Special Event: Rio 2016 Olympics - catchall thread

August 5, 2016 11:23 AM

There's a lot of sports events happening at the 2016 Rio Olympics. This is a thread for talking about any and all of 'em, but particularly those that don't have their own dedicated thread.
posted by cortex (638 comments total)

One record beaten already - Kim Woo-Jin beats the Archery 70m record.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:29 AM on August 5, 2016

I wasn't intending to root for the US in archery - my loyalty is with the S Koreans - but after seeing the US men get thoroughly fucked over with seeding, I hope one of them makes the podium at least. As it stands, only one of them has a shot at making it to the quarterfinals.

I'm also thrilled that none of the South Korean women will have to meet Tan Ya-ting until the semis. And there's a potential North Korean/South Korean match coming down the pipeline.
posted by imnotasquirrel at 12:04 PM on August 5, 2016

INRNG preview of tomorrow's men's cycling road race is worth reading.

In short, this is always an unpredictable race but with the course this year looking like a hilly classic (but with no summit finish) anything could happen. I'm going to pick Steven Cummings to win just for fun.
posted by selfnoise at 12:12 PM on August 5, 2016

I'm sick of all the fuss made over swimming and gymnastics when we should be focusing on the One True Sport to rule them all: racewalking.
posted by imnotasquirrel at 12:13 PM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Race walking is seriously one of the most brutal sports out there. The attrition rate in London, due to exhaustion or penalties, was fearsome.
posted by clorox at 1:05 PM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is this where we keep track of how many athletes develop MRSA from the polluted water?
posted by Justinian at 3:28 PM on August 5, 2016

Stuff that's not about the sports goes on the blue. We're gonna try to keep the Fanfare sports threads for actually discussing sports and not all the other stuff.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:39 PM on August 5, 2016

Is this where we place our bets on whether there will be more zika infections from mosquitoes or sex?
posted by Sys Rq at 4:15 PM on August 5, 2016

Nope.
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:16 PM on August 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

Ah, the absurdity of NBC tape-delaying the opening ceremony, mostly so it can add breaks and cut out a lot of countries from the competitors' march.

"It's a ceremony, not a contest," said Bob Costas. Well, it's a ceremony that the rest of the fucking world watches live, regardless of time zone. And you'll pretend that it's live during the broadcast.
posted by holgate at 5:16 PM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm hoping there'll be other horsey folk on here who'll join me in squeeing for Michael Jung and Beezie Madden (and fine, your favorite riders/horses too).
posted by TwoStride at 5:19 PM on August 5, 2016

Not Michael and Beezie (wrong country) but I'm definitely going to attempt to watch the equestrian events, although I say that every year and then get frustrated by lack of coverage/bounced coverage/poor streaming/etc. Fingers crossed it's better this year.
posted by sardonyx at 8:12 PM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is there some place other than NBC to watch the Games? After watching the opening for five minutes I am so bugged that I am already looking at skipping the whole damn thing.
posted by cairnoflore at 8:44 PM on August 5, 2016

Never mind...I didn't scroll far enough to see the next thread.
posted by cairnoflore at 8:52 PM on August 5, 2016

Not a big fan of the on-screen graphics so far.
posted by clorox at 12:23 AM on August 6, 2016

I was just looking over the schedule overview here, and was pleasantly surprised at how clear the icons for each sport were; how I can tell at a glance what most of them are without checking the words next to them.

Except equestrian. Whose icon still looks to me like a stick figure sitting astride a fishing rod and calling it a horse.
posted by frimble at 12:25 AM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

The cycling road race looks to be unpredictable, and therefore exciting. I'm not sure if they are wearing radios, but I hope not. It would be good if Cav gets it but basically I'm looking for a good race.
posted by carter at 5:18 AM on August 6, 2016

"The great and good Mike Tirico"? C'mon, Al, you can do better than that...
posted by Melismata at 5:26 AM on August 6, 2016

Watching the start of the road race on the NBC Apple TV app. Kinda weird/cool to watch pros race with zero commentary and just the ambient sounds.
posted by strange chain at 5:48 AM on August 6, 2016

Holy cow! The rowing conditions. Is that normal?
posted by idb at 5:51 AM on August 6, 2016

ORF on the cycling road race: "For Austria, the best result would seem to be, if an Austrian can remain with the pack and get lucky right at the end, possibly as high as a top-20 finish."

I love realistic national commentary. Earlier today, "Well, we're hoping to get more medals than the 0 we won in London. Three would be exceeding all expectations."
posted by frimble at 5:56 AM on August 6, 2016 [5 favorites]

I just want everyone to root for my cousin, Sean Furey, who is competing in his second Olympics (and probably his last) in the javelin competition on the 17th. He's a great kid who had a really difficult upbringing (Dad was....well, his mom is amazing) and overcame a lot to become just an amazing guy.
posted by xingcat at 6:05 AM on August 6, 2016 [26 favorites]

In watching the road races - what do the smaller non-bicycle powerhouse countries do for support (replacement bikes, food, possible emergency care)? Do they make deals with other countries that do have a support car? Do they just take their chances? Do they team up and go in for a shared car?
posted by julen at 6:19 AM on August 6, 2016

I'm sick of all the fuss made over swimming and gymnastics when we should be focusing on the One True Sport to rule them all: racewalking.

Race walking is seriously one of the most brutal sports out there. The attrition rate in London, due to exhaustion or penalties, was fearsome.

For real, this 2004 Sports Illustrated article on Olympic-hopeful Race Walker Al Heppner is one of the most beautiful and haunting things I've read. (previously on the Blue)
posted by duffell at 6:44 AM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cross-referencing this morning's schedule (thanks for that link, frimble) with the broadcast schedule I was ready to be all grumpy about the complete lack of fencing coverage here in the U.S. - but it seems like NBC has finally caught up with the times; the streaming coverage of multiple events is surprisingly extensive, and the NBC Sports Roku app actually seems pretty good so I can even watch on TV. Was there this much streaming available for the Sochi games, or have things really shifted in the last two years?

After a lifetime of being stuck watching NBC's curated coverage (which always feel like about 90% swimming/gymnastics for summer olympics/ 95% figure skating for winter olympics) this is exciting. I'm already looking forward to 2018 and finally being able to watch all the bobsled, luge, skeleton, and curling I can stand!
posted by usonian at 6:47 AM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

It looks like the water polo boys are hugging. Aww so sweet.
posted by phunniemee at 6:50 AM on August 6, 2016

"the D has been strong for the united states"

...

I really should watch sports more often.
posted by phunniemee at 6:57 AM on August 6, 2016 [6 favorites]

I really hate the bench Tirico is sitting on. NBC's set design has been needlessly overly arty in the worst way in any case (if there's an earthquake, the night-time set will cause seizures), but that bench eats utility in favor of looking like a knocked over pile of blocks in ways that are definitely not making a subtle nod to the infrastructure issues barely hidden during these Olympics.

I'm sorry I missed the West Virginian winning the shooting medal, but this year's men's water polo team looks stronger than the last Olympic team.
posted by julen at 7:07 AM on August 6, 2016

It must be the Olympics because here I am at 10am on a Saturday parked in front of the tv watching beach volleyball and enjoying it. Somewhere this week I read the Olympics described as sports for non sports fans and I'm guilty as charged.

One preview for Canada's women's rugby 7 team and I suddenly love rugby and think it is the best thing ever.
posted by Cuke at 7:22 AM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm in a barber shop and they have the TV tuned to NBC coverage for some reason (in Canada here). They're actually covering the Canada/Brazil men's preliminary beach volleyball round but HOLY SHIT IS THE COMMENTARY INANE.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:23 AM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

This commentary free stream of judo is a fun exercise in seeing how much I can enjoy something while understanding it not at all.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:23 AM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

Except equestrian. Whose icon still looks to me like a stick figure sitting astride a fishing rod and calling it a horse.

Yeah! That is a odd icon. One could be forgiven for thinking the event was "straddle fishing" or "crotch rodding" or something.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:31 AM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Canadian coverage of the road race keeps talking about the lack of race radio. Can someone explain why the Olympics doesn't have race radio if it is so important to race strategy?
posted by jacquilynne at 9:37 AM on August 6, 2016

This commentary free stream of judo is a fun exercise in seeing how much I can enjoy something while understanding it not at all.

Oh man, I watched a lot of fencing this way from London. It was fun to try and figure out what the hell was happening.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:38 AM on August 6, 2016

Also, spectators are getting in the face of and touching racers in the road race. One just gave a cyclist a push forward. Is that actually an allowable/usual thing or is there just not enough security on the course?
posted by jacquilynne at 9:44 AM on August 6, 2016

The Canadian coverage of the road race keeps talking about the lack of race radio. Can someone explain why the Olympics doesn't have race radio if it is so important to race strategy?

On the US coverage, we've seen several racers next to one of the red Referee cars talking to them to send a message back to their team car (the last one was a dude whose grab bag didn't include protein water) - this meant the rider had to pace himself to the car instead of racing on regularly and then catch up with the group and then later position himself to get the water he should have gotten in the first place. Similarly, if you want to change bikes and it wasn't pre-planned, you need to find a way to get the message back, and hand signals are tricky to pull off.

Otherwise, they have to rely on hand signals and slowing down to a team car so they can yell back and forth.

Was the spectator pushing a racer actually a spectator or an equipment guy who who finished fixing or swapping a bike and then gave a push start? We've been bouncing around to the rugby and back to the bike race, so we might have missed stuff!
posted by julen at 9:49 AM on August 6, 2016

Maybe they were a support person, but the cyclist they pushed was just riding past them and they ran out into the course and pushed the guy.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:51 AM on August 6, 2016

When I am old, I want to make love with the energy, passion and stamina of an on-course Olympic cycle race spectator.
posted by Wordshore at 11:14 AM on August 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

No kidding. Some guy is chasing the cyclists on foot, yelling at the top of his lungs, and he's keeping pace with them for awhile.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:23 AM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

The cycling is exciting but also confusing as the footage is all over the place, there's no leaderboard, and cyclists are falling all over the place like MeFites at the end of a five hour wine-tasting session. Last one still riding wins!!!
posted by Wordshore at 11:29 AM on August 6, 2016

3.2km to go - lead down to 9 seconds. I never knew cycling could be this exciting.
posted by Wordshore at 11:36 AM on August 6, 2016

The cycling is great, but I keep screaming at the fans. They're so close to getting in the way that I'm worried for everyone.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 11:38 AM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh no, a crash! Colombia and Italy are out. This descent is brutal.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 11:42 AM on August 6, 2016

The cycling is great, but I keep screaming at the fans. They're so close to getting in the way that I'm worried for everyone.

One of them was patting a racer on the back. I was like WHAT NO DON'T TOUCH THE ATHLETES
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:44 AM on August 6, 2016

What a great race at the end, there.
posted by Maecenas at 11:48 AM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's a bit odd to be watching this as someone who knows nothing, because the people who've been leading for the whole race has fallen off and the ultimate winner isn't someone the announcers I've been watching were even noticeably talking about until 5 minutes before the end of the race. They talked about the leaders, they talked about the Brits, they talked about the Italian and Spanish teams, and then 'hey, look, this Belgian guy we have yet to mention raced an amazing race all the way through and now he's totally deservedly going to win.' And I'm like 'Who? Where did he come from?'
posted by jacquilynne at 11:48 AM on August 6, 2016

I was pulling for Alaphilippe; I'm sad he didn't quite make the medals.
posted by ocherdraco at 11:48 AM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Alaphilipe had a poor strategy, and he seemed to be coming a bit late to the party every time. Still better than Valverde, who was the favourite and ended up 30th.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:59 AM on August 6, 2016

Valverde was in one of the crashes, wasn't he?
posted by jacquilynne at 12:01 PM on August 6, 2016

Man, I'm watching Table Tennis now, and I can't even figure out how they're serving the ball. Everyone seems to do it a bit differently and they're all odd. One of them almost looks like she lets it hit her in the neck before she paddles it.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:05 PM on August 6, 2016

Wow, the first gold medal for Vietnam in air pistol! It was a really close finish between him and the guy from Brazil.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 12:08 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh hey, Vietnam just won their first gold medal (shooting). It always makes me happy when the non-powerhouses do something like that.

We were rooting for the Pole, too. I was so sad to see him cramp up with a kilometer left to go.

That Iranian table tennis player had an incredible forehand!
posted by julen at 12:10 PM on August 6, 2016

Valverde was in one of the crashes, wasn't he?
I don't think so. No crashes or punctures, on the incidents report there was just this on him:
Km 216 Valverde dropped from the pack

Peter Sagan must be questioning his decision to skip the road races for cross country. Between the pavée, the steep (but not high mountain) climbs and technical descents, he could have won this.
posted by lmfsilva at 12:19 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Watching dressage; I can't tell the good from the bad. Horses are pretty, though.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 12:20 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Watching the NZ lightweight rowers win their heat just makes me think that all NZ athletes must always have to deal with being overheated; those black singlets look so hot under that sun.
posted by ocherdraco at 12:30 PM on August 6, 2016

Man, Womens Rugby Sevens is brutal.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:45 PM on August 6, 2016

The streaming during women's epee fencing keeps getting interrupted for a commercial at the only point when something intense happens. Epee is a very long, tactical sport, and if after all that set-up you can't see the pay-off it's really frustrating.

All three US women went out (well-fought bouts, though) in the 32.
posted by Peach at 1:01 PM on August 6, 2016

Holy cow! The rowing conditions. Is that normal?


No.

To give you someperspective: the womens single scull best time is 7:07. Today, Carling Zeeman (Canada) won her heat by 30 seconds and posted a time of approximately 8:45. Also these races are typically at 30-32 stroke rate, with pushes at the start and finish. The stroke rates were as low as 26 in the races today.

Also some people capsized.
posted by hepta at 1:03 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Huh. Well, this happened at the equestrian venue:

There was major commotion in the equestrian press office in Deodoro on day one of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games as a military bullet (pictured) pierced the white plastic of the large tent and clattered to the floor. Nobody was harmed.

The bullet, identified locally as a 5.56mm assault rifle round, landed on one side of the room, near the end set up to accommodate athlete press conferences.

It landed at lunch time, a particularly busy time in the press office as journalists from all nations were busy writing up their stories from the morning’s eventing dressage.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:09 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm alarmed that Hope Solo is being booed every time she touches the ball because she tweeted some pictures of her mosquito repellents / protective gear before the games began. She didn't say anything offensive, and as a woman of childbearing age Zika is a real concern.
posted by amelliferae at 1:17 PM on August 6, 2016

PSA: the NBC sports app for iPhone bites the big one. When I select something, I expect that thing to show up.
posted by Melismata at 2:26 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

USA's first gold medal: Ginny Thrasher, 10-meter air rifle.
posted by Marky at 2:27 PM on August 6, 2016

Note that the crowd stopped booing Hope Solo after a few awesome saves. Brazil respects good football; it can cover a multitude of sins.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 2:35 PM on August 6, 2016 [5 favorites]

On the other hand, if the mens team misses the medals, Neymar will be as good as dead for many people.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:53 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Caught the end of the Men's road race this afternoon. That was intense.
posted by PearlRose at 3:10 PM on August 6, 2016

Man that men's road race. Quite an event to start off on. And the Korean men's team archery win - those guys are deadly accurate. Like nearly perfect shooting.
posted by GuyZero at 3:32 PM on August 6, 2016

If the USA men's hoops team maintains this kind of focus, I don't think anyone's going to get within 20 points of them. Up 30-10 over China after the first quarter.
posted by strange chain at 3:34 PM on August 6, 2016

And slightly off-topic but that Bridgestone ad with the gymnasts is weird.
posted by GuyZero at 3:52 PM on August 6, 2016

In Canada the CBC streamed only one piste for fencing, but then all the semi and final bouts were shown in full with commentary by someone (not CBC, I don't think). Excellent final bout, what a nail biter for the hold. Szaz came from waaaay behind and then nailed it at the very end.
posted by chapps at 4:22 PM on August 6, 2016

Very excited for men's foil fencing tomorrow... hoping I'll get to see the stream of Egyptian fencer Abouelkassem as he is fun to watch, lots of excitement... won silver in London, a first for Egypt and African fencers.

Also excited for women's foil... I'll be cheering for Eleanor Harvey from Canada!
posted by chapps at 4:34 PM on August 6, 2016

If somebody wants to make a catch-all equestrian thread covering show jumping, dressage and three-day eventing, I'd be up for following it and participating in it (assuming I get the chance to watch it).
posted by sardonyx at 4:48 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

And oh, man, the refugee team. One of the refugee team swimmers competed today.
posted by chapps at 5:07 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

I am not empowered to create new special events threads, but we probably should have one for gymnastics (encompassing men and women?) It's awesome to see a brand new team like the Brazilian men.
posted by julen at 5:11 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'd love to have a gymnastics thread, especially as I'm stuck only watching NBC's selected highlights. Our TV is packed for moving next week and we're between cable companies, so no livestream available. Thoughts on what I did see:

-I love "new" pommel horse over the old days of all-scissors, all the time. It's so much more varied.
-How did I only get to see part of Epke Zonderland's high bar routine? Geez, people!
-The Brazilian team is winning my heart!
posted by epj at 5:16 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Venus Williams is having a surprisingly tough time right now against first-time Olympian Kristen Flipkens of Belgium.
posted by zachlipton at 5:26 PM on August 6, 2016

This fencing photo is really cool:

Choi Injeong (L) competes against Russia's Violetta Kolobova during a fencing event
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:29 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

But wait a minute...that fencer on the left is Erika Kirpu of Estonia. Looks like that AFP tweet I linked to is incorrect. Still a neat photo, though.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:32 PM on August 6, 2016

Is that...honey? Are the gymnastics bros squirting honey on themselves?
posted by phunniemee at 5:32 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

I love Venus's dress, though. /shallow
posted by TwoStride at 5:36 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think the gymnasts use honey for grip?
posted by TwoStride at 5:36 PM on August 6, 2016

Quite possibly honey:

Honey, Here's a Gripping Tale: How Olympians Hang On to the Bar
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:36 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've come across three distinct kinds of coverage that are available in Canada.

