Stumble, fall -- from IOC to...OUCH!

Mis-step, tough start - Bached, Botched:  I already covered the issues related to 'false starts', a runner, swimmer, etc. dashing out ahead of the competition prematurely, before the starter fires the gun, sounds the horn, which results, as you have no doubt witnessed if you watched any of the Olympic Trials, in the sounding of another alarm, which brings the field back to start ("do not pass go..."). Another athletic phenomenon we/you have experienced if you are an avid sports fan, is an experienced athlete stumbling and falling...over their own two feet! Sometimes this is immediately followed by the injured looking around as if looking for a gremlin that might have stuck out a foot, whereas others they simply get up and shrug, walk it off, and finally others search for a rock or another such object under which to crawl. I witnessed such displays during these past U.S. trials, especially on the track, where a hurdler tripped over ("what a wipeout!" from the commentator) an obstruction referred to as a hurdle, deliberately and carefully positioned, an obstacle she had measured out by specific steps a thousand times before...bummer! Perhaps more compelling was a sprinter (100 meter dash) who simply got tangled up in his own feet, tripped and ("wiped out!") about ten meters in...just when he was picking up momentum...quietly walked it off without much animation, challenging me to speculate on his mindset...bummer. Many, many other examples in sports history, including a hockey player 'tripping over the blue line' (embedded in the ice, not on top). In walks IOC president Thomas Bach, not a rookie or amateur, a proficient fencer in his own right as well as one who can spar well in the court room (German lawyer), one who is otherwise seasoned in speech giving, in an apparent attempt to assuage the tension between the host country (most citizens of which still want the Games cancelled, as they continue their state of emergency) and the IOC, committed a diplomatic gaffe heard around the world...the first instant replay of these Olympics...the five rings symbolizing the Games encircling him...

Slip and Fall, Freudian Style: We've all had out share -- so have all former U.S. presidents (the current certainly no exception, as we were treated to many while he was in the White House prior and since finding his way back to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.) -- verbal gaffes, unintentional remarks from which you attempt to recover in one way or another, as many different ways as those athletes who have stumbled but in this case, instead of their own feet it's more a case of 'foot in mouth'. Or, as Sigmund Freud asked, was it really unintentional? Studied vigorously through many sessions of listening, trying to catch those lying on the couch, speaking their mind freely, he'd catch them making "an unintentional error which came to be regarded as revealing subconscious feelings". Or, as in the case of a literal package of "Freudian Slips" that sit on my desk..."When you say one thing but mean your mother"😉. Not sure what was on Mr. Bach's mind when he made the remark "...and most importantly, also for the Chinese...Japanese people..." but it was not difficult even for a novice mind reader, a non-psychologist in the audience, to see him searching for his own rock to hide under...

The Thrill of Victory and ...Anyone born before 1990 will remember the opening of the "Wide World of Sports" every weekend, which included "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!" Both experiences of which were accompanied by visuals, the latter of which showed an unfortunate fellow tumbling off a ski jump, which he survived, only to be humiliated every weekend through 1998, when the series came to an end -- he was probably the only one who cheered. In our current case, Mr. Bach's gaffe, which certainly struck a sour note with the Japanese people (more than likely many Chinese as well), a note that  Johann and others sharing the name, would find disharmonious indeed and then seek to distance themselves...This is highly unlikely to be the last mis-step of these Olympics, whether literal or diplomatically made, but one hopes Mr. Bach studies his history, geography, and takes a quick course in cultural sensitivity or else when he visits Hiroshima tomorrow--perhaps instead of a mask he'll be muzzled, as many of those aligned with both the IOC and Japanese citizenry hope ("IOC chief to visit Hiroshima despite calls for cancellation").  Otherwise, he's apt to 'add insult to injury', in search of a rock, as the whole world watches in "agony..."

       As always, an Olympics within an Olympics, but even before most of the athletes have arrived...WOW !