# Summer Olympics - 2016



## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

O happy day! My favorite sporting event besides the World Series. I've delelted/transferred a bunch of stuff off my Tivo to make room for recording. I'll be watching events at my leisure for the next few weeks.

I really admire the athletes. Talent isn't enough in sports, they work so hard to be the best they can.

My favorite events are diving and swimming, gymnastics, rowing, and some track and field. I actually prefer the field events - long jump, pole vault, etc - but it seems they don't broadcast a lot of those.

Let the games begin!


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## Jolt (Jan 9, 2006)

The opening ceremony is always my favorite part. BMX is going to be my main viewing this time around. Of course Ill cheer them all on but especially Gabby and Michael. I hope Michael beats some other records this time.


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## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

I had to google BMX and yeah, that does look like a great event. I'd like to see it. I hope they show it on NBC, since I'm OTA and that's the only one of their channels I receive.


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## Regina (Mar 30, 2003)

OPENING CEREMONY=DUDES IN SKIRTS=MY FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD!
:up::up:

Seriously, though-I do love it!

I do hope Rio can pull this off-I love the Olympics and all that they represent and just want everyone to have a good games 

I love the track and field, gymnastics, swimming-excited to see some rubgy-

Who am I kidding? I am going to watch a little of everything!


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## madscientist (Nov 12, 2003)

Wow the downhills on the bike race today were INSANE. Those guys are going 55mph down those curves, on bikes with super-thin tires... it gives me chills just thinking about it. Some pretty bad spills that look like they hurt a lot but hopefully nothing too serious. I only heard of one rider who might have needed to go to the hospital, for a collarbone.

USA swimming seems to be in pretty good shape.


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## tlrowley (Jun 10, 2004)

French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his leg on his landing - I'm not going to link a video and I don't recommend googling for a video unless you have a strong stomach 

Apparently, men's vault was more dangerous than the cycling downhill!


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## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

Anyone else think how ironic it is that the US wins the first gold medal ... in shooting?


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## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

In the bike race, what do the commentators mean when they talk about the groups "working together"? How do they do so? I thought maybe it meant taking turns taking the lead to set the pace?


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## GoPackGo (Dec 29, 2012)

The riders in the front of the peloton work more than the riders behind due to air resistance. There's also strategy in blocking out the road so other riders can't advance.


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## Barmat (Jun 1, 2001)

I watched the opening ceremonies in 4K HDR tonight from DirecTV on my new LG OLED and OMG, the colors were breathtaking.


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## pgogborn (Nov 11, 2002)

Odd thought - these are winter Olympics.


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## jamesl (Jul 12, 2012)

wprager said:


> Anyone else think how ironic it is that the US wins the first gold medal ... in shooting?


no 
I don't see the irony in that at all


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

pgogborn said:


> Odd thought - these are winter Olympics.


Or is it just the first time the Summer Olympic Games have been held in the winter? The two previous games in the Southern Hemisphere have been held in the spring.


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## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

pgogborn said:


> Odd thought - these are winter Olympics.


Rio is in the tropics (more so than Miami). It is 72 °F at 7 AM local, high of 85 °F is forecast (really metric, but my world weather link converts). Winter is ill-defined in the tropics, more of wet or dry thing.


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## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

jamesl said:


> no
> I don't see the irony in that at all


Greater irony that it's a fancy BB gun.


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## pgogborn (Nov 11, 2002)

JohnS-MI said:


> Rio is in the tropics (more so than Miami). It is 72 °F at 7 AM local, high of 85 °F is forecast (really metric, but my world weather link converts). Winter is ill-defined in the tropics, more of wet or dry thing.


Miami is not in the tropics. Neither are all 2016 Olympic venues.


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## bigpuma (Aug 12, 2003)

pgogborn said:


> Odd thought - these are winter Olympics.


Do they actually have traditional seasons in the tropics? It will be in the high 70's + and very humid during the olympics. When I lived in Ecuador we had a dry season and and wet season but no summer or winter.


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## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

pgogborn said:


> Miami is not in the tropics. Neither are all 2016 Olympic venues.


All of the Rio area venues are, and four of the five soccer venues are. Sao Paulo is 10 nautical miles south of tropic of Capricorn. All others are north, and lie within the tropics.

Miami has semitropical climate but is around 140 nmi north of the tropic of Cancer, and outside the tropics.


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## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

Wow, that was a bad crash in the women's road race. Hope she didn't break her neck.


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## Howie (May 3, 2004)

loubob57 said:


> Wow, that was a bad crash in the women's road race. Hope she didn't break her neck.


I saw that. Awful. I fear the worst.


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## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

From reports she had three "minor fractures in her lumber spine" and a concussion.


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## Robin (Dec 6, 2001)

tlrowley said:


> French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his leg on his landing - I'm not going to link a video and I don't recommend googling for a video unless you have a strong stomach
> 
> Apparently, men's vault was more dangerous than the cycling downhill!


That was horrific.


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## bryhamm (Jun 30, 2004)

That Phelps swimmer is pretty good.


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## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

Katinka Hosszu blows away the women's 400m IM world record by 2 seconds. Wowsa.


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Barmat said:


> I watched the opening ceremonies in 4K HDR tonight from DirecTV on my new LG OLED and OMG, the colors were breathtaking.


I don't doubt that, but the colors were breathtaking for everyone on the live broadcast regardless of whether or not OLED or HDR were involved. That's what the production team set out to do.


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## jamesl (Jul 12, 2012)

series5orpremier said:


> I don't doubt that, but the colors were breathtaking for everyone on the live broadcast regardless of whether or not OLED or HDR were involved. That's what the production team set out to do.


it even looked good on my 19inch Zenith black and white tv


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## JStew (Oct 1, 2007)

jamesl said:


> it even looked good on my 19inch Zenith black and white tv


Now you're just making that up. I know you have the 15in, not the 19.


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## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

wprager said:


> From reports she had three "minor fractures in her lumber spine" and a concussion.


A nice way to say she broke her neck. But I was worried at first it might be a fatality, the wreck looked that bad to me.


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## Barmat (Jun 1, 2001)

series5orpremier said:


> I don't doubt that, but the colors were breathtaking for everyone on the live broadcast regardless of whether or not OLED or HDR were involved. That's what the production team set out to do.


Who watches live? Also It was commercial free on the 4K broadcast. No breaks.


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## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

One of the things I like most about the Olympics is the individual stories you get about some of the athletes. This was the _fifth attempt_ at a medal in diving for Tania Cagnotto of Italy (her first Olympics was 2000), coming in fourth twice by a hairsbreath (ain't that always the way?). How can you not root for somebody like that? Just watched her win silver in synchronized diving. Coolness.


