Olympics All Format Spoiler Thread
Comments
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2km in 6mins is 20 kph. That's marathon pace for a runner. Obviously a big lad might be a bit slower.yorkshireraw said:
Also - They're doing 2K in or around 6 minutes I think? I'm pretty sure the quickest way for the big units in the 4s and 8s to cover that distance is collectively in a boat, rather than running down the towpath.First.Aspect said:
Um, pretty sure it's faster to use a boat unless there's a tow path. Just ask someone who lives in the Amazon.TheBigBean said:
Why race in the water when you can walk by the side? If they were racing on a sea to some island then I could just about understand, but as it is, it is very inefficient way of making progress. A bit like hopping the 100m.First.Aspect said:
It's a water sport?TheBigBean said:
I'm not sure that many sports make sense if viewed in complete isolation. I never get the point of rowing given how slowly they go relative people on the bank.kingstongraham said:
I class it with triple jump as an event that doesn't make much sense to be there. Maybe 400m hurdles too.First.Aspect said:
I know as an athletic endeavour it is super human, but that's not the point. I bet if you made running backwards an Olympic event you would see some pretty amazing times.kingstongraham said:
The world record for the 50km walk is 3 hour marathon pace. Crazy.First.Aspect said:Why is Olympic walking still a thing?
Objectively, racing backwards doesn't seem all that sensible though, I agree. Just ask the bow of the GB IV.0 -
It's more that you don't get the people who are the best at it competing. 400m hurdlers would do the 400m flat if they were quick enough. That's not the same with 110m hurdles because they are proper high hurdles and the whole event is different to a flat sprint.TheBigBean said:
I'm not sure that many sports make sense if viewed in complete isolation. I never get the point of rowing given how slowly they go relative people on the bank.kingstongraham said:
I class it with triple jump as an event that doesn't make much sense to be there. Maybe 400m hurdles too.First.Aspect said:
I know as an athletic endeavour it is super human, but that's not the point. I bet if you made running backwards an Olympic event you would see some pretty amazing times.kingstongraham said:
The world record for the 50km walk is 3 hour marathon pace. Crazy.First.Aspect said:Why is Olympic walking still a thing?
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No one has mentioned fencing yet. That is the most ridiculous sport that I can imagine. It should be called "lunging". Stewart Granger or Errol Flynn would have easily won gold with their parry and reposte.0
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I raise your fencing a synchro swimming, or whatever its been rebranded as. I mean wtfhit.0
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hypster said:
No one has mentioned fencing yet. That is the most ridiculous sport that I can imagine. It should be called "lunging". Stewart Granger or Errol Flynn would have easily won gold with their parry and reposte.
I was watching the karate earlier and thinking 'Jackie Chan could still beat these two'Twitter: @RichN950 -
Kung Fu...RichN95. said:hypster said:No one has mentioned fencing yet. That is the most ridiculous sport that I can imagine. It should be called "lunging". Stewart Granger or Errol Flynn would have easily won gold with their parry and reposte.
I was watching the karate earlier and thinking 'Jackie Chan could still beat these two'0 -
elbowloh said:
Kung Fu...RichN95. said:hypster said:No one has mentioned fencing yet. That is the most ridiculous sport that I can imagine. It should be called "lunging". Stewart Granger or Errol Flynn would have easily won gold with their parry and reposte.
I was watching the karate earlier and thinking 'Jackie Chan could still beat these two'
He'd beat them at karate tooTwitter: @RichN950 -
I count at least five.1
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Not under water it isn't. That's just contrived unless you have gills and want to hump something else with gills.ddraver said:That's just wet dancing.
Every human being understands dancing. It's one of the few truly cross cultural things in the world0 -
Having never previously winning a medal, San Marino have now got three at this Olympics, 1 silver and 2 bronze.0
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You're not wrong there, definitely a sport to appeal to the Strictly crowd. I guess you have to admire their skill but just cringe-worthy viewing for me.First.Aspect said:I raise your fencing a synchro swimming, or whatever its been rebranded as. I mean wtfhit.
