The XXXIII Summer Olympiad started today. The soccer and rugby sevens events started today. The opening ceremony is not until later in the week. I will be doing another more in depth post on what happened in soccer today. I have been waiting for this day since 2021 when the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics came to an end. There is just so much going on that I am so excited for. In today’s Olympic news, the International Olympic Committee announced future locations for the Olympics. Milan–Cortina in Italy was already given the rights to host the 2026 Winter Olympics. Los Angeles, California, United States was already given the rights to host the 2028 Summer Olympics. The locations for the 2030 Winter Olympics and 2034 Winter Olympics were announced. The 2030 Winter Olympics will be in France. The 2032 Summer Olympics will be in Brisbane Australia which was already announced. The 2034 Winter Olympics will be in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. I think these are all solid picks for the Olympics. I with Reno/Tahoe could host the Olympics but until we put ourselves on the map as being able to host large scale professional sporting events, I do not think it will happen.
In the mens event Morocco beat Argentina 1-2. Due to incidents surrounding the rivalry between Argentina and France, French fans threw objects at the Argentina players as they walked out onto the pitch. Late in the match, Argentina tied the game. Fans then invaded the pitch. More trash was thrown at the Argentina players. They were able to calm things and down and finish the final minutes. FIFA had suspended the match at some point when fans invaded the pitch. The on field officials were not aware of this. Then the tying goal was called offsides. two hours later after the confusion was cleared up and the stadium empty they finished the final minutes of the match. absolutely nuts.
Uzbekistan lost 1-2 to Spain in a mens Group C match. Spain scored with Uzbekistan tying during stoppage time in the first half. Spain scored in the second half to win.
New Zealand beat Guinea 2-1 in a men’s Group A match. New Zealand had a 1-0 lead after the first half. Guinea tied the game in the 72′ minute. New Zealand scored the game winning goal in the 76′ minute.
Egypt and the Dominican Republic ended their men’s Group C match in a 0-0 draw. Neither team scored.
Iraq beat Ukraine 2-1 in a men’s Group B game. Ukraine took the lead in the 53′ minute. Iraq tied the game three minutes later. Iraq scored again in the 75′ minute to win the game.
Japan obliterated Paraguay 5-0 in a men’s Group D match. Japan was only leading 1-0 at halftime. They kick it up a notch with four goals in the second half.
The United Stated were defeated by France 3-0 in their men’s Group A match. I did a full game review for this one. The United States made too many mistakes without being able to capitalize on their scoring chances.
Mali and Israel finished their men’s Group D match in a 1-1 draw. Mali scored an own goal in the second half. They scored on Israel within ten minutes to tie the game. Neither team did well in this one.
France leads Group A. Iraq lead Group B. Spain lead Group C. Japan lead Group D. It has only been one game. Teams still have two more. While winning the first game is important, teams can still advance after losing the first game.
The Paris 2024 men’s rugby sevens started today. There are twelve teams in the mens competition. This event has a pool stage and a knockout stage. The top two teams in each group plus the top two third place teams advance to the knockout stage. The knockout stage is single elimination with quarterfinals, semifinals, a gold medal match and a bronze medal match. There is also separate brackets for teams that did not make the knockout stage. Rugby sevens is going from July 24th to July 30th. Rugby sevens also has teams playing twice a day because the games are short.
In the opening match of the event, Australia beat Samoa 21-14. Argentina beat Kenya 31-12. France and the United States tied at 12-12. Fiji blew out Uruguay 40-12. Ireland beat South Africa 10-5. New Zealand blew out Japan 40-12. Australia beat Kenya 21-7. Argentina beat Samoa 28-12. France beat Uruguay 19-12. Fiji blew out the United States 28-12. Ireland blew out Japan 40-5. New Zealand beat South Africa 17-5. There were twelve matches today. The biggest standout from day one is how lopsided the some of the scores were after day one.
Fiji won the men’s rugby sevens at Tokyo 2020. New Zealand lead Pool A. Argentina lead Pool B. Fiji lead Pool C.
Coming up is handball, archery, more rugby sevens, and more soccer. Day two of Paris 2024 starts at 12:00 AM PST.
Zac Electrifly 
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