Anyone watching the 2024 Olympics?

[MajorRewrite]

The sappy human interest stuff gets on my nerves.

The streaming coverage of the Olympics on Peacock doesn’t have all that sappy human interest stuff.

Can it be that, decades later, the jump start to women's sports from Title IX still gives the U.S. an edge over the rest of the world?

Yep. And female athletes from other nations train at US universities too. For example, Julien Alfred from St Lucia won the 100 meter dash and runs track at the University of Texas.

 

[Codoc24]

I like the winter sports better. Probably because I'm a skier (and no, not anywhere close to even the worst skier in the Olympics) but I love the downhill events.

I confess that I do occasionally watch any kind of women's volleyball. All those fit and toned legs running around is a cheap thrill for me.

 

[OffNSFW]

Anybody see the pole vaulter get disqualified for getting, uh, hung up on the bar?

I'm just saying, there are victories that don't come in the form of a medal. And he's probably about to have several.

 

[SimonDoom]

I like the winter sports better. Probably because I'm a skier (and no, not anywhere close to even the worst skier in the Olympics) but I love the downhill events.

Me too. Lifelong mediocre skier here. I'm old enough to remember Franz Klammer's gold medal run in the downhill in 1976 in Innsbruck. The single most exhilarating Olympic event I've seen.

 

[yowser]

Like @JuanSeiszFitzHall I find the increasing (costly) intrusion of streaming services annoying.

The wrestling, men's and women's, is extraordinary. The Cuban Greco-Roman wrestler Mijain López, won his fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal (no other athlete in any sport has done so.) After a dominant career he ends it in the traditional, poignant manner by unlacing his shoes and leaving them on the mat, his last match and parting symbol.

Freestyle Olympic wrestling is similar to US collegiate rules, but Greco-Roman is a different beast. Many wrestlers from otherwise Olympic underrepresented central Asian countries (Mongolia,Kyrgyzstan) often excel.

 

[Codoc24]

Me too. Lifelong mediocre skier here. I'm old enough to remember Franz Klammer's gold medal run in the downhill in 1976 in Innsbruck. The single most exhilarating Olympic event I've seen.

I remember the name but not the specific Olympics you reference. I have been following Mikaela Shiffrin for the past few years. Oh my God, she's absolutely the GOAT. I kinda feel sorry for the other women skiers because she is so dominant. She has a world record of 97 cup wins. She's 29, so barring injury, she's sure to get a few more before she retires.

 

[MillieDynamite]

No, not me.

 

[SimonDoom]

I remember the name but not the specific Olympics you reference. I have been following Mikaela Shiffrin for the past few years. Oh my God, she's absolutely the GOAT. I kinda feel sorry for the other women skiers because she is so dominant. She has a world record of 97 cup wins. She's 29, so barring injury, she's sure to get a few more before she retires.

I follow her as well. I'm in awe. I don't understand how one person can be that dominant in a sport where so many things can go wrong from race to race. She shattered Lindsey Vonn's record, and I didn't think that could happen. I'll be rooting for her at the next Olympics and I hope she competes in and wins some more downhills and super gs to round out her resume as the all time best.

 

[MrPixel]

Earlier this evening I turned-on the general coverage on Peacock, which is not the "Prime Time in Paris" thing that goes out over NBC broadcast stations.

What was being presented at that moment was a men's table tennis semi-final. They apparently play differently compared to the last time I noted Olympics matches, probably 20 years ago. The players now crowd the table which makes for terrible TV, and there were barely four or five hits in a volley, each lasting maybe 4 seconds. So I wandered off to mow the lawn for excitement.

Came back to women's field hockey. C noticed as she was walking through the living room and gave me a bunch of grief, "I hate field hockey!" I really wasn't familiar with the game because there was no inter-mural play where I grew up, but it was apparently one of the few "acceptable" women's team sports where she grew-up during the pre-Title IX days. She regaled me with stories of ending-up in the school nurse's office after nearly every game, tending to an injury or an asthma attack. I turned off the TV.

Women's indoor volleyball semi-finals are tomorrow. US plays Brazil at 9:00 a.m. local (C) time and Türkiye vs. Italy at 1:00 p.m. Italy is the #1 world team, so both matches are going to be worth watching.

 

[SimonDoom]

I loved this:




Simone Biles is the greatest female gymnast ever, but she slipped up on the floor exercise just a little bit, and Rebecca Andrade of Brazil won the gold medal fair and square, and instead of sulking or disputing it she and her team mate Jordan Chiles, who won the bronze, had a bit of silly fun and saluted the victor. What great sportsmanship.

 

[Ashesh9]

I watch all Hockey matches when India plays and also follow Neeraj Chopra in Javelin

 

[MrPixel]

I loved this:

View attachment 2374854


Simone Biles is the greatest female gymnast ever, but she slipped up on the floor exercise just a little bit, and Rebecca Andrade of Brazil won the gold medal fair and square, and instead of sulking or disputing it she and her team mate Jordan Chiles, who won the bronze, had a bit of silly fun and saluted the victor. What great sportsmanship.

I watched the team combined and was blown away by the affection every gymnast showed each other after every routine. Hugs and smiles and simply a "we're all in this together" display of support, emotion and caring for each other. A striking difference from the Romanian and Russian acrimony of years ago.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I'm still getting through the opening ceremony. The flags and teams being so proud gets me every time, especially when there's teams with only one or two contestants.