Every event is streaming live, though events that have simultaneous matches taking place do not necessarily get a stream for each match (table tennis, etc). There are some very basic graphics, and it does include replays.

Type one of these have no commentary over the stream. You can hear the announcements from the venue most of the time.

Type two have quiet commentary happening over the stream. It seems to be British people doing the commentary, but that might be just the sports I was watching (rugby, road race).

Type three is the edited, tape delayed, broadcast on TV version. It's also available to be streamed on the internet, but it has commercials, fancy graphics, etc. These have studio hosts, commentators I've sometimes heard of, athlete interviews, and are mostly focused on Canadians/key stories, and also suffer from Olympic back story glurgey profiles.

Type two is definitely the best way to be watching this stuff. You can see whole events (I'm 10 minutes into the type three road race coverage, and Richie Porte just crashed, something that happened literally hours into the actual race) and you don't have to deal with commercials or heartwarming backstories, but there's still enough commentary to mostly understand what's going on.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:38 PM on August 6, 2016

Or maybe a day-to-day thread?
posted by Melismata at 5:42 PM on August 6, 2016

Watching Olympic Soccer always makes me wonder whether FIFA could beat the IoC in a 500 meter freestyle corruption challenge....
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:55 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

My BBC stream crapped out on the Venus match, just when I was really beginning to loathe that smug little Belgian.
posted by maggiepolitt at 6:01 PM on August 6, 2016

Venus Williams and Flipkens are both two points away in a tiebreaker.
posted by zachlipton at 6:06 PM on August 6, 2016

Flipkens wins! Now that's an upset.
posted by zachlipton at 6:08 PM on August 6, 2016

Awww, Venus. :(
posted by TwoStride at 6:09 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

You could tell Venus' serve wasn't with her, and the crowd was so against her. Really made me feel for her. Plus her opponent kept using those nasty little drop shots, that always leave the other player flailing. Normally I love that about tennis, there's almost a wit to a good tennis shot, but here it just left me feeling that if she were American and a man instead of Belgian and a woman she'd be named Chad.
posted by maggiepolitt at 6:24 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

I giffed a couple of my favorite judo moments from today:
Mudranov (RUS) attempts a flying armbar in the -60kg gold medal match
Otgontsetseg (KAZ) throws Mestre (CUB) for ippon in the -48kg bronze medal match

Type two have quiet commentary happening over the stream. It seems to be British people doing the commentary, but that might be just the sports I was watching (rugby, road race).

I've been watching the BBC streams; I wonder if this is the same commentary.

The only downside of watching the live, unedited coverage was having to actually see that French gymnast snap his leg in the qualifiers. :(
posted by egregious theorem at 6:39 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

Any ideas yet on which sailing crew will be best able to weather explosive diarrhea?
posted by indubitable at 6:40 PM on August 6, 2016

That commentary sounds like the OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service) commentary, for which many of the English commentators do seem to be Brits. You can stream those raw feeds (and for some of the less popular events, they don't have any commentary). For more popular events, the local broadcasters can put their own package together with their own commentary, graphics, feel-good backstories, etc...
posted by zachlipton at 6:49 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ok, I love the bow that the Japanese swimmer just made as she was introduced for the swimming final.
posted by TwoStride at 6:50 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Type one of these have no commentary over the stream. You can hear the announcements from the venue most of the time.

Now I miss the raw OBS feeds provided by Eurovision in 2008.
posted by lmfsilva at 6:56 PM on August 6, 2016

In swimming news, Katinka Hosszú of Hungary just smashed the women's 400m individual medley world record by over 2 seconds.
posted by zachlipton at 7:00 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Augh now we're going to be subjected to Ryan Seacrest interviewing Kerry Walsh... GET BACK TO SHOWING US ACTUAL SPORTS THAT COMPETED TODAY GODDAMIT, NBC!

Sorry, friends. That's the last time I'll shriek about NBC. I just had to get it off my chest today.
posted by TwoStride at 7:01 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Type two is definitely the best way to be watching this stuff.

The BBC tends to have a couple of different versions of 'type three' highlights: more fancy evening stuff that tends to focus on British competitors, and late night or morning round-ups of the day that condense self-contained events (a weightlifting class, a shooting event) into neat packages while retaining most of the drama.

I always love weightlifting, especially the early classes when tiny lifters (around 50kg) with immense strength haul twice their weight over their heads. It's the perfect Olympic event, really: from start to finish in one day, at a pace, and you immediately find yourself cheering for certain competitors because the exertion and emotion isn't hidden away. I also like how archery and, I think, fencing get through self-contained events in a day.
posted by holgate at 7:03 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ryan Seacrest's beard looks like it's painted on with a stippling method. So unnerving.
posted by Fig at 7:14 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

These people are all so enormous.
posted by phunniemee at 7:14 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Stay tuned for tomorrow during the gymnastics events where I say these people are all so tiny.
posted by phunniemee at 7:16 PM on August 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

Humans are weird dude.
posted by phunniemee at 7:17 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't know why, but it cracks me up that the American women in the relay didn't coordinate their suits. Everyone wearing their own personal lucky suit, I guess?
posted by TwoStride at 7:30 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've just made a Gymnastics thread - so folks can bring the gymnastics discussion over there, and kick it off right.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:37 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Normally the medalists get flowers, but this time around they're getting like a little statue thing I guess?
posted by zachlipton at 7:43 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

So, for those of you within a mile of my house, that was definitely me you just heard yelling at the TV. Bronze for Canada in the pool, based on a 16 year old hanging on against one of the best swimmers in the world.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:45 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh man, Mark Tewksbury freaking out in the broadcast center was amazing. I'm so glad they showed us that footage.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:58 PM on August 6, 2016

Wow, crazy shenanigans going on with the China/Switzerland women's volleyball match!
posted by TwoStride at 8:21 PM on August 6, 2016

Controversy at the beach volleyball on the match point between China and Switzerland!
posted by clorox at 8:21 PM on August 6, 2016

There seems to be a certain amount of chaos at beach volleyball between China and Switzerland. They declared the Chinese team the winner, there was a lengthy dispute of some sort that involved a lot of talking to the officials, and now maybe they're replaying the last point? And I think China just won again. There's no English commentary and I don't really know what's going on, but it was odd.
posted by zachlipton at 8:23 PM on August 6, 2016

Choi Injeong (L) competes against Russia's Violetta Kolobova during a fencing event

But wait a minute...that fencer on the left is Erika Kirpu of Estonia. Looks like that AFP tweet I linked to is incorrect. Still a neat photo, though.

This is a million miles back in the thread at this point, but I believe the (L) is because the fencer is left-handed, not because they're on the left side of the image.
posted by dorque at 8:26 PM on August 6, 2016

Ahaha, oh god self, good try on the reading comprehension, that does not change the bit where the issue with the AFP tweet is that left fencer in the image isn't from Russia. Going to sleep now, sorry.
posted by dorque at 8:29 PM on August 6, 2016

NBC wants to make sure you don't forget about terrorism in all this celebration of human potential
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:34 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Zachlipton: The Chinese team called for a review, and were awarded the match point. But the Swiss protested that it was an illegal review, which it was: after the rally is over, you can only challenge the final touch, but they challenged the penultimate touch. So they took the point away from the Chinese team. But according to the commentator, there were still some problems: China got the serve on the re-do, and Switzerland wasn't awarded a point for the illegal challenge, so there might be a protest.
posted by clorox at 8:34 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

But yeah, in the meantime during the CHN/SWI dispute, the Chinese had been celebrating the win, signing autographs in the stands, etc, then had to be called back to the court to serve for the match again!
posted by TwoStride at 8:41 PM on August 6, 2016

It's interesting the countries that adopt colors that are not part of their flags. The Neatherlands are obviously quite fond of orange (and the House of Orange) and Australia has its green and gold.

It's also interesting that they are playing beach volleyball at 1am. That doesn't really seem right.
posted by zachlipton at 9:06 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also New Zealand in black, Italy in blue, and my favorite, Slovenia in electric green.
posted by clorox at 9:15 PM on August 6, 2016

%n: "NBC wants to make sure you don't forget about terrorism in all this celebration of human potential"

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or was Tom Brokow wearing a full head toupee when he was on talking about the Amazon and then terrorism?
posted by AugustWest at 9:20 PM on August 6, 2016

The awesomely named pop culture documentarian Kliph Nesteroff has an equally awesome tumblr of "Showbiz Imagery and Chicanery" that includes a LOT of old television stations' promo and ID 'slides', most recently this one which fits the current Olympic-mania so well: "NBC SPORTS IN ACTION"
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:51 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

NBC wants to make sure you don't forget about terrorism in all this celebration of human potential

That's a pretty good argument for opening up Olympic coverage to every outlet that wants to cover it. It's pretty easy for Big Jingoism to infect our fun nationalism with their scary nationalism when there's just one network they need to do it to.

Not to mention, various outlets fighting for ratings could mean at least one of them might actually try to cover it competently.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:03 PM on August 6, 2016

How do the fans at the soccer matches manage to yell "Zi-KAAAA!" in such perfect precision whenever Solo has a goal kick?
posted by KathrynT at 10:27 PM on August 6, 2016

I'm in minute 87 of US v France and just on the edge of my goddam seat. The French came to PLAY.
posted by KathrynT at 10:28 PM on August 6, 2016

okay old news now but I'm ridiculously tickled for Greg Van Avermaet to win the men's road race (cycling) because dude has been on a tear this year and he's been second and/or third to Sagan and Cancellara so. many. times.

also did any of you guys notice Specialized riders had four or five of those wicked color-changing bikes in the first two or three groups? they're deep red at cooler temperatures and start to change to bright yellow around 22C. They were orange on the descent which was really fascinating.
posted by lonefrontranger at 10:40 PM on August 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

Virginia Thrasher is such a cool name.
posted by roll truck roll at 11:07 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

The format of the air rifle is brutal: The one-by-one elimination after every other shot (starting with shot 8), the crowd noise and music, the ridiculously small target (0.5mm bullseye, 4.5mm pellet). Fun to watch though, and not drawn out like some events can be.
posted by clorox at 11:30 PM on August 6, 2016

He Tackled Vanderlei de Lima, Then Fumed During Caldron Lighting, in which defrocked priest Neil Horan continues to seem more than a little bit off.
posted by zachlipton at 12:20 AM on August 7, 2016

The air pistol guys have a certainsci-fi-ishlook. 1970's cyberpunk James Bond villain maybe.
posted by clorox at 12:23 AM on August 7, 2016

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or was Tom Brokow wearing a full head toupee when he was on talking about the Amazon and then terrorism?

I didn't notice. I can't imagine rowing around the Amazon with a wig on was very comfortable.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:43 AM on August 7, 2016

So, I fell asleep last night in the 8:00 hour, so I got up ridiculously early and am watching the reruns on NBC's various channels, and I am being beset with the Seacrest (which I do not appreciate, by the way, NBC!). I thought they'd have dumped the idea that he might be the future of the network after the last Olympics during which they were clearly trying to set him up as the next Costas and he was struggling. Now, it seems they are trying to set him up as the next Mary Carillo, and he's even worse at that. And he seems bland and awkward when he's just late-night-hosting it up.

We caught a bit of handball (every time the handball I end up seeing features the Norwegians, and this year was no different.) yesterday, and weirdly it always seems like the olympic event most exotic to me, probably because it's got so low a profile in the States (and American handball sucks up all of the handball-related pop culture in the room).
posted by julen at 3:43 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Caught a bit of the Mexico/Georgia women's archery just now and daaaaaang Mexico was doing some chill-as-hell shooting.
posted by cortex at 6:58 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've made a new post for Swimming and Diving, first medals today in both.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:56 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not that it makes a huge difference, but there were several medals given out in swimming yesterday.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:19 AM on August 7, 2016

Oops, I stand corrected!
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:19 AM on August 7, 2016

Been watching men's fencing and women's rugby sevens on the BBC this afternoon. I love how technological/futuristic fencing looks and the range of stances and styles. Not paid attention to rugger since I escaped school, but really enjoying it in this fast format.
posted by comealongpole at 9:03 AM on August 7, 2016

Ugh! My fave fencer is on the piste cbc is not showing... hopefully he'll make it to semis so I can watch.
The crowd is going mad for the Brazilian on another piste...

Kruse (GBR) is dominating the piste I'm watching. Now but the Italianclosed the gap a bit just before the break. Some nice fencing!
posted by chapps at 9:17 AM on August 7, 2016

Very much enjoying what little NBC has shown (and what little I know) of the rugby.
posted by TwoStride at 9:31 AM on August 7, 2016

The live feeds of the Rugby 7s has commentary, so I've been watching a lot of that. The US - Australia match is amazing.

The US keeps getting these huge runs and then Charlotte Caslick comes from half way across the field and hauls them down. She's a speed demon and seems to have really good sense of what angles to run to end up in the right place at the right time.

Now the US has put on a player, Jessica Javelet, who is faster than even Charlotte Caslick. I don't know why they didn't play her in the first half, she's scored two tries in about a minute since she came on.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:53 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

If somebody wants to make a catch-all equestrian thread covering show jumping, dressage and three-day eventing, I'd be up for following it and participating in it (assuming I get the chance to watch it).

Oh, me too! I would absolutely be up for participating in a catch-all equestrian thread. So far I've had good luck with livestreaming dressage through NBC in the US. And at least here in the US, it looks like the cross country and show jumping eventing finals will be aired live on TV and therefore are also DVR-able which is convenient. (This is all US East Coast Comcast specific. I can't vouch for other time zones/cable providers/countries.)
posted by litera scripta manet at 9:56 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Damn. Damn. If you have a chance to watch this US / Australia match, you should do it.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:57 AM on August 7, 2016

Also, one of the dressage commentators just made a legit funny pokemon go joke, about how people have been using their phones to hunt for pokemon in the dressage ring, thus finally revealing the mysterious and seemingly invisible creatures that are always spooking horses.

(This is probably only funny if you know horses.)
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:00 AM on August 7, 2016 [12 favorites]

Yes! Women's sevens rugby. The live feed is great and that AUS USA match was amazing. I was going to try and run some errands this afternoon but might have to watch the 1/4 finals. Canada plays at 4:30.
posted by five_cents at 10:01 AM on August 7, 2016

I saw a picture that even Sam spooked in the ring yesterday, so I definitely believe in the Pokemon theory!
posted by TwoStride at 10:01 AM on August 7, 2016

The US keeps getting these huge runs and then Charlotte Caslick comes from half way across the field and hauls them down. She's a speed demon and seems to have really good sense of what angles to run to end up in the right place at the right time.

Oh man, I saw the Australian games yesterday, and she quickly became one of my favorites of this round of Olympics - strong, fast, smart, and fun. The Fiji women looked good, too, but the Australia women seem really strong in general.
posted by julen at 10:10 AM on August 7, 2016

Me, watching Massialas fencing in the round of eight: This is very exciting. This is very exciting. THIS IS VERY EXCITING.
posted by Vibrissa at 10:22 AM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

Watching the women's cycling road race, and it's been very bunchy -- nobody manages to get more than a few seconds in front of the peloton, and the attacks don't last long.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:46 AM on August 7, 2016

TOO MANY EVENTS AT THE SAME TIME WHAT DO I WATCH AAAAAHHHHHH
posted by clorox at 10:59 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well, clorox, I humbly suggest the men's foil fencing finals will be worth watching. As you are from the US, there is a US medal contender (Massialas) and that bout will be awesome. He is ranked #1 in the world eight now and I have just watched two bouts with his opponent (Kruse) who is excellent. The fencing in foil is pretty fun to watch.

Starts in about half an hour and you can watch it online. :)

(The other semi is Garozzo (ITA) and Safin (RUS)).
posted by chapps at 11:14 AM on August 7, 2016

That should be "right now" just to clarify... there is no strange "world eight" ranking in fencing.
posted by chapps at 11:29 AM on August 7, 2016

Combining rowing and fencing - an idea whose time has come!
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:36 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Combining rowing and fencing - an idea whose time has come!

