2016 Summer Olympics

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Post by Catspaw »

bookworm wrote: Speaking of serious injuries, did you hear about the two from a while back? A Dutch cyclist had a terrible crash and was motionless on the side of the road for a really long time before being taken to the hospital. And a French gymnast suffered an extremely gruesome broken leg doing a vault. Scary stuff.
Yes, those both sounded terrible. I saw the footage of the cyclist one after they already knew that she was okay (not great, but not as bad as it could have been, based on how she landed!), and the gymnast one I heard about but never watched. That was on purpose...I'm not much for gore, and it sounded really gruesome. Definitely scary!

The decathalon has been interesting to watch today. I've only seen highlights, not the entire events, but I am impressed by how many different things these men can do so well! It's definitely a tough event. It will be interesting to see how things go tonight and then tomorrow. Right now after three events the US is in first, Canada in second, and France in third, but that could change a lot before tomorrow night. Hopefully not too much - that sounds pretty good to me! ;) Ashton Eaton, the American in first, is married to a Canadian athletics competitor who already won bronze in the ladies heptathalon earlier in the Olympics, which is pretty cool. Now that's a hard-working and talented power couple! They even have a cute Visa commercial together.

Click here.
I assume that the comments are disabled because some people (read: over-patriotic American folks) were all worked up about Ashton wearing a Canada hat while cheering on his wife. I thought it was cute, but that's just me. ;)
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Post by bookworm »

Interesting development in the Lochte robbery. Brazil authorities can't substantiate the event and tried to confiscate his passport, but he's reportedly already back in the US. The other athletes involved hadn't left yet though and two were pulled off their plane. The whereabouts of the last one are unknown which is unsettling. Why this is interesting is when the news of the robbery first started coming out the USOC had initially denied the reports before eventually saying it did happen. They say it's because they weren't made aware right away, but it makes you wonder. Also apparently their story has been changing. We'll see how things play out.


In other breaking non-sports news, Rio police have arrested an IOC executive for ticket scalping.


I forgot they did that gymnastics gala exhibition after the medals are all over. Probably because they couldn't do one in London. That's fun.


De Grasse and Bolt in the 200m semifinal was funny.


The US women sweep the 100m hurdles! \:D/ First sweep of that event ever! Exact opposite of the men's where the US was shut out of the event for the first time ever.


Walsh and Ross bounce back and win the bronze medal match! :D Another extremely hard fought very even game, went to three sets. I had been worried about this one too because it was against Brazil again, and actually the top ranked team.
It doesn't lessen Kerri's legacy at all to not get another gold. Yeah she lost for the first time, but she lost for the first time! She's 27-1! That is amazing! And she's still undefeated with Misty May. That was the dynasty. You can't expect that success to continue at the same level with a different partner.
I don't know if this is her final game, but it has been an absolute pleasure to watch her over these four Olympics. Her play is just captivating. Her whole presence is actually. I love how after every game she goes around highfiving everyone on the court, even the people that rake the sand. Her enthusiasm is contagious.
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Post by Catspaw »

The latest on the Lochte story make it sound like a drunken night gone slightly wrong and lots of lies to try to make up for it, with no robbery at all. There still might be more details to come, but Lochte is looking pretty bad on this one right now, with his buddies detained by Brazilian authorities while he tells variations on his (seemingly fabricated) story to the media in the US. Ouch.

DeGrasse and Bolt were amusing! :lol: The final will have less laughing, but it nice to see competitors getting along.

A 27-1 record is beyond amazing! Wow, talk about a great competitor. I didn't realize she was that dominant.


I watched highlights from the triathalon today (talk about a tough event!) and loved watching two brothers from Great Britain finish with gold and silver medals! Very cool. Plus apparently this is the first time somebody has won two golds in the triathalon, which is a huge accomplishment!
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So apparently Lochte and the others were in fact confronted by someone with a gun who did take money from them, but it wasn't a robbery. It was a security guard who was seeking restitution for vandalism. What a twist. The event did happen, but the details were the lie. Why would they make up that story? Presumably to cover up what really happened out of embarrassment; but that was what counter productively brought the incident to international attention and eventually the truth out. If they had just not said anything we probably would never have heard about it.


The volleyball semifinal went about just as down to the wire as it could have, five sets with the final won by just the required two point margin. Great game, but the top team US lost and will play for bronze.


Ashton Eaton repeats decathlon gold. Very impressive.


An unusual sight on the track of a relay team running all alone. It looked like heartbreak for the US in their heat when they dropped the baton, but further review saw that the hand off had been interfered with. They filed a protest which was upheld and they were given a solo time trial for another chance to make the final, which they did.


The men's beach volleyball final was played in some pretty good rain; I haven't seen that too often. Brazil won, the crowd went nuts, it was fun.


NBC aired an absolutely fantastic documentary on Bela and Marta Karolyi. I highly recommend watching (click here) if you don't know why they are such famous figures. And even if you do. It gives a great look at some of the most iconic moments in Olympic history, and just world history in general.
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I watched the documentary on the Karolyis, it was really good.

