For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By eltonioni
#1862630
The thread's a bit late but now we've got the contact and cheap sports medals of the way I'm guessing that a few more here are taking interest when horses and boats are involved. ;)

Two sailing golds so far this morning and the track cycling's getting going. Hopefully, this is where we leave Aus behind in the table what with their crash yesterday and Team GB sitting nicely in 4th qualifying spot in Mens team pursuit.

Team Pursuit is surely the greatest sporting discipline devised by man since gladiators and mortal combat went out of fashion. This year already has drama from crashes due equipment failures to aerodynamic doping although Ed Clancy announcing his retirement due to sciatica is a bit of a blow. Looking forward to Team GB bringing out the extra round wheels just to annoy the French again. :pirat:
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By eltonioni
#1862637
:lol: Here, have a chap called Giles in his dingy winning another gold earlier
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Cycling again ;) on the red button now - the men's team sprint is setting up nicely, could easily be another gold today and the women are absolutely banging it out in team persuit. Tune in at 9:26 for another girlie gold!
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By Flyingfemme
#1862656
I’ve been watching some cycling and am in awe of how many ways they can think of to “race” bicycles round a track, thus generating more “sports” and medals. Why do the runners not do team pursuit or team sprint?
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By Sooty25
#1862700
Flyingfemme wrote:.. Why do the runners not do team pursuit or team sprint?


400m relay?
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By Sooty25
#1862709
well, no, it isn't the same, but passing a baton between bikes would also be a bit of a challenge!

I was trying to demonstrate that there are team events in running. I mean, running is running to me, but there seems to be lots of different running races, all run on the same track as well.
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By Flyingfemme
#1862717
I can (sort of) see the point of a relay - one races, then another races etc. Team Pursuit? Why only three at the finish? Why not just a race? Likewise the Team Sprint, dropping off participants all over the place. It all seems rather contrived.
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By Sooty25
#1862722
there are very few sports that can really be justified, but, the human race does all sorts of stuff for entertainment and to prove they are better than one another. Probably best not to think about it to hard! :D
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By Rob L
#1862731
Sooty25 wrote:there are very few sports that can really be justified, but, the human race does all sorts of stuff for entertainment and to prove they are better than one another. Probably best not to think about it to hard! :D


I'm personally not a great sports fan, but when a genus has reached the pinnacle of evolution, it has spare time for non "fight-or-flight" activities.
Humans have for a long time had spare time for sport, music, painting, and other activities not necessary for survival.
Some other animals also do to a lesser extent (dolphins surfing and hump-backed whales breaching, just as examples).
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By akg1486
#1862790
I may be a grumpy old sod, but olympic medals to 13 year-olds on skateboard? Yes, they are impressive kids to be sure, but the level of training and commitment that’s required to be the best in the world in most olympic events is in a completely different league.

As a much smaller nation than the UK, Sweden is of course far behind in the medal table. Today we were happy with the pole valt, though. Armand Duplantis may be more American than Swedish, but his mom’s from Sweden and he’s moved here now and is starting to speak our language.

We might even get a gold medal in women’s football on Friday.
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By Sooty25
#1862801
A 13 and 15 year old chinese pair won a synchro diving medal. It does make you wonder what sort of upbringing they will have had. You would have thought that from a population of 1.4bn, the chinese could have found a couple of adult divers. I just wonder how long their careers will be. But, should a lower age limit be applied?

Skateboarding is one of the 6 demo sports this year and I must admit, even though I loved skateboarding as a kid, Street Skateboarding looked rubbish on TV. Not many demo sports get adopted, so don't worry, I doubt it'll be back! Quite a few demo sports only get seen once!

https://www.topendsports.com/events/demonstration/sports.htm
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1862810
Many years ago there was a report which was quietly forgotten regarding long term effect in young kids in athletic training on their epiphyses ( the growing points at each end of the long bones) which are vulnerable and can be easily knocked off before final fusion at the end of growth.

This can lead to long term probs ( eg Perthes disease in femur. ) and disability .


Nadia Comaneci one of the first prodigies IIRC was interviewed on this topic on a telly prog years ago
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1862811
My personal admiration goes to youngster Bethany Schriever who won gold in BMX race .

She didn’t give up when all her funding was chopped , her parents supported her and she even had to resort to crowdfunding to finance her trips to international contests to achieve the standard which brought her a Gold medal . Fantastic ! :wink: