HERMOSA BEACH, California — On and on and on the list went, to the point that Tri Bourne, sitting down with USA Volleyball outside hitter Kelsey Robinson Cook one day and middle Dana Rettke another, laughed and wondered: So. .. is there any team in the Paris Olympic Games that isn’t contending for a medal?
To which both of them replied, in effect: Not really.
“Now there’s a lot of teams that have a realistic chance of winning a gold medal,” Robinson Cook said. “I would say Turkey, Brazil, China, Japan, Italy, Serbia, Poland, us — I’m not kidding, anything can happen.”
Yes, Robinson Cook is playing the role of the sage veteran, one in which you must never underestimate any opponent, even France, considerable underdogs Pool A. It’s an important hat to wear, particularly in an event as unique as the Olympic Games, where the lights are brightest, the stage biggest, where everything is magnified to a degree only seen once every four years. But the unprecedented depth of the field is also a legitimate truth, a result of the Olympic system shifting to favor a stronger tournament rather than a more globally balanced one.
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