Olympics 2020

[Marc Meakin]

Might as well get in early.
I see we have a 12 year old representing team GB this year in Skateboarding!!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/57669299

Didnt even know it was a sport.
They will have wall climbing next

[Thomas Cappleman]

Might as well get in early.
I see we have a 12 year old representing team GB this year in Skateboarding!!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/57669299

Didnt even know it was a sport.
They will have wall climbing next

Not next - same time: https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/spor ... -climbing/

[Marc Meakin]

Might as well get in early.
I see we have a 12 year old representing team GB this year in Skateboarding!!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/57669299

Didnt even know it was a sport.
They will have wall climbing next

Not next - same time: https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/spor ... -climbing/

I hope darts is next

[Mark James]

The Olympics suck.

https://youtu.be/3SApyzF5DWw

[Marc Meakin]

No fans no fun?

[Marc Meakin]

As my sporting predictions have been getting better lately i shall predict team GB to be in top 6 in medals table with around 40 medals with China, USA and Russia the top three
3 golds in Track and Field for team GB

Still cant believe we was second in Rio

[Mark Deeks]

You guys might want to throw a few quid on Slovenia winning the men's basketball.

[Noel Mc]

Mostly looking forward to watching Simone Biles

[Fred Mumford]

Yeah. Not generally a fan of sports where the outcome is decided by judges, but when you have someone so demonstrably better than everyone else I guess it's fine.

[Callum Todd]

You guys might want to throw a few quid on Slovenia winning the men's basketball.

I don't normally bet but I had a few quid in an account from exploiting guaranteed returns from offers on the Euros. If Slovenia win I'm picking up your tab at the Fox and Hounds in January.

[Gavin Chipper]

Yeah. Not generally a fan of sports where the outcome is decided by judges, but when you have someone so demonstrably better than everyone else I guess it's fine.

Still rubbish.

[Mark Deeks]

You guys might want to throw a few quid on Slovenia winning the men's basketball.

I don't normally bet but I had a few quid in an account from exploiting guaranteed returns from offers on the Euros. If Slovenia win I'm picking up your tab at the Fox and Hounds in January.

What odds did you get?

[Callum Todd]

What odds did you get?

22/1

[Conor]

Have gone big on Slovakia bandwagon too at 24/1.

[Gavin Chipper]

I went for Slough.

[Fiona T]

25/1 on Betfair when I threw my tenner in - down to 16/1 now.

If this comes in, Mark should be good to never buy a coLin drink again!

[Marc Meakin]

France will win it

[Ian Volante]

33/1 for me on Paddy Power. No idea what it is at the moment.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Since Tom Daley is my celebrity crush I may have gone all girly when he won this morning.

[Mark Deeks]

33/1 for me on Paddy Power. No idea what it is at the moment.

17/2.

[Ian Volante]

33/1 for me on Paddy Power. No idea what it is at the moment.

17/2.

Ha. My only disappointment was that each way bets weren't an option, it'll sting if they lose in the final.

[Mark Deeks]

You could still cash out at that time for a tidy dollar, surely.

[Gavin Chipper]

Since Tom Daley is my celebrity crush I may have gone all girly when he won this morning.

That won't impress him.

[Gavin Chipper]

On the thing about sports that are decided by judges - I caught some of the skateboarding highlights, and it seemed a bit rubbish and limited in scope. Not much to watch. Just how good you are at sliding down a bannister. They could easily make it a lot better and turn it into a "proper" sport as well. You'd have it as a race or time trial around this obstacle course with things like bannisters and stairs to go down, and you could have shorter routes that are harder to navigate so you weigh up the risks of using them. And it's all done on the clock. No judges required.

Anyway, at the risk of annoying lovers of many sports, I think there's an unspoken assumption (actually I say unspoken but a number of years ago I think I did hear a commentator say basically this), that what happens outside the athletics stadium is a bit of a sideshow and a way of promoting smaller sports, and the real Olympics is the track and field. And even then, the field is just happy to be there alongside the track.

