Olympique Daily: We interrupt this service...
Wahs come calling, a brouhaha at the boxing we could all do without, and the (submarine) bell tolls for an EnZed great.
A lame apology follows…
Friday is the day I like to take a sweeping, circuitous view of the sporting week that lands in your inbox as you’re either tucking into an end-of-week drink, or at the very least contemplating one.
Today I had a bunch of notes prepared of stories and topics to traverse and left myself just enough time to do it.
Then I got a call that went something like this:
“Hey, I’ve got a couple of Warriors tickets for you and Libby [daughter] if you want them?”
[shouts down the hallway]
“Libby, do you want to go to the Warriors?”
[from the bedroom]
“YES!”
“We’ll take them! Thanks!”
Time was now the enemy.
There are other places I was going to take this edition (there’s a bit of news in rugby at the moment, especially involving halfbacks, for instance, or returning Crusaders coaches), but normal service has been interrupted for a trip to the Last Chance Saloon.
While we’re on that, here’s a scenario. Just bear with me. This weekend Easts beat Redcliffe, Melbourne beat St George, Penrith beat Newcastle, Canterbury-Bankstown beat Canberra and the Warriors beat Parramatta. It could mostly happen and you know what that means: HOPE! Don’t just think it — cling to it like a limpet on a rock.
That would put the Warriors one point outside the eight with four kind-of winnable matches and bye to come.
Alternatively, the season effectively ends tonight.
Boo.
NZ Warriors v Parramatta, Auckland, tonight 8pm, SS4
Last night was not just a great night for rowing, but for motherhood too.
Lucy Spoors and Brooke Francis (pictured above) put in a row for the ages to beat defending champions Romania.
“It’s no secret that it hasn’t been easy [coming back to rowing],” Spoors said. “I think about my friends who are mothers, and what they go through every day. Mums are incredible. I have so much more respect for my mum and now, watching what all mums and parents do, it’s special.”
***
The gender row at the Olympic boxing is an incredibly complex story that has become little more than ammunition in an ongoing culture war that few have asked for.
It reached fever pitch after Italy’s Angela Carini abandoned her Olympic bout against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif inside 46 seconds, saying: “I had to preserve my life.”
Count me as one who is sceptical about Carini’s motivations.
The most reasoned take on the issue comes from the USA Today columnist Dan Wolken (h/t Scotty Stevenson for pointing this out to me).
Let’s make one thing very clear off the top. There isn’t a sane human being on Planet Earth who believes that a man should be boxing women in the Olympics.
Not a single one.
That said, let’s also say something equally as important: Slow down.
That’s a really good idea and while I would fully recommend reading the whole piece to get a full picture of some of the background politics that are playing out, here are a couple of the stronger points Wolken makes:
This stuff isn’t always black-and-white. We don’t know exactly what Khelif and Lin are being accused of, by the IBA or anyone else. Is the idea that they’re men pretending to be women? Intersex issues that affect chromosomes or reproductive organs? There’s no indication – at all – that this has anything to do with transgenderism.
And…
What else do we know? We know that Khelif and Lin have been competing in this sport for years, including the Olympics three years ago, and were not exactly dominating the competition. Khelif lost in the quarterfinals in Tokyo and Lin lost in the round of 16 of a different weight class. They were also being tested without any issue coming up, until this sudden 2023 test that nobody can really explain.
And…
We also know – or can at least safely speculate – that in Khelif’s case, Algeria would be a strange place to incubate a star women’s boxer who was actually a man or began life as a man. This is a Muslim country where same-sex acts are illegal and the LGBT community is subject to significant discrimination.
***
Given what happened before the Games, it is not surprising Chinese swimmers are regarded with suspicion.
(The Chinese swimming scandal explained.)
Australian swim coach Brett Hawke, who is not part of the Olympic team, has come out swinging after watching Pan Zhanle blitz the field on the way to gold and a world record in the 100m free.
“I’m upset right now because you don’t win 100 freestyle by a body length on that field. You just don’t do it. It is not humanly possible to beat that field by a body length. I don’t care what you say. This is not a race thing, this is not against any one particular person or nation, this is just what I see and what I know.
“That’s not real, you don’t beat that field. Kyle Chalmers, David Popovici, Jack Alexy, you don’t beat those guys by one full body length in 100 freestyle. That’s not humanly possible, OK, so don’t sell it to me, don’t shove it down my throat. It’s not real.”
To be fair to Hawke, the Chinese swimming programme has invited suspicion and cynicism. A New York Times investigation revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 had tested positive for a banned substance at a training camp months before the Olympics. Chinese anti-doping officials determined that the positive findings resulted from contamination of food the swimmers ate and did not sanction or suspend any of the athletes. Wada agreed with the Chinese group and the athletes were allowed to compete in Tokyo.
KIWIS IN ACTION (DAY 7)
Times are subject to change, particularly sailing.
* denotes possible appearance.
Golf
7pm: Ryan Fox Daniel Hillier, round two
Judo
8pm: Sydnee Andrews, +78k 1st round
(subsequent rounds to follow, with medal bouts starting at 3.18am)
Athletics
8.35pm: Zoe Hobbs (pictured below), 100m prelims
9.05pm: Sam Tanner, 1500m, round one
9.50pm: Hobbs, 100m heats
6.10am: Tom Walsh & Jacko Gill, shot put qualification
Swimming
9pm: Eve Thomas, Erika Fairweather, 800m free heats
9pm: Cameron Gray, 100m butterfly heats
6.49am: Lewis Clareburt, 200m IM final*
7.09am: Gray, 100m butterfly SF*
Rowing
10.22pm: Jackie Kiddle/ Shannon Cox, lightweight double sculls F
Trampoline
10pm: Maddie Davidson, qualification (Maddie Davidson)
11.50pm: Davidson, F*
4am: Dylan Schmidt, qualification
5.50am: Schmidt, F*
Sailing
10.05pm: Greta Pilkington, ILCA 6, races 2-4
10.13pm: Jo Aleh/ Molly Meech, 49er FX, medal race
10.20pm: Tom Saunders, ILCA 7 races 3-4
11.13pm: Isaac McHardie/ Will McKenzie, 49er, medal race
Canoe slalom
1.30am: Finn Butcher, kayak cross time trial
2.40am: Luuka Jones, kayak cross time trial
Hockey
3am: NZ v Ireland, Pool B
Cycling BMX
6am: Rico Bearman, SF
7.35am: Bearman, F*
A short diversion
This is in no way a music blog but I was mad and sad this week when I read that Martin Phillipps had died. It was cause for reflection and some heavy rotations of classic tunes, but it also made me realise how dumb younger versions of ourselves can be. The Chills were one of the first New Zealand bands to cut through my cultural cringe to the point where I thought, “Wow, the songs we make here are as good as anywhere in the world!”
Holy shit they were great.
Then I stopped listening to them for the worst reason. When I was a stupider version of myself I thought Heavenly Pop Hit was The Chills selling out, when actually it was a piece of twisted genius that should have lifted Phillipps into the songwriting stratosphere (and it could have if he didn’t have a classic rock-star self-destructive streak).
Anyway, even if you don’t fully appreciate Phillipps’ guitar hooks and melancholia on the gorgeous Pink Frost, then at least appreciate the sight of another Dunedinite in a fantastic jumper.
Have a great Olympic weekend!
