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Lionel Messi Contract: PSG Set to Sign Former Barcelona Forward
After months of speculation and rumors, Barcelona revealed on Thursday that their star Argentine forward Lionel Messi would not sign a new contract due to financial and structural issues. Lionel Messi became a free agent on July 1 following his contract with Barca ended on June 30. Messi's agent and FC Barcelona reached a verbal agreement in the midst of July. However, they were unable to sign Messi due to La Liga's economic and constitutional provisions. PSG are now the favourite to sign Messi following this announcement. In this article, we looked at what PSG might offer in Lionel Messi's contract.
Lionel Messi Contract: PSG are Favourite to Sign the Argentine Superstar
Lionel Messi has been a member of FC Barcelona's senior team since 2004. He has had tremendous success at the Catalan-based club. Messi has 35 titles to his name and 672 goals in 778 games for Barcelona. He has many club records, including six Ballon d'Or honors. However, Messi has decided to leave Barcelona after a two-decade stint at the club due to financial limitations.
Read: End of an era: Barcelona says Messi won’t stay with the club
Following the news that Lionel Messi would be leaving Barcelona, all of Europe's major clubs began contacting Messi's agent to acquire his services. According to recent reports, Lionel Messi will sign a new deal with PSG in the coming days. PSG does have the financial resources and can provide Messi with a comfortable setting in the locker room.
PSG have already booked the Eifel Tower for Tuesday (August 10) for a unanimous reason. However, if the rumors are true, PSG have reserved the Eifel Tower for Lionel Messi's unveiling ceremony. The 34-year-old Argentina national team captain is set to sign a two-year contract for £25 million per year after taxes next week, with an option for an additional year.
Read: Ballon d'Or 2021 Predictions: Lionel Messi in Pole Position to Win the Coveted Award
PSG are convinced that they can balance their budgets by selling players and signing Messi without breaching FFP laws, thanks to their Qatari owners. In addition, any Messi agreement would be a big boost for Qatar as it gears up to host the FIFA World Cup 2022.
Verdict
Ligue 1 club PSG are now the overwhelming favourite to sign one of the best footballers in history. Lionel Messi's arrival will undoubtedly increase PSG's global appeal. Any Lionel Messi contract will bring them a lot of money. On the other side, Messi will be surrounded by close friends who can help him adapt to the beautiful city of Paris.
Read Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar: Who Has Acquired Most International Achievements?
After 41 yrs, Hockey-India win bronze in Tokyo Olympics
Indian men's hockey team scripted history in the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, defeating Germany 5-4 to bag a bronze medal at the quadrennial sporting extravaganza after nearly 41 years.
The country's last success at the Olympics came in the 1980 Moscow games in Russia, where the men's hockey team got the gold. In the 1968 Mexico games and the 1972 Munich Games too, India bagged the bronze.
Read: Olympic families find solace, create bonds far from Tokyo
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up the winning men's hockey team members in Tokyo and congratulated them for finally breaking the Olympic medal jinx.
"Many, many congratulations to you and the entire team, you have made history. The entire country is filled with joy. Your hard work has paid off. The entire country is happy," Modi was heard saying in a video posted by Indian Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Twitter.
Soon after the match, the PM tweeted, "Historic! A day that will be etched in the memory of every Indian. Congratulations to our Men’s Hockey Team for bringing home the Bronze. With this feat, they have captured the imagination of the entire nation, especially our youth."
Read: At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound
Indian President Ramnath Kovind also took to Twitter to laud the Indian men's hockey team for its dominating performance and “exceptional skills, resilience & determination".
“Congratulations to our men’s hockey team for winning an Olympic Medal in hockey after 41 years. The team showed exceptional skills, resilience & determination to win. This historic victory will start a new era in hockey...," he wrote.
In fact, in the match, Germany had taken an early lead with Timur Oruz scoring a goal in the the first quarter. India's Simranjeet Singh soon equalled the scores of the two team.
Read:A pandemic Olympics, without all the crowds: What gets lost?
Germany, however, bounced back with two more goals in the second quarter to lead 3-1. However, the third quarter proved lucky for India. And subsequently, Simranjeet scored his second goal of the match to give India an edge over Germany.
“A billion cheers for India! Boys, you’ve done it ! We can’t keep calm ! #TeamIndia! Our Men’s Hockey Team dominated and defined their destiny in the Olympic history books today, yet again! We are extremely proud of you!" the Sports Minister tweeted.
Akbar and Ruman among 12 to receive Sheikh Kamal sports award
The National Sports Council (NSC) will hand over its newly introduced "Sheikh Kamal National Sports Council Award" Thursday.
The ICC Under-19 World Cup Cricket champions Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali has been picked for the annual sports awards in the emerging sportsman category, famed archer Ruman Shana in sportsman category, and Mohammad Quamruzzaman in journalist category.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will grace the award distribution ceremony at Sheikh Kamal Auditorium of NSC Tower Thursday at 11am as the chief guest and will hand over the awards to 10 sportsmen, journalists, organisers and two organisations through a virtual platform.
Each award comes with Tk1 lakh, a crest and a certificate.
