quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
There's a lot to dislike about too many of our athletes, whether it's the political posing or just the preening. Still, I've stopped for a look here and there and have enjoyed some of it. I particularly enjoyed Xander Schauffele's golf gold.

It's the parade of sanctimonious, insufferably woke ads that keep me away. They're really laying it on thick. It doesn't matter who's competing, I'm not putting up with the lies and insults the commercials are slinging out.

I think we've got to keep it in perspective, there's not a lot of athletes who are politically grandstanding or preening on about their cause. We're bombarded with a news media that is so intent on driving a narrative, that those few are the ones we're hearing the most about.
Fortunately, the news media can't ignore the excellence being displayed, NBC forked-out $6b to broadcast this whole thing, they better be showing damn near everything and featuring the successes.

I've been watching hours of the track & field events since last week, and frankly, haven't seen or heard of any action from any US or other athlete that could even be remotely construed as disrespectful or "woke."

I agree it is a largely manufactured narrative that is totally overblown.

Yeah, squeaky wheels and grease but the ads are constantly mean, classist and racist. At least the Super Bowl pretends its same kind of ads are entertaining.

quote:

Originally posted by bigwagon:
I've been watching hours of the track & field events since last week, and frankly, haven't seen or heard of any action from any US or other athlete that could even be remotely construed as disrespectful or "woke."

I agree it is a largely manufactured narrative that is totally overblown.

I have watched a lot as well, saw nothing disrespectful at all.

One thing I did notice, most of the athletes from smaller, not so prosperous countries went to American universities. Yeah, the US is a terrible place

The whole interview Cookster posted is great but at around 2:30 in wow! I just love that interview so much!!! If anyone deserves to be the focus of team USA right now and talked about it is Tamyra Mensah-Stock.


I tried to imbed the video but either it got pulled or I did something wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by Cookster:
Tamyra Mensah-Stock wins Gold Medal for USA in women’s wrestling (yootoob link to the match)!

There are three videos of her in this twitr link (sorry) which shows her genuine enthusiasm on the hard work and dedication it took to win, her pride in representing the USA and her love of family and God.

Very nice to see this.

Did anyone happen to catch her on The Today Show this morning? Her smile and enthusiasm could have lit up the Tokyo night sky.

quote:

Her smile and enthusiasm could have lit up the Tokyo night sky.

How refreshing her interviews are!

Georgian weight lifter cleaned and jerked 583 lbs!

I was plesantly surprised to see this ad run during yesterday's Olympic coverage...



(I also just saw a short ad for Black Rifle Coffee Company (however you feel about BRCC).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: kkina,

quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:
Georgian weight lifter cleaned and jerked 583 lbs!

Just saw the Men's 4x100m relay....what a disaster. Apparently every team in the final has trained together, working on their handoffs and whom goes where for months if not years TOGETHER. The US team the last handful of Olympics gets cobbled together a few weeks before the event. Seeing quotes by Carl Lewis and others blasting all the decisions and performance.

Hard to believe, this is an event the US dominated; haven't touched a medal since '04 and no gold since 2000 in Sydney. I'm not a track guy or, have any knowledge but, the last 3-4 Olympics, its been a mixed bag of good and bad. Are the Jamaicans doing something unique or, the US not doing the right things?

What is the most ridiculous summer Olympic sport.


I thought it was a skit but Canoe sprint is an actual Olympic sport.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
What is the most ridiculous summer Olympic sport.


I thought it was a skit but Canoe sprint is an actual Olympic sport.

Skateboarding, honorable mention: BMX riding

I don't know about ridiculous but the weirdest one for me is the Race Walking. It looks like a lot guys trying to make it to the honey bucket before they pee their pants.

Jim

Skateboarding for the win.

In Paris 2024 skateboarding will take a back seat to Breakdancing.

They need to bring this back:



I don't know how much longer the Olympics are, but I can say this may be the first summer games that I have not seen one second of coverage. I've seen some articles online and a couple of clips of interviews, but zero coverage of any events. Can't really say that I feel like I have missed anything.

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
What is the most ridiculous summer Olympic sport.

Trampoline

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Originally posted by 1s1k:
What is the most ridiculous summer Olympic sport.

Trampoline

I see your Trampoline and raise it w/ Karate.

When I watch the Olympics, I want to see competitors pushing themselves to the peaks & limits of human performance. I may not understand what separates 1st from 8th place in Trampoline or Synchronized Swimming or Rhythmic Gymnastics, but when I watch their athletes, I appreciate they are doing things way beyond the spectrum of what normal people can do.

I watched the finals of women's BMX freestyle. The British girl who won, Charlotte Worthington, opened her gold medal run w/ a 360 deg backflip. She did another dozen or so gravity-defying moves and capped it off w/ a front flip. Make fun of BMX all you want, but you have to acknowledge those moves are insanely difficult.

Now back to karate. This Olympics is karate's debut as a full-medal status event and hopefully it's last. The kata competition pairs off opponents in head-to-head elimination format. Why? If you're going to judge them as you would figure skaters or a gymnastics floor routine, then have everyone perform once, collect their scores, then rank them.

Men's Gold medal Kata match
https://youtu.be/c7mOoSFv6d8

In the kumite where opponents 'fight' (to use the term loosely), one guy gets penalized for hitting too hard. Another guy throws his opponent over his shoulder to the floor and delivers a finishing blow, but he gets no points, b/c his techinique isn't pretty enough?

Men's 75kg Kumite gold medal 'bout'
https://youtu.be/nxzHKD1upLs

I thought Olympic TKD was stupid until karate outdid them. At least in TKD, they don't get penalized for kicking too hard. There was nothing in karate that made me remotely think, "Wow, these are incredible athletes!"

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:


Men's 75kg Kumite gold medal 'bout'
https://youtu.be/nxzHKD1upLs

I thought Olympic TKD was stupid until karate outdid them. At least in TKD, they don't get penalized for kicking too hard. There was nothing in karate that made me remotely think, "Wow, these are incredible athletes!"

Yeah, the Kumite went downhill when they stopped asking people to break the bottom brick.

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
They need to bring this back:



I don't know how much longer the Olympics are, but I can say this may be the first summer games that I have not seen one second of coverage. I've seen some articles online and a couple of clips of interviews, but zero coverage of any events. Can't really say that I feel like I have missed anything.

Ohhh, I'd wake up at 3am to watch this. Just because...