Paris Olympics: Vol. IV
Day 1 of wrestling is in the books
It’s now 1:30a 3:00a. I’m back at my hotel processing some more photos before I head to sleep.
It took me a little over an hour to get back to from the venue tonight. The trains and buses mostly stop running around midnight, and the wrestling ended after 10pm. So by the time I got back to the media room, processed some photos, packed up and left, my options for getting back were dwindling. Google Maps directed me to a bus via the Metro that was supposed to leave at 11:56 and take me almost to the front door of the hotel, but the station said it wasn’t leaving until 12:35 instead. So I had to grab a taxi and get back to work some more and then sleep. Hopefully I can figure out a reliable path back tomorrow.
There were just so many great things that happened today. I’m going to post some more images here and do captions later, again. Too many to get to otherwise. Some notes, though:
The crowd was VERY loud for their very own, Koumba Larroque. A multiple-time age group world champion and senior level medalist, she brought immense support from the home audience. It as awesome. She won her first match, then lost to defending Olympic silver medalist Blessing Oborududu from Nigeria in her second match. Oborududu then fell to Meerim Zhumanazarova in the semifinals, which ended Larroque’s Olympic Games.
I’m way more amped up for this than I expected to be. I had naively thought that it was going to feel like a world championship: definitely an exciting event, and lots of fun, but I’ve covered eight of them at this point, and I’m not surprised by the way things run or the energy I feel about them anymore. Well, now that we’re started, I can say with certainty that this is not anywhere near the vibe of a regular worlds. The crowds are bigger and more engaged. Being so close to that mat makes a huge difference in the angle of the photos (everyone looks tall and imposing when aiming up from below). The athletes seem to have an elevated sense of urgency. There’s just more excitement and anticipation of everything that happens that doesn’t occur as frequently at a normal world championships.
Mijaín López is a special, special wrestler. He’s 41 years old and going for his 5th Olympic Gold Medal. Only a handful of athletes have ever won the same event in 4 Games. None have ever done five. Well, Mijaín made it to the finals and aims to make history tomorrow night. He’s wrestling fellow Cuban, but who competes for Chile, Yasmani Acosta. The two are good friends. I see them working out together all over the world at various tournaments. In fact, here’s a photo of them from yesterday (and consequently, yesterday’s post):
Should make for a fun final at 130kg.
Ok, that’s what I’ve got for notes. Here are photos:
