The Olympics

[Kevin Wilson]

The US also needed that Gold to tie China in the overall count, for those that root for such things. And maybe now people will leave the high jumper alone that didn't do anything wrong.

[Greggulator]

All-time great basketball weekend. Gabby Williams doing a Kevin Durant impersonation at the end was a brutal way to lose. But man, that game delivered and then some. Great for the sport.

[Joe vs the Algorithm]

Someone besides the US winning a game would have been better for the sport.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

4 minutes ago, Joe vs the Algorithm said:

Someone besides the US winning a game would have been better for the sport.

Talent always improves when there's a monster to slay. Look at how motivated everyone got after the 1992 Dream Team. There are a lot of teams that got close this year that are going to be like "we almost did it, next time we're going to get them", and that's just going to make things better overall for gameplay.

[hammerva]

12 minutes ago, Joe vs the Algorithm said:

Someone besides the US winning a game would have been better for the sport.

Oh fuck that.   I was cheering for the US the entire time not only because they are the local team and you should but man I would have had to shut down my social media for about a week to deal with the bullshit.  Guarantee you about 70% of sports media had their France flags waving because they were just dying to spend 2 weeks talking about Caitlin Clark and how they wouldn't have happened if she was playing

The fact that they were a foot away from taking it taken it to OT is enough to say this is "better for the sport".    This should be the come to Jesus moment that the US can't get complacent anymore

[Kevin Wilson]

Not to get ahead of myself but I'm already excited for 2028 with the sports being added (or added back in). Baseball and Softball are back, plus Lacrosse and Cricket (I don't understand Cricket but knowing its popularity I'm glad to see it in there). Also, Flag Football! People will assume the US will dominate but Flag Football is a thing in Europe and it won't be NFL or College players I bet with it being so close to the season, so it should be fun to watch.

[odessasteps]

Just imagine was social media and talk radio and the likes of First Take would have been like in 1988 when the men’s basketball team lost. If you thought the dog pile on John Thompson was bad then, imagine what Skip or SAS would have been like. 

[hammerva]

34 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Just imagine was social media and talk radio and the likes of First Take would have been like in 1988 when the men’s basketball team lost. If you thought the dog pile on John Thompson was bad then, imagine what Skip or SAS would have been like. 

It would have looked like tomorrow if France won today

[odessasteps]

Also, imagine sports talk after the 1972 Gold Medal basketball game. 

[Joe vs the Algorithm]

4 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

Talent always improves when there's a monster to slay. Look at how motivated everyone got after the 1992 Dream Team. There are a lot of teams that got close this year that are going to be like "we almost did it, next time we're going to get them", and that's just going to make things better overall for gameplay.

Ideally, this is true, but we’ve been hearing this talk for quite a while now and it never leads to other countries closing the gap. The last time the USA women’s team (bball) lost a game in Olympic play was 1992.  Since then, the US team has won sixty straight games in the Olympic tourney and had been in three games where the margin of victory was less than 10 points.  I guess you could argue that the world is catching up. US Women won all but one game by 29 pts or more in 2016.  Average margin of victory was around 35-40 points. Average margin of victory in 2024 was probably in mid-teens.  Maybe someone will get over the hump in 2028 and keep them from the gold medal, but I am not counting on that.

Men’s record past couple decades has been much the same.

i root for several countries,  not just the US, but, in general, I’d prefer to see competitive games and a few upsets.  Game was quite good today, but I never thought France would win.  What I expected to happen did happen.  France couldn’t hold  the lead and US outplayed them in closing minutes to pull it out. US was heavily favored today, so it probably would be a US blowout 8 or 9 times out of 10.

[ohtani's jacket]

Well, New Zealand had a record 10 gold medal haul, and Japan had its best overseas Olympics, so Paris 2024 was bountiful. Time to count our booty. Shame on you LA for not including Breaking. 

[Cobra Commander]

I'll try my best to remember the 2026 Winter Olympics (live from Milano Cortina!) but I can't make any promises.

