yeah, seems like that....the other day we had a plumber come by to do a fair amount of work, works for a big company...he was quite apparently autistic, initial communications were a bit difficult, but it all worked out very well, he did a great job, he was tipped and thanked profusely...happy to see his employer had faith in him.
2024 Olympics - General commentary
- Thread starter DevilHorse
- Start date
Also, while his brashness, antics, trash-talk, etc. may suggest otherwise, Lyles generally is a gracious winner (and on rare occasions when it's applicable, a gracious loser), with supportive words to those he's beaten or who beat him. He thinks he's the best and wants to win, but he wants those behind him to do well, as long as they stay behind him. Michael Jordan he is not.
He seemed to congratulate the Jamaican runner when maybe he thought (as we all did) that the Jamaican had beaten him.
I agree with this. If you watch the sprinting documentary on Netflix called, um, "Sprint", he comes across as pretty likeable. While he does pump himself up a lot (with justification for this kind of event, as others have noted), he has a lot of infectious enthusiasm.
Plus, he's a sweet momma's boy...did you see how he hugged her after he won?!?
This is sportsmanship. Hoping I posted it correctly and it links to the image!
brevity
Member
Thank you! I couldn’t save it as the right type file on my iPad…You did, and it does, but here's the image anyway:
And contrast his behavior with that of Gabby Thomas. She easily wins her 200-meter heat and remains calm, cool and collected. Impressive.
75Crazie
Member
This is sports as it should be, and all too rarely seems to be (at least at the top levels).
Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
Member
I don't think anyone can disagree - that's a remarkable picture.
DoubleBlue
Member
Armand (Mondo) Duplantis thrills the crowd with a clutch performance in the pole vault clearing 20'6" (6.25m) for an olympic and world record on his third and final attempt. He has rewritten all of the pole vault records and is still only 24 yo. He is born in the USA but competes for his mother's country of Sweden. Just thrilling and historic.
And, in another display of sportsmanship, Sam Kendricks, the US pole vaulter who won the silver medal, was applauding Duplantis’ every jump and rallying the crowd.
DoubleBlue
Member
I actually didn't care for Kendricks' cheerleading for Duplantis. It wasn't needed and it took the spotlight away from Duplantis. The real sportsman was Duplantis who was unphased by the moment and who delivered a performance for the history books. This was as big as Bob Beamon breaking the long jump record in Mexico City in 1968, for those who might remember.
rsvman
Member
Was it? I don't follow pole vaulting. How long had the prior record stood? By how far did he break it?
When Beamon made his historic jump in Mexico City there was absolutely no precedent for what he did. He completely destroyed the existing record, and jumped farther than was thought to be humanly possible. He broke the existing record by almost two feet (21 3/4 inches, to be exact). The record had been broken many times before, by an average of 2 1/2 inches. The biggest Improvement in history was 6 inches longer than rhe prior record. PhD dissertations were written about that single jump. Physicists and physiologists marveled over it for many, many years.
The record he set lasted for 23 years, while all other track and field records were shattered over and over again. It is, almost unbelievably, still the Olympic record, and still stands as the second longest jump of all time. The Beamon jump in Mexico City is the stuff of legend.
Since I don't really know much about pole vaulting, maybe you can explain how this could come anywhere near what Bob Beamon did.
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bluedevilwildcats
Member
Yeah not close to what Beamon did. But some understandable hyperbole after the easiest looking world record you'll ever see. Makes me think there haven't been many athletic pole vaulters until this guy. Probably helps that no one in the US cares enough to bother learning how to pole vault, lol.
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DoubleBlue
Member
The single vault yesterday by Duplantis does not compare in magnitude to Beamon's 29'2" jump in 1968 but Duplantis' domination of the event and margin of victory are equally impressive. Second place in Paris was 5.95m which was not far off the Olympic record of 6.03m. Duplantis won easily with a clearance of 2.00m, still with no misses. He then went for 2.10 and cleared it by a mile. Then he went right to 2.25m, a world record attempt, while still only having 5 attemtps on the day, so he was still fresh. He missed his first two but he had the lift, and only clipped the bar on the way down. So he adjusted the standards (moved them forward) and he had a clean clearance on his third attempt for the record.
Pole vaulting is a unique blend of agility, speed and strength. Duplantis has shattered all the previous records, most of which were set my the Russian Sergey Bubka in the 80's and 90's. Bubka broke the world record 35 times (indoor and outdoor) the last being 6.14m (20'1-1/2") set in 1994. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men's_pole_vault_world_record_progression
There was a Frenchman Lavillenie who broke Bubka's last record, going 6.16m in 2014, but then came Duplantis with 6.17m in 2020 and he has broken it 9 times, now at 2.25m. There are separate world records for indoor and outdoor. Generally outdoor is higher, but lately the indoor conditions have improved and Lavillenie's record was indoors. So the outdoor record was still Bubka's and it stood for 26 years until Duplantis broke it in 2020.
Duplantis's father, Greg Duplantis was also a pole vaulter, an American who cleared 5.80m (19'-1/2") and his mother was a heptathlete and volleyball player for Sweden. Mondo is not overly showy but he knows how to play up to a crowd and use the energy to enhance his performance. I just admire his style and technique and I think he has some more records left since most pole vaulters peak out in their late 20's or early 30's. Regardless of what he does in the future, this performance in Paris is historic and impressive. It was an exclamation point on an already dominant vaulting career.
DevilHorse
Member
I believe that Pole Vaulting, and High Jumping, are the only T&F sports where you can achieve a record effort, but it is recorded as whatever the bar is set at. Some of Duplantis's earlier jumps had tremendous clearance, but only counted at the lower height.
Bob Beaman's long jump was insanely beyond the existing record and was broken by only 2" 23 years later.
For more information, this is an interesting article:
A U.S. Track Star and the 30-Foot Long Jump That Didn't Count
Carl Lewis is one of the greatest American athletes of all time and perhaps the best long-jumper ever. But what might have been his most immortal moment was wiped away.
Long Jump records seem to be like rogue waves, where running race records seem to be broken by fractions of a second. Most interesting.
Larry
DevilHorse
DoubleBlue
Member
High jumping and pole vaulting always end in failure since the bar is raised until everyone misses three times at that height. There may be a rare case where you quit after a make, like Duplantis did yesterday, but generally you always end in failure. Its a very mentally challenging event (both of them).
I wondered why he didn’t keep going, as I expected him to try to get the highest possible vault. But I learned today that major track meets offer a bonus if the WR is broken. So apparently there is an incentive to not break it too much, and leave room for future WRs (and cash bonuses). And Duplantis has broken his own WR multiple times, so he is confident he can do it again.