I don't like it when the TV schedule says it's going to air something.. and then they don't. Or the schedule changes soon before said event was going to air. :boohoo:
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Post by bookworm »

I've been using this schedule which has been quite accurate, though there have been a handful of last minute changes.
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snubs wrote:I don't like it when the TV schedule says it's going to air something.. and then they don't. Or the schedule changes soon before said event was going to air. :boohoo:
This has been annoying me so much. My family has recorded a ton of the events, but most of them don't have accurate labels, so we have to fast forward through the entire recording to find out what's actually in them.
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Post by bookworm »

It looks like the women's basketball gold medal game is actually going to be on NBC and live in all timezones! Join #Olympics if you're watching! I think it starts in about 20 minutes. United States vs Spain
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bookworm wrote:It looks like the women's basketball gold medal game is actually going to be on NBC and live in all timezones! Join #Olympics if you're watching! I think it starts in about 20 minutes. United States vs Spain
I watched almost all of it. It was nice to see the USA womens come out on top yet again. \:D/ (I also figured they would air it if they made the final). I'm planning on watching the USA mens tomorrow. =D
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The US women become the first to repeat water polo gold!


Great competition in individual equestrian jumping, six riders rode both rounds clear and went to a jump off to determine all three medals! A record number double the previous high!


The BMX finals were fun to watch. Wish I had been able to see more of it before just that. I'll try to find some on the website.


The US/Italy semifinal was the best volleyball game I've ever seen! You could tell it was going to be a great one when it took six set points to win the first. And it remained an unbelievably even game, other then a blowout third set, that was tied nearly every serve. There was an incredible 11 volley rally in fourth set that was representative of the whole match, both teams were giving it their all. Italy made a stunning comeback in the end to get to the gold medal game, the US will play for bronze.


Usain Bolt gets his unprecedented 'triple triple' with three consecutive golds in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay.


The women's 4x100 relay team capitalize on the second chance and defend their London gold! \:D/


The men's 4x100 relay woes continue though. It looked like they were finally back on podium with a solid third place run, but very late announcement of a disqualification grabbed it away claiming their first hand off had been made just barely before entering the legal zone. A protest was filed because it looked really close, but it was rejected. They're becoming the track version of US men's gymnastics; they keep finding disheartening ways to fall apart when they really shouldn't have problems.


The US women win basketball! It was their 49th straight game win and 6th straight gold medal. That's 20 years of dominance. Wow.


Brazil wins soccer gold in dramatic fashion. Again, you don't want such a huge game to come down to a shootout, but at least it was a good one. The medal ceremony was incredible with the whole stadium singing the anthem.


USA gets 1500m gold for the first time in 108 years! \:D/


The US women win their sixth straight 4x400m relay gold! The men also get gold!


USA won the first gold medal, they also win the last taking men's basketball. :)
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The closing ceremony was fun to watch. This was the first Olympics I have kept up with from beginning to end and now I think I'm a little addicted. \:D/ I'm excited for the winter Olympics in South Korea.

But I am MOST excited for the opening ceremony in Tokyo 2020! Because those Asian countries always know how to put on a show!
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What a fun time! I was a little sad to see things end, but I also knew that it was for the best, because I spent way too much time watching the Olympic coverage! :mad: I usually haven't been able to do so, and it was super fun. There were lots of amazing athletes and interesting stories throughout the last two weeks!

I loved the Tokyo 2020 intro! :lol: Super Mario all the way!
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I wrote but for some reason never posted these summary thoughts:



What an Olympics for the US! Dominance in the gymnastics, the pool, and the most success on the track since the 1984 Games though that has an asterisk because the Eastern Bloc boycotted. If they had competed those medals would surely have been more dispersed so the record probably would go back even further. This was an extremely impressive performance is what I'm saying.


Speaking of extremely impressive, what else can you say about Phelps? 28 medals, 23 gold. I'm glad he came back for this last run.


And the Brazil men really stepped up for the home nation, both volleyball golds and their greatly desired soccer; they won all of their big sports. And getting soccer in a game that happened to be a redemptive rematch of the last World Cup was pretty special.


This was a thoroughly enjoyable event from start to end. I'm already looking forward to the next Winter Games.

-- 09 Dec 2017 04:44 pm --

I found my thoughts on the ceremonies that I had written but never posted:



The opening ceremony was hit and miss I thought. I liked the start with the big puppets and then the people riding those ships and the floor projection was cool, the storytelling was good, it reminded me of the run through history in London, but when it got into the main performance part I lost interest. I'm not big on just singing and dancing. It was great if you like that, not saying the show was bad, I just don't personally have that taste.

I was really irritated when Tom Brady's wife came out, and then for the rest of the show the camera kept cutting to her every five seconds. Yes, we know she's still there clapping along or whatever, there are other things going on that I'd like to see! It got really ridiculous. That was my one real criticism of the broadcast coverage; it felt to me like they were thinking 'Americans know who this is, it's probably the only thing that will keep them connected to what's going on, let's keep her on screen as much as we can.'

And during that flower poem or whatever it was I completely zoned out. But once they got to the point I liked it, each athlete planting a tree to make an athlete forest is cool.

I really liked this cauldron! I found the design offputting at first, briefly, but it grew on me very quickly. The motion was mesmerizing, and it was a really pretty and memorable visual.



The closing ceremony came off pretty much the same to me. A fine show, just not to my personal taste. I did like the dancing plant people, and once again the floor was very cool, but other than that I wasn't really connecting to anything.

Once they handed the show off to Japan I got into it though! All the light up stuff; that's what I like. If this was a taste of what they're bringing I can't wait for their ceremonies. And I liked when the Prime Minister turned into Mario and entered the stadium via warp pipe.

"I call upon the youth of the world" gives me chills every time. There is so much tradition and history in that segment of the ceremony.

Very innovative cauldron extinguishing, with a synthetic rainstorm. And amusing because it had been raining naturally earlier.

Also the fireworks were really incredible. There were so many!
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