The Fucking 2024 Olympics

[msc 18,397]

2 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

 

To be fair, I watched Charlotte's routines and she was very safe. Didn't have any of the style and flair she had in Tokyo, but she's been struggling a lot with her confidence and mental health since then. She said afterwards just getting here was her victory. I think the other girls, in qualifying at least, all landed their routines cleanly (or at least those who qualified). Although the commentators did think Charlotte deserved 84 or so for her first routine and she got 79. There you go again, subjective. In the men's final, they went humungous with the Argentine's first routine, and then downgraded everyone else afterwards it seemed so he ended up staying in gold medal spot.

Didn't look safe to gravity challenged me!  But this is the thing, judging appears to voting higher for intent that didn't come off more than safer and accomplished. There were a lot of crashes in the BMX, several actually made us cringe.

 

 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

14 minutes ago, msc said:

Didn't look safe to gravity challenged me!  But this is the thing, judging appears to voting higher for intent that didn't come off more than safer and accomplished. There were a lot of crashes in the BMX, several actually made us cringe.

 

Oh, the men's in particular, they went all out and crashed and burned multiple times! I mean, I hear you, but this is a girl who landed a ridiculous trick I can't remember the name of now in the Tokyo final, having failed to land it on the first attempt to steal the gold medal from the USA's Hannah Roberts, who has watched history repeat itself this week as a Chinese prodigy stole gold and she had to settle for another silver.

[Sleepiestpeep 155]

17 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

Good news everybody! Women's floor up next, so no equipment to fall off!

...and yet

[TQR 14,352]

17 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

Good news everybody! Women's floor up next, so no equipment to fall off!

 

Esposito just fucked up her landing.

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Just now, Sleepiestpeep said:

...and yet

 

Just now, TQR said:

Esposito just fucked up her landing.

 

I take it back.  She'll probably end up with a medal yet.

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Andrade nails her floor routine. She'll probably end up behind the girl who fell over. 

[TQR 14,352]

Now, if Andrade doesn't get a medal for that, I'll be in Paris this afternoon having a word with some people.

[Sleepiestpeep 155]

A shame about the couple of stumbles in this Japanese floor routine - it felt fun to watch otherwise!

[TQR 14,352]

Simone's routine was awesome, but she stepped out of the floor twice. Penalties edge her into silver as it stands.

 

There've been a lot of these events spread over the last few days. Might it be fatigue causing this unprecedented number of mistakes, or is there something with the arena's atmosphere - noise, temperature, whatever?

[Sleepiestpeep 155]

Just now, TQR said:

Simone's routine was awesome, but she stepped out of the floor twice. Penalties edge her into silver as it stands.

 

There've been a lot of these events spread over the last few days. Might it be fatigue causing this unprecedented number of mistakes, or is there something with the arena's atmosphere - noise, temperature, whatever?

There's got to be something about the continuous increasing difficulty going through these events year-by-year - maybe we're seeing the point where that risk tips over into people falling more often, when fatigue gets factored in?

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

7 minutes ago, TQR said:

Simone's routine was awesome, but she stepped out of the floor twice. Penalties edge her into silver as it stands.

 

There've been a lot of these events spread over the last few days. Might it be fatigue causing this unprecedented number of mistakes, or is there something with the arena's atmosphere - noise, temperature, whatever?

 

All the discussions seem to surround the length of competition. This is day 10 of competition. Someone like Biles or Andrade has competed in the Team Qualifying on Day 2, The Team Final on Day 4, the All-Around Final on Day 6 and then, potentially, at least one apparatus final on each of Days 8, 9 and 10. Combined with training and practice that's a lot of work, especially when you consider the Italian girl who fell on the first routine is only 17. Sounds like it used to take place in fewer days (the apparatus finals weren't as spread out). I suppose that has pros and cons, it gives more rest between events, but it also means more practice and more warm ups and warm downs. The men got 2 days off between the All-Around Final on Day 5 and the apparatus finals starting on Day 8, but similar for them, and they have 6 pieces of apparatus not 4.

 

4 minutes ago, Sleepiestpeep said:

There's got to be something about the continuous increasing difficulty going through these events year-by-year - maybe we're seeing the point where that risk tips over into people falling more often, when fatigue gets factored in?

 

This too. They're attempting ever more ambitious routines, and sometimes things don't stick, especially on tired legs.

 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

GOLD FOR ANDRADE! And she's beaten Biles in a straight fight! So pleased for her.

[Toast 16,063]

5 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

GOLD FOR ANDRADE! And she's beaten Biles in a straight fight! So pleased for her.

 

Justice for Rebeca.

[YoungWillz 20,919]

Biles landed a tumble outside the floor and stepped out. And wins silver.

 

It's a disgrace. The floor area is there for a reason, regardless of how good your effort is - and that shows just how dreadful some of the judging has been. Imo.

