Books Matter discussion

I need this! I love the Olympics so much! So far, we have watched a lot of swimming, but our family watches a lot of the track and running things as well. Of course, we will watch pretty much whatever comes on but swimming so far has been my fav.

I have been keeping close tabs on Caleb Dressel, Katie Ledecky, Bobby Finke, and Lilly King. Australia really frustrates me sometimes because they have such an amazing swimming team. Titmus has to be one of the best swimmers I have ever seen. Of course, Ledecky can and has beaten her in the longer distance things, but I love watching those two compete.

Also, they have equestrian competitions?! I found out this year that they have horse shows in the Olympics. It is like the only competition that isn't divided by gender though, so that's a plus.

And my heart is in literal pieces because of Simone Biles. I totally support her for stepping out when she needed to, though. This has to be hard for her to go through, so why hate on her? Sure, she left at a bad time, but the whole time she is cheering on her teammates. I am praying that she gets better soon and can get back out there for the individual events.

Lmao the Australian team is so good! I’m australian so it’s been great to watch the swimming

I am LOVING the Olympics!! I've watched swimming, beach volleyball, gymnastics, track, pole vault, hammer throw, rowing, and canoe slalom. My favorite athletes are probably Simone Biles and Anna Cockrell (if you don't know her story, you should look it up because it's really inspiring). Something really eye opening happened for me with what's happening with Simone. She was talking about how she was withdrawing because of twisties, which is a sort of mental block where your body and mind aren't working together right. The thing is, I had this mental block, too, with high jump and I thought I was the only one who had that mental block, so I quit the sport because I didn't know how to fix it. Hearing Simone's story is helping me get so much clarity on what happened to me and it's helping me learn to accept a rough patch of my life when that happened, so that's been really cool.

Yes, I totally understand why Simone had to step out. If she continued to perform, her scores wouldn't be good, so that would hurt her team, but what really matters is that she could hurt herself, and that is not what Team USA needs.

Did any one see the mixed relay yesterday?

P . V . Sindhu got bronze!!!

AHHHHHH THANK YOU JILLIAN!!!! I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!! My favs to watch are gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and soccer. I am in pieces as well after what happened with Simone Biles. My heart goes out to her.

I think Dressel is absolutely amazing, as well as Ledecky, Titmus (HAHA HER COACH WHEN SHE WON GOLD), Jacoby, King, McKeon, and more.

I’m pretty upset the USWNT isn’t playing very well, but they are advancing, so props to them.

I feel the same way.
Did anyone watch the running?
I felt so sorry for Dina.

Yesterday I saw trampoline gymnastics!! It was crazy. I didn’t even know it existed

Same!
I knew it existed though. It was CRAZY!

Has anyone watched the handball? It’s so weird. What even is it?

I didn't even know trampoline was a thing until yesterday! I am pretty sure it is tied to gymnastics. Given, I don't know a ton about this but I am guessing they are judged on the difficulty of the flips and stunts that they do, but also how high their vertical is and if they stay in the middle.

Emary wrote: "AHHHHHH THANK YOU JILLIAN!!!! I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!! My favs to watch are gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and soccer. I am in pieces as well after what happened with Simone Biles. My heart ..."

Okay, can we just take a minute to talk about Titmus' coach when she won? Like, I can't even, that was so freaking and amazingly hilarious. But I am so glad that he was that happy for her!

HAHA

And, I know I have three posts in a row here, but how hard must water polo be? Swimming and treading water for a solid ten or so minutes while you try to catch a slippery ball with one hand AND while the opposing team is literally attempting to drown you! And the goal keepers have the power, speed, and stamina to tread water the whole time and then when their moment comes, they just jump out of the water and deflect the ball. They have nothing to push up against to give them that jump either! It's an eight foot pool, so they can't touch the bottom!

I remember watching and thinking to myself: "If I were fit enough to do that and someone tried to drown me, I would either yank her swim suit down or give her a wedgie." I quickly realized that they pretty much already have a wedgie and their suits are so skin tight that I could not physically pull it off.

OMG I KNOW. I was asking my dad, “How deep is the water? They’re not treading water that whole time, are they?”

They are! Even when they are in the penalty box, they have nothing to stand on! They do sub the players out often but they still have to be extremely fit to play water polo.

I watched the Olympics 24/7 and now I’m doing the same with the Paralympics. It’s addictive

I KNOWWW

Kind of late to be adding, but currently watching the Paralympics, and I was invested in Summer McIntosh last month. Also at the olympics 18 of Canada's medals were won by women while the men only won 6.

You’re from Canada?? Well congrats on the Women’s Soccer Team!! That’s amazing. You guys have really good defense.

Wow that’s amazing! Women are superior