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## Hoffer (Jun 1, 2001)

tlrowley said:


> French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his leg on his landing - I'm not going to link a video and I don't recommend googling for a video unless you have a strong stomach
> 
> Apparently, men's vault was more dangerous than the cycling downhill!


I just went to an entertainment website I go to every so often. Right on the front page was a picture of this guy on the floor with his leg pointing the wrong direction.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

Hcour said:


> One of the things I like most about the Olympics is the individual stories you get about some of the athletes. This was the _fifth attempt_ at a medal in diving for Tania Cagnotto of Italy (her first Olympics was 2000), coming in fourth twice by a hairsbreath (ain't that always the way?). How can you not root for somebody like that? Just watched her win silver in synchronized diving. Coolness.


I was also rooting for her to finally get her medal, but she only had a shot to get silver or bronze, because that Chinese team may as well be robots. They said that prior to this event, Wu Minxia had entered 14 international synchro diving competitions, and won gold in all 14. Well, make it 15 for 15.


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

loubob57 said:


> A nice way to say she broke her neck.


Neck would be cervical. Lumbar is lower back, a.k.a "the small of the back."

--Carlos V.


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

Fun womens vball match (usa v netherlands) going on now.


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## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

Hcour said:


> I had to google BMX and yeah, that does look like a great event. I'd like to see it. I hope they show it on NBC, since I'm OTA and that's the only one of their channels I receive.


If it's live, it will have to be on a daytime broadcast; the semi-finals and finals (both men's and women's) are scheduled for Friday 8/19 from 12:30 until about 2:15 Eastern.

I wouldn't be surprised if NBC decides to air one or both of the finals in prime time, especially if an American wins a gold medal.


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## secondclaw (Oct 3, 2004)

JohnS-MI said:


> Rio is in the tropics (more so than Miami). It is 72 °F at 7 AM local, high of 85 °F is forecast (really metric, but my world weather link converts). Winter is ill-defined in the tropics, more of wet or dry thing.


I'm from Miami area and well familiar with our winter. Right now I'm in Rio, as one of the Games volunteers. The winter here is not like in Miami. Its moody, windy, and slightly wet (its drizzling now in Barra da Tujica), and on occasion very hot and dry. Humidity is higher than in Miami winter, at least it seems so to me, when it's cool outside, and very low when it's hot.


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## loubob57 (Mar 19, 2001)

Unbeliever said:


> Neck would be cervical. Lumbar is lower back, a.k.a "the small of the back."
> 
> --Carlos V.


Hmm, didn't catch that. Weird since she landed on her head.


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

loubob57 said:


> Hmm, didn't catch that. Weird since she landed on her head.


She did. But if you watch the video, her lumbar region hit the edge of the curb after landing on her head.

--Carlos V.


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## markp99 (Mar 21, 2002)

andyw715 said:


> Fun womens vball match (usa v netherlands) going on now.


Saw that match; crazy good saves on both sides.

Came away with a 6'4" crush on Robin de Kruijf  They grow them tall in the Netherlands - I did not realize they are the tallest country.


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

In Archery, I see they let the bow swivel downward after each shot. Its that similar to "follow through" ?


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## DancnDude (Feb 7, 2001)

Some interesting trivia about the timers and pools:


> OMEGA touch pads and starting blocks are part of an integrated timing system capable of recording times to the nearest 1/1000th of a second. However, because it is not possible to build swimming pools in which each lane is guaranteed to be precisely the same length, Olympic and World Records are still recorded to the nearest 1/100th of a second.


When you're talking hundredths or thousandths of a second, it never occurred to me that slight variations in pool length could actually be an issue. But it does make sense.


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## jamesl (Jul 12, 2012)

and what if there's more water in one lane than the other ? 

how is that fair ?


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

Quick and easy way to watch CBC streams if you don't already use a VPN.

Download Opera Browser Beta. (VPN feature not enabled in stable)
Open browser and go to *about:settings*
Under *Privacy & Security* enable VPN by ticking the box.
Click on the Blue VPN button now on the address bar.
Select Canada.

Go to http://olympics.cbc.ca and enjoy.


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

I've always wondered how those swimming timers work. How do they keep the sloshing water from triggering the touch pad and stopping the timer?


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## kettledrum (Nov 17, 2003)

DancnDude said:


> Some interesting trivia about the timers and pools:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


How close would the pool need to be constructed for 1/1000 second timing? For that matter how close does it have to be for 1/100 second timing?

To try to answer my own question - looking at wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool they cite this as the source https://www.fina.org/sites/default/files/finafacilities_rules.pdf

That pdf states there is a tolerance of up to 3cm if the pool is long. Or 0.1 foot. Would logic dictate that the pool would need to be within 0.01 foot (or approx 1/8 inch) for 1/1000 timing?

Those would be some tight specs.


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## SleepyBob (Sep 28, 2000)

jamesl said:


> and what if there's more water in one lane than the other ?
> 
> how is that fair ?


The water circulates differently in the outside lanes, too. That's why you want to do good in the prelims, so you get a good lane (a little like Pole Position in car races).


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## bryhamm (Jun 30, 2004)

robojerk said:


> Quick and easy way to watch CBC streams if you don't already use a VPN.
> 
> Download Opera Browser Beta. (VPN feature not enabled in stable)
> Open browser and go to *about:settings*
> ...


You and I have very different definitions of "quick and easy"


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

bryhamm said:


> You and I have very different definitions of "quick and easy"


Hows that not quick and easy?
Download & install browser
Check box in settings
Select Canada
Profit.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Possibly dumb question - what exactly are the official(s) looking for walking along the sides during the swimming events?

I mean, I can imagine collisions or something (not sure if that ever actually happens), or someone hitting the lane divider or something (seems highly unlikely at the Olympics)..

I noticed them basically following along with the swimmers as they swam..


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## robojerk (Jun 13, 2006)

mattack said:


> Possibly dumb question - what exactly are the official(s) looking for walking along the sides during the swimming events?
> 
> I mean, I can imagine collisions or something (not sure if that ever actually happens), or someone hitting the lane divider or something (seems highly unlikely at the Olympics)..
> 
> I noticed them basically following along with the swimmers as they swam..


Making sure the swimmers are doing the correct stroke?


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## smak (Feb 11, 2000)

All of the above.

-smak-


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## secondclaw (Oct 3, 2004)

andyw715 said:


> In Archery, I see they let the bow swivel downward after each shot. Its that similar to "follow through" ?


Yep ...
http://www.learn-archery.com/follow-through.html


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## markp99 (Mar 21, 2002)

The swimming officials are looking for number of things:

1. Stroke and kicks, especially right after the start and turns (while they are underwater)
2. Swimmer's head needs to pop-up before the 15m marker after a start or turn
3. The officials at the pool ends confirm the wall was touched at the turn and turn was legal
4. On relays, the the next swimmer's toes must not leave the starting block even a millisecond before the first swimmer's fingers touch the wall. The 2nd swimmer can be moving, just just before the touch, but must remain in contact


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## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

robojerk said:


> Making sure the swimmers are doing the correct stroke?


I noticed they don't walk alongside the pool for the freestyle events, so this is the correct answer.


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## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

kettledrum said:


> How close would the pool need to be constructed for 1/1000 second timing? For that matter how close does it have to be for 1/100 second timing?
> 
> To try to answer my own question - looking at wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool they cite this as the source https://www.fina.org/sites/default/files/finafacilities_rules.pdf
> 
> ...


3cm tolerance is a lot for a 50m pool - that's only 0.06%. If I am reading the track & field regulations right, the tolerance there is 0.01%.

But if you assume that, someday, somebody will swim 50m in 20 seconds, that's 2.5cm (about 1 inch) in 1/100 of a second, or 2.5mm (about 1/10 of an inch) in 1/1000 of a second.

The one thing I don't like about "timing to 0.01 second" is, you can have something like this:
Swimmer A finishes in 50.000 seconds
Swimmer B finishes in 50.009 seconds
Both are recorded as 50.00 seconds, and they tie for first (and, as a result, both get gold medals)
On the other hand:
Swimmer A finishes in 50.009 seconds
Swimmer B finishes in 50.010 seconds
Despite B being 0.008 closer in this race than in the first one, A's time is 50.00, while B's is 50.01, so only Swimmer A gets the gold.



SleepyBob said:


> The water circulates differently in the outside lanes, too. That's why you want to do good in the prelims, so you get a good lane (a little like Pole Position in car races).


This is also why there are 10 lanes, but usually only 8 are used. In "the old days," there was always a problem with the water bouncing off of the sides of the pool.


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## pgogborn (Nov 11, 2002)

BBC commentator recently said weather at swimming pool is like "Manchester in November". Not summer then


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## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

That Don Guy said:


> This is also why there are 10 lanes, but usually only 8 are used. In "the old days," there was always a problem with the water bouncing off of the sides of the pool.


Yeah.. the empty lanes helps with waves. So does a gutter around a pool. And I think even depth. Makes water smoother. Which is faster. You'll hear people say that some pools are "faster" than other.


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## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

jsmeeker said:


> Yeah.. the empty lanes helps with waves. So does a gutter around a pool. And I think even depth. Makes water smoother. Which is faster.
> You'll hear people say that some pools are "faster" than other.


This pool is definitely a "fast" one - even in the early heats of the 100m with the swimmers that didn't meet the normal qualifying time requirement, but get in under the "at least one swimmer per gender per country" rule, at least half of the swimmers had personal bests.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

I guess I shouldn't expect differently, but the NBC analysts are taking "homerism" to a new level with these Olympics. Watching the Gymnastics, you'd think EVERY American gymnast has had a good routine. I don't remember an Olympics where a hop on the landing has been discounted so much. I don't remember the dominant Russians and Romanians of years ago hopping so often on landings. The swimming announcers are constantly talking about the events the Americans don't win a model as those swimmers having a "good swim". Tell it like it is please. There have been other examples in other events, but I don't remember specific examples.


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## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

Yeah, it's annoying when another country wins an event but the announcers focus on the American that came in second or third, talking about how great they were blah blah blah, pretty much ignoring the actual winner.


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## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

Steveknj said:


> I guess I shouldn't expect differently, but the NBC analysts are taking "homerism" to a new level with these Olympics. Watching the Gymnastics, you'd think EVERY American gymnast has had a good routine. I don't remember an Olympics where a hop on the landing has been discounted so much.


If you are referring to the women's gymnastics, then you would think that every American gymnast has had a good routine because they all pretty much _have_. You can't really compare gymnastics in 2016 with gymnastics in 2008 or earlier because (a) the days when you needed everybody to be an all-arounder in the team event are over, and (b) the new scoring system lessens the impact of taking a step. A 0.1 deduction is less of a penalty when the maximum score can be in the 16s than when it is 10.

Trust me - it's nowhere near as bad as it was in 1996, when NBC's coverage of the women's team final consisted of:
USA on bars, USA on bars, USA on bars, USA on bars, USA on bars, USA on bars, pause for commercials while they go to the beam, USA on beam, "Oh, look, a Russian gymnast fell!", USA on beam, USA on beam, "ANOTHER Russian gymnast fell - that opens the door wider for USA", USA on beam, USA on beam, USA on beam, pause for commercials while they go to the floor, repeat (except replace "Russian" with "Romanian" this time), go to the vault, "Kerri Strug fell...and she's limping...but she's going to continue, and...she sticks the landing...USA wins the gold...dangit, Tiger Woods, why did you have to turn pro and win two majors, so Sports Illustrated would choose you over these girls as Sportsman of the Year?"


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## cmontyburns (Nov 14, 2001)

Steveknj said:


> I guess I shouldn't expect differently, but the NBC analysts are taking "homerism" to a new level with these Olympics. Watching the Gymnastics, you'd think EVERY American gymnast has had a good routine. I don't remember an Olympics where a hop on the landing has been discounted so much. I don't remember the dominant Russians and Romanians of years ago hopping so often on landings. The swimming announcers are constantly talking about the events the Americans don't win a model as those swimmers having a "good swim". Tell it like it is please. There have been other examples in other events, but I don't remember specific examples.


Your general point is taken, but as Don Guy points out, in gymnastics the superlatives are warranted. It's silly how much better the US women are than the rest of the world. Those dominant Russians and Romanians couldn't do what the American women can do today, hops or not.

In swimming, I can agree in that I've been disappointed in Rowdy Gaines this Olympiad. He used to provide some actual analysis along the way and, while he does get a few bits of knowledge out here and there now, he does lapse into banalities a lot more than I would prefer. That said, like in gymnastics, the US is dominating swimming. We've medaled in 18 of the 20 events held through Wednesday, and finished fourth in the two events in which we didn't medal. We're on pace to win the most medals in swimming in 40 years, and that prior best was when you could enter three swimmers per event, not two as is the limit today. We are having almost no "bad swims".


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## Robin (Dec 6, 2001)

IMO hops on landing are like the little dance moves in the floor routines. Who the F cares?


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## MikeCC (Jun 19, 2004)

Robin said:


> IMO hops on landing are like the little dance moves in the floor routines. Who the F cares?


Apparently *Steveknj* does. The judges...? Not so much.


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## Howie (May 3, 2004)

I can't tell the difference between a good routine and a bad one, except for the landing. If it weren't for the announcers telling me, I wouldn't have a clue. I did learn that they need to keep their legs together.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

They've always talked about the bad landings, taking a hop, bending too far, etc..


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## cmontyburns (Nov 14, 2001)

cmontyburns said:


> In swimming, I can agree in that I've been disappointed in Rowdy Gaines this Olympiad. He used to provide some actual analysis along the way and, while he does get a few bits of knowledge out here and there now, he does lapse into banalities a lot more than I would prefer.


Credit where it's due. Gaines commented during Ledecky's 800 semifinal swim that he generally doesn't have time in the shorter races to talk about the actual swimming, but in the longer 800 he could cover it. And he did. He pointed out some cool stuff about Ledecky's stroke that I really wouldn't have noticed on my own.


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## Howie (May 3, 2004)

Hcour said:


> Yeah, it's annoying when another country wins an event but the announcers focus on the American that came in second or third, talking about how great they were blah blah blah, pretty much ignoring the actual winner.


I agree with you here.


Spoiler



There was a tie for the gold in the 100m freestyle between the USA's Manuel and Canada's 16 year old Oleksiak. NBC was all over Manuel, but didn't even interview Oleksiak.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Hcour said:


> Yeah, it's annoying when another country wins an event but the announcers focus on the American that came in second or third, talking about how great they were blah blah blah, pretty much ignoring the actual winner.


Yep, happens way too much. Last night, women's all around. The announcers sounded like it was a major tragedy when Aly Raisman was 4th after two events and that dastardly Russian was ahead of her. I do wonder if they were trying to promote the drama because they ignored the fact that Aly's signature event was coming and there was no way any of the others could catch her as her degree of difficulty was much higher and she's royally have to screw up a routine she's probably done in her sleep.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

cmontyburns said:


> Your general point is taken, but as Don Guy points out, in gymnastics the superlatives are warranted. It's silly how much better the US women are than the rest of the world. Those dominant Russians and Romanians couldn't do what the American women can do today, hops or not.


So tell me why the Americans have progressed to do these types of things and the Russians and Romanians haven't? It's really simple, the money isn't there and there's no government sponsorship like their used to be (not to mention the Russian doping scandal has had an effect on these events). If you want to call it gymnastics inflation where over time the gymnasts can just do more....one country has progressed, the others haven't. Thus, the Americans have no real competition. and the Russians and Romanians back in the 70s and 80s had MUCH more and had to be much more perfect in what they did. I watched the routines and to me, they just didn't look as good to me, the non-fan, as they have in other Olympics. And it didn't have to because who's going to actually give them a challenge? (now, I'm sure if you follow this sport hardcore, you can see things that I can't).


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

MikeCC said:


> Apparently *Steveknj* does. The judges...? Not so much.


Because it USED to be a bigger deal. I guess they have decided to devalue those hops, which is probably the ONE thing (outside of actually FALLING off the apparatus) that a non-fan can notice.


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

Howie said:


> I can't tell the difference between a good routine and a bad one, except for the landing. If it weren't for the announcers telling me, I wouldn't have a clue. I did learn that they need to keep their legs together.





mattack said:


> They've always talked about the bad landings, taking a hop, bending too far, etc..


Yep, and this year, it just didn't matter. Very few of the elite gymnasts stick landings anymore. Maybe it's just because they don't have to.


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## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

Steveknj said:


> Because it USED to be a bigger deal. I guess they have decided to devalue those hops, which is probably the ONE thing (outside of actually FALLING off the apparatus) that a non-fan can notice.


The judges deduct for the hops on landing. Small hops get small deductions and the large ones get larger deductions. They spent some time on discussing this during the vault last night, I think.

The scoring system that they use now is more complicated now. The maximum score used to be 10, IIRC. Now it's variable based on the difficulty level of each routine. So you can have an easier routine that is performed flawlessly get a maximum perfect score of 14.4, and the next gymnast can have multiple mistakes, earning 1.5 point deductions, and get a 14.5 because her routine had a maximum score of 16.


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## MikeCC (Jun 19, 2004)

*Steveknj*, I'm not sure I follow your point.

You mention that there is no government sponsorship:



> the money isn't there and there's no government sponsorship like their used to be


Maybe so, although I suspect that both the Russian and Chinese teams have tons of government money poured into training facilities and recruitment. The US has always relied on business sponsors and kept the US Olympic Committee away from government involvement.

So are you saying that the other teams aren't better because they no longer get money from their national treasuries? That should be true also for the US team, right?

It could be that the US history and tradition of not using taxpayers money for the Olympics has lessened the impact during economic downturns. Yet, corporate sponsors of the events are affected by down economies, too. So the US Olympic Committee has always faced the risk of decreasing sponsorships when times are tough.

So how is it that the US teams are so dominant now? I don't quite follow your theory about the money.


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## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

As far as swimming coverage, at least NBC can call the race with the correct outcome.






Hmmm.. Dunno why it don't embed


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## cmontyburns (Nov 14, 2001)

Steveknj said:


> So tell me why the Americans have progressed to do these types of things and the Russians and Romanians haven't?


The US has a virtuous circle going in women's gymnastics. First, winning, which we've done a lot of in recent years, breeds interest, and interest breeds participants. So our pool of young female gymnasts has become massive and is still growing. We've got many, many more opportunities to find and develop talent.

Second, the Karolyis have perfected the perfect model for USA Gymnastics, a "semi-centralized" program where prospective top gymnasts all train at their home clubs most of the time, but go to the Karolyi ranch once per month for program training led by Martha Karolyi. This approach has the effect of exposing every gymnast and their coaches to (1) US coaching regularly; (2) elite national competition regularly that they wouldn't get otherwise; (3) new ideas and techniques that some clubs may be using but they aren't; and (4) camaraderie with gymnasts who may be on the national team with them someday. But it also lets them live and train most of the time at home, where they are more likely to be well-adjusted and happy. And they bring back learnings from the national coaches and other gymnasts from around the country to their home gyms, strengthening local programs.

Third, all of this has the effect of drawing elite international coaches to the US. If you want to coach the best, and have the best chance of developing a world talent, this is the place to do it. This is turn depletes the stock of top coaches available to other countries.

And finally, the US has perfected working within the new scoring system. You get a better net score now by doing more complicated stuff with minor errors than you would doing simpler stuff flawlessly. So the US really pushes the envelope on athleticism in the sport, knowing that it will lead to better results. And we're aided in doing that by all of the above factors: more participants means finding better athletes, exposure to better and more national competition pushes everyone to higher levels, and more elite coaching ties it all together.

