Olympics. Sports ONLY please - NO politics thank you.

[warspite1]

Tokyo 2020...er 21

Strange old games with so few fans allowed to watch. But at least the organisers made what I think is the right decision and allowed the games to take place.

The highlight of the opening ceremony were the 1,824 drones that created a globe in the sky - very impressive.

https://hypebeast.com/2021/7/drone-show ... g-ceremony

[warspite1]

TEAM GB and Northern Ireland

Day 1 and Day 2

From a performance perspective the games have started less than spectacularly for Team GB. Sadly Jade Jones failed in her bid for a third successive Taekwondo Gold, losing in the first round...

Medal count after 2 days = 0 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze

Silver - Bradly Sinden (Taekwondo - 68Kg)
Bronze - Chelsie Giles (Judo - 52kg)

Getting close to the Rio haul looks to be a tall order already. It's clear already there will be no huge medal hauls in the rowing for example....


Bradly Looked to have it won with seconds to go, but his young Uzbeki competitor snatched away the gold right at the end.


Superb attempt from the Coventry girl, only beaten by the ultimate gold medal winner from Japan.

[Neilster]

Solid start from Australia. And how are our friends from across the Tasman going? Oh dear... [:'(]

[Zap]

Japan is making a good showing.

[warspite1]

TEAM GB and Northern Ireland

Day 3

A mixed - but largely good day for the team - and agonisingly close to being a stonking day (in Team GB terms) [:)]

Poor Adam Burgess (Canoe Slalom) joined Max Litchfield (Swimnming) from the day before and came 4th, just missing out on a medal, while Team GB were seconds away - again - from a gold in Taekwondo.

Medal count after 3 days = 3 Gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze

Today in Bold

Gold - Adam Peatty (Swimming 100m Breastroke), Tom Pidcock (Men's Mountain Bike), Tom Daley/Matty Lee (Men's 10m Diving)
Silver - Bradly Sinden (Men's Taekwondo - 68Kg) Alex Yee (Men's Triathlon), Lauren Williams (Woman's Taekwondo - 67Kg)
Bronze - Chelsie Giles (Women's Judo - 52kg)


Adam Peatty (thankfully this moustache is now gone - truly a man that owns the 100m Breastroke - 15 fastest times ever and now a second gold Olympic medal)


Tom Pidcock - broke his collar bone in five places in April.... and then won Britain's first medal of any colour in the mountain bikes


Tom Daley (4th Olympics) and Matty Lee (1st Olympics) pick up a gold in the diving - incredible stuff, their last dive was spot on - and a good job too as the Chinese only really mucked up one dive and were breathing down their neck.

[gekkoguy35]

ORIGINAL: warspite1



Adam Peatty (thankfully this moustache is now gone.....

aww dang. What's wrong with the moustache?? haha.

I've seen worse!

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: gekkoguy35

ORIGINAL: warspite1



Adam Peatty (thankfully this moustache is now gone.....

aww dang. What's wrong with the moustache?? haha.

I've seen worse!

warspite1

It looked even worse in the pool!.... but hey, his girlfriend said she liked it so.....

[warspite1]

TEAM GB and Northern Ireland

Day 4

Another decent day for the British team, but once again they came agonisingly close to it being so much better. The swimming team equalled its three medals from 2012 - but this time it's 2 gold and 1 silver [X(] and we had two medallists on a podium for the first time since 1908.

Perhaps some dubious referring, but also some unfortunate tactics saw poor Bianca Walkden missing out on the gold medal match in the final second.... A great silver for Georgia Taylor-Brown in the triathlon, but could it have been gold without here tyre getting a puncture?

