2024 Olympics - General commentary

[SkyBrickey]

The other way around. She started at the shorter distances, then recently decided to add the marathon.

The idea of running all three distances is not crazy. But running Olympic level 5k and 10k twice each and THEN running a gold winning marathon all in the span of 10 days? Crazy.

Yeah, honestly the performance of the games IMO. Insane!!

 

[Phredd3]

One last thing on the Gold medal winning USA Women's basketball team : Kelsey Plum is a Boss !

And on that note, one of my very favorite things about the game was Kelsey Plum, late in the fourth quarter, getting fouled and coming up to the free throw line. It's an enormous pressure situation, with the team up just one and only two minutes left in the game. She gets up to the line and starts grinning. She was having such a good time. She did the same thing when she was fouled with 13 seconds to play and the team leading by two. She went 6-for-6 from the line, and we needed every one of them. Talk about cool under pressure.

 

[chrishoke]

And on that note, one of my very favorite things about the game was Kelsey Plum, late in the fourth quarter, getting fouled and coming up to the free throw line. It's an enormous pressure situation, with the team up just one and only two minutes left in the game. She gets up to the line and starts grinning. She was having such a good time. She did the same thing when she was fouled with 13 seconds to play and the team leading by two. She went 6-for-6 from the line, and we needed every one of them. Talk about cool under pressure.

Yep, cool as a cucumber. I was supremely confident at that point.

 

[JosephReidBooks]

Got up to watch the women's volleyball gold medal match this morning. It's up there with men's basketball and women's soccer as my favorite sports to watch in the Olympics. Italy went through us like a buzz saw. We were never once competitive in any of the three sets.

To be fair, no one else in the tourney was competitive with them, either. My daughter plays college vball so we watch men's & women's, indoor & beach, and I'd have to say that was the most dominant performance I've ever seen at that level. In the last set, it looked more like a poorly-seeded club match in high school than the Olympic final. Italy was just fantastic. Their opposite Paola Egonu was just...wow.

 

[nmduke2001]

They did not appeal it during the meet. So while the out of bounds penalty was incorrect, they called it out well after the medals were handed out. Jordan Chiles coaches, on the other hand, appealed within 47 seconds or 1 minute 4 seconds depending on who you ask. If the prior 4th place person appealed during the timeframe, she likely would also have been granted the correction. It's like a coaches challenge. You can't throw the flag on a play after the game is over.

The appeals process is nuts. I read an article last week and will link it if I can find it again that explains the rules. Apparently, in large competitions the governing body has imposed a 350 Euro per appeal fee. That fee has to be paid in cash at the time of the appeal. The appeal has to take place within 1 minute of the score being posted. This crazy procedure sometime leads to coaches running around the gym floor looking for someone with 350 Euros and then sprinting to the judges table and throwing the cash at the judge. The cash portion of the appeal was added because too many people were challenging their score so they wanted to make it more difficult.

 

[nmduke2001]

The appeals process is nuts. I read an article last week and will link it if I can find it again that explains the rules. Apparently, in large competitions the governing body has imposed a 350 Euro per appeal fee. That fee has to be paid in cash at the time of the appeal. The appeal has to take place within 1 minute of the score being posted. This crazy procedure sometime leads to coaches running around the gym floor looking for someone with 350 Euros and then sprinting to the judges table and throwing the cash at the judge. The cash portion of the appeal was added because too many people were challenging their score so they wanted to make it more difficult.

Here's an old article. Couldn't easily find the one I read last week. This one says US dollars.

It costs up to $1,000 for gymnasts to appeal their scores

A gymnast is allowed to challenge the judges if she disagrees with her score — but it comes at a price.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[House P]

The appeals process is nuts. I read an article last week and will link it if I can find it again that explains the rules. Apparently, in large competitions the governing body has imposed a 350 Euro per appeal fee. That fee has to be paid in cash at the time of the appeal. The appeal has to take place within 1 minute of the score being posted. This crazy procedure sometime leads to coaches running around the gym floor looking for someone with 350 Euros and then sprinting to the judges table and throwing the cash at the judge. The cash portion of the appeal was added because too many people were challenging their score so they wanted to make it more difficult.

That sounds crazy. So you literally have competitors paying the officials?

