Olympics 2024

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Steeplechase would be even more interesting if they tossed a few golf balls into the water pit. 

Mr_Asa said:

Guys, look up "olympics field support robots"

https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/there-are-little-robot-cars-olympics-and-theyre-here-help

I had never noticed them 

new life goal- Official olympic RC car driver. THATS an event I can do. 

For reference, she had won gold.

She also normally wrestles in 53kg, but while injured and protesting sexual harassment in the Wrestling Federation of India someone else took her spot, so she dropped weight in order to qualify.

Pulling blood, that's berkeleyed and would get you a two year ban if you were a cyclist (because at some point during a tour they would pump it back into you). 

Mndsm said:

Mr_Asa said:

Guys, look up "olympics field support robots"

https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/there-are-little-robot-cars-olympics-and-theyre-here-help

I had never noticed them 

new life goal- Official olympic RC car driver. THATS an event I can do. 

Two questions here:

1. Why aren't monkeys with little chauffer caps driving the cars?

2. See question 1.

Mr_Asa said:

For reference, she had won gold.

She also normally wrestles in 53kg, but while injured and protesting sexual harassment in the Wrestling Federation of India someone else took her spot, so she dropped weight in order to qualify.

 

Not correct. She was scheduled to fight the 'Merican for the final till she failed weigh in. The lady she beat in the semi got to fight (and lose) for 1-2.

Amit Elor who won gold for team usa is normally 72 kg but olympics only have 68 or 76. I guess "they" did a better job of weight control.

Any sport that involves women and condones weight cutting, think MMA, should be banned.

Maaaan, the Olympics have been on all this week and all last week in my office.  Probably something I would have skipped had I not traveled for work.

Watching France V China Ping Pong now and it is INTENSE!!

JG Pasterjak said:

Mndsm said:

Mr_Asa said:

Guys, look up "olympics field support robots"

https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/there-are-little-robot-cars-olympics-and-theyre-here-help

I had never noticed them 

new life goal- Official olympic RC car driver. THATS an event I can do. 

Two questions here:

1. Why aren't monkeys with little chauffer caps driving the cars?

2. See question 1.

I'm gonna think about this wayyyy too much. Thanks for that. 

Disclaimer: I only usually watch much NBA/WNBA around playoff time, so my frame of reference might be skewed.

But in watching some basketball this week, I had to look up whether the rim dimensions are different in Olympic competition because shooting seems like it's off from where it is in the pro game. Obviously both the US teams have been fairly strong overall, but the precision doesn't seem to be there in the field goals. Well, until the men's game against Brazil, anyway. So are they just cranking things up for the bracket rounds?

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

If I remember correctly, the lines and stuff for the global rules of basketball are slightly different than the NBA rules. I don't know about the physical dimensions of the goal itself, but everything else is a little different. 

I also imagine someone in the locker room is telling them not to make Uruguay look TOO berkeleyin' terrible out of the gate. Like pickin on the kid with leg braces at kickball. 

I'm sure this has been hashed out before, but man, it seems wildly unfair that climbing disciplines are combined (bouldering and lead is one medal/event, speed climbing is another; in Tokyo they were all 3 the same) despite being very different skill sets. There are 16 different swimming medals, encompassing several different strokes and distances. Running? Don't get me started. How many medals are there in running? "You run a short distance. Then you run a slightly longer distance. Then you run a slightly longer distance. All of those are medal events!"

But yet, climbers are expected to combine wildly different disciplines into one medal event? Excuse me? 

brandonsmash said:

I'm sure this has been hashed out before, but man, it seems wildly unfair that climbing disciplines are combined (bouldering and lead is one medal/event, speed climbing is another; in Tokyo they were all 3 the same) despite being very different skill sets. There are 16 different swimming medals, encompassing several different strokes and distances. Running? Don't get me started. How many medals are there in running? "You run a short distance. Then you run a slightly longer distance. Then you run a slightly longer distance. All of those are medal events!"

But yet, climbers are expected to combine wildly different disciplines into one medal event? Excuse me? 

 

Is climbing still in that baseball/golf/softball nether realm where it comes and goes from the Olympics or is it a full forever medal sport at this point?

