Archive for Paris 2024 Olympics
swimming the Seine (after the Aare, the Cher and the Willamette)
Posted in Running, Travel with tags Aare, Bern, Chenonceaux, Cher, Kumano Kodō, morning run, Notre-Dame-de-Paris, open water swimming, Oregon, outdoor swimming, Parc des Écrins, Paris, Paris 2024 Olympics, Paris 2024 Paralympics, pollution, Portland, rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, Seine, sewage, Ville de Paris, water pollution, Willamette, women's Olympic triathlon on July 29, 2025 by xi'an
an upside down year [cover]
Posted in Books with tags 2024, cover, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, French politics, Léon Marchand, Libé, Middle East, Monique Pélicot, New Year's Eve, Paris 2024 Olympics, political crisis, rape, sexual violence, Solidarity with Ukraine, Syrian civil war, UNiTE to End Violence against Women on December 30, 2024 by xi'an
feminicide of a marathoner [Rebecca Cheptegei, 1991-2024]
Posted in pictures, Running with tags domestic violence, feminicide, Kenya, marathon, Paris 2024 Olympics, Rebecca Cheptegei, road running, Uganda, World record on September 9, 2024 by xi'an
a journal of the Pacific and Northwest tƿēnight
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags 10k, Africa, Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, bagels, bakery, Barnes & Noble, book review, boulangerie, bread making, COVID-19, farmers' market, First Nations, frijoles, glacier, huckleberry, Journal of the Plague Year, JSM 2024, Miguel de Cervantes, Mount Baker, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Mount Hood, Netflix, Oregon, Pacific North West, Paris 2024 Olympics, Portland, ramen, Russian invasion, rye bread, Seattle, sequel, skillet, smoked salmon, spelt, Thai cuisine, Ukraine, USA, wheat, William Marx, William McIlvanney, wynn rune on September 7, 2024 by xi'an
Read both the first (1605) and the second (1615) books of Don Quixote along with the (William) Marx commentary (Un été avec Don Quichotte) over the PNW vacations, a delight in discovering how modern it is! Even modern enough to write a follow-up (II) and to initiate the meme that sequels are not as good as the original, although the parts where Don Quixote and Sancho Panza debate of their own characters in tome I are hilarious and the prologue of tome II made me discover a certain Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda had written a (poor) sequel of his own, published in 1614. As well as the detective novel The Heretic by Liam McIlvanney, set in Glasgow in 1975, which I enjoyed a lot (except for the lazy, easy, hurried ending), presumably due in part of the references to places near the U of G that sounded so familiar. The political aspects are more stringent than in the earlier book. (And those of his uncle.) And Gab’s Road to Freedom, of course! Also came back from a Sunday aft at Barnes & Noble, in NE Seattle, with a pile of books that threatened to overflow my luggage allowance!
Made frijoles negros over a rainy day in Mount Hood Village. As it takes a while to soften the black beans and then further simmer them to turn them into a yummy paste, this was the perfect opportunity! And I made enough to recook the dish several days in a row, improving each time! I also learned there how to cook with an iron skillet (found in the first airbnb cabin we rented), after rescuing (overcleaning?) the skillet from its greasy state and starting the fire alarm a few times (only frightening the nearby bear, I presume). Mount Hood Village where I bought some outanding smoked salmon from a local First Nations fisherman, with a long discussion on running (as I was wearing my Huckleberry 10k tee-shirt) As I had not time at all for cooking while at JSM in Portland, I gave into the opportunity to get great lunches at Hat Hei Belmont (advertising Thai levels of spicy that remained rather mild) and Kiboshi (red) Ramen (that fuelled a great training session the next morning). While near Mount Baker (with no true bakery on the radar!, as many “bakeries” I came across neither bake nor sell bread…), I baked our daily (whole wheat if not rye) bread with a spelt substitute I had brought from France and on the same bake made a first attempt at whole wheat plain bagels, which ended up eatable if on the hard side. (Blame the oven!)
And watched no Netflix or any other video during the entire PNW trip, mostly due to early sleep – early run schedules, followed by long hikes on most days, and on top of frequently checking the Olympics events in the (PNW) mornings. And of course due to meeting with (no enough) friends during JSM! (Leaving Paris during the Olympics was presumably a wise move in this respect as I would have otherwise spent most of my days there watching events!)
Paralympiques au Grand Palais
Posted in pictures, Running, Travel with tags air conditioning, bronze, Champs-Elysées, Communist Party of China, gold medal, Grand Palais, gwenn ha du, K44, obscurantism, Paris, Paris 2024 Olympics, Paris 2024 Paralympics, Péru, PRC, refugees, Refugees Team, repêchage, Rio 2016, Seine, taekwondo, Taipei, Taiwan, taliban, theocracy, Tokyo 2021 Olympics, Zakia Khudadadi on September 1, 2024 by xi'an
While we did not try to attend any of the Paris 2024 Olympics events, primarily for being in the Pacific Northwest during the Olympics (in not in Olympic National Park!), being back in Paris and tickets being widely available and looking forward attending an event in the Grand Palais, we found tickets for the taekwondo K44 finals, in the light(er than me) categories. With no prior exposure to taekwondo.
The location was fabulous, indeed, with a full stadium built inside and surprisingly good views from the back seats. (And too much air conditioning!) The rounds were also most interesting, with a wide range of fighting styles, if not always exciting as some ended up with very few points and a lot of referees’ paste&cuts of glued opponents. As in fencing, it was also difficult to understand why some punches scored and others did not. Two games ended up with the judges’ ruling, one rather clearly picking the dominant fighter (but with the looser refusing to shake hands with the winner!), and the other much less so. The only remaining French athlete was badly injured and got eliminated in the first round.
Another great moment was the bronze medal of Zakia Khudadadi, part of the Refugee Paralympics Team, who is an Afghan athlete evacuated to France when the Taliban took power in 2021. She had already competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, a week after her escape from Hell. (Her coach seen carrying her on the picture is Rio 2016 silver medallist Haby Niare from France.) She joins female boxer Cindy Ngamba who won the first-ever medal for the Olympic Refugee Team a few weeks earlier.
The medal ceremony was somewhat low key (esp. from the back seats) but I discovered there taekwondo rules produce two bronze medals, one coming from repêchages. And heard the Peruvian anthem for the first time, thanks to the victory of (Tokyo gold medallist) Leonor Angelica Espinoza Carranza. All in all, this was a great afternoon at the Paralympics, with an unexpectedly efficient organisation, no queues!, cheerful volunteers all over and rather laid-back police officers (in large numbers).