Water Jousting?
posted by dnash at 11:37 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

water jousting. more than a fantasy.
posted by chapps at 11:45 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Did that woman just die in the cycling?
posted by srboisvert at 11:54 AM on August 7, 2016

Oh god. Terrible, terrible crash by the leader in the road race, Annemiek van Vleuten. She landed on her head.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:54 AM on August 7, 2016

That poor Dutch woman that fell during the Road Race. Oooouch.
posted by PearlRose at 11:54 AM on August 7, 2016

The women's cycling road race is down to its last 10km. The leader, Annemiek Van Vleuten, just went down hard in an awful looking crash on the last big downhill segment.
posted by zachlipton at 11:55 AM on August 7, 2016

Holy cow! Tuned into the women's bike race just to see a brutal crash by the Dutch woman in the lead.
posted by TwoStride at 11:55 AM on August 7, 2016

That was horrifying . . .
posted by Mouse Army at 11:56 AM on August 7, 2016

That crash did not look good at all
posted by clorox at 11:58 AM on August 7, 2016

I've watched a LOT of cycling. That was a horrific crash. God, I hope she's OK. How terrifying.
posted by Dorinda at 11:59 AM on August 7, 2016

I'm trying to be excited for Mara Abbott, here, but I'm too worried about the Dutch cyclist.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 12:02 PM on August 7, 2016

I put my wife through this last month when I had a horrible crash while cycling with her and a friend and was knocked unconscious for about 3 minutes. She thought I was dead, then paralyzed with a broken neck, then brain damaged until I came to my senses. I got to miss it all (thanks post and retro grade amnesia!).

I am now being told "that is what you looked like" by my sniffly wife.

Did not need to learn this lesson.
posted by srboisvert at 12:03 PM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]

Same. That fall by the Dutch competitor was gruesome.
posted by PearlRose at 12:03 PM on August 7, 2016

That was a devastating loss.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 12:07 PM on August 7, 2016

Poor Mara Abbott :(
posted by zachlipton at 12:08 PM on August 7, 2016

Aww, man, I feel bad for Mara Abbott.

And I wish I knew what was going on with Annamiek van Vleuten.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:08 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Jeebus, this is such a brutal sport. What an emotional roller coaster for the Dutch team.
posted by Dorinda at 12:09 PM on August 7, 2016

Nobody seems to have an update on van Vleuten. That's quite concerning.
posted by zachlipton at 12:12 PM on August 7, 2016

I would be pretty happy if these announcers didn't keep calling this a glorious race until such time as we knew whether van Vleuten was reasonably okay.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:12 PM on August 7, 2016

Twitter seems to be saying that Dutch TV says she's conscious, talking, and "ok," for some definition of ok anyway.
posted by zachlipton at 12:17 PM on August 7, 2016

Early reports on Twitter claim that she regained consciousness and will be ok... Not sure how official any of them are, though.
posted by TwoStride at 12:18 PM on August 7, 2016

It's great to see Vos so obviously and genuinely thrilled for her teammate...but I'm not sure either of them have heard about Van Vleuten yet. I hope that's because there's nothing too serious to report...according to Dutch TV Van Vleuten is conscious....so that's something.
posted by Dorinda at 12:19 PM on August 7, 2016

It really looks like it was what the commentators were worried about before the crash, it's wet and slippery and so when she crossed the yellow line in the middle of the road, she spun out and lost control.
posted by zachlipton at 12:21 PM on August 7, 2016

Wow, Russia banned outright from the Paralympics
posted by clorox at 12:22 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Tweet from the Dutch cycling federation: "Van Vleuten blijkt oké te zijn. Meer nieuws volgt." The machine translation on that is "Van Vleuten turns out okay. More news will follow."
posted by zachlipton at 12:22 PM on August 7, 2016

The OBS announcers just said she's conscious and on the way to hospital, as well. Conscious seems like a pretty important sign.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:23 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

That helmet likely saved her life, I think.
posted by TwoStride at 12:25 PM on August 7, 2016

Brutal women's cycling. Wow.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:30 PM on August 7, 2016

Here is my cat providing follow up care after my morning in the hospital post-crash if anyone would like a chaser.

My helmet also probably saved my brain from serious injury.
posted by srboisvert at 12:33 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

Watching Beach Volleyball now. So much less chance someone will die.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:36 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Watching the men's foil fencing, between the dark arena and the flags on the facemasks it likes like some dystopian future movie where national disputes are settled by individual combat.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 12:39 PM on August 7, 2016 [6 favorites]

okay so I know that sort of trope tends to come up in dystopian movies, but nevertheless I hold that as methods for resolving international disputes go, single combat is significantly less dystopian than many of the currently common methods.

(dammit, I want to watch creepy fencing in the dark now. damn you metafilter for making me care about an Olympic event...)
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:43 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Creepy fencing in the dark is awesome. And Alex Massialas is now through to the final!
posted by zachlipton at 12:47 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ok it's US v ITALY for the foil final ... bronze bout first.
posted by chapps at 12:49 PM on August 7, 2016

Massialas was pretty amazing in that bout! I love it when fencing gets all fancy -- using the whole piste, hits on the back, jumping in the air. A couple times Massialas had only one foot on and bounced right back in.
posted by chapps at 12:50 PM on August 7, 2016

Watching Beach Volleyball now. So much less chance someone will die.

Not from getting banged up, anyway. From an undiagnosed genetic disorder leading to a sudden exploding aorta, though: That's a thing in volleyball. (Get checked out, tall people!)
posted by Sys Rq at 12:55 PM on August 7, 2016

Okay, watching the horsies now. Dressage enthusiasts, what should I be excited about? Who should I be rooting for? Is there a bad boy of dressage? ( Please say yes!)
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 1:03 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Someone want to give a basic rundown of on and off target and right of way, for those of us who just started caring about fencing 42 seconds ago?
posted by jacquilynne at 1:08 PM on August 7, 2016

Wow, archery is really compelling! I do really like the South Korean hats.
posted by ChuraChura at 1:11 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

in foil, you must hit on the torso...anything covered by the silver vest.

You must also have "priority" ... so be the person on the attack.

The judge must sometimes rule on who has priority to determine the point.

You show priority by being the first person to move to attack, or by parrying the blade and thus taking control of the attack. If you start, then hesitate, you can lose priority.

Also, you can hit someone on their way to attack you, and then get out of there. if only your light shows up you have scored "stop hit" with no priority. BUt if someone with priority gets a hit off target, your on target hit won't count.
posted by chapps at 1:13 PM on August 7, 2016

Gold medal for Kosovo in judo.
posted by DanSachs at 1:13 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

The commentators are pretty good this time, so they will explain weird things.
posted by chapps at 1:13 PM on August 7, 2016

(Kruse likes to stop-hit, I learned in his last bout)
posted by chapps at 1:13 PM on August 7, 2016

Kosovo, appearing at the Olympics for the first time as a nation, has won a gold medal, its first medal ever, thanks to Majlinda Kelmendi in Judo.
posted by zachlipton at 1:14 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm not watching the US coverage, so I may be getting different commentators. They tried to explain all that upfront, but it made no sense.

"BUt if someone with priority gets a hit off target, your on target hit won't count."
Target here means the silver bits you described above as fair game? Or something else?
posted by jacquilynne at 1:16 PM on August 7, 2016

I've been watching the archery too, ChuraChura, and yeah I had no idea there was a whole hat game in this one. South Korea's are good; Mexico I think earlier had some great red caps too.

Chinese Taipei's Bronze win was a pretty serious nailbiter; South Korea looks like they're gonna just eat Russia's lunch at this point, though there's one set point left to go a rally isn't totally impossible.

I wish they'd throw in a few more long shots on the coverage I'm watching; it's mostly closeup on archer, release, smashcut to closeup on the target, which is great for reading the shot but belies just how much goddam precision over distance is involved.
posted by cortex at 1:17 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

I tried to post an equestrian thread, but I'm doing something wrong (or I don't have the authority to do so). If somebody else wants to try, please be my guest.

As an aside, I got to watch a bit of eventing dressage yesterday. It's amazing the difference between event horses and dressage horses when performing those gaits.
posted by sardonyx at 1:18 PM on August 7, 2016

Yes, in foil fencing, target is where you must hit... the torso, covered by the silver electroconductive vest.
posted by chapps at 1:20 PM on August 7, 2016

Im watching in Canada but the commentator has a British accent, I think.
posted by chapps at 1:22 PM on August 7, 2016

Okay, we're probably watching the same coverage, then.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:23 PM on August 7, 2016

I tried to post an equestrian thread, but I'm doing something wrong (or I don't have the authority to do so). If somebody else wants to try, please be my guest.

Mods only on making Special Event posts so far, but I've gone ahead and horsed it up for y'all.
posted by cortex at 1:24 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm a bit behind live, though -- I went back to watch the US/UK semi, and am just about to start watching the bronze medal match.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:24 PM on August 7, 2016

Ok i won't spoil!
posted by chapps at 1:26 PM on August 7, 2016

8th straight women's team archery gold for Korea, wow! And yeah, the archery TV director is being pretty boring. They have some interesting camera angles available, but they're only being shown on replays.
posted by clorox at 1:26 PM on August 7, 2016

Thanks, cortex. Appreciate it!
posted by sardonyx at 1:28 PM on August 7, 2016

Watching fencing now that Korea's wrapped it up; this really does need Daft Punk as a sound track. I'm putting Discovery on.
posted by cortex at 1:28 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

(fencing) Kruse just won't quit!
posted by zachlipton at 1:37 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

They're literally playing Star Wars music at the fencing venue now, as if creepy fencing in the dark wasn't dramatic enough.
posted by zachlipton at 1:46 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

Fencing Gold match starting up now; they're playing the Imperial March here and I don't know if this is one of the fencers' walkup music or just a musical director who is like "damn, they're right, this shit DOES look dystopian".
posted by cortex at 1:46 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

They did the imperial march for women's épée finals too.
posted by chapps at 1:48 PM on August 7, 2016

One of fencing greats choreographed the light sabre bouts in star wars... so I guess that's a tie in?
posted by chapps at 1:49 PM on August 7, 2016

I just got to the Imperial March bit. Hilarious.

That bronze medal match just ... ended ... abruptly. It was like, they were standing around drinking water and then it was done. I didn't even see it until the replays, because I hadn't started paying attention again.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:51 PM on August 7, 2016

Wow. So much simultaneous action... I would not want to ref this fencing!
posted by chapps at 1:51 PM on August 7, 2016

jacquilynne: yeah they had a break and then the final touch came extremely quickly.
posted by zachlipton at 1:53 PM on August 7, 2016

Can someone explain to me what the deal is with "attack from the right" with the fencing? Also, how hard does one have to touch for it to register? I can appreciate the speed of what they're doing but can't understand the scoring at all when they seem to always touch simultaneously.
posted by TwoStride at 1:53 PM on August 7, 2016

Attack from the right mean the France on the viewers right has priority attack (I describe priority above)

If both fencers hit, the one with priority gets the point.
posted by chapps at 1:56 PM on August 7, 2016

It doesn't take a heavy touch to activate the sensor, about like being poked by someone trying to get your attention, although a lot of actual hits are harder than that. When I was fencing (~15 years ago) you had to check in before competition with someone who had a little weight they would put on the top of the foil to test whether it activated at the right pressure.
posted by dorque at 1:57 PM on August 7, 2016

The beeping in the fencing broadcast sounds exactly like my microwave timer. It keeps making me think I left something on the stove.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:07 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Is there any interest/coverage of the rugby sevens in US/other countries? It's huge here in New Zealand of course, as we're realistic medal hopes. Curious to see if anyone else is covering it. US are about to play NZ in the women's quarter-final - is that on anyone's radar? Canada, GB and Australia into the semis already.
posted by Pink Frost at 2:27 PM on August 7, 2016

Canada is getting pretty good coverage of our own women's rugby on the main networks, and not much of anyone else's, I think, but I've mostly been watching the live feeds with all the matches. We had our women listed as medal contenders, and we do like a contender.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:33 PM on August 7, 2016

Yup, I'd bet rugby women's sevens will one of the olympic highlights for people around here (Victoria, BC. Canada), Rugby is huge here.
posted by chapps at 2:34 PM on August 7, 2016

Once the men's US-Canada volleyball match ended, NBC moved directly to women's rugby (US v NZ).

East Coast, US
posted by sara is disenchanted at 2:36 PM on August 7, 2016

I'm watching the GB / Fiji quarter right now, and although I can tell how it turns out from Pink Frost's post, man, those women from Fiji can really move. Their passing game reminds me of watching the Brazilian men play footie -- lots of things that look like impossibly choreographed dance moves.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:37 PM on August 7, 2016

Really enjoying the rugby coverage--a surprising amount that NBC is showing. Disappointed that the stands have been so empty here and other venues they've shown...
posted by TwoStride at 2:41 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

In the US, Rugby has been on the supplemental channels (the NBC-related news channels going 40% Olympics, most notably, but also some airing on NBC's me-too sports only network). I've seen a fair amount of non-US rugby, which is nice. (Love the Aussies and Fiji, in addition to rooting for the US women).

We are watching the time-delayed archery medal matches, and I totally agree about wanting shots that highlight the distance, not just the closeups.
posted by julen at 2:41 PM on August 7, 2016

Oh, sorry for the spoiler jacquilynne. I'm just browsing online coverage at work, didn't stop to think that people might be watching delayed TV coverage. Fiji have tended to dominate men's sevens, so I'm not surprised that their women's team is also highly skilled.

Interesting to hear how popular rugby is in VC, cheers. (And pleasantly surprised it's getting coverage in the US, too).
posted by Pink Frost at 2:41 PM on August 7, 2016

These are explicitly "spoilers permitted" threads, so I'm not complaining, just noting that I knew the Fiji team wasn't going to come out on top.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:43 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Watching women's singles table tennis and Germany's Han is basically dissecting Thailand's Komwong. Komwong is juuuust catching the net a fair amount or hitting wide/far, and Han's had a couple of semi-miraculous saves against really promising smashes. Komwong looks pretty frustrated, though she's had a couple of really satisfying smashes early in the fourth set.
posted by cortex at 3:50 PM on August 7, 2016

"She was taken to a local hospital where Rio Olympic officials initially said she was in stable condition. The Royal Dutch Cycling Federation tweeted that van Vleuten suffered a “heavy concussion and three small fractures in her lumbar spine.” The federation reported she is conscious and talking."

Looks like she might make it out relatively unscathed compared to how awful it looked.
posted by srboisvert at 3:52 PM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]

The Williams sisters just lost to the Czech Republic, their first doubles loss ever in all their Olympic appearances.
posted by zachlipton at 4:04 PM on August 7, 2016

OK, am I missing something or is NBC not archiving any of their livestreams to be watchable later? It's really annoying to not be able to catch up during periods when there aren't sports I'm interested in going on...
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 4:10 PM on August 7, 2016

Hell of a volley early in the second set of Japan vs. Greece men's singles, the kind of thing where both players dial it up to 11 for the kill but then keep returning hard and nobody is willing or able to throttle it back in so they just keep walloping it back and forth until someone slips.
posted by cortex at 4:16 PM on August 7, 2016

OK, am I missing something or is NBC not archiving any of their livestreams to be watchable later? It's really annoying to not be able to catch up during periods when there aren't sports I'm interested in going on...

They're all there I think, though the UI is bad. You can go to this page and scroll down (hit "more" as needed) through the day's events, the click on one to watch.
posted by zachlipton at 4:18 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's pretty unfortunate that they have people competing simultaneously in gymnastics. There's been a couple of points where someone was just about to do something pretty hard on one apparatus when a huge cheer would go up for something that happened elsewhere. I can't imagine that does shit for your concentration.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:46 PM on August 7, 2016

Yeah, there's a similar dynamic with the table tennis; they've got four tables set up, and for both matches I've caught there's clearly been a toooooon of crowd involvement with some other match happening off camera, so there's these huge incongruous roars of applause mid-volley, etc. But the practicalities of fitting everything into the schedule presumably rule out a single-file approach.
posted by cortex at 4:50 PM on August 7, 2016

16-year old world record broken twice in the space of about a minute in the men's 56kg weightlifting! Both of them, Om from North Korea and Long from China lifted more than three times their body weight over their heads! Loved the floor cam showing the concentration and effort on the lifters' faces with the big text scoreboard in the background.
posted by clorox at 4:58 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Today's weightlifting was fantastic. Drama everywhere: lots of tactical stuff in the women's class (passing on weights to force competitors right back out when they hadn't fully recovered) while gold in the men's class went back and forth till the very last lift.
posted by holgate at 5:03 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

That was a really dramatic duel between Om and Long. I didn't realize until watching this competition that the weightlifters aren't allowed to remove weight from the bar, making for an extra tactical layer as Long leveraged his excellent snatch (which apparently was a 4kg PR? I can't imagine hitting a PR like that on that stage!) to force Om into higher and higher weights.

The transition from crowds roaring before and after lifts to dead silence during is amazing, too.
posted by egregious theorem at 5:07 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's really no point in even watching vaulting at full speed. I just watch the slow-mo replays.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:37 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]

Woo! Silver for Penny Oleksiak! (100m Fly in Swimming.)

She's 16 years old and she has two Olympic medals now.

She gets to the end of lane, takes her cap off, breathes in and out a bit, and then sees her placement and gets the most beautiful smile on her face.

I'd already put money on her carrying the flag for Canada in the closing ceremonies.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:10 PM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

Anyone watching basketball?
posted by lkc at 10:37 PM on August 7, 2016

Brazil's soccer team (men) hasn't been impressing me so far. They had a whole lot of chances but can't seem to execute at the end.
posted by Justinian at 10:58 PM on August 7, 2016

HatWatch update: Indonesia's Riau Ega Agath is wearing NO HAT AT ALL. Also shooting arrows pretty good right now.
posted by cortex at 7:54 AM on August 8, 2016

Really disappointed with the NBC coverage. Watched one of the swimming events last night and GB guy won first and broke a world record, USA guy won bronze and broke a USA record, apparently a South African guy won second but you wouldn't know because NBC didn't bother to talk to him, but did talk to the other 2 medalists.

