2016 Summer Olympics: Rio De Janiero, Brazil

Rio Olympics August 11-20th, 2016 Rio de Janeiro What a wild ride the past 1.5 years has been. Getting a flight without miles, no available hotels at a reasonable price (we decided to go with AirBNB, great choice!), 5 rounds of ticket auctions, and then all of the fear mongering about the Zika virus (probably saw two mosquitos the entire time we were there) and safety concerns (never had a problem, considering we were out until about 2am most of the time I say we were as safe as any major city in the US). But that wild ride paid off more than we could ever imagine! Our trip started off with a fiasco at the airport. Our select comfort seats were taken from us. When we were reassigned the seats were 20 rows from each other, and then needed to beg another passenger to switch places so Keli and I could be next to each other for the 10 hour flight. When we finally got to Rio, we had to book it to our AirBNB apartment to get ready for the long day we had in store. That included the 30 minute metro in the wrong direction to get our swimming prelim tickets, the 1.5 hour metro/bus to the Olympic park, and the 30 minute walk to the swimming venue. But all things considered that first day turned out amazing! Day 1 August 12, 2016: Swimming prelims, Judo, Swimming finals The Olympic Park is located in the Barra region of Rio. The Olympic organizers were supposed to build a metro line that would go from the Centro area directly to the park but they ran out of time and funding. So every time we needed to go to the Olympic park you were required to take the metro for about 30 minutes, then get on a bus for another 30 minutes. Let’s just say the bus drivers could have been on the NASCAR circuit because they were taking these double length buses around corners at mach 1. Every time we hit the roundabout section the gasps from the people riding the bus was hilarious, it felt more like a theme park roller coaster than transportation to the biggest sporting event in the world. When you arrive at the final bus stop attendees are required to go over this gigantic temporary structures that allows everyone to get from one side of the major street to the other. At first you think, how in the world this thing is going to hold tens of thousands of people a day, and then you soon realize not only did the Brazilians build these passage ways at the events but a lot of the venues had similar structures. The outdoor volleyball stadium, natatorium, and tennis courts were built in the same fashion. In a way it is genius because when the tourists all go home the city doesn’t have a ton of permanent fixtures. Anyway, back to the park. Once you get through security the park is enormous. The water polo/diving pool, indoor cycling, wresting, judo, basketball, 3 tennis courts, and main swimming pool were all in this area…very similar to Sochi. I really like the design because you feel safe in the environment and everyone is happy to be there. You see people from every nation donning their countries colors, it is very festive. Back to our schedule. We were already late for the swim prelims and therefore rushed as quickly as possible to the natatorium. Of course the pool is in the very back of the park so it took about 20 minutes from the time we exited the bus to get to our seats. As a swimmer, this was really exciting for me. You watch swimming on TV and you appreciate all that you see, but in person you realize the speed and agility of the athletes. I personally look at the splits and am in awe. How can so many people go that FAST! Unfortunately we missed the women’s 50 free heats but were there to see the men’s 1500 and 400 Medley relays. The 1500 was led by Gregorio Paltrinieri with a 14:44 while American Connor Jaeger put in a respectable time of 14:45. For the relays, the US men’s and women’s team dominated and were both seeded first for the finals that would take place the following night. Although I was having a blast there were two things on my mind. First, these were prelims and we couldn’t see all the exciting events that night. And second, the women’s US soccer team was playing Sweden in the quarterfinals and were in shootouts…needless to say the women lost the game. But more to come on the swimming finals that took place later that evening… The second event of the day was women’s Judo. I didn’t know what to expect when we entered the arena, the only judo I have seen is a mish mash form in the MMA. I guess I thought it would be more like karate than holding onto each other’s gi’s for dear life until the other person was exhausted. Of course this might have been the women we were watching because they were heavyweights so even the littlest amount of activity and they were completely winded. At one point we saw a competitor “tie” their