[Adam Gillard]

I caught some of the skateboarding highlights, and it seemed a bit rubbish and limited in scope. Not much to watch. Just how good you are at sliding down a bannister.
[...]
I think there's an unspoken assumption (actually I say unspoken but a number of years ago I think I did hear a commentator say basically this), that what happens outside the athletics stadium is a bit of a sideshow and a way of promoting smaller sports, and the real Olympics is the track and field. And even then, the field is just happy to be there alongside the track.

I watched the highlights of the medal winners in the skateboarding (women's street I believe) and I was very underwhelmed with the eventual medallists having fallen over on the course, in some cases multiple times in their relatively short runs. I guess they are getting points for attempting difficult moves even if they don't quite come off, and if someone simply slides down the banister without falling over they would receive fewer points than someone who does a big trick and falls over when they come off the banister. As a layman it did look like kids playing about in a skate park though, lots of trying things and falling over even at this elite level. Will be interested to see how the other variants compare (e.g. park).

I don't think that comment is fair about track athletics being the only big sport or being the "real Olympics". Maybe the ancient Olympic Games were more focused on those sorts of events but then things like wrestling and weightlifting would fall into that category as well. What is fair to say is that those competing in athletics would see the Olympics as the pinnacle of their sport and will structure their training to peak for the Olympic competition. Athletics is not alone in this, however, and many sports with greater mass participation globally (what I would deem "bigger" sports than athletics) would also fall into this category - not your football, tennis, golf, basketball necessarily, but your badminton, table tennis etc.

Maybe it's just the schools I went to but I've pretty much only ever done track and field on a school sports day; I think I've done a session at an athletics track just once outside of that. On the other hand I've played badminton and table tennis tens or perhaps hundreds of times. Taking golf as an example, I was listening to Collin Morikawa on the radio and although it's not the pinnacle of their sport, he was saying there is a different buzz about the Olympics, and being around these elite performers from all sorts of sports is very different from their normal golf tour bubble. Tennis players and others still really want to win the Olympics even though it's not the pinnacle of their sport.

Having said all that, my personal excitement for the Olympics does peak with the track athletics. I can get into most sports and enjoy watching them, but I'd happily watch a track final with no British involvement whereas I wouldn't go out of my way to do the same for say taekwondo if there wasn't a Brit to back.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Anyway, at the risk of annoying lovers of many sports, I think there's an unspoken assumption (actually I say unspoken but a number of years ago I think I did hear a commentator say basically this), that what happens outside the athletics stadium is a bit of a sideshow and a way of promoting smaller sports, and the real Olympics is the track and field. And even then, the field is just happy to be there alongside the track.

Not even the aquatics centre? I would argue that's equally as big as the athletics itself, frankly, especially the swimming and diving.

[Marc Meakin]

Anyway, at the risk of annoying lovers of many sports, I think there's an unspoken assumption (actually I say unspoken but a number of years ago I think I did hear a commentator say basically this), that what happens outside the athletics stadium is a bit of a sideshow and a way of promoting smaller sports, and the real Olympics is the track and field. And even then, the field is just happy to be there alongside the track.

Not even the aquatics centre? I would argue that's equally as big as the athletics itself, frankly, especially the swimming and diving.

Im inclined to agree.
I generally only watch sports at the Olympics if we are in with a medal chance (I even watched the joke sport of dressage yesterday).
But i pretty much watch all of the track and field

[Paul Anderson]

The surfing was pretty good...very stormy and full of broken waves due to the typhoon off the coast. That Brazilian was fabulous

[Ben Wilson]

That Brazilian was fabulous

They're doing the Olympics naked now?

[Paul Anderson]

Haha.

[JimBentley]

Im inclined to agree.
I generally only watch sports at the Olympics if we are in with a medal chance (I even watched the joke sport of dressage yesterday).

