Olympics

[Free]

Not good.

 

[Sid]

The games have started already before the opening ceremony. As usual, to get a few large tournaments ended on time.
They are far behind the point to stop them now IMHO.
Countries best check their returning participants thoroughly when they return from Japan.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Watching the primetime replay of the opening ceremony. It's smaller and very subdued, compared to other recent Olympics, as one might expect. I like it so far, though. Far far less thematic emphasis on uniformity and technical perfection, like in say the Beijing show; a bit more chaos and individualism.

I will admit that this stuff hits a bit differently in an empty stadium....in the rain.

Australia's parade uniform got them looking like staff at a golf course, afraid to say.

 

[Isabeau]

I’ve been watching, too, on and off. During the country walk ins, I watched quite a few then went out for groceries, took my time, and they were still walking in when I came back. Watching the pictogramme stuff now.

Im watching on Radio Canada and the hosts are two women and I really like their commentary. “Yes, here come another country that’s quite authoritarian…” “…the first woman to represent so-and-so was in 2020 ha ha” and you can hear their eye rolling.

I have to say, I’ve never felt as disinterested in the sporting events as I am this time.

 

[Robert Jung]

London is the champion of opening ceremonies, but beautiful yet subdued feels right this time.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

At least London could work the opening into a Dr Who episode.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I still watch if for no other reason than because there's a few obscure events that I like, and the Olympics is really the only time I ever get to see them, even streamed.

Oh I forgot to mention, it's hilarious that Tonga just has like a permanent flag-bearer now, lol

 

[Free]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

That WAS impressive

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

So I'm watching archery right now, it's one of those sports I mentioned that I watch the Olympics just to see.

Right now it's a break before the medal round. So there's no one on the floor at the archery venue, and obviously the stands are empty. But there's....a live DJ, entertaining the crowd that isn't there. You can see a video screen on the venue cam, showing the DJ, and the announcer is saying "ladies and gentlemen" and mentioning yesterday's opening ceremony and hype-raising and giving updates all that but.....there's literally no crowd. It's so...surreal. Seriously.

We can overhear the entertainment, and sorta see it when the video-board is in-shot of whatever cam is being streamed, but the stream isn't carrying it directly. I have to wonder if the video (and audio) is being piped to screens outside the venue, or elsewhere in Tokyo, where people are watching this entertainment. There must be, because why would they be doing it?

The athletes are picking up the slack by cheering for each other, including their opponents, when they are introduced - which is certainly nice. But I don't think I'll ever get accustomed to the lack of crowd noise.

 

[Free]

There must be, because why would they be doing it?

Potemkin village - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Remember Trump driving around and waiving to fans when he had COVID? Sometimes they're doing it just for themselves.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

I don't think it's a Potemkin village situation; the cameras are showing the empty stands in all their glory. They're not trying to hide the fact that there's no spectators.

I wonder if it's just the case that the entertainments - the DJs, etc - were contracted before the crowd ban was announced so since they have to be paid anyway they may as well do the work.

Something makes me think this entertainment is for the benefit of someone somewhere, though. No crowds in the venues but perhaps there are crowds somewhere. Or the entertainment feed is broadcast locally maybe.

Mexico wins the first archery mixed-team bronze medal, defeating Turkey. It's the first time a Mexican male has won an Olympic medal in archery, and the third archery medal won by a woman for that country.

This is the first year that there is a mixed-team archery event - that is, two-person teams with one man and one woman from each country. There will still be men's and women's team and individual events, too.

ETA: and South Korea beats Netherlands for the gold in this event, in a very close match!

 

[Free]

Olympic News - Sports News, Events & Athletes

Find the latest Olympic News from Olympics.com, including stories from Olympic athletes and sports events - stay up to date with the latest sports news.

olympics.com

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Just a bit ago Yuto Horigome won host Japan the very first Olympic skateboarding gold medal, in men's street. Very nice to see!

Japan actually has 3 gold medals - the one above, one for swimming in the women's 400m individual medley, and one in Judo men's 60kg - along with a silver in women's 48kg. By weight, that puts Japan in the number 1 spot at 3 gold and 1 silver to China's 3 gold and 2 bronze.

USA has the most medals total 7 - 1 gold, 2 silver, and 4 bronze. It's kind of funny; as of the first day and a half of competition the USA had no medals whatsoever, and then in the space of two hours won six of them in the pool. USA's 7th was the bronze at the men's street event mentioned earlier.

In 2nd either way is China. They won a gold and their two bronzes in shooting sports, along with two more golds in fencing and weightlifting events.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Table Tennis is......so....weird, to me. I know the cliche thing is "why is Ping-Pong an Olympic event" but meh, I don't have a problem with it being there or anything like that. For one thing, it's kind of endearing to me how violent and physical table tennis volleys can get, especially if they go for a while - like they just get super aggressive with the tiny plastic ball, and can dig that. I also like how unnecessarily well-conditioned table tennis players can be, considering their sport. It's clearly a personal choice, because less-conditioned people still win championships; but once in a while you get some guy that like has comic-book quads or something and you're like "omg why even?" and then you're like "well obviously because why not?" I can totally see somebody thinking hey, I'm an Olympian so I'm gonna look the part, even if my thing is table tennis.