gi for at least 3 minutes thus trying to catch her breath. Although it was not the most exciting sport at the Olympics, the Brazilians had a great respect for the athletes and know the rules well. When the occasional flip took place the arena exploded with their approval. We saw the eventual winner Emilie Andeol of France for gold, Idalys Ortiz of Cuba for Silver and Kanae Yamabe of Japan for Bronze and waited for the medals to be awarded (Kel and I weren’t sure how many medal ceremonies we would see this year since they take place at the venues, in Sochi the awards were given out at a public stage). After Judo Keli and I heard we could possibly scalp swimming finals tickets (something that was impossible in Sochi). I have a friend who is Brazilian and she said we could go by the ticketing office where there were a ton of scalpers selling tickets to events that were “sold out”. What we later found out was that the events were technically sold out, but what actually happened was that Brazilian ticket resellers bought up all the prime sporting events looking to resell to tourists at top dollar. What they didn’t expect was that people were not willing to pay the outrageous amounts they were looking to get and therefore they were desperate to get face value for the tickets. This is why the arenas looked poorly attended on TV, it was not that people weren’t willing to go, it was that the tickets were already purchased but not resold to a secondary market. Anyway, short story long, Kel and I were able to pick up two tickets for the swimming finals that night and were in for a treat! The world knows that the US is a powerhouse in the sport of swimming. Although there are years when the Australians compete for the most medals (like in Sydney when the crazy full length suits were still legal), the US has truly dominated the past 3 Olympics. This night was a prime example. On the agenda was the women’s 200 backstroke, men’s 100 butterfly, women’s 800 freestyle, women’s 50 free semifinals and the men’s 50 freestyle. Up first was the women’s 200 backstroke. The Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu has been the darling of the games. She dominated in the 200 IM pushed by her coach and husband, and looked to do the same in this event. The first 150 meters was just that, Katinka at one point had a full body length lead going into the final 50 when American Maya Dirado started to make a push. With 15 meters to go Maya was pulling up quickly and the final lunge to the wall gave the gold to the US by 6 hundredths of a second. What I loved was the fact that Maya’s entire family was right in front of us and they exploded when they saw the red light indicating her first place win. I got a great picture of the fam jumping with joy as Maya is looking right up at them. The second event of the night was probably the most highly anticipated of the entire Olympics. This was Michael Phelps final individual swim of his career and he was going against arch rival Chad Guy Bertrad Le Clos the South African who just out touched Phelps in 2012. Le Clos was talking a lot of trash over the past year which the media completely ate up. So when the swimmers hit the water the crowd exploded! We have seen Phelps over the past decade be behind at the 50 to miraculously come back for the gold. This night that miracle didn’t happen…but we did see something that may never happen again at the Olympic Games. Joseph Schooling of Singapore took first but the most unusual aspect of the race was the fact that there was a three way tie for silver. Phelps, Le Clos and Laszlo Cseh of Hungary all touched the wall at the same time providing a huge “OOOOOHHHHH” from the stands. Seeing the most decorated Olympian in history swimming his final individual event of his career all while getting a three way silver medal was incredible. Third event, not to be outmatched, was the women’s 800 freestyle. There was no surprise who the expected favorite and eventual gold medalist, but the real question was how fast is Katie Ledecky going to swim. She already won the 200 and 400 freestyles; the 800 would cap only the second time in history that a competitor got gold in all three events. For non-swimmers, this is absolutely crazy! Imagine a track star being able to win the 400 meters and follow that up with a gold in the 5000 meters…it simply does not happen. Katie is a freak of nature and she proved that this night. After the first 100 meters she was already a body length ahead of the field. The real question for everyone watching was weather she could keep up her speed and if so how badly would she break the world record. That was all answered a quick 8:04:79 later when she shattered the WR by 4 seconds and better the next competitor by 12 seconds!!! Absolutely unbelievable. The fourth event was