Rio and the Olympics
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Mendalla
Happy headbanging ape!!
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Medal number 2 for both Canada and for Penny Oleksiak. She took silver in the 100m butterfly tonight after anchoring the bronze-winning 4x100 freestyle relay team last night. It's people like Penny that make the Olympics watchable for me. Seeing someone achieve a major goal like that raises my spirits.
Mendalla
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And what the hell is going on with the tennis? Novak Djokovic, the top men's player in the world, defeated by ATP 145th seed (who, admittedly, beat Djokovic in the bronze medal match at the 2012 London Games)? The Williams sisters losing their first Olympic double match ever? I sometimes get the feeling that either playing in the Olympics brings out the best in some of the lesser seeded players or the worst in some of the top seeds.
Good news: Eugenie Bouchard has won her first round matches in both singles and double and seems to be back in winning form. Unfortunately, her next opponent in singles is the world number 2 Angelique Kerber who has been having a pretty good season, winning the Australian open and making the final at Wimbledon. Hoping for the best for Eugenie and, who knows, the way this tournament is going maybe she can pull off an upset (FYI, Bouchard has beaten Kerber this season, at the Italian Open).
Good news: Eugenie Bouchard has won her first round matches in both singles and double and seems to be back in winning form. Unfortunately, her next opponent in singles is the world number 2 Angelique Kerber who has been having a pretty good season, winning the Australian open and making the final at Wimbledon. Hoping for the best for Eugenie and, who knows, the way this tournament is going maybe she can pull off an upset (FYI, Bouchard has beaten Kerber this season, at the Italian Open).
revsdd
Well-Known Member
Very simple. Money.
The Olympic Games are all about money. Oh they have high-sounding principles, but basically the IOC are corrupt money-grabbers and the athletes (especially those in the high profile sports) have their eyes set on the money to be made from the hoped for endorsement deals. (Yes, even our beloved Canadian ones.) Since the Olympics are about money, and since there's a financial incentive involved in making sure the "best" athletes are competing, the IOC chose - even in the face of rock-solid evidence that the Russians were knee deep into doping in most sports - to pass the buck to the international federations of each individual sport. As I understand it, the Russians have been totally banned from only two competitions - athletics (where Russia isn't actually a huge power) and weightlifting (where they are, but it's a fairly low-profile, non-money making sport.)
Some might question how that differs from any professional sport, where "doping" takes place. All I would say is that at least in professional sports leagues (baseball, hockey, basketball, etc.) nobody hides that it's about money. Nobody pretends to stand for anything really other than the profit motive. The owners want to make money, the athletes want to make money. Sure, some love the game, but owners have been known to dismantle championship teams because they don't want to pay the players what they can get on the open market, and players have little loyalty to teams or cities and once their contracts are up they'll move on to the highest bidder. At least that's open and honest and nobody's under any illusions, and the NHL, MLB, NBA, etc. don't hypocritically claim that it's all about the game and the competition. It's a business. Everybody knows it.
The Paralympics, on the other hand, are indeed much more focused on the athletes than on money. They're not a big money-making event, and paralympic athletes tend not to get the big endorsement deals, and therefore the Paralympics are much lower profile than the Olympics. Thus, the Paralympics can ban the Russians and not really worry about the financial cost of doing so.
Mendalla
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Nope. We just kind of cheer on our two favorite countries (Canada & China) and oo and ah at the good performances all round.
PS. I think Yobo is going to win this one. She has China and Japan. The only real "powerhouse" you have is the US. Oh, and is this based on total medals or golds (IOC standings are actually based on gold with other medals used to break ties).
revsdd
Well-Known Member
As I've said, I don't think too much of the Olympics. However, I was watching a bit while eating lunch and I've become a fan of women's rugby sevens. Tough, tough sport; fast-paced; lots of action. I think I'll tune in at 5:30 to see Canada play Britain for the bronze and Australia take on New Zealand for the gold. Very exciting sport.
Mendalla
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We actually did a unit on rugby in gym in high school but I'll be damned if I can remember anything beyond getting the ball jammed into ... yeah, this could get NSFW if I go on
. Let's just say pain was involved and leave it at that
.
Jaebius
Canadian in Korea
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We go by total medals.
Mendalla
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That was a great run by our rugby seven. Beating Britain, where they actually still take the sport seriously (here it evolved into American football and then kind of got lost in the shuffle), is a real feather in their cap.
Notice that it's the women who seem to be carrying the torch for Canada this year? Three medals in the pool, all for female swimmers, and the rugby team. Our men's swim team is almost non-existent and gymnastics is the same; though our women had a disappointing qualification meet on Sunday, at least it's a good sized team with some good individual performances.
And how about Kylie Masse? Only one previous international meet (the World University Games last year) and now she's got an Olympic bronze medal to add to the gold she won there. Penny had at least had success at the Pan-ams last year so she was not completely unheralded but Kylie kind of came out of left field last night. That's the kind of going above and beyond that the Olympics should be about.
Tabitha
journeying
Ok I take back everything I said about relating more to the winter Olympics. Tara Whitten is in the summer Olympics. I know her. I have watched her compete in X-C ski World Cup in Canmore. I watched her as she switched to biking, I recall an early mountian bike race where she rode her mon's bike. My skate skis used to be Tara's. We have camped together and I have paddled and canoe tripped often with her parents.
The women's bike road race made me sad. The leader crashed and was unconcious for quite a while-and has 4 broken vertebrae- the American who sthen was in the lead ended up 4th at the last minute as 3 surged by here right at the end. Darn I feel she was cheated out of her medal-but really I know she wasn't.
I've been catching up on you tube.
Women's volleyball-still don't get it why it must be bikinis-as apparently it doesn't-so Muslim women can compete.
The women's bike road race made me sad. The leader crashed and was unconcious for quite a while-and has 4 broken vertebrae- the American who sthen was in the lead ended up 4th at the last minute as 3 surged by here right at the end. Darn I feel she was cheated out of her medal-but really I know she wasn't.
I've been catching up on you tube.
Women's volleyball-still don't get it why it must be bikinis-as apparently it doesn't-so Muslim women can compete.
Mendalla
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Flipping between winter and summer sports is becoming a thing with Canucks. Clara Hughes did it, too (speed skating to road cycling).
And Whitten is impressive in other regards. According to her bio on Wiki, she has a doctorate in neuroscience and is starting a post-doc doing concussion research after the Olympics are over.
Tabitha
journeying
Tara quit ski racing after Chandra Crawford got the spot on Canada's team that Tara had been hoping to get. (Chandra is amazing btw) Mutual friends encouraged her to take up biking seriously.And this=being at the Olympics-is the result. Roger would be so proud of her-but unfortunately he succumbed to Melanoma about 6 years ago.
Mendalla
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My spider(monkey)-senses are tingling (well, my phone is, at least). Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion have taken bronze in Women's Synchronized 10m Platform Diving.
A medal or two a day seems to be the pace for Canada. Not sure if we have any other opportunities looming.
A medal or two a day seems to be the pace for Canada. Not sure if we have any other opportunities looming.