State Minister for Youth and Sports M Zahid Ahsan Russell disclosed this at a press conference arranged on the occasion of the 72nd birthday celebration of Sheikh Kamal and Sheikh Kamal NSC awards distribution programme at the NSC conference room today.
Read: NSC to introduce Sheikh Kamal National Sports Council Award this year
Recipients of Sheikh Kamal award
Lifetime achievement: Kazi M Salahuddin
Sportsmen: Ruman Shana (archery), Mahfuza Khatun Shila (swimming) and Mabia Akhter Simanta (weightlifting)
Emerging sportsman: Akbar Ali (cricket), Fahad Rahman (chess), and Unnoti Khatun (football)
Organisers: Monjur Kader (Sheikh Jamal DC) and Kyaw Shwe Hla (karate)
Journalist: Mohammad Quamruzzaman
Organisation: Bangladesh Cricket Board
Patron: Walton.
Olympic families find solace, create bonds far from Tokyo
Christina Dressel began organizing the room long before the NBC cameras started rolling.
The mother of swimming superstar Caeleb Dressel reeled off a makeshift seating chart for the couch, directed everyone who wanted to be on television where to stand and even scoured the posh hotel for life-sized, cardboard cutouts of her son. She found four and lined them up behind the 40-strong Dressel posse.
She then asked if the coffee table was too cluttered with empty wine glasses and water bottles. Nope. After all, it was an accurate portrayal of this party scene.
Read: At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound
The Dressels were among hundreds who accepted an offer to spend part of the Tokyo Olympics at Universal Orlando with other equally disappointed friends and families of American athletes, all banned from traveling to Japan because of the coronavirus pandemic.
They gathered nearly 12,000 miles from Tokyo in a crowded ballroom at a resort with hundreds of strangers – at least at first – and created a red, white and blue-themed blowout that rivaled anything they would have experienced abroad.
It turned out to be a support system like no other.
“These people are great,” said Venus Jewett, whose son Isaiah failed to make the 800-meter final after tangling feet with a fellow runner in a semifinal heat. “They get it. … Being here, it’s not like being over there, but it’s a good consolation prize. You can’t get much better than this.”
Parents, siblings, friends and former teammates crowd into the ballroom at the Lowes Sapphire Falls Resort daily to watch the Summer Games and bond with others in a similar situation, all of them unable to be on hand to root for their loved ones competing for gold.
They spend mornings and nights together, smiling and laughing, eating and drinking, screaming and cheering. They’re usually celebrating and occasionally consoling.
Team Dressel was the main event during the swimming competition, with Christina Dressel and Caeleb’s photogenic wife, Meghan, taking center stage for an entire week.
Universal Orlando and NBC invited The Associated Press inside for a sneak peek on the night Dressel set a world record in the 100-meter butterfly and won his third of five gold medals at the Tokyo Games. Most of his crew wore red Speedo T-shirts with Team Dressel printed on the back.
They posed for pictures on the stage, cramming shoulder to shoulder underneath a Team USA banner, and led “U-S-A, U-S-A” cheers that have become a nightly lead-in to NBC’s television coverage.
Christina Dressel quieted the raucous crowd as soon as her son entered the pool area half a world away, eager to hear everything the commentators had to say about her son.
Dressel’s inner circle — his mom, dad, wife, sister and brother — were directly in front of one of two scoreboard-sized projection screens inside the ballroom. Christina and Meghan stood as soon as the race started. His sister joined them. His dad and brother reluctantly followed.
The roars reached a fever pitch when Dressel made the turn in first place, on pace to break the world record. His mom ducked behind his dad for a few seconds, too nervous to watch. But she quickly emerged and started jumping up and down as it became clear Dressel was about to make history.
Read:A pandemic Olympics, without all the crowds: What gets lost?
Christina and Meghan collapsed onto the couch as Dressel touched the wall first. The celebration was just getting started. Mom eventually hugged everyone around her, including Dressel’s Orlando-based agent who was videotaping the rowdy scene for a documentary on his pandemic-altered path to Olympic glory.
Dressel raced two more times that night, finishing first in one 50-meter freestyle semifinal heat and anchoring the 4x100-meter mixed medley relay team that came home a disappointing fifth. Team Dressel was in full effect for both.
Dressel’s family members rented a house in Orlando and routinely took advantage of the hospitality lounge, which was open for breakfast every morning and for dinner and an open bar at night. The emotional video of them trying to chat with Dressel following his second gold medal went viral, bringing extra attention to the family and the venue.
Universal Orlando, NBC, the U.S. Olympic Committee and two sponsors, including Japanese automaker Toyota, offered each Team USA athlete plane tickets and four days of accommodations to the resort and Universal’s three theme parks for two family members or friends. They had the option to purchase more passes.
The lounge serves as its own entertainment district, a full bar in the middle of the ballroom and televisions and tables in every direction. Toyota put several cars on display, including one that could be taken for a virtual test drive and another with a colorful paint job inspired by Dressel’s tattoos. There are games galore, too; table tennis, cornhole, a giant “four to score” board and an extra large Jenga setup.
But those other Games get way more attention.
