I don’t know what’s going on in the world of modern pentathlon. Apparently they’re going American Ninja Warrior style to replace horse riding? Although that seems to be tabled until after the 2024 Olympics. So, this will be the final time you see horses in this event. I’m surprised to see that this isn’t a uniquely European sport – there are people from Asia and Africa high up in the world rankings.
One of the most picturesque sports at the Olympics, yet one of the most dangerous. I’m always worried the divers are going to hit their heads. It scares me just watching – I can’t imagine what it feels like on that 10-meter platform. I remember Fu Mingxia completely dominating in diving when I was in grade school and into high school; China has always been very good at this event.
I know very little about canoeing, especially the sprint version. The slalom, I know a bit about, because it was able to be played in the London 2012 video game (one of the best sports video games ever, by the way). It requires a great amount of balance by the canoeists. I’m looking up all sort of PDF and Excel files trying to find rankings for these events.
A new sport to the Olympics circa 2021, sport climbing is a unique sport in that the boulder and lead category is very confusing in my opinion. I don’t know how the scoring works. But for this Olympics, they’re combining the bouldering and lead climbing. Maybe I’ll learn the sport while watching Paris.
Tommy A. Phillips 