Quote:
Originally Posted by kwoldtimer
We're at #9, which is good for us. As usual, quite a few 4th, 5th, and 6th place finishes. USA seems to be off to a relatively slow start. Australia is a powerhouse, especially in the pool.
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Yeah, but their medias rank nations by total medal numbers, so they're #1 anyway.
Not that I complain since that makes us #2.
Australia is good at swimming but not at much else. They'll probably go down the ranking next week. The one nation that is pretty high at this stage is Great Britain. They normally shouldn't be this high since their strong points are more obscure sports like rowing and Olympic cycling, where they have invested a lot because they grant LOTS of medals, and these take place in the last week, so normally they rank low until the last week, then suddenly jump in the top 5. For them to be so high already, I wonder whether they're not going to finish #2 overall.
I'm still a bit pessimistic for France, since after this Sunday we shouldn't win many more medals, as we haven't invested in the sports that take place after Sunday, but most French media seem rather optimistic, so who knows...
Anyway, the past few days have been days of euphoria, and what you guys cannot exactly fathom is how suddenly all Parisian métro lines work with high frequency (in the peak of summer, normally notorious for low frequency, lines closed, etc), punctuality, lots of available seats. Plus the safest streets I've seen in ages due to the MASSIVE police presence everywhere, all African migrants, beggars, vagrants suddenly gone, the Tuileries arcades suddenly looking entirely clean and free of homeless people like they were 15 years ago. A transformed city!! The flame rising in sky every day at nightfall in the Tuileries Gardens is also spectacular. It's also nice to walk in a city with lots of beautiful young men and women, athletes, etc, in the streets.
The wild exuberance of French fans is also nice to see. Since yesterday I see lots of families in the streets who have come from all over France, wearing "France" jersey shirts, having the French flag painted on their cheeks, etc. I somehow expected much more foreign visitors than French visitors, but the French fans are actually much more numerous than I would have imagined. The ambiance around the sports venues (which are partly in the city center) is pretty wild. It makes me laugh because most Parisians have decamped, imagining this would be a horrible time, but it's actually the best days I've seen in Paris in a long time, and free of the usual crowd and pressure. Lots of Americans (much more than usual), and last night a young Canadian couple asked me (in French! although it seemed to me they were from Anglophone Canada) at 1am if the Métro station was still opened (I thought about you guys). Lots of Brazilians too, Latin Americans.