On the other side of the coin I have been captivated by the climbing. Not a sport I have ever seen before.0 -
I think the only mixed event that might work in cycling is the team pursuit. That could be rather entertaining to watch with more lead changes and tactics on who takes over at what point.JimD666 said:
TBH I was semi joking about a mixed event in the cycling. I do however fully support and endorse all the other suggestions you've made.daniel_b said:
Mixed team sprint could work.JimD666 said:
I've been trying to figure out if there was a mixed race possibility on the track and the best I could think of is a Mixed Madison, then realised the amount of likely crashes due to speed differences could be catastrophic.First.Aspect said:
Of you want more medals in cycling all you would get is more bollocks like mixed team unicycling or something.daniel_b said:
In a moment of boredom I counted the swimming medals on offer - iirc there were 34!First.Aspect said:
Well you know you can't have too many swimming medals now can you? Hiw else would Australia get high up in the medals table?yorkshireraw said:
Athletics equivalent of breastroke. Do this thing but don't do it the fastest way.First.Aspect said:Why is Olympic walking still a thing?
Could be wrong, but around twice the next nearest sport I would have thought.
Would love to see more disciplines, and distances in the velodrome, I know we lost a fair few in recent years as they cut it back, and (rightly) ensured parity between men and women.
2 of them going out first from the gate as per usual, the other 2 circling the track, and timing their effort to cross the line just a second behind the 2nd rider from the first two crosses the line.
They then ride it as a 2, with the 4th rider riding to the finish.
They would be the only 4 riders on the track, so no chance of getting tangled up with other riders.
But no, to be honest I was thinking more about expanding the omnium back to what it used to be, plus bringing back the Kilo, a 4km individual pursuit, and the crowd pleaser that is the elimination or devil race.
Having watched Laura Trott in Glasgow a good few years ago now, that was probably the race that caught the attention of the crowd the most.
I appreciate it exists within the omnium already, but then it doesn't stop the decathlon existing alongside all of the other disciplines in athletics which are standalone, so don't see it as a counter argument myself.
By and large though, I'm not sure mixed events don't just do the women a disservice on the whole. They are as talented and as professional and yet are put at a disadvantage by their lack of testosterone and muscle mass. The tactics are then essentially planning around the weak links of the team.
The swimming mixed relay was a lot of fun to watch though!PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
Karate is pointless because Muay Thai completely counters Karate. Not that I know anything of either, but Joe Rogan is my source. 😉RichN95. said:elbowloh said:
Kung Fu...RichN95. said:hypster said:No one has mentioned fencing yet. That is the most ridiculous sport that I can imagine. It should be called "lunging". Stewart Granger or Errol Flynn would have easily won gold with their parry and reposte.
I was watching the karate earlier and thinking 'Jackie Chan could still beat these two'
He'd beat them at karate tooPTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
m.r.m. said:
I think the only mixed event that might work in cycling is the team pursuit. That could be rather entertaining to watch with more lead changes and tactics on who takes over at what point.
By and large though, I'm not sure mixed events don't just do the women a disservice on the whole. They are as talented and as professional and yet are put at a disadvantage by their lack of testosterone and muscle mass. The tactics are then essentially planning around the weak links of the team.
The swimming mixed relay was a lot of fun to watch though!
The best tactic for a mixed team pursuit would be for the second best woman to sit up immediately and then the two men do 2000m on the front each and the winner would be the one with the best female pursuiter. I think a mixed madison would end up as a men's points race,
Generally mixed events have a slight feel of someone thinking the way to make women's sport more interesting is to add men, which is wrong. I enjoyed the swimming and triathlon relays though. I'm not sure the mixed TTT in Harrogate worked that well, but that's probably down to everyone knowing the Dutch would win by miles at the start.Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95. said:m.r.m. said:
I think the only mixed event that might work in cycling is the team pursuit. That could be rather entertaining to watch with more lead changes and tactics on who takes over at what point.
