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| 2016 Olympics; General discussion | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 31 2016, 03:54 AM (991 Views) | |
| rosarino | Aug 13 2016, 07:59 PM Post #46 |
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I learn something new every time I come to this message board! Thanks for that info hobbes. Michael Phelps won anther gold, perhaps his last, on a relay on Saturday night. The 23rd gold of his incredible career! A great semiifnal win by Del Potro in men's single tennis over rafael nadal. Del Potro now will face Andy Murray of Britain in the final and while Murray will eb the favorite, del potro is coming off eliminating Djokovic and Nadal. I have to amdit I have neevr even heard of the women's single's gold medal winner, Monica Puig of Puerto Rico. While I do not closely follow tennis, I do hear and read the results of major tournaments and I really had never heard of Puig until this past week in the Olympics. She becomes the first female Puerto Rican to win a medal and the first gold medalist male or female from Puerto Rico. So congratulations to Monica Puig who has just made herself known worldwide. basketball was where the action was earlier on Saturday with the South American Classic between Brazil and Argentina. Now this was some spectacle, perhaps the most intense match of the entire Olympics in team sports. Argentina jumpe dout to an early lead of 11 points but Brazil came back midway through the 2nd period and led the rest of the way but at the end they could not put Argentina away as they missed some makeable shots or failed to convert their free throws while Argentina led by Andres Nocioni and tiny point guard Facundo Campazzo just neevr quit and eventually tied it on a Nocioni 3 pointer in the final seconds which sent the game into overtime. Again in the extra period Brazil had their opportunities to put the game away but couldn't and on to a 2nd overtime period. There Argentina, with Manu Ginobili, who frankly had a poor game, started to take control and held off Brazil's comeback for a thrilling 111-107 victory. A huge win for Argentina because it ensured Aregntina makes the quarterfinals and it seriously dented Brazil's chances of making the last 8 {especially after Spain later in the day crushed previously unbeaten group leader Lithuania.] Argentina's "Golden Generation' of basketballers won gold in Athens 12 years ago and the core of that team is still playing now well into their mid or in some cases late 30s. They are coming to the end of the road but they are such a smart and hard working bunch that there still exists a possibility they may have one more medal left in them here in Rio. But what an incredible atmosphere in the arena for the Brazil-Argentina game. it was a football crowd at a basketball game bringing typical South American atmosphere to the sport. I was reading some US basketball journalists, who obviously are not familiar with South American football crowds, marveling at the singing and chanting going on from both sets of supporters. but at the end of the day, Brasil, decime que se siente...."
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| Lalo | Aug 13 2016, 08:16 PM Post #47 |
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rosarino described very well the exciting basketball game between Argentina and Brazil. It was a game Brazil probably should have won but Nocioni and Campazzzo just would not let Argentina lose. I believe they scored something like 37 and 34 points in the game and kept Argentina alive when their teammates were not playing well. But that is what a team is all about and this Argentina team, who play old rivals Spain next, now will have a fighting chance to medal. There are better teams than Argentina in this basketball competition but none have more heart and that is why we in Argentina absolutely love this basketball team. |
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| Hector | Aug 14 2016, 02:23 PM Post #48 |
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That Argentina-Brasil basketball game was superb. Excellent entertainment and I agree it was a game Brasil probably should have won. I do not know what to make of Spain's team, they have not looked that good in Rio until yesterday when they just hammered Lituania. I expect their true level is somewhere in between the mediocre first few games and what they showed yesterday but as long as the team hits its level in the elimination rounds I'll be content. Great 10K race yesterday defending champion Mo Farah of Britain fell midway through but picked himself up and still won. What a distant runner! Poor Rafa Nadal has played so many singles and doubles matches in Rio (he won men's double gold), he just ran out of gas in the bronze match against Nishikori of Japan. |
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| Yogi | Aug 14 2016, 06:33 PM Post #49 |
