The Sport Superlatives - Issue No. 32

August 9, 2024

🏆 The Superlatives 🏆

The Cheese Lady: Giorgia Villa

Silver medalist Giorgia Villa didn’t just collect a medal during the Olympics; she is also collecting cheese…sponsorships. In 2019, Giorgia placed bronze at the World Championships and has now gone on to help her team place second in Paris. So, it’s not surprising that in between her appearances at Worlds, Parmigiano Reggiano reached out to the gymnast for a collaboration. The Olympian has become a bit of a marketing silver mine (see what we did there?) with her viral pictures with the cheese. Who doesn’t dream of posing with gigantic cheese wheels? She’s living the dream for us all.   

The Candy Guy: Ellis Dawson

If you have been following Team USA Men’s basketball, you’ve likely seen Ellis Dawson delivering some goods to the players. What are the goods, you ask? Candy, of course! This is unsurprising, as we have all heard that NBA players have a bit of a sweet tooth (especially LeBron). So while he carries the official title of Director of National Teams Operations for USA Basketball, Ellis has been dubbed by the internet as ‘the Candy Guy.’ Dawson has said that his job is to keep the team happy, and apparently, providing them sweets keeps them a bit less hangry. We can relate.

@nbcsports

USA basketball's candy guy is the hero we didn't know we needed. 🍬😂 📺: USA Network and Peacock #ParisOlympics #teamusa #usabasketball #basketball

🏃🏾You Betta Run For it, Run For it, Run… No, not you, Kamala…this is a sports newsletter (but, yes, you too). We’re talking Olympic track and field and all the medals they are bringing home to the US! Noah Lyles (aka Mr. “world champions of what”?) backed up his claims of being the “fastest man in the world,” by winning the 100m race by the hair on his chinny chin chin. That boy said it with his chest, and ironically, that is the body part that got him the win by five-thousandths of a second (we know y'all don’t even know what decimal place that is). Unfortunately, he caught COVID and placed 3rd in the 200m race a few days later, so he won’t be making the 100m and the 200m gold medal winners club, but still, congrats to him!

Also in men’s track, Quincy Hall brought home gold in the 400m race with an amazing come-from-behind win. In the 1500m, Cole Hocker pulled a fast one on runners who were more highly favored to win the race, but they were too busy worrying about their personal drama, resulting in him taking home the gold.

In the women’s lane (see what we did there), Gabby Thomas reeled in a gold medal in the 200m race, and we have one major complaint. How is this woman gonna make us all feel like peasants by getting a neurobiology degree from Harvard and a gold medal? Please, Gabby, remove your foot from our necks.

Additionally, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone backed up her 2020 (2021) 400m hurdles gold medal and proved she wasn’t really racing against the rest of her competitors. It was more like her against herself. Spoiler alert: she won! She broke a world record and blew away the competition on her way to gold.

In the “field” portion of track and field, ya girl Tara Davis-Woodhall (WHY are all these women MARRIED!....Matilda anyone?) won gold in women’s long jump by jumping 7.10m and annihilating the reigning Olympic champ and rest of the field…no pun intended.

We could go on, but it’s honestly too much to keep track of (more puns? Stop it).

🥇 Who All Gon’ Be There? In the Winners’ Circle? Well, the US also took home gold medals in Women’s team pursuit (that’s speed skating, duh), the Women’s artistic swimming team took home their first medal in 20 years, a silver, and Hampton Morris won the first US weightlifting medal in 40 years, a bronze. Congrats to them and everyone else who didn’t get a shoutout!

And who might be looking to join them in the Winners’ Circle soon? We’re keeping our eyes on the US Women’s indoor volleyball team, who beat a  #1-seeded Brazilian team to advance to the gold medal match against Italy. We’ll also be watching the US Men’s Basketball team, who [barely] defeated Serbia to advance to the gold medal game against hometeam France. Oh and let’s not forget the US Women’s soccer team, who will play Brazil in the gold medal match after defeating Germany in the semis.

😎 It’s Looking Like Gold: The USA leads in gold medals and overall medal count. But don’t take our word for it; see for yourself. Now, we know the games aren’t over yet, and we’re not trying to count our chickens before they hatch, BUT (you knew there was a “but” coming)....the numbers don’t lie.