Rhythmic gymnastics is on right now.  It's about as weird as the synchronized swimming events.  Clearly very hard and difficult to master but just weird and not very mainstream.

In reply to brandonsmash :

That's kind of up to the climbing group.  

But if you want to really be upset- look at all of the really odd ways that you can medal in cycling.  And they are mostly just being able to sprint on the track at the right time.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Surely at this point it's an established thing. Climbing has been growing in popularity for the past 20+ years and is more accessible than ever and, after some higher-profile movies (*Mission Impossible*) and documentaries (*Free Solo*) it's part of cultural consciousness. Japan was its entrée into the Olympics but it's hard to picture it going away. I mean, suurely, SURELY it must be at least as popular as ping-pong and that's been an Olympic sport since the '80s. 

It just needs to be separated into events and medals for specific discipline and given a bit more recognition, IMHO. 

(Then again, I enjoy rock climbing so obviously the sport needs more prominence. Won't the IOC consider what I'd like to see?)

Close game for Dream Team 8.  They were down by 17 at one point.  But they finally really played as a team for the last 1/4 of the game.

In reply to brandonsmash :

When they have normal competitions outside of the Olympics- how is it structured?  Seems that almost all sports run a similar Olympic championship format and championships as any normal world championship.  Heck, every 4 years, this IS the world championships.

In reply to alfadriver :

Of the climbing disciplines that we see in the Olympics (speed climbing, lead climbing, bouldering), when there are competitions they are discrete. I've not seen any comp that runs any two of those together, to be honest. It's a bouldering comp or it's a lead comp or it's a speed comp. 

Combining bouldering and lead climbing into one medal is like taking a group of racers and putting them on an autocross course and then an open track and saying "We're going to find the best driver in the world by combining these two apparently similar but in reality quite different events." The reality is that you miss those who are really excellent at autocross but not great at open track and vice versa.

Meanwhile, with all the running events it's like having medals for a 1/16-mile drag race, 1/8-mile, 1/4-mile, 1/2-mile, 1-mile standing start, and 6-mile timed between cones. It's all drag racing, just for different lengths. 

In reply to brandonsmash :

So is there a single world championship for climbing?  Sounds like there is not.  Seems to me that the problem is the climbing federation not really setting up a real world championship outside of the olympics to follow.  I would not blame the Olympics, I would blame the climbing for not having a good format.  You are right that it doesn't add any significant burden to the event.   

This is the same event for how long, now? 

Heck, having a real, annual, world championship would be able to reuse many of these sites, which the Olympic committee would love.

BTW, I don't see any benefit to comparing this to the other events.  Just saying.  

My man Steph Curry tore it up but good today.

What's up with surfing? They have a magnificent venue, and by all accounts, day 3 was epic, but I haven't seen one moment of coverage, and I've been watching practically evey night. 

In reply to brandonsmash :

So I looked up what they have winners for speed and then bouldering&lead combined.  So there are two golds for each.  

Could be an all around plus an individual thing, but that would only be 4.

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

What's up with surfing? They have a magnificent venue, and by all accounts, day 3 was epic, but I haven't seen one moment of coverage, and I've been watching practically evey night. 

Amazing waves , the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is going  be a joke compared to the Tahiti waves ,

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

My man Steph Curry tore it up but good today.

What's up with surfing? They have a magnificent venue, and by all accounts, day 3 was epic, but I haven't seen one moment of coverage, and I've been watching practically evey night. 

I just finished watching that and OMG, what a game. Curry definitely set the tone for the whole game, but Joel Embiid just kind of hulked out and took over in that 4th quarter. 

JG Pasterjak said:

Kreb (Forum Supporter) said:

My man Steph Curry tore it up but good today.

What's up with surfing? They have a magnificent venue, and by all accounts, day 3 was epic, but I haven't seen one moment of coverage, and I've been watching practically evey night. 

I just finished watching that and OMG, what a game. Curry definitely set the tone for the whole game, but Joel Embiid just kind of hulked out and took over in that 4th quarter. 

They should have lost that game, but Steph just wasn't going to allow that to happen. Pretty cool to see him, Lebron and Durant out there killing it. Three NBA all-timers, but you can tell how much this means to them.

Embiid did seem to be the only one who could physically match up with Jokic, though.