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Usain Bolt! need I write more. 3rd straight gold in 100m. And this time he did it coming from behind to beat Gatlin and Canada's DeGrasse (and his jamaican teammate Blake who finished 4th.) Just another incredible win by Bolt who accelerates in the final 30 meters. Not the only excitement in athletics on Sunday as South Africa's 400m runner Wayde Van Niekerk shattered Michael Johnson's 20+ year world record. An incredible run from Van Niekerk who also accelerated away from the last 2 Olympic 400m champs Grenada's James [2012] and the USA's Merritt[2008]. As the other two were tying up Van Niekerk accelerated. And gold for Colombia as Catherine Ibarguen won the women's triple jump. A good event for South America as the Venezuelan Rojas was 2nd. Usain Bolt though, what can you say the greatest sprinter ever and surely one of the best and most dominant athletes ever in any sport. P.S. hobbes, great info about the swimming pool walls. Like rosarino i never knew that either. Thanks for that info. |
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| raconteur | Aug 14 2016, 07:57 PM Post #50 |
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What Bolt did was extraordinary. 3 straight 100m gold medals. Simply incredible. This may have been his closest final yet. Seemed to me the semifinals were a little too close to the final, separated by just over an hour. Maybe the track & field aficionados can clarify but usually they seemed to be separated by more, or at least that is what I recall from previous Olympic Games. I mentioned that because Bolt actually ran faster in his semifinal and even eased up in the last 5-10 meters. Makes me think with a slightly longer period between races he possibly could have improved upon his semifinal time in the final. No matter he is the 3 time Olympic champion. But his feat almost was overshadowed by van Niekerk's world record. Yogi, Michael Johnson's WR was from 1999. So it stood for 17 years until van Niekerk smashed it and beat a hell of a good field too. Now the excitement will be in the 200m whose final will be on Thursday. Bolt will go for his 3rd straight 200m Olympic gold too but Gatlin, DeGrasse and Blake will be there too as will be van Niekerk and LaShawn Merrit the bronze medalist at 400. Now that should be some race! The women's 100m was pretty good too on Saturday. Jamaica's Shelly Ann Fraser now Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, was like Bolt, going for her 3rd straight 100m gold. But she had an injury plagued season and was not in the best of form. Yet she still finished 3rd. The US' Tory Bowie was 2nd and the winner was...Jamaica's newest female sprint sensation Elaine Thompson. The US men's basketball team is unbeaten but only beat both Serbia and France in its last 2 matches by 3 points each. And that was after Australia pushed them hard the game before. now the US is still winning and may be expected to lift its game in the knockout rounds but defensively they have been having trouble stopping some of the good teams in Rio. Something to keep an eye out for in the knockout stages. |
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| hobbes | Aug 14 2016, 11:42 PM Post #51 |
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I heard two stories this weekend that I hadn't heard before and both left me totally bewildered and shaking my head. I can't decide if this is what's right with our amateur sports programs or what is wrong. Andre De Grasse won a bronze medal yesterday. Four years ago he ran his first 100m. In his life. Apparently he didn't even plan to go to the track meet, but friends talked him into it. He was wearing basketball shorts, borrowed spikes and he didn't know how to get in the blocks. He looked like he was trying to steal a base at the line apparently. And he ran 10.90. He admits he was on a bad path in Pickering and had zero plans for after high school. If the right person (sprint coach Tony Sharpe) hadn't been there who knows what would have happened. The story of Canadian volleyball captain Gavin Schmitt is even more bizarre. Saskatoon is (somewhat famously) home to the only Fuddruckers in Canada. Schmitt, who heading into his senior year of high school, was spotted flipping burgers in the kitchen by the provincial volleyball coach. He saw his size and asked to talk to a startled Schmitt and asked if he played volleyball. Schmitt thought he was nuts. He was a basketball player. But Schmitt's mom talked him into trying volleyball at school that fall and he did and was fairly terrible, but the coach watched him at a few tournaments and noted he was 6-8 and had great feet. So he invited him to try out for one of the best club teams in the province. Schmitt showed up, saw the other guys warming up in the gym, felt he was way out of his depth and left. The coach had seen him come in and disappear. So he tracked him down, asked why he left, talked him into coming back and try it for real. At the end of the club season Schmitt made the provincial team and was an all-star at nationals. Now he's a professional and the best player in the country. He's probably the best player we've had in 15-20 years. Two of our best male Olympians had never tried their sport before they turned 16. That seems impossible to me in this day and age. cheers, hobbes |
