2020/21 Tokyo Summer Olympics

[crazed 9.6]

The Men's 200m track event is coming up live in just a few minutes, they are getting setup on the track now.
Two Canadians are in this one with Degrasse expected to medal


And there it is !
The Canadian Andre de Grasse sets a Canadian record with a time of 19.62 seconds and takes the Olympic Gold !

The last time a Canadian took Gold in the 200m Sprint Race was way back in 1928


Andre pictured below with previous champion Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
DeGrasse won Silver and Bolt won Gold at Rio in the 200m

Usain Bolt has been the Olympic raining champion in this event and other track events since 2004
Bolt was not competing at Tokyo.

I love this picture with Bolt's Gold run and Degrasse's Silver run @ Rio
Bolt is wagging his finger in a friendly gesture at DeGrasse, as if saying "No, No, No, not yet my friend"

 

[crazed 9.6]

I have been editing previous posts on this thread with updated reports, then that way the event reports are all on same post (mostly)... But I am creating a new one for the finals in the weightlifting top class.

These are the big boys, in their weight-class @ +109Kg (+240lbs).

Lasha Talakhadze of Team Georgia, takes weightlifting Gold with three world records.
The Georgian won the snatch and a World Record.
Then won the clean and jerk and another WR.
Which then resulted in another World Record of the total of 488kg for the two lifts.
This guy has not been beat in competition since I think maybe ever !

The Silver medalists Iranian Ali Davoudi had a total of 441kg for the two lifts.


Remember the Soviet Vasily Alexeev from 1976 Montreal Games, rest his soul , the famous Olympic footage we still see every now and again ?

-Vasily Alexeev completed the Clean and Jerk for a World Record in 1976

-Lasha Talakhadze completed the Clean and Jerk for a World Record in 2021



Lasha Talakhadze's
223 kg = 491.6 lbs - snatch
265 kg = 584.2 lbs - clean & jerk

Ali Davoudi's
200 kg = 440.9 lbs - snatch
241 kg = 531.3 lbs - clean & jerk

Vasily Alexeev's
255 kg = 562.2 lbs - clean & jerk



Lasha Talakhadze 2016 Rio

Vasily Alexeev 1976 Montreal

 

[crazed 9.6]

In Tokyo right now it is 06:45 am, Wednesday Aug 4th
The Women's 10km open water race should be underway right about now.
Haley Anderson of team USA has a chance at a medal in this event, perhaps Gold.

That is a long swim @ 10 km or 6 miles !!

With two laps remaining at Odaiba Marine Park, camera crews had a great shot of the pack of leaders and then, out of nowhere, a fish flew from the water and soared through the air just ahead of the swimmers.
It's unclear at this time what kind of fish it was, but it did lead the seven-lap race for a short time.

Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha won the Gold medal with a swim of 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30.8 seconds
Sharon van Rouwendaal of The Netherlands defending Olympian Gold won the Silver medal
Australia's Kareena Lee won the Bronze

The men's and women's marathon swimming are the final swimming events of this year's Olympics.

 

[crazed 9.6]

How old do you have to be to become an Olympian ?

I do not know if there is an age limit, but in two different Skateboarding events (Street and Park), we saw some very young aged Olympians...

At 13 years old Nishiya Momiji wins Gold in woman's Street event.
At 12 years old Kokona Kiraki wins Silver in woman's Park event.
At 13 years old Sky Brown wins Bronze in woman's Park event.


This is the sport's Olympic debut at Tokyo, Japan.
There are two events in this sport - Street Skate & Park Skate.

Yosozumi Sakura at 19 years old of Japan won Gold in the Women's Park.
Kokona Hiraki at just 12 years old of Japan won Silver in the Women's Park.
Yuto Horigome at 22 years old of Japan won Gold in Men's Street.
Nishiya Momiji at 13-years old of Japan won Gold in Women's Street.

