Olympics 2016

Fingers crossed it goes well for them

It's an Americas games really though isn't it? 'cos of the time difference...

Men’s cycling road race.

 6 hours of captivating entertainment, although I didn’t catch it all, I had to break off and put a curry in the oven.

 The best Olympic road race I’ve ever seen. The bar's been set very high on the first day, I can’t see any other event topping it in terms excitement, suspense, thrills, spills and bravery. There must have been a dozen riders, who at one stage thought they had a realistic chance of a medal.

 Great performance from Greg Van Avermaet. After that performance, it’s obvious the way he rode the Tour de France, trying to keep pace with the climbers up the high mountains was preparation for the Olympics.

fatcat posted:

Men’s cycling road race.

 6 hours of captivating entertainment, although I didn’t catch it all, I had to break off and put a curry in the oven.

 The best Olympic road race I’ve ever seen. The bar's been set very high on the first day, I can’t see any other event topping it in terms excitement, suspense, thrills, spills and bravery. There must have been a dozen riders, who at one stage thought they had a realistic chance of a medal.

 Great performance from Greg Van Avermaet. After that performance, it’s obvious the way he rode the Tour de France, trying to keep pace with the climbers up the high mountains was preparation for the Olympics.

It was indeed excellent - tactically and for the route.

G

Brought some nice memories of my time in Brasil. Went right past the end of the street my apartment was on just after they hit the beach road in Leblon at the end, before continuing through Ipanema and Aproador onto Copacabana.

Well, I didn’t enjoy the women’s cycling road race.

 The racing was Ok, but Annemiek Van Vleuten’s crash on the decent was horrific. Let’s hope she’s survived it.

Yes quite a spectacular crash, news sketchy on her condition.

Been really enjoying the Sevens, well done GB ladies getting to the semis.

Looks like she has some significant but non serious injuries (concussion and some 'minor' back fractures). For a bit I thought it was going to be much worse. Deep gutters totally unforgiving of any overshoot on the bends looked like the issue for those that overcooked it. The catch fencing in tricky places looked pretty sketchy, I note where Richie Porte came a cropper on Saturday it had not even been repaired for the women's race.

Ruined a fantastic race really. Boardman's heart on sleeve commentary was spot-on, especially considering his Mum just died in a bike accident.

Bruce

What will happen to athletics (and similar speed related sports) when the time comes, as it must, when it is physically impossible for the human body to go any faster? Will it still have point?

steve 

Paper Plane posted:

What will happen to athletics (and similar speed related sports) when the time comes, as it must, when it is physically impossible for the human body to go any faster? Will it still have point?

Certainly there will be a point. Still a race, still a competition with a winner declared. Best of that time and place.

Bob Beamon's Olympic record for the long jump was set in 1968. The fact that his record has stood for 48 years against an age of specialized and technologically advanced training makes it all the more remarkable. Maybe some one will jump farther in Rio.

joerand posted:

Paper Plane posted:

What will happen to athletics (and similar speed related sports) when the time comes, as it must, when it is physically impossible for the human body to go any faster? Will it still have point?

Certainly there will be a point. Still a race, still a competition with a winner declared. Best of that time and place.

Bob Beamon's Olympic record for the long jump was set in 1968. The fact that his record has stood for 48 years against an age of specialized and technologically advanced training makes it all the more remarkable. Maybe some one will jump farther in Rio.

It will be indeed always about the competition. And we have seen before that athletes have outperformed scientific predictions....., but perhaps that was about who is using the better doping...

Bert Schurink posted:

we have seen before that athletes have outperformed scientific predictions....., but perhaps that was about who is using the better doping...

Bert,

The four-minute mile was considered humanly impossible several generations ago until it happened in 1954. I don't believe there were allegations of doping at that time and sub four-minute miles are now routine and occur at the high school level. I don't necessarily view world record breakers as dopers or cheats, but perhaps I read too much cynicism into your reply.

Looking forward to the Olympic golf tournament. Even if many of the top golfers don't bother to participate.

Paper Plane posted:

What will happen to athletics (and similar speed related sports) when the time comes, as it must, when it is physically impossible for the human body to go any faster? Will it still have point?

steve 

3 or 4 Olympics ago I wondered how speed records relying solely on the human body with no technology involved continue being broken, and with seeming constant frequency. Then a chance remark by my son gave me the answer: he wondered why every year seems to go faster - an impression every adult will recognise, but rarely expressed by youngsters. Of course, the answer to both questions is the same, and very simple - time is clearly speeding up (or getting compressed, depending how you think about it)! 

An alternative explanation is that distance is contracting. This fits with present scientific observation that the universe is expanding: instead of the universe expanding, everything in it is getting smaller, making relative distances bigger. But maybe the longjump record disproves this as the explanation - while providing further evidence of time being the answer, because if people are capable of greater velocity the long jump record should fall (unless of course gravity is increasing due to distance contracting).

Or of course, it could be a combination of both, but at slightly different relative rates.

So I predict that speed records will keep getting broken until we all disappear in a flash of time, so no need to worry about the future of athletics until a few millenia (and no doubt civilisations) have passed.

Tongue firmly in cheek, but.......

jfritzen posted:

Looking forward to the Olympic golf tournament. Even if many of the top golfers don't bother to participate.

I don't think it's a matter of not being bothered. More a case of not wanting to move from a very lenient drug testing environment into the opposite.

You think so? But which drugs would help a golfer? I think they don't bother because they can't win prize money at the Olympics.

jfritzen posted:

You think so? But which drugs would help a golfer? I think they don't bother because they can't win prize money at the Olympics.

Steroids etc for muscle mass and strength. Something for calmness and lack of jitters when putting. Tiger Woods had his eyes lasered for better-than 20:20 vision.

winkyincanada posted:

Tiger Woods had his eyes lasered for better-than 20:20 vision.

 Interesting spin. He's hitting a stationary object at his feet. Hard to see where better than 20:20 vision becomes an advantage. What if he'd opted for eye glasses? Presumably he could see the cup either way.

As I understand it, Tiger had one eye's lens magnification increased, the other reduced. So, he sees a small ball with one eye & a large hole with the other.

Have to wonder about the view while being beaten by a nine iron.

Oh yeah ... Olympics the topic.