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Published: August 14th 2016
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While Day 8 here in Rio has come to an end, Day 9 will be starting VERY soon for us. We just got back from Men's Basketball and the local time is 2:25am. We have tickets to the final round of Men's Golf tomorrow morning and the first tee time is 7:00am. That means we need to head to the subway for about 5:00am, or if you're counting, in less that 3 hours! Unlike last week though, the Rio organizers have ensure the subways system has stayed open late and is opening up early. Transit was supposed to shut down at 1:00am tonight, but even as we exited the station tonight, they showed no sign of closing any time soon. One of the things we've been most appreciative of has been the organizers ability to, when faced with challenges, adapt and find solutions to ensure everyone here at the Games is having the best possible experience.
Today was a great reminder why you always play the game or run the race. Stats will tell you lots, special season outlooks in places like Sports Illustrated and of course the sports reports through every medium you can imagine, but you still have
to play the game or run the race! We've been hoping for and cheering for an upset the entire Games thus far. Of course, we don't want this to happen to our Canadians, but anyone else we seem to be okay with. We had two Men's Basketball games today. It is the final games of pool play and for the most part the quarter finals are shaping up. The tournaments has 12 teams, divided into two groups of 6 teams. The top 4 teams from each group will advance to a quarter final games. Our first game was a total blow out. Spain almost doubled Lithuania and despite cheering as hard as we could for Raptors favourite Jonas Valanciunas, they lost by over 50 points. It wasn't much of a game to watch and yet the stands were 100% full. Fast-forward to our second game and it featured Croatia vs. Nigeria. Coming into the night, Nigeria had lost all of its previous preliminary games, Croatia was in 3rd place in their group and had a record of 3 wins and 1 loss. If you were in Vegas tonight, you likely would've put your money on Croatia and sadly many people
with tickets to the sold out game tonight stayed home. We upgraded our seats (i.e. we moved down from the nose bleeds to 7 rows up, dead centre court) and watched quite the game! We're sure people enjoyed the double OT earlier in the day with Argentina (undefeated) sneaking out a win over Brazil (who hasn't won a game)...but the upset never happened. Our second game was back and forth all night. The Nigerians stuck to their game plan (an outside game, with lots of threes -- only 18 points from the paint) and they poured their hearts into every second of the game. They were incredible rebounders with 22 'second chance points'. They also used their whole team with 33 points from the bench vs. Croatia's 19. Croatia played panicked and frustrated and it caught up with them. The Brazilian fans cheered (along with us) passionately for Nigeria every step of the way and they did it...they pulled away and ended up winning 90-76 for likely their first and only win in this Olympic tournament. We were on a total high leaving the Olympic Park tonight. Just another reminder that anything can happen at the Olympic Games!
Leaving
the Park tonight, we passed by the Aquatic Stadium and fittingly heard the American anthem playing one last time with Michael Phelps on top of an Olympic podium. We're not sure if there will ever be another athlete as decorated as Michael at any Olympics in the future, but if there is, we want to be there! Half way out of the Park tonight we wanted to snap a quick picture of one of the most awesome sights at the Olympics. Somewhere, at each Games, the flag of each and every nation competing is flying. It isn't always in the Park, but in Rio it is. The flag poles wind for what appears to be miles, it truly is a remarkable sight and showcases how much the Games brings people together. Speaking of the people, some of these fans in Rio are just ridiculous -- in the best ways possible. They are sports fanatics and aren't afraid to show off (or draw attention to themselves in unique ways). We took a picture tonight on the way out of the Park to easily illustrate what we're talking about!
We are officially half way there -- 8 Olympic days over and
8 more to go. Kudos to our amazing female athletes again today. Two more Canadian medals, all won by Canadian women. Another really cool fact is that this is the first time in Canadian Olympic history that Canada in a summer or winter Games has won a medal on each and every day of the Games thus far. That's right, we've won at least one medal each and every day! Here's hoping Day 9 is just like the rest...
More pictures below.
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Kim
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:)
Bet they will remember that game for a very long time. Must of been all the cheering that helped with the win.:) Watch out for all the wild life on the golf coarse:) xo