Rio 2016 Olympics

[Jon]

Disappointing to see so many world class athletes from other countries call into question the achievements of our athletes. In terms of Cycling, so many countries haven't hit the performances they did during the World Championships yet question why they aren't winning. It's no secret that British Cycling as an organisation is aimed at peaking every 4 years for the Olympics.

[killthenet]

Disappointing to see so many world class athletes from other countries call into question the achievements of our athletes. In terms of Cycling, so many countries haven't hit the performances they did during the World Championships yet question why they aren't winning. It's no secret that British Cycling as an organisation is aimed at peaking every 4 years for the Olympics.

 

It must be so frustrating for the other countries though to think they've got the better of us because they've beaten us at world championships and then to be so roundly trounced come the Olympics. British Cycling are just perfect at Olympic preparation.

 

Laura Trott was absolutely immense yesterday, the gold medal was never in doubt but she still went out and put in an aggressive performance in the points race - her rivals must have realised only 10 or 20 laps in that they had no chance of gaining any ground on her.

 

That keirin final was just bizarre, I think the derny was definitely slowing down as it was leaving the track so they were right not to disqualify anybody, Kenny showed what a pro he is though to keep his cool and win comfortably in the end.

 

The athletics was a bit disappointing for GB last night, neither of our 110m hurdlers made it through the final and Robbie Grabarz would have had a bronze in the high jump if he hadn't made a silly mistake at an earlier height. Laura Muir also could have come away with a medal in the 1500m but went out to win the race instead of just winning a medal.

 

GB have done astonishingly well in these Olympics so far, to get 20 gold medals is just unbelievable. At this rate we might even top our medal tally from London, which is completely unheard of.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

So whats your thoughts on the taekwondo then?

[killthenet]

So whats your thoughts on the taekwondo then?

 

I watched Jade Jones' first two bouts earlier, she looks really good. Do you think she'll retain her title? Do we have any other medal chances in the taekwondo?

 

 

The Brownlee brothers were amazing earlier, a British 1-2 never looked in doubt.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

I watched Jade Jones' first two bouts earlier, she looks really good. Do you think she'll retain her title? Do we have any other medal chances in the taekwondo?

 

 

The Brownlee brothers were amazing earlier, a British 1-2 never looked in doubt.

 

She definitely can! Bianca Walkden (Heavyweight women) is the current world and European champion. Lutalo Mohammed (middleweight mens) is London's Bronze medallist - and a rival of mine (a guy I fought) Mahama Cho, has excellent skill and medals in a lot of open but often loses in the Euros and Worlds... But still one to watch.

 

All on tomorrow.

[Tales]

Struggling to defeat Russia in the semis in the women's handball. Losing this and Norway will end the Olympics with zero gold no doubt about it. I don't think we even have a silver medal.

 

Edit: Extra rounds after too exciting last two minutes. Norway score the equalizer with only three seconds left on the clock.

 

Edit 2: After a narrow defeat it looks like it will be 0 gold, 0 silver, and 3 or 4 bronze depending on the bronze final.

Edited August 19, 2016 by Tales

[killthenet]

She definitely can! Bianca Walkden (Heavyweight women) is the current world and European champion. Lutalo Mohammed (middleweight mens) is London's Bronze medallist - and a rival of mine (a guy I fought) Mahama Cho, has excellent skill and medals in a lot of open but often loses in the Euros and Worlds... But still one to watch.

 

All on tomorrow.

 

Jade Jones was so aggressive, it looked like it was going to be close after the second round but she absolutely dominated the third. You could see how focused she was on winning gold all day though so I was never really worried for her.

 

I was absolutely gutted for Adam Gemili though, to miss out on a medal by thousands of a second is really cruel. His reaction afterwards shows how far he has come though, last year he probably would have been happy with 4th but now he knows he can do better, so hopefully this drives him on to go further. He couldn't have lost out on a medal to a better guy though, Christophe Lemaitre has had a rough couple of years so I'm really happy for him coming through to take a medal.

 

It was great to see Usain take another gold medal but it was kind of a bittersweet moment as it's the last time he will ever run 200m at a major championship. Athletics and sport in general is really going to miss him when he retires, the greatest sprinter of all time but a really nice guy to boot.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

Struggling to defeat Russia in the semis in the women's handball. Losing this and Norway will end the Olympics with zero gold no doubt about it. I don't think we even have a silver medal.

 

Edit: Extra rounds after too exciting last two minutes. Norway score the equalizer with only three seconds left on the clock.

 

Edit 2: After a narrow defeat it looks like it will be 0 gold, 0 silver, and 3 or 4 bronze depending on the bronze final.

 

I think Norway needs to pump some funds into their sports, for such a wealthy nation, they can do better.

 

The head coach of Norway's Taekwondo team was my university coach (Dr Dave Cook) and his told me of the lack of funding and the facilities they train in in Hasle is like a quarter of the size of Team GBs.

 

Watch out for the Norwegian fighter and her great bald headed northern coach.

[bob]

Has anyone called Silva won a silver medal yet?

 

It's quite a common Brazilian name...

[killthenet]

Who knew show jumping could be so exciting? GB are in real danger of beating their gold medal tally from London, and look on course to get more medals in total than four years ago.

 

Your friend Lutalo looked really good in the first round King V, do you think he can get the gold tonight?

[punio75]

Loved the hockey - GB win penalty shootout shocker!

[killthenet]

We've really seen all sides of sport today, GB winning the hockey gold on penalties was incredible, but Lutalou Muhammad losing the taekwondo final in the last second was heartbreaking - the post fight interview with him is horrible to watch, he was distraught. Fair play to him getting it together again for the medal ceremony though, that must have been so tough.