Jewett brought her 17-year-old daughter, 82-year-old mother and 79-year-old father to the hotel for several days. A former collegiate sprinter and current fifth-grade teacher in Inglewood, California, Jewett had saved for years in anticipation of traveling to Tokyo with her son.
Even after a yearlong delay and a seemingly endless stretch of uncertainty, she was as devastated as any Olympic parent when Japan decided to ban spectators. She settled for Orlando and ended up making new friends and creating lifelong memories.
She was at the lounge when Katie Plum’s daughter, Kelsey, led the United States to a gold medal in 3-on-3 basketball.
“It’s sad to not be there,” said Katie Plum, who moved from San Diego to Las Vegas to be closer to her WNBA daughter. “But this has made it super fun and I’ve learned a lot. But, of course, I’d like to be in the USA House in Tokyo. I’m just grateful they got to go.”
Plum and her family spent two days at Universal Orlando and proudly offered to show off a voicemail from Jill Biden congratulating them on Kelsey’s gold. How did she miss a call from the first lady?
Read: Olympics Latest: 6 banished for breaking COVID rules
“We were waiting in line at Harry Potter,” she said, laughing and shaking her head.
She didn’t miss out on nearly as much while attending the lounge, getting drawn into rugby, rowing, track and other sports.
“We’ve been on all kinds of (emotional) trains,” she said. “You end up trying to support everyone you meet. And you appreciate when people get invested in your kid and want to watch. So you want to give back and sit over by somebody’s couch. I’ve watched some amazing games, stuff I might otherwise not have gotten to see.”
At an extraordinary Olympics, acts of kindness abound
A surfer jumping in to translate for the rival who’d just beaten him. High-jumping friends agreeing to share a gold medal rather than move to a tiebreaker. Two runners falling in a tangle of legs, then helping each other to the finish line.
In an extraordinary Olympic Games where mental health has been front and center, acts of kindness are everywhere. The world’s most competitive athletes have been captured showing gentleness and warmth to one another — celebrating, pep-talking, wiping away one another’s tears of disappointment.
Kanoa Igarashi of Japan was disappointed when he lost to Brazilian Italo Ferreira in their sport’s Olympic debut.
Not only did he blow his shot at gold on the beach he grew up surfing, he was also being taunted online by racist Brazilian trolls.
Read: A pandemic Olympics, without all the crowds: What gets lost?
The Japanese-American surfer could have stewed in silence, but he instead deployed his knowledge of Portuguese, helping to translate a press conference question for Ferreira on the world stage.
The crowd giggled hearing the cross-rival translation and an official thanked the silver medalist for the assist.
“Yes, thank you, Kanoa,” said a beaming Ferreira, who is learning English.
Days later, at the Olympic Stadium, Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar found themselves in a situation they’d talked about but never experienced — they were tied.
Both high jumpers were perfect until the bar was set to the Olympic-record height of 2.39 meters (7 feet, 10 inches). Each missed three times.
They could have gone to a jump-off, but instead decided to share the gold.
“I know for a fact that for the performance I did, I deserve that gold. He did the same thing, so I know he deserved that gold,” Barshim said. “This is beyond sport. This is the message we deliver to the young generation.”
After they decided, Tamberi slapped Barshim’s hand and jumped into his arms.
“Sharing with a friend is even more beautiful,” Tamberi said. “It was just magical.”
Earlier, on the same track, runners Isaiah Jewett of the U.S. and Nijel Amos of Botswana got tangled and fell during the 800-meter semifinals. Rather than get angry, they helped each other to their feet, put their arms around each other and finished together.
Read: Olympics Latest: 6 banished for breaking COVID rules
Many top athletes come to know each other personally from their time on the road, which can feel long, concentrated, and intense — marked by career moments that may be the best or worst of their lives.
Those feelings have often been amplified at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games, where there is an unmistakable yearning for normalcy and, perhaps, a newfound appreciation for seeing familiar faces.
Restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have meant Olympians can’t mingle the way they normally do.
After a hard-fought, three-set victory in the beach volleyball round-robin final on Saturday at Shiokaze Park, Brazilian Rebecca Cavalcanti playfully poured a bottle of water on American Kelly Claes’ back as she did postgame interviews.
The U.S. team had just defeated Brazil but the winners laughed it off, explaining that they’re friends.
“I’m excited when quarantine’s done so we can sit at the same table and go to dinner with them. But it’s kind of hard in a bubble because we have to be away,” said Sarah Sponcil, Claes’ teammate.
For fellow American Carissa Moore, the pandemic and its accompanying restrictions brought her closer with the other surfers.
The reigning world champion said she typically travels to surfing competitions with her husband and father. But all fans were banned this year, and Moore admitted she struggled without their reassuring presence in the initial days of the Games.
Moore had flown to Japan with the U.S. team 10 days before the first heat, and soon adjusted to living in a home with the other surfers, including Caroline Marks, whom Moore considered the woman to beat.
Moore said she didn’t know Marks well before the Tokyo Games but on the night she was crowned the winner and Marks came in fourth, her rival was the first to greet her.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
“Having the USA Surf team with me, it’s been such a beautiful experience to bond with them,” Moore said. “I feel like I have a whole another family after the last two weeks.”