By and large though, I'm not sure mixed events don't just do the women a disservice on the whole. They are as talented and as professional and yet are put at a disadvantage by their lack of testosterone and muscle mass. The tactics are then essentially planning around the weak links of the team.
The swimming mixed relay was a lot of fun to watch though!
The best tactic for a mixed team pursuit would be for the second best woman to sit up immediately and then the two men do 2000m on the front each and the winner would be the one with the best female pursuiter. I think a mixed madison would end up as a men's points race,
Generally mixed events have a slight feel of someone thinking the way to make women's sport more interesting is to add men, which is wrong. I enjoyed the swimming and triathlon relays though. It's good when they don't do the same legs in the swimming.
I'm not sure the mixed TTT in Harrogate worked that well, but that's probably down to everyone knowing the Dutch would win by miles at the start.Twitter: @RichN950 -
You're not wrong.pblakeney said:
Men's tomorrow morning might be more to your taste.kingstongraham said:Skateboarding is like dressage - I can tell it's very skillful and takes a huge amount of dedication and practice. But it's just not spectacular enough to get to the levels of bmx or gymnastics for me to go from uninterested for 3 years to suddenly excited.
The park is a bit more interesting than whatever the thing was with the stairs and bannisters though.
Women's skating has always been a bit meh.
I'd highly recommend watching the whole of the men's park skateboarding final. Was on bbc2 at 9pm.
Incredible stuff. You need to see it in slo mo to appreciate what they are doing before they come back to earth.1 -
ddraver said:
I kinda assumed everyone had gone to the US system post Free Solo
I think a lot of central Europe still uses the UIAA grading system, not just German-speaking areas (Germany, Austria, over half of Switzerland, northern Italy) but also places like Slovenia, Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.webboo said:The only people who use the UIAA grading system are the Germans, the rest of Europe including the UK use French grades for sport climbing.
And when I wrote “I've never understood why there isn't a universal system“, I wasn't referring to sport climbing, where I know the French system prevails, rather to mountain/rock-climbing in general.
The Balkans area is a good example of where a common grading system would be good. Montenegro uses UIAA, Bosnia (adjacent Montenegro to the north) uses the French system, while Albania, (adjacent Montenegro to the south) uses the American Yosemite system. One would think the three countries would decide on the same system since they share the same mountain ranges.
One of the problems with the French system (in mountain/rock-climbing) is that it is based purely on the technical difficulty of the hardest pitch/rope-length, and takes no account of how secured a route is, how long it is in total, how accessible the beginning is, how easy the route is to find, whether there are escape possibilities, how hard/easy the descent is, what altitude it is at, etc.
The UIAA system was once much the same, but nowadays a second grading is often given for a route, based on a scale which considers the length of the route, how secured it is, the quality of the rock and various other factors, like hazards, ease of finding the route, escape options, and the average difficulty of the climb (as opposed to the hardest pitch). So a bit like the British system (addressed above in a post by Lanterne_R yesterday) which with its two gradings tries to indicate both the technical difficulty of the hardest pitch, and also the average difficulty of the whole climb and its degree of exposure.
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kingstongraham said:
I'd highly recommend watching the whole of the men's park skateboarding final. Was on bbc2 at 9pm.
Incredible stuff. You need to see it in slo mo to appreciate what they are doing before they come back to earth.
I thought that Park was in a different league to the other one (Street was it?), women included. Much better.
I think skateboarding and climbing have been a success. I didn't see the surfing. Karate is a no from me.Twitter: @RichN950 -
Thought the surfing was pretty good too - more interesting than I expected, and pretty zen to watch if you just enjoy looking at waves. Definitely one I'd tune in for again outside of the Olympics.
Climbing's good as there are objective measures of who's doing better. Skateboarding, BMX and surfing both have enough natural variability in lines chosen / quality of waves etc that it's easy even for the untrained eye to have an idea who's towards which end of the difficulty scale. I'm probably biased having tried all four at one point or another though.
