Rio Olympics 2016

[Red Rick]

Re:

Damn, Coxwain in rowing seems like it would have been a great job for me. Favours smaller people, probably one of the few sporting roles where one doesn't have to dope, and you get a medal after everyone rows real hard. (not saying it not real difficult, probably is)

What do they do, I imagine they just scream for encouragment with the odd useful coaching. Do they get a medal?

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Damn, Coxwain in rowing seems like it would have been a great job for me. Favours smaller people, probably one of the few sporting roles where one doesn't have to dope, and you get a medal after everyone rows real hard. (not saying it not real difficult, probably is)

What do they do, I imagine they just scream for encouragment with the odd useful coaching. Do they get a medal?

Yes they do, the British rowers were being interviewed earlier and even the coxswain had his medal.

 

[Cannibal72]

Re: Re:

Damn, Coxwain in rowing seems like it would have been a great job for me. Favours smaller people, probably one of the few sporting roles where one doesn't have to dope, and you get a medal after everyone rows real hard. (not saying it not real difficult, probably is)

What do they do, I imagine they just scream for encouragment with the odd useful coaching. Do they get a medal?

It's about keeping the rowers in time (really hard) and, most importantly, in their lane. There's obviously slight disparities in strength, which could lead to the boat drifting to one side or the other as the rowers pull in different sides, so the cox's job is to tell certain rowers to ease off a bit or go a bit harder to keep the boat straight.

 

[luckyboy]

Pernille Blume wins!

 

[gooner]

Peaty 56.59 secs for his 100m breaststroke in the relay. That would smash his own world record.

Unreal.

 

[Merckx index]

Assuming a reaction time of at least 0.60 seconds, Peaty’s split was not quite as fast as his WR, set last week. Peaty has shown, though, how to beat the U.S. in a medley relay. Be so dominant in your event that the other three guys only have to stay within half a second of their counterparts. Unfortunately, GB couldn't do that. It helped the U.S. a lot that Murphy set a new world record in the backstroke, and unlike the case with Peaty, that counts. That time tonight and Peaty's last week were the only WR set by male swimmers in this Olympics.

Phelps's Olympic record:
30 events entered
30 finals made
28 medals
23 Gold medals

Since 2004, he has swum in 17 individual events, against a total of 119 other swimmers in Olympic finals. Only 7 of them have finished ahead of him.

 

[El Pistolero]

Thiam Gold in the Heptathlon. Second Gold for Belgium!

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Is it just me, or are there now over 100 swim medals? It seems like they have a medal for every possible distance and every possible stroke.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

Is it just me, or are there now over 100 swim medals? It seems like they have a medal for every possible distance and every possible stroke.

Yeah, it's a complete joke. Phelps the greatest Olympian my ass.

 

[Robert5091]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/...oxide-is-cause-of-colour-change-a7189616.html
80 litres of hydrogen peroxide was dumped into the two pools in the Aquatics Centre without organisers knowledge
... it has been confirmed that the addition of hydrogen peroxide neutralised the chlorine in the pools and meant that algae was able to bloom.
... the participation of over 120 athletes in the diving pool had added to the “organics” in the water that were responsible for the colour change.
(I suppose Brazilians are so used to dirty water they do n't see it as a big deal!)

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Damn, Coxwain in rowing seems like it would have been a great job for me. Favours smaller people, probably one of the few sporting roles where one doesn't have to dope, and you get a medal after everyone rows real hard. (not saying it not real difficult, probably is)

What do they do, I imagine they just scream for encouragment with the odd useful coaching. Do they get a medal?

Yes they do, the British rowers were being interviewed earlier and even the coxswain had his medal.

Didn't the British basically "kidnap" a random kid in one of the earlier modern games? He got his medal and then ran off, with nobody to this day knowing who he was, except him and his family of course.
Though I guess today there are probably rules against that...

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

Damn, Coxwain in rowing seems like it would have been a great job for me. Favours smaller people, probably one of the few sporting roles where one doesn't have to dope, and you get a medal after everyone rows real hard. (not saying it not real difficult, probably is)

What do they do, I imagine they just scream for encouragment with the odd useful coaching. Do they get a medal?

Yes they do, the British rowers were being interviewed earlier and even the coxswain had his medal.

I first saw him collect the medal (he looks like 1.60 and is scrawny ) while standing next to several 2 metre plus hulks and I thought- how the hell does this guy produce enough power to make the gold medal team.
Figured it out soon enough

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Is it just me, or are there now over 100 swim medals? It seems like they have a medal for every possible distance and every possible stroke.

In fairness to Phelps himself, he always used the term "most decorated" Olympian. Which is more fair. After all, the most decorated Olympian will practically always be a swimmer given the colossal number of medals available. I seem to recall an interview with Michael Johnson where he basically dismissed the scale of the achievements of Phelps along the lines of, well, if they gave gold medals for running 200m and 400m, skipping 200m and 400m, running 200m and 400m while waving your arms around and sidestepping 200m and 400m, along with relays at 4x200m and 4x400m for all, he could have got that many golds too.

 

[sienna]

Re:

Is it just me, or are there now over 100 swim medals? It seems like they have a medal for every possible distance and every possible stroke.

