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2016 Olympics; General discussion
Topic Started: Jul 31 2016, 03:54 AM (987 Views)
Sporting
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I thought I'd open this thread to talk about non-football related sports in this year's Games.

There's been a lot of negative stuff going on in the whole build-up to the Rio festival and though we shouldn't ignore anything to do with drugs, whether the stadiums and the infrastructure as a whole are ready, crime and so on, there's going to be a lot of sport to watch as well. Will Bolt win the 100 metres again? Who will finish second to the Americans in basketball? And lots, lots more...
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Yogi
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Great idea Sporting, thanks for opening this discussion.

i have to say the latest drug scandal ahs sapped some of my interest in this year's Olympics. Maybe once it starts I'll get interested again especially in the track & field or as the rest of the world outside the US & Canada call it, athletics.

Despite the numerous article son glitches going on in Rio, the latest is the Rio state government {I believe} fired the security firm in charge of additional security at the games and is using retired police officers to augment another private security firm's personnel.

Because of his own doping scandal I have never been much of a fan of Justin Gatlin but if anybody can end Usain Bolt's dominance in the sprints it seems that it could be him.
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hobbes
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I normally can turn off my cynicism for a few weeks and kind of embrace the Olympic spirit. I'm not sure that's going to happen this year. I'll watch the women's soccer, maybe some women's hoops and I don't really like golf, but I'll try to watch Graham DeLaet.

However, I think this whole thing is going to be a mess from top to bottom. An athlete arrives at the airport, getting vomited on and then having their luggage stolen in complicated (and gross) scams? No thanks. At least Atlanta hosted a lousy Olympics and were really smart financially about the aftermath. It feels like a Games no one wants to go to and a Games the people don't want to have to host.

I somehow managed to watch the Diamond League last weekend (it was on right after a Canadian women's friendly and I wanted to see De Grasse run), so I accidentally saw Kendra Harrison break a 28-year-old hurdles world record right after failing to make the US Olympic team. I hope I see a better moment than that in the next three weeks, but I doubt it.

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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vince stravino
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I am with hobbes. The last Olympics I truly felt was worth watching and getting emotionally invested in was Montreal, 1976!

There will be a few items of interest. Women's soccer. Men's soccer. Wrestling (more freestyle than Greco-Roman). Rowing. I think rugby is in this year's Olympics as well. The marathon is always cool.

Swimming, gymnastics, most track and field....not so much. I used to love the boxing, but hardly care now.

I know the World Cup is one big advertisement, but the Olympics seem even worse. Golf? really? Tennis? huh? Pro basketball? This is silly. I miss the "amateur" ideal even though is was more a farce than anything else.
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Sammy Maudlin
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Rugby 7s will debut as an Olympic sport this year. It is a pretty exciting, quicker and shorter version od regular rugby. My prediction is it will become a hit just like beach volleyball has become in the last several Olympics.

Overall I too have lost enthusiasm for the Olympics because of the excessive nationalism, commercialism and non stop doping scandals in multiple sports. I'll watch some events but nothing like past years where I would tune in all the time.
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Dr. Z
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What is laughable is how some athletes have used the excuse of the Zika virus to back out of their events. This ahs namely been used by golfers and tennis players who really do not give a damn about the Olympic sin the first place. The Zika virus by the way is another supposed ailment whose danger has been blown way out of proportion by the international press, especially in Europe and the United States.
Poniendo el pecho a las balas!
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Martin
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I still love watching track & field/athletics. In fact after the sport we mainly discuss on this message board it probably is my second favorite to watch. Admittedly all the doping scandals have lowered my interest in the sport and unlike past years I have not even seen any of the Diamond League meets or even the US Olympic trials this year so I have really no idea who the favorites are in the various events other than I am looking forward to the men's 100 meters battle between Bolt and Gatlin. To me the excitement and anticipation before both the men's and women's 100m finals is as great as it is before any sporting event and the fact Usain Bolt is going for an unprecedented 3rd straight gold in both sprints [100 & 200] is incredible and is something I will try not to miss.

In general however I do miss the less commercial Olympics of years past, Vince talked about Montreal being the last games he really enjoyed. I've enjoyed others since but like he, Montreal 76 was probably my favorite Olympics too. I still remember the stars of those games like it was yesterday, Nadia Comaneci, Teofilo Stevenson, Alberto Juantorena, Edwin Moses, Lasse Viren, Guy Drut and Bruce Jenner [whatever happened to him? ;)]

The LA Olympics in 1984 also hold a special place for me too as I worked as a driver for ABC during those games and that remains the best job I have ever had. And those are the only Olympics I have ever personally attended.

I'm with Sammy, Rugby 7s are an exciting sport and have the possibility of making a real breakthrough in these games.
Club Sportivo Desamparados
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Sporting
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The doping scandals are obviously a big turn-off but just in case we start becoming all rosy-eyed about the so-called cleaner past Olympics, then we only need to remember the widespread doping not only of a significant section of the Eastern Bloc but by Western athletes such as Ben Johnson and (almost certainly) Florence Griffith-Joyner. And you only need to google the name of Boris Onischenko to find an example of cheating on a truly memorable - if that's the word to use! - electronic level.

Maybe the technology has got better at identifying the cheats rather than there having been an increase in the number of cheats themselves? Sadly, however, I actually doubt this explanation myself.
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calimocho
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Sporting,Aug 1 2016
09:12 PM
The doping scandals are obviously a big turn-off but just in case we start becoming all rosy-eyed about the so-called cleaner past Olympics, then we only need to remember the widespread doping not only of a significant section of the Eastern Bloc but by Western athletes such as Ben Johnson and (almost certainly) Florence Griffith-Joyner. And you only need to google the name of Boris Onischenko to find an example of cheating on a truly memorable - if that's the word to use! - electronic level.

