This is the Morning Win. This is our last take on the Tokyo Olympics. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Charles Curtis is filling in for Andy Nesbitt today.
The Tokyo Olympics are coming to a close this weekend, with the closing ceremony just days away.
So let’s look back for a moment. What will we remember from the past two weeks of competition, with its usual set of awe-inspiring moments?
While there are still memories left to be made (U.S. men’s basketball will play for gold Friday night!), I’ll give you a few things that I’ll remember from this set of Games, in no particular order.
1. Simone Biles, of course, who made the right decision for her mental and physical health by pulling out of nearly all the gymnastics competitions before returning to incredibly win bronze in the balance beam.
This quote will stick with me from a TODAY show appearance: “We’re human too, and we have real emotions, and sometimes they don’t realize that we have things going on behind the scenes that affect us whenever we go out and compete.”
2. Caeleb Dressel winning five golds. What a performance. But he pulled back the curtain to remind us that competing at this level is really tough: “It’s not the most enjoyable process but it is worth it. Every part of it is worth it. Just cause it’s bad doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.”
3. Ahmed Hafnaoui’s reaction to winning 400m free gold.
4. Families and friends celebrating from afar. See: Suni Lee’s gold-winning moment and Dressel’s tearful moment.
5. Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad’s unreal 400m hurdles race.
6. Mopsi the dressage horse that stole the show.
7. Sifan Hassan falling down in a 1500m heat but winning it anyway.
8. An amazing block by Nic Batum that could eventually lead to a France basketball gold.
9. A pair of perfect 10s for China diver Quan Hongchan.
10. Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi deciding to share gold in the high jump.
11. Little funny things: the basketball-playing robot. Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown accidentally cursing on TV. The baseball bullpen cart that’s a baseball throne.
I’m missing so many more. But that’s quite a collection to start with, isn’t it?
Quick hits: Lionel Messi is out from Barcelona … a perfect punt … and more.
— Huge soccer news: Barcelona isn’t re-signing Messi.
— The Hall of Fame game between the Steelers and Cowboys featured an amazing punt and fans went wild.
— MLB fans had mixed feelings about the Field of Dreams game uniforms.