You saw the results of that in the women's team competition in Rio. The Americans' routines were the most complicated on every apparatus and the team executed all of them without a single major error (fall, slip, step out of bounds, major form break, etc.). Virtuous circle. Dominance.


----------



## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

cmontyburns said:


> Third, all of this has the effect of drawing elite international coaches to the US. If you want to coach the best, and have the best chance of developing a world talent, this is the place to do it. This is turn depletes the stock of top coaches available to other countries.


It probably doesn't hurt this point that, unlike Russia and Romania, the US is a place people want to live in.


----------



## Amnesia (Jan 30, 2005)

cmontyburns said:


> The US has a virtuous circle going in women's gymnastics. (...) Second, the Karolyis have perfected the perfect model for USA Gymnastics, a "semi-centralized" program where prospective top gymnasts all train at their home clubs most of the time, but go to the Karolyi ranch once per month for program training led by Martha Karolyi.


Yeah, but I hope they're going to be able to keep everything together next year, with Marta retiring...


----------



## jamesl (Jul 12, 2012)

Nadia > Olga > everyone else


----------



## mcb08 (Mar 10, 2006)

jsmeeker said:


> As far as swimming coverage, at least NBC can call the race with the correct outcome.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's been taken down from YT. Assuming that it's the call that I think it is, I didn't see it last night, but I read about it on Twitter. I went to college with the announcer. His specialty is hockey, but he's been doing a great job covering swimming at these Olympics (outside of this call, obviously )

ETA: I just found the clip online. That's definitely LOL-worthy! Poor guy. Most of us make our mistakes in private, not in front of millions of people.


----------



## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

He was just being sarcastic.


----------



## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

MikeCC said:


> *Steveknj*, I'm not sure I follow your point.
> 
> You mention that there is no government sponsorship:
> 
> ...


What I'm saying is back in the Communist days the Russian and it's satellite governments would pour HUGE amounts of money and resources into their Olympic programs to the point where they were essentially full time paid athletes (circumventing their former "amateur" status. The Chinese probably still do this to some extent and indeed, hearing rumblings that they aren't too happy with their performance in some sports. Today, that type of government backing is not done the way it used to be.


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## brettatk (Oct 11, 2002)

I found it interesting last night when they were talking about the Chinese and how dominant they were back in 2008. They said their coaches were given huge bonuses by their federation. Now the federation has asked for the coaches to give that money back because of recent results. I wonder how many actually returned it. I'd almost be afraid not to if I was them.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Steveknj said:


> Yep, and this year, it just didn't matter. Very few of the elite gymnasts stick landings anymore. Maybe it's just because they don't have to.


I have admittedly been FFing through TONS of stuff, mostly watching only small parts of just the NBC primetime parts.. But I'm pretty sure either last night or the previous women's gymnastics coverage had one of the Americans do what I thought was a REALLY good stuck landing -- no hop and basically landed with legs straight.

Also, even with the above caveat that I'm watching less than I have in previous Olympics-es, don't they seem to be doing more "cover one event for a long time", and less switchover/biographies, etc., the latter of which a lot of people seem to hate?

They switched between gymnastics & swimming, but even that was fairly long stretches of both.


----------



## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

mattack said:


> I have admittedly been FFing through TONS of stuff, mostly watching only small parts of just the NBC primetime parts.. But I'm pretty sure either last night or the previous women's gymnastics coverage had one of the Americans do what I thought was a REALLY good stuck landing -- no hop and basically landed with legs straight.
> 
> Also, even with the above caveat that I'm watching less than I have in previous Olympics-es, don't they seem to be doing more "cover one event for a long time", and less switchover/biographies, etc., the latter of which a lot of people seem to hate? They switched between gymnastics & swimming, but even that was fairly long stretches of both.


The gymnastics has been happening during the day and the swimming at night. So for most of this week during prime time, NBC has been showing gymnastics during the first hour of coverage, then switching over to swimming and showing the majority of the swimming stuff live, and then when the swimming ends, they switch back and show the rest of the gymnastics in the final hour of the prime time block.

Now that swimming is mostly over after tonight, we'll have to see what events are scheduled for evenings for next week. I would guess it will be track and field.


----------



## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

Tonight is back and forth between LIVE swimming and track and field. Some of which was live earlier. I loves me some track events, so I am OK with this.


The big key here is LIVE. Showing medal events with Americans that can and do win gold and showing them LIVE is pretty important. I'm glad they actually do this instead of showing all of the already finished and completed gymnastics in a continuous, not live block at the start of Prime Time


----------



## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

Howie said:


> I agree with you here.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


That is not unusual... they hardly ever (I'd say never, but someone will dig up some instance where they did ) talk to a non-American athlete in the interview. And the American win was really historic.


----------



## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

laria said:


> That is not unusual... they hardly ever (I'd say never, but someone will dig up some instance where they did ) talk to a non-American athlete in the interview. And the American win was really historic.


You are basically right. But I put money on NBC talking to Usain Bolt after the 100m and 200m. They already have show various profiles on him and interviews with him.


----------



## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

jsmeeker said:


> You are basically right. But I put money on NBC talking to Usain Bolt after the 100m and 200m. They already have show various profiles on him and interviews with him.


Yeah, I think they are more likely to talk to a T&F star afterwards. Swimming it seems like they never do.


----------



## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

laria said:


> Yeah, I think they are more likely to talk to a T&F star afterwards. Swimming it seems like they never do.


ha!

You jinxed it

Inverviewing 50 M free winner from Denmak


----------



## cmontyburns (Nov 14, 2001)

Michelle Tafoya making all of you look foolish by interviewing he Danish winner of the women's 50 free right now.


----------



## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

laria said:


> Swimming it seems like they never do.


Of course now I'm watching one but it is because they have a lot of time to kill and can't talk to the American.


----------



## pgogborn (Nov 11, 2002)

laria said:


> That is not unusual... they hardly ever (I'd say never, but someone will dig up some instance where they did ) talk to a non-American athlete in the interview. And the American win was really historic.


Penny Oleksiak is an American.

But she has dual-citizenship and the traitor chose to swim for Canada 

Penny's own bit of history. She is the first person born this century to win a gold medal in an individual Olympic event.

For a human interest angle - she looked up at the score board, saw Simone Manuel had come first, seconds past until the penny dropped that she was equal first.


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

Howie said:


> I agree with you here.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


Not only that, but she was 7th at the turn, so it was quite the come back in the last 30 meters or so. 4 medals at these games and she's 16. Easy decision for who carries the flag.


