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2016 Olympics; General discussion
Topic Started: Jul 31 2016, 03:54 AM (990 Views)
Johnbuildr
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C'mon man, Vince! :blink:

Any vestige or trace of Olympic athletes being "amateurs" has long since gone by the wayside. Long since. Not that it is a good thing, but it is reality. Look at the tennis pros, the golfers, volleyball players, soccer, bicycling, etc., even a lot of the top track and field folks are paid professionals at one level or another. It goes on and on for all the countries and most all the sports, not just the USA bball team. At least it is true for all the sports that you can actually make a professional career participating in.

I will say this for the USA bball team; they are doing this strictly for the fun, and glory, for themselves and for country, because they already had all the money and notoriety they will ever need without the Olympics or the possibility of being injured doing so. I say, "GO USA BASKETBALL TEAM!" :P

Now, if you want to disallow Brasil and Germany from the World Cup from now on, now I am on board! B)
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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Merengue
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Surprisingly 3 of the 4 basketball quarterfinals were blowouts, Australia easily beat Lithuania, Spain handled France with ease, the US won by a wide margin against Argentina. Only the Serbia-Croatia game was close. croatia led at the half but Serbia ahd a superb 3rd quarter to open up a 12 point lead I believe only for Croatia to come abck and briefly take the elad before serbia finally finished them off with a 3 point victory. An exciting game and interetsingly both teams top scorers were named Bogdanovic. Bojan Bogdanovic for Croatia, Bogdan Bogdanovic for Serbia!

Argentina actually jumpe dout to a 1st quarter lead on the US but then normality was restored and the US cruised to victory. it did not stop the Argentine fans from singing throughout the game as they praised their "golden generations" as they will all retire from international basketball after these Olympics.

Spain were superb in beating France and forcing Tony Parker to also call it a day internationally. Spain are peaking at the right time and it sets up a great semi against the US, a repeat of the last 2 Olympic title games.

The semifinals will be:
USA-Spain
Australia-Serbia

Both should be fascinating games and while the odds are we will have a USA-Australia Final, nothing is written in stone betwene these four teams.
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shelsoccer
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Full credit to the Argentina fans. To see them singing and dancing, while their team was getting spanked, was a great testament to their love for Argentina's golden generation.

Also, Ginobli's post-game interview with American TV was touching. He had to cut it short because he was losing his composure (in a good way).
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rosarino
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shel, the golden generation is really beloved and basketball is the 2nd most popular team sport in Argentina but look at the support all Argentine athletes have been receiving in Rio as Argentine fans have traveled to Brazil just as they did for the 2014 World Cup. We are passionate supporters in any sport and it is just too bad that the thuggish barra bravas dirty our fans names in the domestic futbol scene.

Manu Ginobili by the way is one of my favorite athletes ever. A great player and a real gentleman.

Usain Bolt once again won the 200m sprint. 3 straight 100/200 doubles in the Olympics and now he looks to add his 3 straight gold in the sprint relay. Words cannot adequately describe that dominance.

And another 100/200 double in the women's sprint as Jamaican Elaine Thompson beat the long legged Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands and Torie Bowie of the US.
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shelsoccer
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Argentinians were going crazy yesterday when their men won gold in field hockey.

Forget about Bolt, Phelps, Ledecky, etc. Schippers may be my lasting memory of these Games.
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Martin
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Bolt pulls off a triple triple, 3 Olympics, 3 gold medals in each in the 100m, 200m and 3 x 100m relay. Mere superlatives don't begin to describe him.

A busy day at work so I was only able to read about the daytime results on Friday. The US and Serbia will meet in the basketball final. The US beat Spain, sounded as if they never trailed in the last 3 quarters, while Serbia crushed Australia in a surprising result as Australia had been playing very well throughout. I saw the end of Serbia's quarterfinal win over Croatia and there in the stands supporting Serbia was Vlade Divac who I believe is involved in Serbia's basketball federation. I always liked Vlade.

I get your feelings for Schippers shelsoccer!
Club Sportivo Desamparados
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hobbes
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I always forget race walking is a sport and then I marvel at how anyone ends up doing it. Someone on twitter asked what percentage of race walkers end up in the Olympics and if that answer was 100.

That being said they get around at a pretty great clip and 50 km is nothing to sneeze at. Apparently Canada had a good race walker named Dunfee and he was in third when he got bumped by the Japanese competitor Arai as he passed. The bump looked intentional and threw Dunfee off stride. But he barely grazed him. Anyway I know nothing about race walking, but apparently this was a big offence.

So Canada appealed and won and Dunfee gets bronze and Arai is out. Then Japan appeals that ruling and win and Arai gets bronze and Dunfee is back in fourth.

Apparently you can't appeal the appeal of an appeal otherwise maybe Dunfee would get the bronze back for a few hours.

Totally absurd turn of events. I have no idea if justice was served. I didn't think the bump should have made any real difference over a race of that distance (it did come late on, but there were a few km left).

