Paris Summer Olympics 2024

Stuart Attwell again?

Anyway fuck Argentina, racist cunts.

I was watching some of the US trials yesterday. Does anyone else find it weird how all US athletes seem to feel that if they do not win gold, then they have utterly failed and the whole thing was pointless?

it has always been presented as *THE GOAL* here. i always thought that just getting in the Olympics was massive for an athlete! i mean, how exciting is that for someone? but, yeah, the commentators, the cereal boxes, the whole "agony of defeat" thing here. its a bummer.

Spain-Japan soccer match. 1-1! Japan is doing well

I remember my dad mentioning once (coached track for years, has attended the national championships/Olympic trials as often as he can) that people think that not getting gold is a crushing blow but the ones who are really most disappointed are fourth-place finishers. And that makes sense!

Ilona Maher on the women's rugby Team USA has been killing it on socials for literal years (or possibly months, I can't remember when I started following her)! She's doing cute videos of life in the Olympic Village right now.

Loving Rugby Sevens, first time watching

I always imagined that just getting to the Olympics was something you carried with you your whole life, even if you're from a smaller country and never had a chance at sniffing the medal stand

Goddamnit now every time I mention any physical action and any form of furniture I start imagining JD Vance

that was some fierce rugby. sorry new zealand.

> Handball today. Kind of fun!

there's a young kid i see in the local park from time to time doing handball practice. just him, and a coach, no team ever, no matches. it's curious.

800,000 fans delayed after massive arson attacks near TGV train lines (nobody hurt except feelings) - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/07/26/france-s-high-speed-trains-struck-by-malicious-acts_6699471_7.html

Off to a great start

Opening ceremony in half an hour!

is it all going to be boats? seems wild

“Here is the team representing displaced people…”

Seems like a great time to wonder why they’re displaced

the parade is a lot earlier than, say, the uk one. and you don't get to see the costumes as much because they are all stuck on those boats

Not a bad way to do things, mix the Parade of Nations with the set pieces

all that pink! and parkour torchbearer! and ex-pimp snoop dogg!

Gaga bit was equally great and odd, almost like she was performing to no one

is this torchbearer Lupin?

is that steve reich as the soundtrack?

the can-can was a bit slow

I heard some Patrick Hernandez at one of the scenes. Was hoping really for Martin Circus or Les Rockets really! Someone said they heard Les Rita Mitsouko. Also heard an orchestral Il est cinq heures

i was waiting for les miz...

woah....

kind of enjoying how all over the place this is. the can-can dancers were completely unsynchronised, did they all just learn the choreography a few hours ago or what?

the modern/contemporary piece was much better, though

and now some METAL

Gojira!!

did not see that coming!

this is fucking rad

metal AF

hahah the blood spurting and the headless marie antoinette. republicans in the US are prob losing their minds

Okay seeing Gojira kick it in after a headless Marie Antoniette plus fire and more and hearing Kelly Clarkson go “WHAT!?” has made this entire thing worth it.

lol the NBC commenters are now speechless

jules et jim nod...

Not a bad way to do things, mix the Parade of Nations with the set pieces

this is dope

the band was low in the bbc mix, but we can hear the raindrops from somewhere

aya nakamura <3

I like all of this, it's different

Oh man, that poor piano.

Mike Tirico’s geopolitical commentary is just what we needed. (We did not need it.)

Why do I have a feeling NBC strongarmed the IOC into this Minions thing.

yes! it makes no sense

hold on the Minions aren't French guys?

I also don't get why the IOC doesn't make NBC play the full opening without breaks as a condition for the broadcast rights :(

also don't want to see the commentators.

les rita mitsouko again, Andy

People in plastic macs waving from boats in the drizzle, it's just like that jubilee, or was it the queen's birthday?

the us uniform is.. jeans?

this needs more robot horse.

i will probably watch more random paralympics than Olympics.

I scored “La Ritournelle” for these opening ceremonies. I said “you better get a ringer to play the Tony Allen part” and they did! Sounded great

!!!!

the opening parade tour has vastly different sizes of teams represented. Does that reflect who's taking part or who has arrived at that point. Some teams with a handful of members like.
I was wondering if all countries took part in all sports during the non-para events and just got eliminated from earlier heats. Seemed to be a lot of sports with no black faces.

a lot of athletes don't do the opening ceremony because they have events the next day

location of the nasal orifice of the rear rider during individual pursuit..
Is that the blind guy?

Tandem stoked human centipede, like.

Stoker

been catching bits of this between other programmes.

did wonder how the one-armed one-legged woman would do anything other than swim in circles. 2 minutes later she had a gold medal in a world record time...

> Is that the blind guy?

did you think they'd have 'the blind guy' steering?

quadraplegic boccia was interesting - set up a launch ramp, poke the ball down it with a stick attached to your head. if you can move something even an inch you can play.