Hmmm, now that I think about it, can you image the money the NBA could raise if they instituted a fee every time a player wanted to complain about a call/no-call?

 

[CameronBornAndBred]

HA! A cure for your Monday Morning Blues

 

[rsvman]

One of the most amazing feats I can think of

If I recall correctly, Lasse Viren got gold in the 5000 and the 10000 and then entered the marathon something like two days after the 10K? He had never even competed in the marathon at all.
When a reporter asked him what his strategy was, given that he had never run a marathon before and had no idea how to do it, was that he would run with Frank Shorter. He said something like 'i might not know how to run a marathon, but Frank does!'

He then did exactly what he said, and ran right with Frank until he ran out of gas in the last mile or so, finishing fifth.

Also, and somebody will correct me if I am wrong, but I think he he won gold in the 5K and the 10K in three consecutive Olympics. I don't think he ever tried the marathon again.

 

[rsvman]

The thing that's kinda crazy is every gymnast has two minutes (or even more, they have until the next gymnast's routine starts) to appeal EXCEPT for the last one only gets one minute. And Jordan just happened to be last. The officials there in person at the time took the appeal as valid, reassessed, and updated scores. And then they change it several days later? That's be equivalent to an NFL replay review on the final play, the refs make a determination during the game that reversed the on field decision, the outcome is then decided and the game is over. But then several days later another body say the refs shouldn't have overturned it and changes the outcome of the winner. That'd be totally crazy. Especially because they're not saying they determined the wrong outcome, but rather there was a 4-second timing difference. It'd be different if the officials at the time of the competition said "sorry, this appeal came late and we can't reassess." But that's not what happened.

And now USA gymnastics says it has video evidence that the appeal was submitted in 47 seconds: https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...jordan-chiles-bronze-medal-video/74761100007/

Saints would have defeated the Chiefs in the playoffs a few years back.

 

[Norman Pfyster]

If I recall correctly, Lasse Viren got gold in the 5000 and the 10000 and then entered the marathon something like two days after the 10K? He had never even competed in the marathon at all.
When a reporter asked him what his strategy was, given that he had never run a marathon before and had no idea how to do it, was that he would run with Frank Shorter. He said something like 'i might not know how to run a marathon, but Frank does!'

He then did exactly what he said, and ran right with Frank until he ran out of gas in the last mile or so, finishing fifth.

Also, and somebody will correct me if I am wrong, but I think he he won gold in the 5K and the 10K in three consecutive Olympics. I don't think he ever tried the marathon again.

Emil Zatopek won the 5K, 10K and marathon in the same Olympics (1952). He had never run the marathon before he decided to run it at the last minute. Apparently he had a similar strategy in the marathon: he ran alongside the world-record holder, who tried (unsuccessfully) to run him into the ground.

 

[AustinDevil]

Saints would have defeated the Chiefs in the playoffs a few years back.

Rams, not Chiefs. Saints-Chiefs could only happen in the Super Bowl. But that no-call was absolutely highway robbery.

 

[phaedrus]

The other way around. She started at the shorter distances, then recently decided to add the marathon.

The idea of running all three distances is not crazy. But running Olympic level 5k and 10k twice each and THEN running a gold winning marathon all in the span of 10 days? Crazy.

There were no rounds in the 10k, so she only ran two 5ks and a 10k. But running an all-out 10k thirty-six hours before a marathon, then winning the marathon on a tough course in an Olympic record time - yeah, that's crazy.

She is now, as my son would say, GOATed.

 

[phaedrus]

Extremely impressive.

I don’t have a good sense of the way elite runners train, but all the marathon training programs I’ve looked at involve a lot of tapering in the week or two before the race.

I’ve yet to come across a training program which recommends winning an Olympic 10K bronze medal less than 36 hours before your marathon.

I can tell you with some confidence that for every other runner in the field, their last hard training run before the race would have been at least 8-10 days earlier, and even that workout would have been less taxing than a 10,000 meter race.

 

[CDu]

There were no rounds in the 10k, so she only ran two 5ks and a 10k. But running an all-out 10k thirty-six hours before a marathon, then winning the marathon on a tough course in an Olympic record time - yeah, that's crazy.

She is now, as my son would say, GOATed.

