Popped into see my parents this afternoon and my 83 year old dad was raving about how good the skateboarding had been!
Only the Olympics gets minority sports that kind of exposure.
Yes, my Dad was blown away by the BMX and caught the last lap of the mountain biking and was duly impressed so I told him that's what I did out riding. The women's madison was amazing.
Watched some proper BMX racers on our pumptrack. The downhill/mtb guys couldn't understand how they rode the doubles with the bikes 6inches off the deck when they were 6foot off the floor.
Note it was the German coach that thumped the horse not the rider. I was impressed by the restraint and persistance of the rider. I'd have got off and walked the thing back to the box before the first jump, she got the thing over four. A German and Russian put out by the same horse or when the Olympics are a just a lottery.
What do you do with a horse like that in a public setting? It had already had a bad experience with the Russian but was put back into the same environment by the organisers. It was doing the exact opposite to the five commands to go forward it was being given. At that point you normally give up, but this is the Olympics so you're expected to give your all even with a recalcitrant beast. The result is what we saw.
The system is flawed, expecting riders to jump a horse that doesn't know the rider. The riders can't even warm up their horse, someone else does it.
Note it was the German coach that thumped the horse not the rider. I was impressed by the restraint and persistance of the rider.
I was watching it live, the rider gave it at least two very sharp ‘taps’ (full on whacks) with the crop before she tried to start her round. I was shouting at the telly telling her to stop hitting the horse- my partner reminded me that she couldn’t hear me….
According to the expert ( won silver in 2012 I think) on the tv today they can ask for the reserve horse if their selection had been seen to be spooked by another rider or out of sorts earlier, but as she said they often don’t “because the horse is the reserve for a reason”
Weird podium ceremony for the men's Keirin, awarding the gold, playing the national anthem, holding an interview and then awarding silver and bronze almost as if they were in a different race 😉
Just read we will match the 2012 medal haul. Thats brilliant, no home advantage and to do this with all the challenges athletes faced over the last year and a half is so great to see.
Just reading about Lauren Price - gold medal at middleweight in boxing, she's also played football for Wales, won World, European and British kickboxing titles and has also represented Wales at international level at netball and taekwondo. That's pretty diverse! 🙂
What happened in the women’s Omnium?
What happened in the women’s Omnium?
Lots of crashes in the last couple of laps of the initial scratch race.
Which included Laura Kenny, so she was out of the medals.
Amazing long attack by JK to win the men’s Keirin though. I wonder if he specifically set the gearing to do just that, knowing his raw sprinting power wasn’t there any more?
Kenny's keirin win was amazing and hilarious. In an interview he says he told his coach on the startline that if there was a gap he might just launch it. You can see from about 30yds before that derny pulls off that he's aware that he's aware that there's a gap to the Aussie and that Glaetzer is more concerned about looking behind than watching what Kenny's doing. So, pure opportunism and brilliant to watch.
I don't think that it was solely the Scratch race crash that did for LK....13th in the elimination race is 12 places worse than she normally does!
Baseball honestly how is that an Olympic sport how many countries actually play it? Oh and well done Japan getting the gold. Maybe American will want it withdrawn now.
I think that it's already been canned for the next Olympics. Totally agree though, although fairly hilarious that USA didn't win
Baseball honestly how is that an Olympic sport how many countries actually play it? Oh and well done Japan getting the gold. Maybe American will want it withdrawn now.
The Japanese are obsessed with baseball, probably the only other country after America that really plays it; which is possibly why the host country chose to include it.
It’s always amused me that America has a national competition that it calls the World Series, then gets beaten at an international competition! #mutleys****