And in all the other sports the athletes have to work their butts off (for days sometimes) for one lousy medal.
Phelps' achievement has been phenomenal to say the least but that opportunity is only available to 1-2 swimmers a generation.

 

[sienna]

I felt a little sad for MP when he only won a silver in an event - he looked a bit dejected.

 

[Billie]

Re:

Is it just me, or are there now over 100 swim medals? It seems like they have a medal for every possible distance and every possible stroke.

Not enough. 50 m breaststroke needed at the Olympics

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

Is it just me, or are there now over 100 swim medals? It seems like they have a medal for every possible distance and every possible stroke.

In fairness to Phelps himself, he always used the term "most decorated" Olympian. Which is more fair. After all, the most decorated Olympian will practically always be a swimmer given the colossal number of medals available. I seem to recall an interview with Michael Johnson where he basically dismissed the scale of the achievements of Phelps along the lines of, well, if they gave gold medals for running 200m and 400m, skipping 200m and 400m, running 200m and 400m while waving your arms around and sidestepping 200m and 400m, along with relays at 4x200m and 4x400m for all, he could have got that many golds too.

These sprinters shouldn't complain. They have 100m, 200m + Relay and nothing stops them from participating in the hurdles, 400 metres or long jump.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I would have excelled at the one width doggy paddle with feet down if the water goes in your eyes: is that an event?

 

[BullsFan22]

Anybody following the women's marathon? How's that going?

 

[BullsFan22]

I felt a little sad for MP when he only won a silver in an event - he looked a bit dejected.

I am sure he'll get over it.

 

[Merckx index]

There are 96 medals awarded in swimming (but 97 this year, because of a three-way tie for silver). But still more if you tally by the number of individuals receiving medals for relay participation. There are four swimmers in each relay, so you could say there are 114 medals awarded (add 6 x 3). But it's even more than that, because a relay team can consist of more than four swimmers, and you don't have to swim in the final to get a medal, as long as you swim in a preliminary heat. E.g., three of swimmers in the U.S. men's 4 x 200 FS relay team swam in the preliminary heat but not in the final. I don't know what the total would be if you add all those up. At a maximum, it would add 24 more medals (6 x 4), but it wouldn't be that much. But as a guess, I'd say 120-130 medals are given to individual swimmers in total.

We’ve discussed the advantage all these medals gives Phelps, but even granted that, I think a good case can be made that he’s accomplished more than athletes in other disciplines. If you just want to compare him to other swimmers, only one in history had won seven Golds in a single Olympics before he came along. So at the very least, one could ask that a track star win one more Gold than the record for a track athlete. Haven’t seen Bolt or anyone else do that.

But as far as the fairness in giving more medals to swimmers, Nate Silver asks the question, what if the number of medals awarded for a discipline was proportional to the size of the spectator interest in that discipline? Based on viewer hours, he comes up with a “medal multiplier”, to calculate the increase in medals an event should be awarded based on its popularity. Track and field’s multiplier is 1.0, meaning its medal number is just what it should be. Swimming’s multiplier is 0.9, which means the number of its medals should be reduced just slightly, by about 10%, based on its viewership. Soccer has a multiplier of more than 12, and basketball 8. Volleyball also has a very high multiplier. (Cycling is below one, and that’s with all the medals awarded to track cycling. In another thread, I’ve argued that there should be more road cycling medals, but most people don’t seem to agree).

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-countries-medal-in-the-sports-that-people-care-about/

 

[BullsFan22]

I really wish that swimming was more mainstream, and the masses could see swimming more than just once every four years. Then again, NBC and the like are all about the Olympics. Same thing with Athletics. There are many other things going on, many other competitions, golden league meets happening in between every Olympics. Of course the Olympics are the biggest goal for these athletes, but unfortunately everything else in between is treated as if it never happened.

 

[The Hitch]

I fear bolt will have just enough, just like last year, but man, if gatlin could pull this off today I think it would be one of the greatest sports moments in history.

 

[gooner]

I can't understand why there isn't a women's 1500m freestyle when there is one in the European Championships.

 

[djpbaltimore]

Re: Re:

Is it just me, or are there now over 100 swim medals? It seems like they have a medal for every possible distance and every possible stroke.

In fairness to Phelps himself, he always used the term "most decorated" Olympian. Which is more fair. After all, the most decorated Olympian will practically always be a swimmer given the colossal number of medals available. I seem to recall an interview with Michael Johnson where he basically dismissed the scale of the achievements of Phelps along the lines of, well, if they gave gold medals for running 200m and 400m, skipping 200m and 400m, running 200m and 400m while waving your arms around and sidestepping 200m and 400m, along with relays at 4x200m and 4x400m for all, he could have got that many golds too.

But Michael Johnson misses one of the main points. Even considering just one event, Phelps winning the 200IM at four straight olympics has only been matched by Carl Lewis and Al Oerter. And he nearly did the same in the 200m and 100m butterfly, earning 3 golds and 1 silver in each.

Phelps does have the big advantage of more relays, but I think that is track's fault. They should make more relays. 4x200m is a common one in HS track. A sprint medley (100m, 100m, 200m, 400m) would be cool. For distance, a team 5k where you score it like a cross country race could be added too.