But I just get hung up on the serving. EVERY table tennis player, when they serve the ball, has this funky dance-video thing they do with their head and serving-hand right up until they just barely tap the ball which apparently turns them back into normal people. It's definitely NOT a technique thing, because everyone has a slightly different way of doing it, and I've been curious enough to watch videos about table tennis serves and doing things like imparting spin, and the people demonstrating the serves in the videos DON'T go busting a move while they're doing serving. It's something the players choose to do, individually, specifically in that particular way that they do it. I really don't know what it's about, but I can never just ignore it, it's so attention-getting, to me at least.

 

[Grandma Bates]

The women's road race finished, and it sounds like it was a great race. Will watch the replay this evening, but it appears a number of teams decided to stay on the attack throughout the whole of the race. The juggernaut, the Netherlands' team, was forced to spend the day reacting and was never really near the front until the end of the race. Final results:

Spoiler

Nobody predicted this one:



After Van Vlueten's horrific crash in Rio it is great to see her on the podium this year.

Olympics: Shock gold for Anna Kiesenhofer in women's road race

Van Vleuten and Longo Borghini left with silver and bronze as Austrian pulls off huge upset from the early breakaway

www.cyclingnews.com

As an aside, Annemiek Van Vlueten's Olympic bike deserves a special award for the best paint job for these Olympics:

Edit to add:
It looks like all the Canyon bikes used at the Olympics featured this paint scheme:

Gallery: Special bikes of the Olympic Games

As the international attention of the Olympics comes but once every four years, many bike brands jumped at the opportunity to do special paint jobs for athletes competing in Japan. Country-flag themes abound on riders’ bikes, as do Japan-themed paint schemes, like the anime artwork on Alejandro...

www.velonews.com

Edit to Edit to add:

There was some confusion among the riders as to who the leader of the race was. It appears that the race officials may have made a huge error and failed to provide information to the riders they were supposed to make available:

Spoiler

Olympics: Van Vleuten celebrates but mistakes silver for gold

Dutchwoman didn't know Kiesenhofer had already won the race

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Sid]

Table Tennis is......so....weird, to me. I know the cliche thing is "why is Ping-Pong an Olympic event"

There are more questionable sports on the Olympics IMHO.
The 3x3 basketball, all events with horses, the shooting events, fresh water swimming.

But that has been the case since the modern Olympics started:
- 200 m obstacle race (swimming) 1900
- Tug of war
- Tandem cycling sprint
- Club swinging
- pistol dueling
- rope climbing
- distance diving
- real pigeon shooting (1900) 300 birds killed in total
- croquet
- motor boating
- stick fighting (La canne)

Olympic sports come and go. And I think that is okay. Keeps things fresh and crisp.

 

[Sid]

There was some confusion among the riders as to who the leader of the race was. It appears that the race officials may have made a huge error and failed to provide information to the riders they were supposed to make available:

I haven't seen it, but if Van Vleuten or one of the other members of the Dutch Team did not win, than something like this must have gone terribly wrong.
The Dutch totally dominate women cycling since years.
We expected more or less 2 medals out of this event, with gold almost as a certainty.
But it is what it is.

 

[Sid]

In modern cycling the cyclists have direct communication with their coaches and know exactly if there are still people in front of the peloton.
But not on the Olympics. There they still use the 'ancient' method with boards to inform the cyclists. And that failed somehow.
The group of favorites thought that there was nobody in front anymore. If they had known there would have been time enough to get the Austrian cyclist back as well. A peloton at full speed can take back 1 minute of time difference in about 10 kilometers against solo riders. So the elite group took the wrong decisions based on not up to date information.

So Van Vleuten finished with the idea she was first.
If the Olympic Committee wants modern sports events, they better start using modern means of communication as well.
Football has it's VAR, tennis hawk eye. Why do they deny radio communication in the road cycling events?

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Table Tennis is......so....weird, to me. I know the cliche thing is "why is Ping-Pong an Olympic event" but meh, I don't have a problem with it being there or anything like that. For one thing, it's kind of endearing to me how violent and physical table tennis volleys can get, especially if they go for a while - like they just get super aggressive with the tiny plastic ball, and can dig that. I also like how unnecessarily well-conditioned table tennis players can be, considering their sport. It's clearly a personal choice, because less-conditioned people still win championships; but once in a while you get some guy that like has comic-book quads or something and you're like "omg why even?" and then you're like "well obviously because why not?" I can totally see somebody thinking hey, I'm an Olympian so I'm gonna look the part, even if my thing is table tennis.

But I just get hung up on the serving. EVERY table tennis player, when they serve the ball, has this funky dance-video thing they do with their head and serving-hand right up until they just barely tap the ball which apparently turns them back into normal people. It's definitely NOT a technique thing, because everyone has a slightly different way of doing it, and I've been curious enough to watch videos about table tennis serves and doing things like imparting spin, and the people demonstrating the serves in the videos DON'T go busting a move while they're doing serving. It's something the players choose to do, individually, specifically in that particular way that they do it. I really don't know what it's about, but I can never just ignore it, it's so attention-getting, to me at least.

I really love the part where the ball lands in a cup and they have to chug cheap beer.