Like many, I have been thoroughly enjoying the Olympics on TV, even though I have already heard most of the results by the time I watch the Games in the evening.
There have been countless dramatic storylines, and just when one ends, another one picks up. It has been great to see Simone Biles come back in gymnastics after her mental health-related disappointments of the Tokyo games.
And I certainly felt sorry for Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu, who appeared to have the bronze medal in the floor exercises sealed up Monday before an inquiry led to a recalculated score for American Jordan Chiles, and she received the medal.
And as a former track runner, I am always most interested in track and field, even though swimming is also neat and just a wetter version of human racing. American Noah Lyles had an exciting 100-meter win to match his showboating style that I personally wish was a little more modest and less demonstrative, but we all must be who we are.
And how about American sprinter Gabby Thomas, whose life off the track has been as inspiring to me, as she attended Harvard and moonlights doing medically related work!
And for simple relaxation, I enjoy watching the equestrian events, rhythmic gymnastics, and artistic swimming.
And I think Snoop Dogg deserves a gold medal for adding some fun flavor to the Olympics for NBC.
The Olympics in Paris also got me thinking about what it was like when the games were hosted there exactly 100 years ago this summer. I went and looked up some information about it, and the main stadium was in the Colombes part of Paris in a facility hosting the field hockey Olympic events this year.
The 1924 Olympics also had such events as rope climbing as part of gymnastics and team cross country running relays in track. Many now-familiar personal storylines were also part of those games. Paavo Nurmi of Finland – the Flying Finn -- won five gold medals, including two long-distance races just an hour apart from each other. Also, American Johnny Weissmuller won three swimming gold medals on his way to starring as Tarzan, and Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell of Great Britain won two of the track sprint events.
Mr. Liddell was unable to compete in the 100 meters due to the race falling on his sabbath day of Sunday before getting his successful chance in the 400, and their stories were depicted in the popular 1981 movie, “Chariots of Fire.”
And if you thought Jesse Owens was the first black American to win an individual track and field gold medal in 1936 in Berlin, think again. That honor belonged to Michigan Wolverine athlete DeHart Hubbard, who finished first in the long jump in 1924.
Thinking about the past and present Olympics always makes me wish I somehow had achieved a little more in sports than I did, even though I had some enjoyment and occasionally got my name in the sports pages, usually in the small print or agate section. Since I was good at several sports-related events but not great at any of them, I always thought I might have enjoyed the decathlon. But then I always remember how scared I would be trying to do the pole vault!
I for some reason during the Olympics also always wonder what it would have been like to be a track and field coach, one vocation I thought I might like to do if I did not follow primarily a journalism career.
I did resurrect my sports participation of the past on Saturday by trying to run in the 4.7-mile Missionary Ridge Road Race up and down parts of South Crest Road. I was once more of a sprinter than a long-distance runner and humbly realized I don’t have much athletic skill level of any kind left at age 64 and about 200 pounds, despite being inspired from the Olympics.
I have enjoyed running in that race for the past several years due to the nice views of historic houses and the valley below, and the greetings I get from the residents who cheer us on, including those who ring the bells at the halfway turnaround point. This time many encouragers had their dogs, and I have deduced labradoodles or maybe some kind of poodle-like dog is the official dog of Missionary Ridge. Another uplifting sight was a grandmother sitting by the curb with her cute grandchildren, who might have been twins.
Despite all this inspiration, I was continually passed throughout the race and am not sure how many people I beat who were not primarily walking. I decided I am going to fire my coach – me. So, maybe I wouldn’t have been as good a track coach as I thought.
Actually, my only goal was to finish the race, and I did complete it in just under one hour, and with a torn shoestring! So, for that, I am very thankful to the good man upstairs.
I did learn from someone that more females than males entered the race for maybe the first time, so how about that! Oops, that means I lost to a lot of girls!
And speaking of races and coaching and women being in charge, it has been announced that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic ticket. He was also a geography and social studies teacher, a high school football state championship coach, was in the National Guard, and enjoys pheasant hunting.
He could have also been Superman, but chances are the Republicans would still blast some of his stands on issues in the past, just as Democrats have been doing since J.D. Vance was picked as Republican Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate. Such is politics.
While those two are just getting started on a new race, among those who saw their races be completed in some form were Patsy Hazlewood and Moses Freeman. After 10 years as a state representative from Signal Mountain, Republican Ms. Hazlewood lost her primary race to newcomer Michele Reneau, whom district voters must have seen as more conservative. Congratulations to Ms. Reneau!
I have not talked to Ms. Hazlewood since she was in office, but way back about 30 or more years ago, I talked to her once or twice on the phone when she was with the old local office of South Central Bell, BellSouth, or whatever the phone company was called. I was doing some kind of story for the old Chattanooga Free Press, and I think it was more historically or feature-related than the latest business news. It might have even been about how the covers of phone books are selected. (Remember when paper phone books were a very important resource!)
She had this sweet, friendly, and easily approachable demeanor, at least when I talked with her on the phone, and you would never know she was a pioneering woman business manager in Chattanooga who headed up a very visible employer of probably numerous people at the time. I am not sure how many other women in a non-family business or not self-employed had achieved that much on their own in the business world in Chattanooga pre-1990.
So, at least her long service in business and public service maybe deserves to be saluted as I also congratulate Ms. Reneau and wish both her and her Democratic opponent, Kathy Lennon, well this Nov. 5 in the general election race for the District 27 seat.
And the race of life has ended for former City Councilman Moses Freeman, who died over the weekend. He spent decades working as a leader in large part for black and minority issues. His career culminated with his service on the City Council from 2013-17.
I had a chance to interview Mr. Freeman over the phone in 2019 when I was doing a series on the 50thanniversary of the racially related protests at Brainerd High centered around Confederate symbols that were then part of the school.
I remember having a delightful conversation with him as we talked about the racial issues of that time. It was certainly interesting to me hearing his perspective on his work with Central High, when it was having its own issues of racial conflict, as well as his candid thoughts without prompting of white people fleeing parts of Brainerd beginning in the 1970s after the issues at Brainerd High.
I learned a lot from the conversation and was glad I was able to document some of his memories. And I was flattered he sent me a nice email after the story ran.
He wanted to make Chattanooga whole, just as the Olympic Games try to let people see that the world can be made whole, too, for a brief time with inspiring stories of noble efforts that reflect positively on the human race.
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net