I understand why they do it, but this is starting to piss me off about the BBC's Olympics coverage. Every event is introduced through the prism of what British athletes are in the event (irrespective of whether they have a chance of doing well) and all the punditry is centred around how the British participants performed. And if a GB athlete gets a bronze medal then that becomes the big story with all the coverage, and oh yeah by the way the actual winner of the event broke the world record but let's just treat that as an aside and go to an interview with the British bronze medallist's mum/friend/PE teacher or whatever. It's all so parochial. Or maybe I'm just a communist who hates Britain.

[Dave Robjohns]

Nice to see San Marino winning their first ever Olympic medal this morning (in women's trap shooting) - smallest ever nation to do so, with a population around 5000 times smaller than Bangladesh, who are yet to get one.

[Paul Anderson]

https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2021/ ... ts-nation/

Every nation is the same Jim.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Im inclined to agree.
I generally only watch sports at the Olympics if we are in with a medal chance (I even watched the joke sport of dressage yesterday).

I understand why they do it, but this is starting to piss me off about the BBC's Olympics coverage. Every event is introduced through the prism of what British athletes are in the event (irrespective of whether they have a chance of doing well) and all the punditry is centred around how the British participants performed. And if a GB athlete gets a bronze medal then that becomes the big story with all the coverage, and oh yeah by the way the actual winner of the event broke the world record but let's just treat that as an aside and go to an interview with the British bronze medallist's mum/friend/PE teacher or whatever.

Apparently impartiality doesn’t extend to sport is what they said when I complained about this a few years ago.

Totally agree - the only thing that spoiled Daley/Lee’s gold was Leon Taylor screaming “YES YES YES” over the top of their last dive.

[Phil H]

Not even the aquatics centre? I would argue that's equally as big as the athletics itself, frankly, especially the swimming and diving.

No chance. I'm not even confident that I'd recognise Michael Phelps or Ian Thorpe in the street. How many people would fail to recognise Usain Bolt?

[Gavin Chipper]

Not even the aquatics centre? I would argue that's equally as big as the athletics itself, frankly, especially the swimming and diving.

No chance. I'm not even confident that I'd recognise Michael Phelps or Ian Thorpe in the street. How many people would fail to recognise Usain Bolt?

Interesting. I mean, when I say that I consider the athletics is the "main event", I wasn't really referring to the fame even. More that the athletics stadium seems to be the hub of the whole event and what the Olympics was originally about etc.

When it comes to Usain Bolt's fame, he's obviously incredibly famous but he is also a sample of one, so I'm not sure it proves that much. Phelps and Thorpe are obviously very famous even if not as recognisable as Bolt. But maybe they could have been with different marketing or whatever.

And it's not as if the athletics is full of household names right now. I'm not sure who I'd say the most famous track and field athlete is this year off the top of my head. Who are the household names? And by that I don't just mean UK medal hopes - but the world stars.

By the way, I don't consider diving to be that big a deal. Tom Daley has managed to become a household name in the UK but that was from being a child star and then carrying on competing at a high level for years. He's bigger than the event - in the UK at least. Once he retires, diving goes with him.

[Phil H]

When it comes to Usain Bolt's fame, he's obviously incredibly famous but he is also a sample of one, so I'm not sure it proves that much.

...

And it's not as if the athletics is full of household names right now.

I don't think a swimmer could ever be as famous as Bolt, probably not as famous as Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, FloJo or Michael Johnson either. Smaller arena, the nature of the sport making it harder to identify competitors, and so on.

Athletics is relatively light on household names at the moment, true, but I'd wager that more people will still specifically look out for the 100m final than any other event.

[Noel Mc]

When you talk about Athletics and popularity of athletes, really you're talking about the 100m (and potentially 200m).

Michael Phelps is considerably more famous than any long jumper/high jumper/hurdler etc.

[Paul Anderson]

Karsten Warholm is prob the face of athletics right now in an event that's not one of the Blue Ribband ones, the 400H

[Phil H]

When you talk about Athletics and popularity of athletes, really you're talking about the 100m (and potentially 200m).

