The best parts

 So now the Paris Games are officially over, and it's time to say goodbye to Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky and Steph Curry; Cole Hocker and Leon Marchand and bump-draftin' kayakers. 

The USWNT. The U.S. men's and women's basketball teams. The boxers, the break dancers, the rock-wall climbers, the rowers, the rugby 7s; the filthy Seine, the headless singing Marie Antoinettes and that strange Feast of Dionysius bit that got some Christians  in a lather because they thought it was something else.

Hell of a summer Olympics, all that was. And the best parts were, as always, the quirky parts.

Pretty much the entire Opening Ceremonies, for starters.

"Snoop Dogg" and "dressage" in the same sentence.

Recliner Dad Jason Bourne (Turkish pistoleer Yusuf Dikec) and Pommel Horse Millhouse From The Simpsons (American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik). Irish Sprinter Who Probably Got Beat Up In School A Lot (Mark English). And of course the French pole vaulter who might possibly have been one of the wild and crazy Festrunk brothers from SNL, because he missed a vault when his, um, bulge knocked the crossbar off.

Somewhere the Festrunks and their bulges must have been cheering wildly.

Also, it made you wish ABC's Wide World of Sports was still airing, because it would have had a new candidate for the agony of defeat.

In any case, the Paris Games wouldn't have been the same without all of the above, and not nearly as much fun. It added a dash of frivolity to two weeks of incredible competition, beginning with rugby and swimming and ending with the nail-biting women's soccer and basketball finals.

It was the Olympics, in track and field, of Hocker and Quincy Hall coming out of nowhere to win the 1500 and 400, respectively. Of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone destroying everyone in the women's 400 hurdles and the 4x400 relay. Of Grant Fisher medaling in both the men's 10,000 meters and 5,000 meters ... and Noah Lyles winning the 100, then getting the bronze in the 200 while running a 102-degree Covid fever ... and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands attempting the suicidal 5,000/10,000/marathon trifecta.

Incredibly, she medaled in all three, and won the marathon. That gets the Blob's vote for greatest athletic feat of the Paris Games.

Bravest feat belonged to all the swimmers who splashed without reservation down E-Coli Alley, aka the grossly polluted Seine.

Biggest injustice of the Games: American gymnast Jordan Chiles being stripped of her bronze in floor exercise because the Romanians protested and the U.S. appealed four seconds too late. 

Biggest vindication of the Games: Maligned Algerian boxer Imane Khelif winning a boxing gold while defending herself against accusations she was a man. She's not, she never has been, and she'd been boxing for years without controversy until a bunch of transphobic hysterics (including Indiana's dopey attorney general, Performance Art Todd Rokita) decided to create one.

Apparently things got so bad her attorney is filing a complaint with the Paris prosecutor's office over "aggravated online harassment" of his client. To which the Blob says, "Good."

And Jordan Chiles?

I think if I were her, and Olympic officials asked her to return the bronze medal, my response would be "Come take it."

She won't do that, of course. Which is why Jordan Chiles is better than I am, and why all of the Olympians are, and why the Games are always so sublime.