At least the wait will be longer than 6 months this time around because I don't remember watching any of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

[Cobra Commander]

On 8/10/2024 at 3:36 PM, Cobra Commander said:

also those super-heavyweight weightlifters are really telling other dudes with guts to step their game up

and pretty much all of the top super-heavyweight weightlifters look like guys who could be kayfabe relatives of Rusev

[Robert S]

1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Well, New Zealand had a record 10 gold medal haul, and Japan had its best overseas Olympics, so Paris 2024 was bountiful. Time to count our booty. Shame on you LA for not including Breaking. 

The games were also quite fine for Austria, 2 gold medals (both in sailing) and 3 bronze medals (one in Judo and two in sports climbing) is a bit above the average - even though the games again have shown the lack of talent depth in summer sports over here. Well, we will always have the winter games, I guess.

And as the 2026 games were mentioned: while I skipped Paris (even though the games were in sensible range from here (8 to 9 hours by car)) I will try to catch the 2026 Games in person (all locations are within 4.5 hours by car; though I still hope that the Italian plans to build their own luge (+ bobsleigh + skeleton) track will fail (which I think is pretty likely, they have only decided to do so this February and I can't image that they will finish that project in well under two years) which will mean that they likely have to switch to Innsbruck (Innsbruck is a chill two our train ride away)).

[lostinube]

8 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

The US also needed that Gold to tie China in the overall count, for those that root for such things. And maybe now people will leave the high jumper alone that didn't do anything wrong.

And also Americans getting whiny about how China racks up medals in sports that are either too niche or aren't "real" sports. MFers, if you stopped treating badminton and table tennis like they are backyard sports and took them seriously like Asia and Europe (you know, most of the world) maybe you'd be more competitive in those areas.

 

1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Well, New Zealand had a record 10 gold medal haul, and Japan had its best overseas Olympics, so Paris 2024 was bountiful. Time to count our booty. Shame on you LA for not including Breaking. 

Japan almost doubled it's total number of fencing medals in this Olympics, picking up 5 in Paris after coming in with only 3.

They missed out on a couple of judo medals but overall they got a lot of medals that they were favored to. Still can't break through against the Chinese in the women's table tennis team final though. It was the third time they've met in the finals.

The new system of allowing the host countries to pick and choose which events will be interesting. Baseball and softball will be back in 2028 and the US will look to avenge their finals losses in both to Japan in 2020. With all it's internal turmoil, boxing has not been officially announced. But I imagine that if Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting came back the outrage machine will be ready to fire-up. Or maybe not.

Also, no breaking although now all the Americans complaining about it should be actively trying to "bring it back home." It may come back in 2032 in Brisbane so we may get..the return of the Raygun.

Edited August 11, 2024 by lostinube

[Cobra Commander]

the difference between 39 golds in Tokyo and 40 golds in Paris for the US

• 3 fewer Golds in Swimming
• 7 more Golds in Track/Field
• 1 fewer Gold in Basketball, Canoeing, Golf, Taekwondo, Water Polo, Wrestling
• 2 fewer Golds in Shooting, Volleyball
• 1 more Gold in Fencing, Gymnastics, Rowing, Soccer, Weightlifting, 
• 2 more Golds in Cycling
• Same number of Golds in Surfing

So basically Track saved things this time around

[Elsalvajeloco]

Boxing has been on the fringes of not coming back to the Summer Olympics for like 3 Olympic cycles now. Each year has a different controversy. Hell, in Rio they were straight up robbing people and not even hiding it. People are going to forget what happened here, and it's going to sneak it's way back in 2028. The last games in Los Angeles had the most loaded USA Olympic boxing team ever (keep in mind, it could have had Michael Nunn AND Mike Tyson). Probably doesn't help that actual USA amateur boxing is at it's absolute nadir, but that's an automatic storyline for 2028. Now after that? Yeah, that's a bit of a tossup.

[Kuetsar]

Sorry, but breaking being in at all was a disgrace and a punchline. .  

[Cobra Commander]

My inexact look at how the events where Russia medaled in 2021 split in 2024 suggests that Uzbekistan and Iran were potential beneficiaries of Russia pretty much not being in the Olympics. With China getting 5 extra medals (not as many as Uzbekistan/Iran) in events where Russia won. Uzbekistan won 5 Gold Medals in Boxing (some of that is also because Cuba had a bad Olympics in Boxing), Iran was picking up medals in Taekwondo and Wrestling this time around. A lot of China's gain was more medals in Swimming (from 6 to 12) since there's already an overlap between Russia and China medaling in Artistic/Synchronized Swimming, Gymnastics, and Shooting.

