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Edit: Excuse me - that's 60m, for those who need it :)
60 m? Wow, that's further than half of the decathletes did yesterday.
I was at home watching it on my laptop and yelling gibberish to the dogs.
Rudisha has great form. Symmonds and he are polar opposites in size and style.
Rudisha is only 23. It will be interesting to see where it all shakes out. Breaking 1:40 is coming soon.
Anybody watch the men's BMX last night? One of the announcers was just absolutely terrible. Don't know who it was, but it was noticeably bad and I am usually one who can tune out bad announcers pretty easily.
Also, the heat where literally everybody except the leader crashed in a massive pileup on the first turn was hilarious.
And what is the track, dirt covered with something, or rubber, or what? I want to ride it bad.
It's not BBC, IOC have their own television arm, OBS, these days.
I hope that someone falls in the Jamaican qualifying race, simultaneously tripping Bolt, Blake and Weir so none of them makes it to Rio. Then the three of them, along with the guy who tripped them, can form a bobsled team to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics, winning over the world's hearts.
Here is an entertaining synopsis from Botswanan news source Mmegi Online.
He did win the World Junior Olympics in the last month but the improvement was fierce.
Those are some great throws for high school kids! How long have they been throwing?
I've been coaching for two years. I have a lot of experience (both personally and as a coach) with back and knee injuries, not so much with the elbow. How long has the problem persisted, and what kind of activities are they able to do without pain? I assume they've already seen a sports doctor. If it's a fairly new problem, I'd advise (in my armchair capacity) no throwing at all for two to three months, and meanwhile doing a lot of stretching and strengthening exercises for the whole arm. (Don't neglect the rest of the body, of course, but don't just target the elbow either; the wrist and upper arm work in conjunction with the elbow.) If that doesn't work, you might be looking at Tommy John surgery, which might be inevitable anyway. Take this all with a grain of salt, obviously, since I'm not a doctor and I've never met your sons.
This is cool stuff, isn't it? Fun to think about. I can hang with a few of the decathletes in the javelin, and I could have placed fifth or so in the 1500. Granted, not only would I have been last by far in the other eight (and NHed in the vertical jumps), but by I would have done a lot worse in the javelin and 1500 after having done all the other eight.
They mentioned last night that Hardee is 10 months removed from Tommy John surgery.
They both started freshman/sophomore year in HS. We're near Seattle and there are a couple of world-class coaches around that they've been working with. There is another HS student in Washington State (in 4A, my son competes at 3A) who threw 77m and I believe ended up 6th at the trials, so there's something in the water up here, I guess.
I have a nephew who's a decathlete, can rack up 6000+. He started out as a jumper; made state at both PV and HJ. We went to a kind of all-comers decathlon a few years back and it was funny watching these amazing athletes try to PV 2m (several would have done better just high-jumping the thing). Gives you an even more tremendous appreciation for those who can push 5m or more...
I took up race walking for a year or so while rehabbing from an injury a couple years back. I was surprised to find out a few months ago that my 20 km PR would have qualified me for the Olympic trials (though I was far off either Olympic standard).
Sort of wish I would have stuck with it just for the experience. There's always Rio?
Yeah, that's pretty amazing. Of course, Hardee's older, but our coach is still having fits 13 months later because my son wants to come back and throw too soon. Everyone heals at different rates, but Hardee's recovery time is remarkable.
Can you claim citizenship to some random country based on a great-grandparent or something?
Maybe I missed a discussion of this earlier in the thread, but what event would you think your prototypical Primate could realistically take up and make it to Rio? My early thoughts are probably the obvious, equestrian and maybe archery. Which isn't to say those are "easy", but compared to the 800m or tennis...
On the winter side, I can imagine just about anyone making a curling team, given four years to train. Not medal, but buy their way onto the Jamaican squad or something.
Without being able to meet even the Olympic B standard, it wouldn't matter. I could probably win the qualifier in a random country, but winning a qualifier isn't enough; you have to meet certain minimum requirements (which I cannot).
I don't think there are many (or even any) events an average Joe could make in four year's time.
Eddie the Eagle was a wonder to behold.
The only US gold in Beijing was Cejudo, and that was a pretty big shocker. Burroughs went in as the favorite and delivered. Wonder if he'll hang around or hang it up for more lucrative pastures.
I've been struggling with how I want to respond to your sons' situations for a few minutes now. I think probably the best thing for me to do is not give any specifics, since I don't know them and I don't have any Tommy John rehab experience myself. It's going to be a long, hard road for them, though. Lots of strength (relatively low weight, high repetition) and flexibility training. I think they still should be able to work on their steps and do their running without much of a problem. On the bright side, a lot of athletes come back from injury even stronger because of how dedicated they are to their rehab. They should definitely work to maintain their form as much as possible, though, whether that's using a bungee device, a tennis ball, a real implement, or whatever else. A big problem that throwers can have over an offseason is to dedicate themselves to weight work without maintaining their throwing form - then when they start throwing again, they have an entirely new body and no idea how to use it.
