This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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 – On what I consider the traditional Olympic calendar – in the era before the snowboarders and soccer players got ahead of the Games – this is the first of 16 days of competition. And from a Utah perspective, the 2016 Games begin with a big basketball game. France and Australia will tip off at 11:15 a.m. Utah time. Hoping to cover as much basketball as possible in Rio, I spent much of a July week agonizing about France's games in an Olympic qualifying tournament. That's the week when the Jazz acquired French captain Boris Diaw from San Antonio, and I knew Rudy Gobert had promised to go to Rio if his team got here. Sure enough, France qualified by beating Canada in the championship game, and then the team drew Australia in the opening game of preliminary play. The further bonus is having former University of Utah center Andrew Bogut return from a knee injury to join Jazz guard Joe Ingles with the Boomers. Mix in ex-Ute forward Kim Tillie of France, and players with Utah ties account for five of the 24 roster spots in this game. That's practically Winter Games territory for Utah. Kurt Kragthorpe