Olympics

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i'm staying up until an ungodly hour watching the cycling road race tonight, rooting for canadian michael woods.

it's not helping that for the first 90km this is the most boring bike race of the year so far. :yawn:
 
That's an awesome story! It's really nice to have Olympics on, although it's really sad that Japan can't reap all the benefits of it.

How good was this moment [tweet]1418606985881133064[/tweet]
 
the scoring was a little complex to figure out at first, but once i got the hang of it, the skateboarding was awesome. really looking forward to watching the women compete this evening.
 
Great Olympics so far. Been watching pretty much everything. Lydia Jacoby's win and the footage of her classmates going nuts in Alaska is the highlight for me up to this point. Thrilling.

Also, with Michael Phelps in studio doing commentary for NBC I had some flashbacks to 2008 when this forum was still active and we went through like four or five full Olympics threads during the Beijing games. Great memories. What time does Phelps swim? ;) (Shoutout Dalton and NSW)
 
Really enjoyed the swimming this year, has been fantastic for Australia. Had my heart in my mouth for the women’s 4x100m medley just then, Olympic record again. And then the men’s USA team finish the meet with a world record, outstanding.
 
The swimming is so much fun. Feel like it slows down for us from here, although it's a huge novelty to have someone so deep in the 100m. Whatever happens, we're a week into the Games and we've got our equal-third-most Golds ever, and on track for potentially our best ever Olympics.

Emma McKeon is a legend. Wild to think she has become our most successful Olympian ever. Also now ranked 23rd of all time, both male and female, in terms of medals won. She also equalled the record for most medals won in a single Games by a female with 7; the best in more than 70 years. That 4x100m medley was unreal, glad I caught it live.

Our best day at the Olympics ever today, with golds in the BMX and the sailing too.
 
I can’t believe McKeon broke 2 Olympic records in an hour. Hope she at least gets a stamp like Titmus has.

But yeah our best events are over, happy to see us up on fourth for now at least. Browning just did us proud, joint fourth in a semi final is still a major achievement.

Oh and what a thriller the Matildas v GB football was. Was heartbreaking to see England lose the Euros final a few weeks back but I was pumping the air when Fowler got that first goal in extra time.

Need to start looking into sorting out Brisbane 2032, missing the London games is a regret.
 
Funny how the US is the only country on earth to sort medals by total instead of gold. .

Emma McKeon is a legend. Wild to think she has become our most successful Olympian ever. Also now ranked 23rd of all time, both male and female, in terms of medals won. She also equalled the record for most medals won in a single Games by a female with 7; the best in more than 70 years.

.

But why are you counting her 3 bronze this year, and the 2 silver and 1 bronze from 2016?
 
I can’t believe McKeon broke 2 Olympic records in an hour. Hope she at least gets a stamp like Titmus has.

But yeah our best events are over, happy to see us up on fourth for now at least. Browning just did us proud, joint fourth in a semi final is still a major achievement.

Oh and what a thriller the Matildas v GB football was. Was heartbreaking to see England lose the Euros final a few weeks back but I was pumping the air when Fowler got that first goal in extra time.

Need to start looking into sorting out Brisbane 2032, missing the London games is a regret.

That Matildas game was insane. Dreaming of what they can achieve...

Men's 100m was great, cool to see a buff as fuck Italian get the win, the Chinese bloke was exceptional in his semi. Browning certainly did us proud, and he seemed pretty confident he'll go under 10sec in the coming months.

I was also loving the high jump, the theatrics were great. To see Starc get fifth was awesome (apparently his 2.35m clear would have been enough for a medal at every Olympics since Barcelona).

This was absolutely the moment of the Games so far, so beautiful:

[tweet]1421815310546526210[/tweet]

But why are you counting her 3 bronze this year, and the 2 silver and 1 bronze from 2016?

Nothing wrong with counting silver and bronze, but Gold > total ;)
 
Nothing wrong with counting silver and bronze, but Gold > total ;)

But gold can be part of total if there is any to include...

I can see arguments for both. I don't think it would be fair to say, for example, that Italy has had a "worse" showing than South Korea with 10 more medals overall just because they have one less gold. Plenty of countries specialize in specific events or have one standout athlete and go home with one medal total and it happens to be gold. Kosovo has as many gold medals as Brazil so far lol
 
Yes, but the US is literally the only country on earth who ranks medals that way. It's not the Olympic standard. I hate to accuse of American exceptionalism, but what other answer is there? The official standard is to rank by golds, then silvers, then bronze. I just find it really strange that the US uses its own arbitrary method.
 
Yes, but the US is literally the only country on earth who ranks medals that way. It's not the Olympic standard. I hate to accuse of American exceptionalism, but what other answer is there? The official standard is to rank by golds, then silvers, then bronze. I just find it really strange that the US uses its own arbitrary method.


I’ve always grown up understanding two races: one for golds and one for totals. There’s a whole history on this with points systems and who values what, and none of it is real because there is no “winner” of the Olympics.

