2020 Summer Olympics

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Laura Ingalls
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Post by Laura Ingalls »

I've been enjoying watching the games as well. Lots of interesting events!!
I was surprised that the sport climbing was as interesting to watch as it is...I wasn't expecting to really get into it.

I was disappointed in some of the USA track results tonight, boo.
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Post by bookworm »

Gabby Thomas's reaction to winning bronze in the 200 meters was fantastic; she was absolutely beaming! It's ridiculous that some people think the gold medals are the only ones that matter.


There was a false start in one of the women's races but the runner actually wasn't disqualified after pleading her case that she couldn't hear the starter because of echoing from the heavy rain. I've never seen that happen before, and didn't know it was possible I thought ejection was automatic. I like it though; I've always thought the single chance format was too harsh, it's heartbreaking when someone gets thrown out for one mistake in the biggest moment. They should get two chances like they used to, I don't know why it was changed.


USA gets silver in the women's steeplechase, first time medaling in the event!


"The A-Team" April Ross and Alix Klineman will play for gold in beach volleyball! That assures a US medal for the 7th straight Games, which is ever since the sport was added.


The US men's relay woes continue as they fail to advance from their heat due in part to an absolutely horrendous baton pass. Extremely disappointing for a program looking to rebound from the disastrous performance in Rio which was only the latest in a bizarrely long history of failure in the event.


The women's golf tournament may need to be shortened due to an incoming tropical storm.


One of the park skateboarders took down a cameraman.


New world record in the women's 400m hurdles as USA goes gold and silver! \:D/


Andre De Grasse gets Canada's first 200 meter gold in 93 years!


US shot putter Ryan Crouser broke the Olympic record on his very first throw, then broke that record on his very next throw, and later broke that record with his final throw!
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bookworm wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:09 pm There was a false start in one of the women's races but the runner actually wasn't disqualified after pleading her case that she couldn't hear the starter because of echoing from the heavy rain. I've never seen that happen before, and didn't know it was possible I thought ejection was automatic. I like it though; I've always thought the single chance format was too harsh, it's heartbreaking when someone gets thrown out for one mistake in the biggest moment. They should get two chances like they used to, I don't know why it was changed.
I've had that thought a few times - it does seem like a very small mistake could ruin your whole chance of competing very easily. I don't know why it or when it was changed, but watching a race from the past reminded me of why it's more fun to watch with less false starts. A few days ago it was the 25th anniversary of the men's 100 m in Atlanta, won by the wonderful Donovan Bailey. (Obviously a Canadian.) ;) He has a famous reaction as he crosses the line, with a hilarious expression on his face, which I have seen tons of times, but for the anniversary, they replayed the whole race, and there were three false starts. Three. Just in the final round. By two different runners. I can see how the sport would look to reduce something that is annoying to watch, and also must be incredibly frustrating for athletes.

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bookworm wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:09 pmThe US men's relay woes continue as they fail to advance from their heat due in part to an absolutely horrendous baton pass. Extremely disappointing for a program looking to rebound from the disastrous performance in Rio which was only the latest in a bizarrely long history of failure in the event.
For those of us who don't care if the Americans win (in general) watching the close-up of the attempted baton pass was super funny. I can see how it would be very frustrating to have such fast runners do so terribly. Maybe a little baton practice in 2024?
bookworm wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:09 pmAndre De Grasse gets Canada's first 200 meter gold in 93 years!
Woohoo! I set my alarm to make sure I was up to watch the race, and it was worth it! It was a great race. Andre got bronze in the 100 m and now gold in the 200 m. Here's hoping for good things in the 4 x 100 m tomorrow morning! \:D/ Thanks for including this, bookworm. I'm all about spreading the Canadian happiness!

Laura, I wanted to watch sport climbing but it hasn't been on at times that I've been watching yet. I'll have to watch some highlights.
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Post by bookworm »

The beach volleyball gold medal game is live on NBC right now! USA vs Australia - Join #Olympics if you're watching!
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Post by Polehaus53 »

I haven’t been consistently keeping up with the Olympics, but I have seen a few games here and there and have watched a few replays.

I watched a little last night. Kenya takes both gold and silver, with Poland taking bronze in men’s 800m final! It’s pretty disappointing that USA got last place.
bookworm wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:09 pm Andre De Grasse gets Canada's first 200 meter gold in 93 years!
I happened to see this, it’s pretty cool that they’ve won after such a long time. And that he did it wearing sunglasses.

A while ago I watched some of the replay of when Germany took bronze medal in table tennis. Also saw part of the debut of sport climbing. The climbers use safety ropes, which is probably a good idea. Makes it a lot less stressful to watch. For some reason I had thought that the climbers wouldn’t be using safety ropes at all. :-k

Very exciting Olympics so far this year! I shall continue to watch as my schedule allows. :yes:
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Post by Catspaw »

Polehaus53 wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 9:02 pm
bookworm wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:09 pm Andre De Grasse gets Canada's first 200 meter gold in 93 years!
I happened to see this, it’s pretty cool that they’ve won after such a long time. And that he did it wearing sunglasses.
Andre and his sunglasses seem to rarely be parted, at least when he's racing. Whatever works!