After the punishing women’s triathlon last week in Tokyo, Norwegian Lotte Miller, who placed 24th, took a moment to give a pep talk to Belgium’s Claire Michel, who was inconsolable and slumped on the ground, sobbing.
Michel had come in last, 15 minutes behind winner Flora Duffy of Bermuda — but at least she finished. Fifty-four athletes started the race but 20 were either lapped or dropped out.
“You’re a (expletive) fighter,” Miller told Michel. “This is Olympic spirit, and you’ve got it 100%.”
Texas-born Italian sprints from unknown to Bolt’s successor
The 100 meters at the Olympics is the event that turns sprinters into kings: Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Usain Bolt.
On one of the most unusual nights the sport has ever seen, fans, experts, and even the racers themselves needed a lineup card.
The race that has long defined Olympic royalty went to a Texas-born Italian who hadn’t cracked 10 seconds until this year. He’s a 26-year-old whose best days before this came in the long jump. He’s a man even the runner in the next lane didn’t really know.
At the Tokyo Olympics, Marcell Jacobs is The World’s Fastest Man.
“I think I need four or five years to realize and understand what’s happening,” Jacobs said.
The Italian crossed the line in 9.8 seconds Sunday night to capture the first 100-meter medal ever for the country better known for its soccer prowess. Pietro Mennea won the 200 at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and Livio Berruti won that race at the 1960 Games in Rome.
Even in a contest with no clear favorites — American Ronnie Baker was a candidate and China’s Su Bingtian ran a shocking 9.83 in the semis — Jacobs came from nowhere.
He topped America’s Fred Kerley, a 400-meter runner who moved down in distance because he saw a medal chance, and Canada’s Andre DeGrasse, who adds another 100-meter bronze to the one he won Rio.
Kerley finished second in 9.84 and DeGrasse was next at 9.89.
“I really don’t know anything about him,” Kerley said of the new gold medalist. “He did a fantastic job.”
Jacobs’ path was made that much clearer because of who wasn’t in the race. The reigning world champion, Christian Coleman, is serving a ban for missed doping tests. The world leader in 2021 and the favorite to win the gold, Trayvon Bromell, didn’t make it out of the semifinals.
Bolt, who has commandeered the Olympic and every other sprint stage since 2008, is retired.
He was a sure thing in all nine Olympic sprints he ran from the Beijing Games — a stretch of dominance that redefined track and field, but also left a gaping hole in the sport when he called it a career.
“He changed athletics forever,” Jacobs said. “I’m the one who won the Olympics after him. That’s unbelievable. But drawing comparisons, I don’t think it’s the time now.”
Bolt’s world record is 9.58.
Before Sunday, Jacobs’ personal best was 9.95.
Read: Olympics Latest: 6 banished for breaking COVID rules
“I mean, 9.8 from the Italian guy?” DeGrasse said. “I didn’t expect that. I thought my main competition would be the Americans.”
Nope. The Italians.
Perhaps the only person at the track who really knew the new champ was the man who hugged him after he crossed the finish line. That was Gianmarco Tamberi, the Italian high jumper who tied Qatari’s Mutaz Essa Barshim for gold.
Tamberi and Barshim ended their evening-long jump-fest in a dead heat — a rare result that appeared headed for a jump-off to decide gold and sliver. But after huddling with an official who told them two gold medals were possible, Barshim -- the two-time world champion who won silver in Rio and bronze in London - agreed to call it a tie for first.
Bedlam ensued.
Barshim ran up to the stands to celebrate. Tamberi covered his face with his hands and rolled on the ground. “I was in ecstasy,” he said. He was clearly a man looking for someone to hug.
He found just the person a few minutes later when Jacobs crossed the line first. Tamberi leaped into the broad-chested sprinter’s arms and curled his own arm around Jacobs’ bald head.
“My heart was exploding,” Tamberi said.
Only a night before, they’d been sitting in Jacobs’ tiny room in the Olympic village playing video games.
“And we said, ’Can you imagine if we win?”” Jacobs said. “(We said) ’No, no, no. It’s impossible. Don’t think this.’”
Not long after the two golds were secure, Italy’s premier, Mario Draghi, stated the obvious — “You’re honoring Italy,” he said — and announced he’d be inviting the athletes to his office, the Chigi Palace, when they return home.
Theirs was one of many beautiful moments on a most unusual Day 3 of the Olympic track meet. Another highlight came from Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas’ toppling of a 26-year-old world record in the triple jump. Her new mark is 51 feet, 5 inches (15.67 meters).
Other vignettes didn’t involve medals.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Luca Kozak tripped on a hurdle and looked over three lanes to see a Jamaican opponent, Yanique Thompson, had suffered the same fate. Kozak helped her back to her feet.
Later, in the men’s 800 semifinals, American Isaiah Jewett got tangled up with Botswana’s Nijel Amos and the two went tumbling to the ground. They helped each other up and jogged slowly together toward the finish line.
“I don’t want any bad blood, because that’s what heroes do -- they show their humanity through who they are and show they’re good people,” Jewett said.
