Printable View
Don't know what to call them. And while most people don't care about them and the Japanese don't want it to happen, it is.
First off in the world of stupid. US winner of the 100M is suspended and not going to the olympics because of weed. STOP TESTING ATHLETES FOR WEED IT OFFERS THEM NO PERFORMANCE ADVANTAGE.
https://www.espn.com/olympics/tracka...-positive-test
So are we expected to dominate again?
Probably. Basically it's USA and China at the top of the odds makers and huge gaps from there.
The US squad for Baseball is buckwild. Lots of blasts from the past, Kazmir, Edwin Jackson, Bubba Starling, Todd Frazier, manager, Mike Scoscia. Of course, there's prospects involved. But holy crap the blasts from the past.
First Olympics with legalized sports betting. I anticipate losing lots of money in the dumbest ways possible.
Is there a reason why the United States doesn't play handball? Looks like we're not in it once again. I feel like we could teach our second tier NBA players over the course of a weekend (or even a bunch of college guys who weren't good enough for the pros) and ******* annihilate everyone, if we were so inclined.
I mean I've said if we used our "reject" NFL and NBA players went into other sports, we'd be much better. Like imagine if you worked with college basketball and football to dual sport those kids into soccer or handball or Volleyball to get those top notch athletes as having for lack of a better term fallback plan.
USWNT clowned by Sweden to open the games.
I think they lost their opener last time they won gold, but still, not ideal….
Well Team USA lost to Franco in their Olympic opener. Embarrassing.
The US needs to get off its high horse when it comes to doping.
The rest of the world is so far ahead of us its amazing.
Who needs to dope when your athletes are dopeQuote:
Originally Posted by Tapate50
yuck.
Anyway, just wanna see Simone Biles wreck the world or watch a judge **** up her shot to win by being ****ty.
Also kind of wish we brought College kids to the Olympics. Like I know the NBA players are better, but could you imagine like take Coach K or Jay Wright, give them a month of prep or so to just drill. Take the top kids, so looking at the NBA draft class you have a team of the top college kids playing almost in a Draft showcase, wouldn't that arguably get better results than pulling NBA players after a season?
I would be good with that strategy for men’s basketball. Or if we’re going to use a roster of established pros, do a better job of team selection so that we actually have a roster well suited for international play. This time around we did neither.
You can't say the team is lacking star power, sure some of the top players aren't there, But many are.
I don't know where Simone Biles' head is at or anything at all about her current mental condition, but the time to assess that is BEFORE the Olympics. It's perfectly natural for athletes to question themselves and have moments of self doubt. Dealing with mental stress and fear of failure is part of performance. She may be the GOAT of women's gymnastics but she isn't acting like it. Unless she has some serious mental condition for which she shouldn't have gone to Tokyo in the first place, she should suck it up and soldier on, like all those who aren't the GOAT have to do everyday.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Runnin
100% agree. Imagine if a big name from a big sport acted the same way during thier sports championship week. They’d be killed by the media and called a quitter
Already happened with Naomi Osaka.Quote:
Originally Posted by Krgrecw
In that case, at least she wasn't playing for a team, not to mention her country. Only she could really make the call and she was only hurting herself and her fans, and the tournament itself.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Chosen One
But Simone Biles was representing a team. If she has a physical injury holding her back that's one thing, but that hasn't been reported that I'm aware of. Just being a little unsure of herself is no reason to throw in the towel. Hopefully there's more to it than the way it's been reported so far, and I kinda expect that there is.
It's too bad Simone Biles did this to herself. Quitting mid-Olympics is going to bring her much more grief than she would've had from simply performing, regardless of her results. It's a shame she didn't have anyone around her to make her see this.
The one thing I’d say in her defense is that worst case scenario in her sport is a lot graver than say a sprinter or swimmer, where the worst thing that happens in those sports is you just lose a race. If she’s not mentally committed when she hits the vault, it could end up in a broken neck.
To me it's more like a surgeon. Would you want to be operated on by a surgeon who was exhausted and mentally unfit? Not really. right?Quote:
Originally Posted by acesfull86
Simone Biles is the best person to ever do the thing. If she can't control her landing, why would she risk her livelihood and long term health? Sure it's the Olympics, but she's got many years of her life to life.
