I know that'll be a good one. And then look, Team USA out of men's soccer. But the bronze medal game is being played today Egypt versus Morocco. That's at eleven a m. So a lot of folks will be tuning into that. We're thinking about it. We're still sad. We're still sad that Team USA is out.

We're non committal on bronze medal masses.

We like the fine knows and we like the interesting sports that we don't understand any of the rules, so we'll be watching all of that today. We will report everything back to you tomorrow. But thank you once again for tuning in for all the tea from Perry. No.

I gotta put clothes in the dryer.