2016 Rio: General Olympic chat

I don't know if this can help (because of TV rights) but here's the TV site with every streaming http://www.rai.it/rio2016/ (click HOME on top left, then DIRETTE)

ARD (Germany), BBC (GB), Sporza (Belgium), NOS (Netherlands) are all doing excellent coverage, as usual. At least a dozen commercial-free livestreams, great stuff. And the television coverage is great, too. You get some focus on their respective countries' medal contenders, of course, but otherwise, focus on the live sports. I switch between the four countries's TV channels when I want to hear a particular commentary. I haven't even checked out RAI yet, pretty sure we have one or more of their channels, too.

Which is why I am so worried about 2018 and further, due to the rights moving to Eurosport. Olympics coverage by a commercial party. *shudder*

we can't really have a invidual thread for every single sport

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Why not?:yes2:

cathlen said:

Nothing to be sorry about! I also think it's harder to get 3 bronze medals than one gold, which official medal table does not reflect. I'm not from that big country either Feel free to post a table by number of medals I will post a table after every day, hope you will too for easy comparison I'd love to see Poland break the magic ten medals per Olympic curse. The last 3 Olympics there were 10, time for change! And I don't care that much about colour. I'm angry when athletes cry or get mad (or when their respective country medias do that) when they're second like it's discomfiture, when in fact it's great accomplishment and many others would love being in their place, but will never be.

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cathlen said:

I'm always happy to see small countries win for the very first time! That's what Olympics is about for me. No matter where you come from, you can do that!

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I couldn't agree with you more, cathlen.

Of course, winning a gold medal is a massive achievement. But, it is a big achievement to win any medal. So if you can win more than one medal, it doesn't matter about what colours they are. It is a special achievement.

Hey, if I were to win a silver or bronze medal, I would be delighted. Let's face it, there are far more people that don't have one than do. So, you'd be in an exclusive club.

thoakun said:

Only people from small country can understand that. You're right that it's too early to read into the medal table. Vietnam has got the first OGM in its history but that's probably the only gold we can get. We'll probably drop to 70 at the end of the Olympics.

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Exactly. Big countries like America and China only care about the number of gold medals they win. "Second is first loser" is the attitude. To me that is belittling the achievement of those that win medals that just happen to not be gold coloured.

For smaller countries like our's, winning a medal of any colour is something to be celebrated. So for your country to not only do it for the first time, but for it to be gold is an exceptional achievement.

And, don't put yourself down. You never know, now that you've got the monkey off your back, you might win some more medals before these Games are over!

karne said:

Ah, CaroLiza_fan, you use that fake table the Americans came up with to make themselves feel superior? :no:

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You know, I was really surprised that you wrote something like this. After all, we all know that the Americans only care about gold, so the total medal order wouldn't matter to them. So, I couldn't understand it.

Then I saw who was at the top of each version of the table. And suddenly your post made sense.

Congratulations!!! I hope you continue to be up there.

karne said:

I am sorry about your male gymnast, though. Our commentators were saying he has had knee injuries before.

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Don't follow gymnastics, so I had to look it up. And all I can say is "WOW!!!" :shocked:

To carry on despite the injury just shows how determined he is to make the most of the opportunity.

Typical stubborn Irishman!

Here's a story I found about him:

http://www.the42.ie/kieran-behan-rio-olympics-dislocated-knee-2914309-Aug2016/

So, he's had pretty major problems with his leg!

By the way, Kieran's parents are both from the South. His Dad's a Dubliner. But his Mum is from Co. Monaghan, which is in Ulster. So, yeah, I'll claim him!

(Well, I've claimed Sinead and John Kerr using the same logic - their Mum is from Co. Donegal, which is another of the 3 Ulster counties which is in the South)

CaroLiza_fan

P.S. Yep, I will gladly post the overall medal tables each day. Assuming of course that somebody keeps the tables on Wikipedia up to date (really don't like the tables on the Rio 2016 website. Or the Rio 2016 website full stop!)

Considering Olympics are in Rio, I obviously would like Brazil to win some medals. Honestly, I do not care what color. Depending on the sport, all I want is for Brazil make the second round. In gymnastics, my favourite summer sport, a medal of any color would be good, but I know that the chances are minimal, so honestly, if the team makes to team finals I will be thrilled already. In individual, I would like to see a gymnast in the top ten. What I pray for, however, is that they do not bomb. Anything above not bombing is gain.

CaroLiza_fan said:

.. After all, we all know that the Americans only care about gold ...

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:dev2: Many Americans do not feel that way. I object to your sweeping generalization.