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| Johnbuildr | Aug 15 2016, 08:58 AM Post #52 |
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This board is fairly amazing, you do find things here you probably will not hear anywhere else. Good job on the 1/1000ths timing issue, hobbes. My son and I were discussing that over the weekend, but did not know the details hobbes has imparted here. Good story about the discovered athletes as well. Hector, that was a most amazing feat, tripping, falling to the ground, then winning the race. Holy moly, Mo Farah, talk bout a cool customer! Yes and van Niekerk looked like he was from another planet, maybe krypton. |
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| shelsoccer | Aug 15 2016, 10:08 AM Post #53 |
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I can't remember another Summer Olympics with so many transcendent athletes/performances, and the games aren't over yet. In the pool, we've seen Phelps, Ledecky and Manual. Not to downplay Phelps' accomplishments -- he's arguably the greatest Olympian ever -- but Ledecky's dominance was incredible. The guy from Singapore winning gold over Phelps also was noteworthy. On the track, we've already seen Bolt, Farah and van Niekerk. The latter became the first 400 winner in either the Olympics or World Championships ever to run from lane eight. Biles has been brilliant in gymnastics, with one more event to go. And -- I forget his name -- I believe a Japanese won his third straight Olympic all-around. I'm sure I'm forgetting others. And, thanks to hobbes for his info on pools and the Canadian volleyball star. |
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| Martin | Aug 15 2016, 08:43 PM Post #54 |
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Yup great info hobbes on the irregular symmetry of the pool walls (plus the stories on late blooming athletes. Here is another I heard on the NBC online stream which often uses the international feed, woman's 100m champion Elaine Thompson did not make her high school track team at first! Which means that high school must have had some talent and she is another late bloomer.) As this article notes what makes van Niekerk's world record even more incredible is he did it out of lane 8 which with the staggered start meant until the final turn he had no idea where he was in relation to his competitors. Maybe it did not matter as van Niekerk just ran all out without worrying where the rest where and they burned themselves out trying to catch him. remember how he broke away from James & Merritt down the backstretch even after his fast start. So van Niekerk became the first Olympic 400m champion to win coming out of lane 8. Good story too about his 74 year old "great grandmother" coach Ans Botha, click on the 2nd video in the link I provided to see more about her. raconteur asked about the short amount of time between the 100 semis and final and I read a few sprinters, including Bolt commented that was unusual and probably led to Bolt, at least running slower than he did in his semifinal even though he coasted the last 10 meters in his semi. And more excitement on Monday as Bahamas' Shaunae Miller who, like van Niekerk just sprinted out of the blocks in the women's 400m looked to have been caught at the end by Allyson Felix of the US but Miller won the race by diving forward at the end to just edge Felix out of the gold. Then Kenya's defending 800m champion Peter Rudisha put in another five star performance in winning that race. It has been an excellent track & field competition so far and that is only 4 days in with 5 more days to go. The Rio Olympics came in for a lot of criticism before the competition but shelsoccer is absolutely right, the athletes have responded with some transcendent performances. It has been a great spectacle and there is still a lot of good things to come. By the way one major event not discussed here was the cycling individual time trial, the men's race was won by Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, a grand Tour expert in this discipline while the women's race was won by a 42 year old mom from Boise, Idaho in the US, Kristen Armstrong [no she's not related to THAT Armstrong who so sullied the sport's image.] Kristen Armstrong won her 3rd consecutive Olympic individual time trial. And Bradley Wiggins, a former Tour de France winner who is also a great track cyclist won more gold to become Britain's most decorated Olympian of all time. |
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| Sporting | Aug 16 2016, 01:29 AM Post #55 |
