#23 Tings Newsletter 9
Olympics, olympics, olympics
It’s been awhile since I last posted here. 😁
Quick life update: I’ve joined Brevan Howard Digital to do liquid crypto investments. I’ll still be attending a few conferences and meeting crypto folks, and will be layering on a more systematic / data-driven and macro lens to crypto investing. Whether you’re a trader, investor, or working on a token project, feel free to reach out!
I took a short break between jobs to enjoy the Olympics. This year’s Olympic games felt very different as you could follow the journeys of multiple Olympians leading right up to the Olympics..
Allie Ostrander (US 3000m Steeplechase) qualifying for the Olympic Trials two months prior, but unfortunately finishing 7th at the trials. Not often do we get to see the pov of someone who didn’t make it.. (She gained ~70K subs though!)
Noah Lyles’ (US 100m, 200m sprinter) both on SPRINT (on Netflix) which covers the sprinters (gives me absolute chills watching it!) and he makes great vids on Youtube. You really need that almost absurd level of confidence to excel at this sport, and really enjoy the showmanship
Tara Davis-Woodhall’s (US long jumper) vlogs.. from the day she won the US Olympic trials to the day she won gold at the Olympics. The emotions that an athlete experiences when working hard for something for years and finally achieving it is insane. Her husband Hunter is also a 3x Paralympics medalist.
Then there’s Ilona Maher (US rugby), Tom Daley (British diver), and Devin Booker’s (US basketball) reels and vids giving an inside-look of the Olympic village, many with 10-20M views!
What a time to be alive.. loving how the vlogs give a realistic glimpse into the lives of Olympians.
I made a weekend trip to Paris to catch the badminton finals. And boy was it worth every penny. The Malaysians had one of the craziest comebacks in the history of the sport — losing the first game 17-21 and down 16-20 on the second game, one point away from losing their spot on the podium.
They proceeded to win 6 straight points, taking the second game 22-20, and then winning a tight third game 21-19. The entire arena went wild. For a small nation like Malaysia, a bronze medal means a lot.
Malaysia also won bronze in the Men’s Singles, making it the nation with the most Olympic medals without a gold (15).
Some of the other highlights / things I found interesting:
Every Olympic host can add and remove 5 events. Paris chose breaking (or breakdancing), sports climbing, surfing, and skateboarding. These replaced karate, softball and baseball introduced in Tokyo 2020. LA 2028 is adding baseball, cricket, lacrosse, flag football (?) and squash. (Breaking is removed!)
Obviously you can’t mention breaking without the viral RayGun. But what I wanted to highlight was the misinformation going around that the Australian Breaking Association was founded by her husband who manipulated the selection process. It was all fake news!
Noah Lyles winning the 100m by 0.005s, then getting covid and winning the bronze in the 200m (he has never lost a single 200m race since Tokyo in 2021), getting wheeled out in a wheelchair and back in the club a few days later.
Quan Hongchan’s perfect dive with absolutely zero splash. She’s only 17 and won 2 golds in Paris. Also won 1 gold in Tokyo when she was 14. Wild. She also has a younger brother who makes absolute zero splash too.
I realised how rage-baiting the Threads app is. Given it’s owned by Facebook I’m not surprised. It was full of Americans questioning why [insert non-American sport] are in the Olympics, when those sports are played by hundreds of millions of people in the east! Also bad takes all around. (I have uninstalled it again)
The Chinese swim team including Pan Zhanle who broke the world record in the 100M Freestyle sparked controversy. Being on both western and eastern social media provides a very interesting perspective. On Twitter and in the Senate, Michael Phelps and the western world are highly skeptical of WADA “turning a blind eye” on Chinese doping. Yet, on Xiaohongshu (Chinese instagram), the posts have the tone of “oh yes, whenever China wins it’s doping but when the US wins it’s clean”, and “the Chinese swimmers were tested twice as much prior in the Olympics”. Whichever side you are on, I’d highly recommend reading the backstory around the Chinese doping scandal during Tokyo 2020.
USA Basketball almost losing to Serbia in the Semis, down 17 points, but the King decided that he didn’t want to lose. Then in the finals, Steph Curry nailing every single three and putting France to sleep in the final minutes of the Finals. It was brutal..
Also shout out to the French Women’s basketball who were down by 3 in the literal final second of the Finals, accidentally stepped on the 3-point line while sinking a buzzer-beating three, losing 66-67, one point away from a potential Gold.
Sifan Hassan winning gold in the Women’s Marathon on Sunday after winning bronze in the 5K on Monday and bronze in 10K on Friday. All on the same week. Everyone who’s run an all-out 5K or 10K can tell you how draining it is to your body… and to only rest for <48h between the 10K and 42K? Madness.
The two marathon legends 39-year-old Eliud Kipchoge (DNF) and 42-year-old Bekele (39th) in the Men’s Marathon. This is the end of an era!
Carolina Marin bawling her eyes out during the Women’s Singles semi-finals as she ruptured a ligament on her right knee, knowing it’s probably a career-ending injury at this point. It was really hard to watch. She’s previously won Gold in Rio 2016, and missed the Tokyo Olympics due to an ACL injury.
Of course there were way too many highlights this year… Vivian Kong (HK fencer) comes back from a 6-point deficit to win Gold, Djokovic finally winning an Olympic gold, Andy Murray never really liked tennis anyway, 41-year-old Cuban wrestler who’s won 5 straight Olympic medals (since 2008 Beijing Olympics!), the viral Korean and Turkish shooters, Italian woman boxer describes Algerian boxer’s punch being “the hardest punch she’s ever felt”, giving up after 47 seconds vs Imane Khelif who has previously failed “unspecified gender eligibility test” by the International Boxing Association, Remco Evenepoel shouting for a bike just 3.5km away from the finish line after riding 273km + the legendary finishing photo, Simone Biles’ usual 3 Gold 1 Silver brilliance, Leon Marchand’s 4 Gold 1 Bronze dominance in swimming, Tebogo winning Botswana’s first Gold in the Men’s 200m, Julien Alfred (Women’s 100m) with St Lucia’s first Gold, Duplantis (pole vault) shattering yet another world record, GBR’s Amos Yee comeback for Gold in the Triathlon, and the many medalists who have a freaking day job.. GBR’s Georgia Bell (bronze in 1500m) who works at a Cybersecurity firm and Olivia Coffey (US rower) who works in private equity.
And I have to share my fav vid of the Paris Olympics:
As with every Tings newsletter, I need to include something about my running journey to hold myself accountable.. In mid July, I hit my 10K goal of sub-55, improving my PB by 5mins at the Saucony London 10K. The vibes were immaculate and the PB now stands at 53:02.
I’m currently working towards a sub-50, which seems almost impossible at my current fitness level ngl. The next 10K race will likely be late Sep/early Oct, so wish me luck! Slowly working my way up the half and full marathon.
This is the first edition with no crypto, but there will be more crypto coming soon!