Is UK stoker partially sighted? Looked like he was making spacial gestures to the audience. I've been watching visuals with sound running from non-connected podcasts etc. but pretty interesting stuff so far.

Did wonder how all leg vs all arms swimming would compete. Would have expected legs to be more powerful but think that all arms have won more frequently. Just seeing swimmers who seem to have no kick competing and doing pretty well. Not sure if I've really watched before.Also not sure what coverage there is of this stuff outside of Olympics, presumably are several competitions televised in the 4 year interim.

the invictus stuff (wounded soldiers) gets some coverage but i think that's probably it. maybe ch4 shows the big european meeting.

para and ex-para athletes increasingly common on things like strictly, game shows across ch4 and bbc these days too - kadeena was in dictionary corner last week for instance. it's going to be hard to avoid rosie jones on uk tv in the next couple of months... (new taskmaster, and i think two other shows)

one-legged cycling. i wonder if there's an advantage to have inner leg missing (better clearance on corners) or the outer leg missing (avoiding the cog and chain).

the below leg amputees have a standardish pedal clip on the ends on their prosthetics and screw themselves onto the bike.

the times are interesting as well, some of the clocks tick at different rates to compensate in mized category races.

A lot of you probably already know, but get in on wheelchair basketball. I've been watching it since 2012 and it fucking rules. Last night's game between Australia and the Netherlands was awesome, two teams with very different tactics, the whole thing too close to call until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter.

English cyclists very good when they can stay up.

(curious as to what i would do if i was getting solidly beaten by somebody who then feel over. would i feel good about winning in that situation?)

also like the way the one team just has "NPA" on their kit and on their flag, not even any colour, just black and white.

Atkinson tried a risky move in attempting to win the race early by catching up to Metelka, but Metelka was able to reduce Atkinson's lead. If Atkinson hadn't then overcooked it he would have won gold I think.

A lot of you probably already know, but get in on wheelchair basketball. I've been watching it since 2012 and it fucking rules.

I saw this thread refreshed and came in to say this same thing! (Except I've only been watching it since... two days ago)

Germany vs France very close at half time.

I guess it applies to all sports, but with the archery the tension and nerves on the athlete's faces is clear. Men's W1 Archery final just wrapped up and it came down to the last arrow from each archer.

do the people watching the air rifle not realise that the clapping is exactly the wrong thing to do?

RB women's wheelchair basketball team just got beaten by China. I was watching on the C4 YouTube livestream and there was a lot of interesting comments in the chat from members of the GB 2012 team.

RB = GB

lol at the 11 and 13 metre lines on the shot putt when the winner was throwing 15+. you had one job...

wheelchair rugby seems like they are taking it in turns to score and the winner is the one who stops about 2 of those attempts. (lol, presenter has just said as much in GBR v AUS)

cockcroft won by 10m in a 100m race.

Is there a goalie in wheelchair rugby.
Is that the standard game or are there 5aside and 11s.

it's not a lot like rugby other than in a 'stop the person with the ball getting into the area' way

a max of 3 defending chairs in the 'penalty area' at any time (which isn't enough to block the entire thing) so no goalie as such (in fact there's no goalie in normal rugby for similar reasons - it's pointless)

it's 4 or 5 a side, iirc. and each player gets assigned points according to ability and there's a limit to the total on the field at any time. mixed gender teams, interestingly.

They had to change the name from Murderball and Wheelchair Rugby was as close as they could get.

Bashball
Bastardball

Dan Pembroke breaking the world record for javelin and then breaking it again by over 3 metres on his next throw was a sight to behold.

The 2 blind ballgames I saw yesterday were a surprise. I think I had channel hopped past the one with the 3 people lying in front of the goal and one person spinning then hurling the ball in the direction of the goal without taking in what was involved in the game before.
Sat and watched it while listening to a podcast yesterday. Saw most balls being stopped by the goalies. Then Japan getting one in.
Oh yeah one thing, the referee continually checking they hadn't regained sight between bouts of having the ball hurled at them. Healing properties of being a bowling pin or something?
Momentary advantage of being able to see out of corner of a partially sighted eye that strong.

Also blind football.
Hadn't known that existed until I caught a few minutes of it yesterday.

some pole vaulter guy just beat a 400m world record holder in a 100m, for yet another reason why there are too many events

> past the one with the 3 people lying in front of the goal

goalball. i've yet to see anyone score in goalball. them throwing it into the floor looked suboptimal becuase it took all the force out of it but i guess it's either in the rules or to add some kind of bounce to get it over the goal keepers (who are invariably lying down)

the blind football semi went to penalties. which feels like more of a crapshoot than even normal penalties.

one of the cyclists is called Kevin le Cunff which often sounds like something else

get in on wheelchair basketball

The men's final last night between GB and the US was awesome. Early on it looked like the US would steadily stack up the points and pull away but GB pulled it back and it was down to the last couple of minutes.

The women's final is on right now and is somehow even closer between the Netherlands and the US.