I suspect the enthusiasm for having Boxing in the 2028 Olympics might differ between China (which won 3 Golds) and the USA (which had 1 Bronze). I guess the best afterthought venue for 2028 Olympic Boxing is if the Korean evangelicals who own the Olympic Auditorium let them set up a boxing ring there since that was the venue of Olympic Boxing in 1932. The 1984 venue, the Sports Arena, was demolished.

Or they might put Boxing in Oklahoma City with Canoe Slalom and Softball.

[Elsalvajeloco]

One of those golds for Uzbekistan was won by Bakhodir Jalolov, who also won gold in Tokyo. Jalolov is already a pro and been a pro for a six years now (14-0, 14 KOs). Matter of fact, he beat Richard Torrez for the previous gold medal in a rematch of their 2019 World Championships bout where Jalolov absolutely slept him and went viral. Both are signed with Top Rank, but with Jared Anderson losing a couple weeks ago, Torrez is technically the only real American heavyweight prospect who is undefeated. So a rematch in the pros is probably not happening anytime soon.

However, that's sort of the issue with allowing pros and amateurs to compete together. Jalolov graduated from that level several years ago. It's probably one of the least important or least impressive gold medals just cause of that.

As far as venues go, it should be the Kia Forum. Outside of MSG, Boardwalk Hall, and the MGM Grand Garden Arena, it's the only still active arena with the most boxing history. It looks like the new Clippers arena though will be the arena used in the city of Inglewood.

My second choice would Dignity Health Sports Park (fka the Home Depot Center). That venue has hosted a bunch of fight of the year candidates in more recent years. The problem is it's likely being used for tennis.

[ohtani's jacket]

3 hours ago, lostinube said:

The new system of allowing the host countries to pick and choose which events will be interesting. Baseball and softball will be back in 2028 and the US will look to avenge their finals losses in both to Japan in 2020. With all it's internal turmoil, boxing has not been officially announced. But I imagine that if Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting came back the outrage machine will be ready to fire-up. Or maybe not.

Also, no breaking although now all the Americans complaining about it should be actively trying to "bring it back home." It may come back in 2032 in Brisbane so we may get..the return of the Raygun.

Not a fan of this new system. You're basically letting the home country replace events with a bunch of sports they're good at. It's also disappointing since LA is a hub for the hip hop community. Instead, we're getting flag football. 

[Cleavy]

12 hours ago, lostinube said:

Also, no breaking although now all the Americans complaining about it should be actively trying to "bring it back home." It may come back in 2032 in Brisbane so we may get..the return of the Raygun.

it won't come back.  plus she would be 44 y.o.

[Joe vs the Algorithm]

2 hours ago, Cleavy said:

it won't come back.  plus she would be 44 y.o.

I feel like there are a lot of 44 year-old’s out there that could do Raygun’s routine. Age may not be much of an impediment, I’m no expert on breaking, but Raygun looked to me to be performing at a much lower level than the other competitors I saw.  

Kinda miss having the Olympics to turn on at work & the gym as background noise. Watched a lot more of the Games than usual and enjoyed most it.  Although, now that the rush of the Games is wearing off, I’m wondering if I maybe should have turned them off after the opening ceremony.  Kinda wish I had even though the competitions were enjoyable.

[odessasteps]

More sports the host country favors, better atmosphere, more medals, win for the ioc. 

[Brian Fowler]

On 8/11/2024 at 11:49 AM, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

Talent always improves when there's a monster to slay. Look at how motivated everyone got after the 1992 Dream Team. There are a lot of teams that got close this year that are going to be like "we almost did it, next time we're going to get them", and that's just going to make things better overall for gameplay.

I don't know about on the women's side, but France has given the U.S. a fight in men's two straight gold medal games and also just had the first, second, sixth, and twenty-fifth picks in the last draft that might all end up on their national team in 2028, quite likely without LeBron, KD, or Steph. Things might get real interesting, especially given that Wembyama should be a much better player in four years, as terrifying as that is.