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

jamesl said:


> Nadia > Olga > everyone else


I know what you mean, but take a look at Nadia's "perfect" videos from '76 and then look at what the women are doing now.


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

pgogborn said:


> Penny Oleksiak is an American.
> 
> But she has dual-citizenship and the traitor chose to swim for Canada
> 
> ...


She may have dual citizenship but she was born and raised in Canada. I know you were joking but Brett Hull's famous "defection" still stings.


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

Canada has 12 medals in theses games, all from the women. Is that weird or what? Generation X-X.


----------



## pgogborn (Nov 11, 2002)

wprager said:


> She may have dual citizenship but she was born and raised in Canada. I know you were joking but Brett Hull's famous "defection" still stings.


Maybe not a good time to mention a bit of American human interest missed by the non-interviewers 

###
When she arrived for the interview, she watched the race and chuckled in the way that a typical teenager does. She witnessed the reactions of her family members in the grandstand as we played back the race that led to her latest medal. There was her totally stunned father, her wildly dancing mother, her gyrating sister and her giant of a brother who lost it completely and became totally overwhelmed.

"I don't think I've ever seen him cry," Penny smiled >
http://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article/magic-penny-oleksiak-olympic-accomplishment-truly-inspiring.html
###

Her giant of a brother Jaimie is currently playing for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League, he was selected 14th overall in the first round of the 2011 NHL Entry .


----------



## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

wprager said:


> I know what you mean, but take a look at Nadia's "perfect" videos from '76 and then look at what the women are doing now.


I had never seen them until today. The reverse angle look from around 2:30 - 2:50 is pretty insane. And the look on that other gymnast is priceless - was she the favorite going into the competition? I'll have to keep that Perfect 10 routine in mind while watching the remaining competition this week.






Nadia was 14 when she did this. I don't think 14-year-olds can even compete in modern Olympics in Gymnastics.


----------



## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

There are some events I've just never been able to take seriously - badminton, water polo, synchronized swimming. (The last you can blame on Christopher Guest and Martin Short.)


----------



## Azlen (Nov 25, 2002)

Hcour said:


> There are some events I've just never been able to take seriously - badminton, water polo, synchronized swimming. (The last you can blame on Christopher Guest and Martin Short.)


For me, I would take out water polo and add rhythmic gymnastics, especially when the are dancing around with the ribbon.


----------



## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

trampoline


----------



## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

jsmeeker said:


> trampoline


I call sports like that the backyard Olympic events. What's next, bocci and croquet?

I'd also add in table tennis (ping pong). Any sport that can be played in your basement doesn't belong in the Olympics.  I'm sure darts and billiards and foosball aren't too far behind.


----------



## Amnesia (Jan 30, 2005)

Steveknj said:


> I call sports like that the backyard Olympic events. What's next, bocci and croquet?


Actually roque (a variation of croquet) was an Olympic sport in 1904...


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Steveknj said:


> Any sport that can be played in your basement doesn't belong in the Olympics.


Like boxing? Or weightlifting? Or wrestling?


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

I'm ok with trampoline -- it's a lot like gymnastics (and Canada gets gold  ). I don't see how *any* of the horse events are athletic competitions, except for the horses. Not saying it's not hard to do but Ian Millar competed in 10 Olympics. His daughter is doing her *first* ones and she's 39. Sorry, if it's something you can do well into your 60s it probably does not belong in the Olympics.

Did you see the guy in the discus throw? He had a pot bigger than I did before I lost 30 lbs. And, besides, it's a totally useless skill (at least javelin was a hunting/war thing) but discus? It's like skipping stones, but overhand. 

I'd also seriously look into why they have *34* swimming events. Why do we need anything other than freestyle in terms of strokes? The purpose is to go as fast as you can. Yes, I realize they have the "Walk" still in there (do they?) but that is another event that's got to go.

Overall, the Olympics have been diluted beyond belief. Too long (including the opening ceremonies).

I think I'll go yell at some clouds, now.


----------



## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

TonyD79 said:


> Like boxing? Or weightlifting? Or wrestling?


Huh? Unless you mean, like boxing or wrestling with your brother/friends or lifting exercise weights. Not really what I mean. (or you aren't getting the joke)


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Steveknj said:


> Huh? Unless you mean, like boxing or wrestling with your brother/friends or lifting exercise weights. Not really what I mean. (or you aren't getting the joke)


No, I am not, I guess. Because all of those fit the criticism of Ping Pong that you had.


----------



## pgogborn (Nov 11, 2002)

wprager said:


> ...
> I don't see how *any* of the horse events are athletic competitions, except for the horses.
> ...


Don't knock the sitting down competitions 

***
The Guardian
*Why are Team GB so good at standing out while sitting down  and will the glory continue?*
Gerard Meagher 
Friday 5 August 2016 13.34 BST
...
Of the 29 gold medals won in London, 18 came in sitting-down sports; >
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/05/team-gb-sitting-down-sports-rio-2016-london-2012
###


----------



## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

TonyD79 said:


> No, I am not, I guess. Because all of those fit the criticism of Ping Pong that you had.


How so?


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Steveknj said:


> How so?


They can all be done in your basement.


----------



## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

NBC's promotion of _Timeless _is relentless.


----------



## RGM1138 (Oct 6, 1999)

Didn't they used to behead the losers in the original Olympics?

Or, maybe I'm thinking of the Mayans.

I could only watch a couple of laps of men's indoor biking. What a snore. Maybe they could bring back Rollerball.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I tried to answer the question for myself, but the closest I could find was this from wikipedia:
By the mid 1980s, routines had become so based on swing and release moves that the bars were moved even farther apart.

Does anybody know exactly when the uneven bars were moved apart? or for example which Olympics they moved apart?

The gymnast used to be able to bend at the waist over the lower bar from the higher bar, right?!?!?


----------



## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

So I started at the one hour mark, and timed how long it took to watch that hour, FF thru everything but actual events.

Five minutes. 5 frikkin minutes of actual sports in the first hour tonight. And I was generous with allowing time for the athletes to take their marks, or wiggle around before the pole vault.

I love watching the Olympics, but NBC is making it unbearable. I just record it, and watch later.


----------



## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

astrohip said:


> So I started at the one hour mark, and timed how long it took to watch that hour, FF thru everything but actual events.
> 
> Five minutes. 5 frikkin minutes of actual sports in the first hour tonight. And I was generous with allowing time for the athletes to take their marks, or wiggle around before the pole vault.
> 
> I love watching the Olympics, but NBC is making it unbearable. I just record it, and watch later.


