2020 Olympics: Non- Gymnastics Discussion

[JDB]

Gable Steveson got nice amplitude on that back layout.

 

[irichluck21]

I gave it a 6.733 in execution but nothing deducted for amplitude.

 

[arabiandoublefront]

USA’s Molly Seidel just won the bronze in the women’s marathon. Super exciting.

 

[ucrgirl]

Molly’s the runner who ran her first ever marathon at theUS Olympic trials last February to make the team. Wow

 

[makam]

Seidel is definitely a person who won a bronze. All the fools online who are like “anyone but a gold medalists is a loser” are so very, very wrong.

Simone Manuel posted on twitter (https://sports.yahoo.com/olympocs-s...ter-disappointing-performances-121533689.html) that she’d like to stop reporters from interviewing athletes who “lost” their event/race and I gotta say, I agree with her. I’ve hated Andrea since she tried (I mean, literally tried) to make the US Women cry after getting silver in Beijing. Interviewing a gasping swimmer who just missed out on making the final or the podium–like, what do the reporters think the person is going to say? What super insightful commentary on their performance that ended 2 minutes ago do they think we’ll get? “Oh, I didn’t win because I was thinking about the cheeseburger I had when I was in fifth grade”? Same with the track and field athletes. Maybe interview them a day or two later when they’ve had time to process and analyze (if that is what they do) but they don’t owe us an immediate explanation of what went wrong (especially since often nothing goes wrong, other people are just better).

 

[ucrgirl]

Maybe interview them a day or two later when they’ve had time to process and analyze (if that is what they do) but they don’t owe us an immediate explanation of what went wrong (especially since often nothing goes wrong, other people are just better).

Yes. I’m glad that Simone is famous enough and that when she knows the answers to “what happened/went wrong?” Reporters will line up. Honda was asking her to reflect (not in the rude Andrea Joyce way) right after her bronze and I thought, “she probably doesn’t really know yet.” But I’ll probably read the book that comes out of this experience because the struggle can shape you more than the triumph.

It is stupid to only care about gold medals and winning. (I’ve seen some of those articles about the “true” medal count.)

 

[JDB]

I’m so glad this ended up being the gold medal match.

 

[rlayt]

Lol! https://twitter.com/BrownieScott/status/1421661543305936901?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1421661543305936901|twgr^|twcon^s1_c10&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Finstant-articles%2F

 

[Sparklesmom]

I literally said the same exact thing to my husband the other day. I get nauseated watching this sport because I just see how it is a disaster in the making. I mean, has no one learned ANYTHING since the train wreck of gymnastics? ARGH! different sport, same train wreck.

 

[MaryClare]

If anything, it has the potential to be even worse than gymnastics as it seems to shun professionalism and adult supervision to “preserve the spirit of the sport”

 

[dweiss324]

I’m sorry, I’ve seen a lot of weird closing ceremonies in my time, but this is some weird ass shit. Tree lady? Clair de lune played on a synthesizer with peasant folk looking up like they saw ET??? Wtf

 

[makam]

Yeah, I get that pageantry is part of it, but it was kind of boring and weird overall. And still didn’t really seem to give the flavor of Japan.

 

[irichluck21]

After watching that poor horse get pummeled by the penthathlete from Germany and then reading more about just how many horses end up euthanized at the Olympics due to injury in both the modern pentahlon and equestrian, I hope that both of these events are eliminated in the future.

https://www.9news.com/article/sports/olympics/olympic-horse-euthanized-injury/507-3cc4fe3f-7655-417c-a7ec-215a6d8f516d#:~:text=TOKYO%2C%20Japan%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Swiss%20Olympic,of%20the%20cross%2Dcountry%20course

Opinion article: https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-animal-cruelty-on-display-at-the-olympics/a-58790373

 

[Hatsumomo]

Agreed. The Olympics are about the human effort in sport. If your sport necessitates an animal to do all the physicality required, it has no place in the Olympics. Then what was pointed out, that the animals get injured and euthanized or abused because they’re not obeying. Not to mention that equestrian events still basically are a hobby for the rich. Even gymnastics, an expensive sport, has opened up to more rungs of the socioeconomic ladder.

 

[MaryClare]

My husband and I breed thoroughbreds and he has ridden at a high level in eventing. It’s an incredibly physically demanding sport. The horse isn’t doing all the work at all. Yes, there are arguments about the accessibility of equestrian sports, but it’s no worse than just about every sport at the Winter Olympics and it takes just as much training and talent to reach the top as any other sport.

Horses, especially thoroughbred and sport horses that are typically used for these disciplines are incredibly fragile. We sadly lose several every year to fatal injuries when they are just in their paddock. Horses cannot rehab serious leg injuries. They have to weight bear on all 4 legs or you are submitting them to a slow and cruel death.

Modern Pentathlon has a terrible reputation amongst the equine sports community as even the top participants are incredibly poor riders. No way would I ever allow a pentathlete on to one of my horses.

 

[JDB]

The lack of skill among Olympic modern pentathletes really shows. I can’t imagine what it’s like at a lower level.

 

[makam]

Modern Pentathalon made slightly more sense back in the early 1900s because the people rich enough to be participating in the Olympics likely also rode horses either exclusively or as a rich-person hobby (ETA: or for the military). Same with shooting part–wealthy elites hunted for sport. Honestly, the swimming and running part was probably hardest for those old timey people who would take genteel promenades in the park to see and be seen. Now, with barely anyone but well, rich people and people who love horses enough to sacrifice a whole lot to ride them, the sport becomes cruel to the animal. I liked the horse dancing and the jumping and the diversity in team makeup (both gender and ages) but can see the argument for bouncing them from the Olympics (but hot take: I’m almost guaranteed to like equestrian more than breaking (because break dancing is too old school I guess)).

(that said, the video I saw of the coach punching the horse didn’t look like anything the horse would have noticed and the dressage riders did harder neck slaps when congratulating the horse after a run. At least that is how it looked to my uneducated eyes and maybe what I saw was something else since it was just a twitter video clip)

 

[MaryClare]

For the large part of pentathlon’s Olympic history, the participants have not been wealthy but from a military background. In the UK certainly, pentathlon clubs often still have a military link and are more prevalent near military towns. Internationally, I’d say the biggest group it attracts are high level swimmers who weren’t quite good enough. So again, not the traditional participant base of the equine sports, which tend to be quite well off. Pentathlon doesn’t come under FEI jurisdiction and is not considered an equine sport

 

[MLSWAG]

I actually like the combination of events in MP, and thast you can’t be perfect in everything, but you need to be pretty good in all of them. But it’s disturbing how that has played out regarding horses. I didn’t pay attention to the horses. I do like watching running, but even that was kind of annoying because it’s now combined with the shooting (which is laser nowadays).

 

[Doug1233]

Athletics. Tennis. Track. Gymnastics. Diving.

The other sports are dead to me. Couldn’t care less about Cycling. Swimming at a stretch if I’m super bored.