Olympics daily thread

mansize

Chivito550 wrote: »

Who is the over excited swimming presenter on BBC?

Former Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton

mickmackey1

They shoved the swimming to a later hour in order to please American TV, not too pushed about the Europeans.

mansize

I see there Kosovo won their 1st Gold in their 1st Olympics- delighted

walshb

Mark Foster was asked by Balding to discuss Kitan Hozzu (can't spell that name), and he said he likes to believe fairy-tales that hard work and real attention to detail can produce greatness. I took from what he said that he deep down believed her to be clean. She obliterated her 400 IM record the other day.

I have to agree with Foster. Take Peaty. That lad is juts a great swimmer, end of.

Unpossible

Chivito550 wrote: »

Why are swimming times constantly getting faster while for the most part athletics times have stagnated or regressed? Doping doesn't explain it as 1) not everyone is doping 2) people doped 20 years ago too and 3) people dope in athletics and other sports too. Michelle Smith's juiced time from 1996 would not have beaten one of the 8 finalists in the 400 free there.

Swimming has changed a lot since Michelle's time, here are a few differences:

Suits & equipment, while full body suits are out there is a lot of research gone into the suits hats and goggles. The newer hats are moulded differently to stop/reduce any wrinkles (see adam peaty's arena hat), some are wearing goggles that are supposed to reduce drag. The suits hold shape better now, have less drag and support/compress the athletes, this is most obvious when you see the women and how "flat" it compresses their upper bodies.

Techniques, it doesn't look it to a non-swimmer but the strokes have changed. Every stroke now has incorporated butterfly kick to some extent, the rules are tweaked after every olympics as athletes push the limits of the rules, the butterfly kick off the wall on breaststroke (and the timing of it) has made a big difference. There are coaches looking at new ways to get an advantages, there are theories on how little details/changes can make a turn/start faster, how to maximise on the push off the walls, how to generate power on the swim while reducing resistance.

Pool design, it is possible to design pools that will be faster. The depth, the material of the tiles, size of the tiles etc.

Height, as swimmers get taller they generally get faster.

Edit: forgot to mention, training regimes and nutrition is also changing the whole time, but I would imagine this is the same for most sports.

Pherekydes

Chivito550 wrote: »

Why are swimming times constantly getting faster while for the most part athletics times have stagnated or regressed? Doping doesn't explain it as 1) not everyone is doping 2) people doped 20 years ago too and 3) people dope in athletics and other sports too. Michelle Smith's juiced time from 1996 would not have beaten one of the 8 finalists in the 400 free there.

Main factors include swimwear design, pool design and the fact that nearly every swim race is an all-out time trial, and of course their training is geared towards hitting split times. That's nearly all they do.

Joe_ Public

walshb wrote: »

Mark Foster was asked by Balding to discuss Kitan Hozzu (can't spell that name), and he said he likes to believe fairy-tales that hard work and real attention to detail can produce greatness. I took from what he said that he deep down believed her to be clean. She obliterated her 400 IM record the other day.

I have to agree with Foster. Take Peaty. That lad is juts a great swimmer, end of.

They discussed Hozzsu the other day as well and were talking about how she'd left the club set-up to which she'd been attached some time ago to take up with her husband who appears to be a bit of an eccentric character and were wondering/speculating about what kind of training regime they were running which, to them, seemed very intriguing and secretive. While not appearing to be casting aspersions, I still couldn't help casting my mind back to the Smith/Eric situation 20 years ago when all the same business about supposedly amazing training programmes was tossed around as well.

I don't really know what they believe or not but thought they were getting close to asking serious questions on that one.

Chivito550

Joe_ Public wrote: »

They discussed Hozzsu the other day as well and were talking about how she'd left the club set-up to which she'd been attached some time ago to take up with her husband who appears to be a bit of an eccentric character and were wondering/speculating about what kind of training regime they were running which, to them, seemed very intriguing and secretive. While not appearing to be casting aspersions, I still couldn't help casting my mind back to the Smith/Eric situation 20 years ago when all the same business about supposedly amazing training programmes was tossed around as well.

I don't really know what they believe or not but thought they were getting close to asking serious questions on that one.

Seems dodgey to me.

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/are-katinka-hosszus-performances-being-aided/

Dan man

Correction: It's Padraig McCarthy who is the first up of our team eventers today.

Joe_ Public

Chivito550 wrote: »

Seems dodgey to me.

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/are-katinka-hosszus-performances-being-aided/

There's certainly something quite cold and clinical about how she runs her career, it's almost a business as opposed to a sporting vocation.

Joe_ Public

Nasty fall for Padraig McCarthy there. Horse seemed a bit shaken but no damage done I think.

Dan man

Well that's an absolutely disastrous start for us in the cross-country. Any hopes we had hang by a thread now.

KevIRL

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Nasty fall for Padraig McCarthy there. Horse seemed a bit shaken but no damage done I think.

Is he eliminated completely now?

Joe_ Public

KevIRL wrote: »

Is he eliminated completely now?

Good question. I guess there'd have to be a vet inspection before carrying on. Maybe they're allowed to have a reserve horse, I don't know fully to be honest.

EDIT: I looked up this in the rules and, although I'm still not 100 per clear, it would seem to indicate he is indeed completely eliminated now:

. Disqualification or elimination – Eventing
Disqualification or elimination from one of the tests entails elimination/disqualification from the
final classification.

Mr.Prodston

That seems like such an awkwardly dangerous fence though? If I were a horse I wouldn't have a clue how to approach it!

Joe_ Public

RTE commentator: "Such a lovely expression on that horse. Such a willing character."

Knew what was coming next. "Oh no," as horse falters and nearly ejects rider over the obstacle!

Ososlo

Paddy's looking in good form!

Joe_ Public

Ososlo wrote: »

Paddy's looking in good form!

He can step it up, thought he won first round but didn't get it.

Ososlo

Joe_ Public wrote: »

He can step it up, thought he won first round but didn't get it.

Seem well matched! Ain't gonna be a walkover anyhow!

All square now!!!

Joe_ Public

It's a fantastic fight. Just a brutal all out scrap. Experience to take it home and afitness!!

marienbad

Rowing - womens lightweight double skull through to the semis .

biZrb

So are the men, they won their heat, fantastic rowing today

Ososlo

Oh dear that's a shocker.

Joe_ Public

Was an amazing fight. Thought he'd got it, but not too many complaints. Took some ferocious hits from the Spaniard in fairness.

Cosmo Kramer

A second massive blow for us in boxing coming on the back of the O'Reilly disaster. A repeat of last time's overall games performance already looking unlikely. Assuming there's no way back for O'Reilly that's three of Dodge's top six medal hopes already gone out.

REBELSAFC

What are all the whistles at the eventing? They seem to be very distracting?

The Rings The Flame

It's gotten to the stage where any first round defeat for an Irish boxer is a shock, never mind Paddy Barnes.

walshb

Barnes I think deserved that. Close, but to me he was better.

Strazdas

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

A second massive blow for us in boxing coming on the back of the O'Reilly disaster. A repeat of last time's overall games performance already looking unlikely. Assuming there's no way back for O'Reilly that's three of Dodge's top six medal hopes already gone out.

Conlan and Taylor still looking good you would think, given their sheer quality and class.

Strazdas

biZrb wrote: »

So are the men, they won their heat, fantastic rowing today

And in a very fast time too : these guys could medal with a bit of luck