the reason I bought the tickets. This unbelievable story is what movies are made of, a swimmer who win’s gold in the 50 freestyle in the 2000 Sydney games (at age 19), to be on the blocks of the finals 16 years later! Anthony Ervin and I swam competitively at Canyons Aquatics nearly 25 years ago. I remember him being the rambunctious tween who dominated in the backstroke. When I left the team around 1995 I lost contact with a lot of the swimmers (after the Northridge earthquake the people in the San Fernando Valley couldn’t get to Canyon Country for months because the freeway collapsed, this pushed us to go to other teams in the area) but heard he was one of the top swimmers in the country heading to college. I didn’t see him until he was on the blocks in Sydney eventually tying for Gold. Shortly after this amazing accomplishment Anthony quit swimming to go on a life journey, selling his gold medal to aid the tsunami victims in the Philippians and losing his relay silver medal. He slowly got back into the sport and made the finals in the 50 free in London, but if you saw that race you quickly recognized he was in trouble when the ref held the field extra-long and when the timer finally went off Ervin was last off the blocks eventually getting 5th overall. This night was different though, I got Tony’s attention during his warm ups ( I later felt like an idiot trying to call to a guy that is literally sprinting for the fastest man on earth about 30 minutes later) where he looked composed and ready to go in his Captain America Speedo’s. When the finals were about to begin and the swimmers got on the blocks I was a bit worried. The crowd this night was extremely loud often screaming prior to the starts. Luckily those familiar with the sport shhhhh’ed those around them until it was completely silent in the building…take your mark, BEEP! An explosion into the water where these huge guys are pushing water at incredible rates. I was filming the event and when I saw Tony slowly gaining on the field you can hear in my voice the excitement. They touched the way, I panned to the scoreboard….Ervin first place. I screamed “OH CRAP!!!” Tony jumped on the lane line, pumping his fists in the air. He just out touched France’s Manaudou Florent by a hundredth of a second and the US’s Nathan Adrian by 8 hundredths for his second 50 freestyle gold medal. What an incredible comeback, what an incredible race, what an incredible story. I have to be honest, once we saw the gold medals for all the Americans that night capped by seeing an old friend win in Rio of all places, Keli and I were spent. I am a bit ashamed to say it now, but the organizers moved the women’s 50 free semifinals to the end of the meet and we decided to skip it in order to get back to the apartment. After nearly 40 hours of travel, 3 Olympic events, and about 4 hours of sleep we decided to call it a night. But what a night it was! Day 2 August 13, 2016: Men’s indoor volleyball and Track and Field After our good luck with the swimming finals tickets, we were unsure if we could pull off the next ticket heist. We bought decent men’s indoor volleyball tickets months ago but because we got them 8 months in advance there is no way to tell who would be playing, and unfortunately for us it was the Brazil game. Our goal was to get to the Maracanazinho arena a couple of hours early to swap our seats for the US vs France match. Fate was in our corner because we made a three way trade with a couple of nice locals thus allowing us to see the Americans, and what a game we saw! If you are unfamiliar with indoor volleyball, the first to win 3 out of 5 sets wins the match. The first set we (USA) looked to be completely out of sync. It seemed to be the way things were going this Olympics because the Americans got swept by Canada and lost the second match to Italy. Being down by as much as 8 points in the first set was not the way the red, white and blue wanted to start this set. But we slowly gained momentum on the backs of Matthew Anderson #1, Micah Christenson #11, Aaron Russell #2, Taylor Sander #3 and veteran David Lee #4 eventually stunning France with a come from behind win 25-22. The second set wasn’t much easier. The US (both men’s and women’s) were horrible from behind the line. They have more service errors than any other teams in the tournament and it seems like every third hit was a side out point for France. When you give away between 7-10 non-sense points a set it really demoralizes any momentum from a big block or crushing spike. It also didn’t help that the Brazilian crowd immediately got behind the French team taunting the US players and openly booing every point and serve. You should have heard the place erupt when France’s Earvin Ngapeth kept the ball alive with a sliding soccer kick at the back of