Sunday: Hili dialogue

August 4, 2024 • 5:04 am

by Matthew Cobb

Meanwhile, in Dobrzyn, Hili is reassuring:

Hili: Why did you get up so early?
A: The readers are waiting.
Hili: Tell them that they may sleep a bit longer.

In Polish:
Hili: Po co tak wcześnie wstałeś?
Ja: Czytelnicy czekają.
Hili: Powiedz im, że mogą jeszcze pospać.

 

You may have noticed that there are some games taking place in Paris at the moment. Here are a couple of images from the men’s road cycle race – after over five hours riding around the countryside to the south-west of the French capital they did a gruelling series of circuits through the city, including in Montmartre. The winner – by over a minute – was the extraordinary young Belgian ride, Remco Evenepoel, who came third in this year’s Tour de France (his first attempt) and won gold in the men’s cycling time trial last week. He surivived a puncture about 1.5 kilometres from the finishing line.

 


This video, by sports journalist Arthur Tirat on Twitter, shows German cyclist Nils Politt going for a leak in the Caf´´des 2 Moulins in Montmartre, much to the delight of the crowd (Politt didn’t stand a chance of getting a medal).

So, are you watching the Olympics? Are you cheering on teams/competitors from your nation, and if so, why?

20 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Olympics whenever a chance arises, depending on what everyone else is doing. Of course highlights appear on eXtwitter, but there’s nothing like taking them in so the mood of the setting sinks in.

    As for countries – I can say for anyone whose country of origin appears up on the screen, certain smiles develop, and that’s a good thing. Otherwise, it reminds me of a fascinating world, with so much to explore – also a good thing.

  2. Thanks Matthew. Wonderful photo of crowds and buildings lining an uphill cobblestone way. Is this in Montmartre? In any case a great shot. Amazing that riders who just completed the Tour are competing this!

  3. My dad told me years ago that his family came from Austria. But reading about my uncle online a few years ago I found out we came from Western Ukraine. But that’s not why I was cheering on the Ukrainian Women’s saber team when they won gold. It was just a great shot in the arm for a country that has been through so much, now and the past 100+ years.

  4. We settle down and watch the games each evening. As always, I get a bit tired of the over-concentration on a few kinds of sports – gymnastics and swimming. Of course I can see much more on various streaming channels.
    I really enjoyed the Brazilian women in gymnastics, and am quite glad for how well they have done.

  5. I’m watching the Olympics on and off. It seems to be running all day on BBC1 TV here in the UK. There are spectacles galore along with events to amaze you, like the men’s 50 metre freestyle swim where all six contestants finished within half a second to separate them.

    1. Drone warfare is now front and center in wars. We see for example how it helps to even out the playing field of infantry versus missile batteries and tanks. A weaker country can stun a much stronger country when it comes to self-defense.

  7. I (accidentally) caught a whiff on NBC. Peyton Manning and a U.S. shot putter interacting. What is the purpose of Peyton Manning here? Is he the Oracle of Delphi here because a sphere (as opposed to an oblate spheroid )is being hurled through the air? How much is he getting paid? Is the shot putter making a penny? Will he also analyze with Simone Biles video of her performances, or those of ping-pong players? And do I understand that Snoop Dog is also involved? To what blessed purpose? Apparently, it is what the U.S. public wants. Can I, physically located in the U.S., watch BBC or French coverage? Perhaps I can get around to finding out. Where have you gone Jim McKay, Keith Jackson, et al and ABC (American Broadcasting Co.) of 50-plus years ago?

    2. I can understand Peyton Manning. A long-term commentator for Sports-Ball, and a recognized and respected voice on American sports television who is no doubt under contract to be around. But Snoop Dog?? He is there for comic relief. I think that got started in a previous Olympics where he was a commenter (for some reason) on that weird sport where humans make a horse dance, and during that he was quite hilarious. It was a small snippet of entertainment that went somewhat viral over a sport that no one paid attention to. So now of course he gets to do his thang over the Entire Olympics. Over-kill.

      1. Among the U.S. decision-makers it is no longer about athletics as sport, but sport as business…and entertainment business at that.

      2. Snoop Dog has been described as the Ambassador of Happiness. I have to say I despair at all the bagging about the games and not enough of “let the games begin” good luck to all participants!.
        The boxing of women in the head by a unrepentant bloke (IMO) whom I don’t blame for being there but question his motives. Boxing is not like athletics if that needs to be pointed out.

        1. Funny, but this story has not blown up as far as I can see. It isn’t a happy story no matter how you tell it, and so perhaps there is reluctance to elevate it bc people want the games to be happy and inspiring.

          1. The one happy and inspiring thing to come out of the boxing affair is that sex really is not at all complicated.

            People with a Y chromosome are men because of the genes carried on the Y chromosome. If they show evidence of masculinization either at birth or during puberty it means they have testes and are sensitive to testosterone which had to have been made in those testes. Regardless of what they thought about themselves growing up they should be DQ’d to compete against women. (And btw they will have a body plan organized to produce spermatozoa and not ova. This isn’t important for sport but it is important to show the biologic definition of sex doesn’t contradict the athletic definition.)

            People found to have a Y chromosome who have not begun to masculinize by adolescence are rare exceptions and can apply for special adjudication under the DSD rules to determine eligibility.

            The corollary is that no person who presents herself as female but has male levels of testosterone can have an XX chromosome endowment unless she is doping. There is no such thing as a woman who has “naturally” high levels of T in the male range. Such people are men.

      3. Of topic somewhat.
        There is a huge iceberg (A23a) twice the size of greater London caught up in a whirlpool. Spinning on the spot just north of Antarctica for the last few months.

  8. I generally watch a portion of the games, but I only have access to American and Canadian coverage. Unfortunately those sources (especially NBC) tend to engage in myopic “homerism”, a degree of which is understandable and likely universal, but here, as always, it turns into wretched excess. And the constant searching of the crowds to show us shots of the celebrities in attendance, not merely the ones they’ve planted (Snoop Dogg)? It’s stifling.

    Perhaps worst of all is the present trend towards truly distasteful emotional vampirism. The endless shots of families cheering/weeping/celebrating. And I mean, attaching a heart monitor to a competitor’s family member while they watch the event, so that viewers can gauge their precise anxiety level? This is appalling. The people who orchestrate all this really do not have any concept of when less is more.

    Still, there are some fun moments watching the whole absurd circus, so I do my best to ignore the noise and focus on what interests me.

  9. Remco Evenepoel is the first man to win both the TT and the road race in the same olympics and also won a TT stage (#7) and best young rider in the Tour de France (TDF). He rode the olympic TT only 6 days after finishing the 3 week long TDF.

    I love the olympics, but hate NBC coverage (see Steven E. above) Do commentators get paid by the word?

    Hoping that Dujardin is a glaring exception, I love the equine events (3-day eventing, jumping and dressage). I wish they had equine vaulting in the olympics as well (think of it as a lower level beam or ice dancing routine atop a cantering horse). Horses are beautiful animals and certainly should be in the competition for man’s best friend.

    While much has been made of the debut of ‘breaking’, I prefer the debuting Kayak Cross, a scrum in kayaks on whitewater.

    Men are allowed in artistic (or synchronized) swimming this year for the first time, 2 per team. I don’t know if any are actually competing.

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