The day’s other gold medal went to Gong Lijao of China, who bested American Raven Saunders of the United States.
Saunders, who is Black and gay, wears an “Incredible Hulk” mask when she competes, closed out the medals ceremony by lifting her arms above her head and forming an “X” with her wrists.
“It’s the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet,” she explained.
All memorable.
And then came the man hardly anybody knew.
Even though the run came in front of a nearly empty stadium, you could practically hear the collective “Who?” echoing across the seats. From all places, that is, except for from the Italian contingent.
A good hour after the victory, some of those reporters and coaches were on the track taking pictures with their country’s new high-jump and sprint heroes. They had Italy’s green, white and red flag draped around their shoulders and were still hugging it out — COVID protocols be damned.
Quite an evening for Jacobs, who was born in El Paso – the son of an American father and an Italian mother. The parents split when Jacobs was 6 months old and he moved to Italy and never got to know his dad.
They reconnected about a year ago by phone, as the sprinter tried to learn about his roots.
Now, the world is learning about him.
“My dream was to arrive here and run a final,” Jacobs said. “And we ran a final. And we won a final. It’s amazing. I have no words to describe this moment.”
A pandemic Olympics, without all the crowds: What gets lost?
Any sporting event is, at its heart, a show. It has the actors on center stage, performing for the rest of us. It has the spectators, sitting in their seats watching raptly. And — in modern times, at least — it has the “home” audience, which in the past half century of growing video viewership has far outpaced the numbers of those actually in attendance.
At their halfway point, the Tokyo Olympics are still grappling with the fact that in that equation, the middle group — those spectators on the scene who cheer, gin up enthusiasm and add texture to the proceedings — couldn’t come. And in the COVID era, a key question presents itself: If an Olympics falls in the forest and nobody there hears it, did it really make a sound?
The Japan organizing committee’s president, Seiko Hashimoto, thinks it will. She said a couple weeks ago that she wasn’t worried that a locked-down, crowdless Olympics — what she calls the “`Tokyo model” — would fundamentally change the experience. “The essence of the Games,” Hashimoto said, “will remain the same.”
They won’t, of course. They already aren’t. And in fairness, how could they, when part of that very essence — the roar of a real, live crowd — has been excised out of (you know the phrase by now) an abundance of caution?
During the 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic, the relationship between the watched and the watchers in audience-based public events has shifted tectonically. Productions that normally happen in front of crowds — crowds that, it’s worth noting, both watch performances and sometimes become an integral part of them — have changed in various ways.
Some entertainment venues turned to presenting performances to people in parked cars, much like drive-in movies; one comedian, Erica Rhodes, filmed a TV special outside the Rose Bowl in California and relied on honking horns for the bulk of her audience response. It added a kinetic, if cacophonous, energy.
On TV, the iconic game show “The Price Is Right,” whose fundamental DNA relies on audience members to “come on down!” and become contestants, shut down for six months and then returned with mostly empty seats and contestants who aren’t surprised to be chosen.
But when it comes to fan interaction, sports, arguably, have been affected the most of all.
Last summer, once big league baseball resumed without fans in the seats, the sport deployed recorded, piped-in crowd noise for the benefit of both athletes and fans watching at home. Most ballparks even created cardboard figures (customizable for a price, of course) to mimic spectator action, a novel if laughable pivot.
It was, though, part of a cultural landscape that has been under construction for a long time.
Sixty years ago, Daniel J. Boorstin, a historian who became the Librarian of Congress, came up with a term: the “pseudo-event.” Among its traits: It is not spontaneous, but planned. It is created primarily for the purpose of being reproduced. And its success is measured in how widely it is reported, and in how many people watch it.
Read: Olympics Latest: 6 banished for breaking COVID rules
Pair that with these astonishing figures: The International Olympic Committee generates almost 75% of its income from the sale of broadcast rights. About 40% of the IOC’s total income is from one source — NBC, the U.S. broadcast rights-holder. And estimates suggest canceling the Tokyo Olympics might have cost the IOC $3 billion to $4 billion.
Those numbers shout one thing. For all of its focus on the athletes and their accomplishments, this event was made to be watched — and, what’s more, made to be watched by people who aren’t here in Tokyo.
“The audience in the venue is no longer the economics. The media is the economics,” says Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.
That was an emerging axiom in the late 20th century, and a more ubiquitous one today. But there’s another question to ask, too: Does the lack of on-site crowds impact the quality of at-home viewing?
On one hand, the vantage points from your recliner are better than anything you could see in person. The best ticket at an Olympic venue couldn’t begin to approximate what an NBC camera sees. “We’re not only in the best seats; we’re in seats that don’t even exist,” Thompson says.
And yet ...
There is a very real purpose to crowds, beyond how they impact athletes and performers who are actually there. Research has shown that at-home audiences watching competition — and other forms of entertainment — react to the feeling that they have proxies who are really in the arena. That, in effect, if we can’t be there, we know there are people like us who are.
“There’s a reason sitcoms have laugh tracks. Seeing and hearing other people enjoy a thing leads us to enjoy that thing,” says Jennifer Talarico, a professor of psychology at Lafayette College who studies how people remember personally experienced events.
