Normally, I'm glued to the screen for the Olympics, but this year I'm sort of "meh". I love track and field and triathlon and especially the marathon. I don't love badminton, skateboarding, canoeing, equestrian, shooting, judo, etc., etc. I'll watch swimming.....finals. The opening ceremonies were blah. I'm sure the closing ceremonies will be blah-er. I guess I'm jaded. I got spoiled. Remember the bad old days of rampant cheating by the Russians and Eastern Europeans, and a few other countries that will remain unnamed. The Bulgarian women's gymnastic team that withdrew from the games the first year that gender testing was used. The Russian control of the clock during the USSR/USA basketball game (the USA basketball team that year still haven't claimed their Silver Medals yet. Every year the Olympic Committee asks them to accept them and every year they refuse). The "bloc judging" (hey, Ivan, you give my skater a 10 even though he fell down twice and I'll give your skater a 10 even though she landed on her head and is still laying out there on the ice , and we'll both give the running dog Amerikanskis a 3. Sure thing, Pavel!) It was at least entertaining.
I watched the final set of men's volleyball between Argentina and Brazil today. Except for set ups, everyone moved so fast I couldn't even keep track of what was going on. The reaction times of those players is amazing. (Brazil won)
Uh, if by her poor performance you mean her injury whilst performing a vault, yeah, she HAD to withdraw.
Yes, the article did say "medical issue", but she was very disappointed in her one landing and her face showed that.
She entered in all the events as a single and team events. She’s had rough starts before and her qualifying event in the floor exercise was indeed not even close to what she is capable of doing but I have no doubt that if she hadn’t been injured she would have continued on as the best in the world. As it now stands, the team still took the Silver behind Russia’s Gold.
She is not stating "medical reasons" for her withdrawing, only "mental health" reasons concerning her mind and body. She literally cried when Russia won the Gold.
The press conference was on ESPN when I got to the gym. Granted, she didn’t seem hurt and did say her mental health was more important. One thing that is stressing out a lot of the athletes is that there is NO audience at all. No audience > no cheering > very little ego boost > no adrenaline = a bad competition.
True about "no audience" and the rest, but NBA, PGA and NFL went thru this earlier and they survived. Actually, there were threats from some NBA players that they wouldn't play if there was no fans. Now, PGA and MLB is full of fans. IOW, either do what the Olympic Committee says, or..........
The Olympics has lost its luster for me. As soon as I heard the MAN from New Zealand would be allowed to compete as a woman weight lifter, I knew I was done with it. That is total BS and unfair to the legitimate female athletes who have trained their whole lives to compete against OTHER WOMEN. Disgusting: I hope the people of NZ are proud.
She said that she withdrew for the good of the team. She said that she forgot where she was or some such nonsense when she did the last pole vault. The stress got to her. Well, boohoo! She has been competing for how long? And the stress just got to her? Cry me a river.
@Beth Gallagher I do not believe in any admonitions pronounced by God against trends or habit denouncing sick behavior. Nor do I care about the now widely-espoused clamor regarding "gender", trans-gender, no gender, or similar such crap. But, when an entire nation "bends" it's previous beliefs to become politically correct, I DRAW MY LINE. To hell with all this type of shit! Frank
I don't understand the Simone Biles thing at all, but apparently she was afraid her poor showing would keep the team out of the medals so she withdrew after the disastrous vault. (???) I didn't know an athlete could say "well I screwed up so I'll sit this one out," but the world is a different place these days. What really puzzles me is why SHE got one of the team medals?