Rio 2016 Olympic event discussion thread [W:13]

[beefheart]

not really a humiliation losing to the kings of 7's, they went 40 game unbeaten at one point this year. Silver is a great result for GB and we are currently third on the medal table, how are Ireland getting on

I like rugby, not a huge fan of 7's.

 

[Middleground]

Lots of us Americans aren't feeling too bad. The women's soccer team gets a lot more press than more worthy athletes. and they are sore losers. BTW. Stevie J and the Sockster beat Popsicle and Nestor for the bronze. Don't know if that was an upset but Nestor has won more titles than probably the rest of the field in terms of doubles. Sort of glad Nadal won one for his good friend. Looks like both US mixed teams are into the medal rounds as well.

Yeah, the US women have embarrassed themselves once again, this time it's Hope Solo spewing diarrhea from her mouth. I am still not over the **** they pulled last Olympics.

Can't believe Nestor/Pospisil didn't medal. They just barely got defeated by the Spaniards who won gold. Oh well.... the Canadian men have been performing badly so far... the women have won all of the medals so far. Thank god for girls!

 

[Higgins86]

I like rugby, not a huge fan of 7's.

It grows on you. Went to Vegas once to watch the world 7's, amazing weekend lol. Vegas + beer+ casinos + awesome

 

[beefheart]

It grows on you. Went to Vegas once to watch the world 7's, amazing weekend lol. Vegas + beer+ casinos + awesome

I remember when they did that, I watched a lot of it on TV.

 

[TurtleDude]

Yeah, the US women have embarrassed themselves once again, this time it's Hope Solo spewing diarrhea from her mouth. I am still not over the **** they pulled last Olympics.

Can't believe Nestor/Pospisil didn't medal. They just barely got defeated by the Spaniards who won gold. Oh well.... the Canadian men have been performing badly so far... the women have won all of the medals so far. Thank god for girls!

well the USA didn't defend women's doubles and didn't defend women's singles (got to love Monica Puig who lives mainly in the USA and has dual citizenship winning the gold after Madison Keys lost the bronze) but the USA got third in men's doubles, and will go one-two in mixed. Team Socks (Jack and his partner-known for her knee socks) vs R Ram and Venus. so the USA didn't do as well as they did in 12 but not bad. a gold, a silver and a bronze

our men sucked in gymnastics, our men are barely holding on in volleyball. swimming it was pretty even. archery-we only had one woman and she underperformed. Shooting-so far the women are doing much better. two bronze and a gold to zilch so far. basketball-both should win. rowing-don't follow but I see the women's 8s won again. Fencing-I saw some medals for the men, team bronze in saber for the women. Diving-men have two medals so far. One of the reason why the USA women do well is that they often are playing sports before the IOC ads them such as Saber and Soccer. they have a head start over countries that don't start pushing in a sport until the IOC adds it

 

[Higgins86]

Mo Farah legend.

 

[Manc Skipper]

Tripped, falls, gets up, wins! Legend indeed!

 

[austrianecon]

(got to love Monica Puig who lives mainly in the USA and has dual citizenship winning the gold after Madison Keys lost the bronze),

This is what annoys me.. PR is part of the United States of America, period. There is no discussion of this. If she was Scottish and won gold, it would count as a UK medal. But because the US is nice about it, PR can compete in sports on IOC level under it's own flag yet we bail out PR an give it funding. She's by definition a US citizen.

 

[Higgins86]

This is what annoys me.. PR is part of the United States of America, period. There is no discussion of this. If she was Scottish and won gold, it would count as a UK medal. But because the US is nice about it, PR can compete in sports on IOC level under it's own flag yet we bail out PR an give it funding. She's by definition a US citizen.

Comparing Scotland to PR :lamo. Not that desperate for medals are you? Last time I checked the US was no1

 

[PeteEU]

Comparing Scotland to PR :lamo. Not that desperate for medals are you? Last time I checked the US was no1

He has a point... There are a lot of "countries" that should not be part of the Olympics, because they are not countries. Puerto Rico is an US colony after all. Same reason Scotland is not at the Olympics, it is an administrative area of the United Kingdom. But this goes for a lot of sports.. FIFA and UEFA are full of fake countries that should not be there.