the court which eventually led to a French point. But the US kept a level head and steamed to a second set win of 25-22. The third set went to the French (24-25), again because of poor service errors and uncharacteristic bad passes, but the US put the match away in set number four (25-22) allowing the boys to give a big sigh of relief knowing they only had one pool match to go against heavy underdogs Mexico. Some fun facts about the game included the cheers of MONSTER BLOCK when the whole crowd would put their arms up and making a chopping motions indicating a great defensive block. The theme song of all the challenges on the court was the score from Star Wars when Darth Vadar would enter the scene. And the ACE song accompanied by Brazilian dancers. Not to mention yours truly on national TV completely decked out in stars and stripes after a huge point in the game. I knew I was being filmed but I thought it was for the jumbo tron, I knew later it was on TV when friends Facebooked me asking if I was at the game because there swore they saw me. After the game we had some time to kill before track and field so I wanted to take the opportunity to see the Olympic flame. It was located on Boulevard Olimpico in the Saude district, but little did I know the party that would be happening down there. The street was completely blocked off for a huge three week fiesta filled with vendors, art displays, and concerts. We spent about an hour wondering around the area but ran out of time and had to make our way back to the metro station in order to get to the next stadium. We later realized on a second trip to the area that the flame was on the complete opposite side of the boulevard (a large section of the waterfront was blocked off by security thus splitting the two areas apart by about a half a mile). As mentioned before, the second part of the night was track. Keli was super excited because we got to see the men’s long jump…and even better our seats were located right in front of the pit. The other events of the night included the women’s 100 meter final (won by Elaine Thompson of Jamaica, silver went to the US’s Tori Bowie, and bronze to Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce of Jamaica), the men’s 10k (won by Mo Farah of England-after falling about halfway through the race), the men’s and women’s 800 meter semi-finals, men’s pole vault qualifications, and the women’s heptathlon javelin throw. But like I said, the star of the night was the long jump for us (mainly because the women’s 100 final and men’s 10k both ended on the complete opposite side of the track where only the VIP’s and press sat). It was back and forth between the two American’s Jeff Henderson and Jarrion Lawson until the last two rounds when Britain’s Greg Rutherford jumped a surprising 8.29 meters for the lead. Then South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga flew in the air for what seemed like 4 seconds with an amazing 8.37m jump besting the rest of the group, that is until Jeff Henderson used his amazing speed and great take off to slightly edge the field with 8.38 meters. This set up an exciting last jump, whoever can beat Henderson’s mark would surely get a medal, perhaps gold. That is exactly what Jarrion Lawson did with his leap. Even from our seats it looked like he was at least a foot farther than the rest of the men and you could tell from his expression and joy, jumping around with excitement he knew it too. When the final tally popped up the crowd was in shock, not excitement for the new leader, but that the measurement was in the upper 6 meter mark. From what we all saw there was no way that mark was correct until we viewed the super slow replay when Jarrion’s hand just barely touched the sand while still in the air bringing his official jump back nearly 5 feet from his actual landing. We felt horrible for him, but that is the life of a professional athlete. Afterward the jumpers did a lap around the stadium and we screamed our heads off of the gold medal winner from the US, Jeff Henderson! Day 3 August 14, 2016: Women’s beach volleyball This day was one of our free days. Our goal was to sleep in, go to the beach, and then go to the Christ the Redeemer statue. Well we got two of the three completed but the tram to the statue was sold out until after dark. That was no good for us so instead we decided to go and see the Olympic flame (for reals this time). Knowing where it was actually located we headed in the right direction and eventually hit the second part of the Olympic Boulevard experience. Although small, the flame caldron was very unique because of the wind chime/mirrored background. It was funny though, I asked Keli “is that really the flame, it looks so small?” Well, in fact it was not the real flame, that we later saw in the soccer