2020* Tokyo Olympics General Discussion

[Harbingers]

Didn’t see a thread anywhere so I figured this is probably the best spot to start one. 
 

So far China is pulling it in followed by the ROK. 

[Harbingers]

First USA women's Olympic gold in Taekwondo. Was a pretty epic match.

[PanthersATL]

Ratings overall are down, but that's to be expected for various reasons

• Generally speaking, people want to watch things live. If you already know the results of an event, how excited are you to tune in to catch the replay during NBC primetime?
• Watching the opening ceremonies live at 7am was fantastic (other than the horrible constant narration and 2/3 screen advertisements). Watching the replay later that day took some of the joy out of the procession with choppy editing

Are people that interested in watching sports that they can see anytime, anywhere else? EX: When the Grand Slam tennis events are happening, they're on constantly on the local TV here (almost literally 24/7). Tuned in to see Olympic Tennis with the same players? Meh. Not interested.  After watching the fantastic Euro2021 soccer match, do we need to watch more soccer before the World Cup starts? 

It's no wonder that the most popular sports are the things that we don't often see -- swimming, gymnastics, synchronized diving.  Sat through two different Water Polo matches over the weekend; turned off the 3x3 basketball (and why is it "3 X 3" and not "3 vs 3" or "3 on 3"? Why is the "X" pronounced as "X"? And those commentators were painful to listen to).  Watched a bit of skateboarding, but it wasn't as interesting as snowboarding tricks are (probably because it just looked like a bunch of skaters doing some random tricks as opposed to something more choreographed/planned)

But for the most part? It's background viewing this year.   

Happy for all the winners and the competitors for trying their hardest. I don't miss the crowds/crowd noise. 

Get rid of the professionals, keep it amateurs.

And hey, was that a 46 year old gymnast the other day? That's a more interesting human interest story than some of the other crap they've been showing.

To answer your original question?  Yeah, we're watching it here.

[Harbingers]

I love the sports like you said that we don’t get to see. Frankly I don’t give a crap about track(besides relays, though I do like “throw” field sports though), gymnastics, Basketball, baseball, soccer… all the “Major” sports. Over hyped, I often find myself rooting against the US to enjoy the challenge of an underdog athlete/team.  

I love the little known ones, fencing, taekwondo, rowing, canoe, archery, *****, etc

And don’t even get me started on boxing. It’s probably the singularly best thing about the summer olympics cause no world champs/pros are going to risk losing a match so it’s all semi-pro’s and amateurs truly embodying what the sport is suppose to be like. 
 

Im more of a Winter Olympics person myself though in the end. I watch them religiously. Summer to me is outside of boxing, if I catch it cool, if not I’ll see a replay sometime soon. 
 

edit: apparently s k e e t is censored. That’s a first in a while. 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Harbingers

[cookinbrak]

Simone Biles pulled herself because she knew she was hurting the team.

[Harbingers]

2 minutes ago, cookinbrak said:

Simone Biles pulled herself because she knew she was hurting the team.

I think it runs deeper than that. I think she lost a huge amount of confidence after that first day and tried way too hard to blame herself when she probably just could have gone out there and had fun. I haven’t seen much of gymnastics besides the highlights but there was no fugging way anyone was beating the Russians. 

The only negative I take from it is it gives the US team an excuse. Which now she will have to shoulder, all the blame from within’ and without. I hope she does well in the singles if she competes but she’s painted herself into a corner on that too.  

[PanthersATL]

29 minutes ago, cookinbrak said:

Simone Biles pulled herself because she knew she was hurting the team.

It takes a strong person to willingly pull themselves out of a competition in order to ensure future abilities/mindset. 

[Ja Rhule]

10 hours ago, PanthersATL said:

It takes a strong person to willingly pull themselves out of a competition in order to ensure future abilities/mindset. 

I don’t know.  As much money and sponsorship she got, pulling herself out is probably not the best look.

[Harbingers]

4 minutes ago, Ja Rhule said:

I don’t know.  As much money and sponsorship she got, pulling herself out is probably not the best look.

Honestly, she should be on a plane back to her family right now. If she’s this convinced about her mental status i’d put her on suicide watch(they probably already have) but ultimately the US team should put her on a flight home since she won’t be competing. No point in having her stay in Japan. 
 

There has to be something else behind the scenes though. She keeps worrying about injury after she didn’t stick one landing. It could be as mild as a case of the yips. At the extreme I wouldn’t be surprised if we see her retire.

[Ja Rhule]

18 minutes ago, Harbingers said:

Honestly, she should be on a plane back to her family right now. If she’s this convinced about her mental status i’d put her on suicide watch(they probably already have) but ultimately the US team should put her on a flight home since she won’t be competing. No point in having her stay in Japan. 
 

There has to be something else behind the scenes though. She keeps worrying about injury after she didn’t stick one landing. It could be as mild as a case of the yips. At the extreme I wouldn’t be surprised if we see her retire.

Oh, I can tell you what it is.  The US media build her up, throw cash her way and made her instant celebrity and basically made her the face of the US Olympic team.  Her mental state is all out of whack because of all the pressure.  I won’t be surprise if she slowly disappears from the spotlight. 

[PanthersATL]

16 minutes ago, Ja Rhule said:

Her mental state is all out of whack because of all the pressure.  

Two sides of the same coin:

Billie Jean King famously said and commented on "Pressure is a Privilege" (so much so that it's a title of one of her books AND posted as a plaque at the US Open where the players walk out onto the court to compete at the highest level)



She also said this yesterday:

 

[PanthersATL]

On the other hand, there's this thread with comments from gymnasts about "the twisties" being the more likely reason Simone felt it was best for her to withdraw, which sounds a bit more realistic here than the earlier stated generic "medical issue".

And if you watched that last vault Simone did, something about it didn't look right at all...
 

 

[Harbingers]

1 hour ago, PanthersATL said:

On the other hand, there's this thread with comments from gymnasts about "the twisties" being the more likely reason Simone felt it was best for her to withdraw, which sounds a bit more realistic here than the earlier stated generic "medical issue".

And if you watched that last vault Simone did, something about it didn't look right at all...
 

 

Idk what “the twisties” are but I don’t think she did anything wrong(resulting in injury) on that vault besides not stick her landing. I’ll have to go give it a rewatch. 

[Harbingers]

Oh so they are basically the Yips.