2024 Summer Olympics

[kestrel79]

mixed sex track? Is that new? That is awesome! Would of loved something like that in high school or college.

[homer]

The 100m Men's final was epic. Cool photo capturing the race:

 

 

[Jimbo]

3 hours ago, kestrel79 said:

mixed sex track? Is that new? That is awesome! Would of loved something like that in high school or college.

Introduced in the 2019 World Championships, as well as '22 and '23.

2020 Tokyo Olympics.

At first, the order didn't matter.  So you had M and F running mono-a-mono.  The rules have since been tweaked so everyone is M v M and F v F.

When POL won Tokyo, the pure joy on their faces as they crossed the finish line was a highlight of the games.  This is the most fun event to watch and you can see the athletes getting into it.  Not all are into yet.  Some teams send B-List runners while others (NED, POL) send A-List runners.

Swimming also does this, but no designated sex order.  More strategic due to constraint (two members each sex) and all four strokes have to be done.

 

[young guns]

On 8/4/2024 at 2:31 PM, Jimbo said:

In the last 150 meters, she goes from 4th to 1st to win gold.  It's like having Ohtani as a pinch-hitter.

 

That was amazing.  Just easy speed to blow past everyone at the end.

[Jimbo]

4 hours ago, young guns said:

That was amazing.  Just easy speed to blow past everyone at the end.

Almost did the same thing at the 2022 World Championships.  USA and DOM were heading to the finish and were the only two on the screen and Bol comes from nowhere into the screen to get the American but not the Dominican at the end.  Saturday, she redeemed herself after last year's WC where she was caught at the end, tripped over herself, dropped the baton and was DQ'd.

[Jimbo]

Sunday's observations:

Gold medal match in archery.  The American and Korean hit 10's the final three shots to force one shot winner-take-all.  The Korean is 5 mm closer to bullseye.  Their heart bpm ~90, these guys need to hit the cardio.

The Canadian hammer thrower is a dead ringer for David Crosby.  Crosby may have had gold records, but not a gold medal.

Women's high jump -  Ukranian Yaraslova Mahuchikh wins gold, in part due to the defending champion is Russian and not there.  Karma.

100m - my wife and I thought Thompson won it.  Surprised to see Lyles with the win.  Not a big Lyles fan, but I guess he's good for the sport.  Some are calling it the best race ever.

 

Monday's observations:

Didn't watch anything on NBC, all on peacock (replay) as soon as I got home.

W 5000 had several giants of the sport.  One gets DQ'd and stripped of silver.

Pole Vault - my highlight so far.  Watching on peacock, they showed everything.  The running events long completed, yet no one left the stadium.  There just to watch one person only, and Mondo did not disappoint.  Representing Sweden, of course the stadium plays "Dancing Queen" while he celebrates his WR.  Makes my peacock subscription worth it.

 

 

 

[Underachiever]

I know it was yesterday, but the men's 1500 was outstanding. Not often a race without a rabbit comes in within 1.3 seconds of the world record. Ingebrigtsen and Kerr's beef is great, but Ingebrigtsen was so obsessed with keeping Kerr behind him he gave Hocker the inside lane. Inexcusable, but probably an indicator that Inge knew he was fading and was doing everything he could to hang on. 

And Gabby Thomas in the 200 was simply amazing to behold.

[homer]

32 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

I know it was yesterday, but the men's 1500 was outstanding. Not often a race without a rabbit comes in within 1.3 seconds of the world record. Ingebrigtsen and Kerr's beef is great, but Ingebrigtsen was so obsessed with keeping Kerr behind him he gave Hocker the inside lane. Inexcusable, but probably an indicator that Inge knew he was fading and was doing everything he could to hang on. 

And Gabby Thomas in the 200 was simply amazing to behold.

I couldn't believe Hocker was able to go inside of that guy. I had to watch twice just to make sure what I saw. 