I am really really sick and tired of news coverage (including sports coverage) that is so USA-centric. The only thing I know about that stabbing attack in London (I think) last week (I think it was last week) was that a lady from Florida died. I hate news coverage and sports coverage here.
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:56 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

Archery this morning, the sun is at just the right spot in the sky compared to the camera position on the targets that many arrows hitting the target end up casting shadows almost precisely parallel to the shaft itself, creating a long black line with a low-contrast break at the head and the strike point very difficult to read at first glance. Is it a 10? A 9? A 7?

I'm a little surprised they don't have an alternate camera angle a few degrees off to the side to switch to until the light shifts.
posted by cortex at 8:28 AM on August 8, 2016

GUYS GUYS GUYS Italy is second in the medal count right now. Holy shit this never happens.

(Every four years I realize that yes I have dual citizenship and in live in the US but no still totally Italian).
posted by lydhre at 10:11 AM on August 8, 2016

I'm all over the Rugby Sevens. So much fun to watch!
posted by dry white toast at 10:41 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Though one thing I can't follow: How do they decide the point from which the conversion kick will happen?
posted by dry white toast at 10:43 AM on August 8, 2016

LizBoBiz: "Really disappointed with the NBC coverage. Watched one of the swimming events last night and GB guy won first and broke a world record, USA guy won bronze and broke a USA record, apparently a South African guy won second but you wouldn't know because NBC didn't bother to talk to him, but did talk to the other 2 medalists."

That was surreal. They didn't even say the guy's name.

I do have to say, though--I think that NBC's bad reputation is earned almost exclusively by its swimming and gymnastics coverage. I watched soccer, rugby, and the street bike race over the weekend. The commentary was really good--actually following what was taking place and not trying to cram it into a prebaked narrative.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:53 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

They conversion kick is taken from any point on the field of play that's in line with the point where the ball was grounded to score the try.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:54 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

They conversion kick is taken from any point on the field of play that's in line with the point where the ball was grounded to score the try.

Thanks! If they have leeway to kick from anywhere along that line, the angles that they choose sometimes are rather surprising.

I watched soccer, rugby, and the street bike race over the weekend. The commentary was really good--actually following what was taking place and not trying to cram it into a prebaked narrative.

I guess the upside is that they don't over-produce the events they think Americans don't care about, so those are just left to do their own sports-y thing.
posted by dry white toast at 11:19 AM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Is anyone else kinda skeeved out at how often female athletes are married to their coaches?
posted by Etrigan at 11:36 AM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is anyone else kinda skeeved out at how often female athletes are married to their coaches?

I dunno, when you're an elite athlete you don't do much other than train. I get the impression they may not have much of a social life.

It would be interesting to see how often it happens to female athletes vs male athletes. I expect it happens to female athletes far more often.
posted by GuyZero at 12:18 PM on August 8, 2016

I've gone from having zero context for anything in competitive archery to being really kinda hanging on this shit.

Right now, mens' single archery, Turkey's Mete Gazoz up against Netherlands' Sjef van den Berg. Watched both of them win in the previous round and now I want both of them to win in this round despite it being impossible.

On the one hand, van den Berg has a bloody right eye and I have no idea why but it's very murder robot and I like it. On the other hand, Gazoz is 17 with thick black framed glasses and looks like basically Wesley Crusher Goes To The Olympics. And they're both shooting really goddam well right now.

I do sort of hope it's Gazoz, though, so I can run with this MeteFilter thing.
posted by cortex at 1:16 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Telma Monteiro wins bronze in Judo, for Portugal's first. After a number of second places in the World Championships and a few Euro titles, she finally got her medal.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:24 PM on August 8, 2016

Handball is fun to watch. Good crowds, too.
posted by clorox at 1:28 PM on August 8, 2016

Archery is like curling. You look at it and think that if you only trained a bit, you could totally do that and be awesome and have fun and have tremendous hat game, even if - not that deep down - you know that's not really how it is. (For the word "you", read "I"). I love 'em both.

(See also: trampoline, fencing, javelin, long jump, badminton, and table tennis.)
posted by julen at 1:45 PM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

I'm struggling with the otherwise total fine Australian announcer's constant fallback to "classy", "classier", "show his/her class" for archers doing well in the moment or in the match. Presumably most of that is just international difference in the meaning and use of the word—in US parlance I'd expect the person who just lost a tight match and did so with a good attitude and a friendly handshake to be called classy, but I gather he's intending more the sense of a high caliber/class of athletic ability—but it also doesn't help that I hear a certain US presidential candidate lurking in the shadows with a "classy, so classy, believe me" every time.

You look at it and think that if you only trained a bit, you could totally do that and be awesome and have fun and have tremendous hat game, even if - not that deep down - you know that's not really how it is.

Totally, yeah. And I've even made a couple of very, very brief childhood attempts to do a little archery, and was terrible, so I know better. And yet part of me is sitting here thinking...I've got a reasonably long driveway, what if I set up a target on the shed door and fired from the sidewalk, maybe...

Handball is fun to watch

I was expecting something like squash! I don't think I've ever seen this played before.
posted by cortex at 1:52 PM on August 8, 2016

My favorite random sport (for me) so far was canoe slalom. Their shoulders! Their back flexibility! And yes ... I keep thinking "I've got pretty strong arms. I like boats. I could be lithe in a boat!"
posted by ChuraChura at 2:01 PM on August 8, 2016

Oh man, I enjoyed the women's individual saber gold medal bout. The woman who won was so happy, and the other woman seemed genuinely happy for her.

I haven't touched my fencing gear in maybe 12 years, but now I miss it intensely. I wish there were someplace close to do chill rec-league fencing (google tells me about the serious business competitive fencing center and a couple places that may or may not still exist but haven't updated their webpages in several years).
posted by Vibrissa at 2:08 PM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I am watching the Aus-Can women's rugby game and my jaw is on the floor. I know nothing about this game but I LOVE IT WITH ALL MY HEART
posted by KathrynT at 2:12 PM on August 8, 2016 [4 favorites]

Canada sadly lost to Australia in women's rugby 7s (no shame in getting beat by the Aussies in rugby, though).

This is a great addition to the Olympics.

AUS/NZ will be playing for gold, which I guess is not an unexpected outcome, but Canada's leading against Great Britain right now in the bronze medal match at half time.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:45 PM on August 8, 2016

Rugby: 33-10 for CAN vs. GBR with 3:00 to go in the 2nd!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:53 PM on August 8, 2016

Rugby 7s is awesome fun.
posted by nubs at 2:55 PM on August 8, 2016

Is rugby going on long enough (for more days I mean) that we should make a thread for it? It seems like there might be critical mass, if folks intend to keep watching.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:57 PM on August 8, 2016

GO CANADA!! Also, watching NZL earlier...I've only watched a bit of rugby in my life, but that was like watching an orchestra play a Beethoven symphony. Overpowering.
posted by dry white toast at 2:57 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Woo hoo! Bronze for Canada in women's 7s!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:58 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

The women's rugby 7s ends tonight (yes Canada on the Bronze!); AUS-NZL gold medal match starts shortly I think. Not sure about men's rugby? So I don't know if there is a need for a thread.
posted by nubs at 2:59 PM on August 8, 2016

ah good, thanks.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2016

I think the rugby women are finishing tonight, but the men start tomorrow
posted by Vibrissa at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2016

Is rugby going on long enough (for more days I mean) that we should make a thread for it? It seems like there might be critical mass, if folks intend to keep watching.

The men's tournament starts after this. Not sure if it will generate as much excitement. :)
posted by dry white toast at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yep, AUS vs NZ up shortly - this is gonna be bananas.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2016

Women's rugby has one more match left, which will be later today (NZ v. AUS for the gold). Men's rugby runs the next few days after that, but I'm not sure if people are interested in following/discussing that.
posted by zachlipton at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2016

Went to a couple of handball games at London 2012 - very enjoyable.

Wish I wasn't stuck at work unable to watch most of this, but will be streaming the rugby sevens final in a few minutes.

Slightly bizarre to see sevens at the Olympics; it traditionally has a status as a party sport (especially in Hong Kong and Wellington) - the tournaments are played quickly over a couple of days, the fans turn up in costume and uses it as an excuse to drink loads, with very little attention paid to the actual games. (That said, obviously the players are incredibly skilled).

On preview: I'll certainly be keen to watch/discuss the men's tournament.
posted by Pink Frost at 3:02 PM on August 8, 2016

Yellow card for NZ, we'll play with 6 players for two minutes. Australia score immediately to take the lead, and I think that's the game. [For those unsure of the rules, the yellow card was for an intentional knock-down - players have to attempt to catch the ball, they can't interfere in a pass by deliberately knocking the ball to the ground].

Some very high-quality play in this match, overall. Some good defence from NZ but Australia looking much too strong.

Edit: that said, the first Australian try shouldn't have been awarded. Bad refereeing decision.
posted by Pink Frost at 3:20 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

And Serena Willaims just destroyed her racket.
posted by zachlipton at 3:33 PM on August 8, 2016

Aussies get the rugby win, and deserve it. NZ get some late consolation tries, but the Australians are the best team (both on the day and in general). I'm following on two NZ media sites and both think the best team won.
posted by Pink Frost at 3:34 PM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I don't know if it is just my local market, but NBC is really pissing me off. The showed Judge Judy today from 4-5. They're airing fucking Big Bang Theory at 6:30. Assholes.
posted by yesster at 3:57 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

I misread that as "Serena Williams just destroyed her bracket", which didn't seem as remarkable to me
posted by Vibrissa at 4:00 PM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Dumb question because I don't watch the sport often: for the sailing events, what explains the extreme variation in finishing times. For example, in the windsurfing events, folks were crossing the finish five minutes after the leader. In, say, swimming or track, even the longer events, the difference between the winner and the last finisher is rarely more than a second or two, as you might expect with world-class competitors fighting for every edge.
posted by zachlipton at 6:06 PM on August 8, 2016

Loved that the women's trap champion wasrocking a pair of Tom's espadrilles while shooting.
posted by clorox at 8:38 PM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

Loved that the women's trap champion...

Making her the trap queen I assume?
posted by GuyZero at 10:20 PM on August 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

I went a d watched the gold medal bout, which was okay, then went to the beginning and watched the Brunet (French) vs Velikaya (Russian) and Brunet vs Kharlan Ukrainian matches... those were amazing, very exciting. The young French sabre fencer is one to watch for sure.
posted by chapps at 11:43 PM on August 8, 2016

How to Talk To Your Kids About Body Image During the Olympic Games: The three most important ideas you want your children to understand are that media are constructions – things that somebody made – that don’t necessarily reflect reality; that most media products are made so the people who make them can make money; and that people at different times and in different places have different ideas of what is a “good” body shape.

I was impressed by this and will likely think back to the author's points during all this.
posted by polymodus at 6:27 AM on August 9, 2016

USA just broadcast a Nike ad featuring Chris Mosier, the first trans man to be on the US national team (he competes in the duathlon). I'm floored by how far we've come.
posted by Vibrissa at 7:53 AM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I saw that ad last night (on a major network! In primetime!) and was similarly astonished. I know Nike and NBC-Comcast-Universal are both soulless corporations, but it was really pretty great.
posted by usonian at 8:04 AM on August 9, 2016

Wow - the New Zealand/Japan men's rugby match just now was great. The last minute was insane.
posted by dnash at 8:54 AM on August 9, 2016

Oh, neat - there's an Iranian woman, Zahra Nemati, in a wheelchair competing in Archery. Looks like she might lose in this round, but she's shooting great, and it's very cool to see for a number of reasons!
posted by ChuraChura at 11:48 AM on August 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Damn. New Zealand's Sonny Bill Williams out of the rugby tournament with a partial Achilles rupture during this morning's match.
posted by dnash at 12:29 PM on August 9, 2016

Double damn. Williams is an absolute star player (having played rugby league, rugby union and rugby sevens internationally - all sports that require slightly different skills).

Shocked to wake up and see the NZ-Japan result; I was picking the NZ-Kenya match as potentially interesting, Kenya are always a good underdog team. But Japan? Never expected that. Could bad results see NZ out before the quarter-finals? That would be a huge shock.
posted by Pink Frost at 12:37 PM on August 9, 2016

I gotta say, the neck muscles on all the weightlifters are effing amazing.
posted by Melismata at 1:29 PM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

There's sailboarding on msnbc right now, and it looks like so much fun! There's strategy around when to turn sails, how to speed up, what tack to take, how to position your body, plus you pretty much have to have muscles everywhere between your neck and toenails.
posted by julen at 1:48 PM on August 9, 2016

Colombia just scored the first goal in the USA/COL women's game (the first time Colombia has ever scored against the US)!
posted by Vibrissa at 3:33 PM on August 9, 2016

Serena Williams just fell to Elina Svitolina and the crowd is going nuts.
posted by zachlipton at 4:05 PM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

And Canada beat Germany in women's soccer! Cats are dogs! Up is down!
posted by GuyZero at 4:06 PM on August 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

Colombia with that free kick goal at the 90th minute!
posted by zachlipton at 4:50 PM on August 9, 2016

Annnd Colombia scored on a free kick to tie it up again 2-2 as the clock went to 90 minutes; there are 3 minutes of stoppage time now. Holy crap.
posted by Vibrissa at 4:51 PM on August 9, 2016

Rugby has been a revelation. It's like someone took all the boring bits out of American football and soccer and invented rugby.
posted by cazoo at 5:11 PM on August 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

Well, keep in mind that this is Rugby 7s, which is a much shorter and faster paced game. The full 15-man matches are soccer-length. In my limited experience, full matches don't score as often as 7s do, but more than soccer does. I like the pace of it much better than either football or soccer, though there are a lot of fine points to the rules and play that I still don't understand.
posted by dnash at 6:05 PM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I probably prefer the traditional game, but 7s is great for being fast and high scoring. 15 player rugby has lots of seemingly aimless kicking.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:18 PM on August 9, 2016

Oh wow, I'm catching up on the men's individual epee from earlier today, and that final was absolutely heartbreaking for Imre (who is still very impressive for being in the gold medal match at 41, 20 years after he won his first Olympic medal (bronze)).
posted by Vibrissa at 6:42 PM on August 9, 2016

Witnesses: Rio Media Bus Shot At While Returning Passengers To Olympic Park
posted by zachlipton at 7:36 PM on August 9, 2016

Just gearing up to watch the Epee finals now... heard the final is amazing, can't wait!

(In fact, the final is so notable it even got covered on CBC which basically never covers fencing -- when Canada was in a gold medal bout at Pan Am games in Toronto they didn't even stream it!!)... we won. But who knew? Speaking of which...
For any other Canadians out there, you might enjoy checking out Maxime Brincke-Croteau (CAN) vs. Vadim Anokhin (RUS) which starts at about 1:13 on this CBC video as it is truly a fantastic bout for the Canadian epeeist).
posted by chapps at 8:57 PM on August 9, 2016

Are those medal-holder things the athletes are getting instead of flowers made of rubber?? I think I just saw one in Phelps's hands and it looked really weird.
posted by TwoStride at 9:33 PM on August 9, 2016

This men's ITT looks so brutal! Everyone being hella cautious, weather is not helping...looks like there'll be many very unhappy bike riders on the road today. Hoping they all ride smart and avoid any terrifying crashes like we saw in the women's road race!
posted by Dorinda at 6:33 AM on August 10, 2016

Harvey from Canada in the medal round for women's foil. Knocked out the top Italian, incredible!!! So excited.
posted by chapps at 7:30 AM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Cancellera wins the TT! By quite a lot! What a ride.

Bummed for Dumoulin, but after a frustrating year for him it's nice to see Cancellera get that gold watch before he rides off into the sunset.
posted by selfnoise at 8:59 AM on August 10, 2016

Oops, it was to 8 for Canada in fencing...
posted by chapps at 9:01 AM on August 10, 2016

What's the spray that sometimes gets applied to the fencers? I saw a lady epee fencer having it sprayed on her fencing hand a few days ago, and one of the male sabre fencers just had it put on his neck/chest.
posted by Vibrissa at 10:42 AM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have no idea what the mystery fencing spray is!! Did they spray it over the uniform?
posted by chapps at 10:59 AM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nope, she took off her glove and he opened up his jacket. It's coming out of a canister like spray paint. I'm mystified.
posted by Vibrissa at 11:05 AM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

While I am sad Eleanor Harvey (CAN) was eliminated, she did very well in terms of Canadian standings, and also she was defeated by a Tunisian, Ines Boubakri... since Abouelkassem was the first African Olympic fencing medallist in 2012 she must be the first woman to reach this level if she wins at the next stage, and the first Tunisian! Pretty amazing for Tunisia and since Canada can't do it, I'll be rooting for her. I love an underdog!
posted by chapps at 11:05 AM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

The spray could be the "magic spray" that was discussed in this AskMe.
posted by ndfine at 11:07 AM on August 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Magic fencing spray: perhaps a drying agent / anti-perspirant to counterract sweat?
posted by holgate at 11:07 AM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Magical fencing spray" is my new prize idea for my local club's casual fencing night events. It will go well with our unicorn vs. narwhal theme.
posted by chapps at 11:09 AM on August 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

Hurray for the Independent Olympic Athletes, who just won their first ever medal. It's really trap shooter Fehaid Al-Deehani of Kuwait, but their NOC is suspended, so he gets his medal to the sound of the Olympic hymn under an Olympic flag.
posted by zachlipton at 12:09 PM on August 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

The rugby today has been great. For a minute there I thought the US might actually pull off a win over Fiji.

