Thursday morning, August 1

This morning we went out to Versailles – over an hour by train – to see the equestrian jumping competition.  We were again impressed at the signage and volunteers who helped get us to the right spot.  In this case they had Olympic busses available to shuttle us to the site, which was quite far from the train station – a 20 minute ride.  Once we arrived, we had another long walk of over a mile to get to the actual competition venue.  We were struck again by how difficult this would be for some people.  That said, this time we did see some golf-cart style cars available to take less able people to the stands, and there were definitely people making use of those.

The competition was enjoyable to watch. Each national team has 3 riders. Each rider goes separately around a set route that includes a bunch of different jumps – some wider, some higher, some very close to each other, etc. We had excellent seats, placed near one of the most challenging areas.

If they knock over a bar on a jump (which happened frequently), they would get a penalty added to their time. So the score was time plus penalties. Each time a bar was knocked off, before the next rider, the volunteers came out to reset the jumps as well as to rake in front of them. We saw some riders who completed without penalty, but many who did not, so clearly the jumps are very difficult. It seems amazing that horses can lift themselves so high off the ground.

I should mention that pretty much every venue has cameras on overhead wires that take some of the video … this takes an amazing amount of infrastructure, and we saw many towers that were built just to handle these roving cameras.

We watched the first set (one rider for each country), and happily, the U.S. was in the lead!  We took a break before the second set to get out of the sun for a few minutes.  

We got back in the stadium after the first rider of the second set.  Then something really crazy happened …. The second American rider is announced, and I looked up at the screen and realized that I knew the person!  It was the son of a friend from the industry.  I gasped – oh my, I think that’s Scott’s son, Karl!  We have met him several times.  I had remembered that he was an equestrian but had no idea he was competing.  Suddenly we were cheering for someone we actually knew!  

I’m happy to report that he had an excellent ride, with no penalties, and helped the U.S., which ultimately ended up in the 2^nd position (the third U.S. rider wasn’t as good).  Note that this was the qualifying round, not the medal round, so it went from 20 competitors down to 10.  But we will definitely be following to see how the U.S. team does in the final, and we hope that Karl earns a medal.  I texted my friend Scott right after Karl’s ride to verify and he confirmed that it was his son.

It was our last Olympic competition so I will be finishing this blog.  I am going to write some overall observations and some tips for visiting the Olympics, so check back for one more post, which may not happen until the flight home. 

I have one other story to report which is not so pleasant, but is worth sharing as a cautionary tale.  After gymnastics the other night, we went out to dinner with Guy and Alain in a very nice restaurant,: Le Train Bleu, in the Gare du Nord.   The restaurant has a gorgeous Beaux Artes interior and delicious food, although it was quite uncomfortable because it was not air-conditioned.  We were tired, sweaty and happy, so enjoyed ourselves.  

When it was time to leave, we gathered our belongings and Guy realized that he could not find his backpack.  We looked all over, and it was nowhere to be found. It had been snatched!  We checked with the restaurant staff, but they had no ideas.  Fortunately Guy had given his phone to a staff person to charge, so it wasn’t in his backpack and he still  had his phone.  But he did not have his wallet, with his identity cards and credit cards, nor did he have his house keys.  Guy had put the backpack on the back of his chair, and our theory is that it may have fallen to the floor and somebody grabbed it.  It just was very surprising to have happen in an upscale restaurant, with lots of staff around.  I had been sitting facing Guy the whole meal and noticed nothing.

So poor Guy, although tired and sweaty, ended up at the local police station that night making a statement.  He managed to locate the backpack because his airpods were in it, but it was in a large building, so the cops couldn’t do anything about it.  He did have a way to get into his apartment that night, after checking with the security company that no alarms had been set off.  He then spent that evening and the next morning to stop the credit cards, get in a locksmith to change the key, get a new identity card, order replacement prescription sunglasses, and so on.  Amazingly, he had no cash in his wallet.  So, it was greatly inconvenient to Guy, but the thieves ended up with nothing of value to them.

But they tried again today.  They called Guy, having spoofed his local bank’s phone number, so it looked like it was coming from them.  They knew the bank manager’s name as well.  They tried to talk Guy into giving his access codes, and they also tried to get him to wire money, claiming that the wallet was now in Senegal, and he had to take these actions in order to defeat their access.  Apparently the person calling was very convincing sounding. Guy almost fell for it but thankfully did not.

So here are some lessons:  when in a public place, keep your backpack in front of you, on your lap, or on the floor by your feet.  NEVER EVER give out access codes to someone who calls you over the phone.  If someone calls you from your bank, tell them you will call them back using a published number.