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Tokyo Olympics 2021

Tigers! said:
Brisbane in Australia won the right to host the 3032 Olympics.
Whee.

It too expensive to host the Olympics now. To many sports.
Why events such as soccer, golf, tennis etc. which have successful competitions outside of the Olympics need to be included?
How will a city/country without a coast line host the surfing?
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Sailing has been in the Olympics forever. Paris hosts in 2024 and will hold surfing and sailing at Tahiti.

Surfing should have been in Olympics long before those other X games type of events. I liked the Tokyo competition, they had to compete in rough, stormy waters, making more of a challenge.
 
blastula said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
Katie Ledecky did her thing for the 1500 meter race. I was amazed at how she swam. She swam like I did for triathlon, pretty much dragging the legs behind her (for me to save them for the cycling and running). Except she was pulling her body along at a much much faster pace. I want to say I swam a mile in 30 minutes (in a pool). I don't remember how much the 1.2 mile open swim I did was.


I never got to the point of getting the S-curve pattern down. Swimming is easy, swimming competitively is a lot of practice just on the form!
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Yeah, that was interesting to me as well that she dragged her legs at times. I can swim like an olympian!

Also, in the all time gold medal count for US women, she should get more credit. Jenny Thompson and Allyson Felix and Amy Van Dyken got most or all their medals in relays. Ledecky only has one relay gold.
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She uses different kicks for different distances. Shorter race = faster kick. Being one of the top 2 in the world at 200 meters and blowing everyone away at 1500 is pretty amazing.
 
5th in 200, 2nd in 400, 1st in 1500, hopefully 1st in 800. She in crazy good.

Litmus has done great too.
 
blastula said:
Tigers! said:
Brisbane in Australia won the right to host the 3032 Olympics.
Whee.

It too expensive to host the Olympics now. To many sports.
Why events such as soccer, golf, tennis etc. which have successful competitions outside of the Olympics need to be included?
How will a city/country without a coast line host the surfing?
Click to expand...

Sailing has been in the Olympics forever. Paris hosts in 2024 and will hold surfing and sailing at Tahiti.

Surfing should have been in Olympics long before those other X games type of events. I liked the Tokyo competition, they had to compete in rough, stormy waters, making more of a challenge.
Click to expand...

15,700km must set some kind of record for furthest event venue from the host city. Will there be a shuttle bus service?
 
Ledecky raced a great anchor yesterday. Australia was a huge fave in the 4x200 free, it was supposed to be a race for second, but China was actually leading most of the way, Australia in second. US was a distant third, 1 1/2 bodies behind both after 3 legs, but Ledecky came out blazing on the anchor and caught Australia after a lap and nearly caught China, getting the silver.

But my favorite swim so far was the 800 men's final. The Italian Paltrinieri, led from first lap till last lap comfortably and from lane 8. He's the defending world champ, but apparently had been dealing with an illness and was off his game going into the final. The American Finke from lane 3 was no better than 5th all the way till the last length, a full body length behind the pack going into the last turn. And he fucking passed all 4 guys to win it, Paltrinieri taking second. Wow.
 
I have a crotchet about the Olympics broadcasts. There are too many commercials. In the women's team foil gold medal, there were so many commercials that all the bouts except the last started with touches already counted because of the commercials. The same is true of rugby and beach volleyball. WTF?

Eldarion Lathria
 
blastula said:
Ledecky raced a great anchor yesterday. Australia was a huge fave in the 4x200 free, it was supposed to be a race for second, but China was actually leading most of the way, Australia in second. US was a distant third, 1 1/2 bodies behind both after 3 legs, but Ledecky came out blazing on the anchor and caught Australia after a lap and nearly caught China, getting the silver.

But my favorite swim so far was the 800 men's final. The Italian Paltrinieri, led from first lap till last lap comfortably and from lane 8. He's the defending world champ, but apparently had been dealing with an illness and was off his game going into the final. The American Finke from lane 3 was no better than 5th all the way till the last length, a full body length behind the pack going into the last turn. And he fucking passed all 4 guys to win it, Paltrinieri taking second. Wow.
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Finke’s last 50 in the 800 was faster than the last 50 posted by the winner of the 200. That’s crazy.
 
That isn’t as crazy as it sounds, but he absolutely trashed the field the last 50 m.

Ledecky has had a great Olympics. 800 m tomorrow I think.

Women’s and Men’s all around were very good too.
 
Eldarion Lathria said:
I have a crotchet about the Olympics broadcasts. There are too many commercials. In the women's team foil gold medal, there were so many commercials that all the bouts except the last started with touches already counted because of the commercials. The same is true of rugby and beach volleyball. WTF?

Eldarion Lathria
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Australian sports coverage is generally very wary of allowing advertising to encroach on the action, ever since the massive outcry over the live coverage of the 4th Ashes test at the MCG in December 1982.

With Australia needing 292 to win, the ninth wicket fell at 218 late on the fourth day. The final wicket partnership of Jeff Thomson and Allan Border lasted over two hours, when Thomson was finally caught out from the first ball of an over with four runs still required, to give England a three run victory. His edge to first slip was fended up into the air, only to be taken by Geoff Miller at second slip. Australian TV viewers didn't see this spectacular end to a close fought match, however. Instead they saw an advertisement for Sidchrome Spanners, and returned to the 'action' to see the players already leaving the field.