 

[Higgins86]

He has a point... There are a lot of "countries" that should not be part of the Olympics, because they are not countries. Puerto Rico is an US colony after all. Same reason Scotland is not at the Olympics, it is an administrative area of the United Kingdom. But this goes for a lot of sports.. FIFA and UEFA are full of fake countries that should not be there.

No you are being Silly. Scotland isn't a colony its part of a union that has been recognised for hundreds of years, recently voted to stay part of that union, shared border, shared language, shared Olympic funding and they Scotland have competed as team GB since the modern era began.
Last time I checked Puerto Rico wasn't even officially a 51st state, a better comparison would be Gibraltar.

 

[Manc Skipper]

Comparing Scotland to PR :lamo. Not that desperate for medals are you? Last time I checked the US was no1

Well, not if you count them in proportion to population. The other day, New Zealand was topping the chart with eight, while the US around the forty-medal mark was one behind the UK at 29th!


Oops! It's a bit slow to update, but we shot up to 16th while the USA fell to 36th!

Olympic Medals per Capita

 

[TurtleDude]

This is what annoys me.. PR is part of the United States of America, period. There is no discussion of this. If she was Scottish and won gold, it would count as a UK medal. But because the US is nice about it, PR can compete in sports on IOC level under it's own flag yet we bail out PR an give it funding. She's by definition a US citizen.

true but if PR could not compete on its own-she wouldn't have made the USA team since there were three other ladies ranked above her (Williams Sisters and Madison)

I am glad she got to compete.

 

[TurtleDude]

Well, not if you count them in proportion to population. The other day, New Zealand was topping the chart with eight, while the US around the forty-medal mark was one behind the UK at 29th!


Oops! It's a bit slow to update, but we shot up to 16th while the USA fell to 36th!

Olympic Medals per Capita

if we are going to make stupid comparisons-note that the USA has more top athletes in sports that are not Olympic sports than other countries that tend ONLY to have athletes in such sports

example. Pro baseball and football has tons of athletes who would be top competitors in Olympic sports. Most of our very best shooters shoot American style trap and skeet rather than the Olympic versions and the talent in the American versions is far far deeper. Same with Pistol shooting. we also don't spread the athletic pool like they do in China and other countries in which the government allocates athletes. We could take a few dozen second string NBA level athletes and put them in team handball and be world competitive. the athlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner admitted there were probably 10-20 guys playing professional football who would have beat him in the decathlon if they trained for that.

we have one of the best archery teams in the world but we have 50 people shooting target compound for every recurve (Olympic bow) archer. and many of those compound archers are 3D shooters. Most of the Euro nations and Koreans are far more Olympic bow oriented than we are. In Our society where the government doesn't determine where people compete or the funding, its the money sports that get our best athletes.

 

[Manc Skipper]

if we are going to make stupid comparisons-note that the USA has more top athletes in sports that are not Olympic sports than other countries that tend ONLY to have athletes in such sports

example. Pro baseball and football has tons of athletes who would be top competitors in Olympic sports. Most of our very best shooters shoot American style trap and skeet rather than the Olympic versions and the talent in the American versions is far far deeper. Same with Pistol shooting. we also don't spread the athletic pool like they do in China and other countries in which the government allocates athletes. We could take a few dozen second string NBA level athletes and put them in team handball and be world competitive. the athlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner admitted there were probably 10-20 guys playing professional football who would have beat him in the decathlon if they trained for that.

we have one of the best archery teams in the world but we have 50 people shooting target compound for every recurve (Olympic bow) archer. and many of those compound archers are 3D shooters. Most of the Euro nations and Koreans are far more Olympic bow oriented than we are. In Our society where the government doesn't determine where people compete or the funding, its the money sports that get our best athletes.

That's a stupid argument for sure, but so what?

