Olympics Thread
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The problem with swimming isn't the 4 different strokes.<br><br>
I'm genuinely impressed that Phelps at times is the worlds best at both butterfly and freestyle.<br><br>
The problem is the proliferation of distances, and relays.<br><br>
Having both a 100 free relay and a 200 relay is a joke. <br><br>
A 100 free relay and a 100 medley relay would make sense.<br><br>
As for the individual events. One of the 100 or 200 needs to go. There is too much crossover of athletes IMO.<br><br>
So in my world remove the 200 from each Stoke, plus the 200 relay.<br><br>
Leaving the 50, 100, 400 and 1500.<br><br>
Plus maybe a 100 and 400 medley. -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="605952" data-time="1471399443">
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<p>Probably think they're Australian media :whistle:</p>
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<p>I really don't get what you are getting at here? Even with the emoticon, I'm still not following!</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="605955" data-time="1471399960">
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<p>I see Chris Rattue has done a peice for the Aussie papers.......</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83268704/rio-olympics-2016-australian-media-hang-chokers-tag-on-their-olympians-after-lean-medal-haul'>http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/83268704/rio-olympics-2016-australian-media-hang-chokers-tag-on-their-olympians-after-lean-medal-haul</a></p>
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<p>Well, we fucking ARE choking. Headed into the swimming especially we had a lot of medal hopes, and the Campbell sisters in particular choked hard.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MajorRage" data-cid="605957" data-time="1471400212">
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<p>I really don't get what you are getting at here? Even with the emoticon, I'm still not following!</p>
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<p>Edited for clarity :)</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="605947" data-time="1471399205"><p>Once the pitches became synthetic, if I'm not wrong. Game became so much faster and they didn't have the facilities to keep up</p></blockquote>
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I heard they asked to play on dirt roads.... -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="605959" data-time="1471400353">
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<p>Edited for clarity :)</p>
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<p>Still not following at all! The way I read it is that you think athletes want to speak to Aussie media but not NZ. Which I can't even see a joke in!</p> -
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<p>Well, we fucking ARE choking. Headed into the swimming especially we had a lot of medal hopes, and the Campbell sisters in particular choked hard.</p>
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<p>I dunno, I think it's more that the competition has caught up. Australian funding has always been streets ahead and that simply isn't the case anymore.</p>
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<p>The Campbell sisters certainly choked, although I think they hold nothing on the Kiwi Mens hockey team. That was a beauty.</p> -
I see the next batch of Georgian props are developing their skills in their international academy - the Olympic weightlifting comp.
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Immenso Rapido" data-cid="605956" data-time="1471400142">
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<p>The problem with swimming isn't the 4 different strokes.<br><br>
I'm genuinely impressed that Phelps at times is the worlds best at both butterfly and freestyle.<br><br>
The problem is the proliferation of distances, and relays.<br><br>
Having both a 100 free relay and a 200 relay is a joke.<br><br>
A 100 free relay and a 100 medley relay would make sense.<br><br>
As for the individual events. One of the 100 or 200 needs to go. There is too much crossover of athletes IMO.<br><br>
So in my world remove the 200 from each Stoke, plus the 200 relay.<br><br>
Leaving the 50, 100, 400 and 1500.<br><br>
Plus maybe a 100 and 400 medley.</p>
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<p>Yeah medley relays are a big part of swimming, I'd way prefer they had that instead of the 4 x 200</p>
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<p>I'd like to see 400 Back, breast and fly added to the games also. There's a lot of athletes that excel in these that never get the chance.</p>
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<p>But then again I wont make any friends on here suggesting adding events...... It's obviously the cool thing to hate on swimming.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="605967" data-time="1471402163">
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<p>Dunno if it is hate. I think most enjoy it but the sheer repetition of similar events gets tedious.</p>
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<p>Don't sky have 10 pop up channels devoted to Olympic coverage?</p>
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<p>Here's a suggestion, change the channel.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="605950" data-time="1471399412">
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<p>Andrew Mulligan and Sky have done a fantastic job at the Athletics with their interviews. Great to see so many athletes willing to talk to New Zealand media.</p>
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<p>I enjoy when a megastar gets buttonholed by Mulligan - with each question he asks, you can see that look that people have at parties when they would rather be talking to someone else - looking into the distance hopefully.</p> -
<p>I never watch the Olympics and go "fuck this is boring, I wish it would be over soon." If you cut swimming events then you don't actually achieve anything. There will just be less swimming events. If the current amount of swimming events bores you, you can watch handball or basketball or volleyball which seem to be on at the same time. If you cut down the swimming events, they won't be replaced by anything cool. There will just be nothing on at that time except for basketball, handball or volleyball.</p>
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<p>You can argue that having so many events devalues the Olympics but I think winning a gold in the pool is still harder to come buy than gold in lots of other sports.</p> -
