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Malaika Mihambo wins gold in the long jump event!
I'm really impressed by this woman. She does have great physical abilities, but if I've ever seen an athlete with incredible mental strength, it's her. In the last world championships she was the big favourite, but then in the final only had failed attempts, needed a good result to come away with anything, and then she just meditated shortly and jumped to 7.30 in her last try... In the last year she changed the number of steps before the jump to avoid injury, but it didn't work out at all and she didn't have the results anymore. So not long ago she changed it back, but she still struggled and didn't come close to what she could do before.
Now this time she had two mildly good tries, but with her last try she won gold again.
She also has a degree in politics, now she's doing a master in environmental studies, works in a social project with children, I think she's also playing the piano. Respect!
I'm really impressed by this woman. She does have great physical abilities, but if I've ever seen an athlete with incredible mental strength, it's her. In the last world championships she was the big favourite, but then in the final only had failed attempts, needed a good result to come away with anything, and then she just meditated shortly and jumped to 7.30 in her last try... In the last year she changed the number of steps before the jump to avoid injury, but it didn't work out at all and she didn't have the results anymore. So not long ago she changed it back, but she still struggled and didn't come close to what she could do before.
Now this time she had two mildly good tries, but with her last try she won gold again.
She also has a degree in politics, now she's doing a master in environmental studies, works in a social project with children, I think she's also playing the piano. Respect!
What a legend you are, Viktor Axelsen!
Well done to him, I've never really followed badminton lately, so I don't know anyone, I love playing it but I have problem of not liking some Indonesian players - they are big stars here - and it's a problem when watching with the family, so I chose not to watch badminton at all
. In the 90s and 2000s most players I liked were either Danes or Chinese and it was unforgivable when it came to this national sport lol. Weird result for Indonesia, though, complete failure on men's double and instead got the gold out of nowhere from women's double. However I think the best thing is that Guatemala almost medalled in badminton! It's usually a very boring sport in term of participating nations.
Well done to him, I've never really followed badminton lately, so I don't know anyone, I love playing it but I have problem of not liking some Indonesian players - they are big stars here - and it's a problem when watching with the family, so I chose not to watch badminton at all
A shoutout to your country's gold medal winning double for their sheer joy when they won. That was adorable
Benjamin made a push on the far turn and Warholm found another gear. That was insane.
Thompson could not equal FloJo in the 200m, but coasted to the gold. You got to feel for Ta lou a bit. After picking up a pair of 4ths in Rio, she now has added a 4th and a 5th at Tokyo in the sprints.
Haven't watched any yet, but someone on a different forum was disappointed and (perhaps jokingly) just incensed that they use harnesses and safety gear. Don't climbers usually wear them? I really don't know anything about rock climbing...
Are you catching any of the artistic swimming? I can definitely appreciate the difficulty and artistry (and I'm sure people who have a fetish for legs and feet are just delighted with this sport), but I just can't help but think it looks goofy. It's the nose clips that just really add the finishing touch.
Good win for Australia in the basketball. Argentina will be very disappointed with that effort. But Australia has to play the USA now in the semis so...............
Insanity.
But the women also seem to be infinitely faster in that event in comparison to last time.
Could it be that the new shoes have an even bigger impact in hurdles than in flat races?
A shoutout to your country's gold medal winning double for their sheer joy when they won. That was adorable
Yeah, the girls are fine, but it's a fine line between adorable and over the top, borderline embarassing, sometimes, which our badminton players tend to do
Anyway, I think I watch a lot of everything this Olympic, but China's medal count is so left field, everyday they add tons without any seen on tv.
I think they only do one combined discipline, instead of usual separate gold for lead, sprint, and boldering, it's still a bit confusing... And the bolders look too challenging so far. Haven't seen too much of it though.
I didn't get around to watch artistic swimming(?) which is still called Synchronschwimmen here, there's so much going on and I have to work eventually, lol.
The nose clips are so ridiculous!! But probably necessary. I hope. It would be a weird fetish otherwise.
I hope to still see a bit.
I really liked the climbing event, well, the qualification, today. There's tension, but it's not one of those fast events, where you see the athlete, and then it's already over again. They don't wear helmets or glasses or anything so you can actually see what they look like, and during the qualification, which only consists of 20 athletes, you have enough time to get used to the guys if, like me, you don't know them before.
What they do is amazing, but I also think it works better as a competition for the viewer than skateboarding or surfing.
Of course they have safety ropes in the lead, which is probably the closest to rock climbing, but I don't find that disappointing. They climb 12 meters high and they all fell eventually...
The only thing I didn't like much is that this year there is this combined event of speed (who climbs up fastest), bouldering (solve the problems) and lead (who gets highest), and while obviously speed is looked down on (so the commentator said and all the guys who are the best outdoor rock climbers are also among the best in lead and bouldering, while they tend to have a weaknesses in speed), it is very important for the result; with a mediocre speed result you have no chance to get into the final.
