Olympics Rio '16

Supreme Lord Z

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He looks over 15 feet before the finish line at the guy in the far lane like "see that guy over there, he actually thinks he can outrun me"... who does that in the Olympics?
 

UKwizard

Heisman
Dec 11, 2002
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113
The US used to have the biggest personalities in track. Everyone knew who they were. That seemed to die when Micael Johnson retired. Seems we are sending a bunch of good but no superstars to the Olympics these days.
 

MdWIldcat55

Heisman
Dec 9, 2007
21,061
83,357
113
Just read something that illustrated how unlikely it is that anyone will ever catch Phelps' medal total: If you take the SIX next most decorated Olympic swimmers in history, they total the same number of individual golds as Phelps.

He has two and a half times as many gold medals as anyone else has managed in any sport in the 120 years of the modern Olympics.
 

slick rick.ksr

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The US used to have the biggest personalities in track. Everyone knew who they were. That seemed to die when Micael Johnson retired. Seems we are sending a bunch of good but no superstars to the Olympics these days.
Has Title IX had an effect?
 

UK_Dallas

Heisman
Sep 17, 2015
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Never has a 4th place finish in a preliminary heat looked so good. Guy made all of us Americans proud.
 

herodotus6

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Sep 11, 2008
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Came across this on reddit and thought you folks might enjoy. This is what Hitler had to watch in 1936. If he could have seen a little of Simone's routine he would have abandoned his master race crap.

[laughing] Good Lord. Compared to today's routine that was like watching a monkey fry to f*** a football.
 
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herodotus6

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Sep 11, 2008
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Katie Ledecky still waiting for the other women to finish.






 

Supreme Lord Z

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The US used to have the biggest personalities in track. Everyone knew who they were. That seemed to die when Micael Johnson retired. Seems we are sending a bunch of good but no superstars to the Olympics these days.
Jamaicans have taken over. Not sure what they are putting in the ganja, but it is working.

Just read something that illustrated how unlikely it is that anyone will ever catch Phelps' medal total: If you take the SIX next most decorated Olympic swimmers in history, they total the same number of individual golds as Phelps.

He has two and a half times as many gold medals as anyone else has managed in any sport in the 120 years of the modern Olympics.
Thought I read in here earlier that he has more gold medals than 118 countries do in their entire history.
 

Anthony B

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Hate to be a cynic, but it sure defies probability for Jamaica to keep churning out the fastest people in the world.
Other countries probably say the same thing about our swim team. Not trying to imply anything about either the Jamaican's track program or our swimming one, but anytime you dominate like that people will question it. Prime example. The Hungarian swimmer dominates and someone on here said she's taking steroids, but that person has not said one word about the possibility that Ledecky or Phelps might not be clean.
 

Violent Cuts

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Jun 22, 2001
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The US is the world's 3rd most populous country and perhaps the best prepared and the most resources. Jamaica only has 2.75 million people and is poor so it would be as if all of the best sprinters in the world came from Houston or Miami. Not quite the same. The surprise is when the US doesn't dominate a summer sport.
 

Teachable Moe

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Mar 19, 2015
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Ledecky's 800m win is the most dominant performance in sport I've seen since Secretariat's Belmont. She looked like she was swimming in an empty pool at the end.

She's set the world record in the 800 5 times in 3 years. Taking 9 seconds off the old record in the process.

She set the world record in the 1500 5 times in 2 years. Taking 11 seconds off the old record in the process.

All told, in the last 3 years she has set world records 13 times in 3 events.
 
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Anthony B

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The US is the world's 3rd most populous country and perhaps the best prepared and the most resources. Jamaica only has 2.75 million people and is poor so it would be as if all of the best sprinters in the world came from Houston or Miami. Not quite the same. The surprise is when the US doesn't dominate a summer sport.
Point taken, but the point remains. If we dare to question our own it's almost like blasphemy but we are very quick to judge others. The USA does seem to dominate any sport that they choose to take seriously and what you stated certainly could explain a lot of that. I'd like to see increased focus on our diving so we could better compete with the likes of China in that sport.
 