Also I learned that Fiji has never won an Olympic medal, in anything. But it's looking like they're on their way to this one!

Rugby Sevens Is the Most Exhilarating Sport in the Olympics
posted by dnash at 12:27 PM on August 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I thought I saw the spray used in gymnastics too, over the weekend. Magic spray for everybody!!
posted by Fig at 12:28 PM on August 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also I learned that Fiji has never won an Olympic medal, in anything. But it's looking like they're on their way to this one!

I gotta tell you, waking up and seeing that NZ had lost to Britain, barely scraped into the quarters and now has to play Fiji, has made me deeply sad. Those are the two dominant teams in men's sevens history, and they should really be playing in the final. I wouldn't be sad to see Fiji win their (first ever!) medal, but I really wanted NZ to at least be competing with them at the business end of the tournament. Ten minutes to kick off, I think...
posted by Pink Frost at 12:49 PM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nope, she took off her glove and he opened up his jacket. It's coming out of a canister like spray paint. I'm mystified.

I'm pretty sure it's this stuff.
posted by Wordshore at 1:51 PM on August 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure it's this stuff.

If she's fencing against my dog that's gonna be an excellent distraction technique.
posted by phunniemee at 1:59 PM on August 10, 2016 [3 favorites]

Nope, she took off her glove and he opened up his jacket. It's coming out of a canister like spray paint. I'm mystified.

They might be using some ammonia to try to revive a dead spot on the fencer's lamé, which one of my old coaches used to do.
posted by culfinglin at 3:33 PM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

This USA-Australia men's basketball game is staying disconcertingly close...
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:31 PM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

bogut is playing so well!! why couldn't you play like this during the finals my dude!!!
posted by burgerrr at 4:36 PM on August 10, 2016

Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan just blew past the world record clean & jerk total for his weight class (with an extra attempt sitting in his back pocket) to win the gold medal. You don't think of weightlifting as being a sport with unexpected come-from-behind drama, but there you have it.
posted by Copronymus at 4:49 PM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's USA v. Hungary in the Sabre(I think?) gold metal match on CNBC in the USA right now. The Hungarian is really good.
posted by julen at 5:01 PM on August 10, 2016

whew that USA-AUS mens basketball game was super fun. i hope they end up facing each other again later even though it means i'll have to see delly's stupid chipmunk face some more
posted by burgerrr at 5:05 PM on August 10, 2016

The way they were pronouncing Szilagy's name made it sound like he had toured with Prince back in the 80's.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:06 PM on August 10, 2016

Before we saw Szilagy spelled out (and that he was from Hungary), we were speculating he was French or from a Francophone country!

We have closed captioning on, so we have a lot of opportunities to try and figure out the country by the name (because CC covers the scorebox), which is a fun side-game.
posted by julen at 5:13 PM on August 10, 2016

Women's table tennis final now. Looking it might go the distance.
posted by lmfsilva at 6:32 PM on August 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

The bright green reflection off that floor in the table tennis arena is sure annoying, huh?
posted by Sys Rq at 9:19 PM on August 10, 2016

They'll get the pH balanced by tomorrow.
posted by Etrigan at 3:25 AM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

Anyone else feel that the color scheme is very retro? Like a lot of the indoor events look like they're almost being shot on 1960's or 1970's film stock. Very Mexico City 1968 but just a little bit brighter I think.
posted by clorox at 4:41 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

The color scheme definitely is a bit retro, which is partially due to the mosaic theme underpinning the design. The Selaron Steps - the famous mosaic stairs - clearly influenced the design a lot. It was built (beginning in the 90s) using a combination or vintage rescued tile, hand-painted tile, and donated tile. The computer-generated mosaic iconography (notably the mosaicized flags you see after they "pan over" from the Steps before some matches) and faux mosaic furniture bases and floors (I suspect the walls might be a plastic facade too) are all tweaked patterns with normalized/highlighted colors applied to a flat surface.

The mosaic theme is just one of the legs underpinning the design, though. The use of bright colors seems to be a consistent feature of Olympic design in the modern era, each set pulled slightly in favor of the national palette.

Rio is a great city for mosaics. (Here's one photographic tour of the city with a mosaic bent).
posted by julen at 5:11 AM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

Speaking of design, my favorite uniforms so far this year have been the Australians (I find the use of the Southern Cross in the thigh or lower region of the suit subtle and effective) in general, the Japanese field hockey women (I know the flowers are a Missoni thing, but the neckline and design is lovely), and - in general - the modern blocks and lines of the Swedish uniforms.
posted by julen at 5:12 AM on August 11, 2016

I also really liked the Southern Cross on the thighs when I noticed it on the Australian rowers.

It's USA v. Hungary in the Sabre(I think?) gold metal match on CNBC in the USA right now. The Hungarian is really good.

One thing I learned from that FPP yesterday is that Hungary is good at fencing, which I love. A Hungarian fencer sounds like a character in a British mystery novel you're supposed to suspect, because he's a mysterious foreigner, but who is ultimately innocent.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 5:28 AM on August 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

Anybody watching table tennis?
posted by MtDewd at 6:22 AM on August 11, 2016

Bulgaroktonos you might enjoy the movie The Fencer from last year. Intrigue, fencing, set in Estonia... not really spies, but a true story... the main character started a fencing club for kids while in hiding from the Russian army that still exists and produces many high level fencers.
posted by chapps at 7:29 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

In terms of team sports, few things are as exciting as penalty corners. Netherlands just survived five straight against India for a win.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:38 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Fed-Up TV Anchor Goes On Epic Rant Over NBC's Olympics Monopoly (VIDEO)
posted by zachlipton at 9:48 AM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

aaaaa the end of the ARG-AUS rugby match!
posted by Vibrissa at 10:21 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

aaaaa the end of the ARG-AUS rugby match!

That was amazing.
posted by dnash at 10:26 AM on August 11, 2016

Archery on the NBC Sports Network right now. We just had a shoot-off after the two archers tied with 10, and now the Mexican archer is rocking a fabulous hat (and beating the Korean archer).
posted by julen at 11:47 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Leslie Jones is in town, y'all.
posted by Etrigan at 12:08 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Fuuuuuuuuuck, that women's individual archery event was stressful as hell.
posted by imnotasquirrel at 1:18 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

And Japan-South Africa in the bronze medal match of the rugby. Tasty matchup. (Japan beat South Africa in last year's [15-a-side] rugby world cup, in probably the greatest upset in rugby history).

The fallout from New Zealand's elimination is back-page news, you'd hardly know the rest of the Olympics were on. Interesting analysis here - I'm conflicted: our best players were kept out of the Olympics, and guys like Bauden Barrett won the provincial Super Rugby competition for my team, but what might have been if he'd played in Rio?

(anyway, let's go Japan and Fiji in the medal matches).
posted by Pink Frost at 1:23 PM on August 11, 2016

Kayla Harrison, previously the holder of the only gold medal for the USA in judo, is now the holder of the only two gold medals for the USA in judo, after winning both her semifinal and final matches by armbar. Groundwork, which has been featured prominently in this year's competition, is a strength of the USA competitors; Travis Stevens reached the finals on Tuesday by defeating his semifinal opponent with a collar choke before he was thrown by Khasan Khalmurzaev (RUS) in the gold medal match.
posted by egregious theorem at 1:45 PM on August 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

I've seen a couple of French fans in various venues being exuberant and wearing hats I've been calling French Hen hats (even though the French would totally have no interest in being clever by using an English phrase).

It turns out the chickens are cockerals, the national symbol of France.

I want one. This is what I'm talking about. (I'd settle for this entirely unrelated one)
posted by julen at 2:02 PM on August 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

It turns out the chickens are cockerals, the national symbol of France.

Ah yes, known for cameo roles in Five (now Six) Nations rugby.
posted by holgate at 2:17 PM on August 11, 2016

Medal matches for Sevens have begun . South Africa easily cruised for a first try in the Bronze medal match.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:32 PM on August 11, 2016

Fiji cruising to their first-ever Olympic medal, and it looks to be gold.
posted by Pink Frost at 3:18 PM on August 11, 2016

Go Fiji! That was amazing.
posted by zachlipton at 3:35 PM on August 11, 2016

Some liveblogging here with some nice coverage of Fiji's win, and video of their fans going crazy. I liked this:

This just in - [Fiji's English coach] Ben Ryan doesn't like kava.

He may want to learn to like it, I'm guessing the Englishman is going to be involved in a fair few kava ceremonies over the next week.

posted by Pink Frost at 3:53 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I can't tell if everyone getting on their knees for Princess Anne to present their medals is weird or just a practical way to handle the height difference.
posted by zachlipton at 4:04 PM on August 11, 2016

I can't tell if everyone getting on their knees for Princess Anne to present their medals is weird

Tradition. (Fiji's been a republic under military rule for a while, but the British royal family is still highly regarded in similar terms to the nation's hereditary chiefs.)
posted by holgate at 4:39 PM on August 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

Why do athletes cover their faces when they win? It's a mystery.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:43 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am unreasonably excited for Olympic golf. I'm not even a big golf fan, but I've been really enjoying it.

Also, Ma Long absolutely smoked Zhang Jike for the men's table tennis gold. Despite the dominance of Ma, it was totally engrossing, with several full-tilt ten-feet-behind-the-table rallies. Watch the replay if you can.

Also, Duane Dell'Oca of the BBC is my vote for Most Valuable Commentator.
posted by clorox at 3:24 AM on August 12, 2016

Sugiarto of Indonesia just outclassed Shu of the USA in badminton. Not even close, really.
posted by clorox at 4:43 AM on August 12, 2016

Maybe 15,000 people in the stadium for the start of the track and field...
posted by clorox at 5:25 AM on August 12, 2016

Adam Kszczot Is a strong contender for name of the games.
posted by clorox at 5:28 AM on August 12, 2016

Oh the Fiji men were wonderful yesterday in the Rugby 7s finals. We really enjoy rooting for them.

We did catch a bit of the badminton yesterday (China vs. USA, in which China was clearly superior), more of the paddle-sailing, and the fun that is white-water kayaking. We're very excited about Track and especially Field starting today.
posted by julen at 5:38 AM on August 12, 2016

Is it possible to get a dedicated thread for track & field events?
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:07 AM on August 12, 2016

So the women's 10k world record was beaten by more than 14 seconds...
posted by clorox at 7:44 AM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Womens' 10.000m WR broken by 13 seconds or so by Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia. Great start.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:45 AM on August 12, 2016

Track and Field thread! Which is not to forbid any chatter in here, obviously.
posted by cortex at 7:59 AM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thanks!
posted by everybody had matching towels at 8:20 AM on August 12, 2016

USA-SWE women's soccer is 1-1 and has gone into extra time for a spot in the semis.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:01 AM on August 12, 2016

Very psyched to watch USA v ITA for men's team foil bronze this afternoon, then RUS v. FRAN for Silver and Gold. A fantastic lineup of fencing talent!

Sadly the finals are the only fencing streams available in Canada today, buy I suppose I will cope, and then tune in for women's soccer later. (A bit bummed because word on twitter is that Chamley-Watson (USA) was pretty awesome in the earlier bouts ... hope NBC is giving them some streaming time for US fans at least, and hoping the fire in the belly continues!)
posted by chapps at 11:12 AM on August 12, 2016

Oh god this officiating in USA-SWE.
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 AM on August 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

Women's 75kg weightlifting Group A starts in one minute, with Jenny Arthur competing.

Time Warner Cable, literally my only broadband choice, doesn't carry it via the NBC Sports app, which, by the way, I can't even download on my Windows 10 machine, which spits back one of those unbelievably vague and nonspecific error codes when I try.
posted by radicalawyer at 11:29 AM on August 12, 2016

Maybe try nbcolympics.com in a web browser instead of the Windows app?

Meanwhile, penalty shootout is happening!
posted by zachlipton at 11:33 AM on August 12, 2016

Sweden were robbed of a totally legit goal. (Lloyd's was rightly disallowed, I think, for hauling down the defender.)
posted by holgate at 11:35 AM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Swedes win the (semi-final) pennant! The Swedes win the pennant!
posted by cardboard at 11:45 AM on August 12, 2016

Yeah, it doesn't work in a browser, either.
posted by radicalawyer at 11:55 AM on August 12, 2016

So will the women's team say "Fuck it" or run up sixteen goals in the bronze game?
posted by Etrigan at 11:55 AM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

is this the thread where i can vent about HOW MUCH i hate when games end in PKs

because it's terrible
posted by burgerrr at 11:55 AM on August 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

I guess the alternative is 240 minute soccer matches.
posted by GuyZero at 11:57 AM on August 12, 2016

Ha! Can V USA women's basketball just had footage at the bench where the team is regrouping and planning. A little footage of the Canadian coach talking about missed opportunities and then cuts to USA team member "Hey we're playing too fucking passive. Let's go!" heheh. Take that CBC Censors.
posted by chapps at 11:59 AM on August 12, 2016

radicalawyer: the NBC streaming restrictions are infuriating. If it's being broadcast on an NBC affiliate, you could use a free trial of sling tv to watch; otherwise it's possible to use something like ExpressVPN (though that costs dollars) to make it look like you're connecting from Canada and then use the Canadian feeds.
posted by Vibrissa at 12:04 PM on August 12, 2016

I'm actually now convinced that NBC is trying to make me, literally me, angry, via the design of this website. Okay, so you list Time Warner as one of the carriers you accept? Cool! I login, oh no, I, personally, am not one of the Time Warner select. Why? Take it up with Time Warner, we're just NBC!

Fine, I'll watch some highlights, a Finnish guy falls off the platform from celebrating. Probably got light-headed, he tumbles! IMMEDIATE END TO VIDEO BEFORE HE EVEN GETS UP hey time to watch another commercial before you get to see the next five-second highlight clip! PS the commercial is 30 seconds long, just like the last one, and cheesy as fuck! there is nothing goddamn cheesy about weightlifting my dears

The highlight reels from USA-SWE will probably be a supercut of PK takers standing still right before they run toward the ball, set to the Marsellaise.
posted by radicalawyer at 12:13 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

The highlight reels from USA-SWE will probably be a supercut of PK takers standing still right before they run toward the ball, set to the Marsellaise.

Surely it will be the Kazakhstan national anthem.
posted by Etrigan at 12:17 PM on August 12, 2016

Judo is so stressful; until you win, you could lose at any moment. There's no such thing as a safe lead.
posted by Vibrissa at 12:24 PM on August 12, 2016

Well, MacLennan just repeated her gold for trampoline (CAN) ... So far all Canadian medals are going to women!
posted by chapps at 12:24 PM on August 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ok mens team fencing bronze medal match starting now... squeeeeeeee
posted by chapps at 12:59 PM on August 12, 2016

Ooh, there's a lot of argument on the piste!
posted by chapps at 1:09 PM on August 12, 2016

Canada's women's basketball team just lost by 30 points to the U.S....a team that has won its last 45 games. So no shame in that, I guess.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:12 PM on August 12, 2016

Just switched to the fencing...this is fucking cool. Why wasn't I watching before!?!?!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:13 PM on August 12, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's also insanely high tech now.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:14 PM on August 12, 2016

Oooooh! Italian knocked off the piste. Ouch.
posted by chapps at 1:14 PM on August 12, 2016

Massialas evening it up for the US
posted by chapps at 1:15 PM on August 12, 2016

Very fair if the Italian, there, indicating to the judge priority was with USA on the point that puts US ahead...
posted by chapps at 1:17 PM on August 12, 2016

Nice!! Love it when it's over the back!
posted by chapps at 1:23 PM on August 12, 2016

That was so cool!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:25 PM on August 12, 2016

^ That was a very impressive touch
posted by Vibrissa at 1:25 PM on August 12, 2016

Competing chants of "USA!" and "Italia!" over that last judge's call.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 1:26 PM on August 12, 2016

Ooh, this is so close! Everyone's changing blades and looking for any technical issues because every point counts
posted by chapps at 1:37 PM on August 12, 2016

I love hearing the teammates shouting about how exactly an action should be called
posted by Vibrissa at 1:39 PM on August 12, 2016

Lots of disagreement about stop-hit today
posted by chapps at 1:40 PM on August 12, 2016

I would love to be able to watch all these bouts again in slow motion so I can see exactly what's happening
posted by Vibrissa at 1:45 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Enjoying the massialas garozzo rematch here...
posted by chapps at 1:46 PM on August 12, 2016

The slo Mo repeat moments are pretty funny. Shoe close-ups and video symbols!
posted by chapps at 1:47 PM on August 12, 2016

I could use the commentator on that last call. Looked simultaneous to me. ?
posted by chapps at 1:57 PM on August 12, 2016

(and the Italian fans, too apparently
posted by chapps at 1:58 PM on August 12, 2016

USA takes it. Thanks for turning me on to this.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:04 PM on August 12, 2016

I think she ended up calling it an attack and a counter-attack after watching the replay, but it looked pretty simultaneous to me, too.
posted by Vibrissa at 2:04 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ah well, they were far ahead and I agreed with all her other calls. She seemed tough as nails, which I liked. Was a bit surprised to see some yelling about the judging from one coach, thought for a minute I'd see a card... but maybe I didn't hear that in previous bouts because the medal round had commentary. Anyway, that was certainly well earned!
posted by chapps at 2:07 PM on August 12, 2016

(Mandolin Conspiracy, if you missed it check out Eleanor Harvey's bouts. Just fantastic and best every placement for a Canadian fencer!)
posted by chapps at 2:09 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nice point for France there... RUS v FRA in the final team foil...( was a little worried when they made that announcement about respect for various cultures at the beginning, hopefully that isn't in response to problems)
posted by chapps at 2:44 PM on August 12, 2016

Well this is a lovely evening, out in the garden, on my right a fire, on my left a pint of Bateman's Mocha stout. If I tilt my head back I can see shooting stars against a mostly clear sky, if I tilt my head forward I can follow the countdown to the next cycling final. Otherwise stillness.
posted by biffa at 2:45 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sprint cycling needs a BBC nature documentary commentary track.

