Olympics Thread

[UConn James]

They had the softball gold medal game like three days into the Olympics? That seems extremely brief. No round robin play, I’m assuming? Or is it that there just aren’t many countries fielding teams?

US fell to Japan. US starting pitcher was emotional after but said they were proud to have come that far and competed.

[NobesBLO13]

24 minutes ago, UConn James said:

They had the softball gold medal game like three days into the Olympics? That seems extremely brief. No round robin play, I’m assuming? Or is it that there just aren’t many countries fielding teams?

US fell to Japan. US starting pitcher was emotional after but said they were proud to have come that far and competed.

I also thought it was pretty tacky they couldn’t get their own softball sized diamond. They just retrofitted a regulation men’s baseball diamond. It looked embarrassing for an Olympic event.

With the millions the Olympics take in they couldn’t get a diamond that fit their sport? And besides no fans in the stands so it’s not as if they needed stadium seating. Lame.

[Rico]

1 hour ago, That's No Moon said:

Also, FWIW, some people made a silly amount of money on the US team not winning gold in team gymnastics.  USA was -650 to win on the money line

US women’s soccer team is only -125. 

[realtruelove]

Did her pulling out affect the USA Team score one way or another?

[Buffalo Barbarian]

9 hours ago, Canadian Bills Fan said:

 

Well that sounds kinda selfish 

 

Said she wasn't mentally there, which may be true but you find a way to get it done. Also not buying here excuses that she was hurting the team by continuing, they needed her, she bailed. If she was feeling this bad they should have found somebody else to go in her place.

 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, UConn James said:

🔥

 

It’s pretty sad to see this rash of top-form athletes dropping out of competitions due to mental health issues. Osaka in tennis, now Biles? I try to have compassion for this kind of stuff, given the givens of my own stuff, but wow. That is a very lame excuse — that she wanted this Olympics to be about doing it for herself and it became about doing it for other people? What even is that?!?!! Everyone who competes in the games will tell you they do it to represent their country. And it can be a lot of pressure, for sure, but she went through the Trials just a few weeks ago. You gotta cowboy the f up and if she wasn’t feeling it, give the space to someone who’ll use it.
 

This is a SERIOUS stain on her legacy. Best ever? Nope. She folded.

 

This is a generation of fragility, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better.

 

Amen brother, just weak, everyone has ptsd now.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2021 by Buffalo Barbarian

[That's No Moon]

1 hour ago, NobesBLO13 said:

I also thought it was pretty tacky they couldn’t get their own softball sized diamond. They just retrofitted a regulation men’s baseball diamond. It looked embarrassing for an Olympic event.

With the millions the Olympics take in they couldn’t get a diamond that fit their sport? And besides no fans in the stands so it’s not as if they needed stadium seating. Lame.

It was part of the deal that baseball and softball made to get back into the games because they had been eliminated. No new venues for either.

[UConn James]

3 hours ago, Simon said:

 

I agree with everything you're saying but I think Osaka is a bad comparison. She was always ready for competition but she's just a quiet introvert who didn't want to be harangued by a bunch of knuckleheads after every time she played. She just wanted to kick asses and then go her own way; I can respect that.

This might sound stupid but the first comparison that popped in my head when Biles quit was Thurman Thomas bailing on his team in the middle of a Super Bowl because he didn't like how things were going.

Granted, it’s not apples to apples. But there is an air that Osaka is blaming her poor performances on external factors. I’m a serious introvert as well, but those are the rules. The networks pay big money to these events, they expect to get to ask questions especially of the major stars.

 

Handling interviews can be tough amid hyper-criticism. You can be introverted and still stick up for yourself without walking away. Her media person needed / needs to be more forceful in demands of reporters. And she herself should just be like ‘I’m not answering that question’ or ‘Ask me about the tennis’ or ‘I don’t accept the premise of your question.’ etc.

 

I don’t see where they have the expectation to live inside a bubble.

 

There was a South African women’s swimmer last night in the waiting area for the 200 heats last night and she was visibly shaking and nervy. Took a drink of water and the bottle was jostling. ALL of these athletes are under enormous pressure and if you aren’t nervous then something’s not right.

 

If it was an ongoing anxiety issue last night or a panic attack, then say that… and I’d be shocked if this was a first time and they don’t have a treatment plan? But she really needs to not conflate a serious mental health issue with some existential [paraphrasing] ‘Who am I even doing this for?’ crap. The time to figure that out was the last five years… and CERTAINLY before US team qualifying last month. There are also musings out there that she did this because the judges aren’t giving her credit e.g. she has a higher threshold to earn the same points because she’s Simone Biles. And, yes, that can get in your head and make you angry, but that’s on you… and she just chose to quit.

Edited July 27, 2021 by UConn James

[DrW]

I can understand Osaka's case. However, Biles is different. According to NBC Sports,

 

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/tokyo-olympics/all-about-simone-biles-olympic-gymnastics-goat

 

Biles had a goat (as symbol of GOAT) embroidered on her leotard. If this is true, this is hubris taken to the extreme, and all the pressure of which she claims to be the victim is self-inflicted.

Edited July 27, 2021 by DrW

[RaoulDuke79]

Quite frankly I think these last 2 years has messed with everyone's head a bit.

[NobesBLO13]

1 hour ago, That's No Moon said:

It was part of the deal that baseball and softball made to get back into the games because they had been eliminated. No new venues for either.

Thanks for the info. Better than nothing I guess.

