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Summer Olympics

jeffbear said:
So ... the weekend.

Bolt wins his 3rd 100. That So African guy blew up a 17 year old world record in the 400. Phelps closes out his career with another gold in the 100IM relay. Simone Manuel collects more hardware, and Simone Biles collects more as well. Gotta be honest here ... after the women's sprints and middle distances are done I'm pretty much done with the Olympics this year. So pretty much tonight or tomorrow.
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Even more impressive with the 400M world record was that he did it from lane 8. Couldn't see his top competition who were in lanes 5 and 6. It looked like LaShawn Merritt (who spent a year at ECU) had a bead on him coming off the 2nd turn but Van Niekirk pulled away.

Watching the replay of the 100M final from the head on camera, you can see Bolt looking at the video screen for the last several strides. He was just toying with the rest of the field.
 
not to rain on the parade, but Bolt is 6-5 which means he actually takes less steps than everyone else. I don't know if any of the other guys are that tall. Of course it also means he carries more weight. (I assume that he weighs more)
 
Paulie Walnuts said:
not to rain on the parade, but Bolt is 6-5 which means he actually takes less steps than everyone else. I don't know if any of the other guys are that tall. Of course it also means he carries more weight. (I assume that he weighs more)
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Yeah ... his stride makes it LOOK easier, but fast is fast no matter what it looks like. And that guy is just miles ahead of the pack when he's healthy.
 
jeffbear said:
Yeah ... his stride makes it LOOK easier, but fast is fast no matter what it looks like. And that guy is just miles ahead of the pack when he's healthy.
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Yeah, and there is a lot more that can go wrong in technique when a guy is that tall. NBC showed a great video between the semi-finals and final last night. In a recent WC final, Gatlin was well ahead of Bolt at the 75 - 80 meter mark and started flailing his arms. Bolt caught him. In a race that's decided by hundredths of a second, any breakdown in technique can be fatal. His height also works against him out of the blocks. He's a woefully poor starter because it takes him so long to get unfolded.
 
As I thought ... my interest started to wane significantly last night. I did manage to catch the great finish to the women's 400 ... Felix getting out touched by a leaping/lunging/falling Shaunae Miller ... before I decided to quit putting off Stranger Things on Netflix.

Holy crap ... that show is GOOD and the creative team is from Durham.
 
Cmon guys. I remember reading from a previous Olympics where they were giving away condoms and they ran out. Seriously, you take thousands of young, incredibly fit, hormone laden, often very good looking athletes, and pack them into close quarters away from their normal high level of scrutiny and control of every aspect of their daily lives to one where they have minimal oversight outside of their prescribed competitive schedule, what exactly do you think is going to happen?
 
HNIM said:
Cmon guys. I remember reading from a previous Olympics where they were giving away condoms and they ran out. Seriously, you take thousands of young, incredibly fit, hormone laden, often very good looking athletes, and pack them into close quarters away from their normal high level of scrutiny and control of every aspect of their daily lives to one where they have minimal oversight outside of their prescribed competitive schedule, what exactly do you think is going to happen?
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They have 450,000 condoms to give out, double what they had in London 4 years ago.
 
HNIM said:
Now THAT's something I bet you never thought you'd Google.
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Didn't have to, it was in the article I linked earlier. But the 450,000 condoms is 3 times more than what they had in London, not double.
 
Notable ... the Egyptian judo fighter who refused to shake hands or bow following his loss to an Israeli fighter has been summarily kicked out of the Games by the IOC and his actions were condemned by his national committee. Seems the Egyptians weren't going to take any stronger action so the IOC drew the line for them. I figure I bag on the IOC constantly and in fairness should give them a nod when they actually get something right. For the Games to continue, nationalistic political and religious arguments HAVE to be left at the door for 2 weeks.
 
Boy. I've bumped into some whitewater coverage during the last couple of Games but never noticed the canoes.
 
Back to our regularly scheduled IOC corruption news ...

The head of the Irish Olympic Council, Patrick Hickey, was arrested in Rio for scalping complimentary tickets. He is also the head of the European Olympic Committees (the liason unit for EU Olympic Committees) and a member of the IOC's executive board.

So, congrats. One of the three or four most powerful men in the IOC gets arrested for selling off freebie tickets at a Games where you have massive attendance problems due to the corruption in the local organizing committee. Brilliant little cruise line you're running there, guys.
 
other than swimming and gymnastics who would buy a scalped ticket? Tons of empty seats all over. It seems that very few Americans went to Rio so that hurt ticket sales. And you can thank Zika for that. and raw sewage in the streets.

A vikings coach was caught scalping Super Bowl tickets, not sure if he got fired or not. All NFL coaches including assistants get SB tickets.

Atlanta used the Ocoee river in TN for their whitewater canoe/kayak events. You can still run that course yourself .
 
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