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I’m well into Olympics viewing mode and I think I’ve figured out the best way to watch the sports on TV. Watch football on the first two days, watch the opening ceremony, saturate myself with men’s team archery on Day One, follow the Italian women’s volleyball team matches (and other teams that I want to support), watch the event finals (swimming, rowing, etc.), let athletics be the default sport on Week 2, and round it off with the closing ceremony. The aim is to not saturate yourself but watch quality sports performances.

Here are my Week 1 Olympics highlights (I’ll mention the ‘one-off’ sports in the next blog):

  1. Football – Watched Brazil vs China (3-0) women’s football and Brazil vs South Africa (0-0) men’s football. The Brazilian women’s team were lucky not to have lost in the penalty shoot-out versus Australia but both Brazilian teams are still in the hunt to win the gold medals. I hope they manage to do so, it’ll be great for the country.
  2. Opening ceremony – I liked the opening ceremony, although it can’t compete with London 2012 (that was epic). Gisele Bundschen’s final catwalk, the green Olympic rings, the Refugee Olympic Team, the flagbearer of Tonga, & the artistic Olympic torch – being someone who has an affinity for Brazil, I enjoyed all the elements of the opening ceremony.
  3. Archery – Day One is for men’s team archery and I got to watch the Malaysian, Brazilian, & Italian teams shoot. The USA-South Korea final saw the Koreans deliver a masterclass display. Six 10s in Set 1, and the second Korean archer shooting a 10 in each of his six attempts!
  4. Women’s beach volleyball – Anouk Verge Depre (Switzerland) is the find of the Rio 2016 Olympics, but I only got to watch Team IsaAnouk play just the one time. Anouk is such a stylish player and I wished they had shown more live telecasts of her matches! I also watched the Walsh Jennings – Ross (USA) vs Giombini – Menegatti (Italy) match which the Americans won convincingly.
  5. Volleyball – Got to see my Italia girls play after 3 years but they didn’t perform well in the Olympics this time. I believe they got eliminated in the group stages itself. I caught their Serbia & Netherlands matches on TV but they lost both the matches. Martina Guiggi is quite the girl though!
  6. Gymnastics – I saw the ‘Final Five’ (USA’s Simon Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez, & Madison Kocian) compete in the women’s team event which they won it by a mile. But I was more of a fan of the young Brazilian gymnast Flavia Saraiva.
  7. Swimming – I watched Phelps win another gold medal in the men’s 200m individual medley, followed by the dead heat gold medal in the women’s 100, freestyle (in a new Olympic record time!). But from a Malaysian perspective, the one significant piece of news is Joseph Schooling winning Singapore’s first ever Olympics gold medal.

There are also a few non-Olympics highlights to list down here:

  • Ipoh trip – We explored the Gua Tempurung cave, visited the iron ore museum, and went for a dip at the Lata Kinjang waterfalls.
  • Suicide Squad – Fun movie to watch, and Harley Quinn looked f-i-n-e in her shorts. 😉
  • Chemistry Lab & Cafe – This cafe has a chemistry theme to it so I found myself drinking an ice-blended from a conical flask.
  • Pokemon Go – Love it or hate it, it is the current trend in pop culture. The Pokemon ‘walkers’ is an interesting phenomenon and it feels great to be a part of it!

See you in the next blogpost!