And then there's intermittent eye candy, like the fashion show and the chaps in shorts or skirts, stocking and heels, and nowt else. Though that was also when I got asked a lot of "Why....?" And all I could say is "They're French. This is avant-garde. It is in front of fashion. It is inherently correct, because it is French."

 

[MrPixel]

Sigh. I'm watching the US-Brazil women's VB semi-final, and the losing team is... the viewers. Commercials are much more frequent than they were during pool play. What frosts my butt is the two-minute "breaks" overriding the match coverage - three or four points can transpire in that time. And I'm paying to be treated like this?

US has a particularly dominant player, Annie Drews. You can practically tell by the scoring - when the US score rises, she's on the court. When the other team claws ahead, she's not. Funny how that works. But Larsen and Poulter are strong players, too.

 

[Voboy]

Serbia is giving the NBA USA a serious run for its money here. USA has trailed the whole game, and the Serbs are clinging on. That would be a monumental result.

ETA: Lol. Just after I typed that, it took USA four minutes to tie the game from the double-digit lead the Serbs had been enjoying. Ah, well.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Serbia is giving the NBA USA a serious run for its money here. USA has trailed the whole game, and the Serbs are clinging on. That would be a monumental result.

ETA: Lol. Just after I typed that, it took USA four minutes to tie the game from the double-digit lead the Serbs had been enjoying. Ah, well.

It was quite a game. It reminded me why I don't watch NBA
A group of outstanding individuals almost lost to a team of individually much weaker players who played like a team and gave their maximum. European basketball might lack the stars but the game is much more entertaining to watch. The theatrical individuals and entertainers of NBA and their (mostly) solo-play don't really interest me, to be honest.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I like baseball the best, but I don't watch it until the post-season. My father is a fanatic about all the Denver teams, since he lived for years and years. Of course, Baseball isn't an Olympic sport. However, Baseball is our most exported sport. I think every country in the world has baseball. Well, a lot of them do.

It was quite a game. It reminded me why I don't watch NBA
A group of outstanding individuals almost lost to a team of individually much weaker players who played like a team and gave their maximum. European basketball might lack the stars but the game is much more entertaining to watch. The theatrical individuals and entertainers of NBA and their (mostly) solo-play don't really interest me, to be honest.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

The question is sometimes raised: What if the Russians were here? My hunch is that the huge medal hauls would probably be a bit smaller, but the top national programs in most sports would still be doing well. As an example, Russia competed at Tokyo, but in women's gymnastics, the U.S. got team silver despite Simone Biles' limited participation, and Suni Lee won the all-around while Jade Carey won the floor exercise. The numbers used by judges may not be comparable from one cycle to the next, but it seems that all of the top programs in that sport have ramped up their ambition and accomplishment.

 

[MrPixel]

Good question. My take is that Putin has taken the country in a belligerently isolationist direction, and discontinued or severely curtailed domestic programs that fed their international participation. If they did field athletes, as you mentioned for Tokyo, I suspect they would not be of the caliber we were accustomed to in the Cold War era and the two decades after.

 

[OffNSFW]

Anybody see the pole vaulter get disqualified for getting, uh, hung up on the bar?

I'm just saying, there are victories that don't come in the form of a medal. And he's probably about to have several.

Update:

 

[SimonDoom]

It was quite a game. It reminded me why I don't watch NBA
A group of outstanding individuals almost lost to a team of individually much weaker players who played like a team and gave their maximum. European basketball might lack the stars but the game is much more entertaining to watch. The theatrical individuals and entertainers of NBA and their (mostly) solo-play don't really interest me, to be honest.

I watched the Gold Medal game today. Same thing. The US players undeniably are more talented, but the French team was tenacious and played good defense and exploited the Americans' many turnovers. They made a good game of it. Steph Curry put it away in the end with 4 three pointers in 2 minutes in the 4th Quarter. Nobody can do what he does.

 

[MrPixel]

I have to set my alarm for 5:45 tomorrow morning to watch the live coverage of the women's volleyball final, US vs. Italy. It sort of hit me as slightly odd that all the US team has to do is show-up and they're guaranteed the Silver, while today Türkiye and Brazil played their hearts out with Brazil earning the Bronze in three sets.

Past performance favors the Italians. Rooting for the Americans, of course, but won't be disappointed either way.

 

[SimonDoom]

I remember the name but not the specific Olympics you reference. I have been following Mikaela Shiffrin for the past few years. Oh my God, she's absolutely the GOAT. I kinda feel sorry for the other women skiers because she is so dominant. She has a world record of 97 cup wins. She's 29, so barring injury, she's sure to get a few more before she retires.

If you like watching great ski runs, probably the most famous of all time was Franz Klammer's Gold medal run in the downhill at Innsbruck in 1976. You can find it easily on the Internet. It's two minutes you won't regret taking out of your day. It was a great nailbiter because he was just barely under control the whole way.

 

[MrPixel]

...all the US team has to do is show-up and they're guaranteed the Silver, ...

At this moment, US VB'ers are down 2 sets to 0, losing each set by at least 5. They are indeed barely showing up. Stats just flashed on the screen underscores that problem. US blocking is not good. Drews seems to be off her game today and is spending most of the match on the bench, reaffirming my previous observation that her presence on the court is necessary to win. Egonu (ITA) has been dominating both offensively and defensively.

Italy is up by 5 at the midpoint of the 3rd set and the US is not catching up, as has been the case the entire match. So congrats in advance to the Italians for bringing their 'A' game to the finals for the Gold.

 

[KachinaDoll]

Dear Lord, that was the most tedious closing ceremony in the history of the Olympics. I felt sorry for the athletes.