I watched the ending of the 50 km race walk earlier tonight (just thinking of a race that long is crazy!) and was so very pleased to watch Canadian Evan Dunfee win bronze. He was in fourth for a while near the end and then got ahead in time to get the bronze medal, about nine seconds ahead of the fourth place finisher! During the last Olympics he finished fourth, which is brutal enough after walking 50 km for over three and a half hours in the blazing heat to be just off the podium, but then he was briefly moved into third because the competitor in fourth was going to be disqualified for bumping Dunfee - and then the other person successfully contested and was no longer disqualified, which put Evan Dunfee back into fourth. Talk about tough stuff! Apparently this is the last time this event will be in the Olympics, so this really was his last chance to get an Olympic 50 km medal. Amazing!
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Post by bookworm »

April and Alix get the beach volleyball gold! \:D/ April Ross now has a medal of every color, won with three different partners.


On the same day Spain has both their youngest and oldest ever gold medalists.


Surprise gold for USA in women's pole vault!


Greece had to withdraw from artistic swimming (the new name for synchronized swimming) due to covid. The US team could have taken their place as the next team up (they missed Olympic qualification by only 0.2 points!) but unfortunately there wasn't enough time to get here and participate under the protocols in place.


USA medals in several new events, taking the inaugural men's sport climbing silver, bronze in men's park skateboard, and gold in the debut of the women's canoe sprint which is the first US canoeing gold in 33 years!
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Post by Catspaw »

bookworm wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 9:43 pm April and Alix get the beach volleyball gold! \:D/ April Ross now has a medal of every color, won with three different partners.
That is very impressive! Wow, what a legacy of excellence.

I've been watching women's 10 m platform diving finals and a 14 year old Chinese girl just totally beat the pants off all her competitors. The announcers were very impressed with all of her dives, as were the judges. Apparently you have to be 14 to compete in this event, so it's only because of the Covid delay that she's even eligible. This kind of stuff really makes me feel ancient! She clearly has worked hard to be where she is today.
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China is always the diving powerhouse, but yes this was outstanding even for them. Three perfect 10 dives! She definitely benefited from the year delay to be able to compete here.

There's at least one other athlete I've heard them mention wouldn't have been eligible on the original schedule but is here now because of the delay, I think it was one of the Russian gymnasts.
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Post by Catspaw »

Oh yeah, I think I heard something like that watching gymnastics too. The delay helped some and hurt others - there's nothing any of the athletes have done to get an advantage or disadvantage, but it's hard to deny that it has been a factor for some people.

So Canadians had a pretty good morning! \:D/ The gold medal soccer (football, if you prefer) match was early this morning against Sweden. Last night when I looked at how well Sweden had done, I thought, "Just hand us the silver medals and be done with it." This is why I should not (and will not) take up sports betting. ;) After a long game and then a long overtime, the game went to a shootout and....Canada won! :thud: Awesome! We missed a few, they missed a few, and then on round six the Swedish lady missed and the Canadian scored! Woohoo! I am not a soccer fan and can't claim to have been watching the game closely until the end (though I did have it on for most of the game) but I am a fan of Canada winning gold medals! They won bronze at the last two Olympics and the motto this year for the team was, "Change the colour." They succeeded!

I did feel bad for the Swedes. They played a long, hard-fought match after coming in as the favourites, they had a chance to win and missed the net, and then to have to watch the winning team celebrate must be so hard. Some of the girls were crying and getting hugs from the coaching staff. Not hissy fit kind of crying - just clearly miserable and feeling the loss deeply.
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Post by bookworm »

The men's basketball gold medal game just started, live on NBC! USA vs France - Join #Olympics for live reaction!
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Post by Catspaw »

I watched a bit of the basketball game, but honestly, I didn't really care who won and I don't care about basketball, so I just went to bed before the game ended. ;) Congrats to the American team! I saw today that they beat the previously undefeated team from France.

I watched a replay of the free program of the artistic swimming event, and wow, it is totally amazing what those ladies can do! :thud: It was a replay so I skipped through some of the commentary and stuff between the swimming. I knew the Canadian team was in fifth going in so I was hoping they might move into a podium position, which did not happen, but I'm still glad I watched. It definitely reminded me of figure skating and stuff like that where you have to look good and use your face to communicate the story you are telling, while making incredible amounts of effort look totally effortless. Beautiful! I definitely recommend watching it. If someone just wants to watch a little bit, the Russians won gold but I think the silver medal Chinese routine was my favourite. Every team was amazing.
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The women's basketball gold medal game is about to start, live on NBC! USA vs Japan - Join #Olympics for live reaction!

