The AH Tokyo 2020 Olympics/Paralympics Thread in 2021

Eeeek!!

Brilliant!

Great stuff. Fantastic just get a set. Keep it going

What a fecking hero even winning a set against him is huge for him.

4-4 in the decider.

Wang looks a bit rattled at having it put up to him.

Nhat a picture of zen calm.....

Challenges paying off for Nhat. 6-5 up.

The commentators need to find an alternative phrase for "moving in for the kill"!!

I read an interview with her a while back and she really seemed to have her head screwed on right. Just a great attitude and swimming didn't seem to be her whole life. So, fair play to her!

I'm glad to see Oleksiak pick up a bronze too as she had a bumper last Olympics that seemed like it might have been a flash in the pan. Oleksiak's shocked and delayed attitude to winning joint gold at the 100m freestyle in Rio is one of my highlights of that Olympics.

This fella is one of the revelations from the Irish Team - he's just brilliant, imagine in 3 years time!

Does this lad play in Dublin? Pity the lads going up against him weekly 😂

Oh God, this is nail biting stuff!

Aye, sure even Mona has surpassed her own goals already at this Olympics.

Just a few broad points, not relating to any specific athletes out there:

To be fair the majority of the criticism on thread is not about the athletes themselves, but around the media hype and distortion surrounding them. But the Irish media not covering itself in glory is nothing new (see PR stunt yesterday covered as news as a great example)

The idea that you can't be critical of the athletes performance or the Olympic programme of you weren't an Olympian yourself is silly. The majority of the individual athletes out there get between €20-40k of individual grants per year, so the rest of us do have a stake in this too. Expectations need to be realistic though.

Ah no, it's not looking good