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

3 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Biles landed a tumble outside the floor and stepped out. And wins silver.

 

It's a disgrace. The floor area is there for a reason, regardless of how good your effort is - and that shows just how dreadful some of the judging has been. Imo.

 

It's risk v reward. The difficulty of the tumble outweighs the penalty for stepping out. She got 0.3 deduction for each of the double feet out and finished a fraction behind Andrade. 1 deduction and she'd have won with 14.4. They said her really difficult vault, which is about 1 whole mark more difficult than anyone else in the competition they used to have the coach stationed at the vault in case it went wrong, which is 0.5 deduction, but they could afford to take the hit because she was still 0.5 up on the competition to start with. She could land an easier tumble within the floor area and score a very similar total but it would be less technically difficult and thus less spectacular. I have no problem with the sliding scale of standard deductions (hands down, step on landing, stepping out of zone, falling off) but I do have issues with the arbitrary and very subjective execution score. I mean, the Romanian girl celebrated a bronze and then had it taken away because the final Yank (ranked 5th) protested and was upgraded to bronze.

[The Old Crem 3,576]

5 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

 

It's risk v reward. The difficulty of the tumble outweighs the penalty for stepping out. She got 0.3 deduction for each of the double feet out and finished a fraction behind Andrade. 1 deduction and she'd have won with 14.4. They said her really difficult vault, which is about 1 whole mark more difficult than anyone else in the competition they used to have the coach stationed at the vault in case it went wrong, which is 0.5 deduction, but they could afford to take the hit because she was still 0.5 up on the competition to start with. She could land an easier tumble within the floor area and score a very similar total but it would be less technically difficult and thus less spectacular. I have no problem with the sliding scale of standard deductions (hands down, step on landing, stepping out of zone, falling off) but I do have issues with the arbitrary and very subjective execution score. I mean, the Romanian girl celebrated a bronze and then had it taken away because the final Yank (ranked 5th) protested and was upgraded to bronze.

The upgrade was on the difficulty score - the execution score cannot be appealed. 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Just now, The Old Crem said:

The upgrade was on the difficulty score - the execution score cannot be appealed. 

 

The difficulty score is still subjective though. The judges decide what moves they've done and what difficulty they are awarded. They have a start value but if something goes wrong, or the judges believe a double was a single or two moves weren't connected when they were meant to be, they can reduce it. That's presumably what happened with Clarke, but then it was appealed and changed. The Romanian girl just before her failed in a similar appeal and finished 5th.

[TQR 14,352]

This Kayak Cross looks Fucking good fun!

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Kayak Cross is great fun until it's your girl getting screwed over by a slow kayaker blocking her exit from the upstream turning a lead into second and forcing a desperate move that nearly cost her any kind of medal at all. ANOTHER FUCKING BRONZE!!! 9 of our last 11 medals have been bronze!

[TQR 14,352]

Oof, tough run there with a Fucking Bronze and a Fucking Silver. Both Woods and Clarke put in a mighty performance, and GB are up to 40 medals now.

 

Anyway, brb I'm heading off to Lee Valley to try Kayak Cross out 

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

I know I sound very spoiled here (in 1996 we got one gold in total!) but we've had 9 Bronze and 3 Silvers in our last 12 medals - have we forgotten how to fucking win?!

 

I'm desperately hoping Laura Kenny is accurate when she says we might win 8 golds in the velodrome!

[Great Uncle Bulgaria 1,275]

47 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

Kayak Cross is great fun

although the person in the lead after 20m seems to win most of the time...

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Just now, Great Uncle Bulgaria said:

although the person in the lead after 20m seems to win most of the time...

 

Not always but certainly in the latter rounds that seemed to be the case. The commentators did say it's still a very new discipline and they'll continue tweaking the format and one thing they'd like to do is fine a way to reduce the importance of the start and keep the field closer together. Anyway, the way I started my post was basically just copying what TQR had said above, I wasn't specifically making a judgement on how fun it is, although it is quite entertaining to watch as they bash into each other.

[TQR 14,352]

44 minutes ago, RoverAndOut said:

I'm desperately hoping Laura Kenny is accurate when she says we might win 8 golds in the velodrome!

It’s an encouraging start. Women’s sprint team broke the WR with their qualifying run.

[RoverAndOut 4,726]

Just now, TQR said:

It’s an encouraging start. Women’s sprint team broke the WR with their qualifying run.

 

Aye, it's like the glory days of 2012! Great start, especially with the other two favourites Germany and China looking a bit ropey - only 3rd and 5th out of 8. And I do trust Dame Laura, she sort of knows what she's talking about when it comes to riding a bike (and she's close enough to the current team to know what sort of form they're in). Fingers crossed we can finally turn all the silver and bronze into gold tonight!