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AS THE WORLD CONTINUES TURNING

Now that the Summer Olympics bubble burst, how are you handling the withdrawal effects?  Well, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics begin in 543 days.  Cortina d'Apezzo is 270 miles from Milan.  Interestingly enough, the following Winter Olympics returns to France in 2030, with some events scheduled for Turin, Italy.  They had no competitors.  What happened to the Orient or the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere?  The very first one was held a century ago, 1924, in France (Chamonix).  The USA has hosted four times, with Salt Lake City the most recently in 2002.

What more can be said about the Paris Summer Olympics? 

  • If American women were their own nation, they would have come in third behind the USA and China, even with the loss of Jordan Chiles' bronze medal.
  • Did you know that in the very final event of these Olympics, the USA women's basketball team beat host France, 67-66, for the gold?
  • 36-year old Steph Curry is why the USA men's basketball team members have gold medals.  The USA team was hopelessly behind Serbia with only a few minutes left, when he sunk 3-pointer after 3-pointer, making nine in all for the game.  Then in the final against France, they made a valiant come back, and almost caught up, but Curry, with less than 3 minutes to go, hit 4 triples to win the gold.
  • Worthy of mention.
    • Noah Lyles won the 100m in 0.005 seconds, but his bronze medal in the 200m was more incredible.  He was suffering from COVID-19.
    • Siffan Hasan was born in Ethiopia in 1993, so she is 31-years old.  
      • At the age of 15 she left as a refugee to the Netherlands.  
      • Undertook studies to become a nurse, and became a Dutch citizen in 2013.
      • Moved to Oregon in 2017 to join the Nike Oregon Project, which was dissolved for doping violations.
      • In Tokyo 2021 she won a bronze for the 1,500m, and gold medals in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, the first to do anything like this ever.
      • In Paris, she only got bronze for the 5,000m and 10,000m. But then, won the gold medal for the marathon, setting an Olympic record.
      • 24-year old Carlos Yulo is 4'11" tall, and won two gold medals at the floor exercise and vault gymnastic events.  
        • From the Philippines, he trained in Japan and graduated from Teikyo University in Tokyo.
        • Still trying to find out what he also won, but the current tally has it at a three-bedroom condo worth $558,000, a car, cash ($276,000), and, for life, an assortment of foods and colonoscopies.
        • That's his Australian girlfriend Chloe San Jose, who is 5'2".
        • Other winners:

    • 1  Cheung Ka Long, Hong Kong, fencing, one gold — $768,000
    • 2. Vivian Kong Man Wai, Hong Kong, fencing, one gold — $768,000
On the left is Siobhan Haughey, who only won a bronze medal for the women's 200 freestyle, but when you add her two Tokyo Summer Olympics silver medals, earned $836,000!

    • 3. Leon Marchand, France, swimming, four gold, one bronze — $365,830

    • 4. Tamara Csipes, Hungary, canoeing, two silver, one bronze — $308,000

    • 5. Rizki Juniansyah, Indonesia, weightlifting, one gold — $300,000

    • 6. Veddriq Leonardo, Indonesia, climbing, one gold — $300,000

    • 7. Alice D'Amato, Italy,gymnastics, one gold, one silver-- $290,115

    • 8. Tom Reuveny, Israel, windsurfing, one gold — $271,000

    • 9. Kristof Milak, Hungary, swimming, one gold, one silver — $265,000

      • By country.
  • France — 117 total medals, $6 million
  • Spain — 75 medals, $5 million
  • Serbia — 28 medals, $4.23 million
  • Hungary — 26 medals, $3 million
  • Israel — 12 medals, $2.56 million
  • Japan — 114 medals, $2.1 million
  • Hong Kong — 2 medals, $1.92 million
  • Brazil — 52 medals, $1.74 million
  • U.S.:  pays $38,000 per gold, $23,000 per silver and $15,000 per bronze and their top earner was swimmer Torri Huske. She won three gold and two silver medals to earn $160,000 at the Summer Games.
  • I don't know what rugby is all about.  It was only for a bronze medal, but the final play victory of the USA women's rugby team over heavily favorite Australia, sits in my mind as the most exciting  moment of the entire Paris Summer Olympics.  Part of this all this had to do with how close Australia was to scoring during the final minutes, with a game saving tackle by Alex Spiff Sedrick from Utah.  Watch this!!!  That is Spiff playing heroine.

I always thought that Paul Anka wrote My Way, a song popularized by Frank Sinatra in 1969.  Turns out that Anka changed the 1967 French song, Comme d'habitude, by Jacques Revaux/Claude François/Gilles Tibaut. 
  • Notice those plastic eco-cups for drinks?  There were 40 variations, and you paid a little more than a $2 deposit for each...but got the money back if you returned it.  A lot of them, for sure, were stuffed into luggage for the return home.
About the rest of the world, Ukraine is attacking Russia.  First, drones, and now an actual incursion into Kursk, Russian territory.  If nothing else, a morale booster.  However, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant now occupied by Russian troops, is in fire.  Not sure who started it, but they blame each other.  Thankfully, the six-reactor plant in southern Ukraine is currently in cold shutdown.

It has now been two weeks, and Iran has not yet taken revenge for Israel assassinating a top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, living in Tehran.  The day before, Fuad Shukr, a senior commander in Hezbollah, was also killed in an Beirut airstrike.  Will it be a symbolic attack, as was a previous revenge strike, or something more substantive, expanding the conflict in the entire Middle East?  While the USA has sent added firepower to the region, cease fire talks will resume on Thursday.  While the world awaits, Democrats are especially anxious, as huge demonstration strikes are planned for their National Convention in Chicago from August 19-22.

Ocean storms continue to turn.  In the Atlantic, Ernesto will become a Category 2, but remain out at sea.

Japan has three.  First, Maria just rolled over Tohoku, where that monster earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster hit in 2011, as a tropical storm.
Next Tropical Storm Son-Tinh, will turn away back into the Pacific Ocean.
But Ampil will become a Category 2 Typhoon, and could yet be a threat.

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