Nishiya Momiji pictured at Tokyo 2021

Sky Brown at 13-years old of Great Britain won Bronze in Women's Park
Brown is Britain's youngest ever Olympian medalist.
Sky tried a very difficult trick and had failed twice at it on her first two attempts. But on her third and final attempt Sky Brown nailed it for her Bronze win.

Sky Brown pictured from 2019 stock photo

 

[dara]

Watching the Olympics without fans in the seats is unsettling, just imagining what it feels for athletes who are used to the the crowds. Imagine running a sprint and all you can hear are heavy breathing and fast feet, must be surreal. On the other hand, its probably easier to keep focus on the task at hand.

I hope this isn't spoiling, but nice 200m win by Canada's Andre de Grasse, just ahead of the 3 Americans (one the World Champ), and his team mate.

As far as Simone Biles saying that she did it for herself, I heard the interview, and it was in the context of making a breakthrough of the 'twisties' issue she had. I could barely do a simple somersault on a trampoline back during college in phys ed class, and she couldn't sync what she was her body was supposed to do with her brain, which is way beyond my ability to comprehend. It had nothing to do with her desire to complete, otherwise she wouldn't have been out there cheering her teammates on.

 

[crazed 9.6]

I hope this isn't spoiling, but nice 200m win by Canada's Andre de Grasse, just ahead of the 3 Americans (one the World Champ), and his team mate.

caught it live

 

[crazed 9.6]

Women's 10m Platform Diving
Quan Hongchan of China scores perfect tens.

In an Olympic diving competition for the ages, at 14 years old Hongchan wins Gold with three perfect scores !
Chen Yuxi of China goes Silver.
Melissa Wu of Australia goes Bronze.



Hansle Parchment of Jamaica wins Gold in the Men's 110m Hurdles.
Grant Holloway of USA Silvers.
Ronald Levy of Jamaica wins Bronze.

Coming up to the last 2 hurdles, Parchment caught and past the strong favorite Grant Holloway - USA's world champion and second-fastest man ever in this event.
The 31-year-old Parchment, who came second in the 2015 world championships in Beijing and third at London 2012 now has the Gold

Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium wins Gold in the Woman's Olympic Heptathlon
Thiam also won Gold at Rio in the Heptathlon

The woman's heptathlon consists of:
-Day one: 100m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put, 200m Sprint.
-Day two: Long Jump, Javelin, 800m Run.

 

[crazed 9.6]

Sprinters, hurdlers and other runners at the Tokyo Olympics have been crushing their previous times and in many cases setting new records for their events.
Records, as they say, are made to be broken. But are these athletes getting a boost from the track itself?

"I would say it's a pretty fast track," said American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin, minutes after she smashed her world record.

"Of all the tracks that I've run on, that track feels amazing," said Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands, who placed fourth in the men's 400-meter hurdles. "I felt like my legs were just turning over. It felt like no surface was there."

That the Tokyo track feels "fast" is no accident.
The Italian company that created it, Mondo, has been working to improve running surfaces since it built its first Olympic track for the Montreal Games in 1976.
The red and black track that Mondo constructed for the Tokyo Games is "the most technologically advanced athletic track in the world," with the goal of "taking human speeds to levels never reached before," the company said.

end c/p
npr.org
Merrit Kennedy
Joe Hernandez


full story

https://www.npr.org/sections/tokyo-olympics-live-updates/2021/08/04/1024774505/olympic-runners-are-fast-on-tokyos-fast-track-theyre-shattering-world-records

 

[dara]

Damien Warner of Canada is the Worlds Greatest Athlete, winning the Decathlon with an Olympic Record, breaking the 9000 pt barrier. His long jump would have won the Bronze.

 

[crazed 9.6]

Damien Warner of Canada is the Worlds Greatest Athlete, winning the Decathlon with an Olympic Record, breaking the 9000 pt barrier. His long jump would have won the Bronze.