stadium…this was a smaller replica. But it was still cool to see in person, and there were several areas to sit and watch track and field on big screens so we got a drink and sat for a bit in the park. Our goal was to waste a bit of time and then head toward the beach volleyball arena to see if we could scalp the women’s quarterfinal match with Kerry Walsh-Jennings and April Ross…once again we were in luck. After the flame we hit the metro up and headed to Copacabana Beach. We knew there would be tickets available on the street, but didn’t know how much people would be asking. The Brazilian’s were playing the same night so most of them were already in the arena by the time we got there. Our thought process was, if the scalpers were still around they will take just about any reasonable amount because one of the matches was already over. Either make some cash or completely lose out. We offered 200 reals, or about $80, and were in like Flynn! The match was against the Australians Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy, two great volleyball players, but they were no match vs the Americans. Walsh Jennings is perhaps the greatest outdoor player (both men’s and women’s) ever. She towers over the competition, is a great blocker, and can smash the ball. April Ross was essentially asked by Walsh Jennings 4 years ago in the London Olympics after she lost to Walsh and Misty May to join her in Rio, and that is exactly what she did. Who wouldn’t, Kerry had won three Olympics in a row and was looking for her fourth gold. Kel and I were in for a treat tonight because the US was firing on all cylinders. Great serving, fantastic passing, and even jungle ball play to keep the ball alive to eventually spike for the win, the American’s took out the Aussie’s 21-14 and 21-16 to go into the Semi’s. The topper for the night was the fact that it was Kerry’s 38th birthday, a fitting way to end the match (at nearly 1am might I add), with the crowd singing “Happy Birthday to you!”. We ended our night with a long walk back to the apartment taking a few pictures in front of the Olympic rings that were right on the beach. Good times. Day 4 August 15, 2016: Men’s Greco Roman wrestling This update may be a little short, simply because the sport absolutely baffles me. When I think of wrestling two things come to mind, WWF and the movie Fox Catcher. I have no clue what the rules are for Greco Roman but we thought it would be good to see one of the original Olympic sports. My goal was to get into an air conditioned building (check), get a beer (check), and cheer on the US (check). Unfortunately we only saw two Americans and they got crushed quickly. The highlight of the day was watching Mijain Lopez of Cuba wrestle. He was going for the three-peat after winning in Bejing and London, and he accomplished that goal today. I was able to get a picture with him a couple days later at the women’s freestyle event. The really exciting part of today was that we were finally able to get up to the Christ the Redeemer statue. After a failed attempt yesterday, we got to the tram early and made our way up. Little did I know we could have taken a taxi to the top, but we heard from all the locals you need to take the tram (I am still not completely convinced. We waited a long time and the line back was horrible). The reason why this was exciting was because for the past 4 days I had been carrying around Keli’s engagement ring waiting for the right time and place. I thought the top of Rio would be perfect, but when we got off the tram there were hundreds of tourists and the weather was going to turn in 20 minutes. We decided to get to the top quickly and in order to distract Keli a bit I asked her to take the pictures. There was a twofold reason for this, it would get her mind off the fact that she would be closterphobic with all these people, and two so I could get prepared to ask her to marry me. I planned this out a year ago at the Rock in Rio concert when Bruno Mars was on stage singing the “Want to Marry You” song. While he was belting out the lyrics I looked at Keli and said “One day that will happen!” Of course I got the “what are you talking about???” look because we have been together for 15 years at that point, but I wasn’t joking. So when Keli was taking pictures of the lagoon, race track and Ipanema side of Rio I was placing the ring into the box, linking my phone to the mini speaker via blue tooth, and making sure the Bruno Mars song was queued up. Then things took a turn for the worse… When we got to the top by the statue, the crowd of people started to freak Keli out. She got that look of “get me out of here right now” in her eyes and headed up the stairs to the tram. I had to think quickly! I grabbed her and basically said “Hey, take a deep breath. I will get someone to take