Cardboard beds, no air conditioning, 1 bathroom per 5 athletes...wow..France dropped the ball The ever-worsening disaster that is the Paris Olympic Village (msn.com) Uncomfortable mattresses and lack of air conditioning prompted some athletes to bring their own, and food shortages resulted in emergency chefs being flown in by delegations to avoid having to ration meals. ............ With the list of issues ever-growing, athletes are leaving the Olympic Village due to the suboptimal conditions — choosing instead to find more homely quarters at nearby hotels. Coco Gauff reveals some teammates left Olympic Village for hotels after video shows cramped conditions (msn.com)
Pretty special photo https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2024/07/30/olympic-surfing-photo-tahiti/ first attempt isn't visible?
I thought the “cardboard bed” was a little overblown. It’s just the frame. But the food is ridiculous. Imagine training literally your life and this is the pentacle for you and you’re trying to get a decent meal. And they need every edge - yesterday a swimming final bronze was decided by 1/100 of a second. Of the videos I’ve seen inside the village, surprised how cavalier some of the athletes are. Diet, routines, party vibe, etc.
I see the US women's rugby team pulled off a last minute miracle to beat Australia 13-12 and take the bronze . Didn't even know we had a women's rugby team.
Yea, I watched some of their prior game also. Impressive. Watching rugby always reminds me of watching the old wishbone offenses.
I feel like if I dedicated myself to it I might enjoy it more than American football. Non stop action
I prefer 7s which is what's used in the Olympics because of the potential for a long run. I still enjoy 15's as well but the play is a little different
I played rugby at UF and then in San Francisco. I’ve always considered it the purest sport. The English have a saying: soccer is a gentleman sport played by ruffians, and rugby is a ruffian sport played by gentlemen.
Actually, the score was 14-12. The end of that game was insane. Australia kicked off with about 30 seconds to go. Normally a rugby kickoff is short because the kicking team hopes to recover the ball. However, with so little time left and the lead, Australia decided to kick it deep. The American team was trapped along about the 5 yard line and couldn’t break through. Then one US player picked up the ball and the Australian tried to tackle her by grabbing her arms instead of wrapping her up (where have we seen that before?). The American player slipped through and then sprinted to score the try as time ran out. That score tied the game, but she still had the conversion (extra points) to kick. The conversion is kicked on the line perpendicular to the goal line coming out from the point where the ball is touched down across the goal line, which by the way is where we get the term “touchdown” in football. The person kicking chooses how far back they want to go to get their best angle, but of course, the farther back you go the more distance you have to kick. Because she touched the ball down between the goalposts, she only had the back up a little ways before kicking the conversion for two points and the win. In rugby 7s, the conversion kick must be a dropkick and kicked within 40 seconds after scoring the try. In regular rugby union the conversion kick can be a dropkick or a kick off the ground.
Thanks for the recap. I'm at a conference in Helsinki, which is great, but not getting to watch any olympics. Sounds like it was an exciting finish. Do you believe in miracles? YES!
In case anyone’s interested, Malcolm Gladwell‘s podcast Revisionist History is having a series on the 1936 Olympics, the Hitler Olympics. As always, he gives incredible background on the things that happened. He covers things and people I didn’t know how about, and the people I did know about I learned even more. One aspect is that interest in the Olympics had been diminishing. The 1932 Olympics were hosted by Los Angeles, and they were the only city to bid. Fewer countries came than in 1928, although it was the depression. But President Herbert Hoover didn’t even show up. The games were open by the vice president. The Nazis were obsessed with ancient Greece, particularly Sparta, and wanted to show the world they were the new Greece. They infused the Olympics with the pageantry that has continued until today. Good friend of mine was a history major and law professor. He believes that while we tend to focus on the victories of Jesse Owens and the American rowing team in upstaging the Germans, overall the 1936 Olympics were propaganda victory for the Nazis. As always, Gladwell and his cohost are very easy to listen to.
I watched those highlights yesterday, twice actually. It was great, but I don't know the rules about who retains possession, etc. But you've got to love the New Zealand haka
Leftist won't be happy until a woman is killed in sports: 'This Is Crazy': Two Male Boxers Given Green Light to Compete Against Women in Olympics (townhall.com) Two male boxers have been given the greenlight to fight females. This after the male boxers were not allowed to fight women in the World Championships. My wish, my hope, is all of the females in all weight divisions involved in the Paris Olympics boycott until the male fighters are removed from the female competition. The females who worked their sports lives for this opportunity in the Olympics should not be fighting biological males. Instead of fighting for wins and medals, they will have to fight for their lives if they participate.
My daughter and son-in-law were at this game. She kept me posted throughout. Australia came to Paris as the #1 team in the world and is leaving without a medal. USA lost 24-12 to New Zealand in the game before beating Australia for the bronze.
There's been a lot written about this, but I don't think it's clear exactly what's going on. They've competed as women for years. But failed one DNA test. I haven't read that they were transsexual or what.