Under the new INTERNATIONAL CARDIO FREE FORMAT, matches are over pretty quickly.
EDIT: That was an INSANE world record by the American relay team.
Maybe I missed a discussion of this earlier in the thread, but what event would you think your prototypical Primate could realistically take up and make it to Rio? My early thoughts are probably the obvious, equestrian and maybe archery. Which isn't to say those are "easy", but compared to the 800m or tennis...
Coxswain, for those small enough.
I'd go for IOC delegate, I think I can handle both the corruption and the entitlement, but probably not enough to compete for the medals.
Coxswain is the only way a person could actually be dead and still get an Olympic medal. Although the US basketball team might be able to win with a starting lineup of James, Paul, Durant, Bryant, and Ted Williams.
Brilliant article on Claressa Shields, women's middleweight gold medalist.
is it so hard to not write dismissively of things of which one does not understand or appreciate?
Yes.
*Not really.
first, glad to see you posting more regularly. you have been missed
and yes, i understand that everyone here has it in their dna to be sarcastic
doesn't mean i won't call out an unwarranted sneer
most people on this site couldn't even pull themselves up into a saddle from the ground on a horse much less ride said horse.
I specifically said it wouldn't be "easy", but did posit that qualifying for the Olympics in equestrian would be "easier" than doing so in the 800m. Do you disagree?
I fully admit I say this out of practical ignorance of the sport, but I would argue that as posed the question invites discussion rather than deserves to be called "dismissive". Given four years and free of resource constraints of any kind, would you (or I) have a better chance at qualifying at an equestrian event, or a track and field event? If the answer turns out to be the latter rather than the former, I will happily consider myself better educated.
Now *that* is what the Olympics really represents. Very cool.
and equestrian is more than dressage
just sayin
I know that. I think we all know that by now, as you have been saying it for 2 weeks now despite no one taking exception. Seems to me you've crossed the line into oversensitivity and persecution complex. The worst I recall seeing anyone say since your initial outburst (not meant to be a slight. I think you had good reason, at the time) at the start of the games is that he's on board with jumping and cross country but thinks "horse dancing" is ridiculous. And I can't say I disagree. Sure it takes tremendous patience, dedication and training, but so does making a wooden canoe by hand, and last I saw, Ron Swanson wasn't in the Olympics.
It was me and I said silly.
Please leave that kind of argumentation to the political threads.
McQuay should've run anchor. It may not have changed the result but he is the best 400-meter runner of the 4 and has recent anchor experience.
i don't understand why the kneejerk reaction when folks are discussing the sports that don't belong or that are perceived as 'easy' turns to the equestrian. you have events like table tennis and badminton that don't have nearly the history as the equestrian and to my eyes seem rather trivial
but i don't post comments ripping their place in the games nor doubting their athletic nature.
and on a practical note i don't claim to know whether this audience has been static. if someone new is going to toss equestrian 'under the bus' i am going to challenge that.
apparently i am being perceived negatively so i will refrain in the future
Times have changed. Time was the US could count on multiples of medals in wrestling and boxing, but that's all but gone now.
And I love it that Montenegro is in the handball final.
i think it's been mentioned but the rules have changed dramatically in boxing and more than a bit in wrestling and the u.s. has struggled to adapt
No, they don't have the history, and yes they seem rather trivial (assuming we are not talking about horse dancing), but have you seen either of those 2 events? I'm talking here about the possibility of and average joe training up to Olympic standards. I said earlier in this thread that I think I would have a better chance of hitting MLB pitching than returning an Olympic level table tennis smash.
I wouldn't blame you one bit if you did. But as far as I can see, no one has, recently. Saying equestrian would be easier to for an average joe to train up for than any track and field event does not qualify.
minor qualification. i think folks are discussing about qualifying for the olympics. i perceive that qualifying in say badminton is not at the same level as the matches shown on tv which are the better/best players
but i could be wrong.
and rightly so
I wouldn't know, but I take you word for it.
It's also probably unfortunate that it's become the "face" of equestrian sports.
*) That is, won't get lapped.
The Olympic B Standard for the men's marathon is a 2:18, or a 5:16/mile pace. Perhaps if I fully dedicated myself to running for a few years, I could run a single mile at that pace. But I am a pretty avid runner and I know there is no way in hell I am ever running a full marathon anywhere close to that time.
That said, the marathon is a sport where you don't have to be in your 20s. I've heard distance runners peak in their early-mid 30s. Meb (not going to try to spell his last name) who won the U.S. qualifier, is 37.
