The choices to make

At the start of the Olympics, there are tons of sports going on and you can pretty much go anywhere and find some sports action. There are a lot of choices, but if you miss one team, you can probably catch that team again in a day or two.

The end of the Olympics is when things become a bit tougher for those of us who are covering the Games. All of a sudden all the games have a lot of meaning, with medals on the line and time ticking down on chances to see the teams and athletes.

Thus is the case today (Friday). As I write this, I am sitting in La Defense Arena, where I saw Katie Ledecky swim in the first few days of the Olympics. Swimming is over for these Olympics, but after the swimming finished, water polo moved from the new aquatics center to this arena for the semifinals and finals, so I am here to see the US men's water polo team play in the semifinals.

However, there were a lot of places I could've gone today. The US women's basketball team plays its own semifinal game in the next few hours and the men's volleyball team plays in the bronze medal match in the next few hours as well.

Tomorrow, the women's soccer team plays in the gold medal match just before Elle St. Pierre runs in the 1,500-meter finals at the Stade de France and the men's basketball team plays in the gold medal game. And on Sunday, the women's basketball gold medal game and women's volleyball gold medal game are within a few hours of each other. Had the US women's water polo team made the gold medal match, it would have played right in the middle of those two games.

So, as we get closer and closer to the end of the Olympics, the choices become tougher and tougher, particularly when there's plenty of good teams who are playing for gold, silver or bronze medals. And you just have to expect that you will miss a thing or two.


La Defense Arena was ready for some water polo action on Friday afternoon, one of many big games on the docket as the Olympics wind down.

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