Wasn’t that just the best yesterday!?!? After the first round I was genuinely worried that our Canadian show jumpers wouldn’t win gold or silver, and consequently wouldn’t get a Rio team spot. Ah, me of little faith. Of course they pulled through. And I was able to enjoy it all from the comfort of my aging office chair via CBC live streaming. The individual final starts tomorrow at 11 am EDT (so 8 am my time, perfect breakfast entertainment), and if the live streaming works as sweetly as it did in the team competition, you’d be crazy to miss it.
So here is how I’m feeling regarding the broadcast coverage. I’m reminded of times when I’ve been on hold with my cell phone provider for eternity and a day. I’m mad as hell, sitting there and stewing to the awful muzak Bell has decided should be the soundtrack for my infernal wait. Then, someone answers! Hurray! I’m so grateful to be finally taken care of (that’s of course assuming my problem is actually solved), that my mood flips like a light switch from anger to ecstasy. That’s a bit how I’m feeling with the CBC, now that they are doing such a kick ass job with live streaming the show jumping. But don’t despair, disgruntled dressage and eventing fans. I’ve saved up my CBC bile in a special jar and I will be getting myself worked up to do a proper investigation (now I’m being told it’s PASO’s fault, so PASO you have been served notice). Just not until the show jumping is over.
I’d like to quickly share my impressions of each of our team members’ performances yesterday.
Yann and Showgirl – what pathfinders these two have become! Talk about reliable. This is two major Games in a row (Normandy being the other time) that saw this pair go first for Canada, and post Canada’s best individual results after the team final. If the scores were carried forward to tomorrow’s final (more on that in a bit), Yann and Showgirl would be starting in second place! Canada thanks you, Flying Frenchman, for your outstanding service.
Tiffany and Triple X – they must get the most improved prize from the first to second round yesterday. I can only imagine the demons that Tiffany had to put to bed when she entered the second round, having had that mishap at the hockey stick fence that led to Triple X saying ‘hey, no way can I jump that from here’ in the first. They rocked the second round, and I would venture to say Tiffany was probably the happiest athlete of the day after that clear second round.
Eric and Coco Bongo – my hat is off to Eric, because the canter, while still the most lateral I’ve ever seen, is looking a lot more rideable. We all know that canter is a difficult gait to improve, so it’s a credit to Eric that he’s threaded that needle. Once he’s at the jump, the stallion is transformed from awkward teenager to world class athlete, and I was completely taken by surprise at the rail he took at the purple oxer near the end in the first round. I normally get very nervous when Eric competes, not because I think he can’t do it, but because I can’t help feeling very emotionally invested in his success. That first round yesterday looked so good that I was shocked out of a completely relaxed state when that rail came down. I suspect Eric was shocked too…of course no such thing happened in the second round. Coco Bongo is definitely on his way to stardom now.
Ian and Dixson – I’m not sure what happened with the early rail in the second round – in the end, Canada didn’t need Ian’s second round result anyway. It’s lucky that Argentina’s last rider had a time fault, otherwise there would have been a jump off for gold. I have no issue with Captain Canada, and I do not want to take anything away from his stardom in the sport. It’s not his fault he’s a house hold name according to the mainstream media. However, I must take great exception to the repeated use of his his name and his name alone with every outlet from the CBC to the Globe and Mail in the gold medal coverage.
Dear G&M headline makers: Ian, whose name you misspelled in your headline, did not ‘lead Canada to gold’ yesterday. As I posted in my comment to you after seeing your egregious, misleading story:
‘Clearly you didn’t bother consulting the actual individual results. Yann Candele and Showgirl are ranked second at the end of today’s competition, which makes them the true leaders for Canada. Eric Lamaze and Coco Bongo are in a five way tie for fourth. Ian Millar is in a three way tie for 15th and Tiffany Foster 18th. Get your facts straight instead of trying to grab eyes with false headlines.’
Just one final comment on Pan Am showjumping for today. I am not a fan of the new format. First, what used to be the speed round on day one, is now a boring nothing of a round that counts only for the order of go for teams. Given that 30 out of 50 horses went clear, and five out of ten teams went into yesterday with no faults after day one, I’d say that first round was as close to pointless as it’s possible to get.
My other beef is with the fact that tomorrow’s individual final will be a blank slate stand-alone. There is just enough luck in showjumping that this format will potentially see the luckiest, rather than most talented or skilled, horse and rider rewarded with a gold medal. Counting all the qualifiers – the format that has been used forever and a day at all major Games – ensured that luck’s influence on the outcome was minimized, and consistently strong performances were rewarded. I’d love to know what the riders think of this format. If this is for the spectators’ benefit (as in the 100 m men’s sprint not counting the qualifying heats’ results), I believe that the pros and cons were not sufficiently considered by whoever made the decision.
Oh, and one more thing, speaking of spectators. The stands were not nearly as half full yesterday as they were for that boring schmoring first round on Tuesday. What up with that? Was it the ticket price that kept people from attending yesterday? Oh, wait. I forgot. All the show jumping was sold out. TO2015 has made history by redefining the term ‘sold out’. Instead of meaning ‘not a seat to be had’ it will now mean this: ‘we sold as many tickets as we could be bothered to sell’.
Daddy Bloomberg in da house for Georgina’s team performance
(Rumour has it Michael Bloomberg spent part of the team competition sitting in the media tribune, in the very same seat I occupied last week – I guess our VIP drill sergeant had either been told to leave Mr. Bloomberg alone or had been stationed elsewhere)