I'll be in there for the women's volleyball gold medal match too, also live on NBC later tonight. USA vs Brazil
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I just watched Canadian Kelsey Mitchell win gold in the women's sprint event! What a crazy sport. It took me a while to figure out what was going on and even now I'm iffy on why some of the racers were doing the stuff they did, but hey, gold works for me! \:D/ It is definitely more nuanced and crazy than, for example, a 100 m sprint where everyone just spends the whole time running as fast as they can down their assigned lane. :mad:

CBC switched over to the basketball game. It must be time for me to turn off the TV and go to bed. ;)
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Post by bookworm »

USA wins 9 wrestling medals, the most of any nation and a best for the US since 1984!


Congratulations to Canada on their first ever soccer gold, but in my opinion it's kind of lame that it came down to a shootout. You really don't want to see a medal game decided like that. I said this last Olympics too.


USA wins both men's and women's golf gold!


The US men's basketball team avenges their opening loss to France winning the rematch and their fourth consecutive gold! The women's team wins their seventh consecutive gold! \:D/


Japan gets baseball gold. Like softball they requested this be restored for a one off appearance and they won them both. USA gets silver.


Third consecutive gold for US women's water polo! Largest margin of victory in a gold medal match. They've earned a medal in every Games since it was added in 2000!


The track cycling madison is such a wild event.


The US men repeat gold in the 4x400 relay! Why can they do this one but not the 4x100? USA also gets gold in the women's relay!


Allyson Felix becomes the most decorated female track athlete in history, and USA's most decorated male or female!


USA women's volleyball wins their first gold medal! \:D/ What a great performance by this team to get here after losing not just one but two starters to injury mid-tournament.
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Post by Catspaw »

bookworm wrote: Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:10 am Congratulations to Canada on their first ever soccer gold, but in my opinion it's kind of lame that it came down to a shootout. You really don't want to see a medal game decided like that. I said this last Olympics too.
Yes, I hear you. I'm not a big soccer person, but I know that a lot of people feel that way about hockey too. It can be exciting and fun to watch but doesn't always feel like the best way to settle a big game. However, after so much overtime, I can see how a shootout is an expedient way to settle a game. In the NHL right now, in the regular season if a game is tied after three periods they play five minutes of three-on-three OT and if it's still tied they go to a shootout, but in the playoffs, OT continues until someone scores. An Olympic gold medal match could certainly be well served by more OT. Everyone knows what will happen ahead of time, though, so it's not like anyone was shocked when it was time for the shootout or anything.

It was a fun Olympics to watch! I caught highlights of the closing ceremonies and I really liked the Paris 2024 stuff, especially with the planes making the big "flag." \:D/
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Post by bookworm »

I thought the closing ceremony was really bland unfortunately; it was mostly just a bunch of singing. The coolest part, and honestly the only thing I thought was very memorable at all, was France's skywriting jets.

I can't believe NBC cut "I call upon the youth of the world" from the broadcast, it's such an iconic and meaningful moment. Also it's historic this year for saying "to assemble three years from now" for the first time ever. I'll need to watch it online when it gets posted somewhere.
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Oh good, I guess the main part I saw was the good part!

I'm going to miss the Olympics. It's always fun to watch the different events and feel the excitement. It will be nice to feel like I can watch other stuff now, though, instead of always being tuned in to the Olympics. I guess there's a reason it's only for two weeks. ;)
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Post by bookworm »

The United States won the most total medals, and most of each color! \:D/

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This was the 7th straight Summer Games with USA winning the most medals and the 3rd straight with the most golds. The host nation won their most ever gold and total medals. And more nations total won medals in these Games than in any other Olympics before.


A few beyond the sports items:


I honestly didn't notice the absence of spectators. Other than when you could see the empty seats of course, but I mean audibly. I expected not having cheering and crowd reactions to be extremely jarring, but it really wasn't at least to me. Maybe it was because US sports have been fanless for about a year and watching that conditioned me to not notice it as much. Because I really thought I would definitely notice it but adjust to it, but genuinely I didn't find myself giving it a second thought during any events that I watched.


The Russian committee is going to war with the rhythmic gymnastics judges demanding investigation into the results because they finished second. Really? You're lucky your athlete was even allowed to be here period, take your silver medal.


NBC showed a documentary package about the "Kamome" boat that if you didn't see it on tv is short and worth a watch, a real heartwarming story. (available on Peacock)


A Belarus athlete refused to return home after a dispute with her delegation. I don't understand all the details but it seems she had a disagreement with team officials about what event she would run in and after publicly criticizing her coaches was removed from the team completely and forced to the airport to be sent back but wouldn't board the plane fearing for her safety after receiving warnings from her family. The IOC removed the coaches' credentials and expelled them from the Games; the athlete has been granted asylum in Poland.
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Post by Catspaw »

I think I noticed the lack of an audience most when there was a Japanese athlete who won a medal and I would think, "Wow, this place would be going crazy if people could be here!" By the end of the NHL season most arenas had a lot of fans in them so maybe I got used to fans in the stands again? It mostly didn't bother me a lot, but I can't say that I didn't notice it.
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