Paris Summer Olympics 2024

water polo is so vicious

how does any match not end with at least one murder

I am amused/unsurprised at the contrast between the women's skateboarders as being a bunch of generally quiet friendly assassins and the men's crew being introduced all "YAAAAARGH BRO."

water polo is so vicious

Flashback moment but in 1992 when NBC first did the 'we can do more, can't we' approach and did the triple cast, as my dad wanted to catch all the track and field, word got out through my sis to her high school classmates -- they'd all just graduated but were hanging out over summer as per usual -- and all the water polo guys were like "CAN WE WATCH THE WATER POLO?" (Keep in mind football was absolutely secondary at my high school -- water polo was the sport.) So I heard stories about all the water polo team all crowded into the den watching every match they could and generally agreeing that the teams were essentially committing unarmed assault beneath the waterline.

i get so tired watching water polo. i can't believe that people can swim that much and not die.

how many miles do they swim in one game?

Swim and fight. Those ppl are for real

Someone on TT's mom didn't realize they tread water the whole time, she thought they were standing in the "shallow end" just hitting a ball around lol

I have a friend who does competitive horse stuff and she loves and pampers her horses.

rifles that look completely unlike rifles.

I love this - the rifles look like props from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century".

italian sportscaster claiming press-room coffee is so undrinkable it seems to be made with water from the seine#OlympicGames #Paris2024 #ItaliaTeam pic.twitter.com/Ti4pr1vzR1

— italians mad at food (@ItalianComments) July 29, 2024

how many miles do they swim in one game?

I wonder if they go off to the edge of the pool to barf up a gallon of water every now and then.
(in before "they just barf it back into the pool")

v. good usa-china women’s volleyball match; china won in five sets, usa might need to beat serbia to get out of the group

i have no idea what is or isn’t a foul in handball

That team gymnastics was quite something

sometimes i watch all these insane athletes and wonder who we should send to Mars to become some new race of superhumans. i'm thinking: swimmers, basketball players, and beach volleyball players. that's just off the top of my head.

i'm remembering those kim stanley robinson mars books where all the kids ended up being super-lunged and extra-tall and also really fast.

wow, those australians! in the 200 freestyle. yikes! they are both definitely going to Mars.

crikey, that titmus gave those other sheilas a, uh, ripsnorter.

man, just saw france kick ass in women's beach volleyball and now in women's rugby.

just seeing a lot of excitement and ferocity in general during these games and they just started!

okay, watching australia-ireland in women's rugby sevens. who should i root for? my irish roots say ireland but koala bears!!!

Oof, its a bung on a blue for these sheilas. Sorry, Ireland. Tá brón orm.

Insane photo (Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina)

https://cdn.xcancel.com/pic/orig/media%2FGTrfwigXYAAmb4s.jpg

i can't believe these waves!

whoever wins surfing is best surfer. holy cow.

both women’s and men’s mountain bike races were awesome

also pidcock getting booed by the French crowd after he dangerously passed the leading french rider with 500 meters to go was a great heel turn

okay what replay should we watch tonight?

Gotta vote surfing, it's been pretty great. (Skip ahead to the third and fourth heats for a good contrast -- the third ends up being about patience, managing the clock and mind games, the fourth about fucking going for it as often as feasible, in both cases with increasingly wilder waves.)

It was cool watching Milo Auckerman on the pommel horse

I wanna do single leg swings
I wanna do double scissors

Caught the final archery competitions and shit, South Korea had my jaw dropping. The gold-medal winners (and apparently #1 ranked team going in), it was like Robin Hood shit going on with multiple bull's eye shots. (Not sure if this would happen with these arrows, but it looked like a fraction of a centimeter is all it would've took to split a previous bull's eye.) Going by the stats, France really upped their game, possibly feeding off their hometown crowd, but they were still edged out.

Yeah the women’s team match yesterday was nervy and down to the wire, while the men’s was more commanding, but in both cases Korea did the business.

Will also add for today’s surfing that the sixth heat is a battle royale out of the gate. (Still have nine minutes to go on my replay watch of it.)

just gonna drop this opinion here for whatever reason, and I’m sure it’s not original: the fact that there’s different events for each swimming stroke, and each distance, is stupid. decide what the “olympic” stroke and distance are and have one race

not that I would expect many people itt to be aware of this but last week ESPN had a countdown of the best athletes of the past 25 years and phelps was #1, mostly because has the most gold medals ever by swimming different ways different distances and beating the same guys in every race

Watched a bit of it for the first time yesterday and I love the contrast in levels of professionalism in different sports. With boxing I think its only have amateurs in it. Struck me how shattered they looked after three rounds whereas there was not a hint of stress in the breath of O'Callaghan as she came out of the pool after breaking a record.

Obv its a ridiculous comparison but I couldn't shift it.

ESPN had a countdown of the best athletes of the past 25 years and phelps was #1, mostly because

he is American

lol

not that I would expect many people itt to be aware of this but last week ESPN had a countdown of the best athletes of the past 25 years and phelps was #1, mostly because has the most gold medals ever by swimming different ways different distances and beating the same guys in every race

― brony james (k3vin k.), Tuesday, July 30, 2024 1:16 AM (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

counterpoint: give basketball teams multiple medals for scoring the most points in different ways, france could finally get gold for screen assists

I have no problems with different styles or distances in swimming cause each one uses a different skillset (athletes like Phelps and Marchand who enter multiple events are outliers rather than the norm, so no they were not always going up against the same guys every time). but I do find the longer distance races kinda boring. Like anything after 400m is just zzz

I’m always rooting against Americans in any Olympics (sorry, not really) and I have no love for Phelps but he really was an incredible athlete. Remember that every swim event has heats, semis and finals… the fact that he could not just compete in but dominate as many events as he did without tiring himself out is unreal.

Love having this on while I work; annoyed by fragmentary BBC coverage of no-GB-interest stuff. Cracked, subscribed to Discovery plus for a month (£3.99). At last, non-stop boxing.

obviously there should be track events with ‘strokes’, like 200m running backwards and 400m skipping

I mean the hurdles is kind of this

And I love them, so I guess I'm with you, mookieproof

Triple jump has never quite sat right with me.

Racewalking would like a word.

…

Seth Rider, one of 55 triathletes entered in the men's race, has been taking unconventional measures to prepare for exposure to bacteria.
"We know that there's going to be some E. coli exposure, so I just try to increase my E. coli threshold by exposing myself to a bit of E. coli in your day-to-day life," the U.S. athlete said in a press conference on Saturday.
"Just little things throughout your day, like, not washing your hands after you go to the bathroom and stuff like this."

from: https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/triathlon-mens-race-postponed-wednesday-due-seine-pollution-levels-2024-07-30/

the american broadcasts of some of the more niche events only have one announcer, and most of them are bad at it. no partner to laugh at their quips, no crowds to cheer when they get excited. . . it’s so awkward

xp
was imagining cycling-onset dysentery this morning, good to know we won't be seeing a trail of poo from at least one competitor

Triple jump has never quite sat right with me.

no congratulatory handshakes either

xposr

Holy CRAP, the US women's rugby sevens team winning bronze at the VERY last moment, a hell of a thing to see. Watch that replay when you can!