Looking Forward to Summer Olympics 2021

[+ MysticMenace]

While not starting until late July, I cannot wait to tune in to some awesome competitive sports, and looking forward to the following:

• Simone Biles dominating women's gymnastics
  
• Sam Mikulak hopefully getting out of his own head and just having a great time in men's all-around gymnastics and winning at an event.
  
• Tom Daley and David Boudia in men's diving...and really concentrating on TV hoping to see some speedo slips ?
  
• Everything swimming
  

 

How about you? Anything in particular you're excited to see?

[kingsley88]

Hopefully they won't cancel the Olympics. I understand they already postponed it to this year and they banned foreign spectators but it really depends on how Japan will handle covid.

I have always enjoyed watching the Opening Ceremony, athletics, gymnastics, judo, & greco-roman wrestling.

[Smurof]

Considering there are many, many channels of coverage on my satellite, at least 1 of them damn well better show the events in real time. Otherwise, ESPN is all over the instant results on the bottom line. I do not watch sports on a delay - ever. Hard pass on the "feel good" stories. Show me the action! P.S. I enjoy the parade of countries, too. Did the oiled up hottie from the South Pacific quality this year??

[Islesguy]

Considering there are many, many channels of coverage on my satellite, at least 1 of them damn well better show the events in real time. Otherwise, ESPN is all over the instant results on the bottom line. I do not watch sports on a delay - ever. Hard pass on the "feel good" stories. Show me the action! P.S. I enjoy the parade of countries, too. Did the oiled up hottie from the South Pacific quality this year??

NBC has both a website and an app that shows all events live. I used it for the last winter olympics.

[CatDaddy]

@Smurof "Hard pass on the feel good stories!" Yessssssss SIR!

[kingsley88]

Considering there are many, many channels of coverage on my satellite, at least 1 of them damn well better show the events in real time. Otherwise, ESPN is all over the instant results on the bottom line. I do not watch sports on a delay - ever. Hard pass on the "feel good" stories. Show me the action! P.S. I enjoy the parade of countries, too. Did the oiled up hottie from the South Pacific quality this year??

Yes Pita Taufatofua qualified in taekwondo!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2020/02/29/pita-taufatofua-shirtless-tongan-earns-spot-tokyo-2020-olympics/4911599002/

[+ MysticMenace]

Ryan Murphy!

[+ MysticMenace]

Caeleb Dressel

[+ MysticMenace]

On 4/29/2021 at 9:02 PM, JoeMendoza said:

 

 

Sad to see David Boudia not qualifying...oh well.

[curt gregory]

On 6/13/2021 at 5:54 PM, JoeMendoza said:

Ryan Murphy!

That Ryan Murphy is one handsome man! 😛

[+ Lucky]

I am looking forward to the cancellation of the Summer Olympics. Yes, COVID.

[+ MysticMenace]

Johnny Hooper

[Guest]

I heard there were some problems because some Ugandan athletes tested positive. Do any of you know whether it's a requirement for all of the athletes to be vaccinated? If it's not a requirement, I foresee trouble, with strains being spread all over the world. If it is a requirement, and they're testing anyway, there could be less serious trouble, but trouble nevertheless since with all of those athletes, there are bound to be quite a few who will test positive, even if they're asymptomatic and not contagious (and shouldn't be tested in the first place). 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, JoeMendoza said:

Johnny Hooper

Name: Johnny Hooper

Position: Attacker

Sport: Water Polo

Height: 6-1

Weight: 185

DOB: 6/24/1997

Birthplace: Los Angeles, Calif.

Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif.

High School: Harvard-Westlake High School (Los Angeles, Calif.) ‘15

College: University of California, Berkeley ‘19, Business

[BuffaloKyle]

Athletes are going to have to put on their own medals this year due to covid protocols:

https://www.cbssports.com/olympics/news/2021-tokyo-olympics-athletes-will-put-on-their-own-medals-at-the-games-as-part-of-covid-protocols/

[BSR]

In tennis, the players are dropping like flies: some because they don't want to deal with all the restrictions (many players report that living in a bubble is really stressful) and the empty stadium, some because they're injured (Federer, Berrettini) and some because they tested positive for Covid & are barred from competition (DeMinaur).