"the prey looks nervously over his shoulder, knowing the predator lurks high in the track waiting for the right opportunity to attack. Attacking too soon means he might of breath before reaching a safe place; too late, he will be caught long before."
posted by lmfsilva at 2:49 PM on August 12, 2016 [4 favorites]

RUS v FRA in the final team foil...( was a little worried when they made that announcement about respect for various cultures at the beginning, hopefully that isn't in response to problems)

Russian athletes have apparently been on the receiving end of a lot of boos and derision, including at fencing.

Cdn women in the soccer quarterfinal soon! Anxiety rising.
posted by nubs at 2:49 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

And UK wins Gold in the Team Pursuit with a World Record, making Bradley Wiggins the British athlete with most medals.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:57 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Quality cycling.
posted by biffa at 2:57 PM on August 12, 2016

Great race in the cycling just now, men's fours. GB set a world record in the semi-final match against NZ. Australia push GB all the way in the final, but end up losing to another GB world record. Britain's third man looked to be dropping off but managed to dig in and catch up with his teammates. Really enjoyable race.
posted by Pink Frost at 2:58 PM on August 12, 2016

Cherimisinov is on fire and bringing the Russians back into the game here.
posted by chapps at 3:13 PM on August 12, 2016

Attacking too soon means he might of breath before reaching a safe place; too late, he will be caught long before.

...The Wiggo circles patiently...
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:13 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Akhmatkhuzin is making this pretty exciting
posted by Vibrissa at 3:33 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah I can't believe Russia closed the gap!
posted by chapps at 3:43 PM on August 12, 2016

Oh wow, what a finish! I thought it would go the other way at the beginning!!
posted by chapps at 3:48 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Russians are going wild.
posted by zachlipton at 3:49 PM on August 12, 2016

Anyone else watching the Canada-France soccer quarterfinal? Really hoping Chapman isn't too badly injured - that was a brutal collision.
posted by randomnity at 3:56 PM on August 12, 2016

I just turned it on
posted by Vibrissa at 4:02 PM on August 12, 2016

Looked like it might have been a busted collarbone, but they just showed her on the sidelines and it appears the injury is being treated with a blanket, so...maybe not.

P.S. Canada just scored
posted by Sys Rq at 4:15 PM on August 12, 2016

Goal! lol at the announcer "excellently perfect!"
posted by randomnity at 4:15 PM on August 12, 2016

Oh wow, that assist for the Canadian goal. Fantastic. (Current status: USA-Serbia men's basketball on TV; Canada-France women's soccer on dodgy stream).

Not impressed by Hope Solo's comments and gamesmanship (changing her gloves).
posted by Pink Frost at 4:17 PM on August 12, 2016

USA-Serbia men's basketball is fun. Serbia was getting demolished, and them blam they turned it on in a hurry.
posted by zachlipton at 4:20 PM on August 12, 2016

Yeah, Hope Solo's comment seems to boil down to "they played in a way that led to them beating us, and I feel cranky about that," which I don't find very inspiring
posted by Vibrissa at 4:24 PM on August 12, 2016 [3 favorites]

Oh what a nice goal! Go Canada.
posted by nubs at 4:26 PM on August 12, 2016

Canad women are beating France at soccer now???

Black is white! French is English! Holy cow.
posted by GuyZero at 4:34 PM on August 12, 2016

It wouldn't be the first time.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:37 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Into Stoppage time, 1-0 CAN
posted by nubs at 4:49 PM on August 12, 2016

Well done ladies! On to the semis
posted by nubs at 4:51 PM on August 12, 2016

Oh Sinclair's face... the feels! To the final four for Canada!!
posted by chapps at 4:53 PM on August 12, 2016

So happy for the hard working Canadian soccer team!
posted by Cuke at 5:02 PM on August 12, 2016

Quick Twitter video of the Canadian women's celebration!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:42 PM on August 12, 2016

Quick Twitter video of the Canadian women's celebration!

Sadly, that 3 second clip is geoblocked and doesn't work if you're not in Canada, because morons.
posted by zachlipton at 5:52 PM on August 12, 2016

That's okay, 'cause it apparently doesn't work in Canada either unless you install the Twitter app, which, meh.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:33 PM on August 12, 2016

That's okay, 'cause it apparently doesn't work in Canada either unless you install the Twitter app, which, meh.

Shit. Sorry.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:20 PM on August 12, 2016

Anyone else watching this Australia vs. Brazil women's soccer match? 0-0, just went into penalty kicks.
posted by roll truck roll at 8:32 PM on August 12, 2016

I just turned it on. This shoot-out is epic.
posted by zachlipton at 8:40 PM on August 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Heartbreaker for Australia, but at least it was a great save on a pretty good kick.
posted by cardboard at 8:51 PM on August 12, 2016

at least it was a great save on a pretty good kick.

Keeper way off her line, but the officiating has been a mess for this tournament, and also Brazil in Brazil, so not a surprise.
posted by holgate at 9:47 PM on August 12, 2016

I did catch an article on NBCOlympics.com making a big deal out of the disallowed goal for the USA because of offsides, but trying to sweep the matching disallowed goal for Sweden for absolutely no good reason whatsoever under the rug.
posted by zachlipton at 10:13 PM on August 12, 2016

Was Lloyd offside? I thought she got around that by literally picking up and throwing a Swedish player toward the goal.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:40 PM on August 12, 2016

Come to think of it, that would be another thing the article soft-pedeled.
posted by zachlipton at 10:57 PM on August 12, 2016

In general, if an offside decision leads to a goal being disallowed, the camera crew will cut to the assistant with flag raised. We didn't see that for the US goal, but we did for the Swedish one. Doesn't prove anything, but it's part of the visual language of how the game is broadcast. I think Lloyd's challenge was called as a foul by the referee, who had a better view than the assistant.

Fouls are ultimately judgement calls, but giving offside from a deflection off a defender is just plain wrong. There was a similar goal late in the English season where the assistant flagged after the goal was scored, but the officials had a chat -- the assistant hadn't seen the deflection but the referee had -- and it was eventually awarded.
posted by holgate at 11:51 PM on August 12, 2016

Even if the call on the field was the bad call on the offside, it's very likely it was just the first infraction. Just because the first call was wrong does not mean the goal would stand, as I've seen a lot of people claim, as the hold was pretty blatant.

At least Solo no longer has to worry about Zika. Foot-in-mouth disease, however, is still a recurring problem with her.
posted by lmfsilva at 7:57 AM on August 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

No, not an Onion story: IOC bans GIFs from Rio

The International Olympic Committee has decided to clamp down on all GIFs. IOC rules state; "The use of Olympic material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:31 AM on August 13, 2016

ARG-BRA men's basketball has been super close the whole time, currently 77-73 Brazil with six minutes left.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:54 AM on August 13, 2016

PS: my formerly professional fencing friend tells me that the spray I was wondering about is probably something like this
posted by Vibrissa at 12:11 PM on August 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

ARG-BRA now 85-85 with under four seconds to go.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:13 PM on August 13, 2016

...and the game just ended, four points apart, two overtimes later. Bananas.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:48 PM on August 13, 2016 [2 favorites]

So at least two female Olympians with purple hair have won medals in the last hour or so, and I think that's petty great.
posted by zachlipton at 2:04 PM on August 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

In tennis news, Mónica Puig is one set away from winning the first gold medal for Puerto Rico in any sport.
posted by zachlipton at 2:20 PM on August 13, 2016

Sigh. I have no idea what to even say about this. Just more joy about being a women dealing with entitled, thoughtless men.
posted by sardonyx at 2:50 PM on August 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

I feel ARG-BRA should be a new internet expression ...
posted by chapps at 7:28 PM on August 13, 2016

So if you've been following track cycling, you'll recognize this fellow.

Cycling: The Rio volunteer setting the pace for champions

Ivo Siebert, 35, a semi-professional who owns a bike shop in southern Brazil, is setting the pace for the track cycling keirin event, calmly riding an electric bike while the world's fastest racers prowl behind him, preparing to sprint.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:11 AM on August 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

In uniform news:

I really love the little British lion icon (especially when it's in blue and red) on some of the British uniforms/shirts above the Olympic rings and country name (whoever made those uniforms made them for a few other countries including France - who have a cockeral instead of the lion). I am not a fan of the silhouetted rampant animals on the flag look that dominates a lot of the uniforms.

In other recent likes: I think I raved about the Japanese field hockey uniforms before, but the trampoline uniforms with the origami-esque treatment on the word Japan was also nice. Brazil's blue/green combos on many of their uniforms is really lovely; the Canadian smudgy red bathing suits look fantastic on both the men and the women. I also appreciate that Russia's outerwear says Russia in English, but once you take that off, Russia is in Cyrillic in their actual competing clothes.
posted by julen at 8:46 AM on August 14, 2016

Why do I keep hearing "phones away, please" during the golf? Why on earth aren't spectators allowed to take photos?
posted by ocherdraco at 11:36 AM on August 14, 2016

Most phones have an audible faux shutter click. So when a hundred people all take pictures you tend to hear click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click etc as people take a bunch of pictures in hopes of getting a good one as the player addresses the ball. Players are used to quiet when hitting the ball.

This isn't an issue at most golf tournaments because the crowds there knows the protocols around being quiet while the the players are in action, but Olympic crowds aren't as up on the traditions of golf and aren't thinking about the sound issue. But the players aren't used to it when hitting the ball. (Most of the things being yelled out, often related to radio show traditions, are yelled out just as the player hits the ball or just after the ball is hit.)
posted by julen at 12:08 PM on August 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh dear. Ryan Lochte, 3 other U.S. swimmers robbed [at gunpoint] at Rio Olympics, USOC says. All four are apparently ok. See also where the IOC spokesman claims that the story is "absolutely not true." There was a lot of spokesmen confusion.
posted by zachlipton at 12:53 PM on August 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ah, golf. Now it looks like a normal NBC Sunday.
posted by rhizome at 1:15 PM on August 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Five bucks says the Smails kid picks his nose.
posted by rhizome at 1:25 PM on August 14, 2016

This Switzerland-Brazil beach volleyball match is incredibly intense.
posted by zachlipton at 1:59 PM on August 14, 2016

This elimination round of the Omnium (cycling in the velocidrome) might be my new favorite race - every two laps, the racer at the back of the pack is eliminated.
posted by julen at 4:04 PM on August 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

The crowd is singing Happy Birthday to You over and over again in the middle of the beach volleyball match because it's Kerri Walsh Jennings' birthday on the 15th and they crossed over into midnight.
posted by zachlipton at 8:27 PM on August 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden posts an awesome response to some sexist commentary from another Canadian athlete on his blog: Feminism in Sport
posted by invokeuse at 9:41 AM on August 15, 2016 [12 favorites]

Table tennis- Yoshimura wins a point (one of his few in the 2nd game) after a behind-the-back return.
posted by MtDewd at 11:29 AM on August 15, 2016

A few days behind. Watch bronzemedal match for women's team sabre and had to pop in to say what A bout for Wozniak!
posted by chapps at 12:59 PM on August 15, 2016

It's pouring rain at the athletics stadium and they've taken to playing "Singin in the Rain" over the PA system while they've suspended the field events. Seems like they're going to keep running anyway though.
posted by zachlipton at 4:46 PM on August 15, 2016

Out-Of-Control Garbage Fire Reportedly Sets Olympic Mountain Bike Course Ablaze

That is reportedly a literal [real] garbage fire, as in a bunch of garbage conflagrating, not in the sense one might say "this Olympics has been kind of a garbage fire."
posted by zachlipton at 6:11 PM on August 15, 2016

Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden posts an awesome response to some sexist commentary from another Canadian athlete on his blog: Feminism in Sport

Some good work from Andy Murray, too:

When BBC reporter John Inverdale praised Murray for being the first "person" to win two Olympic medals in tennis, Murray interjected with a gentle reminder that women are people too.

"You're the first person ever to win two Olympic tennis gold medals," Inverdale said. "That's an extraordinary feat, isn't it?"

"I think Venus and Serena [Williams] have won about four each," he said.

posted by Pink Frost at 2:20 AM on August 16, 2016 [9 favorites]

Anyone watching women's soccer today?
posted by chapps at 8:40 AM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes! I can't decide whether to root for Brazil (because home crowd) or for Sweden (because Hope Solo's comments were uncalled for).
posted by Vibrissa at 8:58 AM on August 16, 2016

Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden posts an awesome response to some sexist commentary from another Canadian athlete on his blog: Feminism in Sport

It shouldn't be remarkable that a male athlete is saying these things, but...worth quoting:

To be crystal clear, I don’t know three athletes more capable of defending themselves in a conversation around feminism and sport than Marnie, Chandra and Annamay. Honestly, if you asked me three days ago who I’d want on a panel to discuss women in sport (but you shouldn’t, you should ask a woman), those three would tie for the gold. So I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not sticking up for them, or defending women, they don’t need my help.

However, I don’t think the burden of defense rests solely on the capable shoulders of my female teammates. If men don’t call out men when we are being sexist, then we are not a part of the solution, and the problem persists. So here I am, calling out my friend Adam Kreek. Adam, you were sexist on television last night.

Feminism isn’t for females. It’s for everyone. Good men should feel comfortable challenging each other’s prejudices, and accept criticism when those prejudices get the better of us, or when we make a mistake.

[...]

You see, no journalist has ever asked me if I’ve been doing something different with my hair lately (despite the fact that I AM, thanks for noticing). Nobody has ever asked me to twirl in the mixed zone. I’ve never read that I “put on a little too much weight” in the offseason, even when I have, and I haven’t heard of one male athlete that didn’t perform well because they spend too much time on social media. But I can confirm, that a lot of us waste plenty of time staring at our phones.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:15 AM on August 16, 2016 [4 favorites]

I hope BRA-SWE doesn't end up going to penalty kicks :/
posted by Vibrissa at 11:11 AM on August 16, 2016

YEah it seems like Brazil is spending so much time near Sweden's net but never a shot... oh free kick!
posted by chapps at 11:25 AM on August 16, 2016

oof, that was very close
posted by Vibrissa at 11:32 AM on August 16, 2016

Penalties again :(
posted by zachlipton at 11:34 AM on August 16, 2016

Sweden through
posted by nubs at 11:48 AM on August 16, 2016

Sweden advances. That was a great save on the fifth.
posted by lmfsilva at 11:49 AM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

A bitter pill for Brazil...
posted by chapps at 11:49 AM on August 16, 2016

Poor Andressinha :(
posted by Vibrissa at 11:49 AM on August 16, 2016

I like all this inter-team hugging that's happening now, though
posted by Vibrissa at 11:51 AM on August 16, 2016

The ESP-TUR women's basketball quarterfinal just had a pretty epic ending.
posted by zachlipton at 12:08 PM on August 16, 2016

I'm watching the Canada/Germany game now. Germany just scored a beautiful solid goal. I guess it was a penalty kick? I'm not sure as I was getting a glass of water in the workplace kitchen and the game is on but man, what a goal.
posted by biggreenplant at 12:26 PM on August 16, 2016

Yes, it was a penalty kick.
posted by chapps at 12:59 PM on August 16, 2016

Thanks chapps! I did see the penalty in replay. That kick was earned.
posted by biggreenplant at 1:13 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ouch!
posted by chapps at 1:16 PM on August 16, 2016

Well done, Germany, I must admit.
posted by chapps at 1:17 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

(hopefully substitutions will help Canada turn the tide)
posted by chapps at 1:18 PM on August 16, 2016

I had a sense Germany was napping a bit in the last game of the round robin.
posted by nubs at 1:22 PM on August 16, 2016

Well they aren't napping today, they are pretty fantastic.
posted by chapps at 1:27 PM on August 16, 2016

Okay, I saw the second German goal on replay. That was great. I don't like how rough Canada is playing but maybe that's just the snippets I'm seeing. I think sometimes we get too entitled. It would be cool to see Germany / Sweden play and forget the whole Canada/US thing as the US is already out.
posted by biggreenplant at 1:27 PM on August 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

... and indeed Germany is through. Hopefully now in Canada we can stop hearing the "biased refereeing, we were robbed in London" narrative.
posted by biggreenplant at 1:53 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Fourth cycling gold for Laura Trott. Fantastic performance across all six disciplines in the omnium. Only 24, so looks good for more in Tokyo and beyond.
posted by biffa at 1:54 PM on August 16, 2016 [3 favorites]

I wish I could say I was disappointed Canada lost that game, but now they'll be in a fight to the death against Brazil, and the potential for that to be a spectacular television event seems to have shorted out my compassion circuits.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:24 PM on August 16, 2016

Oh man, they have cameras on the bike seats in the Omnium. It's terrifying, the feeling of being chased by an implacable angry-faced Olympic athlete.

