Missed it. It's awful when they collapse, looks like a military training exercise as opposed to a competitive sport.
I'll watch the swimming and athletics on catch up. The time difference is a bummer.
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The panel are clearly a bit suspicious of the Russia Olympic Committees gold in men’s gymnastics, beating Japan by a whisker.
The pundit (British gymnast) reckon the Russian top gymnast ruptured his Achilles 3 months ago, it is unprecedented to be able to even walk after 3 months, let alone fly through the air landing after three twists :greengrin Whether theres a drug programme that can do that I don’t know. Long lingering close ups on muscles also made it obvious what was being suggested.
I like it that the skaters aren’t wearing any protection, just Adidas and Etnies
I've been watching sports I forgot I like, Handball for example, I can go 4 years without thinking about it and when the Olympics comes round I remember that it's brilliant
I'm also reminded that I hate the way the British Badminton lady screams like mad every time she wins a point, wish someone would just scream back at her
Some performance by Georgia Taylor-Brown in the triathlon. Punctured her back tyre on the last lap of the bike ride and was well adrift in 5th at the transition. Ran a brilliant 10K to take silver. Flora Duffy won to give Bermuda their 1st ever Olympic gold.
First time I’ve watched rugby sevens, what a great game it is, brilliant comeback from GB 21-0 down at HT and won 26-21.
Softball is a rubbish spectacle.
Gold for the GB men in the 4 x 200m swimming relay, with Scotland's Duncan Scott adding to his individual silver. Great effort.
Without sounding like a dinosaur and genuinely trying to be as sensitive as possible what does that mean. Genuine issues or didn't do as well and then didn't fancy failing. She does appear to be on a ridiculous pedestal and am sure there are loads of stresses to her life however don't really get it she is a performer and her life is built around it seems strange to me that outside of a physical injury she would choose to stop doing what she will be trained both mentally and physically to do at the highest level. Probably not expressing myself well and admit to not knowing a huge amount about the subject.
There was a 3 part documentary on in the lead up to the Olympics delving into the creation and evolution of 'Team GB' after the embarrassment that was Atlanta 96 into something of a juggernaut.
A few of the athletes, most notably Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy, spoke about the horrendous pressure they felt throughout their time in the elite set up. Pendleton in particular said it was an environment in which it was difficult to thrive as a person and athletes were essentially treated as machines who had to deliver optimal performance on command. She said that on winning gold in 2012 she felt relief and the removal of a huge mental burden rather than any joy.
On a more local level Scottish speed skater Elise Christie has spoken very openly and honestly about her self harm and struggles with depression. She is a multiple European and world champion but has performed poorly at the Olympics twice and been subjected to some horrendous mocking and abuse on social media (including on here at the last winter games Iirc). Add to that the fact she holds down a job delivering for Pizza Hut whilst trying to prepare for another Olympic appearance. I also like reading Eilish McColgan's thoughts on Twitter. She speaks openly about all the reasons why she might underperform on occasions and why for an elite sportswomen it's not always as simple as turn up and perform at your optimum level.
For Biles the mental pressure to perform must be immense. She is an absolute icon, the flag bearer for her sport and is so good there are moves named after her because no one else can or will perform them. I can understand how the expectation that she can just turn up and switch it on can cause her to struggle mentally. I think with the actions of Naomi Osaka recently we have reached a point at which more elite sportspeople are going to take a step back when they have to.
I watched some of the table tennis last night, couldn't get over how intricate and flamboyant they make the serves, couldn't stop laughing at it
A good slap from her coach might have shaken her out of it :wink:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n85Xay3zfKk
Alex Scott is my favourite.
BMX in the olympics. Imagine that in the 80s cutting about on your mongoose😆
3 x 3 basketball, rugby 7s, skateboarding, mountain biking to name but a few. Give it 20 years the Olympics will go on for 2 months & every sport on the planet will be in there.
P.S I really enjoy 🏀