After the swimmers the biggest shout of the day goes to Team GB's young gymnasts, who were 7th at one stage, but picked up a bronze - the first time in almost 100 years. Sadly Simone Biles pulled out of the competition for Team USA - hope she's okay and back to fitness soon. Oh and the dancing horses picked up a bronze [:)]

Medal count after 4 days = 4 Gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze

Today in Bold

Gold - Adam Peatty (Swimming 100m Breastroke), Tom Pidcock (Men's Mountain Bike), Tom Daley/Matty Lee (Men's 10m Diving), Tom Dean (Swimming Men's 200m Freestyle)
Silver - Bradly Sinden (Men's Taekwondo - 68Kg) Alex Yee (Men's Triathlon), Lauren Williams (Woman's Taekwondo - 67Kg), Duncan Scott (Swimming Men's 200m Freestyle), Georgia Taylor-Brown (Womens Triathlon)
Bronze - Chelsie Giles (Women's Judo - 52kg), Bianca Walkden (Women's Taekwondo - 67Kg), Dujardin, Fry, Hester (Equestrian Team Dressage), Morgan, Kinsella, Gadirova Sisters (Women's Team Gymnastics)


Well here's something we haven't seen since 1908. Two British swimmers on the same podium.



Well here's something we haven't seen since 1928 - a British women's gymnastics team on the podium



Would it have been gold without the puncture?

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: gekkoguy35

ORIGINAL: warspite1



Adam Peatty (thankfully this moustache is now gone.....

aww dang. What's wrong with the moustache?? haha.

I've seen worse!

warspite1

It looked even worse in the pool!.... but hey, his girlfriend said she liked it so.....

I think that her opinion counts more than yours does.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: gekkoguy35




aww dang. What's wrong with the moustache?? haha.

I've seen worse!

warspite1

It looked even worse in the pool!.... but hey, his girlfriend said she liked it so.....

I think that her opinion counts more than yours does.

warspite1

You may well be right...[:)]

[Zap]

Again, the Japanese are really making an impressive showing, 11 golds so far!. Have they historically been this good in the Summer Olympics?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Zap

Again, the Japanese are really making an impressive showing, 11 golds so far!. Have they historically been this good in the Summer Olympics?

warspite1

The Japanese are at home and so I don’t think what they are doing is that surprising - particularly as they have been quite strong medal winners in recent games. Their best showing in terms of gold was in Tokyo (1964) and Athens (2004) with 16. Their best showing in terms of medals has been Rio (2016) and London (2012) with 41 and 38 respectively.

[Neilster]

Looking at the top five on the gold medal count (silver is first loser [:'(]) and ranking on medals per capita (gold medals per million population)...

Australia 0.23
Japan 0.09
ROC 0.05
USA 0.03
China 0.01

I believe by that metric, the current leaders are Bermuda, Kosovo, Estonia, Slovenia and Croatia

[Neilster]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Zap

Again, the Japanese are really making an impressive showing, 11 golds so far!. Have they historically been this good in the Summer Olympics?

warspite1

The Japanese are at home and so I don’t think what they are doing is that surprising - particularly as they have been quite strong medal winners in recent games. Their best showing in terms of gold was in Tokyo (1964) and Athens (2004) with 16. Their best showing in terms of medals has been Rio (2016) and London (2012) with 41 and 38 respectively.

The home team usually gets a boost from the crowds, but that's not a factor here. I believe, however, they do get to pick some events to be included, and usually go for ones in which they are strong.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Neilster

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Zap

Again, the Japanese are really making an impressive showing, 11 golds so far!. Have they historically been this good in the Summer Olympics?

warspite1

The Japanese are at home and so I don’t think what they are doing is that surprising - particularly as they have been quite strong medal winners in recent games. Their best showing in terms of gold was in Tokyo (1964) and Athens (2004) with 16. Their best showing in terms of medals has been Rio (2016) and London (2012) with 41 and 38 respectively.

The home team usually gets a boost from the crowds, but that's not a factor here. I believe, however, they do get to pick some events to be included, and usually go for ones in which they are strong.

warspite1

While I think its a fair point about the lack of an audience, I don't believe home advantage can be easily dismissed. The games are still taking place in Japan, in a 'home' environment. Already, with less than 5 days gone, they are only one behind their gold medal tally in Rio - remember 16 is their best and they've already won 11! They have already won half the total number of medals won at Rio - and that was their best medal showing.