The 'Sidchrome Spanners Test' is a trauma that still scars the Australian psyche today, and commercial sports broadcasters (particularly Channel 9) are very wary of any possibility of a repetition. The Thomson dismissal ranks alongside the Whitlam dismissal as a key epoch in Australian history.

Perhaps the US broadcasters should consult with their Australian counterparts.
 
Mixed medley relay??? What kind of chaotic neutral madness is this?
 
I haven't seen much of the Olympics this year, unfortunately. I have fond memories of the London Olympics in 2012, which was the last time I remember being proud of my country, regardless of the relatively strong outing of 'Team GB' that year.

I keep on seeing the usual bigoted suspects and right-wing commentators complaining bitterly about ' "woke" athletes disrespecting their own country', etc. Though I am not quite sure what exactly they're referring to in the form of statements by athletes or whatever. A (very) right-wing American I know said something along the lines of:

'I don't really care if the USA wins or loses, because our teams are a bunch of whiny woke nitwits who hate our country. They don't deserve to represent the USA or to win'

But again I am not sure what awful event or statement by [insert US athlete here] he's talking about.
 
EvoUK said:
I haven't seen much of the Olympics this year, unfortunately. I have fond memories of the London Olympics in 2012, which was the last time I remember being proud of my country, regardless of the relatively strong outing of 'Team GB' that year.

I keep on seeing the usual bigoted suspects and right-wing commentators complaining bitterly about ' "woke" athletes disrespecting their own country', etc. Though I am not quite sure what exactly they're referring to in the form of statements by athletes or whatever. A (very) right-wing American I know said something along the lines of:

'I don't really care if the USA wins or loses, because our teams are a bunch of whiny woke nitwits who hate our country. They don't deserve to represent the USA or to win'

But again I am not sure what awful event or statement by [insert US athlete here] he's talking about.
Click to expand...

My informal review of a range of such utterences suggests that the main problems that nationalists have with athletes is that they are too young, and not bigoted enough.
 
bilby said:
EvoUK said:
I haven't seen much of the Olympics this year, unfortunately. I have fond memories of the London Olympics in 2012, which was the last time I remember being proud of my country, regardless of the relatively strong outing of 'Team GB' that year.

I keep on seeing the usual bigoted suspects and right-wing commentators complaining bitterly about ' "woke" athletes disrespecting their own country', etc. Though I am not quite sure what exactly they're referring to in the form of statements by athletes or whatever. A (very) right-wing American I know said something along the lines of:

'I don't really care if the USA wins or loses, because our teams are a bunch of whiny woke nitwits who hate our country. They don't deserve to represent the USA or to win'

But again I am not sure what awful event or statement by [insert US athlete here] he's talking about.
Click to expand...

My informal review of a range of such utterences suggests that the main problems that nationalists have with athletes is that they are too young, and not bigoted enough.
Click to expand...

Very likely.

I don't wish to derail an otherwise largely positive thread with bigots though, even if I'm the one who caused it!
 
bilby said:
Eldarion Lathria said:
I have a crotchet about the Olympics broadcasts. There are too many commercials. In the women's team foil gold medal, there were so many commercials that all the bouts except the last started with touches already counted because of the commercials. The same is true of rugby and beach volleyball. WTF?

Eldarion Lathria
Click to expand...

Australian sports coverage is generally very wary of allowing advertising to encroach on the action, ever since the massive outcry over the live coverage of the 4th Ashes test at the MCG in December 1982.

With Australia needing 292 to win, the ninth wicket fell at 218 late on the fourth day. The final wicket partnership of Jeff Thomson and Allan Border lasted over two hours, when Thomson was finally caught out from the first ball of an over with four runs still required, to give England a three run victory. His edge to first slip was fended up into the air, only to be taken by Geoff Miller at second slip. Australian TV viewers didn't see this spectacular end to a close fought match, however. Instead they saw an advertisement for Sidchrome Spanners, and returned to the 'action' to see the players already leaving the field.

The 'Sidchrome Spanners Test' is a trauma that still scars the Australian psyche today, and commercial sports broadcasters (particularly Channel 9) are very wary of any possibility of a repetition. The Thomson dismissal ranks alongside the Whitlam dismissal as a key epoch in Australian history.

Perhaps the US broadcasters should consult with their Australian counterparts.
Click to expand...

NBC streaming content is remarkable and the commercials for the replays and live content is very very reasonable. Watch the Network coverage and good luck remembering what you were watching.

That said, the US equivalent to the Ashes would have been the Heidi incident in ‘68 where the Raiders score two TDs in a blink of an eye, while Americans were instead experiencing the movie of the week, Heidi.
 
I remember the Heidi game. I was 12, and it may have been the first time I ever thought, “WTF?”

Raiders-Jets games were always wild.
 
Well today, err yesterdays, I mean today’s Japan’s yesterday ???? was an incredible day of track and field. High jump, triple jump, 100 m were all packed with good drama.
 
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