[homer]

I love the 400 and 800. Those were my events in high school. Bascially a sprint for a full lap. Crazy comeback on the home stretch for Quincy Hall to get the gold:

 

 

 

[MrTPlush]

54 minutes ago, homer said:

I love the 400 and 800. Those were my events in high school. Bascially a sprint for a full lap. Crazy comeback on the home stretch for Quincy Hall to get the gold:

 

 

 

That finish was crazy. He went from in the race, to looking like a distant 5th place, to somehow storming back for the gold. 

Rooks steeplechase finish was equally impressive. 

 

[Underachiever]

Quincy Hall was flailing so badly, he looked more likely to finish 8th than 1st. I saw him come around the corner and thought he was tying up. Amazing run.

Looking forward to the 200. 

[MrTPlush]

Kenny Bednarek, the WI Native, defended his silver medal in the 200m. 

USA basketball avoids a shocking upset and stormed back to beat Serbia. Took till the 4th Q for the USA to actually look like they wanted to win and tried working as a team. 

[Jimbo]

Nothing much more to add here.

Gabby Thomas is one of my favorites.  Neurobiology from Harvard.  A well-spoken person.  Hard not to root for.

I was unaware of Kenny Bednarek while he was in high school.  Must have dominated NW Wisconsin.

Sometimes it's about who is NOT in the room.  No mentioning of Athing Mu (800m) nor Mariya Lasitskene (high jump).

John Anderson doing T&F on peacock, still waiting to hear his usual Wisconsin references.

Lauren Carlini and Dana Rettke playing for volleyball gold Sunday 6 am.

Two marathon races televised live the next two nights at 1 am.  Who's with me?

 

[Samurai Bucky]

7 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Lauren Carlini and Dana Rettke playing for volleyball gold Sunday 6 am.

Rettke will not see the floor, unfortunately.  I think she has played only one or two points resulting in a foot foul on her part on a serve.  She is behind Ogbogu and Washington.  Those two have been exceptional.

[homer]

seeing the US dominate the 4x400 makes the inability to win the other sprint relays all the more frustrating. The women won by 50 meters.

[MrTPlush]

3 minutes ago, homer said:

seeing the US dominate the 4x400 makes the inability to win the other sprint relays all the more frustrating. The women won by 50 meters.

To be fair, it isn’t really much of a relay. Basically just adding up 4 people’s 400 meter times. The 100 meter relay the transfers are actually a huge part and difference maker in the race.

I presume a huge issue with it is the fact the US is so loaded. Sounds like a good thing until you got 3-4 people making the 100 and 200 meter sprint finals. They practice some during the week for the relay, but they end up with zero actual race experience all week.

[homer]

lol Steph Curry just decided to win the gold on his own. OMG that last three was insane.

this was his fourth three in four consecutive possessions:

 

 

[homer]

Weak sauce

 

 

[MrTPlush]

Romania is going to decline the change, right? It was all about how terrible it was to give it to Chiles and the effect on the Romanian girls mental health. 

But really, they will have zero issue robbing it from Chiles because of some delusional technicality of 4 seconds and even though the Romanian girl was literally the loser by skill/execution. 

[igor67]

Well it's even worse because the Romanian in 5th place really should have had the bronze but there was never a challenge filed for her score that had an incorrect penalty. I have to go back and rewatch to remember the details but it was a clear mistake at the time that got relatively little attention.

[Jimbo]

Final Observations:

Americans never had a chance in volleyball against ITA.  Kat Plummer's serve receive reminded me of when her Stanford team came to Madison in 2016 and everyone thought that was something the Badgers could exploit, but in the end the Badgers lost in 5 in the Regional Final.

If the French women had someone who could shoot a three, the Americans would have been in trouble.

The women's marathon had five big names and three of them were together with 1 km to go.  Sifan Hassan's efforts were amazing.  When I did a marathon, two days out was a complete rest day.  Hassan raced and medaled two days out.  NCAA D2 walk-on Dakota Lindwurm places 12th.  Gotta love it.