Put a Ring On It

As all eyes turn toward the five Olympic rings in Paris, there is one ring that rules them all. That ring surrounds the city and is made up of a network of cameras being constantly monitored by artificial intelligence. Athletic performances will break the records of the past, but security efforts will give us a glimpse into the future. “Complaints about dystopian security are almost an Olympics tradition. Previous iterations have been characterized as Lockdown London, Fortress Tokyo, and the ‘arms race’ in Rio. This time, it is the least-visible security measures that have emerged as some of the most controversial.” At the Olympics, AI is watching you.

+ The security efforts in the city are extreme. But the first breach happened away from the capital. French rail sabotage plays havoc with Paris Olympics opening.

+ Not every place will be secured. The Dirty Secret of Olympic Swimming: Everyone Pees in the Pool.

+ “At the Paris Olympics over the next three weeks, thousands of athletes will compete to win medals and stand on podiums. A select handful, such as Noah Lyles, will be striving for something even greater. The Olympics are not only a spectacle for determining the world’s best athletes. They are a quadrennial window into the limits of human performance.” WaPo (Gift Article): Olympians are approaching the limits of human performance. (Much like I did with news curation and analysis this week…)

+ BBC: What Olympic runners can learn from cheetahs. (Hopefully, not how most cheetah races conclude…)

+ Canadian soccer teams have been spying with drones for years. This year, they got caught.

+ They really gave Snoop Dogg an Olympic torch that looks like a blunt. (Meh, it’s a little small for Snoop blunt.)

+ How ‘girl dad’ Flavor Flav became hype man for the US women’s water polo team. (I always figured the giant clock he wears would attract him to a timed race.)

+ The Peacock app is probably your best bet if you want to catch all the action. How to stream the Olympics like a champ.