I guess the twisties are a little like the yips in golf, but instead of a jabbed putt she's twirling through the air. I never been able to do a simple flip with any degree of certainty.
Would you want your surgeon to wait until you were under anesthesia and in the operating room to inform you that he was mentally unfit to perform the operation?Quote:
Originally Posted by zitothebrave
Much rather that than be killed or living with a defect the rest of my lifeQuote:
Originally Posted by Runnin
Looks like another American won the individual all-around?
Yup. Always a good shot that would happen. Suni Lee is a great gymnast. She got her chance to shine and did.Quote:
Originally Posted by acesfull86
Other than a little soccer and men’s hoops, I haven’t watched any of these games. Are the Americans doing about what they’re supposed to do? I bet the over 43.5 gold metals, but no idea where I stand lol.
edit: Was looking at total medals earlier. USA currently has 14 goldsQuote:
Originally Posted by acesfull86
US women bounced. not really surprising. Seems like they're in the same rut they were in back in the early 2010s. Lots of older vets who run the team. All our forwards but one was 32 or older. Like that's not good.
The USA baseball team fought hard against Japan's best and most experienced pros. Minus Ohtani.
OHTANIQuote:
Originally Posted by Runnin
USA gets a shot for revenge in the Gold Medal Game.Quote:
Originally Posted by thewupk
Landon Donovan famously took a mental health sabbatical.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Chosen One
Yeah and he never won any major trophies unlike SimoneQuote:
Originally Posted by nsacpi
Olympic b-ball is more exciting than the NBA.
LOL @ China not winning the race for the most Gold Medals.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Runnin
Not that it matters, but do you buy into the theory about Simone knowing she’d be popped for banned drugs that’s why it was a sudden and last minute withdrawal? the evidence add ups just as much as the ‘twisty’ excuse. Shes openly admitted that she takes medicine that’s banned in the olympics.
She performed in the balance beam conpetition not even a few days later. So she must've had someone good to cover it up for her.Quote:
Originally Posted by Krgrecw
Yeah, it would be silly to assume she was cheating when she competed later.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Chosen One
Though I think the only reason US didn't dominate Skating and BMX is because of the pot rules.
I don't know what to think about her. She knows herself better than anyone but I think no Japanese or Chinese gymnast would've withdrawn, or been allowed to withdraw, from Olympic events because of "the twisties". They would've been more psychologically prepared and with a deep sense of personal investment and responsibility.Quote:
Originally Posted by Krgrecw
But it's also true that the kind of moves Biles makes are super difficult and dangerous. Fortunately the US was very deep.
Japan also bans some substances that are not on the Olympic ban list.
Didn't watch that much of the Olympics, but heard a lot about Biles' decision both pro and con/reasoned and venomous.
All I can say is gymnastics is the cruelest sport in the world and it only gets more and more cruel as these athletes reach higher levels of competition. My daughter was in club gymnastics until she finished seventh grade. She reached Level 9 (two levels below Elite where the sifting for the Olympics begins) and placed quite well. But at Levels 8 and 9, she was practicing 25 hours a week and I was starting to observe a Svengali dynamic between her and her coach. Her coach left the gym she was at (and tried to convince my daughter's mother and me that she should follow him to his next destination). She changed gyms and really didn't like the coaching approach (and they were insisting she repeat Level 9 even though she had finished second in the state the year before), so she decided to hang it up. She grew four inches her first year out of gymnastics. She went over to the much less arduous high school gymnastics and did very well (even won the state all-around title as a junior).
I don't know why Biles went back to the Olympics in 2021. Whatever pressure she felt was unwarranted. But that doesn't mean there weren't people putting pressure on her. It's a sport that requires this odd mix of daring athleticism and total Zen. If those girls think, they inevitably mess up and when an athlete is attempting to successfully perform the types of maneuvers they are expected to perform, it does become extremely hazardous.
Like almost everything else in the culture these days, Biles' decision took on dimensions well beyond its isolated importance. To me, that's the biggest problem.
It's funny that Russia is claiming that the Tokyo Olympics were rigged against them because of their low medal count. All part of the authoritarian scumbag playbook.
Snowflakes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Runnin