Awesome !!
I been catching most of these events, (my favorites at the least), but I missed that one .... and it is a heck of an achievement :wow:

Woman's soccer Final is just underway (live).
Canada vs Sweden
BUT I can't find it on any channel

I found it n Eurosports2
1-1 score in the 2nd !!

After 90 minutes we are still tied at 1-1 and into the first Extra Time.
After 105 minutes we are still tied at 1-1 and into the second Extra Time.





Canada takes Silver in the 5000m Track race, just behind Uganda at the finish.

 

[crazed 9.6]

Woman's Golf
Nelly Korda of USA is leading going into today's final round.


Woman's Track
Allyson Felix now has the most Olympic medals ever for a female track athlete, passing the record set by Jamaican athlete Merlene Ottey.
Allyson Felix of the USA is the most decorated Track and Field USA Olympian of all time, tied with Carl Lewis.
Allyson at age 45, has 10 medals in total over her 20 odd years at these events.
This is Felix's 5th Olympics and her 10th medal. She first competed in Athens in 2004 and has medaled in every Summer Games since then.

In the 400m yesterday, Allyson takes the Bronze,
She nor anyone else had a fighting chance for the win against Bahamas' Shaunae Miller-Uibo who powered past everyone on the home stretch to take the Gold.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo is the defending Olympic Gold champion in the 400m , winning the gold in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020/21


pictured overtaking Felix in Tokyo

 

[crazed 9.6]

Woman's soccer Final is just underway (live).
Canada vs Sweden
BUT I can't find it on any channel

I found it n Eurosports2
1-1 score in the 2nd !!

After 90 minutes we are still tied at 1-1 and into the first Extra Time.
After 105 minutes we are still tied at 1-1 and into the second Extra Time.

We are now @ 120 minutes with the score @ 1-1
Sweden had the only real chances at a goal in the first two 15 minute extra times.
From a corner kick, Sweden almost had it with a header, but went just shy of the net


So now it looks like we go to a Kick Off ??
I think


6 Shot Playoff

Sweden kicks first but misses.
Canada scores on their first kick but then falls behind and miss their next 3 kicks, while Sweden scores twice to go ahead by one..
After 5 shots each, Canada had tied it @ 2-2
One shot left for each team.

Canada wins the Playoff 3-2

and....

Gold !

 

[dara]

USA's Molly Seidel got the Bronze in only her third official Marathon, making her the third woman to win a medal for the USA in that discipline. She said on her Facetime with her family... "I'm so tired. Please drink a beer for me". Awesome.

USA men failed to have an individual gold medal in the track events this Olympics, making this the first time (other than the 1980 boycott) and failed to make the cut after the first heat of the 4x100. The only male to get a Gold medal in Track and Field was the Shot Putter. However, the USA women did great in track. Both the Men and Women dominated the 4x400 relay, and won gold, Allyson Felix ran the 2nd leg of the race, with Gold medalists Sydney Mcglaughlin and Athing Mu, and Silver medalist Delilah Muhammad, earning Allyson her 11th Athletics medal, passing Carl Lewis. What a great career, she can now be a mommy activist.

I did watch the Mens Basketball, where the USA got the gold medal, glad they got it, but it was a harder road for them than usual, losing to Nigeria before the games, then to the future Silver medalists France who had 5 NBA players. It was close at the end, but Kevin Durant put the team on his back and carried them to the win.

Finally, the USA should catch up with China on the gold count, just down by 2, and are leading by a wide margin on overall medals. I was hoping to see 5 gold medals for Simone Biles, but oh well. Japan did great on its medal counts too.

 

[4me2c]

Basketball, in the Olympics allowing, Pro Players in, is one Reason, 4me doesn't really care about it anymore...!!!