Laugh tracks, in use since TV’s early days, were designed to prompt audiences about when to find something funny. But the underlying message is deeper: If we know others are watching and being entertained, it paves the way for our entertainment. That bears out today in the popularity of YouTube videos showing gamers as they game, and in shows like Britain’s “Gogglebox,” in which TV audiences watch ... TV audiences watching TV.
There’s the pathos factor, too. The prevailing American Olympic TV narratives — emotion-saturated backstories about individuals, backed by loved ones, working hard and triumphing — are typically intertwined with crowd shots that include those very supporters watching the achievements happen.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
“That doesn’t carry through when you can’t pan through to Mom in the crowd,” Talarico says. “Mom isn’t there. She’s still in the same place that she was before. I think that makes the crowd aspect of the Olympics even more influential than a major league baseball game.”
There are mitigating factors to Tokyo’s empty seats during these Games. Social media fills in the gaps to some extent; instead of watching a community of watchers, we can now form our own.
But it’s not quite the same, is it? There’s a reason that young boys playing driveway basketball stop after a shot and shout, “He shoots, he scores!” before cupping their hands to their mouth to approximate a crowd’s roar. There’s nothing like it.
And when TV cameras pan various Olympic venues and find emptiness, or even seats painted in seemingly random drab colors to look as if there are people in them, it’s clear that something — that certain something that only a crowd can provide — is glaringly absent.
In the era of screens and of vicarious watching and global live broadcasts, three simple words, “I was there,” still hold power — even if you’re one of the ones who aren’t.
Bangladesh completes Tokyo Olympics mission; Jahir finishes last in 400-m heats
Bangladesh completed their Tokyo Olympics' 2020 mission one week before the meet ends with athlete Jahir Rayhan competing in the country's last event of men's 400-meter run heats at the Olympics Stadium in Tokyo Sunday.
Jahir competed in the event's heats number-3 and finished 8th and last among the eight athletes of USA, Brazil, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Slovenia and Congo to eliminate from the" greatest show on earth.”
Read: Olympics Athletics: Jahir Rayhan to compete in 400 meters on Sunday
Jahir Rayhan, who was very much keen to display his best performance in his favourite 400-meter run in Bangladesh's last event of the Tokyo Olympics, eat his word as he took 48.29 seconds against his best timing of 47.34 seconds.
In the heats number-3, M Cherry of USA finished top with a timing of 44.82 seconds, followed by J Jones of Barbados (45.04 ), C Taylor of Jamaica (45.20 ), D St Hillaire of Triniad and Tobago (45.41), L Janezic of Slovenia (45.44), GA Afoumba of Congo (46.03), L Carvalho of Brazil (46.12) and Jahir Rayhan (48.29).
Read: Olympics Archery: Ruman Shana eliminated from recurve singles
In the event's overall ranking, Jahir was placed 44th among the 48 competitors.
Jahir was the 3rd Bangladeshi athlete to compete in 400-meter run in the Olympics after 29 years after the participation of Mehdi Hasan in the Bercelona Olympics'1992 and Milzer Hossain in the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
Read: Olympics Archery: Diya Siddique eliminated from recurve singles in shoot-off
Earlier on last Friday, five Bangladeshi athletes out of six--archer Ruman Shana, Diya Siddique, shooter Abdullah Hel Baki swimmers Ariful Islam and Junaina Ahmed-- completed their Tokyo Olympics assignments.
Except shooter Baki and athlete Jahir Rayhan, all the Bangladeshi athletes performed their best show in the mega games.
Olympics Latest: 6 banished for breaking COVID rules
The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:
Tokyo Olympics organizers say they have banished six people, including two silver medalists from the country of Georgia, for breaking rules designed to protect against COVID-19 cases.
Toshiro Muto, the games chief executive, says it was a “clear and serious violation” of the so-called playbooks of health and safety rules for two Georgian judokas to go sight-seeing.
Read:Olympic swimming ends with splashy new records, US gold
Vazha Margvelashvili and Lasha Shavdatuashvili were seen near Tokyo Tower on Tuesday, after their events were finished.
Muto says the Georgian embassy in Tokyo has apologized for the incident.
The other four were accredited contractors from Britain and the United States arrested for allegedly using cocaine before the Olympics opened.
Muto says there have been eight cases of games credentials being temporarily suspended.
In four cases, organizers collected a “signed pledge” from people suspected of breaking rules. Ten strict warnings were issued, Muto says.
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MEDAL ALERT
Australia’s Logan Martin capped quite a show in BMX freestyle’s Olympic debut, putting together a sterling first run to win gold at the Tokyo Games.
Britain’s Charlotte Worthington started the high-flying act by winning women’s gold and Martin followed with an equally-impressive performance.
The 27-year-old two-time world champion posted a 93.3 in his first ride and watched as the other eight riders failed to catch him. Martin went for a victory lap after the final rider made his second run, but cut it short after a hard landing on a jump.
Venezuela’s Daniel Dhers secured silver with a 92.05 on his second run and Britain’s Declan Brooks had a second-run 90.8 to take bronze.
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Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic gold medal on floor exercise.
