Leslie Jones’ Olympic Commentary Is The Perfect Start To Rio Coverage


You, the average American sports fan, are probably aware the Olympics are here. Sure, you watched the Opening Ceremony, maybe with a cocktail, and you’ll watch some swimming finals tonight and oh, maybe the Men’s basketball–is that today? But did you know that the events started bright and early this morning with swimming preliminary heats and a 150 mile road cycling race? Leslie Jones did, and she was up early and has been tweetin’ about it all day while you were sleeping in.

First news of the day was that Team USA’s Ginny Thrasher won the first gold of the Olympics in air rifle, and while you probably didn’t even know that’s an event, Leslie sure seemed excited.

Next up, swimming! Thankfully for swim fans, Rio is only an hour ahead of eastern standard time meaning the finals will be held live in prime-time. But to get to the finals at night you need to start with the prelims in the morning, and if you were worried that U.S. swimmers might be a little groggy and slow off the blocks, fear not–Leslie’s here to wake their ass up!

Finally, while all these events were going on, men’s cyclists were braving the heat and the hills for the 150 mile road race.

On the breakneck final descent after a killer climb, there was a group of several riders in the lead going so fast around the corners the motorbike camera couldn’t keep up.

Sure enough, CRASH! And then there was one…

And this was only Day 1!!! We got two weeks of this to enjoy!

So if you’ll be hosting any Olympic-themed parties in the next couple of weeks, please send along an invite to Leslie. She’ll bring better commentary than anything NBC can provide and she’ll even bring costumes!

(Just don’t test her on the geography of participating nations.)