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<p>Dunno if it is hate. I think most enjoy it but the sheer repetition of similar events gets tedious.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Hooroo" data-cid="605971" data-time="1471402718">
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<p>So you don't get my point. That's fine too.</p>
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<p>What is your point? enlighten me</p>
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<p>From the above I deduced it was you find the swimming coverage tedious?</p>
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<p>So I suggest you change the channel to another sport if this is the case</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="KiwiPie" data-cid="605972" data-time="1471402760">
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<p>I enjoy when a megastar gets buttonholed by Mulligan - with each question he asks, you can see that look that people have at parties when they would rather be talking to someone else - looking into the distance hopefully.</p>
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<p>Really? Most of the athletes I saw seemed genuinely happy to talk to him. Many were surprised that he was well researched. One Jamaican gave New Zealand a shout out, Rudisha mentioned Snell.</p> -
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<p>Really? Most of the athletes I saw seemed genuinely happy to talk to him. Many were surprised that he was well researched. One Jamaican gave New Zealand a shout out, Rudisha mentioned Snell.</p>
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<p>It is surprising how happy they seem to talk to the journalist from NZ.</p>
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<p>Usain Bolt gave him a big interview, I'm sure there were 100's of other journalists wanting that too.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="SammyC" data-cid="605966" data-time="1471402031">
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<p>Yeah medley relays are a big part of swimming, I'd way prefer they had that instead of the 4 x 200</p>
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<p>I'd like to see 400 Back, breast and fly added to the games also. There's a lot of athletes that excel in these that never get the chance.</p>
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<p>But then again I wont make any friends on here suggesting adding events...... It's obviously the cool thing to hate on swimming.</p>
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<p>I don't really care if swimming has lots of events and medals - but, it does annoy me a bit to hear Phelps described as "The Greatest Olympian". The way events are structured, at present, if you're measuring "greatest" by the number of medals won, the "greatest" is pretty likely to be a swimmer (maybe a gymnast). Lots of disciplines you've got no chance of winning 20+ medals if you compete in every Olympics for a lifetime. </p>
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<p>I don't really warm to these pot hunting quests of "Can Phelps/Ledecki/Thorpe/Biondi win x number of medals. Usually I'm cheering for the other guys!</p>
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<p>Have to say, this time I've barely watched any swimming - 15 minutes max.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="605973" data-time="1471402868"><p>
I never watch the Olympics and go "fuck this is boring, I wish it would be over soon." If you cut swimming events then you don't actually achieve anything. There will just be less swimming events. If the current amount of swimming events bores you, you can watch handball or basketball or volleyball which seem to be on at the same time. If you cut down the swimming events, they won't be replaced by anything cool. There will just be nothing on at that time except for basketball, handball or volleyball.<br><br>
You can argue that having so many events devalues the Olympics but I think winning a gold in the pool is still harder to come buy than gold in lots of other sports.</p></blockquote>
It's not about boredom. <br><br>
It's about fairness and the scarcity value of an Olympic gold.<br><br>
People (well me) resent swimmings proliferation of medals. The lack of fairness that the sport has many multi medalists, and those countries that do swimming 'cash in' compared to those who do other sports.<br><br>
Gymnastics matches it for the amount of multi-medalists, but not amount of medals.<br><br>
Track cycling also has s a problem. Get one good rider per gender and you generally clean up 50% or more of the gold medals on offer. But again, total medals, your talking about 10 golds up for grabs rather than 30 odd. -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Chris B." data-cid="605977" data-time="1471403668">
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<p>I don't really care if swimming has lots of events and medals - but, it does annoy me a bit to hear Phelps described as "The Greatest Olympian". The way events are structured, at present, if you're measuring "greatest" by the number of medals won, the "greatest" is pretty likely to be a swimmer (maybe a gymnast). Lots of disciplines you've got no chance of winning 20+ medals if you compete in every Olympics for a lifetime. </p>
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<p>I don't really warm to these pot hunting quests of "Can Phelps/Ledecki/Thorpe/Biondi win x number of medals. Usually I'm cheering for the other guys!</p>
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<p>Have to say, this time I've barely watched any swimming - 15 minutes max.</p>
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<p>I think I watched almost all the swimming coverage, it's a huge passion of mine</p>
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<p>Phelps is one of the greatest athletes of all time (in my opinion). </p>
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<p>He's been at the top of one of the most physically demanding sports for 16 years.</p>
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<p>Watching his training videos etc made me realise that he can do things in the water that no other swimmer can do..... If they didn't limit the amount of underwater swimming after the turn then he'd be the greatest freestyler of all time (in addition to being the greatest butterflyer and probably medley swimmer already)</p>