Also Kristina Vogel just won a gold medal despite the fact that her bike seat fell off mid-race.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:25 PM on August 16, 2016 [3 favorites]

And now an Australian's bike exploded (low speed, no injuries). Also a broken saddle, apparently. They're restarting the race to give the Aussie a fair chance, which seems unusually civilized.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:31 PM on August 16, 2016

Laura Trott! I love her so much even though her French plaits are so very far beyond anything I could have achieved at her age, let alone 4 Olympic gold medals. She is the best. The women of Rio are going to kill me and it will be Laura Trott that delivers the fatal blow. Laura Trott, ridiculously good at riding a bike in circles even though all the while she looks uncomfortably hunched and crabbed over the bars. Laura Trott and her saying through her tears that she never imagined winning after she outclassed everyone in everything. Her fiancé Jason Kenny is riding for his 6th gold medal as I write and if there were any justice he'd be known best as Laura Trott's boyfriend.*

Actually, about Kenny: this kierin final is just going for a restart after a stoppage in which it seemed to be threatened that he'd be DQd. A mystery, a controversy, and I feel for all of the competitors who must be made more nervous by this. And of course for Laura T, who the cameras kept focusing on while she seemed distraught, just minutes after she won her gold.
posted by calico at 2:55 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

They're having so much trouble getting this keirin final right. It's going to be a third start once they figure out what to do about the second one.
posted by zachlipton at 2:59 PM on August 16, 2016

Armenian super-heavyweight weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze just broke the world record in the snatch (215kg). His record lasted for about 60 seconds, broken by the next lifter, Behdad Salimi Kordasiabi (216kg).
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:00 PM on August 16, 2016

The lady who commentates weightlifting for the canadian broadcast has a very good critical eye and does a nice job of explaining errors in form (at least, that's how I feel; I don't know anything about weightlifting).
posted by Vibrissa at 4:26 PM on August 16, 2016

Holy crap, Behdad Salimi Kordasiabi just missed his third attempt at clean & jerk; he got the world record snatch but he gets no credit for the second half of this event.
posted by Vibrissa at 4:38 PM on August 16, 2016

The commentator is Michaela Breeze.

The crowd got really ugly after Salimi Kordasiabi's elimination, but Talakhadze's new world record (total 473kg) was a good note to end on. He'll get to keep this record for more than 2 minutes!
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:59 PM on August 16, 2016

I have to find time to watch the women's cycling. The comments have me intrigued.
posted by biggreenplant at 5:57 PM on August 16, 2016

“Abbey D'Agostino, Nikki Hamblin exemplify Olympic spirit after falling in 5,000 meters,” Chris Chavez, Sports Illustrated, 16 August 2016
posted by ob1quixote at 6:42 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

nbcolympics.com has embraced the funny 404 page trend.
posted by zachlipton at 7:16 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Two sets of twins, German and North Korean, finished the marathon together, and at least on the German side, some spoilsports are apparently not amused.
posted by zachlipton at 8:20 PM on August 16, 2016

They're having so much trouble getting this keirin final right. It's going to be a third start once they figure out what to do about the second one.

It seemed like the riders were using the 125m line on the track as the cue to start their engines, and the derny rider (recruited locally) was leaving the track a fraction of a second late.

British people with limited exposure to track cycling now completely believe that "omnium" means points race, and joke about its incomprehensibility. (I remember them goggling over the madison in previous years.) I actually like the omnium format, even if it sets up the purists' component -- lots of laps, two competing ways to gain points -- as the decisive one. (The omnium was introduced because the IOC required the UCI to offer an equal number of men's and women's events on the track; it replaced some mainstays like the madison and individual pursuit. 2016 also equalised the distances, so the women got to do 4000m in the team pursuit.)

In passing: NBC still uses feet and inches for the field events when they are quite obviously competed in metric measurements. For fuck's sake.
posted by holgate at 8:49 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

The USA-BRA women's beach volleyball is wild tonight. It's going to be close.
posted by zachlipton at 8:54 PM on August 16, 2016

This BBC page has a good mix of links to stories from across the games, including a pic of a young Laura Trott wearing Bradley Wiggins' cycling gold medal back in 2012, Michael Phelps' tax bill, etc.
posted by biffa at 3:04 AM on August 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd forgotten how much I got into track cycling in 2012. The disciplines are varied, generally over pretty quickly, and action packed. The different tactics in the sprint vs team pursuit vs keirin etc are really interesting.

I especially love the start of the individual sprints where they start off super slow, staring at each other, seeing who's going to be the one to go full power first. And the keirin where a canny competitor can hang around at the back, drafting everyone, until 1/2 a lap to go where they hit the afterburners and get to the front within 125m (Rebecca James did this to get silver).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:11 AM on August 17, 2016

(I'm just going out and say that if anyone wants a primer on Track, Pro Cycling Manager 2008 and beyond have a fun track mode that does a decent job of exploring the basics of stamina conservation and race tactics - it doesn't require anything that isn't up and down to manage pace, left and right to steer and space to sprint, no button mashing or joystick waggling. As it barely changed other than fancier graphics since it was implemented, you can have 2012 or 2013 for €10 on Steam)
posted by lmfsilva at 8:17 AM on August 17, 2016

TIL that there are Olympic participation medals given to all participants.
posted by Etrigan at 9:24 AM on August 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

While I know there's always some grunting when there's an Olympics - XGames crossover, BMX is thrilling to watch, even the solo seeding runs. How slight poor landing angles can take off just enough speed to bump placement down a bit.

I hope skateboarding will include downhill races or slalom, not just vert/street competitions.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:18 AM on August 17, 2016

TIL that there are Olympic participation medals given to all participants.
posted by Etrigan at 12:24 PM on August 17

This explains why they never learn the value of winning or that they need to work hard to get things in life.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 10:23 AM on August 17, 2016 [6 favorites]

Everybody wins
posted by nubs at 10:34 AM on August 17, 2016

I've been only watching Table Tennis, so I don't know if this across the board or just TT.
All of the players I have seen have had their country names and their own names in English on their uniforms. I could understand Portuguese or the wearer's native language, but why English?
Is that some sort of requirement?
posted by MtDewd at 12:34 PM on August 17, 2016

English is more or less lingua franca in the sports world. I doubt that there's any international federation that doesn't have it as one of it's official languages (the other being frequently French).
posted by lmfsilva at 12:48 PM on August 17, 2016

What the heck is going on with the Lochte thing? The news said there are warrants out for Lochte and another guy.
posted by Justinian at 3:43 PM on August 17, 2016

There was an order to hold their passports, but they already left and got back to the US. The AP has a good summary. And the police are casting doubt on their story. It's all pretty odd, but I can't really believe they made up the robbery, especially when the police have far bigger reasons to claim it never happened.
posted by zachlipton at 4:12 PM on August 17, 2016

BMX is thrilling to watch

It's a guilty pleasure, particularly the carnage rounds.

A lot of the events that start towards the end of the Olympics have a "last week before school holidays" feel, filling the spaces left as the longer tournaments (usually the ones involving balls) move towards their finals. This isn't to demean the effort that goes into winning them: they're just a bit random.

You get the BMX, the triathlon, and the modern pentathlon, which sometimes feels like the competitors are sneaking into all the venues that hosted the other sports -- swimming, fencing, horsing, etc. -- and using their stuff before it gets packed away.
posted by holgate at 10:15 PM on August 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

Modern pentathlon is my guilty pleasure for the summer games. It's utterly ridiculous and therefore excellent. According to the article you linked, they're going to have a special modern pentathlon arena with a pool for Tokyo so they can do the entire thing in one place, which is just going to make it even more ridiculous to watch. Eventually they're going to get to the point where competitors do the whole thing without stopping.
posted by zachlipton at 10:24 PM on August 17, 2016

Modern pentathlon is so fun because it's totally rich dude sports. You have to afford a horse AND fencing lessons! It's 1562 warfare up in there!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 11:52 PM on August 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

Eventually they're going to get to the point where competitors do the whole thing without stopping.

...at which point it will be CrossFit.

BTW, my head-reboot for Flash Gordon starts with Flash, a champion modern pentathlete, representing his sport at the meeting of the IOC, but failing to convince them not to vote to remove it from the Olympics. Afterward, intrepid reporter Dale Arden jumps into his cab to interview him, sarcastically asking what he's planning to do with his now-obsolete skill set. As they approach the airport, strange clouds gather in the sky...
posted by The Tensor at 11:53 PM on August 17, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Guardian is reporting a GB athlete has been robbed at gunpoint in Rio. Interesting line in a letter from the British Olympic Association that I can't imagine will go down well with the IOC: "Rio is NOT a safe environment, and the level of crime has spiked in the last few days”. Apparently some Olympic associations have already barred athletes from leaving the athletes village after dark.
posted by biffa at 1:33 AM on August 18, 2016

Modern pentathlon is so fun because it's totally rich dude sports. You have to afford a horse AND fencing lessons! It's 1562 warfare up in there!

1562? more like 2562.

"athletes shoot with laser pistols"

posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:56 AM on August 18, 2016

You have to afford a horse AND fencing lessons!

I don't think that many mod-pentathletes own horses, even though it is definitely a posh sport. The schtick is that you don't bring a horse along: you just borrow one from what's available (spirit of 1562) and we'll get to see if Rio's horse lottery participants are more like London's (placid, long-suffering Pony Club veterans) or Beijing's (one generation removed from running wild on the steppes).
posted by holgate at 6:31 AM on August 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

Ooh! I've been looking into the modern pentathlon lately (I've been trying and failing to put together a FPP on Helen Preece, whose attempt to enter the 1912 Stockholm Modern Pentathlon (history of the first MP here, translated into English from German (I think) complete with reprinted newspaper article about Preece!) was horrifying to all men of sound mind and all decency.

One of the things I've gleaned from reading a history of the Olympic Games is that the idea that the ultimate athletes were elite and military underpinned a lot of thinking then, so the pentathlon was enthusiastically embraced by countries like France and Germany, whose ideals of manliness lined up with a fencing, riding strong man as opposed to the ... gymnasts ... of places like Denmark and Austria.

Also, as your obscure trivia of the day: George S. Patton came in either 5th or 8th (depending on who you read) in the 1912 inaugural Modern Pentathlon.
posted by julen at 9:01 AM on August 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

Rio Olympics 2016: US women sweep medals in 100m hurdles (2 great photos)
posted by bukvich at 9:06 AM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

NED-GER Hockey going to a penalty shootout for the bronze medal.
posted by zachlipton at 9:28 AM on August 18, 2016

terrible crash on BMX now.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:38 AM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm watching the BMX and it's pretty much terrible crash after terrible crash. This is a sport that allows you to talk across the finish line carrying what remains of your broken equipment and still count as a finish, which should probably tell us something about the nature of the sport.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:12 AM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's exactly the kind of thing that seems extremely fun to do... until the realization it would end in the back of an ambulance.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:35 AM on August 18, 2016

Oh man, Lochte, you nutty nut, trashing a gas station bathroom and saying you'd been robbed.

Too bad you can never leave the US again. :/
posted by GuyZero at 10:44 AM on August 18, 2016

Modern Pentathlon fencing doesn't have the cool Star Wars-esque pistes though. I mean they have laser pistols now, is dramatic lighting really too much to ask?
posted by zachlipton at 11:17 AM on August 18, 2016

The women's gold medal match in 75kg wrestling is starting, and I'm hopeful for Canada's chances.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:23 PM on August 18, 2016

Leading at the halfway break, but the referee is all up in this match. I don't know if that's normal or if there's something wrong.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:26 PM on August 18, 2016

Woo!
posted by jacquilynne at 3:30 PM on August 18, 2016

Hahah, now she is carrying her male coach around the arena on her shoulders. Because Erica Wiebe is a gold medal winning bad ass.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:32 PM on August 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Aw crap I missed the wrestling. Good for Erica!
posted by nubs at 3:54 PM on August 18, 2016

Haha, jeez, last night I typed and then deleted a comment speculating about Lochte actually losing his money in some embarrassing incident he wanted to cover up (with a more exciting armed robbery story), but thought it wasn't fair to speculate like that. But there you go.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:26 PM on August 18, 2016

Never attribute to Ryan Lochte what can be adequately explained by stupidity.
posted by Etrigan at 5:08 PM on August 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

And the story changes a bit more. Now the police acknowledge that a security guard did brandish a weapon and that the swimmers paid money to the manager before leaving.

So after calling them total liars, the police now acknowledge the basic narrative of "gave up money" and "gunpoint" seems to have happened (the claim about being pulled over by the police obviously hasn't held up). But they claim that the swimmers damaged the bathroom and it wasn't a robbery.

I can certainly see how drunk people might mistake "man with a gun forced me to pay for the stuff I broke while being drunk and stupid" with "man with a gun robbed me."
posted by zachlipton at 5:11 PM on August 18, 2016

Correction: Lochte originally claimed his taxi was "side-swiped," not pulled over. That was apparently crap.
posted by zachlipton at 5:24 PM on August 18, 2016

I can certainly see how drunk people might mistake "man with a gun forced me to pay for the stuff I broke while being drunk and stupid" with "man with a gun robbed me."

Indeed, especially if, as has been reported, the man with a gun was being translated by some random passer-by, so the person actually communicating the demands was literally just some dude, not uniformed security or anything.

Is there footage of Lochte & co. actually comitting the alleged vandalism? (AFAIK the police don't even directly claim they caused any damage, just that a sound was heard and damage was found, implying they caused it when it could very easily have been there already; it doesn't appear to be a particularly well-maintained gas station.) No footage that I've seen shows it.

Indeed, all footage that has been released jibes perfectly well with what Lochte has claimed. Sure, he may have misread the situation, but you know what? Security guards aren't supposed to point guns at unarmed people, demand money, then release the supposed offenders once their wallets have been cleaned out. You know who does that? Robbers do that. If the swimmers really did commit criminal acts, why weren't the police involved? The only obvious crime here is extortion.

The "official" story has changed far more than Lochte's has -- first no guns, then yes one gun, etc. -- and has giant holes in it. Lochte is being accused of filing a false police report -- did he even file any police report? The others are apparently still being held...for what, exactly? Minor vandalism, where the damages have already been paid for? The other swimmers' supposed recantations and/or claims that Lochte made it all up are only coming from the police and from the swimmers' so-called legal counsel, and not from the swimmers themselves.

Lochte was lucky to GTFO while he had the chance.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:45 PM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's an open secret that male swimmers have a reputation for being messy drunk idiots once the big galas are done: they typically spend the final week of the Olympics partying and trying to use up the abundant supply of condoms in the Village. (This isn't confined to the US team; it's just part of the broader culture.)

For Lochte & co, just assume the drunkest dumbest explanation. I originally suspected that they were so drunk and dumb that they basically walked into a gang of robbers, but being so drunk that they kicked in a toilet door because they needed to piss is even dumber.
posted by holgate at 11:03 PM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

(And I'll just point to this ESPN story from 2012 which includes quotes from Lochte. I find the recurrent 'omg, they're all fucking!' stories hilarious, because duh, but the whole point of the Village and the various sponsored national 'houses' is that they're designated spaces for debauchery, and Lochte ought to know better at his age -- this is his fourth Olympics -- that you don't get away with it so easily elsewhere.)
posted by holgate at 11:19 PM on August 18, 2016

Actually, there are reports that they pissed behind the building, rather than in the bathroom. It's unclear what kind of drunk person pisses outside and then goes inside to break a soap dispenser, but yeah, possible drunk story. There are also reports that the door they damaged was jammed, which is either drunk people not knowing you have to turn the knob, or, you know, a door that was already broken.

Lochte and co. were drunk idiots who acted like drunk idiots, and then sweetened their story in various ways to try to make themselves sound less idiotic. The Brazilian police, meanwhile, set out to cast them as total liars, when the basic facts as we know them so far bear out the stupid drunk idiot explanation: taxi stopped, money handed over to uniformed people with guns.

In the meantime, a British athlete was honest-to-goodness-nobody-claims-it-was-a-drunken-misunderstanding robbed at gunpoint, but the police get a pass on that one because everyone's focusing on this story. There was also an Australian Paralympic champion robbed in June, Australian rowing coaches robbed, and a jiu-jitsu champion ordered to withdraw cash and pay it to armed police (not an Olympic athlete).
posted by zachlipton at 12:19 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Due to extended lines, McDonald's has limited the amount of free food athletes can order to 20 items at a time (or at least their order will be dropped in priority) as there have been 50+ person lines to get in.

Usain Bolt claimed he ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets in Beijing, but has apparently adopted a more healthy routine since then.
posted by zachlipton at 1:43 AM on August 19, 2016

When you've just won an Olympjc gold in wrestling, this is how to thank your coach.
posted by Etrigan at 9:02 AM on August 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

From today's story:

A lawyer for the fourth swimmer, James Feigen, said early Friday that the athlete planned to donate 35,000 Brazilian reals ($10,800) to an "institution" and leave the country later in the day. Attorney Breno Melaragno said under the agreement, Feigen will make the donation, get his passport back and depart. Melaragno did not specify where the money will go, but his use of the term "institution" can be taken to mean a charity. He said that under Brazilian law, a donation can be made to avoid criminal prosecution for minor offenses, but did not say what charge was being contemplated.

