2024 Olympics - General commentary

acdevil said:
Huge upset in women’s road race cycling! US takes the gold with a rider that wasn’t even supposed to be in the event. One of her teammates dropped out to focus on triathlon and she got in.
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No doubt, and such a pleasant...no, awesome surprise (I did not have her winning on my Bingo card that's for sure.) Huge congrats to the Alaskan born Kristin Faulkner and USA Cycling in general. All that said, many a bike race has been lost in this manner, with riders disagreeing on who needs to initiate the chase (even) when a rider has made a potentially winning move near the end. Although American Connie Carpenter-Phinney won in a different manner via her sprint in the 1984 Olympics road race, she must've had a huge smile on her face watching this race!
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
I agree. The strategy in it is very interesting, and apparent leads often aren't what they seem depending on the order chosen. Plus this year the swimming race was incredibly close which made it even better.

The swimming is more interesting than the running because of the different strokes involved. So there is an extra degree of difficulty. Plus I generally tend to prefer Olympic swimming to track. For many reasons, including Rowdy Gaines.

I was trying to think through whether a mixed distance relay would work, i.e. 100, 200, 400, 800 (could do it for both swimming and track). I assume you would put the men in the longer distances? Or perhaps sprints and hurdles in track?
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There are medley relays at different distances in track (link, link). I ran in a few in HS, but they are generally not widely contested except that the NCAA has a distance medley relay in the indoor championships. The distance medley is 1200-400-800-1600, sprint medleys are usually 200-200-400-800 or 100-100-200-400.

A sprint-hurdle medley would be problematic since you’d have to set up/take down hurdles during the race.
 
Steven43 said:
Sure, Lyles was extremely exuberant, both before and after the race. But the 100 meter dash is the ultimate thrill ride. There is nothing else like it in all of sport. The level of intensity required to run the way Lyles did is something to which not a single one of us on this board can relate. I would think that type of intensity can cause extreme emotions in the moment.

And if commercial endorsers determine that his behavior is seen as a negative by the public then he won’t get the endorsements he might otherwise have received. So we’ll see what happens.
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All valid points.
He already seems to have endorsements (e.g., Tide) and his attitude has been well-publicized. I saw one clip of a former track star (maybe Carl Lewis?) telling him that ‘track needs his personality’. So it seems that, at least pre-Olympics, his confidence (and antics) have been encouraged.
 
crimsondevil said:
There are medley relays at different distances in track (link, link). I ran in a few in HS, but they are generally not widely contested except that the NCAA has a distance medley relay in the indoor championships. The distance medley is 1200-400-800-1600, sprint medleys are usually 200-200-400-800 or 100-100-200-400.

A sprint-hurdle medley would be problematic since you’d have to set up/take down hurdles during the race.
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Very interesting - thank you for the info. I assume the track medleys are all one gender though? Still very cool.

I was thinking about the logistics of a sprint-hurdle medley and also recognized the need to take down hurdles but thought perhaps it could be hurdle/sprint/hurdle/sprint and just be 100s so it was only one loop? Probably not that exciting and more trouble than it is worth, but I was just spitballing it.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
Very interesting - thank you for the info. I assume the track medleys are all one gender though? Still very cool.

I was thinking about the logistics of a sprint-hurdle medley and also recognized the need to take down hurdles but thought perhaps it could be hurdle/sprint/hurdle/sprint and just be 100s so it was only one loop? Probably not that exciting and more trouble than it is worth, but I was just spitballing it.
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The big problem with that would be the second hurdles. The hurdlers are all about routine and a certain number of steps between hurdles. If they had to start with a baton pass it would totally mess that up. Would definitely be interesting though.
 
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a final like the balance beam final that just happened. Practically every competitor fell or had a big mistake.
 
So, Taylor Knibb who gave up her spot in the road race leading to the gold for Faulkner, just anchored the triathlon relay and got a silver for the team. She made up a bunch of spots so I’m guessing that wouldn’t have been happened if she rode the road race yesterday.
 
Steven43 said:
Sure, Lyles was extremely exuberant, both before and after the race. But the 100 meter dash is the ultimate thrill ride. There is nothing else like it in all of sport. The level of intensity required to run the way Lyles did is something to which not a single one of us on this board can relate. I would think that type of intensity can cause extreme emotions in the moment.

And if commercial endorsers determine that his behavior is seen as a negative by the public then he won’t get the endorsements he might otherwise have received. So we’ll see what happens.
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First I would like to say: Stay off my lawn!! :mad:





I guess that's it.
 
Ugh, Simone falls off the beam and then twice steps out of bounds on the floor, getting a silver in an event she had never lost.

She made more mistakes in these Olympics than I've ever seen her make. Age catches up with us all.
 
Steven43 said:
Sure, Lyles was extremely exuberant, both before and after the race. But the 100 meter dash is the ultimate thrill ride. There is nothing else like it in all of sport. The level of intensity required to run the way Lyles did is something to which not a single one of us on this board can relate. I would think that type of intensity can cause extreme emotions in the moment.

And if commercial endorsers determine that his behavior is seen as a negative by the public then he won’t get the endorsements he might otherwise have received. So we’ll see what happens.
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Noah Lyles has been Noah Lyles-ing (that is, acting just as he did yesterday) his whole career. Some like it, some hate it, but there's a reason people knew his name coming into the race and not Fred Kerley's. The only thing yesterday changes when it comes to endorsements and publicity is that he is now an Olympic champion.
 
bluedevilwildcats said:
Ugh, Simone falls off the beam and then twice steps out of bounds on the floor, getting a silver in an event she had never lost.

She made more mistakes in these Olympics than I've ever seen her make. Age catches up with us all.
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Regarding the score on floor….the coaches can challenge the difficulty score, (which they did successfully for Jordan, bringing her up to the bronze), but not the execution score, which is where Simone lost the gold. Even with her .6 penalty for stepping out of bounds twice, her far greater difficulty would have still resulted in the gold if her execution score had been even close to Andrade’s. She was scored .433 lower on execution and only lost gold by .033. While Andrade did perform a very nice routine, it is hard to believe that Simone’s execution was that much lower, since the out of bounds should not have been considered in the execution score.

But it is nice that Andrade won a gold medal. She is a very talented gymnast and unfortunately always has to compete with Simone. I can’t help thinking that the judges DID want to reward her, and that played into the subjective part of the score.
 
Steven43 said:
Sure, Lyles was extremely exuberant, both before and after the race. But the 100 meter dash is the ultimate thrill ride. There is nothing else like it in all of sport. The level of intensity required to run the way Lyles did is something to which not a single one of us on this board can relate. I would think that type of intensity can cause extreme emotions in the moment.

And if commercial endorsers determine that his behavior is seen as a negative by the public then he won’t get the endorsements he might otherwise have received. So we’ll see what happens.
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Look, I’ve been known to keep a pretty darn high level of intensity myself, sometimes for longer than 9.79 seconds.

But you’re right, that level of intensity does evoke very strong emotions.
 
Yeah, I'm completely fine with the guy...a tad tightly wound perhaps, may have some other stuff going on, but it seems to work for him.,
 
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