⚾ Stopping History: The Chicago White Sox finally won a game! After a 21-game losing streak, the team was on the brink of making history with the worst losing streak in MLB American League history. But, the team ended the streak by winning 1 out of the three games in their series against the Oakland A’s. Oakland was so confident that they threw some shade at the team by playing Taylor Swift’s song 22 to indicate that the Sox were about to lose their 22nd game. But the joke was on them because the White Sox went on to win and break the streak with a score of 5-1. Maybe the White Sox are Swifties?

Whether Taylor’s tunes gave them a boost or not, rookie pitcher Jonathan Cannon gets significant credit for limiting the A’s ability to score by pitching five strikeouts across six innings. Now, the A’s did win in the last game of the series 3-2, but at least Chicago broke the seal, right?

🏈 Learning to Play Nice: Back in July, the NFL announced that there will be 22 joint practices scheduled during the pre-season. Every NFL team (except the KC Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders) will be expected to participate. It’s a great show of sportsmanship by the players as they exhibit camaraderie and an appreciation for their fellow NFL players. Just kidding… it’s a testosterone-filled nightmare. 

The staff spends more time playing the role of parents to a bunch of toddlers as they attempt to calm tempers and keep their teams in line. Except the NY Giants and Detroit Lions decided they didn’t need to listen to their parents…we mean coaches. Reportedly, several fights broke out during the two-day joint practice between the two teams. Giants coach Brian Daboll and Lions coach Dan Campbell decided enough was enough after repeated problems during practice on the second day, and each team has been fined by the NFL $200k. Tsk tsk. It’s almost like violence is a part of the game.

⛸️ Better Late than Never: So the USA figure-skating team got their gold medals in Paris, but if you're wondering when figure skating became a Summer Olympic sport, then good on you for using your reasoning skills. 

The figure skating team received their 2022 Beijing Gold medals, which are an upgrade from the silver they originally got. How, you ask? Well, apparently the Russians were cheating and got caught up on a juicing charge, which resulted in their gold medals being yanked from around their necks. A chain snatch, if ever we’ve seen one! We say, good for the USA…congrats on getting upgraded to a well-deserved first-class gold medal.

👎🏽 You Disgust Me: Apparently, NFL player Marlon Humpdey, oh wait, Humphrey (it’s hard to get right, when you don’t know who he is) didn’t enjoy the epic picture of Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bowing to Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade as she received her gold medal for her floor routine. He took his fingers to Twitter…no wait, X….and typed out the words “this is literally disgusting” under the beautiful picture of three black women giving and getting their well-earned flowers. 

Now, we don’t expect much from the man who believes he was getting cussed out in “Brazilian,” considering it isn’t a language in which someone can get cussed out…although Portuguese is. But, he really thought he did his big one. Unfortunately for him, her highness, Michelle Obama, wasn’t amused and took to Twitter (X) to defend the ladies and do her whole “they go low, we go high” thing. Better her than us, cuz we were ready to point out that this man was arrested in 2018 on third-degree robbery charges over a $15 charger. Now, THAT is disgusting (but it also may or may not have been a misunderstanding).

Your sports term of the week is: Golden Slam

IRL Example: The [arguable] GOAT, Novak Djokovic, just earned his career Golden Slam by finally capturing an Olympic gold medal in the men’s single tournament in the 2024 Games. Take a look at the winning moment.

Mind if we slip into something a bit more… romantic? A 2024 summer favorite that has us swooning is the summer slip dress. Slip dresses have been popular for a minute, but fun colors and floral details give them a light and summery twist that we didn’t know we needed. Now we need them in our closet ASAP. 

First, actress Gabrielle Union popped up at the Team USA basketball celebration in Paris in a stunning dress with a floral detail. She attended the event with hubby and former NBA player Dwyane Wade. And we have to say, this couple always shows up and out when it comes to fashion.

Also on trend, our new fav women’s rugby player, Ilona Maher, continues to serve looks in the streets of Paris. We love her in this floral slip dress that’s giving romantic girly vibes.

Ready to embrace your summer romance era? Whether you’re romancing yourself or letting your partner romance you, we totally recommend tapping into this trend! Here are a few options we like!

See you next week when we slip into more Olympic coverage….ok, that was the last pun…this week.

Do you love sports? Want to find a way to fit more sports into your week? We’ve got you. From keeping up with your work colleagues to impressing hot dates, our newsletter aims to keep you in the know regardless of your fandom level or the reason. That’s your business, sis!

Share The Sport Superlatives with hardcore sports fans or anyone who just likes to keep a little sports knowledge on hand. Don’t forget to follow us on IG and help us build our audience as we continue to keep you in the know.