2016 Summer Olympics

[RobDeer 45]

I'm usually pretty excited about the Olympics, but for some reason it has not grabbed me this year. I'm hoping that changes once the games start. Here is a thread to discuss!

[Jimbo]

I'm usually pretty excited about the Olympics, but for some reason it has not grabbed me this year.

 

I partially share that sentiment. Maybe because NBC is well...NBC. Some key people I will follow are the recent Badgers in track and Gwen Jorgenson in triathlon. I caught most of the T&F OT as well as last year's World Championships, so I'm up to speed on most stroylines there. I want to follow swimming, but can never seem to follow which swimmers do what events. But as always, I will be glued to my TV as much as I can over the next 17 days. Pop and frozen pizza are all set for tonight for the Parade of Nations.

[RobDeer 45]

Ha! I too had frozen pizza last night for the ceremonies. Looking forward to some action today! The ceremony helped get me more excited.

[MrTPlush]

The Olympics this year are a pretty big disaster from a event planning perspective. Poop water, Zika, dead bodies in Olympic area, and Russia being allowed to play.

 

This isn't really new though. It's usually a disaster behind the scenes. Of course the TV camera content shouldn't show any of that. So that is good.

[young guns]

I love the olympics but the opening(and closing) ceremonies hold 0 interest for me. I like watching some of the more obscure sports that arent in the main stream often and swimming. Swimming being my favorite and water polo being my favorite of the more obscures.

[Thurston Fluff]

I used to watch the Olympics for the wrestling but the last couple have had very little coverage of wrestling. Then the IOC thought about getting rid of it decided I could do better things with my time than watch a nearly wrestling free Olympiad. Like watch paint dry or give my eyebrows a perm or something.

[jerichoholicninja]

Dan Patrick looks really old. Like really, really old. And does he have Parkinsons or something because his hand shakes like crazy when he's holding the microphone.

[Vgmastr]

Rugby is my new favorite summer Olympic sport. So much fun to watch.

[young guns]

I had never seen rugby before yesterday. It is pretty fun to watch.

[MKE81]

I feel the exact opposite about Rugby!!

[madbad2000]

Rugby is not my favorite to watch. We need Australian Rules Football to take off more.

[Jimbo]

What a crazy finish to the men's cycling road race. The commentators predicted beforehand there would be crashes on the final descent and sure enough, two of the top three leaders wipe out. Then in the women's race, deja vu as the leader wipes out ten miles from the finish.

Since I've started following the sport seven years ago, it has become one of my favorite to follow. Also due to the fact I took up triathlons four years ago.

[RobDeer 45]

Dan Patrick looks really old. Like really, really old. And does he have Parkinsons or something because his hand shakes like crazy when he's holding the microphone.

 

Had both the exact same thoughts. Dang. Means I'm getting old too.

[patrickgpe]

i love watching the swimming, besides that. last night was a good show. I do like the app, that tells me exactly when certain events are on and lets you watch it on your phone or laptop, instead of bouncing around from sport to sport like NBC does on their primetime coverage.

[MrTPlush]

I have this weird fascination with the long distance stuff for the finishes. They are so strategic. My personal favorite is the cross country skiing for Winter Olympics.

 

The white water kayaking is quite interesting.

[FVBrewerFan]

I looked forward to the Olympics. Summer rerun season, so nothing on anyhow. Nothing sports related either other than the Brewers. It's great getting to see sports I wouldn't otherwise care about once every four years. And since there's something on line in every event, it makes things interesting. USA Women's soccer is always exciting to follow. Looking forward to some of the bigger men's matches too. Swimming is always fun to watch, since it's so heavily dominates by USA, how many more medals will Phelps win, etc.

 

End of that women's cycling road race was crazy. The American was leading seemingly forever and gave it up with 100 meters to go. Went from Gold Medal to nothing just like that.

 

Also, I keep forgetting they haven't even started track and field yet.

[trwi7]

Rugby is my new favorite summer Olympic sport. So much fun to watch.

 

Handball is my favorite. Wish it was popular in America.

 

Rugby is not my favorite to watch. We need Australian Rules Football to take off more.

 

They sometimes have that on Fox Sports 2 late at night. I agree that's more fun to watch than rugby.

[RobDeer 45]

Cool seeing Phelps win another Gold last night.

[nate82]

 

Handball is my favorite.

 

I bet it is.

 

 

I will be here all week folks!

 

I'm sorry the 13 year old in me just couldn't let that one pass.

[Jimbo]

End of that women's cycling road race was crazy. The American was leading seemingly forever and gave it up with 100 meters to go. Went from Gold Medal to nothing just like that.

 

If the Dutchwoman doesn't crash, it's possible the American rides with her to the end earning gold and silver and the slipstream doesn't catch them.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuQlpUgKXcA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm9tMlttAuc

[Funketown]

Gymnastics is really fun to watch. Obviously the women get more press at the olympics (as the US women deserve), but I was amazed at some of the things the men were doing on Tuesday as well.

 

With most other sports, I often think to myself, 'I could maybe do that once in a thousand tries if I got lucky', or 'I could do that once in a hundred tries if I spent my whole life training for it', or 'If I trained long enough, I might not look absolutely ridiculously stupid doing what they're doing', like running the 100 meter in 13-14 seconds or lifting some small percentage of what the powerlifters lift.

 

With Gymnastics, I feel like even if I had spent my entire life training, I'd have pretty much a 0% chance to pull off even the simplest thing they ever do.

[RobDeer 45]

I agree on gymnastics, it's really amazing what they do.

 

I watched a bit of table tennis today and was laughing so hard. Some of those serves are hilarious. Like I'm going to make TE guy laugh so he can't return it. I also saw an injury timeout today - not sure if they guy was even able to continue or not. So crazy. Granted he was 40, but still. Seems like that sport is begging for Will Ferell to make a movie about it.

[logan82]

Yeah I have never seen a movie about ping pong.

[pitchleague]

Yeah I have never seen a movie about ping pong.

 

I'll assume you are joshing us. You couldn't possibly have forgotten this one.

 

http://www.impawards.com/2007/posters/balls_of_fury_ver4.jpg

[MrTPlush]

I like the gymnastics, but the fact countries are limited to two gymnast in the all-around...is well...the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I just can't wrap that around my mind.