Olympics 2021

[BlueRoads]

A general Olympics thread, for all sports.

What are you looking forward to the most? What will you watch? Which athletes are your favourites?

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Thanks for starting this thread BR, I'll get more into it once the Tour and the Open are over. Right now there's a lot of battling going on both on the golf course as well as the streets of Paris.

 

[Mayomaniac]

A few of my Italocentric takes:

Kinda bummed out by the fact that Paltrinieri has Mono. I was hoping for an epic showdown between him and Wellbrock.
Also cool to see that Italy has now a legit 100m Track and Field option with Jacobs, he should make it to the final and finish 5th-6th, but you never know.
I kinda hope that Tamberi, that clown, won't win a medal.
Of course I'm gonna cheer for Kerschbaumer in the MTB race, but this isn't the best possible course for him. Of course a medal for Eva Lechner would be awesome.

 

[RedheadDane]

I might watch a bit of Atletics.

 

[BlueRoads]

I'm a huge fan of the Olympics, have been ever since Barcelona 92, when I was 8, and although I know many things I didn't then, the fascination hasn't disappeared completely. There are many sports I like to watch, even if some of them only every 4 or five years, so the tight schedule and on occasion also the time zones give me some dilemmas. I will have to see when exactly what takes place and what I'm able to watch, but in general I love to watch athletics (especially decathlon and pole-jump), horseback-riding, diving, gymnastics, I also like rhythmic gymnastics or whatever it's called in English, and synchronized swimming , then there are some I will occasionally watch, like swimming, a small amount of fencing, canooing and rowing, maybe I will also take a look at some of the new sports, like bouldering and skateboarding...
I'm no fan of most ball-sports other than football, but in the Olympics I won't even watch football.

Okay, thankfully most of the events will happen when it's night over here and I won't get up in the middle of the night to see them, so I won't spend the weeks fully engaged with watching tv, that's a good thing.

Athletes I'm especially interested in: actually none this time, maybe Malaika Mihambo (long jump) and Niklas Kaul (decathlon), also Toba and Seitz (gymnastics).

 

[sir fly]

I might watch a bit of Atletics.

Shot putting?

 

[Pricey_sky]

I love the Olympics and usually watch as much as I can over the 2+ weeks. If there’s a choice I’d normally try and choose events which get much less coverage over the mainstream sports like football ect.

Hopefully it’s a successful games and athletes can stay healthy and perform well.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I kinda like fencing - not that I know anything about it or have any faves. But I think it's fascinating to watch. The speed and precision and all...

 

[RedheadDane]

Shot putting?

All of it!

 

[sir fly]

All of it!

View: https://youtu.be/9-gyd8o7_VE

 

[Red Rick]

Tbh I'm just not really feeling the Olympics this year.

I'm mainly gonna watch the cycling and tennis, which is hardly out of the ordinary for me.

 

[Netserk]

Only cycling and handball.

 

[BullsFan22]

It’s gonna be very strange with an empty stadium. It doesn’t feel like the Olympics are just a few days away.

 

[Bonimenier]

It will be hard to watch as much of it as I usually do with everything being so early for European viewers. Might try to turn from a night owl to a morning person for 2 weeks.

Usually there are always some athletes of who you know that they'll dominate in their typical Olympic sports, like Bolt and Phelps in the past. This year I can't think of many other than Simone Biles,

As always looking forward to the basketball tournament. With USA not performing great in their exhibition matches it might get interesting. I would love to see Doncic shred them to pieces. It's time that Slovenia finally has some success in a sport.

 

[Koronin]

I also enjoy the Olympics. My favorite are the swimming events. I'm probably one of the few people who actually enjoys men's gymnastics over women's. Some of that is because I participated in gymnastics as a child and then took it again in college for easy A's for required gym classes. In college I got to learn the men's apparatis as well as do the women's. I was only one in the class that had any experience other than the teacher so I was the one that did all the stuff on all the events (except still rings). Due to that my favorite two pieces of apparatis to do things on are the pommel horse and the parrell bars. My team teacher taught me a couple of intermediate moves on the parrell bars as well as release moves on the uneven bars.

 

[Publiuszam]

I am looking forward to Trampoline Gymnastics. I like to see people jumping around.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

It will be hard to watch as much of it as I usually do with everything being so early for European viewers. Might try to turn from a night owl to a morning person for 2 weeks.

I have the opposite problem in the States in that it looks like nothing will be aired till 10pm and then throughout the night... I prefer to watch sports live, but I can't be up all night. Ah well, I'll have to get used to watching recorded stuff.

I also enjoy the Olympics. My favorite are the swimming events. I'm probably one of the few people who actually enjoys men's gymnastics over women's. Some of that is because I participated in gymnastics as a child and then took it again in college for easy A's for required gym classes. In college I got to learn the men's apparatis as well as do the women's. I was only one in the class that had any experience other than the teacher so I was the one that did all the stuff on all the events (except still rings). Due to that my favorite two pieces of apparatis to do things on are the pommel horse and the parrell bars. My team teacher taught me a couple of intermediate moves on the parrell bars as well as release moves on the uneven bars.

I was in gymnastics as a kid as well, never really took to men's gymnastics till now. I can definitely appreciate the level of difficulty they execute, and if I had any balls I would definitely protect them while watching them perform on the pommel horse and the parallel bars. (Sometimes when things go wrong and they bang their family jewels, well, that looks very painful.)