You routinely say you hate American exceptionalism, it’s clearly something you’re passionate about. It comes off as hate for America. It must kill you to see a country you hate so much be prideful of accomplishment. And that’s just that, pride is a dangerous thing. That’s where you get “exceptionalism.” But pride based upon achievement is a valid form of pride that isn’t a bad form of pride. To hate a country is wrong. To hate is wrong. I don’t hate Russia. I don’t hate China. I might take exceptions to governments, least not my own, but I want a peaceful and prosperous world where you can live openly and freely and have basic human needs covered. For you to get so bent out of shape because of a convention is absurd. Do you also hate America because we unfortunately do not use the metric system? Why not just agree with those who are on your side that it’s stupid that we don’t? Honestly that’s far more valid than you getting salty because a country uses a conventional system for its benefit in lieu of a totally non existent or legitimate system.

It’s bad enough when we torture athletes into making them believe that silver isn’t good enough anyways. There’s nothing wrong with an individual or entity being proud of accomplishment on the basis of coming in second or third.

Ultimately though, I don’t understand why you’ve subscribed to some school of thought that encourages this “us vs. you” mentality. You come off just as elitist as the people you’re criticizing for “American exceptionalism” when you do this.
 
Do you also hate America because we unfortunately do not use the metric system?

Absolutely!

(It's great that you've got your head screwed on right.)

It's pretty rife over here, anti-Americanism, and it's fair enough in my view. We are inundated with Americanisms, American culture, American politics, and it's tiring. There's a "we're the biggest and the best" energy that comes from America that most of the rest of the world perceives (in my opinion), and it permeates through everything, from food to music to film to culture to sport to politics to nature, to everything.

We're having a bit of a moment in the sun (this is on track to be our best Olympics ever) and so we're enjoying ragging on the Americans when we get the chance. I absolutely getting a kick out of seeing America not succeed quite so much, because, living in a Western country with a small population, America overshadows everything.

Also, I wouldn't take any of what I say about it too seriously. I would think this would be a more jovial conversation in real life.
 
Absolutely!

(It's great that you've got your head screwed on right.)

It's pretty rife over here, anti-Americanism, and it's fair enough in my view. We are inundated with Americanisms, American culture, American politics, and it's tiring. There's a "we're the biggest and the best" energy that comes from America that most of the rest of the world perceives (in my opinion), and it permeates through everything, from food to music to film to culture to sport to politics to nature, to everything.

We're having a bit of a moment in the sun (this is on track to be our best Olympics ever) and so we're enjoying ragging on the Americans when we get the chance. I absolutely getting a kick out of seeing America not succeed quite so much, because, living in a Western country with a small population, America overshadows everything.

Also, I wouldn't take any of what I say about it too seriously. I would think this would be a more jovial conversation in real life.



You pretty much just ignored everything I wrote and explained why you hate America, rather than addressing anything about why it is you are so hateful at all.

For the record, I’m routinely put in this exact same position with my elitist roommates from New England. I’m from Florida, it’s not exactly the shining star of states in terms of politics. But Florida is a very complex and diverse place. It irks me to no end when they insist upon calling it a “conservative” state. As though the winner-take-all election that occurs isn’t routinely (and infamously) split dead even down the middle. There are more Democrat voters in Florida than there are *people* in their home state of Connecticut. To take such a complex place and use such a grotesque broad brush is flat out ignorant and simple-minded. Not only that, it diminishes and discredits the very existence of the people that are just like me and you.

In my experience living in and working in a handful of countries in Europe, the only people I’ve found that have the same “overwhelming” view of Americans as you do are French people. I don’t hate french people. I love visiting France. I just know I have to look out for those people, just like you’ll have to look out for gun toting right wing lunatics in the US.

You can tell me not to take it seriously, but you really deliver your posts (just like the one I’m quoting) as affirmative rejections. If you’re so worried about american cultural influence, well, bad news, but that’s just a population thing. Of the English speaking world, amongst us five eyes, we have more people. I mean, we as a globe are still weaning off the British influence. Like, look at your flag man. It’s not like you can’t be Australian and proud and still not be offensive about it.

I have no doubt we’d get along just fine in person and a lot of internet writing is read without tone blah blah blah, but just the same a lot of internet writing is done that wouldn’t use the same words in person (because it would be awkward as fuck).
 
Yes, but the US is literally the only country on earth who ranks medals that way. It's not the Olympic standard. I hate to accuse of American exceptionalism, but what other answer is there? The official standard is to rank by golds, then silvers, then bronze. I just find it really strange that the US uses its own arbitrary method.

you seem to care a whole lot more than any actual americans do.
 
Do you also hate America because we unfortunately do not use the metric system? .

Hey, we use the metric system.

Once folks realized that 2 liters of soda was 3.6 ounces more than the previously used half gallon bottles, that stuck.

USA! USA! USA!

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Dressel‘s been an absolute machine in the water. Don’t know how he compares to Phelps in the US coverage but five golds in five races (setting a new Olympic or World record each time) is phenomenal.
 
This of course is anecdotal, but I've never known anyone to watch the Olympics with a "USA! USA!" mentality. They want to see great athleticism regardless of where it comes from. Cobbler, I think the hyper-jingoist American you allude to is not as common as you think.
 
Humans should not be able to do what Simone Biles is capable of doing. My first time watching her live. That she is capable of producing what she just did on the beam, despite everything that's happened for her this week, is utterly insane.
 
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