Your Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics anticipation thread!

just caught the lead by accident, didn't see the other bits. BUT that was only the men's qualifying, the women's qualifying is tonight and the finals are on over the two after that. 09:30 it says, so maybe watchable live.

lol at the swimming marathon feeding station

The women’s 800m was great. Mu won, as expected, and broke the US record but looked like she could comfortably have taken at least another second or two off her time if she really needed to. Hodgkinson broke Kelly Holmes’ British record for silver. Both are 19 years old.

The 800m is famously grueling, because it is the longest race where you pretty much are sprinting the whole time, but Mu runs so loose and easy she's amazing to watch.

Are you going back for the rest of the contest

yes, will be covering all of climbing. I don't have much time to post on here, but I (try to) update regularly on work twitter: https://twitter.com/rozlatiff

meanwhile, bassa mawem, who came very close to breaking the world record in the speed climbing qualifier, has pulled out of the final after injuring himself in the lead event. :(

Him and his brother Mickael are super fun, we did a video profile of them before the competition started: https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/climbing-frances-mawem-brothers-shoot-fo-id733546384?chan=c1tal5kh

women's skateboard results spoilered by radio 4 this morning. still very watchable though - it's more bowl than the usual plywood features and smoother because of that. looks fun to skate.

some of the uniforms are too skimpy though, rara skirts and teenage midriff. conversely, Japan seem to be wearing full on button up dress shirts with collars.

I though the Japanese girl wearing the white boiler suit had the coolest look.

she was 12, and killed her heat.

the polish shirts are quietly stylish. but nothing yet up to the standard of the Dutch cargo pants from Street.

"I'm extraordinarily grateful to the IOC"

The first openly transgender Olympian, Laurel Hubbard, is set to retire after failing to record a successful lift in the women's +87kg weightliftinghttps://t.co/te4kyuf1hE pic.twitter.com/NXkh8ngbnU

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 4, 2021

climbing (women's speed) on red button freeview 601 now

i don't really know what's going on.

(it's highlights)

overall im just not that into the skateboarding stuff. not having the halfpipe was a big miss imo.

the street and trick stuff is better suited for a highlight package. way too many falls and too many slow and disjointed routines

favorite addition to the olympics so far has been the mixed gender relays in swimming and track. pure chaos.

Yeah, especially the medley swimming one, as that is the one where the teams may have most reason to choose different M/W orders based on characteristics of their particular teams.

yah that was wild

The Slovenian woman in the bouldering was an absolute climbing machine and flashed all four problems, but she’s still beatable in the other disciplines. It sets up for a really exiting final.

the speed climbing looked like they were being pulled up, mainly the way they weren't using footholds all the time

imagine a lot of this is down to time zones, but i doubt nbc's programming choices helped

"NBC's TV audience for the summer Olympics is down a whopping 45% from the Rio games in 2016. Viewership in prime-time is even worse, down 51%," @frankpallotta reports https://t.co/zJ55Q20kIV

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 4, 2021

Would never have guessed this. I feel like I'm about as attentive to the Olympics as I always am, the number of my friends who are following is about as usual, etc.

everyone i talk to is frustrated with how hard it is to find stuff and how everything gets spoiled 15 hours in advance of primetime. other than that im sure its just splintered like crazy with streaming + cable sports viewership is down across the board.

no giant stars, too damn hot...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/04/lasha-talakhadze-dominates-but-could-this-be-weighliftings-last-heave

Impressive to lift a piano even if you are doping.

men's skateboarding looks like more of a race than anything, doing laps of the bowl.

rune glifberg's a name i recognise from when channel 5 would show the x games at 2am back in 200x (maybe even 199x)

he was in the original tony hawk game!

That climbing final was intense and the multiplication system makes for big changes in the order right up to the last move.

Some really cool dives here by this 14yo

'She's 14 and doing stuff like that - amazing'
Women's 10m platform

Fourteen-year-old Quan Hongchan racked up the perfect 10s as the Chinese diver claimed gold in the women's 10m platform earlier

The combined climbing format promised some surprises and boy, did it deliver. My wrap: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/climbing-spains-gines-lopez-claims-first-climbing-gold-thrilling-olympic-debut-2021-08-05/

That 14-yr-old Chinese diver is incredible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXg30_BgOEQ

If YouTube didn’t spoil everything with their clickbaity video titles, they’d have the best coverage.

These are the videos of the dives (YT link doesn't work here)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/olympics/58098855

What racism

Former Polish sprinter Marcin Urbas has requested Olympics organizers to run a test on Namibian teenager Christine Mboma (18) to find out if she is a woman after she ran a semi-final time of 21.97 seconds in the women's 200m race.#Olympics #Tokyo2020 #AST #olympics2020 pic.twitter.com/9Qqirusmax

— African Sports Today (@africasportoday) August 3, 2021

xp Coach holding her up is a bit 🤨 to say the least.

imagine a lot of this is down to time zones, but i doubt nbc's programming choices helped

I think the ratings are down in the UK too? I haven't watched anything, even highlights, and I usually love the Olympics. It's a combination of the time of events, the BBC not being able to show everything, the fact that the majority of the Japanese people didn't want it to go ahead in the middle of an COVID outbreak but they went ahead anyway, no crowds and general pandemic stuff.

it has been a good thing to have on in the summer holidays while both me and my wife are working, I've had it on every day and sometimes even looked up when something interesting was happening

my younger son loves all sport, older son dngaf about any sport

Paris will get the same reduced coverage.

I've just been following via the odd clip for athletics, swimming, cycling or gymnastics but I haven't been able to see any badminton or table tennis, or the team stuff I get to see once every four years that I like to watch (handball, volleyball, water polo).

Feeling a bit sad about it though oddly I've been off the Olympics as a thing for a good decade. Think it's the pandemic but also how it could be the end of the Olympics as a thing. Despite its problems, such as the sheer wastage of it I do like to see lots of the world getting together and winning medals. But it's unsustainable, as in it will be just too hot for some events, which is an existential problem for all summer sport.

Yes, it's sort of a monster now. As I said the opposition to it in the host country left a sour taste in my mouth.

not a peep of the women's climbing so far, 3 hours into it. (which means, under the current rules, that there'll be no highlights to show later)

They could have it in Greece every four years, imo. Maybe not in July/August though.

I could listen to Denise Lewis and Michael Johnson all day. Paula Radcliffe, not.

Women’s climbing has a late breaking stewards enquiry but we don’t know what into.

Imagine: You come 4th in Rio, you go again, train so hard, ‘Tokyo will be my Games’. The big day comes and it’s going brilliantly, you have one of the biggest leads in #Olympics history. And then a random horse ruins your dream. Crushing for Annika Schleu pic.twitter.com/sbXI3C8Ox1

— Jason Keen (@Jason_Keen) August 6, 2021

this horse should get a medal for services to making posh English brats cry.

pro-horse anti-rider

that's hilarious. good for horse.

Wow, Italy in the 4x100! Holy smokes.

"And then a random horse ruins your dream"

lol, yes, a random horse in the horse sport.

labbe vs lindahl

apparently horse are drawn at random from a local pool. what's japanese for 'woah neddy'?

this is too nerve racking

OH MY GOD GO CANADA