[rhulad]

Watching anything but the equestrian events and basketball. Horses have no place in the Olympics as far as I'm concerned, and I really just don't like watching basketball.

[amphibian]

Tapper, on 30 July 2012 - 03:17 PM, said:

Come on Amph, that is too easy an argument to make and you know it. The sport is about grace, not strength. In circus sports, the emphasis for women is equally on grace, as is ballet. The one thing easily changeable is ask them to stand up straight instead of with a very hollow, unnatural back, but other than that, very little can be done without changing the essence of the sport entirely.

The sport is about grace and not strength? Then why the technically demanding requirements? Have you seen the flexibility of yoga people or dancers in their twenties and thirties? The limiting factor in women's gymnastics is usually weight. That's it, plain and simple. Adolescent women just don't weigh as much as adult women and can thus jump higher.

If grace truly was the deciding factor, the gymnasts would have longer careers since they'd have less technically demanding standards and more time to work on truly being graceful, rather than flinging themselves as high and far as possible.

Quote

Did you take into account that only since 1974 is there an age limit (then 14) which has been raised to 16 as late as the 1990s?
I agree with you that the sport is extremely unhealthy for female athletes. However, if a 20 year old is going to be consistently outscored on just about everything by a 16 year old, 20 year olds won't compete. If you set an age limit at 20, a lot of gymnasts will not make it to that age to begin with, and they'll be rotated out at 22, 23 max.

Larissa Latynina was 22 in her first Olympics - being born in 1934 and being an Olympian in 1956. She competed until she was 32 and retired in 1966.

By the time she was done, gymnastics had changed through scoring incentives such that Nadia Comaneci was 14 when she became a star in 1976. She did make it to the 1980 Games, but was done after that. In 10 years between 1966 and 1976, the sport of female gymnastics changed and it hasn't really changed back to allowing truly adult women to compete.

Quote

Taking women's soccer as an example is somewhat unfeasible, as that sport is very much in development still. Men don't last that long (keepers excepted), and if the sport ever reaches the same heights as the men's do, they'll notice the same.

Leaving keepers aside, men in soccer can have careers on a professional level that begin in the late teens/early twenties and go until the early thirties or mid thirties. The women in the established nations have careers that are similar in span and starting points/ending points, with some of the women being like Jaap Stam and lasting into their late thirties and even 40s in the case of Michelle Akers. Furthermore, women's soccer is now in its adolescent stages, rather than the toddler time when only the USWNT was actually good at soccer. Japan is truly the best team in the world right now and the best player in the world is Brazilian. Sweden has a fairly good team as well.

In track and field (an individual sport), Florence Griffith-Joyner, perhaps the best clean women's runner ever, qualified for her first Olympics (the boycotted 1980 Games) at 20 and retired at roughly 29 after the 1988 Olympics. This is not an unusual career path and most elite women's track and field athletes get to go through two Olympic cycles at the least.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 30 July 2012 - 07:47 PM

[Slow Ben]

Briar King, on 30 July 2012 - 06:50 PM, said:

Female Water Polo is on now. I don't think I've ever actually watched a game of this before in the US. I'm guessing it's mainly Played in Europe...?

I swear my legs get tired just watching five minutes of water polo.

I dont know about womens, but during the mens match the other day they said that most of the us mens team played in a league in Europe.

[Beezulbubba]

Go see a water polo match live. You get an appreciation for how brutal the sport really is. Television doesn't capture the underwater action that occurs between two opponents. These guys (and gals) are thumping each other viciously.

[worry]

They are basically leg wrestling under the surface. Also, apparently, they changed the rules recently so that non-goalie defenders (meaning anyone else, I suppose) can only have one arm raised at a time, and I imagine it's to get scores higher. I noticed that quarters are only 8 min. long, but that's still exhausting just to watch.

[LadyMTL]

I watched some water polo matches during the Beijing Olympics and yeah, it looks so brutal. It's like someone decided to take wrestling, swimming, soccer (or football) and toss it all together and see who could actually play it without dying of exhaustion.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Interesting stuff watching you two argue about gymnasts.

You are both aware that this year features a male and a female gymnast at their SIXTH olympiad, yes?
A level of longevity that's rarely achieved in ANY olympic sport (except possibly dressage/sailing)

jordan jovtchev / Yordan Yovchev - qualified for the rings final this year at 39,

oksana chusovitina - qualified for the vault final this year at 37

[amphibian]

Cocoreturns, on 30 July 2012 - 10:32 PM, said:

Interesting stuff watching you two argue about gymnasts.