 

[dara]

Its over, USA finishes as the country with most Gold and most Medals. I like the Olympics, but it is far from the 'amateur' games of 1896. I watch for the entertainment, the athletes are there for the participation, some do it for themselves and some idealistically for their country. Maybe the major professional team sports don't need the Olympics, but many top athletes don't compete on teams and need a venue to perform, and I think they should get financial rewards for their performance... nothing is free. Anyway, there is only 3 years to go to the next scheduled Summer games, and only a year to the next Winter games.

 

[crazed 9.6]

I missed most events in the last two days due to my work hours
But did see that our Canadian Team picked Damien Warner to hoist the flag in the closing ceremonies, awesome !!

Hearing about Allyson Felix winning her 11th medal to bump past Carl Lewis is also awesome

I don't know about those that did not win medals, but them medal winning Olympians will be very, very well off with endorsements and all that stuff. You could say they will not have any money worries the rest of their lives.
It would be great to see all the Olympians benefit the same, and maybe they do in a smaller way.

Honestly ,I had to work hard to enjoy the Olympics as I have in the past years.
I found out after the finals in the Can vs Sweden woman's soccer match, that there is a player on the woman's soccer team who is transgender. I do have issues with that, but I will not get into it here.
But what really caught my attention and sadden me was the fact that this woman (who is a former male) had played on the team in the last Olympics and before then and since then too (winning medals and tournaments along the way), and it was hidden that she was trans-gender. No one knew and the Team kept it that way for a few years, to me that is foul play

I probably should not have brought that up, but I have been confused and sad and angry about the whole thing since I found out

But as I have said thru out, I choose to ignore the politics and all that mess, or I would not have enjoyed the games.
I do not know how I will be able to enjoy or even watch the 2022 Winter Games thou, as they are being held in Beijing, China

Basketball, in the Olympics allowing, Pro Players in, is one Reason, 4me doesn't really care about it anymore...!!!

Back when the 'Dream Team' with Magic, Byrd, Johnson and others were in the Olympics I was hooping mad about it. They beat one team something like 350 points to 3 or some stupid thing like that.... boooooo!!!



Congrads to Tokyo as well. They did a good job despite all the hurdles.
I am miffed that there were no spectators, even the fact that they have the authority to stop people from viewing the Games in person, but i got over it.
I say good job on Tokyo mostly because they did not have any corporate advertising in our faces. And with the circumstances I did expect to seee that . Tokyo must have lost huge revenue over the whole thing and I thought they'd try making some back with corporate sponsors and if that happened I defiantly would not have watched them.
To bump spectators and have corporate advertising everywhere would have been just too much for me to handle.
But Tokyo did not do that ... good on them

 

[dara]

I heard about the transgender person. Most of the wiki entry about Quinn seems to be scrubbed of birth data, but Quinn's birth name was Rebecca Quinn, and rules allow "them" to compete with their birth sex. I'm so confused about this situation, I think Quinn was born female, got confused because identifying as male didn't work, so now is non-binary, and wants to be referred to as "They". I perfer ... "whatever, you were born female".

Genetics are the biggest factor in athletic performance, in my opinion, and someone that is biologically male will have an edge athletically over a biologically female at the same competitive level. Other than a ban, maybe the solution is some sort of handicap, like they do with racehorses or golf, to make things more equal, and to show the same sex organs of their team mates. Messing with Nature is 'un-natural' tough.

 

[crazed 9.6]

I thought I was confused before, now I am more confused ,,, but agreed here.
Its crazy really.
If you take a sport like Weightlifting then in my view its a no-brainer that it needs to be woman competing against woman, and men against men. The in-between or not specified genders should not be allowed. Its a brute strength sport. Man is a man and woman is a woman, and it is not fair to include 'extras'
Then take a sport like a team sport and the line gets hazier because its a team sport with obvious differences from weightlifting. But its still not a fair playing field
(pun intended).


But it does not matter what I think thou, because Olympic committee allowed the transgender weightlifter to compete with the woman.


As my confusion sets in just a bit more