This is being selective - you chose an hour with a couple of track & field finals. There tend to be longer than usual breaks between these so they can have medal ceremonies for earlier events - for example, Usain Bolt's 100m medal ceremony took place.

The networks have tried taping the events and airing them later, in part so they could remove the gaps between events, but received too many complaints from people who wanted to see the big events live.

The same thing will happen tonight (Tuesday) - the second hour will have five races in it (three women's 200m semi-finals, each about 25 seconds; the women's 1500, which is about 4 minutes; and, the men's 110m hurdles, which is about 15 seconds. Throw in cutaways to the men's high jump as well.


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Definitely equestrian is the biggest joke. As in many other endeavors it's just humans taking credit for the achievements of others - in this case horses. It's the horses who are the athletes and technically they don't even have nationalities.


----------



## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

series5orpremier said:


> Definitely equestrian is the biggest joke. As in many other endeavors it's just humans taking credit for the achievements of others - in this case horses. It's the horses who are the athletes and technically they don't even have nationalities.


Not true. You've obviously never been involved in equestrian events, or you would know it.

Reminds me of the old Bum Phillips quote: "He can take his'n and beat your'n and take your'n and beat his'n"

It takes a great horse AND a great rider working together to excel at these events. Why is it a champion rider can win even after changing horses?

And while I understand your point, the horses actually do have nationalities. There are Dutch Warmbloods, and Austrian Warmbloods, and German Hanoverians, and... well, you get the idea.


----------



## gschrock (Dec 28, 2001)

I've got to admit, I don't really get dressage myself. I think I'd sooner watch paint dry. But the cross country jumping was pretty decent, and definitely there's an element of risk there to the riders involved.


----------



## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

They should do jousting. I'd watch that.


----------



## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

andyw715 said:


> They should do jousting. I'd watch that.


That would be awesome.


----------



## JFriday (Mar 20, 2002)

wprager said:


> I know what you mean, but take a look at Nadia's "perfect" videos from '76 and then look at what the women are doing now.


I was looking at her floor routine and noticed there is almost no give in the floor where today it has a lot of spring, do you think that might help with the height they get?


----------



## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

Horse gymnastics!


----------



## Big Deficit (Jul 8, 2003)

Just 2 more women's beach volleyball matches and the Olympics are done.


----------



## kettledrum (Nov 17, 2003)

Big Deficit said:


> Just 2 more women's beach volleyball matches and the Olympics are done.


But if you have them TiVo'd you can watch them over and over for the rest of your life. :up:


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

andyw715 said:


> They should do jousting. I'd watch that.


State sport of Maryland.


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

These two are adorable. Can you imagine something like this between Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson?


----------



## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

wprager said:


> These two are adorable. Can you imagine something like this between Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson?


Only in a semifinal where they both advance. The final will be a bit different.


----------



## wprager (Feb 19, 2006)

Guess you didn't see them after the 100m final:









I never realized how huge Bolt is -- 6'5". That's why he is typically slow out of the blocks but by the time he gets going no-one can keep up. Even though de Grasse's better race is the 200m I don't think he will catch him.

That said, de Grasse has only been sprinting 4-5 years so he still has a ways to go. But he'll never be 6'5". That's just enormous for a sprinter.


----------



## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

It's actually unusual for sprinters to be that tall. There's a benefit to the longer stride, but that's usually offset by the force required to propel the larger person, and therefore the taller runner can't churn his legs as fast. What makes Bolt so amazing and so unusual is his ability to churn his legs just as fast as the shorter sprinters while taking advantage of his longer stride.


----------



## kettledrum (Nov 17, 2003)

I cant believe Gatlin screwed the pooch like that and missed the final. I think he would have made it if he didn't look around and let off the gas.


----------



## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

kettledrum said:


> I cant believe Gatlin screwed the pooch like that and missed the final. I think he would have made it if he didn't look around and let off the gas.


I don't even understand the complaint about him looking around. When he looked, he saw that there were multiple competitors almost even with him, so that should have been a clear indication not to let off the gas (if he actually did). It looked to me like he was straining hard the entire time.


----------



## mcb08 (Mar 10, 2006)

Why look around at all? I would think that would take some of your focus away from running as fast as possible. You can see peripherally that there are people in front of you.


----------



## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Is the "bounciness" of the floor standardized?

One woman who screwed up twice IIRC seemed to fumble due to the bounciness/rebound of the floor.


----------



## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

Just read through the thread and back to American gymnastics...

I record all the Olympic programming and FF through most of it - but seemingly unannounced yesterday's programming included a documentary called Karoly's (if I spelt that correctly) - basically tracked their careers back to Romania - discovering Nadia - through their defection to the United States - discovering Mary Lou Retton - up to this Olympics including the building of the Karoly ranch outside Houston and how Marta changed everything for the USA team by building an actual team.

It was fascinating.

I'm not sure why they aired it days after the gymnastics was over but... I'm glad I accidentally caught it.


----------



## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

Cainebj said:


> I'm not sure why they aired it days after the gymnastics was over but... I'm glad I accidentally caught it.


Because at the end of the Olympics with a lot of events over, this is when they have a lot of air time to fill.  They seem to always air a lot more puff pieces near the end.

I enjoyed it, too. I am a pretty avid follower of gymnastics, but there was some early stuff from their time in Romania that I hadn't seen or known.


----------



## randian (Jan 15, 2014)

kettledrum said:


> I cant believe Gatlin screwed the pooch like that and missed the final. I think he would have made it if he didn't look around and let off the gas.


That's but Gatlin's first error this Olympics. He then proceeded to DQ the 4x100 team in the prelims by leaving late and taking the handoff before the exchange zone.

Great racing by Centrowitz to win the 1500 and Chelimo to get 2nd in the 5k.

I was really annoyed because both the Bronze and Gold medal women's volleyball matches weren't televised. They were scheduled to be shown according to the episode summary, but no volleyball actually appeared in my recording. Water Polo and Team Handball were shown instead. I hope the men's games are shown on Sunday.


----------



## smak (Feb 11, 2000)

mcb08 said:


> Why look around at all? I would think that would take some of your focus away from running as fast as possible. You can see peripherally that there are people in front of you.


I even thought Bolt kind of veered a tiny bit to the side when he looked around in a few of the races.

In general, it's a bad idea, and Gatlin isn't good enough to care where people are, he just needs to run until he crosses the line.

-smak-


----------



## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

randian said:


> I was really annoyed because both the Bronze and Gold medal women's volleyball matches weren't televised. They were scheduled to be shown according to the episode summary, but no volleyball actually appeared in my recording. Water Polo and Team Handball were shown instead. I hope the men's games are shown on Sunday.


