2020 Olympics: Non- Gymnastics Discussion

[rlayt]

Olympic athletes practice that too? Lap swimmers who are lazy like me lose track or use a lap counter. SC SPORTCOUNT LapCounter and Timer - Waterproof Lap Counter Timer for Swimming, Biking, Running Triathletes - Accurately Tracks Laps and Times to Help You Stay Focused https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SSK39JI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_GJKEXB4RYDJ6DN88T105

 

[falcon9]

Rowdy Gaines rocks! Be sure to click through to watch the video…

 

[cats]

I enjoy the diving commentator lady. I’m sure the diving peeps hate her for some reason, but I always appreciate that she points out mistakes.

 

[Caligym]

She is also unbelievably accurate at predicting and describing the scoring. “That dive won’t quite get the 8’s of the previous dive due to it being slightly past vertical”…7.5’s across the board. Compared to what we get in gymnastics”that routine was perfect, I only saw one small wobble and small step on landing!”……7.9 E score.

 

[cats]

I suppose there’s probably some credit due to the diving rules that make that possible, too. But there’s no question she knows what she’s talking about. I also appreciated her obvious appreciation for great diving and for the two athletes tonight who were retiring after long careers, which she expressed without getting stupidly overwrought.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

The women’s park final of skateboarding was so dramatic and intense.

 

[anon65539698]

Besides gymnastics, I enjoy watching diving, synchronized diving, and skateboarding.

Totally agree that they should allow women’s beach volleyball to wear shorts or something other than the bikini bottoms that look like they could easily fall off when they dive for a ball. They must have to use a special adhesive to keep them on. Also, I’m fine with allowing unitards for gymnastics; it’s not hurting anybody. They don’t need to look like grandma panties, but some leotards are just too high cut. Past TV gymnastics used to have the obligatory pull-the-leotard-down after every routine.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

I thought they do. It’s just many of the women’s beach volleyball players choose to wear bikinis. I know during the cooler, rainier games in Rio, some of them wore leggings.

 

[makam]

Women’s beach volleyball players can wear anything from board shorts and tanks to leggings and long sleeves to bikinis. They just like the bikinis because it is hot and there isn’t much place for sand to get trapped with that little fabric. Now, I think the rule also is that they have to match and I don’t see why that should be, as long as they are in the same team color. Same for gymnasts, even if they are on a team, I want the players/gymnasts to be able to make their own choices about what they want to wear, not be pressured by what the others want.

 

[RedBirdie]

I believe the diving commentator is Cynthia Potter. Very knowledgeable and insightful, respectful to the athletes as well as the audience’s intelligence.

 

[rlayt]

I love Cynthia potter. She’s been doing it for a long time.

 

[irichluck21]

I enjoy the diving commentator lady. I’m sure the diving peeps hate her for some reason, but I always appreciate that she points out mistakes.

Cynthia Potter.

Well loved, well respected, well knowledgable.
Also, never won Olympic gold but took a bronze demonstrating that you don’t have to be an Olympic gold medalist to be able to comment, and comment well.
She is super fair and generally unbiased.

 

[JDB]

Take a moment to appreciate the 21st anniversary of women’s weightlifting in the Olympics.

 

[Indy]

The park skateboarding was fun to watch! Those young women are super impressive.

 

[MaryClare]

How do you all feel about the young skateboarders? The media are reporting on it very positively, asking people what they were doing at 13 etc. However I can’t help but feel that there is a country/culture/sport bias here. 12 year old skateboarders from Britain and Japan competing in elite level Olympic sport with a very high injury rate is fine, but how would they feel about a 12 year old Chinese gymnast competing? Quite different I imagine, but is it?

 

[Indy]

I’m sort of torn between the “if they’re the best in the world, let them do it” argument that gets used in support of doing away with the age requirements in gymnastics and “damn that’s really too young!”

It might be that skateboarding just seems more like a recreational activity than elite gymnastics does so its less alarming to have a pre-teen competing at the Olympics because one can assume she still lives at home, goes to school etc instead of a Chinese gymnast who was plucked from her home and sent to a training center at the age of 5. There aren’t skateboarders being swooped out of kindergarten playgrounds. I know I’m stereotyping heavily in both camps here, just trying to sort out why I wasn’t concerned at seeing Sky Brown compete but might have been if it was a gymnast.

What is the age minimum for swimming and diving? I feel like you often see some very young teens in those divisions but I don’t follow those sports closely to know if there’s any outrage over their competing on the worlds stage.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

I believe that diving is 14 and swimming doesn’t have one.

Sky seems happy and well-adjusted, so I’m not too concerned. She chose GB over Japan because GB would put less pressure on her as far as results go.

 

[MaryClare]

I really don’t think that top level skateboarding is a recreational activity. These kids are all home schooled and have a social media following in the millions, sponsorship deals. If anything they have a far more pressurised environment than 12 year old elite gymnasts typically do

 

[Indy]

That’s a good point. Social media and sponsors definitely change the pressure level, especially on a young girl. Your 12 year old elite gymnast doesn’t have sponsors and probably has very little social media following on average compared with your top level skateboarders (I just looked - Sky Brown has 1.1M Instagram followers - that’s a lot of pressure!).

But as someone whose only exposure to the sport has been these Olympics (and I’m not watching the main NBC feeds with the fluff pieces) it’s easier to look at it as a huge accomplishment for a young athlete rather than something stressful and high pressured. My first instinct is more of a “good for her, she’s amazing!!” rather than a “how cruel! she’s being abused and has no childhood!!” which isn’t necessarily accurate.

 

[makam]

Well, skateboarding seems to have a chance to get in on the ground floor (or close to it) and set up rules and processes to minimize the chances of abuse…but they probably won’t because that’s sadly human nature.