 

[TurtleDude]

That's a stupid argument for sure, but so what?

what's stupid is trying to diminish the USA's lead based on silly parameters like population numbers. there are plenty of sports where the USA has a smaller pool of athletes than other countries and yet we do well. I know there are more Olympic style archers in England than there are in the USA because I know Lloyd Brown who was hired by the GNAS in the UK to help the brits win Olympic medals and he noted far more olympic style archers over there than here yet the US Men have had more Men's gold medalists any other country. In fact the USA has had Five Gold medalists and would have had six but for the boycott because the Finnish archer who won in 1980 was way below the standard the 76/84 winner set. The USA won in 72, 76, 84, 88, 96 with silver in 84, 2000, and bronze in 2016. The men won the team in 96, silver in 88, 12, 16, and bronze in 2000. There were no team events in 72-84, the USA would have won every one of those given the USA won all the world team events from 73-85.

Britain, with more olympic style archers and government support

Simon Terry-Bronze 92
team-bronze 88 and 92,

now our women underperform but we have had two gold medalists 72, 76, a bronze medal team 88

you have a bronze medalist (allison Williamson ) who shot for ASU in the USA period

 

[PeteEU]

No you are being Silly. Scotland isn't a colony its part of a union that has been recognised for hundreds of years, recently voted to stay part of that union, shared border, shared language, shared Olympic funding and they Scotland have competed as team GB since the modern era began.

Never said it was a colony.. I said it was an administrative area within the United Kingdom.. just as Greenland is not a country, but a colony or administrative area within the Kingdom of Denmark..

Last time I checked Puerto Rico wasn't even officially a 51st state, a better comparison would be Gibraltar.

Again I never said that Scotland was a colony... I said Puerto Rico was one, but the difference between a colony or administrative area is constitutional basically if there is such a thing.

 

[Higgins86]

Team GB ahead of China on the medal table!!!!!!!!!!!!

Currently watching Murray vs Del potro, great match so far.

 

[austrianecon]

Comparing Scotland to PR :lamo. Not that desperate for medals are you? Last time I checked the US was no1

It's not about medals, it's about citizenship. Every person born on that island is American by birth.

 

[austrianecon]

Last time I checked Puerto Rico wasn't even officially a 51st state, a better comparison would be Gibraltar.

Actually it would not be a good comparison because Gibraltar has NEVER been recognized by the IOC as separate of the UK. PR from 1896 to 1936 competed as part of the US. The IOC in 1948 actually thought that PR was independent (basically PR committee lied to the IOC) and gave them status because the US gave it devolved power. US and UK have a total of 7 insular areas which have been given status by the IOC because of devolved power. None of these 7 are independent, have separate citizenship stats (neither does Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales).

It's not about being a State. Puerto Rico is part of the United States, relies on the United States to pay it's bills (and now debts). There is no Puerto Rican citizenship recognized by the US or any other country, except Spain because of it being a former colony of Spain. Spain considers them to be Ibero-America people which gives them status.

Fun fact for all those ex-pat Brits who live in Spain and don't want to lose status... live in Puerto Rico for 1 year and obtain Certificado de Ciudadania Puertorriqueña (Certificates of Puerto Rican Citizenship) and then move back to Spain, you'll be given resident status and in 2 years you can apply for Spanish citizenship (and EU).

 

[PeteEU]

Doper wins silver in Rio.. disgusting...

 

[Higgins86]

British Cycling = Amazing.

 

[PeteEU]

British Cycling = Amazing.

You know this would be coming... damn dopers and cheaters! Has Cavendish gotten disqualified yet? From most accounts he should not have his silver medal.

Although, I have a secret crush on Laura Trott... something about that smile..

 

[azgreg]

Here are the top nine comments made by sports commentators during the Olympics that they would like to take back:

1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria . I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."
2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."
4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."
5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."
6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."
8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."
9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them . . . Oh my God, what have I just said?"

 

[Bergslagstroll]

After an impressive win over USA the Swedish woman footballer followed it up with an impressive win over Brazil in the semi-final. It maybe not be the most entertaining strategy and both games won on penalty kicks still what counts is winning especially if you are small country competing against bigger countries.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/16/rio-olympics-2016-brazil-sweden-football

The Swedish coach Pia Sundhage have now also been involved in four Olympic medals. Sundhage served as a scout for the United States woman team, during the 2004 Olympics then USA won the gold medal and as head coach then USA won the gold medals during 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Now at least silver medal with the Swedish team.