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Anthony B

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Back to back 3 pt. wins for US basketball. This time against freakin France. lol. Man, these guys need to step it up!
 

WildcatFan1982

Heisman
Dec 4, 2011
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Some countries are better at sports than others. It depends on how popular a sport is. I don't know for sure but I'd bet in Jamaica every single little boy dreams of being the next Usain Bolt. I doubt many children here even know who Carl Lewis or Michael Johnson are
 

ukalumni00

Heisman
Jun 22, 2005
23,690
40,273
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Golf won this week. Ended up being a great tournament and thank goodness Kuchar showed up today and brought home a medal. I bet in 2020 the top players are not going to skip again especially after all the criticism they have and will continue to get now that tournament went so well.
 

UK_Dallas

Heisman
Sep 17, 2015
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Golf won this week. Ended up being a great tournament and thank goodness Kuchar showed up today and brought home a medal. I bet in 2020 the top players are not going to skip again especially after all the criticism they have and will continue to get now that tournament went so well.
Needs a few tweaks but overall it established itself as one of the better events.

I think team medals will come into play in 2020.
 

BKH34

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Sep 9, 2015
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Given the way the personnel was managed today, our guys winning by 3 over France was impressive.

Can't play Kyrie and Cousins together. When those guys are on the floor together, I can tell you the exact play the other team is going to run. SPOILER: It rhymes with "Walgreen's". And they're going to score off of it.

The second unit that played so well in the 2nd quarter never played as a group again for the rest of the game. That doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't have minded a short run for them at the start of the 4th.

Klay Thompson sat for a LONG time. He's actually a good defensive player, so he can bring something to the table even when his shot isn't falling.

Feel like the second halves of these close games are a sneak preview of what Kevin Durant is going to do with the Warriors. Getting tied up like a coward after getting the rebound on that late FT miss was emasculating.

Going small down the stretch is a thing that a lot of NBA teams do, but since you can touch the ball while it's on the rim (TANGENT: 2011-12 Kentucky gives up maybe 24 ppg if that rule exists in college), every rebound is a war. Luckily Cousins came back in and as much as I decried Cousins and Kyrie playing together, that lineup scored basically every time it needed to. Cousins's last 4 minutes were as good as his first 36 were bad.

It's FIBA, we've got Melo...we're going to win gold. Chill.
 

UK_Dallas

Heisman
Sep 17, 2015
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Agreed. Golf should be played every day in the next Olympics. Add fourball scramble or alternating shots for team event, a match play tournament, and regular stroke play.
Shew, that's a lot of golf. I think they could just incorporate the top 3 scores per country or something along that line..

Match play for the individual medal might be a good idea though.
 

Free_Salato_Blue

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They need to throw out events like trampoline, BMX bikes and men's field hockey.
Bring back, baseball, women's softball and try lacross.
 

UK_Dallas

Heisman
Sep 17, 2015
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They need to throw out events like trampoline, BMX bikes and men's field hockey.
Bring back, baseball, women's softball and try lacross.
Baseball and softball are coming back in 2020. Along with karate, skateboarding, surfing and rock climbing. I guess they are trying to destroy the X games.
 

Anthony B

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Would love to see KAT play for USA but I don't think he can since he chose to play for the DR.
 

UK_Is_Good

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Dec 7, 2005
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Every country is allowed its own rules. No idea what our rules are. But Monica Seles and Hakeem Olajuwon have competed for US

I'm pretty sure once you represent one country in international competition, you can't then change to another one. They were talking about how Kyrie almost played for Australia years ago, but K talked him out of it so he could play for the US team some day.
 

WildcatFan1982

Heisman
Dec 4, 2011
21,376
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Well there was a woman today that has competed for 3 different teams in the olympics. Oskana Chusovitina has competed for the Unified Team, Germany, and Uzbekistan