 

I'm elated for the GB Womens 4x100m team taking silver though, alongside the hockey gold it's one of my highlights of the games, they're a young team and winning a medal means so much to them.

 

Bolt looked on top form on the last leg of the men's relay, powered to his 9th Olympic gold, but the Japanese team have to be applauded for taking a shock silver, great performance from them.

 

There's been a raft of weird disqualifications in the relays tonight though, USA have just been DQ'd from the mens 4x100m final after winning bronze and Trinidad & Tobago were DQ'd from the 4x400m. GB Men were DQ'd from their 4x400m semi final despite winning it, none of the changeovers look contentious at all so GB's appeal will hopefully be successful and they are reinstated to the final. We looked like we had a good chance of a bronze in that too.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

We've really seen all sides of sport today, GB winning the hockey gold on penalties was incredible, but Lutalou Muhammad losing the taekwondo final in the last second was heartbreaking - the post fight interview with him is horrible to watch, he was distraught. Fair play to him getting it together again for the medal ceremony though, that must have been so tough.

 

I'm elated for the GB Womens 4x100m team taking silver though, alongside the hockey gold it's one of my highlights of the games, they're a young team and winning a medal means so much to them.

 

Bolt looked on top form on the last leg of the men's relay, powered to his 9th Olympic gold, but the Japanese team have to be applauded for taking a shock silver, great performance from them.

 

There's been a raft of weird disqualifications in the relays tonight though, USA have just been DQ'd from the mens 4x100m final after winning bronze and Trinidad & Tobago were DQ'd from the 4x400m. GB Men were DQ'd from their 4x400m semi final despite winning it, none of the changeovers look contentious at all so GB's appeal will hopefully be successful and they are reinstated to the final. We looked like we had a good chance of a bronze in that too.

 

Man, that interviewer with Lutalo was gut wrenching...:( He was 2 points ahead and could have went out of the mats for a half point deduction in that last second... So sorry for him.

[Eddage]

Has anyone called Silva won a silver medal yet?

 

It's quite a common Brazilian name...

 

Just happened in the Canoe sprint.

[bob]

My life is complete.

[killthenet]

Mo Farah is the greatest British athlete of all time, it's been such a pleasure as an athletics fan watching him over the years - growing from being a hot prospect for the future, to his disappointing display in Beijing 2008, to his rise to World and Olympic champion to now absolutely dominating the sport. Since 2012 he has won every World & Olympic championship 5000 & 10,000m. He is up there with Usain Bolt as one of the greatest stars in the history of athletics, athletics is going to be so strange without them. I think Mo will probably be around in the marathon for a couple of years to come and I'm sure he'll want to defend his world titles in London next year, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was his last major championships on the track.

 

Also, I hope the media pay due tribute to Christine Ohuruogu who looks to be retiring. She just anchored the GB 4x400m team to bronze and has been a fantastic part of the British athletics team for over a decade now, having won 400m gold at the 2008 Olympics and the 2007 & 2013 World Championships. She'll never be as well known or highly regarded as some of our other athletes but she has been such a consistent performer over such a long period and a positive influence on the whole of the GB squad.

Edited August 21, 2016 by killthenet

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

As for British Taekwondo: 3/4 medals is a brilliant result!

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

I got a pseudo-scientific, 'racist' theory with regards to the dominance of Black people on the track.

 

I've been speculating that perhaps gravity is denser even by just a little bit around the equator, making people who have always originated from these areas have a denser skeleton with a greater potential in skeletal muscle. Of course, this theory can easily be debunked but being an avid DBZ fan, enhanced gravity is a sure way to get strong real quick.

[Jonnas]

Well, all Portugal got was that Bronze at Judo. I'm happy for Telma Monteiro, and hope she can do even better in Tokyo. Our other Judokas felt a bit green, but they did alright.

 

As for the others... The Triple Jump girls did good, surpassing their own personal records (but still only achieving 6th and 9th place), the Triple Jump bloke was recovering from an injury, so even though he reached his best result this year, it's still not quite his full potential (still, 7th is pretty decent). The marathonists were weirdly unprepared for their race, though.

 

Our Kayak&Canoeing team made a few costly mistakes, many of which can be attributed to lack of funding and/or management (particularly worrisome, since this was the one who got most attention). Top 5 results, but never the podium.

 

Marco Freitas did well in Single's Table Tennis (5th place), but the others fell apart early on (looked like they all had the yips). Our football team ran into Germany in the Quarterfinals and the dream stopped there (still, I suppose it was worth it, seeing Brazil defeat Germany in the finals).

 

Finally, our one Taekwondoka made it to the Quarterfinals where he lost a close match. Respectable, considering the non-existent funding.

 

Despite the disappointment, many of our athletes did their genuine best, and there's always hope for the future (since so many are still young). I'm looking forward to Tokyo.

 

Ah yes, funding :/ Funding is probably why we have a lack of Greek representation in the games (or from what I can see), given their economy.

 

It's not just current economy or GDP. Economic woes/highs may explain why certain countries' performances vary from year to year (such as Greece's), but when the results are consistent, it's due to ingrained social and cultural mentalities at work.

 

It's the sort of thing that explains why Hungary did better than Brazil (Hungary has a history of putting great effort into Olympic performance), why India sends fewer athletes than Spain (if only India was into something besides Cricket), and why EU countries like Austria, Finland and Portugal only got one bronze each (though the former two do bring something to the Winter Olympics). And also why Norway always does well at the same sport, in the same gender.