10 hours ago, sportsfan41 said:

Simone Biles won gold in the women's all around gymnastics. Suni Lee came back from 5th place heading into the final event and walked away with the medal in the women's all around. Simone Biles has been great to watch in the Olympics dating all of the way back to 2016.

Biles is amazing. It is unbelievable how high in the air she gets on tumbling runs and the vault.

Noah Lyles won first gold medal in the 100m for the USA in 20 years, by .005 of a second. His foot was the third to the line, but his clavicle was first and it's the torso that counts.

Crazy note, the guy that came in last today...would have beaten Carl Lewis' time in the 88 Olympics. 

I was coming to make a post about Carl Lewis like JD just did.  I got all this info off Facebook so I guess it is legit, especially the part about 1952:

I wondered what the delta is from 1952 to 1988 performances. The gold medal time in 52 was 10.79 and last place was 10.91. That was one close race, back in the day! Almost none of those could have made the ‘88 cut either, were it not for the odd 12.26 time from the Jamaica runner in that race.

From Wikipedia:

The men's 100 metres sprint event at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland was held at the Olympic Stadium on 20 and 21 July. Seventy-two athletes from 33 nations competed; each nation was limited to 3 runners. The final was won by American Lindy Remigino, the fourth consecutive victory by a different American.[1] Herb McKenley won Jamaica's first medal in the men's 100 metres with his silver, while McDonald Bailey's bronze put Great Britain on the podium for the first time since 1928. The final was "probably the closest mass finish in Olympic 100 metre history" with the first four runners all clocking in at 10.4 seconds hand-timed, all six finalists within 0.12 seconds electric-timed (10.79 for first, 10.91 for sixth), and a photo finish necessary to separate the winners.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1952_Summer_Olympics_–_Men's_100_metres#:~:text=The men's 100 metres sprint,victory by a different American.

And check out this comparison, I guess Luke Erdman would have won gold in 1952.

This is one thing I will never understand about the Track and Field portion of the Olympic Games.  And as far as I can remember, it has been all games, not just Paris.  Your marquee event is the 100M, both Men and Women.  Why run that at the beginning of Track and Field week.   Why not close the games with the traditional Marathon and the 100M finals?  Why use your biggest event to open?

Watching coverage today, I once again noticed that I really like the way they have the studio portion set up, looking out the opening onto the Eiffel Tower.

That got me thinking about 2028 and Los Angeles. Where do they set up their studio?   LA only has one landmark that could be considered as iconic as the tower and that is the HOLLYWOOD sign.  Do they work that in somehow?  I know from Griffith Observatory, you can look one way and see the sign, although it is a good distance away.  If you look the other, you can look right down into downtown LA.   Will be interesting to see if they can or at least try to top Paris.

I haven’t really watched men’s gymnastics in some time.  The pommel horse routines have gotten crazy.  And I enjoyed watching the pommel horse nerd from the US. 

I am starting to get a chuckle out of something I first noticed with the swimming competition and emphasized with track and field.

Leon Marchand is a French swimmer, but where does he train and attend school?   Arizona State

Armand Duplantis set the WR on the pole vault as a member of the Swedish team.  Born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana.

I've lost track of how many of the runners from a multitude of nations train and go to school in the southern US, specifically Texas.

Even when the US loses, they win.

Due to not having Peacock, my choices today so far have been basketball (Serbia v Australia) or diving.  I generally watch neither.  I opted for a little bit of diving.   China is amazing at this, but I’m also convinced they could show up, do a can opener, cannonball and 3 bellyflops and still win the gold and silver by 20 something points.  Just can’t trust judged sports.  Figure skating proved that.  

41 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Due to not having Peacock, my choices today so far have been basketball (Serbia v Australia) or diving.  I generally watch neither.  I opted for a little bit of diving.   China is amazing at this, but I’m also convinced they could show up, do a can opener, cannonball and 3 bellyflops and still win the gold and silver by 20 something points.  Just can’t trust judged sports.  Figure skating proved that.  

I'm not sure how much of a difference, if any it makes. But if you have a smart tv, you may want to download the NBA app. That's how I've been watching at work and it seems like there is usually a couple options. I haven't missed anything big.

On 8/4/2024 at 8:50 PM, Tranquility Base said:

This is one thing I will never understand about the Track and Field portion of the Olympic Games.  And as far as I can remember, it has been all games, not just Paris.  Your marquee event is the 100M, both Men and Women.  Why run that at the beginning of Track and Field week.   Why not close the games with the traditional Marathon and the 100M finals?  Why use your biggest event to open?

I can't really speak regarding the marathon because my knowledge of that event is minimal at best, but I'd venture to say the reason they put the 100m before the 200m and 400m is that it is the most physically intense event for the nervous system and muscles. Meaning they will typically reach higher speeds in the 100 compared to the 200. Those higher speeds put the body at a greater risk for injury so you want to be as "fresh" as possible entering it.
Same reason the 40-yard dash is performed before the positional workouts at the NFL Combine and Pro Days.

US takes Gold and Bronze in the Men's 1500M.  First time the America gets 2 medalists in the race since 1912 (Stockholm)

2 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

US takes Gold and Bronze in the Men's 1500M.  First time the America gets 2 medalists in the race since 1912 (Stockholm)

That was a great race, the two favorites seemed to hate each other. The guy that led the first 3 plus laps was a straight up jerk. I loved seeing him get passed and missing the podium.

2 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

US takes Gold and Bronze in the Men's 1500M.  First time the America gets 2 medalists in the race since 1912 (Stockholm)

 

49 minutes ago, Jumper_Dad said:

That was a great race, the two favorites seemed to hate each other. The guy that led the first 3 plus laps was a straight up jerk. I loved seeing him get passed and missing the podium.

Took the words out of my mouth JD. 

The track events are my favorite events to watch at the Olympics.

19 hours ago, Voice of Reason said:

 

Took the words out of my mouth JD. 

The track events are my favorite events to watch at the Olympics.

I agree.  Track and swimming.   They are the purest sports in the games.   If you are faster from point A to point B, you win.   If you can toss this ball or stick farther than everyone else, you win. If you can jump higher than anyone else, you win.  No ones opinion on how you did determines anything, just your ability.