Turns out the Olympic B Standard for Marathon is 2:18 for men; sounds pretty tough to me. (edit: Coke to Dave)
Harveys -
I think you might have picked a likely candidate with table tennis - not badminton, though. To qualify for the Olympics you have to be ranked in the top 32 or whatever in the world, and that doesn't seem likely. Although I'd agree that badminton doesn't require the same athletic prowess as, say, tennis, I have played enough "competitive" badminton (as opposed to the backyard bbq variety) to know that it's a hell of a workout and that I would have no chance at a world ranking.
Table tennis, on the other hand, appears to have qualifying tournaments in various geographic regions, and I think it's fair to say the raw physical requirements of the sport are not enormous. I can see improving a lot given nothing else to do, with the right coaching and dedication, and fluking one's way through a qualifier, assuming I read teh interweb correctly. Misirlou is right, too, in that learning all the subtleties is probably a lot more daunting than it appears, which is exactly what you have been asserting about equestrian.
Based solely on an ignorant understanding of the apparent dependency on the horse-rider relationship, and all that's presumably entailed in that, I'd lean toward table tennis as the "easier" of the two for Hypothetical Average Joe to qualify for Rio. But I'll stick with equestrian being "easier" than the 800m, or any track event, in the absence of any actual discussion to the contrary.
EDIT: Kurt - can't find a specific time for open swim, but if you believe Google "Only one American swimmer could earn an Olympic berth in the [qualifying] race [in Portugal] and in order to be eligible the swimmer had to finish in the top 9 or be the continental champion."
Or so sayeth http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/swimming/haley-anderson-wins-open-water-swim-race-to-qualify-for-london.html. The continental champion loophole sounds potentially promising; there probably aren't too many Africans who compete for that slot. Of course national eligibility might be a hurdle :)
I disagree with this. Table tennis doesn't require much in the way of strength or cardiovascular fitness, but the requirements for reflexes and hand-eye coordination are off the charts. I don't think Joe Schmoe could ever develop those attributes enough to qualify for the Olympics.
Hm. I had my hopes up when I saw there was a 16 year old from Guam in today's race, and two swimmers from Germany, but I couldn't even whip up the faintest illusion of ever being the best in the US at it or top 9 in the world.
It's certainly the type of event I'd *like* to be the last qualifier in - it sounds like the Guam swimmer got some nice applause as he finished 14 minutes behind the winner, and just finishing the race is more impressive than finishing a 400 or 800 way behind everyone else.
Shooting is possible to pick up in your thirties and become a top competitor, Sweden's Ragnar Skanåker did that and won medals at olympic games, he did his last when he was 66. There is probably some very specific talent that is needed though, though I suspect most people never have tested it.
And I'm on board with shooting/archery being at the low end of the difficulty spectrum. Coxswain, too, if you can train down to 95 pounds.
I actually think that table tennis is similar to track, in that they require certain innate abilities, and if you don't have them all the training in the world won't really help. (obviously, the specific innate abilities are completely different).
Track seems harder because we *know* what our capabilities are. We've all run and jumped, we know what our bodies look like, etc. Hand-eye coordination and reflexes we have some idea about, but it's not immediately obvious that we don't have enough of them to be world-class table tennis players. But we don't.
Not a knock on horseplay, but the h/e coordination, etc of top flight ping pong players is out of the reach of most.
Offhand, I'd guess that the 'easiest' events are those which are relatively unpopular w/ high barriers to entry ... that equestrian events fit that description is the primary argument I'd make against them here...
Fwiw, my daydream event as a kid was long jump - at least til my knees blew out.
For those on the other side of the spectrum digging their calories, there is a role that is largely being a huge movable weight in some sailing classes.
The quarterfinal match between Montenegro and France was probably the best thing I've seen in this year's games.
tom hammond doing the broadcast in a track warmup suit buries the queer needle
Cute, but but at least credit the US with the Puerto Rico medal, if not Cuba's 10.
I think I can avoid a boom OK, and given four years I can learn to tie a knot. If I don't have to read wind or tides or anything, we may have a winner!!!
The US women have been amazing. From the gymnastics team to the 100m sprint team (that 4X100 sprint race brought tears to my eyes), they have kept the US in the medal hunt.
What are the top 4 team sports in the Olympics, in terms or pretentiousness? Basketball, Soccer, Volleyball, and Water Polo are a reasonable top 4. The US women have won 2 of the gold so far, will likely win a 3rd, and are in the gold game in the 4th.
Did I miss something? Serious question, I skipped out on the prelims so was someone on the Jamaican team hurt?
I think you actually read something that wasn't there ("gold").
Agreed. I don't care for the beach vball but the full team indoor game is a lot of fun.
it's like nascar, except the winners actually accomplished something and the people get injured instead of the cars.
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