To take a counter example, gymnastics has become so highly codified and optimised that it's only really the judges that know who's good or bad - the athleticism is impressive to the casual viewer but utterly impossible to guess who's about to get a hatful of deductions unless they've literally just landed on their face.0 -
What about a mixed relay race (or TT) on a 5 km criterium-type circuit? So not in the velodrome. Each team member (2 women 2 men) does 2 circuits before handing over. Have it knock-out format, only 4 countries at a time, best two go into next round. Separate change-over zones across the road so they don't hinder or crash each other. No baton, just a tap on the shoulder like in cross-country skiing relay races.JimD666 said:
TBH I was semi joking about a mixed event in the cycling. I do however fully support and endorse all the other suggestions you've made.daniel_b said:
Mixed team sprint could work.JimD666 said:
I've been trying to figure out if there was a mixed race possibility on the track and the best I could think of is a Mixed Madison, then realised the amount of likely crashes due to speed differences could be catastrophic.First.Aspect said:
Of you want more medals in cycling all you would get is more bollocks like mixed team unicycling or something.daniel_b said:
In a moment of boredom I counted the swimming medals on offer - iirc there were 34!First.Aspect said:
Well you know you can't have too many swimming medals now can you? Hiw else would Australia get high up in the medals table?yorkshireraw said:
Athletics equivalent of breastroke. Do this thing but don't do it the fastest way.First.Aspect said:Why is Olympic walking still a thing?
Could be wrong, but around twice the next nearest sport I would have thought.
Would love to see more disciplines, and distances in the velodrome, I know we lost a fair few in recent years as they cut it back, and (rightly) ensured parity between men and women.
2 of them going out first from the gate as per usual, the other 2 circling the track, and timing their effort to cross the line just a second behind the 2nd rider from the first two crosses the line.
They then ride it as a 2, with the 4th rider riding to the finish.
They would be the only 4 riders on the track, so no chance of getting tangled up with other riders.
But no, to be honest I was thinking more about expanding the omnium back to what it used to be, plus bringing back the Kilo, a 4km individual pursuit, and the crowd pleaser that is the elimination or devil race.
Having watched Laura Trott in Glasgow a good few years ago now, that was probably the race that caught the attention of the crowd the most.
I appreciate it exists within the omnium already, but then it doesn't stop the decathlon existing alongside all of the other disciplines in athletics which are standalone, so don't see it as a counter argument myself.1 -
You're in luck. The Mexican leg of the world championships starts in 4 days, all streamed live for free here:Lanterne_Rogue said:Thought the surfing was pretty good too - more interesting than I expected, and pretty zen to watch if you just enjoy looking at waves. Definitely one I'd tune in for again outside of the Olympics.
Climbing's good as there are objective measures of who's doing better. Skateboarding, BMX and surfing both have enough natural variability in lines chosen / quality of waves etc that it's easy even for the untrained eye to have an idea who's towards which end of the difficulty scale. I'm probably biased having tried all four at one point or another though.
To take a counter example, gymnastics has become so highly codified and optimised that it's only really the judges that know who's good or bad - the athleticism is impressive to the casual viewer but utterly impossible to guess who's about to get a hatful of deductions unless they've literally just landed on their face.
https://www.worldsurfleague.com/
Then later this month they're off to surf this beast
That's Teahupo'o, Tahiti, where the Paris Olympics will be holding their event. It's pretty close to Calais, if you're a cabinet minister in charge of red listing Covid countries...
It won't be anywhere near that big, at that size it's only possible to tow in surf. This is well worth 20 minutes of picking your jaw off the floor for what it's like when it's seriously big
https://youtu.be/uIBgWI_BTyM
The different waves and conditions will give different scoring possibilities - the Olympics was all about getting into the air, but tube riding and carving can be scored higher elsewhere
Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
I might not be in luck - I'm about to go and sit in a soggy tent with the family for the next fortnight... Am packing an inflatable SUP though, so at least I can paddle to safety if it gets really out of hand.1
