The Games of the 33rd Olympiad from an Optometrist’s Perspective
Blog vol 5.8. The Games of the 33rd Olympiad from an Optometrist’s Perspective.
In 2021, I wrote a blog about the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games (it’s a long and sad story the discrepancy in dates, just take my word for it: Tokyo 2020 happened in 2021). That blog, and this one, bring the scintillating perspective of an optometrist to the Games. Oh, the things you would miss…
The Air Pistol competition:
One story that has gone viral at the games is the silver medal won by Yusuf Dikec from Turkey in the Mixed team 10 metre Air Pistol competition. What stood out was his apparently casual approach to the contest. He went to the line, put his hand in his pocket, raised his pistol, and fired; such a contrast to many of the other shooters (Read more here).
There are special glasses for shooting that help to maximize sight. These were used by many of the competitors. The glasses look very odd as they have an opaque or frosted shield that blocks the non-dominant eye, and a small ring with prescription lenses and/or an iris diaphragm over the dominant eye. This diaphragm reduces your aperture or enlarges your f-stop to increase depth of focus, even having the option of putting in a filter to enhance contrast. This all looks very high tech and brings to mind cyborgs or Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Sixth Day. In contrast, you have the Clint Eastwood type from Turkey, a retired non-commissioned officer, with tons of experience who just walks up and casually, with his own glasses, nothing special, shoots, and captures a Silver Medal.
Great vision is important, but so is a steady hand, precise breathing, nerves of steel, and lots of experience.
Men’s 100 metre final:
This one is about perspective. The men’s 100 metre final was very dramatic and somewhat controversial. We watched with some of the family and all thought that Kishane Thompson of Jamaica had edged out Noah Lyles of the USA for the Gold Medal. It was the camera angle on the finish line from the CBC feed. The angle was a bit in front of the finish and created the illusion that Thompson crossed first. To our surprise, the photo finish had Lyles just ahead by 5/1000th of a second. Of course, the internet blew up when the winner was announced, and the conspiracy theorists went to town. It was so close.
Tennis:
This one is about focus, and just because. I have always admired Novak Djokovic from Serbia for his great tennis playing, especially his ability to focus in on critical points of a match. This Olympics showed, once again, that there is no one better. The match is made up of a lot of points and rallies, but there are points, called break points, that make champions. In the Gold Medal match, Novak was in tough against the next great phenome, Carlos Alcaraz Garcia of Spain, but this time Novak held his serve and relied on two mini-breaks in the tie breakers to get it done. Congratulations to an intensely focussed player.
Til next week,
The good doctor