Michael Phelps is considerably more famous than any long jumper/high jumper/hurdler etc.

Hmm... If we're talking UK/Ire only, then Farah, for one, would be more famous, and I think his popularity went beyond his own country. If we're talking globally, then wealth inequalities have meant that far fewer countries have been able to win medals in swimming than athletics (although this is beginning to change) therefore I'd expect there to be fewer swimming fans. However, if we're talking about something in between like "economically powerful and/or Anglophone countries", then possibly Phelps would be ahead, I don't know.

I don't want to fall into the trap of assuming my own experience to be universal, but am I unusual here in not really knowing what Phelps looks like? Or not knowingly knowing anyone who made a point of watching his races live?

[Gavin Chipper]

Karsten Warholm is prob the face of athletics right now in an event that's not one of the Blue Ribband ones, the 400H

Ed Moses was also pretty big back in his day (another 400m hurdler).

I just thought - Eliud Kipchoge is running in the marathon so is probably the most famous athlete at the games, although he hasn't been in the limelight so much recently. Is he a full-on household name though? It's always difficult to know who other people have heard of. He got a lot of publicity with the sub-2 run he did.

[Gavin Chipper]

When you talk about Athletics and popularity of athletes, really you're talking about the 100m (and potentially 200m).

Michael Phelps is considerably more famous than any long jumper/high jumper/hurdler etc.

Hmm... If we're talking UK/Ire only, then Farah, for one, would be more famous, and I think his popularity went beyond his own country. If we're talking globally, then wealth inequalities have meant that far fewer countries have been able to win medals in swimming than athletics (although this is beginning to change) therefore I'd expect there to be fewer swimming fans. However, if we're talking about something in between like "economically powerful and/or Anglophone countries", then possibly Phelps would be ahead, I don't know.

I don't want to fall into the trap of assuming my own experience to be universal, but am I unusual here in not really knowing what Phelps looks like? Or not knowingly knowing anyone who made a point of watching his races live?

Phelps might just have a boring generic face though. Maybe if he had one massive eye then he'd be up there.

I see your point about watching his races live, but then I've never been one to actively seek out swimming. I also think it's a bit diluted because a swimmer can realistically compete for about 346 medals at a given Olympic games.

[Phil H]

Is [Eliud Kipchoge] a full-on household name?

I wouldn't say he's a household name. You also have to factor in the not insignificant number of people who would take one look at that name and not even consider trying to remember it.

I might submit Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce as the most famous globally, but I don't think there's an obvious stand-out. Dina Asher-Smith is probably clear in the UK though.

On that note, there seemed to be some fast times in the women's 100 heats this morning. Flo-Jo's world records look as out of reach as ever, but the Olympic record of 10.62, while still a formidable target, perhaps isn't unbeatable.

[Gavin Chipper]

I also see Jakob Ingebrigtsen as quite a big deal, and if he can win a gold I'll think he'll get quite a lot of publicity.

[Phil H]

I also see Jakob Ingebrigtsen as quite a big deal, and if he can win a gold I'll think he'll get quite a lot of publicity.

Agreed. Grant Holloway in the hurdles is another one - he might not get that much publicity "just" for winning the gold as he probably will, but if he breaks the world record - and I think he has a chance - people might start to focus on him as the "new Bolt".

[Paul Anderson]

Yeah I'm a big fan of DAS, but she prob has much more chance in the 200m....SAFP and Elaine Thomson looked much more impressive in the 100m

[Noel Mc]

Of the names mentioned since I posted, I've heard.of Kipchoge, SAFP and DAS.

I would agree though, that the athletics are the main spectacle.

The swimming definitely has a claim, along with the athletics, to be a lot 'purer' (leaving that undefined). Id probably stick weightlifting in there as well.

[Fred Mumford]

Flo-Jo's world records look as out of reach as ever

They should be ignored. Even overlooking the obvious suspicions of such a massive, literally unbelievable improvement so late in her career (exacerbated by the precise timing of her retirement, immediately before random testing was introduced) the 10.49 in particular is highly suspect due to the wind readings too (a very windy day but 0.0 on Flo-Jo's run).