That, uh, kind of sounds like another robbery.
posted by zachlipton at 9:08 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Well he lied to the police, and you can be fined for that, so seems OK?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 9:25 AM on August 19, 2016

Watching the Canada-Brazil bronze medal football match. I'm Canadian, but I learned to watch football while living in Brasilia, so my allegiances are mixed. So far, things are looking good for the Canadians, though -- the Brazilians seem really disorganized in this first half. They're running into half-time stoppage now, and it doesn't seem like Brazil's really had a good chance while Canada's had a couple of dangerous shots on goal.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:47 AM on August 19, 2016

Am I the only one who's a sucker for rhythmic gymnastics? So amazing, the things they do.
posted by Melismata at 10:12 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

The hits just keep on coming.

The Paralympic Games will take place as planned next month, but face major budget cuts, the International Paralympic Committee has announced:

What's being cut?

Downsizing of Rio 2016's workforce for the Paralympics
Changes to the transport services for athletes and their teams
The closure of a number of venue media centres
Moving events to other venues to enable Deodoro Park to be dismantled, allowing the other venues to have dedicated transport hubs
Security forces currently in place for the Olympics will remain for the Paralympics.

Earlier, the IPC raised concerns that Rio had run out of money ahead of the Paralympic Gamess. They were correct.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:20 AM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

2-0 Canada in the women's bronze soccer match with about 20 minutes to go. Nearly made it 3-0 a moment ago.
posted by nubs at 10:25 AM on August 19, 2016

I have long wondered why the Paralympics aren't held before the Olympics.
posted by Etrigan at 10:30 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Removing an entire cluster of venues is a pretty huge deal, especially as I can imagine some athletes already trained at the old venues. This would seem to be a situation where the IOC could step up and ensure the Paralympics get the respect they deserve.
posted by zachlipton at 10:32 AM on August 19, 2016

Brazil with a goal in the 78th minute; this could be a great finish here.
posted by nubs at 10:36 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Whoa free kick for Brazil. . Could tie this up!
posted by chapps at 10:40 AM on August 19, 2016

What pressure from Brazil
posted by nubs at 10:46 AM on August 19, 2016

Good tactical play there by Canada, but I get Brazil's frustration
posted by nubs at 10:48 AM on August 19, 2016

Brazil unable to mount a serious attack in extra time, Canada wins bronze in women's soccer
posted by nubs at 10:51 AM on August 19, 2016

Appreciating the classy Brazilian fans here.
posted by chapps at 10:56 AM on August 19, 2016

Brazil played a strong last 15 minutes, but it's a 90 minute long game.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:56 AM on August 19, 2016

Whoa! Canadian women beating Brazil in soccer on home turf!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:14 AM on August 19, 2016

Wow, I didn't realize that tae kwon do used electronic scoring. That's very fancy.
posted by Vibrissa at 11:27 AM on August 19, 2016

CBC just had the amazing Clara Hughes on to interview Georgia Simmerling. They're both athletes who compete in completely different sports in summer and winter, which is pretty cool. Normally I ignore the non-competition bits of these broadcasts, but it's interesting to hear about how they get involved in multiple sports at such a high level.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:56 AM on August 19, 2016

Am I the only one who's a sucker for rhythmic gymnastics? So amazing, the things they do.

Count me in - Italian goes so far as to call it "artistic gymnastics", btw.
posted by progosk at 12:42 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

In English, "artistic gymnastics" is the non-rhythmic kind (trampoline is a third separate discipline).
posted by Etrigan at 12:51 PM on August 19, 2016

And track and field is also called athletics, which took me a while to figure out.
posted by Melismata at 12:55 PM on August 19, 2016

Call me a sucker because I LOVE LOVE LOVE rhythmic gymnastics, but really just the group competition. The individual is ok but the group is like a bunch of acrobats at the circus! I've got my DVR set to record very early sunday morning to catch it all!

(I did the same thing in 2012 but NBC was not as accurate with their descriptions and the entire 3 hour recording didn't contain any rhythmic gymnastics at all. So disappoint.)
posted by LizBoBiz at 1:19 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Italian goes so far as to call it "artistic gymnastics", btw.

In English, "artistic gymnastics" is the non-rhythmic kind

(Actually, scratch that, the August heat's got to me (plus I'm a gymnastics philistine): it's no different in Italian.)
posted by progosk at 1:41 PM on August 19, 2016

Sweden is having a rough time with offsides calls in the women's soccer gold medal match
posted by Vibrissa at 1:48 PM on August 19, 2016

Second half of women's hockey gold medal match begun. Very entertaining so far.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:52 PM on August 19, 2016

Is it common for so many hockey matches to end in shoot outs?
posted by zachlipton at 2:39 PM on August 19, 2016

Oh man, another penalty shootout!! Come on, GB Women's Hockey team!!
posted by marienbad at 2:42 PM on August 19, 2016

And we win it!! Gold in Women's Hockey!! Amazing!
posted by marienbad at 2:44 PM on August 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

Oh god, Sweden's own goal on the free kick.
posted by zachlipton at 2:48 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Dutch Women's Hockey Team look totally distraught. To be fair, they were outstanding, so you can understand it feeling worse than it would if they had lost from playing badly.
posted by marienbad at 2:51 PM on August 19, 2016

Sweden gets one back!
posted by Vibrissa at 2:52 PM on August 19, 2016

Watched the women's hockey final. BBC seems to have scrubbed everything else from their 9pm slot and stuck with it through to the end of the medal ceremony at 11.15. At one point it looked to be on bbc1 and bbc2. I was trying to think of another occasion with that happening for a single event in women's sport, is it unprecedented? Very good game, held our attention throughout. Commentators very committed to cliche about the only sore point.
posted by biffa at 5:34 PM on August 19, 2016

Also worth pointing out that the women's hockey final was the first time a married same sex couple have won an Olympic gold medal together.
posted by biffa at 5:55 PM on August 19, 2016 [8 favorites]

Here we go again... Australian athletes detained in Rio for alleged tampering with accreditation

Bonus bad story: ‘He embarrassed me in public’: Russian wrestler says she was physically abused by wrestling federation head after loss
posted by zachlipton at 1:05 AM on August 20, 2016

It's always kinda been my impression that sneaking into events is a pretty popular athlete activity, probably in the bronze medal position after drinking too much and having sex with other athletes.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:10 AM on August 20, 2016

Yeah, but the host country doesn't normally detain 10 athletes over it.
posted by zachlipton at 1:22 AM on August 20, 2016

Yeah, that's what's weird. Why make such an issue over something that basically everyone does? And which the world loves to see? Pictures of athletes in the stands supporting other athletes are hugely popular on CBC broadcasts, and I assume elsewhere.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:24 AM on August 20, 2016

So apparently, the Australians got the fake stickers for their accreditation from Australian team officials, as part of a longstanding tradition of such antics, the Brazilians arrested them, threatened them with jail, and offered them "an expedited hearing" as an alternative where they would pay a $4,000 fine each (AUD I presume) and get their passports back.

It's sort of hard not to conclude that the Brazilian judiciary is setting out to rob athletes here.
posted by zachlipton at 10:57 AM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Judiciary? That situation rhymes pretty closely with what I understand happened to Lochte et al.
posted by rhizome at 11:03 AM on August 20, 2016

Good on the Australian team for standing up for both their athletes and their officials by refusing to blame the athletes or name the official. Arresting people for something that happens all the time at every Olympics is super-bullshit. Pull their credentials and send them home if you absolutely must do something.

Or maybe realize that this is all stupid and just automatically allow athletes to attend any other event that has empty seats (including all the pointlessly empty, VIP IOC seats) or standing room available. It's not like being in the audience for an Olympic event requires special clearance, they let randos walk up and buy tickets for things that aren't sold out.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:08 AM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Remember that the Australians refused to use their unsafe building in the Olympic Village until the problems were fixed, the basement caught fire, and they were robbed during the fire, and Australian swimmer Josh Palmer recently said he was robbed after a night out drinking in Rio. I'm not willing to discount "let's embarrass the Australians back" as a factor here.
posted by zachlipton at 11:44 AM on August 20, 2016

Currently Brazil 1 Germany 0 in the men's football final! Germany have hit the woodwork 3 times though!
posted by marienbad at 2:28 PM on August 20, 2016

58 minutes and Germany equalise. It's been coming though, can honestly see Germany winning this.
posted by marienbad at 2:47 PM on August 20, 2016

Not so much with Germany winning it these last few minutes. Brazil hasn't been able to get it in the net, but by god, the chances.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:10 PM on August 20, 2016

Yeah, Brazil have picked it up a bit in the last ten minutes. Nice Break by Germany, Meyer should have scored there though.
posted by marienbad at 3:15 PM on August 20, 2016

Up until Brazil scored it looked like they would do it, and then Germany came back in and were on top for ages, until about 15 minutes from the end, when Brazil came back in and were on top. Unfortunately they left it a bit late, especially against an organised and efficient German team, and Germany stayed strong to take it to extra time. Wouldn't like to bet on the outcome, but have a horrible feeling that Germany are going to spoil the party now.
posted by marienbad at 3:24 PM on August 20, 2016

NBC did just show a helpful graphic for soccer-challenged Americans to let us know that Brazil are the ones in the yellow shirts, in case we reached this point without figuring that out.
posted by zachlipton at 3:28 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Boo. Penalty kicks.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:58 PM on August 20, 2016

Penalties! To be fair, it looked like it was heading for penalties from halfway through the first half of extra time.
posted by marienbad at 4:00 PM on August 20, 2016

The penalty kicks are torture
posted by chapps at 4:08 PM on August 20, 2016

I can't take tension. I've stopped watching and will be relying on this thread for the football final so please post the end result marienbad & jacquilynne & zachlipton
posted by biggreenplant at 4:09 PM on August 20, 2016

At this rate, I'm not sure why they bother having a goalkeeper.
posted by zachlipton at 4:10 PM on August 20, 2016

Fifth Germany penalty saved! If Neymar scores now they win!!
posted by marienbad at 4:10 PM on August 20, 2016

Wow!
posted by Sys Rq at 4:10 PM on August 20, 2016

Well, the BRA goaltender is now a legend, so...
posted by chapps at 4:11 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Brazil win!!
posted by marienbad at 4:11 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Brazil wins off Neymar's kick!
posted by zachlipton at 4:12 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Man, either outcome would have been amazing... taking gold for both women and men, or gold at home
posted by chapps at 4:12 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

And the Brazilian goalkeeper an alternate??!!
posted by chapps at 4:15 PM on August 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh man. Wow. I'll watch replays. I was pro-Germany but chapps nailed it - gold at home - especially for brazil and men's football is great.
posted by biggreenplant at 4:16 PM on August 20, 2016

The commentators on TSN were overselling how much this would take the sting out of the 7-1 loss in the World Cup. Brazilians will be happy about this win, of course, but a win in an under-23 tournament doesn't erase bad feelings about a bad loss in the Copa by the full squad.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:34 PM on August 20, 2016

Congratulations to Nigeria for winning Bronze as well.
posted by marienbad at 4:37 PM on August 20, 2016

Also a bid of a shout out to Catherine Pendrel, who won a bronze medal in Mountain Bike, despite being involved in a huge crash right at the start of the race and having to come from behind to even be in the race at all.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:45 PM on August 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

I am chocking up watching Bolt and the Jamaican 4x100 relay receive their gold!
posted by marienbad at 4:54 PM on August 20, 2016

In the Diving, Tom Daley had a really bad day at the office and ended up in last place, failing to make the cut. Now I'm not saying the BBC is some sort of smut palace, but the headline read: Tom Daley finishes Bottom.
posted by marienbad at 8:38 PM on August 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

One of the notable things about the BBC's Olympic coverage -- and this goes back years -- is that it gets looser and more candid when it's being broadcast during the small hours to the dedicated stay-ups.

After the athletics events were concluded, during the wait for the final medal ceremonies, there was a conversation stemming from an anguished post-race interview given by Lynsey Sharp, who finished well behind Caster Semenya in the 800m but said she felt she was in a different race, one that she couldn't hope to win. The panel -- all champion athletes -- spent a long time emphasising how Semenya had done nothing wrong (especially in the context of Russia's state-sponsored doping) while saying that the IAAF's ruling on testosterone levels and performance in female athletes perhaps wasn't universally accepted, but that testosterone levels alone don't get you a gold medal. For a really tricky and sensitive topic, I thought it was well done, and not something you'd get on NBC.

(The BBC remains fortunate to retain Michael Johnson on its athletics commentary team. He adds detailed knowledge and a sense of history and plain ol' gravitas to the booth.)
posted by holgate at 10:59 PM on August 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Netherlands finished 4th in both the women's handball and the women's volleyball today after agonising semi-finals defeats. That's got to sting a bit. King Willem Alexander and his (lovely and ridiculously Dutch) family attended a number of TeamNL events over the past couple of days, and they mostly ended up on the losing side. Not saying he's a jinx but...
posted by holgate at 11:24 PM on August 20, 2016

GB now confirmed to have finished second in the medal table since China only has one athlete to compete and even if he gets gold GB will still be ahead.
posted by biffa at 9:00 AM on August 21, 2016

Lynsey Sharp, who finished well behind Caster Semenya in the 800m but said she felt she was in a different race, one that she couldn't hope to win.

So now she knows how it feels for 99.9999999 percent of the population of the world.
posted by Etrigan at 9:18 AM on August 21, 2016

Wat thing the mems mountain biking. Looks fun, but I think the TV anglemake the hills look easier. So many flat tires!
posted by chapps at 9:38 AM on August 21, 2016

Peter Sagan having a miserable time - after a strong start, two punctures and he might not even finish within 80%
posted by lmfsilva at 9:49 AM on August 21, 2016

The volleyball gold medal game is the first indoor v-ball I've watched in a long time, and Brazil is pretty much crushing it. And by crushing it, I mean "has someone checked to make sure that ball is still round?" When Souza thunks the ball into somebody's chest, I have to think there's a risk of broken ribs.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:38 AM on August 21, 2016

In other Olympic news today: Mongolian wrestling coaches strip off clothing in protest of call

Even Bobby Cox never thought to try that one.
posted by zachlipton at 11:22 AM on August 21, 2016 [3 favorites]

And Denmark beats France in Handball!
posted by lmfsilva at 11:33 AM on August 21, 2016

Mongolian coaches: Then he ripped his shirt off, flexed his muscles and roared, much to the delight of the crowd. From there, a second Mongolian coach came

Maybe this should be an Olympic event....
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:40 PM on August 21, 2016

"And that's a roar of 84.6 decibels, which puts him into the silver medal position."
posted by marienbad at 1:06 PM on August 21, 2016

NBC has decided that the final minute of third quarter is a good time to tell us where Serbia is (complete with a map), in case US viewers have been scratching their heads this whole time.
posted by zachlipton at 1:07 PM on August 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sixteen year old Penny Oleksiak will be Canada's flagbearer in the closing ceremonies.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:07 PM on August 21, 2016

NBC has decided that the final minute of third quarter is a good time to tell us where Serbia is (complete with a map), in case US viewers have been scratching their heads this whole time.

Huh. That's an interesting editorial choice. Have they been showing maps for other countries? 'Cause if they just decided spontaneously to do it for Serbia, of all places... A map of Serbia is a dicey prospect, even for Serbians; you are definitely guaranteed to get some passionate objections no matter which map you settle on.

So: Did they include Kosovo?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:10 PM on August 21, 2016

They showed it too quickly for me to really look at it, but people on Twitter say it included Kosovo, much to the happiness of some and the unhappiness of others.

I guess this is going to be our closing ceremony thread at this point?
posted by zachlipton at 3:33 PM on August 21, 2016

Ten minutes to go... Watching the awesome Claire Balding on the BBC.
posted by marienbad at 3:51 PM on August 21, 2016

So is the closing ceremony time delayed in the USA like the opening ones were?
posted by marienbad at 3:52 PM on August 21, 2016

Silver medalist Feyisa Lilesa: ‘If I go back to Ethiopia, the government will kill me’

And yes, NBC is delaying it an hour on the East Coast, four hours on the West Coast.
posted by zachlipton at 3:58 PM on August 21, 2016

Er, Soviets, Al?

Time to bring out the Closing Ceremonies drinking game...
posted by Melismata at 4:08 PM on August 21, 2016

Dedicated closing ceremony thread!
posted by cortex at 4:16 PM on August 21, 2016

In other Olympic news today: Mongolian wrestling coaches strip off clothing in protest of call

I watched this happen online. I've seen some bad Olympic wrestling refereeing, but this wasn't that. The Mongolian was leading by one point, but with five seconds left he started waving his arms celebrating his win. A replay I saw later made it clear that before the clock ran out, the ref had already raised his hands to award a penalty point to the Uzbek wrestler. This made it a tie, and as I understand the way the rules handled tie breaks here, the Uzbek won either because he was now the last point scored, or that the Mongolian had already had a caution called against him anyway. So it's weird and crazy, but the Mongolian lost because he prematurely celebrated, and the antics from the Mongolian coaches all the more ridiculous. (One ended up all the way down to his underwear!)
posted by dnash at 8:14 PM on August 21, 2016

I'm ashamed of myself for asking this, but did anyone actually get sick off of drinking the poop water while in competition?
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:43 PM on August 21, 2016

We'll see. It usually takes a few weeks for the first signs of polio to start showing...
posted by Sys Rq at 2:47 AM on August 22, 2016