While the men's field (sorry, don't follow the women as closely) has many notable absences, the singles draw is still pretty strong, featuring Novak, Tsitsipas, and the Russians (Medvedev, Rublev, Khachanov, Karatsev).  I think one factor for some players' decision to withdraw is that the Olympics don't matter as much in tennis.  Sure, an Olympic medal would be nice, but the four Slams remain the summit of achievement in the sport.  For example, Denis Shapovalov gladly put up with all the bubble restrictions at Wimbledon (all players were confined to one hotel, not allowed to leave except to go to the AELTC, the bus ride to the AELTC took 1.5 hours, no private transportation allowed, limited entourages, no contact allowed with family/friends attending) because after all, it's Wimbledon.  But he said he couldn't deal with the bubble restrictions in Tokyo.  Some exceptions of course : Novak desperately wants an Olympic gold medal for Serbia, Tsitsipas is very excited about representing Greece, and for the Russians the Olympics are huge, as big if not bigger than the Slams.

I doubt other sports are suffering as many withdrawals because in most sports the Olympics are the summit of achievement.  Whereas tennis players almost unanimously would pick a Wimbledon title over Olympic gold, sports like track & field, swimming & diving, gymnastics, etc. don't have anything like Wimbledon.  The Olympics are it for them.

As for my pick for the gold medal, it's between Novak and Medvedev.  Novak in normal conditions would be the overwhelming favorite because he's won the last 3 Slams, trouncing Medvedev in the Australian Open final.  But Tokyo will be sweltering (temps in the 90s with very high humidity), and Novak struggles more than most in the heat.  Mind you, I'm not sure how well Medvedev deals with extreme heat & humidity, just know that Novak will not be at his best.

[+ MysticMenace]

6 minutes ago, BSR said:

Novak desperately wants an Olympic gold medal for Serbia

it also does not hurt that Novak could have a calendar golden slam, and might be the first guy to do so.

[BSR]

46 minutes ago, JoeMendoza said:

it also does not hurt that Novak could have a calendar golden slam, and might be the first guy to do so.

Steffi Graf won the Golden Slam (all 4 majors plus the Olympic gold medal in 1 calendar year) in 1988, but no man has ever done it.  The only two men to win the Grand Slam are Don Budge and Rod Laver, but tennis was not an Olympic sport between 1924 & 1988.  Besides, 1938 & 1969 weren't Olympic years.

Philippe Chatrier, former head of the French Tennis Federation and the International Tennis Federation, was the driving force behind tennis's reinstatement in the Olympics.  He thought that by making tennis an Olympic sport, the old Soviet Union and Soviet bloc countries would develop tennis much more because they valued the Olympics so highly.  He turned out to be right.  The old Soviet Union wasn't much of a tennis country back in the day, but Russia currently has 4 players in the top 25, including the #2 & #7.

Edited July 19, 2021 by BSR
Typo

[+ sync]

Is there anyone (besides the Olympic Committee) who did not see this virus disaster coming?  The Olympic Committee should have bitten the bullet long ago with cancellation of the summer Olympics.  Now, seeing the ferocity with which this new surge of the virus is raging, cancellation of the upcoming winter Olympics should be under consideration.

There will be no winners in this vaxxers/anti-vaxxers war, only survivors.   

I foolishly allowed myself to presume that this Covid attack upon all of us would unite all of us against it.

That humans are Earth's dumbest species may be another inconvenient truth:  THE MESSENGER: 5 REASONS WHY HUMANS ARE THE DUMBEST CREATURES ON EARTH (pareekakhi274.blogspot.com) 

[+ Charlie]

Now Coco Gauff is out, because she has tested positive for COVID.

[+ Lucky]

1 hour ago, Charlie said:

Now Coco Gauff is out, because she has tested positive for COVID.

Out? Of the closet? COVID sure works in strange ways!

[+ Charlie]

She is out of the Olympics, where she was one of the official tennis competitors for the US. She is only 17, so she will probably have future opportunities, but the US will have fewer potential winners this time around, because it is probably too late to replace her.

[Becket]

I am fearful the whole thing is going to turn into one big clusterfuck. It's already messy.  But I will watch.  It's too hot to go outside anyway.

[mike carey]

I really hope that they don't have to cancel the final trial event for the 2020 Paralympics!

[BuffaloKyle]

A last minute cancellation of the Olympics is not likely but a possibility still.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/olympics/tokyo-2020-boss-not-ruling-out-last-minute-cancellation-of-olympic-games/ar-AAMmj3f?ocid=uxbndlbing

Just three days before the sporting spectacle is set to begiin, Tokyo public health expert Dr. Kenji Shibuya said the Olympic bubble system "is kind of broken."

"Visitors, athletes, journalists, delegates, of course they are supposed to be within the bubble, but it's not working well," Shibuya said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

"It's obvious that the bubble system is kind of broken, so there seems to be some sort of interaction between guests and visitors and also local people."

Edited July 20, 2021 by BuffaloKyle