USA Gymnastics says the six-time Olympic medalist has opted not to compete on floor.
She won gold in the event in Rio de Janeiro and placed second in qualifying last week. Jennifer Gadirova of Britain will replace Biles in Monday’s finals.
USA Gymnastics says Biles has not decided whether to participate in Tuesday’s balance beam final.
Biles is dealing with a mental block that in gymnastics is referred to as “the twisties.” She is having trouble figuring out where her body is in relation to the ground when in the air.
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MEDAL ALERT
Gong Lijiao of China has won her first Olympic gold medal in the shot put with a personal best of 20.58 meters.
The reigning two-time world champion produced two efforts over 20 meters on her last two attempts at the Olympic Stadium to cement her victory ahead of Raven Saunders of the United States, who took the silver medal with 19.79.
Veteran Valerie Adams of New Zealand won a bronze medal in her fifth and likely last Olympics. The 36-year-old Adams is a two-time Olympic champion and in Tokyo became the first woman to qualify for five Olympic finals in the shot.
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MEDAL ALERT
American Caeleb Dressel has won his fifth gold medal of the Tokyo Games, finishing off one of the great performances in Olympic history.
Dressel swam the butterfly leg as the Americans set a world record in the 4x100-meter medley relay with a time of 3 minutes, 26.78 seconds. That eclipses the mark of 3:27.28 they set at the 2009 Rome world championships in rubberized suits.
Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew and Zach Apple joined Dressel on the winning team. That ensured the Americans closed out the swimming competition with another gold in a race they’ve never lost at the Olympics.
Earlier in the session, Dressel won the 50 freestyle for his third individual title of the games. He also won two golds on the relays.
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MEDAL ALERT
Emma McKeon has claimed her historic seventh swimming medal at the Tokyo Olympics with Australia’s victory in the women’s 4x100 medley relay.
The 27-year-old from Brisbane becomes the first female swimmer to win seven medals at a single games. The only men to do it are Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi.
Capping a brilliant performance by the entire Aussie women’s team, McKeon followed her victory in the 50-freestyle earlier in the session to take the butterfly leg on the relay. Cate Campbell closed strong on the freestyle, touching in an Olympic record of 3 minutes, 51.60 seconds to edge the two-time defending champion Americans.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Kaylee McKeown and Chelsea Hodges started things off for the winning Australian team.
Abbey Weitzeil touched in 3:51.73 to give the United States a silver. She anchored a team that also included teenagers Regan Smith, Lydia Jacoby and Torri Huske.
The bronze went to Canada in 3:52.60.
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MEDAL ALERT
Britain’s Charlotte Worthington put on a show in BMX freestyle’s Olympic debut, landing the first 360 backflip in women’s competition to knock off American Hannah Roberts at the Tokyo Olympics.
Roberts, a three-time world champion at 19, set the bar in her opening run, landing a backflip with a tailspin for a 96.1.
Worthington crashed on her first run, but pulled out all the stops in her second. The 25-year-old added a front flip to her 360 backflip and closed with another backflip for a 97.5.
Roberts, the top seed, had a chance to top the Brit, but landed hard off an early jump and waved off the rest of her second run.
Switzerland’s Nikita Ducarroz took bronze with an 89.2 in her second run.
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MEDAL ALERT
American Bobby Finke has won gold in the grueling men’s 1,500-meter freestyle race.
The American won his second gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with another strong finishing kick.
Just as he did in winning the 800-meter freestyle, Finke stayed closed throughout the 30-lap race and turned on the speed at the end. He touched in 14 minutes, 39.65 seconds.
Ukraine’s Mykhailo Romanchuk took the silver in 14:40.66, while the bronze went to Germany’s Florian Wellbrock in 14:40.91. Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri faded to fourth in 14:45.01.
The top four were close nearly the entire race, often separated by less than a second at the turns. But that was right where Finke needed to be. After his closing lap in the 800, he knew he had the speed at the end to beat everyone else.
Finke has been perhaps the biggest American surprise at the pool. Relatively unknown before the U.S. trials, he become the first American male to win the 1,500 since Mike O’Brien at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
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MEDAL ALERT
Australia’s Emma McKeon has claimed the gold medal in the women’s 50-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics.
It is the sixth medal of the games for the Aussie star, who has one more chance to make it seven in the 4x100 medley relay.
McKeon completed a sweep of the 50- and 100-meter freestyle with an Olympic-record time of 23.81 seconds. The silver went to Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström in 24.07, while defending Olympic champion Pernille Blume of Denmark settled for bronze this time in 24.21.
American Abbey Weitzeil finished last in the eight-woman field.
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MEDAL ALERT
American Caeleb Dressel has won his fourth swimming gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics with a victory in the 50-meter freestyle.
Dressel cruised to a relatively easy victory in the frenetic dash from one end of the pool to the other, touching in an Olympic record of 21.07 seconds.
France’s Florent Manaudou repeated as the Olympic silver medalist in 21.55, while Brazil’s Bruno Fratus claimed the bronze in 21.57 -- edging out American Michael Andrew for the final spot on the podium.