a single picture of us on the steps where there are fewer people just to show we were here with SugarLoaf Mountain behind us. We can’t come all the way here and not have that moment”. Luckily she agreed. On our way to the stairs I found another younger American couple with the same SLR as us. The guy was with his girlfriend who was also very unhappy with the amount of people. I told him if he takes a pic of us, we will take a pic of them, and we could get out of this mess. They quickly agreed and I lead Keli to the spot I wanted to propose. Right before we got to the step I handed the camera over and quietly said, “Hey, by the way I am going to propose and she has no idea. Just start snapping away, ok?” The two of them lit up and were so excited to be a part of the moment. I got Keli to the right spot, dug into my pocket to get the speaker, cranked up the volume (all while Keli is saying “what are you doing?). With first note of Bruno Keli started to realize what was happening. It was the “what are you doing? (mouth open), “no really, what are you doing?” (hands flying up), “wait, wait, wait…WHAT ARE YOU DOING???” (hands over her heart). I got down on my knee and asked if she would marry me, and through the tears I got a very happy “Yes!” All the while the crowd around us slowly started to turn when the song was being played and by the time she said yes they exploded in applause. It was a pretty cool moment all captured on camera by an amazing couple that I really wish we exchanged information. After the proposal we headed up the stairs to try to find a quiet area but a Japanese news crew followed us with 4 cameras interviewing Keli who could barely answer the questions. One day we hope to find those interviews on the web, we have looked but to no avail. What a great way to end the night! Day 5 August 16, 2016: Women’s indoor volleyball After the excitement of the proposal and a great dinner at a churrascaria, we slept in a bit which was really nice. The only event on our list today was women’s indoor volleyball. Once again we really used luck to sell our tickets which featured the Netherlands and South Korea in the quarterfinals and we picked up the US vs Japan seats. After the wrestling match we happened to talk to a Brazilian professor who had the tickets we were looking for at a great price, half of a normal ticket because he was a teacher. So we grabbed his seats and set off to sell ours. My only goal...where are the crazy orange clad Nederlanders! It didn’t take long to find some; they are usually blond and nearly 7 feet tall. The two guys I found were in a hostel with 60 other Dutch fans and after a quick phone call we got rid of our tickets for a few bucks cheaper than we bought them. Lady luck on our side! Keli and I decided to head to the game a bit early that day, we just figured let’s skip some of the foot traffic. Well I am glad we did, because the volleyball arena shared the same venue location as the soccer field. Little did we know, the soccer fans were using the same entrance gates. The lines were so long that if we waited like everyone else the match would be halfway over before we got in. So I told Keli, let’s try the gate that says VIP. All they can do is turn us around. On the way in, we saw some other Americans and tried to strike up a conversation. Well, because they were “VIP”, we got a ton of attitude. When I asked if this was the way into volleyball, trying to play dumb, they looked at us and said “yes it is, for us. You won’t be able to get in”. What dicks! I thought, F you, I will follow you anyway. We got to the ticket area and they looked at our tickets, realized we were in the wrong area, but let us through anyway. That saved us over an hour…and I got to give the a-holes a “what are you gonna do about it” look before we headed in. After that encounter, the rest of the day was great. We started off in some random good seats. If figured if the ticket owners show up we will just move. Keli hates this but I figure if we get lucky and no one shows, then more power to us. We were into the third match when the people finally came to claim their seats, so we relocated a few sections over in front of another nicer American family. From this section we saw the remainder of the game. The US team is very strong this year (ranked #1 in the world), led by one of the most famous names in volleyball head coach Karch Kiraly. Our ladies had little trouble with Japan. A quick sweep of 25-16, 25-23 and 25-22 with key efforts from team anchor Jordan Larson who had 14 points and two service aces. This was her second Olympics so she was able to take that experience to Rio, providing leadership for standouts Kim Hill and Rachael Adams. After the win, the US was set to play Serbia after a very surprising win over powerhouse Russia earlier in