You are both aware that this year features a male and a female gymnast at their SIXTH olympiad, yes?
A level of longevity that's rarely achieved in ANY olympic sport (except possibly dressage/sailing)

jordan jovtchev / Yordan Yovchev - qualified for the rings final this year at 39,

oksana chusovitina - qualified for the vault final this year at 37

They're the outliers. By far. But it shows that there are certain events that adult women can still do and do well in an era of competitive teenagers.

[Tiste Simeon]

Loving the Olympics & despite all the cynicism & anger that preceded it I think so far Britain has done well, though the empty seats do frustrate me... Supporting team GB though! Watching the double diving at the moment & like a lot of olympic sports, I find myself instantly an expert in it! Also how come China wins everything? Madness!

[Traveller]

I feel sorry for some of these athletes that have a slim chance of getting a medal, but have a whole day of build-up by the BBC, including family interviews and such. Who then get treated like they've let everyone down if they don't win anything.

Good to watch so far though.

[Vengeance]

Traveller, on 31 July 2012 - 08:36 PM, said:

I feel sorry for some of these athletes that have a slim chance of getting a medal, but have a whole day of build-up by the BBC, including family interviews and such. Who then get treated like they've let everyone down if they don't win anything.

Good to watch so far though.

Better then NBC showing a run down of highlights and trying to pass it off as live. Or not showing the Opening Ceremony live and whole and instead of editing shit out and putting a ton of commercials in with crappy commentators.

[Tiste Simeon]

Haha, NBC apologises for sucking at showing the Olympics

[Beezulbubba]

[Tiste Simeon]

Woohoo 2 golds today, gotta love Bradley Wiggins! Go Team GB!

[Fid]

Tiste Simeon, on 01 August 2012 - 03:14 PM, said:

Woohoo 2 golds today, gotta love Bradley Wiggins! Go Team GB!

That was classic. The first was perhaps more satisfying given the lack of Au coloured stuff to date but then like London buses, Wiggo and Froome deliver in the time trial - awesome. And immediately leap frog South Africa in the medal table

[Mezla PigDog]

Still waiting for the highlights of the time trials on tv. Other half is insisting on watching the football.

My favourite Olympic sports are the horsey ones (since it's the only sport I've ever really done and enjoyed) and the gymnastics (since it's the only one I can't remotely imagine doing - I can't do a cartwheel). I really like weightlifting too but I'll pretty much watch anything. We've been looking at getting some last minute tickets as I have the next few days off work but we can't decide how much is too much money and for what sport.

[Coco with marshmallows]

Mezla PigDog, on 01 August 2012 - 08:52 PM, said:

We've been looking at getting some last minute tickets as I have the next few days off work but we can't decide how much is too much money and for what sport.

For my suggestion i'd say try to get tickets for the rings final to see Jovtchev (mentioned upthread) - its his sixth Olympics and he's in the final - that alone is surely worth it in terms of an 'epic moment' type of deal.

[Mentalist]

haven't had time to watch much (working 7 days a week would do that), but when i'm at the office I eagerly follow Ukraine's progress in just about anything.

Sadly, it looks like sports continue to die out--we actually don't have anyone in the Women's Individual gymnastic finals. I honestly can't believe that.

Also sad to see that we haven't got anyone to replace Klotchkova as a super-swimmer. ah well.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah but UKR owned at one of the rowing ones I think...
I continue to be impressed with the BBC in this, I'm loving all the "What you might have missed on Day X" on the website. I also continue to be amused at the stories coming from across the pond about NBC...

Edit: also can anyone tell me how can they disqualify people for "not trying hard enough to win"? Can anyone explain that?

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 02 August 2012 - 12:27 PM

[amphibian]

Tiste Simeon, on 02 August 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

Edit: also can anyone tell me how can they disqualify people for "not trying hard enough to win"? Can anyone explain that?

There was a round robin tourney in badminton. The #2 Chinese team unexpectedly lost and would have not been #2 going to the next round, so the #1 Chinese team tried to throw a game. However, the Koreans the #1 Chinese team were playing were also trying to throw a game and it kind of became a battle of "Who can lose the fastest". I think an Indonesian team was trying to lose as well. By all this "trying to lose", I mean they were being lethargic, not chasing anything down and flubbing as much as possible.

It was so bad that people were booing and yelling for ejecting all the competitors IN A BADMINTON MATCH!