Summer Olympics Thread-Tokyo

[bayareabadger]

None of the current athletes faced even the tiniest fraction of pressure that Jesse Owens faced at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Many of our teams are made up of whining cowards. Jesse looks down on them from the heavens with his head lowered in shame.

This seems an odd form of projection.

Edit: I'll clarify. Declaring that a dead guy must be feeling shame seems a lot. Especially when that dead guy's 66 years on the earth have in essence been boiled down to a symbol of sorts. I'm not sure how he would feel. But to run one's own strong sense of, maybe not anger, but something like it, through what we imagine a caricature of Owens might have thought just seemed a lot. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

This seems an odd form of projection.

This seems a smug form of condescension. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

Now she has withdrawn from the Individual Events, most likely due to the optics of participating in those after quitting on her team. 

[bayareabadger]

This seems a smug form of condescension.

I’m sorry you took it that way.

[ELA]

Now she has withdrawn from the Individual Events, most likely due to the optics of participating in those after quitting on her team.

That's a weird presumptive take

[Kris60]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/us/simone-biles-olympics-gymnastics-physical-mental-health/index.html

In baseball, yips mean you throw the ball into the dugout. In gymnastics, the yips means a broken neck.

I think that is a fair point and I’m trying to keep an open mind about that. Having a bad day in gymnastics could mean getting hurt and not just missing some shots or dropping passes.  I read where Biles’ backing out caused her teammates to have to fill in on events they didn’t think they would be competing in. One girl in particular had to fill in on the beam and floor exercise, two events she didn’t think she would be competing in, and I would presume two events she wasn’t particularly strong in.

She said in her interview when her coach told her she would have to fill in on those two events she almost had a panic attack.  But she did what I think we expect from Olympic level athletes, she overcame her fear, anxiety, and stress and went out and performed. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

If a pitcher "has the yips" he could take someone's head off with an errant pitch. 

[ELA]

My problem with some of the sports (basketball and baseball) is that it's not actually the best, or even the best within a specific requirement.  And then for golf, it's literally just a tournament we see every week.  It's not even on par with a WGC event.

Team USA for basketball and baseball are not our best players, it's just some guys who are pretty good (at least basketball is all NBA guys) who play for USA.

I would get rid of the pro/amateur thing for basketball, if the best aren't going to go, and just make it the best who are 23 and younger.  So you could go once as a pro, and then not worry about it.  Then at least you'd get the best within a category.

• PG Trae Young, Hawks
• PG Lonzo Ball, Pelicans
• PG De'Aaron Fox, Kings
• G Kevin Huerter, Hawks
• G/F R.J. Barrett, Knicks
• SF Jayson Tatum, Celtics
• F Michael Porter Jr., Nuggets
• PF Zion Williamson, Pelicans
• PF John Collins, Hawks
• PF Isaiah Stewart, Pistons
• C Bam Adebayo, Heat
• C Jarrett Allen, Cavaliers

Baseball, it would be nice if teams let their guys go, because after soccer, it might be the sport with the best international participation:

• C J.T. Realmuto, Phillies
• C Sean Murphy, Athletics
• 1B Freddie Freeman, Braves
• 2B DJ LeMahieu, Yankees
• SS Corey Seager, Dodgers
• 3B Alex Bregman, Astros
• 3B Anthony Rendon, Angels
• OF Mike Trout, Angels
• OF Mookie Betts, Dodgers
• OF Cody Bellinger, Dodgers
• OF Aaron Judge, Yankees
• OF George Springer, Blue Jays

• SP Jacob deGrom, Mets
• SP Shane Bieber, Indians
• SP Gerrit Cole, Yankees
• SP Chris Sale, Red Sox
• SP Max Scherzer, Nationals
• RP Garrett Crochet, White Sox
• RP Josh Hader, Brewers
• RP Tommy Kahnle, Dodgers
• RP Trevor May, Mets
• RP Chad Green, Yankees
• RP Tyler Matzek, Braves
• CP Ryan Pressly, Astros

And what's the point of the current golf format?  Pair up golfers, and have a 16 team, alternating shot tournament?

• USA: Dustin Johnson & Collin Morikawa
• GREAT BRITAIN: Rory McIlroy & Tyrrell Hatton
• SOUTH AFRICA: Louis Oosthuizen & Garrick Higgo
• SPAIN: John Rahm & Sergio Garcia
• AUSTRALIA: Cameron Smith & Marc Leishman
• SOUTH KOREA: Sungjae Im & Siwoo Kim
• MEXICO: Abraham Ancer & Carlos Ortiz
• CANADA: Corey Conners & Mackenzie Hughes
• JAPAN: Hideki Matsuyama & Rikuya Hoshino
• FRANCE: Victor Perez & Antoine Rozner
• CHILE: Joaquin Niemann & Guillermo Mito Pereira
• IRELAND: Shane Lowry & Seamus Power
• BELGIUM: Thomas Detry & Thomas Pieters
• AUSTRIA: Bernd Wiesberger & Matthias Schwab
• GERMANY: Martin Kaymer & Stephan Jaeger
• FINLAND: Kalle Samooja & Sami Valimaki

[betarhoalphadelta]

If a pitcher "has the yips" he could take someone's head off with an errant pitch.

Eh. The batter, catcher, and ump all have helmets/facemasks.

If a pitcher throws THAT far offline that he can hit someone else, I'm guessing he's got his throwing motion all f'd up and won't have the velocity to cause much damage. 

You're not mis-throwing a ball 45 degrees offline at 102 mph.

[utee94]

Eh. The batter, catcher, and ump all have helmets/facemasks.

If a pitcher throws THAT far offline that he can hit someone else, I'm guessing he's got his throwing motion all f'd up and won't have the velocity to cause much damage.

You're not mis-throwing a ball 45 degrees offline at 102 mph.

Counterpoint:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euHfP6X_axY

[betarhoalphadelta]

That swimming announcer needs to lay off the coke.... He's way too excited about everything...

[CatsbyAZ]

The quote being shown on ESPN’s bottom line is “I had to do what was right for me.”  That’s not going to play well when you are competing in a team event.  Her teammates, while not as talented or well known, poured out their blood, sweat, and tears their entire lives for a shot at gold too.  It can be argued that her bowing out gave them the opportunity to win silver but it can be just as easily spun it cost them gold.

A lot of reactive takes resulted from Biles bowing out a few days ago.

One camp praised Biles' "courage" for acting in the interest of mental health and furthermore sharing her struggles with the public.

The other camp bemoaned Biles' for using mental health as a "free pass" to let down her team – "where are we as a country when we’re now glorifying quitting!"

In my opinion it's time to inhale the reality of how times change.

In 1996 Kerri Strug was praised as a hero for the "courage" it took to land a several vaults, at the relenting of her perfectionist coaches, with a crushed ankle. Courage was sacrificing yourself for the success of your team.

Fast forward twenty five years and Simone Biles is praised as a hero for the "courage" it took to put her mental health first. Biles' unfortunate adolescence aside, costing her team the gold is quite the opposite of the win-at-all cost determination that landed Kerri Strug on a Wheaties box a quarter-century ago.

Times change.

[MarqHusker]

Good match bt US and Turkey.  Replay on at 5ct on nbcsn.  

[betarhoalphadelta]

Really starting to get tired of them having the Olympics on other continents where the time zones are different. It makes it so hard to watch events in real time, live. 

Can't they just host them all in North America, or better yet, just in real America? 

Or if they won't do that, just have them do all the events in the middle of the night to make it easier for Americans to watch live? 

I swear, it's like these countries think they're as important as us or something.