Having said all that there are two sports I will definitely not be watching - skateboarding, and freaking beach volleyball. Anything else is a go, but those two events I will happily skip.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

I also enjoy the Olympics. My favorite are the swimming events. I'm probably one of the few people who actually enjoys men's gymnastics over women's. Some of that is because I participated in gymnastics as a child and then took it again in college for easy A's for required gym classes. In college I got to learn the men's apparatis as well as do the women's. I was only one in the class that had any experience other than the teacher so I was the one that did all the stuff on all the events (except still rings). Due to that my favorite two pieces of apparatis to do things on are the pommel horse and the parrell bars. My team teacher taught me a couple of intermediate moves on the parrell bars as well as release moves on the uneven bars.

Meant to add that I don't really enjoy women's artistic gymnastics as much as I used to... it's overexposed, and unless something catastrophic happens you already know Simone Biles will win. Also, artistic gymnastics really isn't artistic anymore, it's mostly athletic. Specifically the floor routines it looks like they're just trying to get through the dance parts with some fake smiles, their main focus is on the athletic elements. Long gone are the days when gymnasts looked like they were doing some graceful ballet moves...

Don't know why they don't just rename it athletic gymnastics, think I would actually prefer to watch rhythmic gymnastics if I want to see some artistry. (While I've never thrown a baton or ribbon myself I can definitely appreciate the difficulty of rhythmic gymnastics.)

 

[yaco]

It’s gonna be very strange with an empty stadium. It doesn’t feel like the Olympics are just a few days away.

Yet currently sporting events such as baseball, sumo wrestling in the Tokyo region have crowds, notwithstanding crowds in other prefectures in Japan - Crowds at sporting events in Japan have been standard since September 2020.

 

[yaco]

I have the opposite problem in the States in that it looks like nothing will be aired till 10pm and then throughout the night... I prefer to watch sports live, but I can't be up all night. Ah well, I'll have to get used to watching recorded stuff.


I was in gymnastics as a kid as well, never really took to men's gymnastics till now. I can definitely appreciate the level of difficulty they execute, and if I had any balls I would definitely protect them while watching them perform on the pommel horse and the parallel bars. (Sometimes when things go wrong and they bang their family jewels, well, that looks very painful.)

Having said all that there are two sports I will definitely not be watching - skateboarding, and freaking beach volleyball. Anything else is a go, but those two events I will happily skip.

You should be happy because the swimming and athletic finals will be in the morning Japan time to fit in with USA television.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

You should be happy because the swimming and athletic finals will be in the morning Japan time to fit in with USA television.

I take it you reside in Japan?

I'm actually not bitching about the time difference, it is what it is. But now that you've brought it up what NBC decides to air in prime time I do have issues with. (Hence the loathed, aforementioned beach volleyball that NBC usually airs in prime time.)

 

[Koronin]

I have the opposite problem in the States in that it looks like nothing will be aired till 10pm and then throughout the night... I prefer to watch sports live, but I can't be up all night. Ah well, I'll have to get used to watching recorded stuff.


I was in gymnastics as a kid as well, never really took to men's gymnastics till now. I can definitely appreciate the level of difficulty they execute, and if I had any balls I would definitely protect them while watching them perform on the pommel horse and the parallel bars. (Sometimes when things go wrong and they bang their family jewels, well, that looks very painful.)

Having said all that there are two sports I will definitely not be watching - skateboarding, and freaking beach volleyball. Anything else is a go, but those two events I will happily skip.

Meant to add that I don't really enjoy women's artistic gymnastics as much as I used to... it's overexposed, and unless something catastrophic happens you already know Simone Biles will win. Also, artistic gymnastics really isn't artistic anymore, it's mostly athletic. Specifically the floor routines it looks like they're just trying to get through the dance parts with some fake smiles, their main focus is on the athletic elements. Long gone are the days when gymnasts looked like they were doing some graceful ballet moves...

Don't know why they don't just rename it athletic gymnastics, think I would actually prefer to watch rhythmic gymnastics if I want to see some artistry. (While I've never thrown a baton or ribbon myself I can definitely appreciate the difficulty of rhythmic gymnastics.)

I've always hated the artistic part of women's gymnastics. I want to see the tumbling not the dance junk.
On the parallel bars your more likely to hit your inner thigh than anything if you miss what you were trying to do. I'm sure the pommel horse can be painful if you hit wrong.

Personally I have no use for rhythmic gymnastic. That's one sport along with the ridiculousness of rock climbing that I won't be watching.

 

[Koronin]

Softball round robin games are now underway. It looks like soccer games will start tomorrow (US time tomorrow).

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Softball round robin games are now underway. It looks like soccer games will start tomorrow (US time tomorrow).

This Abbott lady - she looks like she's very tall, not to mention she's a lefty.

Don't think the Italians stand a chance...

 

[yaco]

I take it you reside in Japan?

I'm actually not bitching about the time difference, it is what it is. But now that you've brought it up what NBC decides to air in prime time I do have issues with. (Hence the loathed, aforementioned beach volleyball that NBC usually airs in prime time.)

Live in Hong Kong - A one hour time difference.