I learned, though, that in Paris there will be two seperate events: speed and bouldering/lead, which makes more sense to the expert I now am.
It's a try, after these two games it will be decided whether it stays in the program and after today I'm really in favour of that.
Yeah, the second boulder was extremely hard, I think only three guys managed to even get a zone and only one topped it or something like that.
They have won 5 of the 6 gold medals in diving and 7 of the 13 gold medals in weightlifting. That really accounts for why nearly half their total medals are gold. 11 total medals in shooting too.
That sounds a bit risible to me. There's no doubt they have amazing athletes especially in the technical sports / gymnastics; weird their count relies so much on sports like weightlifting and shooting, which will be cut if my "BlueRoads head of the Olympic games' program" fantasy ever becomes reality.
Yea, but how different is that to the Britons deliberately targeting track cycling because it was a sport with a large medal count and a relatively shallow pool of competition?
I have a very simple rule of thumb for cutting the program if that is required. The most integral sports to the Olympic Games are those sports in which winning the Olympics is the absolute unquestioned pinnacle of the sport.
Oh, two rules of thumb. The X Games and the Olympic Games should cater to different sports, if a sport is an X Games sport it has no place at the Olympics. Actually, that's perhaps a bit far - if a discipline within a sport is an X Games sport, to avoid arguments over subjects like snowboard or cycling with both artistic and race disciplines. That's fairer.
I have a very simple rule of thumb for cutting the program if that is required. The most integral sports to the Olympic Games are those sports in which winning the Olympics is the absolute unquestioned pinnacle of the sport.
Oh, two rules of thumb. The X Games and the Olympic Games should cater to different sports, if a sport is an X Games sport it has no place at the Olympics. Actually, that's perhaps a bit far - if a discipline within a sport is an X Games sport, to avoid arguments over subjects like snowboard or cycling with both artistic and race disciplines. That's fairer.
Congrats to her, but the level in women’s long jump is seemingly low at the moment. Only two women were able to jump 7 meters, and both of them right on 7.00. Whereas before, you had to jump 7+ to get into the medals. I don’t know if it’s the conditions, but the level has gone done a peg or two.
That explains it. Some of their wins that I had time to witness are quite scary, though, table tennis are basically they rolling over the whole planet, and their lifter in women's 87+ only appeared when everyone finished then lazily posting some wtf numbers.
You don't just cut weighlifting or any sport where there are actually several nations which far more limited medal prospects seriously rely on, while China doesn't really rely on it, they just happen to be good at it
That definitely explains it.
Although is that really any different than the US expecting 30 plus medals in both swimming and track and field every summer games?
Well done to him, I've never really followed badminton lately, so I don't know anyone, I love playing it but I have problem of not liking some Indonesian players - they are big stars here - and it's a problem when watching with the family, so I chose not to watch badminton at all
A pretty amazing thing about Axelsen is that he cannot only beat the Chinese, he can also talk with them! As a personal challenge, he decided to learn Mandarin a few years ago. This video is a thank you to his Chinese supporters (admittedly, I don't have any clue as to his level but it sounds more than completely basic).
View: https://twitter.com/muimahmud/status/1422513012787740674
Well, those two sports are the two big ones at the Olympics, so I would think there are more competition there. And it definitely does not fly under the radar.
Nope, just a different way of accumulating medals. And diving used to be one of the big televised events in the days of Greg Louganis. It has been very scarce on TV now that the victories have dried up. I expect a similar fate in the future if Beach Volleyball no longer brings the medal haul. TV coverage on NBC is typically proportional to the quality of the Americans competing in the sport.
Good rule. It would get rid of the worst offenders right off the bat. Bye-Bye Tennis, Golf, Boxing, and Baseball.
I am not necessarily for chopping smaller sports like Weighlifting or shooting. But I would be willing to cut some of the medals given. They could probably survive with fewer weight classes and shooting disciplines.
True, those two sports definitely don't fly under the radar. Now the "funny" thing is we only won 30 medals in swimming this year and many over here are looking at our swim team as if it was a disaster this year. In swimming the only consistent competition we have is Australia. This year's was one of the better Olympic swim meets I can remember watching for several Olympics.
NBC isn't exactly great with coverage to start with and then it's extremely US eccentric. I prefer watching men's gymnastics to women (I like their apparatus better) and good luck finding that. I'm glad I've actually found the equestrian events this year.
If we're eliminating sports from the Olympics based on it not being the pinnacle of the sport we likely should add soccer and men's basketball to that list.
As for baseball, from what was explained, they don't really want to be there, but the Olympics were requiring baseball to bring softball back.
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