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Normally nations do better at their home Olympics than in those in other cities, but Britain at the moment are proving to be the opposite, as their medal haul so far is ahead of that at the same stage in London 2012. Whether they can maintain this standard remains to be seen, but it does show that investment at an elite level in certain sports can pay dividends. However, that very money has caused some debate in that critics say that public funding is being diverted to and concentrated on a very few sports, such as cycling, rowing and sailing (I'm not sure about equestrian events) while at the same time funding in sports such as handball, basketball or water polo, in which Britain has never had a strong international presence, is being squeezed. The question is: do more gold medals compensate for less financial backing for other sports which might, in some cases, be more popular with the general public? There has also been a big debate going on for some time as to how much of a positive knock-on effect the London Games had on sport in the country as a whole. Sure, it had an immediate one: kids watch people excelling in various sports and go out to have a go themselves; but when public land formally used for sporting activities and state school playing fields are being sold to real estate investors, then you have to ask whether the needs of the elite really are more important than the health and fitness of the country as a whole. (Not to mention West Ham's bargain of the century, as they take over use of the Olympic Stadium for a - in today's terms - derisory price.) Still, this sounds like carping. A lot of British athletics have trained very hard for these games, and many of them have the medals they deserve. |
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| Merengue | Aug 16 2016, 07:15 AM Post #56 |
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Sporting, is the public funding in Britain for grass roots sports, i.e. meaning getting children and even young adults started in a sport or is it for financing elite competitors in that particular sport? Men's basketball quarterfinals have now been set after Spain took it to Argentina and Croatia defeated Lithuania in the final group matches. Croatia, Spain, Lithuania and Argentina each finished 3-2 in Group B. The tie breaker was their games amongst each other. In those games, Croatia and Spain were 2–1 while Argentina and Lithuania were 1–2. Croatia beat Spain 72–70 in their head to head matchup, and Lithuania beat Argentina 81–73 to determine their placing 1 through 4. Group A's top four moving on to the quarterfinals was in this order: 1. USA 2. Australia 3. France 4. Serbia. This sets up some excellent quarterfinals to be played tomorrow: USA-Argentina Spain-France Croatia-Serbia Australia-Lithuania A pair of classics there with Croatia-Serbia going at each other (hopefully that is all between those rivals) plus Spain-France. Argentina cannot be happy with their pairing against the USA. basketball often is a game of match ups and I do not think Australia match up well at all against the USA. Of the 4 quarterfinals that is the only one which I think won't be close and while you cannot count out that veteran Argentina team it would take a near perfect game from them to defeat the USA. I like how Spain have been playing in their last 2 group games but again matchups count and I do not think Spain match up well against France although whether Tony Parker is able to play for the French could be decisive. Like Euro 2016 you have to think the USA, Argentina, Spain, France side of the draw is the tougher one but remember champion Portugal from that tournament came from the supposed weaker half of the draw. Here Croatia, Serbia, Australia and Lithuania are no pushovers. This competition is now going to get really interesting. |
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| Sporting | Aug 16 2016, 10:40 AM Post #57 |
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A good question and one which I'm not really qualified to answer beyond quoting various websites such as this from wiki: "Athletics, and also most sports outside the top ten or so in popularity, are heavily dependent on public funding. The government agency which funnels this is UK Sport, which has affiliates in each of the home nations, for example Sport England. These agencies are also responsible for distributing money raised for sport by the National Lottery. In 2005, when it was announced London would host the 2012 Games, UK Sport announced funding plans which were more focused than ever before on rewarding sports which have delivered Olympic success, and as a corollary penalising those which have not. UK Sport also provides money for the recreational side of the main team sports, even football. Other sports benefit from special financial provision. British tennis is subsidised by the profits of the Wimbledon Championships, which are in the tens of millions of pounds each year. Horse racing benefits from a levy on betting." From UK Sport's