As for choosing sports, the host nation get to choose a limited number of events - I think five were chosen by Japan. But these events still need to be agreed by the IOC and have to meet the usual criteria - i.e. they can't be allowed in just because Japan is good at them (I suspect Sumo wrestling would be a new sport if that was the case [:)]). As far as I know, only one sport, that is new to this Olympics, has been held so far - and Japan have won a gold and bronze - so without those Japan's showing is still way, way above where they have been before at this stage.

The Olympics have to be kept to a reasonable number of events. I don't know what was ditched for the new events, but I suppose its always possible a host nation could lose something they have medal chances at too.

But as said, we'll see at the end of the games how Japan fare compared to previous Olympics and how they've performed at their home Olympics compared to other recent home nations (and there are plenty of stats on that).

[RangerJoe]

Also remember that being the home team, their members do not have to travel and then get used to the new time as well as messing up their training.

[rico21]

[8D]

[warspite1]

TEAM GB and Northern Ireland

Day 5

Sadly for Team GB the medal count continues to fall after the impossible high of Monday. There were a number of medal hopeful blow ups (not least in the Diving) as well as agonising near misses too. The dreaded 4th in Swimming, Rugby Sevens and Rowing.... Rowing just isn't the guaranteed medal magnet its been recently and Team GB blew it in a few finals - none worse that the Men's Four, an event we've won gold in for six games running. with a medal likely, one of the rowers forgot he was also supposed to be steering the boat....

But swimming is on the up it seems. We won 6 medals in Rio - double that in London (0 gold) - but only 1 was gold. We've won 4 so far in Tokyo, and 3 are gold and 1 is silver. Considering we won 7 gold in total after the home Olympics in 1908 to the home Olympics in 2012, this is uncharted territory for Team GB.

But biggest shout of the day? Two boys who didn't get close to a medal, but who finished in the top 10 in the all round men's gymnastics. Given where Team GB were in the gymnastics arena when I was a kid, this is a magnificent performance. Big cheer for James Hall (8th) and Joe Fraser (9th) [&o].

Congratulations too to Charlotte Dujardin on becoming the most decorated Team GB female athlete (in terms of nos. of medals) - 2 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronze.

Medal count after 5 days = 5 Gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze

Team GB fall to 6th in the medal table.

Today in Bold

Gold - Adam Peatty (Swimming 100m Breastroke), Tom Pidcock (Men's Mountain Bike), Tom Daley/Matty Lee (Men's 10m Diving), Tom Dean (Swimming Men's 200m Freestyle), Dean, Scott, Guy, Richards (Swimming 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay)
Silver - Bradly Sinden (Men's Taekwondo - 68Kg) Alex Yee (Men's Triathlon), Lauren Williams (Woman's Taekwondo - 67Kg), Duncan Scott (Swimming Men's 200m Freestyle), Georgia Taylor-Brown (Womens Triathlon), Leask, Groom, Barras, Beaumont (Rowing Men's Qudruple Sculls)
Bronze - Chelsie Giles (Women's Judo - 52kg), Bianca Walkden (Women's Taekwondo - 67Kg), Dujardin, Fry, Hester (Equestrian Team Dressage), Morgan, Kinsella, Gadirova Sisters (Women's Team Gymnastics), Charlotte Dujardin (Equestrian Individual Dressage)


It's not just about medals. Well done Joe and James - very proud of you. Britain and Gymnastics used to go together like Roast Chicken and Curry Sauce, but not anymore.


Charlotte Dujardin and Gio, the dancing horse. No medal ever at Dressage until Charlotte and co. did the biz in 2012. Now its a medal for the third games running.


Well here's a site we haven't seen since..... forever. First ever medal in the Quadruple Sculls. Well done Messrs Beaumont, Barras, Groom and Leask.

[IslandInland]

Anything that is measured in marks out of ten or a subjective evaluation isn't a sport IMO.

[RangerJoe]

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who was quoting someone else.

Eric Moussambani Malonga is proof of that and what he did after is also important.