Dressel has one more shot at a gold in the 4x100 medley relay, an event the United States has never lost at the Olympics. He’ll swim the butterfly leg in a race that caps nine days of swimming competition at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
If Dressel claims a fifth victory, he would join Americans Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, as well as East Germany’s Kristin Otto, as the only swimmers to win as many as five golds at a single Olympics. Phelps did it three times.
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Katie Ledecky is bidding farewell to the Tokyo Games after claiming four medals, two of them gold.
The American swimming star went on Twitter to post her thanks to the people of Tokyo and everyone who gave her “tremendous support this week and over the years!” Even though the stands were largely empty at the Olympic pool because of the coronavirus pandemic, Ledecky says she “could hear you all!”
Ledecky wasn’t quite as successful as at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she swept her three individual events and also won a gold and a silver in the relays.
But she did win gold in her two longest events, the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle, in addition to swimming a brilliant anchor leg that almost pulled out a gold for the United States in the 4x200 free relay.
Along the way, Ledecky became the first female swimmer to win six individual golds in her career, the first woman to win the 800 free at three straight Olympics, and one of just five American female swimmers to earn 10 career medals.
At age 24, Ledecky has no plans to stop swimming.
Read: Tokyo records record virus cases days after Olympics begin
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UPSET ALERT
Americans Sarah Sponcil and Kelly Claes are out of the beach volleyball tournament after a three-set loss to Canada in the knockout round opener.
Heather Bansley and Brandie Wilkerson beat the U.S. 22-24, 21-18, 15-13 at the Shiokaze Park venue. Americans Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena are set to meet Qatar in the afternoon session.
Claes and Sponcil entered the games as the hottest team in the world, winning the last two events of the pandemic-extended qualifying period to grab the second U.S. spot in Tokyo. In the process, they knocked out five-time Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings.
Olympic swimming ends with splashy new records, US gold
American Caeleb Dressel finished off his gold rush at the Tokyo Olympics with two more dazzling races, and Australia’s Emma McKeon won seven medals, more than any other female swimmer in a single games.
Now, when the greatest swimmers are mentioned, there are two new names on the list.
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Taking his place alongside Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, Dressel captured his fourth and fifth gold medals of the pandemic-delayed games on the final day of swimming at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
With victories Sunday in the 50-meter freestyle and 4x100 medley relay, the 24-year-old Floridian joined a truly elite club of swimmers who won at least five gold medals at one games.
Phelps did it three times, of course, highlighted by his record eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Games. There’s also Spitz (seven golds in 1972), East German Kristin Otto (six golds in 1988) and Biondi (five golds, also in ’88).
Dressel starred at the pool with McKeon, who also won two more golds Sunday to push her overall total to seven — four gold and three bronze. She is the first female swimmer to win seven medals at a single games. The only men to do it are Phelps, Spitz and Biondi.
“It still feels very surreal,” the 27-year-old from Brisbane said. “It’s going to take a little bit to sink in. I’m very proud of myself.”
Mirroring Dressel’s final day, McKeon won the 50 free and took the butterfly leg on the Aussies’ winning 4x100 medley relay team on the women’s side.
In the men’s medley — a race the men have never lost at the Olympics —the Americans were trailing two other teams when Dressel dived in for the fly. Just like that, he blew by Britain and Italy with a blistering leg of 49.03 seconds, more than a second faster that anyone else.
Zach Apple made the lead stand up on the freestyle to give the Americans a world record of 3 minutes, 26.78 seconds -- eclipsing the mark of 3:27.28 they set at the 2009 Rome world championships in rubberized suits.
Read: ‘OK not to be OK’: Mental health takes top role at Olympics
Ryan Murphy and Michael Andrew joined Dressel and Apple on the winning team, ensuring the Americans remained unbeaten in the medley relay — the final swimming event at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
In the first event of the morning, Dressel won the 50 free for his third individual title of the games.
Dressel cruised to a relatively easy win in the frenetic dash from one end of the pool to the other, touching first in the 50 free with an Olympic record of 21.07.
When he saw his time and, more important, the “1” beside his name, he splashed the water and flexed his bulging arms.
He also won gold in the 100 free, set a world record in the 100 butterfly and took part in the winning 4x100 free relay.
A few minutes after Dressel climbed from the pool, McKeon completed her own freestyle sweep. She touched in 23.81 to add the 50 title to her victory in the 100.
In the medley relay, McKeon entered truly rarified territory. She is only the second woman in any sport to win seven medals at an Olympics, joining Soviet gymnast Maria Gorokhovskaya, who claimed two golds and five silvers at the 1952 Helsinki Games.
McKeon took the butterfly leg before Cate Campbell anchored the Aussies to a victory over the two-time defending champion Americans.
“I don’t know how she does it. I’m exhausted,” said Kyle Chalmers, one of the McKeon’s teammates. “To win one gold medal or an Olympic medal, it’s very, very special. We’re lucky to have her on the team.”
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In keeping with the theme of the day, Bobby Finke pulled off his own sweep in the two longest freestyle races.
With another strong finishing kick, Finke became the first American man in 37 years to win the 1,500 freestyle. He added to his victory in the 800 free, a new men’s event at these games.