the day. A highlight of the night for us was getting onto the jumbotron right after the team won. I just happened to be taking pictures of the scoreboard when we were being filmed so I got a great shot of Keli screaming her head off. Little did I know that was also the live TV broadcast…so when we got back to the states we looked up the match and saw us on TV. Good times. Day 6 August 17, 2016: Women’s freestyle wrestling Our last day visiting the Olympic park. It is bitter sweet because we knew we were nearing the end of our trip, but at the same time I was getting a bit tired of the extremely long metro/bus tour to the other side of Rio. This time we got onto the subway and were immediately greeted by an American who seemed very outgoing. After chatting for a while we found out he was from West Hollywood and this was his third Olympics…that was about as far as Keli and I should have gone with this conversation. He was like many of the other extremely rude Americans who were talking shit about the Brazilians even though we were surrounded by locals. Now it doesn’t take a genius to recognize the fact that many Brazilians speak English, so all of this crap the dude was spewing about how awful the city is, the way that they couldn’t even finish a subway and how ghetto it is to take a bus, and finally that the whole country is full of fat, lazy slobs was beyond embarrassing. He was also a spoiled millennial who received two tickets to every event from mommy and daddy which probably cost well over $15k which he gladly was shouting to anyone who would listen. I told Kel that as soon as we get off this subway we are ditching him before we transferred to the bus line. Damn, so embarrassing. We had two goals for the day: First go to the Coca Cola experience and then to our event. After Sochi we realized Coke manufactures a one of a kind mini bottle for every Olympics since 1988. We attempted to go to the vendor down by the Olympic flame but that line was horrifically long so we took our chances with the one in the park. Though the line was much shorter, the day was much hotter. I would say it was hovering around 90 degrees with 90% humidity. The only thing that kept me standing was the great idea of bringing our umbrella, and even with that I was melting. But we got through the line, took a picture with the Olympic torch, enjoyed a Coke (which was a shit show trying to get the one I wanted…green and gold), and then headed out to the arena. The only event for the day was women’s freestyle wrestling. Although we know very little about the sport it made a lot more sense than the men’s Greco we went to a few days before. The matches weren’t too exciting at the beginning so I started scanning the auditorium for pictures I could take to help us remember the experience. That is when I spotted Mijain Lopez the Cuban three time gold medalist just a few rows from us. I had to say hi and take a picture. I thought it would be a great idea to pull up his match from the 15th where he won gold and show him that I was there celebrating his win. Although I know he probably could care less, he smiled and shook my hand before I took a selfie with my camera. For me it made my day. But the true highlight of the tourney was Eri Tosaka of Japan who won gold against Azerbaijan’s Mariya Stadnick. It wasn’t the win that was so exhilarating; it was how she celebrated with her coach afterward. Kazuhito, who could not be any younger than 75 years old, took out the Japanese flag and jumped on his stars shoulders to be paraded around the mat to the extreme delight and applause from those in the stands. I took several great pictures of the celebration. What joy in the coaches face, good times. And that concluded our time at the Rio Olympics Park. We took several more pictures around the area, I traded as many pins as possible with the Brazilin attendees, and then we headed home for the night. Day 7 August 18, 2016: Men’s Triathlon No official events for the day, so we took the opportunity to get up early and head over to Sugar Loaf Mountain. According to the weather reports it would be a clear day, not too hot, and it would afford us the opportunity to take some great pictures of the area. I am really glad we went early because there was virtually no line, we got to the top within 30 minutes, and essentially had the top of the mountain to ourselves. We got amazing pictures of the Copacabana coastline and Christ the Redeemer as well as some selfies. The one odd thing that happened was the crazy Asian dude that had to take a stupid picture of himself climbing over a fence and hanging off of a ledge. But the way he did it was so haphazard, he ran over scaring all the tourist who initially thought he was going to jump, and then quickly climbed back over to try to escape the security guards (but really where was he going to go? We were stuck on a mountain with the only way down being the tram, idiot). Oh yeah, one other fun fact. As we hit the middle section (the tram has two stops, the first stop you can technically hike to and has shops and food, the second is Sugar Loaf) I saw Herm Edwards strolling by. I took the opportunity to say hi and that I was a fan, then quickly took a snap shot with him. He was really friends and asked where I was from and who my football team was, I wasn’t expecting that. It was a really present meeting. We had to head back to the apartment because the only thing I wanted to catch for the day was the men’s triathlon. Joy Maloy who is from New Jersey had been training in CA for several years is practically a local so I really wanted to see him compete as well as Greg Billington who just spoke at a Tri Club meeting a few weeks prior. Maloy has had some great finishes in the ITU circuit and was an outside contender for a medal, but with powerhouses like the Brownlee brothers from the UK and Murray out of South Africa, it would be a tall order. After seeing the men’s road race on TV about a week prior, and the amount of people spectating on the streets, I was fully expecting a couple thousand people to line the race course. It was a complete shock to walk down the street to see tens of thousands of people, in some places 3 to 4 deep along the bike/run route. I had to fight to get along the fence to get some pictures and cheer on the Americans. But it was clear after the first few laps that we didn’t have a chance to podium that day. The Brownlee brothers were far superior to the rest of the field finishing one two with Henri Shoeman taking third out of South Africa. Joe Malloy smashed the run to finish 23rd, Ben Kanute 29th, and Billington 37th. It was an exciting day on the road and I was really looking forward to the women’s race in two days. Day 8 August 19, 2016: Women’s gold medal soccer When we bought our tickets about a year ago, Keli and I were most excited about the women’s gold medal soccer match. The US women’s national soccer team has been the most dominant country for well over a decade and this year was no different. With some of the best players in the world like Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Carli Lloyd, we were absolutely sure they would be in the gold medal match…maybe they wouldn’t win, but they would be in the final game. Those hopes quickly died the first night we were in Rio when they lost to Sweden in penalty kicks. So although we were still excited to be in one of the most famous soccer arenas in the world (Maracanã Stadium) having Germany and Sweden (instead of the US or Brazil) was a bit of a letdown. Day 9 August 20, 2016: Women’s triathlon Last day in Rio. Although I was sad that the trip was about to end, we knew it would be really nice to get back to the comforts of home. Also since the flight was not until 10pm we had the opportunity to watch the women’s triathlon. With no activities set for the morning hours Kel and I headed down to Copacabana beach to watch some of the swim. The transition area and swim exit weren’t accessible, you needed a ticket which was impossible and the beaches were closed in that area, so we posted up as close as possible and enjoyed the mayhem from about 5 blocks away. The leaders came out of the water in one big bunch. After walking on the sand I couldn’t imagine trying to sprint from the waves to transition. The texture is so soft you just sink, their calf muscles must have been screaming by the time they hit the bikes. We knew the course well after the men’s race a couple of days before so we headed to a couple of different areas to get pictures of some of the favorites including Americans Gwen Jorgensen and Sarah True (who later DNF’ed because of a bike crash). The bike leg is always interesting because of the draft legal aspect. It is really hard to get away from your competitors if they can draft off of the 10-20 people in front of them. That happened this race day as well. So like all major ITU competitions the deciding factor was the run. Nicola SPIRG HUG from Switzerland had the lead but Jorgensen was hauling ass and gaining ground quickly. I have seen Gwen a few times and she is like a gazelle out there. By the third lap she had a clear lead, so I told Keli I wanted to get to the side of the street where the restaurants were located because they had TV’s we could watch. It was awesome to see the US dominate in the race and come home with the gold! And that was it. Our events were complete, the engagement was a success, the weather was great, the people were amazing, the fears of Sika and an imploding government were nonexistent, what more can I say than it was an absolute blast and cannot wait for Korea in two years!!!