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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Manzanares
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In Spain we are not used to many athletics gold medals, Spain used to have some pretty good middle distance runners but not so much anymore. the Cuban émigré Orlando Ortega won a silver in the 110 m hurdles and then on the final night of athletics 37 year old high jumper Ruth Beitia won the gold medal. A surprising victory for a nice woman who has been a medalist before in world championships but finally got herself a gold medal in the Olympics.

Mo Farah and Caster Semenoya each won as well on the final night on the track.

Spain's basketball teams with losses to the US on consecutive days, first the men, where the teams are more evenly matched than the women are. The US women's team is far and away the best and they easily won their 6th consecutive gold. On the men's side, this Spain team ended up missing Ibaka and Marc Gasol a lot as their inside defense was not what it usually was. They stayed close but unlike in 2012 and 2008 I never had the feeling Spain could have won the game. I was shocked at how Australia fell apart against Serbia, especially after the Australians looked so good against Lithuania the previous round. An off night in a knockout competition always spells disaster. I think Serbia will just be happy to be in the final and I think the US will beat them by 10-15 points.
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Velvet Hammer
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An interesting article on Caster Semenya, the South African women's 800m champion. Semenya has hyperandrogenism, which means she produces male testosterone at a much higher level than other females do. Testosterone helps build muscle. Take a look at Semenya winning the 800m on the link I provided, she is very muscular. But this is something she produces naturally in her body so she should not be punished for that like a doping cheat, but then again she does have a natural advantage versus her competitors.

Quote:
 
After the Berlin worlds, the sport’s governing body, the International Assn. of Athletics Federations, passed what it called an “eligibility” rule for “females with hyperandrogenism.” The rule is widely believed to have put the testosterone ceiling at 10 nanomoles per liter. The normal range for females is .5 to 3. For men, the normal range is 10 to 30.

Last year, sport’s top court suspended that rule. The IAAF says it intends, probably by next year, to promulgate a new rule, with the input of scientific, medical and other experts.
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Peter Ian Staker
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I have to say after all was said and done it was an enjoyable Olympics. While London will always have extra special memories for me, this did turn out to be very entertaining, and although some events, especially the athletics and swimming did not finish until the early hours of the morning for those of us in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, thankfully there are recorders which enable me to watch some late night events from Rio on tape while eating breakfast.

As an Englishman the most memorable moments for me were Mo Farah's double double, the track cycling, Andy Murray's triumph (Yes I know he is a Scot), and any sport fan would have to be enthralled with the exploits of Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Katrina Hosszu, Usain Bolt, Wayde van Niekerk, David Rudisha and Brazil's footballers.

As for the Caster Semenya issue, I fully understand both sides of the argument, but read this from one of her competitors, Great Britain's Lynsey Sharp and more here,

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Sharp, who wrote a paper on Semenya while she was studying at law school, has seemed to struggle to contain her emotions this week. On the BBC, Paula Radcliffe explained why she felt Sharp was so upset. “However hard she goes away and trains, however hard Jenny Meadows goes and trains, they are never going to be able to compete with that level of strength and recovery that those levels of elevated testosterone brings.”

Radcliffe said that Semenya and the other hyperandrogenic women should either “take the medication to suppress the levels, or they choose to have an operation or they choose not to compete”. Incredible as this sounds, Radcliffe is right that several hyperandrogenic athletes have undergone major surgery at the behest of athletics officials.
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Johnbuildr
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Agree 100% Peter. Seeing competition at the top level makes for terrific live (or briefly tape delayed) entertainment. It is always kind of a let down when the games are over and TV reverts to the mundane before premier league and US football starts going full speed.

Notwithstanding the late headline grabbing nonsense, 99.5% of the athletes from all over the globe represented themselves and their countries with perseverance, honor and distinction. We were glued to our sets every evening and weekend daytime a lot too.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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hobbes
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I meant to post this earlier, but CBC's ratings were strong for the Olympics and NBC's ratings sank. Maybe there is justice in the world:

http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/nbc-blames...games-ever.html

cheers,
hobbes
Saskatchewan for the CPL: multis e gentibus vires
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Sammy Maudlin
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hobbes,Aug 26 2016
12:48 PM
I meant to post this earlier, but CBC's ratings were strong for the Olympics and NBC's ratings sank. Maybe there is justice in the world:

http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/nbc-blames...games-ever.html

cheers,
hobbes

Well said!

To be fair though NBC' streaming service was pretty good. I'd say about 90% of my Olympic viewing was done through streaming rather than watching the actual TV broadcast.
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libero
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Like Sammy most of my Olympic viewing was through NBC's streaming service which was quite good. That way I avoided the tape delayed story telling!
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shelsoccer
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NBC's coverage was the same old formula it's trotted out for years. But, correct me. I thought I read ratings were strong the first week+, then tailed off. If that's the case, I'd attribute it to the fact many Americans' interest waned after Phelps, Ledecky, Biles and even Bolt. There weren't as many compelling stories the last 4-5 days for the American viewer.
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