own website: http://www.uksport.gov.uk/our-work/investi...t-funding-works "The primary role of UK Sport is to strategically invest National Lottery and Exchequer income to maximise the performance of UK athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the global events which precede them. Investment decisions are made on a four year basis wherever possible to cover a complete Olympic or Paralympic cycle but are focussed on an eight year performance development model. Success is measured by the medals won, the number of medallists developed, and the quality of the systems and processes in place to find and support the nation’s most promising future champions. To achieve this UK Sport invests around 70 per cent of its income through two channels: Central funding for sporting National Governing Bodies (NGBs), enabling them to operate a World Class Programme (WCP) and ensuring athletes have access to outstanding support personnel and training environments to ensure they are among the best prepared in the world. Direct to athlete funding in the shape of an Athlete Performance Award (APA). This award, which is solely funded by National Lottery income, is paid directly to the athletes and contributes to their living and sporting costs. UK Sport also makes significant investment in its partners including the English Institute of Sport and other Home Country Sports Institutes and the British Olympic and Paralympic (BOA & BPA) preparation plans for the Rio 2016 Games including the preparation camp itself at Belo Horizonte." The above is concentrated on what the elite sports get. As for financial and other support given to grass roots sports, there are varying views as to how well recent governments and local authorities have performed. |
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| vince stravino | Aug 16 2016, 03:35 PM Post #58 |
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Even as an American, it is pretty difficult to get fully behind our Men's basketabll team. Heck, they had better win. It is kinda goofy to have them in the Olympics in the first place. This is purely to satisfy the American viewing public IMO. Unfortunately, one of these years, our Dream Team will get upset. It is just how sports work. |
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| Sporting | Aug 16 2016, 08:30 PM Post #59 |
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Why is it goofy to have an NBA team in the Games? If it's because they are multi-millionaire professional players, well, then so are most of the Spanish team for example. I suppose, though, that if/when USA win, other countries can say, "Well, of course, that's no surprise at all!" and if USA were to lose, the obvious excuse from Americans would be to point out the number of top-class absentees from the roster. My own opinion is that if you're going to have a basketball competition worth winning, you need all the top teams taking part. A question I would like to ask is why many of the best US players, such as Curry, pass on the Games? Do the franchises put pressure on them not to play, or it is down to various personal choices, or is it simply that they're scared of losing?! :ph43r: |
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| enganche | Aug 16 2016, 10:36 PM Post #60 |
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The US men's team with NBA players has already been defeated. 2004 in Athens a US team with LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan, Dwayne Wade, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury was beaten in group play by Puerto Rico and Lithuania before losing the semifinal to eventual gold medalists Argentina. Then at the 2006 Basketball World Cup, a US team with James, Anthony, Wade, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard lost in the semifinals to Greece. So it is not assured the US team full of NBA stars will always win. Now the past 2 Olympics, yes the US did win gold but were pushed in the final each year by Spain. And now in Rio the US has had 3 straight close calls in group play. I do agree with Merengue that the present Argentina team does not match up well with the US so I am not holding out much hope Argentina will pull off the surprise but the US while favored is not a guaranty to win gold. The present US team is chiefly missing LeBron James and Stephon Curry. James has won the past 2 Olympic titles so decided to let others have the chance this year. As for Curry I think his club probably did put pressure on him not to play which is a shame but several of his teammates are on the US team. Sure some NBA teams would prefer none of their players participate in international play but the NBA has increased its global popularity in large part because its players do play in international competitions, whether for the US or other nations, and the NBA clubs cannot deny that international popularity has improved their pocket books. |
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