2024 Olympics - General commentary

Stray Gator said:
Men's 4 X 100 relay screws up the baton pass yet again, and finishes next-to-last. Frustrating and very disappointing.
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Based on the prelims, everyone was sweating the sketchy passes and wondering about the finals. Sometimes trying to be too perfect and not make any mistake becomes a self fulfilling prophecy — and with the interchanging of runners makes it more stressful trying to synch with new people. BTW — technique — whatever happened to the under hand passing technique of yester-year? I don’t get the new way of flailing the lead runner’s trailing arm and high grasping at air and hoping the trail runner gets it in there (with differing heights of runners)… anyhow, can’t complain, my fastest 100 was probably 14 seconds, but I did successfully grab a glass of wine from the attendant during turbulence on my flight over the Atlantic without spilling so I got that going for me.
 
bluedevilwildcats said:
Rai Benjamin with Gold in the 400m hurdles.

Has anybody read who is running the women's 4x400? Wondering if we'll get one more chance to see Sidney. I was happy to see Femke crying and crushed yesterday, after she cost us the mixed 4x400.
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That sounds harsh.

But I felt the same way.
 
bluedevilwildcats said:
Ha, yeah, totally sounds harsh but oh well, next time don't cost us a gold.
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I'm not sure why we're "blaming" someone for having the team spirit to run a relay. SML didn't run in the mixed -- it'll be nice if she runs the women's.

So if we're talking about who cost us the gold -- wouldn't that be SML? No way Femke runs HER down in the last 200 with that big of a gap.
 
I've been loving rooting for America in every sport except MBB (admittedly haven't watched WBB). The whining and complaining out of some of the players is impossible to stomach and somehow the other teams manage to play without complaining about every single play. Its disheartening and such an evolution from the original Dream Team.
 
Channing said:
I've been loving rooting for America in every sport except MBB (admittedly haven't watched WBB). The whining and complaining out of some of the players is impossible to stomach and somehow the other teams manage to play without complaining about every single play. Its disheartening and such an evolution from the original Dream Team.
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Have the players actually been complaining? I thought it was the fans complaining about PT (or lack thereof)….not the players.
 
Channing said:
I've been loving rooting for America in every sport except MBB (admittedly haven't watched WBB). The whining and complaining out of some of the players is impossible to stomach and somehow the other teams manage to play without complaining about every single play. Its disheartening and such an evolution from the original Dream Team.
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Clearly you weren't watching Serbia griping the whole game, too.

-jk
 
King of Defense said:
I'm not sure why we're "blaming" someone for having the team spirit to run a relay. SML didn't run in the mixed -- it'll be nice if she runs the women's.

So if we're talking about who cost us the gold -- wouldn't that be SML? No way Femke runs HER down in the last 200 with that big of a gap.
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I mean I'm not blaming Femke for running in the mixed, and she did great, and I'm not reveling in her misery either. But she cost us a gold and I'm happy we did the same to her. And yeah, when I saw her in tears, I might have said, 'that's what you get.'

Re: SML, she said she's available for the 4x400. She did say she considered the 4x400 mixed and the 400, but was worried that would detract from the 400 hurdles. She said she'd be open to do doing the mixed "next time" which I hope means the Olympics in LA.
 
Tooold said:
And the men’s 4x100. Since they cannot pass the baton.
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Listening to the team's comments...and I'd kick every single one of them off the relay team. It's not like their replacements could do any worse, and then we wouldn't have to listen to drivel like this...

“We’re here to perform. We didn’t get the job done. We’re not disappointed, we’ve just got to learn from this and keep going.”

“Maybe we could have put in some more work."

“We practiced a lot. Me and Kenny have been awesome teammates a few times over the years. We felt really confident. It just didn’t happen."

“At the end of the day we knew what we could do, we came out here with a mindset of no risk, no reward. It didn’t happen, it is what it is.”
 
bluedevilwildcats said:
Listening to the team's comments...and I'd kick every single one of them off the relay team. It's not like their replacements could do any worse, and then we wouldn't have to listen to drivel like this...

“We’re here to perform. We didn’t get the job done. We’re not disappointed, we’ve just got to learn from this and keep going.”

“Maybe we could have put in some more work."

“We practiced a lot. Me and Kenny have been awesome teammates a few times over the years. We felt really confident. It just didn’t happen."

“At the end of the day we knew what we could do, we came out here with a mindset of no risk, no reward. It didn’t happen, it is what it is.”
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I am far from an expert on track. I'm not a huge fan of the NBC track announcers. But I think they did a good job of explaining this. It seems like the second runner really screwed up in multiple ways. The first runner could have done things differently but 95% of the blame is on the second guy. Lewis Johnson pushed hard to get the first runner to throw the second guy under the bus, but to his credit, he didn't take the bait. He avoided the question and blamed the whole team. Which I think is the right thing to do. Particularly since having just completed the race, he likely had not seen replays and was not 100% sure that it was the fault of the second guy.

So yes, it was a disaster and there is a lot of blame to go around. But I thought their response was the right one. I was actually quite impressed by the response. I wish more athletes did this - win as a team, lose as a team.
 
Kudos to the DJ at beach volleyball! During Brasil vs Canada, two of the players were jawing at each other to the point an official was standing between them at the net. When the players stepped back, the DJ played John Lennon's Imagine and the crowd started singing along. Players started smiling and trying hard not to burst into laughter.
 
CrazyNotCrazie said:
I am far from an expert on track. I'm not a huge fan of the NBC track announcers. But I think they did a good job of explaining this. It seems like the second runner really screwed up in multiple ways. The first runner could have done things differently but 95% of the blame is on the second guy. Lewis Johnson pushed hard to get the first runner to throw the second guy under the bus, but to his credit, he didn't take the bait. He avoided the question and blamed the whole team. Which I think is the right thing to do. Particularly since having just completed the race, he likely had not seen replays and was not 100% sure that it was the fault of the second guy.

So yes, it was a disaster and there is a lot of blame to go around. But I thought their response was the right one. I was actually quite impressed by the response. I wish more athletes did this - win as a team, lose as a team.
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Yes, pretty clear that Kenneth Bednarek was the biggest problem (although the handoff between King and Kerley was also poor.) If this was a one-time thing I'd agree with almost everything you said. But this happens pretty much every time, and these runners' comments are variations on "oh well, maybe next time" and give zero confidence anything will change. I would honestly have preferred Bednarek to say it was his fault and the other runners to have agreed with him. He cost them a gold medal, those don't come around that often.
 
DukieInKansas said:
Kudos to the DJ at beach volleyball! During Brasil vs Canada, two of the players were jawing at each other to the point an official was standing between them at the net. When the players stepped back, the DJ played John Lennon's Imagine and the crowd started singing along. Players started smiling and trying hard not to burst into laughter.
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That was priceless.
 
-jk said:
Clearly you weren't watching Serbia griping the whole game, too.

-jk
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Sorry ... watching Lebron demonstrably show up the ref every time a call doesn't go his away - the same nonsense he does in the NBA - makes it impossible for me to root for him or the team.
 
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