A Team Without A Nation
Sean-lympics Day 1
For each day of the Olympics I will recap the basketball, the other things I watch and after those a story on a singular subject that inspired me. Let the Sean-lympics begin!
Basketball
It was Day 1 for Group A and there were no close games. The way that the group is set up it seems fairly inevitable that China and Venezuela will be eliminated but that doesn’t mean there weren’t and shockers.
Australia: 87 def. France: 66
The first basketball game of the Olympics was a stunner. France, predicted by many to be the second-best team in the tournament were pummeled by Australia. The Boomers destroyed them with constant attacks to the rim which was supposed to be a strength of the French team boasting NBA rim protecting ace Rudy Gobert. Australia may have been overlooked in this tournament with much of the talk about them being focused on their prized youngsters Dante Exum and Ben Simmons missing out. But the Aussies started five NBA players and it showed. Their starting lineup is a fantastic mix of scoring, playmaking, and hard-nosed defense. France showed almost none of those. Especially in the 20 minutes that Tony Parker was off the floor (is he minute limited?).
Highlight of the Game: Bogut going in the way-way back machine for this phenomenal backdoor alley-oop. It seems like Bogut should always sleep in beds too small for him… I am sure Mark Cuban is taking note.
USA: 119 def. China: 62
China was able to keep it semi-close for the first two minutes, but once the ball found Durant he flipped the kill-switch. Durant is unstoppable in the International game. Some of his threes looked like layups and paired with the teams hawking defense overwhelmed the Chinese. Coach K has no chill and it did seem kind of mean for him to keep a full court press on while winning by 40+. Having said all that the U.S. were far from perfect. There were a lot of sloppy passes in transition and overzealous plays in the half court. It mattered little against China but I’m sure they’ll look to clean that up.
On team China, I was impressed by Zhou Qi’s length (he had a fantastic block on Cousins early in the game), Yi’s offense, and Zou Yuchen’s minutes before he decided to get three fouls in like ten game seconds. On Team USA everyone was good but Klay Thompson seemed especially sloppy.
Highlight of the Game: The whole game was highlights but maybe the wonderful “Cinderella moment” between Durant and Lowry stand out.
Serbia:86 def. Venezuela:62
Venezuela was able to muddy the game up in the first quarter but once it started flowing they had no chance of sticking with Serbia. It was the first time I’d watched Bogdan Bogdanovic live and I was pretty impressed. He is a smooth athlete and though he doesn’t look super explosive looked very good against Venezuela. He has a smooth stroke and I think would start at 2 for the Kings if he came over next year. Overall I think Vlade did good to get him but then really messed up with the 13th pick.
Highlight of the Game: I was watching it on a BBC live stream because NBC wasn’t working and after a listen in on the huddles the commentator goes, “Incase you missed it Spanish for pick and roll is (in Spanish accent) pick and roll.” Thank you BBC for having horrible commentary and making me believe I can achieve anything.
Other Watches
I started the day watching some cycling which was like a 2/10 in terms of Olympic watchability. Though it was pretty funny watching what I think were coaches run along the bikers yelling at them while they are pushing up a ridiculous incline. Having said that it was a pretty quick channel flip.
Sunglasses, passes, and whatever rhymes with those: Women’s Beach Volleyball is a straight 10/10. I did think it was pretty interesting how with the changing of sides of the court you had to place sunglasses on. That has to be a way different feel. I guess that’s why they are the world’s best. Also, the Brazilian team’s marriage situation, in which one is married to the coach and the other to the team’s trainer, seemed really odd but then became the norm. I had never realized how pivotal aces are in beach volleyball, where it is very hard to retain your serve. Who’s kidding though, the girls are breathtaking and talented.
Gymnastics was my next watch and my gosh my shoulders hurt watching the guys flip around. I can’t imagine my body in like any of the positions that they are constantly in. It is about a 7/10 watchability for me but I am not sure if it is worth the pain. Also, some dude broke his leg today and I am not down to see that.
Swimming was my last watch, I am actually watching that as I write this, and I fell in love. Swimming is an easy 10/10, it is phenomenal to watch. Mack Horton defeated the apparently evil Chinese swimmer was very Disney Channel Original Movie-esque. In fact, I could totally see them writing a movie along the exact storyline. If you missed it the Chinese swimmer has said mean things to girl swimmers and splashes people in the warm-up pool. Then I fell in love with Maya Dirado, a genius-super-athlete from Stanford. Dirado just seems like an amazing (married…) person. She was then smoked by Hozzu who straight demolished the world record while her husband had a seizure. (Note: he did not have an actual seizure, just yelled like an insane person.)
A Team Without A Nation
Feature Story
Zika, crime, poor water quality, pollution, and construction delays these storylines dominated the pre-Rio 2016 coverage.
“That’s what you get when you hold the Olympics in a third-world country.”
But quickly the story turned to those who ran from much, much worse. Meet the Refugee Olympic Team.
Ten athletes, ten incredible stories, three sports, all refugee’s. There are swimmers Rami Amis and Yusra Mardini both originally from Syria. There are martial artists Popole Misenga and Yolande Mabika both originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. And there are runners James Chiengjiek, Yiech Biel, Paulo Lokoro, Rose Lokonyen, and Anjelina Lohalith originally of South Sudan and Yonas Kinde originally of Ethiopia. This year they represent more than a nation, they represent the struggle of people around the world, the triumph of the human spirit, and the reason we should all open our hearts and borders to those whose homes are taken away.
The struggle of Popole Misenga, born just ten months before me, begins as a six-year-old. After his mother was murdered he escaped to a nearby rainforest and survived for a week before being taken into a home. He took up judo at that home and excelled, finishing third in the Africa U-20 tournament in 2010. But his struggle was far from over. After escaping during a competition held in Brazil in 2013 he told stories of being starved and held in cages by his coaches when he didn’t perform. He was granted asylum in Brazil and this year will compete in the men’s 90kg event.
The incredible triumph of Yusra Mardini has been all over the web today. The formerly-Syrian swimmer who now trains in Germany won her heat in the 100m Butterfly. But it was hardly the race of her life (literally). That came almost a year ago when she and her sister swam for three hours pushing a broken dinghy full of other refuges through the Aegean Sea. It is fair to say that any Olympic pool looks small and unintimidating for Mardini who at 18 will also swim the 100m Freestyle this year.
The reason we should push for safer transitions for refugees can be shown by Anjelina Lohalith. The now 21-year-old fled her home in South Sudan at age six to settle in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. One of the largest refugee camps in the world with over 179,000 people, roughly the population of Irvine, California. Lohalith started running while in the refugee camp and now trains with Olympic champion marathoner Tegla Loroupe in Kenya. Her goal, that through running she can help her parents.
These athletes come from places of true despair, have fought to overcome them, and now deserve our support, not just in the Olympic games. Refugees have problems beyond glory and dollars, they seek safety and life. Anti-refugee policies are not just xenophobic and nationalistic but they are anti-human and anti-love. I hope when you cheer for the team with no nation you think about what you can do to help them and the people the represent.