[The Avenger]

4 hours ago, Mark Vader said:

Watching the kid from Alaska win the women's 100M breaststroke was awesome.

To see teenage boys go absolutely crazy over women's swimming was awesome

[Rico]

29 minutes ago, DrW said:

I can understand Osaka's case. However, Biles is different. According to NBC Sports,

 

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/tokyo-olympics/all-about-simone-biles-olympic-gymnastics-goat

 

Biles had a goat (as symbol of GOAT) embroidered on her leotard. If this is true, this is hubris taken to the extreme, and all the pressure of which she claims to be the victim is self-inflicted.

Maybe she just likes goats. It’s possible.

[That's No Moon]

1 minute ago, NobesBLO13 said:

Thanks for the info. Better than nothing I guess.

The pictures of abandoned softball venues from previous Olympics haven't been a good look.  Granted, they play in Japan, but it's not a widely played sport in the grand scheme

Just now, Rico said:

Maybe she just likes goats. It’s possible.

well, until very recently that wasn't the meaning of goat in sports. Maybe she's reclaiming the word.

[LeGOATski]

35 minutes ago, DrW said:

I can understand Osaka's case. However, Biles is different. According to NBC Sports,

 

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/tokyo-olympics/all-about-simone-biles-olympic-gymnastics-goat

 

Biles had a goat (as symbol of GOAT) embroidered on her leotard. If this is true, this is hubris taken to the extreme, and all the pressure of which she claims to be the victim is self-inflicted.

Multiple goat leotards, apparently...

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9697675/Olympic-gymnast-Simone-Biles-added-bedazzled-goats-leotards-hit-haters.html

[Hapless Bills Fan]

5 hours ago, realtruelove said:

Did her pulling out affect the USA Team score one way or another?

 

Huge effect.  Biles has the most difficult routines and normally executes at a very high level.

 

Also, Team competition is normally 4 up, 3 count - so it made it 3 up, 3 count.  One of the other girls had a step out and then a bad fall on floor and they had to count her.

On 7/26/2021 at 6:06 PM, BringBackFergy said:

Is anyone else as apathetic about Summer Olympics as me? Just too much going on in life. Used to love Summer Olympics. Now a big fan of Winter Olympics (when stuck inside during Feb). 

 

I’ve been enjoying Tony Hawk commenting on the skateboarding.  He’s great.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

15 hours ago, sherpa said:

Biles out of team competition.

 

8 hours ago, Simon said:

Blaming your inability to handle competitive pressure on "mental health" is weak and an insult to those who are actually dealing with real mental health issues.

 

7 hours ago, Simon said:

This might sound stupid but the first comparison that popped in my head when Biles quit was Thurman Thomas bailing on his team in the middle of a Super Bowl because he didn't like how things were going.

 

I don’t have any good insights into the difference between “mental issues” and “inability to handle competitive pressure”,  but after listening to the commentary, when Biles did her first vault the expert was aghast.  She said that Biles had (I forget the gymnast term she used), which she explained meant that she had lost track of where she was in the air.  She singled what should have been a double and looked like she almost wrecked her ankles on the landing.

 

Given all the problems she had on the qualifying day (she not only stepped out of bounds, she stepped off the actual floor routine platform), the best analogy I have is to someone suddenly developing the “Yips”

 

If that’s the case, for safety she pretty well has to withdraw.  Given her power and difficulty, she could easily break a limb or her neck if she can’t track where she is in the air.

 

But I feel horrid for the girl who didn’t make the team event yet attended the Olympics as an individual competitor, Jade Carey

And I really have mixed feelings about Biles competing as an individual when she withdrew from the team competition.

[Bad Things]

Boy, it's so easy to criticize without doing a damn thing to back it up.

[Blokestradamus]

12 hours ago, Buffalo Barbarian said:

Amen brother, just weak, everyone has ptsd now.

 

She's been the victim of sexual abuse for years at the hands of the people that she's still representing. The mental toll that kind of abuse takes has led to so many people taking their own lives.

 

Simone has dealt with the public nature of the Nassar case fantastically, as have the other women that suffered abuse at his hand. She's also won events with broken toes in both feet. She is many things, weak is not one of them.

[unbillievable]

Fans would have probably helped Biles. We're finding out that she's more Trent Edwards than Tom Brady.

 

 

[Gugny]

https://www.11alive.com/article/sports/olympics/kerri-strugs-iconic-1996-olympic-moment-in-new-light-after-simone-biles-exit/85-5993cd43-c1ca-48cf-b726-57c4c6c70881

 

Pretty great reality check for those of us who remember Kerri Strug's 1996 performance in which she was reduced to using one leg and was still "encouraged," (forced) to go out and finish - which she did in agony.

 

I remember being in awe of it when it happened.  But ... to the author's point ... now that I'm a parent, I feel a lot differently.  A lot.

 

Biles said she made the announcement to protect her mind and body, rather than "just go out there and do what the world wants."

An Idaho father wrote a Facebook post commending Biles' decision to step down, saying the Olympic moment has made her an "even better example to our daughters."

 

"Our athletes shouldn't have to destroy themselves to meet our standards. If giving empathetic, authentic support to our Olympians means we'll earn less gold medals, I'm happy to make that trade," Byron Heath wrote in the post.

 

Heath said he once was excited watching Strug's famous one-leg vault, but on Tuesday he wasn't as inspired after re-watching the gymnastics champion along with his daughters as she landed her second vault and crumbled in tears and agony.