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Imagine this. You spent your whole life training for one event: the Olympic games. Now, it’s bad enough that when it’s your time to go, the games are being held in a mosquito-diseased, crime-ridden, sewage watered city, but what if, after all of your work and your journey to the last place on earth anyone wants to go right now, your journey didn’t go so well? Well, unfortunately for these five people, that’s pretty much how it turned out.
Venus Williams
Life’s got to be a bit difficult when your younger sister dominates the sport that you also play. But Venus Williams is no slouch in the world of tennis, and most people expected her to do relatively well in her singles matches in Rio. But the four-time gold medal winner (Singles in 2000, and Doubles in 2000, 2008, and 2012) won’t be going for another gold – or any medals.
On Saturday, 6th ranked Williams lost her opening singles match to 62nd ranked Belgian Kirsten Flipkens. The match lasted three hours, with Flipkens eventually emerging victorious 4-6, 6-3, 7-6.
To add insult to injury, Venus was ousted from the Olympics entirely on the next day, after being defeated in doubles play with her sister by a pair from the Czech Republic Sunday evening, ending their defense of their Olympic title in the opening round. Little sister Serena did win her opening singles match, so she will continue on while Venus heads home. Ouch [via CNN]
Annemiek van Vleuten
It looked like she had it won: Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten was all alone in the lead with 11 miles remaining in the women’s road race at the Summer Olympics when she crashed going around a bend, ultimately losing the race to her countrywoman Anna van der Breggen.
According to SBNation:
Shortly before van Vleuten’s crash, condensation started to appear on NBC’s camera lenses, and television commentators worried that competitors were riding hard into curves. She was traveling at something near 50 mph, and the crash was clearly horrific from the second it happened.
The Dutch cycling federation posted a tweet after the end of the race, saying that van Vleuten was conscious and on her way to the hospital. At least that’s what SBNation reports it says and I have to believe them, since the tweet is in Dutch.
But seriously – hopefully she’s doing ok. [via SBNation]
The Chinese Men’s National Basketball Team
Anyone who’s unlucky enough to face Team USA in men’s basketball is likely in for a brutal beatdown. The first ones to experience the wrath of Kevin Durant (who scored 25 points in 22 minutes of play) and company was the Chinese National Team, and it wasn’t pretty.
Team USA dominated the Chinese, with a score of 119-62 at the finish. Adding to the crushing display of supremacy was DeMarcus Cousins, who added 17 points and five rebounds, and Paul George, with 15 points and three rebounds in 18 minutes of play.
Also probably having a bad weekend? Venezuela, who will face Team USA on Monday evening. The anticipation must be killing them…literally. [via Bleacher Report]
Samir Ait Said
If there was an award for “worst weekend of ‘em all,” French men’s gymnast would win…although I doubt that award would make up for his Olympic medal hopes being dashed. First, Ait Said broke his leg trying to land a vault. Seriously, don’t watch this unless you’re willing to be a little grossed out.
And then paramedics actually dropped the stretcher Ait Said was strapped to as they loaded him into an ambulance, which of course, someone caught on film.
Ait Said underwent surgery on Saturday and said that he is already aiming to return to the Summer Games in 2020. Hopefully the EMT service is better in Tokyo. [via TMZ]
Anyone Who Doesn’t Follow Leslie Jones on Twitter
Sure, you’re watching the games on TV, listening to the expert commentary of Rowdy Gaines, Marv Albert, Al Trautwig and Ryan Seacrest (???), but if you aren’t following Jones, one of the stars of Ghostbusters and a regular on SNL, on Twitter, you are missing out on the good stuff.
Jones’ enthusiastic tweeting of the events all weekend did not escape the attention of NBC. The network’s Olympics executive producer, Jim Bell, tweeted at the star inviting her down to Brazil:
Jones, of course, replied to take Bell up on his offer. And if she’s not there co-hosting with Bob Costas ASAP, I’m going to be mighty disappointed. [via People] .
Image via YouTube
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Jenna Crowley
Jenna used to be known as 2NOTBrokeGirls, but then one of the girls actually went broke, so she's struck out on her own. Jenna spends her free time saving the world, one sorority girl at a time (usually while wearing yoga pants), questioning why she decided to get a doctorate, documenting her love of all things cheese related, and hosting the new PGP podcast Don't Take It From Us. You can ask her anything you want about football, using your boobs to get what you want, and pizza at @JennaLCrowley on Twitter or via email at JennaLCrowley@gmail.com.
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I mean if NBC just wants to add people who yell at everything they should call Aziz Ansari up too.
I would call off work for the next two weeks to watch every second of Aziz covering the Olympics.
I see Leslie Jones seems to have gotten over the emotional break down that comes with being in one of the worst movies in history.
You better not say anything mean about her or you’ll get kicked off Twitter.
#FreeMilo
Can we add a sixth category here for anyone watching the Olympics on the West Coast? Because NBC is showing the big events on a four hour tape delay…meaning there’s literally no way not to find out their results before the broadcast because it’s 2016 and there exists this thing called “The Internet.” Fuck you, NBC.
Dammit, I just landed in Cali for the week and was looking forward to watching in the afternoons
You can. The sporting events on the other NBC channels (USA, CNBC, etc.) are shown live. The problem is they’re sports that the majority of people don’t care about. The big ones (gymnastics, swimming, etc.) are the ones that are shown on tape delay.
They make more money because more people can watch the big ones. I imagine people would be pissed if some big event was being broadcast at 11:30AM on a Tuesday.
Yeah but those events are on in prime time in Brazil itself. If they start at 8 pm local, that would be 4 pm west coast. Inconvenient, sure, but it’s not like the US sports that start around that time (5 PM starts for MNF, playoff games for MLB, NHL and NBA) are also shown on tape delay. This is purely a money grab by NBC.
Leslie Jones sucks. Right up there with Horatio Sanz for worst SNL cast member of all time.
Brooks Wheelan and Victoria Jackson would like a word.
Delta and its worldwide passengers are having a pretty terrible Monday.
People are still on twitter?