MalAssada said:

Considering Olympics are in Rio, I obviously would like Brazil to win some medals. Honestly, I do not care what color. Depending on the sport, all I want is for Brazil make the second round. In gymnastics, my favourite summer sport, a medal of any color would be good, but I know that the chances are minimal, so honestly, if the team makes to team finals I will be thrilled already. In individual, I would like to see a gymnast in the top ten. What I pray for, however, is that they do not bomb. Anything above not bombing is gain.

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Don't worry - with the way your female footballers have been playing so far, I wouldn't bet against them winning a medal!

And I would love it to be gold.

You have so many good players, and I suspect that quite a few of them are going to retire after these Olympics. And they deserve to go out on a high.

CaroLiza_fan

cathlen said:

we can't really have a invidual thread for every single sport.

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gsk8 said:

Why not?:yes2:

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...or two like for women's gymnastics

ice coverage said:

:dev2: Many Americans do not feel that way. I object to your sweeping generalization.

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That was supposed to be a jibe at the climate created by the sporting federations, and more specifically their funding bodies. And the way that if you don't win, you get less support. So, winning is all that matters if you want to survive in your sport.

Should have made it clearer.

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

That was supposed to be a jibe at the climate created by the sporting federations, and more specifically their funding bodies. And the way that if you don't win, you get less support. So, winning is all that matters if you want to survive in your sport.

Should have made it clearer.

CaroLiza_fan

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You are entitled to your opinion, but I still don't like what you are expressing.

It is perfectly reasonable, IMO, to give more support to winners. And it is unfair to equate that with "winning is all that matters if you want to survive in your sport."

snowflake said:

...or two like for women's gymnastics

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When I created the Women's Football thread, I was fully expecting somebody else to create one for the Men's tournament. But, it seems that nobody is interested in it, because no thread has appeared.

And that in itself is interesting. I would never have expected that the Women's tournament held more interest than the Men's. There again, that was before I realised that the Men's tournament was essentially an U-23 tournament. And it is hardly surprising that a Senior level tournament featuring the top players in the sport would hold more interest than an age-level tournament.

I would have loved to have separate threads for the Men's and Women's hockey. But after seeing that other sports had joint threads, I decided to do a joint one just in case there were not enough posters to sustain 2 threads. And so far, I have been the only person posting in it! And consequently the posts have only about the teams that feature players from my hometown!

That was a major shock. I thought hockey was far more popular than that. But, there again, maybe i thought that because I went to a school that was big into hockey. And they were indoctrinating us that it was the most important sport in the world...

...I was never that into hockey!

CaroLiza_fan

@ CaroLiza_fan

I think some sports do fine with joint threads. Swimming has a thread for both men and women. I started handball for both men and women. Olympics has just begun. Many sports are still in qualifications rounds. Last olympics men's football was discussed a lot. Being a youth competion actually makes it charming. Not many big names and chances for young guys to shine.

What's confusing to me is that women's artistic gymnastics has two different threads

Confused what happened to my equestrian post. It diverts to here but I can't see it here?

gsk8 said:

Why not?:yes2:

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I just doubt that many of these threads would sustain enough interest to hold discussion, but of course I don't mind if someone wants to make invidual threads!
I think it was first time I watched beach volleyball at Olympics! To be fair, it's first time female Polish team qualified for Olympics, so there weren't coverege from this event before in TV.

TheGrandSophy said:

Confused what happened to my equestrian post. It diverts to here but I can't see it here?

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I started one and it is also gone. Hmmmmm....

Johar said:

I started one and it is also gone. Hmmmmm....

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Yes, I replied in your thread. It seemed to be moved and divert to this thread, but actually the posts just disappeared.

Anyway, I was commenting on how pleased I was at how William Fox-Pitt had done. Lying in first after the eventing dressage. After all he has been through, I am over the moon that he is doing so well with Chilli.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/when-horses-fly-getting-horse-rio-olympics

How the horses fly to Rio.

There's so much booing from the crowd in various sports whenever I watch from the TV. Is this normal?

The medal table after DAY 3:


The biggest suprise: Novak Djokovic loosing to Juan martin Del Potro in first tennis match. Del Potro is a very good tennis player, but that's still a suprise. And Canada winning with USA in Volleyball!
Hope today the weather wouldn't disturb another competitions....

Interspectator said:

There's so much booing from the crowd in various sports whenever I watch from the TV. Is this normal?

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Several newspapers like Time, Reuters and the Telegraph have addressed this issue. Jeering, taunting and boos are common among the Brazillian fans as their sporting culture is largely defined by football. The nationalistic bunch tend to think of every sport competition as a football match and take their enthusiasm too far.