You absolutely cannot trust the descriptions and have to just record everything, although it's a little late now I realize.  So much stuff just did not have the right description.

I had like at least 5-6 recordings that claimed that the gymnastics gala was in them but I never saw it in there. I didn't actually want to watch the gala, but every time I saw it in the description I kept thinking, sheesh how much gala is there?! But then it was never in the recording. There was another recording I had that said "Taekwondo, Modern Pentathlon" and I thought, oooh modern pentathlon, they never show that! But it was 100% water polo. Many other things here and there that just never showed up as you saw.

The women's volleyball matches were definitely televised. I skimmed through them both last night when I was going through my 39 recordings from Friday and Saturday.


----------



## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

randian said:


> Great racing by Centrowitz to win the 1500 and Chelimo to get 2nd in the 5k.


Chelimo got DQed along with a couple others from that race. IIRC, that moved Lagat up to the bronze.


----------



## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

DevdogAZ said:


> Chelimo got DQed along with a couple others from that race. IIRC, that moved Lagat up to the bronze.


Then he was un-DQed.


----------



## cmontyburns (Nov 14, 2001)

laria said:


> The women's volleyball matches were definitely televised.


Yep. I watched the Bronze match live.


----------



## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

Marathoners are no doubt great athletes but I find their event boring.

And on a completely unrelated note, Ryan Lochte is an idiot. Yeah, I used to party and make a fool of myself - when I was 20 yrs old. He's like, what, 32?


----------



## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

Hcour said:


> Marathoners are no doubt great athletes but I find their event boring.
> 
> And on a completely unrelated note,* Ryan Lochte is an idiot*. Yeah, I used to party and make a fool of myself - when I was 20 yrs old. He's like, what, 32?


----------



## DevdogAZ (Apr 16, 2003)

BrettStah said:


> Then he was un-DQed.


Ah, didn't hear about that. Thanks.


----------



## 702 (Feb 9, 2003)

Anyone know of a non-NBC stream to watch the closing ceremonies?


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

DevdogAZ said:


> Ah, didn't hear about that. Thanks.


Nbc had it wrong. He wasn't DQd for the contact. The other guy was. He was DQd for stepping on the inner line of the track. It was one foot and straddled the line, so they overturned on appeal.


----------



## eddyj (Jun 20, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> Nbc had it wrong. He wasn't DQd for the contact. The other guy was. He was DQd for stepping on the inner line of the track. It was one foot and straddled the line, so they overturned on appeal.


NBC originally said it was contact, but later did correct that the DQ was for the foot, and showed the footage (see what I did there?) and mentioned it was very picky. Eventually, that got overturned.


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

eddyj said:


> NBC originally said it was contact, but later did correct that the DQ was for the foot, and showed the footage (see what I did there?) and mentioned it was very picky. Eventually, that got overturned.


How did that post add anything? Nbc had it wrong and told HIM what they had wrong. The officials corrected them by announcement. Nbc would have still had it wrong because they had to rush to report.

btw, abc reported the correct info before nbc. Via Twitter.


----------



## eddyj (Jun 20, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> How did that post add anything? Nbc had it wrong and told HIM what they had wrong. The officials corrected them by announcement. Nbc would have still had it wrong because they had to rush to report.
> 
> btw, abc reported the correct info before nbc. Via Twitter.


I just described the sequence of events as televised, to expand on what you said. Not sure why you seem to be taking it personally.


----------



## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

eddyj said:


> I just described the sequence of events as televised, to expand on what you said. Not sure why you seem to be taking it personally.


I'm not sure why you think I took anything personally?


----------



## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

I'm glad they're over. I think I had my fill about day 9.


----------



## Odds Bodkins (Jun 7, 2006)

TonyD79 said:


> I'm not sure why you think I took anything personally?


Methinks eddyj didn't quite grasp your "see what I did there" comment... which was perfect BTW! :up:


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## eddyj (Jun 20, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> I'm not sure why you think I took anything personally?


Because because you implied my post was worthless/useless/of no value when I replied to your post?


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## Steveknj (Mar 10, 2003)

jlb said:


> I'm glad they're over. I think I had my fill about day 9.


That was kind of my feeling, which is unusual as I am usually an Olympics junkie. Maybe it's old age, or overhype (and overcoverage), but for some reason these Olympics didn't resonate with me. I do enjoy watching some of the events I don't see otherwise, such as Team Handball and Indoor Volleyball, but otherwise, I was just kind of bored with it all.

I thought the closing ceremonies were much better than the Opening, and I thought Terico, et all were much better covering it than Lauer and his two cohorts.

My favorite moment of the Olympics and the one I was most riveted to was Brazil winning in Soccer. I know it was a "lesser" tourney than the WC, but it didn't seem that way to the Brazilians. That was pretty exciting (still don't like these shootouts to determine a winner, be it soccer or ice hockey, but it kind of works in a winner take all like that).


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## Hcour (Dec 24, 2007)

I've still got 104 hours of Olympics recorded on my Tivo. No two-week event for moi, I'll be watching for the next several weeks at least.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

eddyj said:


> Because because you implied my post was worthless/useless/of no value when I replied to your post?


That means you are taking it personally. Sorry if you are. I just didn't understand what the post was for.


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## hefe (Dec 5, 2000)

jlb said:


> I'm glad they're over. I think I had my fill about day 9.


Had mine on day 0. Can I watch the news at the normal time again?


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

hefe said:


> Had mine on day 0. Can I watch the news at the normal time again?


What is this "normal time" you speak of? We are a Tivo Community!


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Cainebj said:


> I record all the Olympic programming and FF through most of it - but seemingly unannounced yesterday's programming included a documentary called Karoly's (if I spelt that correctly) - basically tracked their careers back to Romania - discovering Nadia - through their defection to the United States - discovering Mary Lou Retton - up to this Olympics including the building of the Karoly ranch outside Houston and how Marta changed everything for the USA team by building an actual team.


Exactly which time/channel recording was this in?


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## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

mattack said:


> Exactly which time/channel recording was this in?


I want to say it was in one of the later night NBCSN recordings, last Thursday maybe.

If you google for "karolyi documentary" there are plenty of links/stories about it. You can stream it from NBC.


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## warrenn (Jun 24, 2004)

mattack said:


> Exactly which time/channel recording was this in?


I had it recorded in the program from NBC on Thursday 8/18 at 2:30 CST. It starts about 10-15 minutes into the program.

I also enjoyed it and gained a new respect for them and their program.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

darn, I was hoping it was maybe a recording from a day or so ago and might be in my recently deleted.. but nope..


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## laria (Sep 7, 2000)

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/martha-and-bela-karolyi-documentary-gymnastics-legends


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