Ah, my bad on the 10k. I knew there was a heat for the 5k, but only saw the 10k final and assumed the same process for it.

But yeah, a pair of Olympic-caliber 5ks ~ a week prior and an Olympic-caliber 10k just 36 hours prior, and then running an Olympic-record marathon is just ridiculous.

 

[chrishoke]

Ah, my bad on the 10k. I knew there was a heat for the 5k, but only saw the 10k final and assumed the same process for it.

But yeah, a pair of Olympic-caliber 5ks ~ a week prior and an Olympic-caliber 10k just 36 hours prior, and then running an Olympic-record marathon is just ridiculous.

And medaling in all three!

 

[phaedrus]

Ah, my bad on the 10k. I knew there was a heat for the 5k, but only saw the 10k final and assumed the same process for it.

But yeah, a pair of Olympic-caliber 5ks ~ a week prior and an Olympic-caliber 10k just 36 hours prior, and then running an Olympic-record marathon is just ridiculous.

Most prior championships have had a preliminary round of the 10k; the fact that they eliminated it because it was too taxing for runners to race two 10ks in the span of a few days further illustrates the magnitude of Hassan's achievement.

 

[Tooold]

The Romanians did appeal it (Maneca-Voinea’s OOB penalty) immediately after her routine, but they were denied. They then included it as part of their post-competition appeal up the chain. CAS denied that part while ruling in their favor on Chiles.

That was my understanding. They announced during Jordan’s routine (or immediately after it) that the Romanians had appealed a score, but they were not specific as to which gymnast’s score was appealed. The assumption was that it would be the gymnast who was not going to win the tie break with her fellow teammate (since their scores were tied and they used the tiebreak rule to determine who would win the medal.), and I think that gymnast was the one who had the penalty. When the decision to deny the Romanian’s appeal was announced, the other Romanian immediately started celebrating, even though Jordan’s score had just been announced and, in theory, she would have also the option to appeal.

 

[House P]

If I recall correctly, Lasse Viren got gold in the 5000 and the 10000 and then entered the marathon something like two days after the 10K? He had never even competed in the marathon at all.
When a reporter asked him what his strategy was, given that he had never run a marathon before and had no idea how to do it, was that he would run with Frank Shorter. He said something like 'i might not know how to run a marathon, but Frank does!'

He then did exactly what he said, and ran right with Frank until he ran out of gas in the last mile or so, finishing fifth.

Also, and somebody will correct me if I am wrong, but I think he he won gold in the 5K and the 10K in three consecutive Olympics. I don't think he ever tried the marathon again.

Very interesting. I barely remember the 1976 games, so Lasse Viren's accomplishments are new to me. Looks like he finished 5th in the marathon the day after winning the 5K (and 5 days after winning the 10K).

In reading about this on Wikipedia, I also learned that the 1976 games were boycotted by 29 mostly African nations because of ... New Zealand. The African nations were upset that New Zealand was allowed to compete in Montreal after their rugby team played a series of matches in apartheid-era South Africa.

Emil Zatopek won the 5K, 10K and marathon in the same Olympics (1952). He had never run the marathon before he decided to run it at the last minute. Apparently he had a similar strategy in the marathon: he ran alongside the world-record holder, who tried (unsuccessfully) to run him into the ground.

It appears that Zatopek had a full 3 days to recover between winning the 5K and marathon. What a lightweight.

 

[bluedevilwildcats]

Latest update is CAS declines to hear additional evidence.

USA Gymnastics officials said an arbitration panel won't reconsider a decision asking gymnast Jordan Chiles to return the bronze medal she was awarded in the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics.

"USA Gymnastics was notified by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday that their rules do not allow for an arbitral award to be reconsidered even when conclusive new evidence is presented," USA Gymnastics said in a statement.

"We are deeply disappointed by the notification and will continue to pursue every possible avenue and appeal process, including to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, to ensure the just scoring, placement, and medal award for Jordan."

The IOC said in a statement it will be in touch with the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee regarding the return of Chiles' bronze and will work with the Romanian Olympic Committee to discuss a reallocation ceremony honoring Barbosu.

The appeal could go to Switzerland's highest court, the Swiss Tribunal, or the European Court of Human Rights.