[Phil H]

Flo-Jo's world records... should be ignored

I agree they're highly suspicious, but in a way it doesn't matter. Until/unless the governing bodies agree, it'd be very controversial for the athlete with the next best time to go about calling herself the record holder.

[Fred Mumford]

Yeah, I just meant "we" should ignore them. To officially expunge them from the record books now would be too controversial to even bear thinking about. Unfortunately.

[Marc Meakin]

Yeah, I just meant "we" should ignore them. To officially expunge them from the record books now would be too controversial to even bear thinking about. Unfortunately.

Im also ignoring Kratochvilova's record too

[Phil H]

Dina Asher-Smith doesn't make the 100m final but her teammate Daryll Neita takes one of the "fastest loser" spots by 1/1000th of a second.

Very much enjoyed the Eurosport commentator trying to create a sense of anticipation: "This field - is ab-so-lute-ly - stacked." Eh, well aye, it's the feckin' Olympics!

[Gavin Chipper]

Shame about Dina Asher-Smith. Withdrawn from the 200 as well.

[Mark James]

The vast majority of the Olympics audience is made up of people who don't generally pay attention to sports. They are event junkies. They only watch it because it has been built up as this prestige event. It's like people who don't follow horse racing but put a bet on the Grand National. To become any sort of a household name you need to win at multiple games or do something notorious that's almost not sports related and then it also helps if you have a catchy name. Virtually no one is going to remember Jakob Ingebrigtsen even if he wins gold this year. If you're going in to the Olympics for fame you're better off failing a drugs test than winning.

[Sam Cappleman-Lynes]

Dina Asher-Smith doesn't make the 100m final but her teammate Daryll Neita takes one of the "fastest loser" spots by 1/1000th of a second.

The BBC really made a pig's ear of the coverage around the event. Not only did they jump the gun last night and put "featuring Dina Asher-Smith" against the 100m final when summarising the medal events for the next day, but they didn't even mention Daryll Neita's name until after she'd qualified.

[Gavin Chipper]

I might submit Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce as the most famous globally, but I don't think there's an obvious stand-out. Dina Asher-Smith is probably clear in the UK though

Fraser-Pryce is obviously very big in athletics, but I don't think she's transcended the sport at all. I was just looking at her results as she's considered one of the all-time great female sprinters. It is pretty impressive. At the 100m, 4 golds at the worlds and 2 at the Olympics, so 6 individual global titles over that distance. For comparison, Bolt also has 6. She only has one gold over 200m though (at the worlds in 2013)!

She doesn't have the fame to go with that though.

[Mark James]

I dunk on the Olympics a lot and I still think there's lots to be critical about it but that moment at the high jump when they shared the gold was fantastic.

[Marc Meakin]

One False start and disqualifies is very harsh at the Olympics.
All that prep and a fraction of a second is all it takes.
Good that a European won it for the first time since 92

[Gavin Chipper]

I dunk on the Olympics a lot and I still think there's lots to be critical about it but that moment at the high jump when they shared the gold was fantastic.

I actually thought it was a bit bizarre that they got the choice. You'd think there would be a set procedure.

But yeah, in a situation like that gambling would be ridiculous. A good outcome for both.

[JackHurst]

I dunk on the Olympics a lot and I still think there's lots to be critical about it but that moment at the high jump when they shared the gold was fantastic.

I actually thought it was a bit bizarre that they got the choice. You'd think there would be a set procedure.

I agree it's completely bizarre that they are allowed to get a gold medal each. Particularly when you compare to the golf this morning where they made 7 people go into a play off for BRONZE!

"You can share golds, but you can't share bronzes"

I suppose there will always be edge cases resulting in a situation where you can't distinguish competitors, but it definitely feels very dumb that the long jump works in a way where they can choose to share the medal.