OPINION
Chris Rattue runs through the highs and lows from day five at the Paris Olympics.
WINNER/LOSER: Hayden Wilde
The euphoria will surely fade now and then when the Kiwi reflects on a gripping conclusion to the men’s Olympic triathlon in Paris.
Olympics 2024: Winners and Losers of day five in Paris – Chris Rattue
Hayden Wilde flashes his silver medal on the podium of the men's triathlon at the Paris Olympics. Photo / Photosport
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The magnificent Wilde seemed to have the race won after storming away on the run from fellow favourite and great mate Alex Yee.
Brit Yee’s late surge for gold beggared belief, leaving Wilde with silver to go with his Tokyo bronze.
Silver is New Zealand’s least popular Olympic medal. We’ve won a lot fewer of them than gold and bronze. Maybe that is a good thing.
Various studies have shown that bronze medallists are often happier than those who win silver.
Primal survival-of-the-species forces are at work in this reaction. Researchers have concluded that our tendency to compare is the problem.
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The obvious alternative for those coming second was a victory (and particularly so in Wilde’s case, since he appeared to have gold in the bag).
Bronze medallists, meanwhile, feel they beat the rest of the field to a podium place.
One of those studies even used AI to analyse facial expressions on the podium.
At times, Wilde looked happier than Yee and bronze medal winner Leo Bergere from France. There was barely a hint of disappointment in his post-race interview.
WINNERS: The French crowds
Fantastic.
WINNER (kind of): Kevin Durant
NBA superstar Durant could be heard calling on his star-studded USA basketball team to seek domination as they crushed South Sudan, who had nearly beaten them in a warm-up game.
Early this year, Durant said he wanted the Americans to win their Olympic matches by 40 or 50 points.
In the end, South Sudan put up a very respectable performance, losing 103-86.
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Quality basketball is growing around the world and international stars are major NBA factors.
Ironically, Durant is now saying public expectations around Team USA are too high.
LOSER: Our football... be careful what you wish for
The All Whites have the closest thing to a free pass into the World Cup finals.
But the Olympics have confirmed just how far off the pace the Kiwi men and women are in the world game.
The mainly junior Oly Whites were embarrassed by France and the USA. Completely outclassed. It didn’t give confidence about the future.
Stuck as they are in the hopelessly weak Oceania zone, New Zealand would also go into the World Cup finals without the benefit of a world-class qualification campaign behind them.
Getting meaningful friendlies of sufficient quality to prepare for the World Cup is an impossible business.
It could be a disaster.
Which leads to...
WINNER: Katie Bowen
Thank goodness for the veteran Football Ferns midfielder.
The 30-year-old Bowen, who plays in Italy, wasn’t sucked in by the leading post-match “aren’t you proud” type questions.
Bowen called it straight.
She said the Ferns’ campaign was “massively disappointing” and “not good enough”.
On the face of it, the women did okay with narrow losses to the cheating Canadians, the 2021 Olympic champions, and mighty France.
But two outstanding goals were rare highlights, as the Ferns were badly outplayed in their three group games.
WINNER: The Pommel Horse Guy... gymnastics... these new interest groups
The Olympics has its quirky hero. Stephen Nedoroscik’s expertise on the pommel horse helped lift the USA gymnasts to a team bronze medal.
If you haven’t heard that the bespectacled Nedoroscik – who takes his glasses off when competing at these Games – is a Rubik’s cube expert, then where have you been?
Obsessed with this guy on the US men's gymnastics team who's only job is pommel horse, so he just sits there until he's activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps deliver the team its first medal in 16 years. pic.twitter.com/0D1ZqJjFa1
— Megan 📚 (@MegWritesBooks) July 29, 2024
He is an inspirational story. Due to a genetic eye condition, the pommel horse specialist uses feel rather than sight to complete his routines.
Asked whether his son would be enjoying the sudden adulation, his dad said: “I’m sure he loves it.”
His mother, wearing large sunglasses, explained that their particular family condition means the gymnast’s pupils stay dilated, and their eyes are very light-sensitive.
That he competes to this level seems almost impossible.
Gymnastics has often produced amazing Olympic stories, although – sadly – not all of them have been good.
Nedoroscik says he is also representing “people who wear glasses”.
Strangely, women do not compete in the pommel horse. But the event is suddenly in the spotlight because of Nedoroscik. Maybe it will lead to it being added to the women’s routine.
