This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Rio de Janeiro – This has been a weird day for me. For the first day since Aug. 6, no current Jazz players or University of Utah alumni were playing basketball. I could have covered the women's basketball semifinals anyway, but instead I decided to give myself one look at Usain Bolt on the track. So I'm perched right above the finish line, about 40 feet from the row of television cameras. The race is still three hours away, but the decathlon is being contested and it should be a memorable night. And then it's back to basketball Friday, with the USA meeting Spain at 12:30 p.m. MDT and the Australians with Joe Ingles and Andrew Bogut facing Serbia at 4 p.m. MDT. Basketball is on the calendar again Sunday, because we know the Aussies will be playing for a bronze medal, at worst. Saturday, though? Another opening. How about the men's soccer final, Brazil vs. Germany? That could be quite the experience at Maracana Stadium. Here's my basketball tally, with three or four games to go: Counting three overlapping games, I've seen France and the USA play six games each, Brazil five and Australia four in the men's tournament and I caught Canada three times and Australia once in the women's tournament. If I'm adding and subtracting properly, that's 22 games in 12 days. No wonder I miss the gym. – Kurt Kragthorpe