Maybe the technology has got better at identifying the cheats rather than there having been an increase in the number of cheats themselves? Sadly, however, I actually doubt this explanation myself.

Actually I believe you are correct Sporting, technology has gotten better at detecting the drug cheats than before. Sadly doping has been around for awhile and as Sporting correctly points out it was not just a case of East German "superwomen" doing the doping.
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Rufus T. Firefly
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Martin,Aug 1 2016
08:15 PM
In general however I do miss the less commercial Olympics of years past, Vince talked about Montreal being the last games he really enjoyed. I've enjoyed others since but like he, Montreal 76 was probably my favorite Olympics too. I still remember the stars of those games like it was yesterday, Nadia Comaneci, Teofilo Stevenson, Alberto Juantorena, Edwin Moses, Lasse Viren, Guy Drut and Bruce Jenner [whatever happened to him? ;)]


Don't forget Sugar Ray Leonard as one of the stars of Montreal 1976! Those really were a good Olympic games.

Doping has been going on for years by multiple countries from east, west, north and south but yes modern technology makes both the cheaters and testers more advanced. It is easy to become disillusioned though so I understand the feelings. But the Olympics still are fun and a chance once every four years to watch great swimmers, runners, volleyball players, wrestlers, and others in sports we typically do not follow closely every year.
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Onslow
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This is somewhat sad news, Pelé will not attend Rio Olympics opening ceremony due to poor health. I think we all were hoping he would be the one to light the Olympic torch. But the great man is now 75 and coming off of hip surgery.
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rosarino
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Onslow,Aug 5 2016
09:17 AM
This is somewhat sad news, Pelé will not attend Rio Olympics opening ceremony due to poor health. I think we all were hoping he would be the one to light the Olympic torch. But the great man is now 75 and coming off of hip surgery.

That is disappointing. No greater sporting symbol of Brazil than Pele. And Pele has always looked so trim and active for his age until recent years, a sign of all of our mortality when even Pele is feeling the passage of the years.
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Martin
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Rufus T. Firefly,Aug 2 2016
04:43 PM
Martin,Aug 1 2016
08:15 PM
In general however I do miss the less commercial Olympics of years past, Vince talked about Montreal being the last games he really enjoyed.  I've enjoyed others since but like he, Montreal 76 was probably my favorite Olympics too.  I still remember the stars of those games like it was yesterday, Nadia Comaneci, Teofilo Stevenson, Alberto Juantorena, Edwin Moses, Lasse Viren, Guy Drut and Bruce Jenner [whatever happened to him?  ;)]


Don't forget Sugar Ray Leonard as one of the stars of Montreal 1976! Those really were a good Olympic games.

Doping has been going on for years by multiple countries from east, west, north and south but yes modern technology makes both the cheaters and testers more advanced. It is easy to become disillusioned though so I understand the feelings. But the Olympics still are fun and a chance once every four years to watch great swimmers, runners, volleyball players, wrestlers, and others in sports we typically do not follow closely every year.

Oh yes Sugar Ray Leonard and both Leon and Michael Spinks won gold medals in addition to Teofilo Stevenson in a stellar year for Olympic boxing. 1976 also was the Olympics where Trinidad & Tobago's Hasely Crawford became the first man from the Caribbean to win the 100m sprint. Trinidad's national football stadium is named in honor of Crawford.

Oh yes, doping has been going on for years. One of the great athletes I previously mentioned from 1976, the Finnish distance runner Lasse Viren was one of the first athletes I recall being linked to doping. Viren was accused by some competitors of basically draining his entire body of blood and getting a blood transfusion of oxygenated blood before races. As a Guardian writer put it today, Fifa is awful, but the Olympics takes the gold medal for sleaze.

But now the Olympics are here and while we cannot put these issues behind us, now at least the athletes can take center stage and let us enjoy them, especially this what should be the final Olympics for both Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, two of the greatest Olympians ever.
Club Sportivo Desamparados
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Martin
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rosarino,Aug 5 2016
09:55 AM
Onslow,Aug 5 2016
09:17 AM
This is somewhat sad news, Pelé will not attend Rio Olympics opening ceremony due to poor health.  I think we all were hoping he would be the one to light the Olympic torch.  But the great man is now 75 and coming off of hip surgery.

That is disappointing. No greater sporting symbol of Brazil than Pele. And Pele has always looked so trim and active for his age until recent years, a sign of all of our mortality when even Pele is feeling the passage of the years.

Absolutely rosarino. I have always been in awe at how young Pele looked but have been reading recently of some of his health issues. Age catches up with us all. But too bad he will not be there tonight for the opening ceremony. Like so many others I can not think of a better candidate to have lit the Olympic flame.
Club Sportivo Desamparados
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Alexao
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Vanderlei de Lima, an ex Olympic marathoner denied a possible Gold in Athens by a foolish spectator, lit the Olympic flame and it was spectacular. Click this link to see it..

Yes these are controversial games but the opening ceremony involving, amongst many Cayetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil (the music was much better than the World Cup 2014 opening!) and acting as the girl from Ipanema-Gisele Bundchen (who actually is the girl from Rio Grande do Sul but that is another topic! :lol:)

A nice start for Rio 2016 (only the Germans were slightly booed entering the stadium, hey we won't forget the Mineiraozazo of 7x1 for a long time!)

I'm almost wishing Pele is ill and that is why he was not the flame lighter as there also are stories out that as a MasterCard spokesman, he was not allowed to be present at the VISA sponsored Olympics. I sure hope that is not true.
Xandão
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