Women’s all-around gymnastics happening. Simone Biles is in 3rd after two rotations, with Suni Lee in 5th.
Oooh, never mind. Biles just finished and I have to think she got gold.
Uh, Suni Lee appears, in my opinion, to be robbed of the silver and getting bronze. I thought she outdid the silver medalist.
Summer McIntosh won another gold for Canada, another record performance too and the won pretty easily. She is only the third Canadian, and first woman from Canada, to win two gold medals in swimming in one Games.
It is very likely she will win more medals later in the Olympics. As I noted in my other thread, she’s only 17. The all time lifetime record for a Canadian at the Olympics are seven medals in total lifetime, by Penny Oleksiak, a swimmer, and four gold medals lifetime, which is a tie between three women’s hockey players (I saw that coming) and a short track speed skater. The records for a single Olympics are two golds and five medals overall; McIntosh could break the former, but I’m not sure about the latter. I don’t think she’s in a huge number of additional events and some are relays, so she only controls a quarter of the race.
Unless she just gets tired of swimming really young, or gets hurt or something, McIntosh could end up not being just the greatest Canadian Olympian of all time, but the greatest by a really wide margin. She could blow all the records away in 2028 in Los Angeles, and just put them out of reach in Brisbane if she feels like it.
Did you see the story (un-paywalled CNN report here) about the selfie taken by the bronze medal-winning South Korean mixed doubles table tennis team with the silver medal-winning North Korean team? It’s a nice story, though I wonder what Pyongyang thinks of it and what they’re going to do to those athletes when they get home.
My guess is this is Summer’s first Olympics but she will be competing in another three. It’s scary how good she is.
But for me, not much of a tennis fan, Felix has equally impressed. Not only by playing singles and doubles concurrently at such a high level. But looking far better than Medvedev, and looking very tenacious today in a long battle. Canadians should be proud of his success regardless of what happens. Given he is also young, likely years from his peakthere’s going to be a lot of future wins. Tough draw for the semi-final, but nothing would surprise me now. Go Felix!
It will be fine. North Korea does compete internationally and they like to have their athletes look like they have enough freedom to interact a bit with foreigners. I remember the World Cup years ago; after the games, N. Korean athletes were talking and, I think, exchanging jerseys with other players.
Uh, though I should point out their terrible loss to Portugal that year ended up getting them yelled at back at home. However, I would guess most of those guys stayed on the team and some went into coaching, etc.
Wow. Who knew BMX racing was so boring?
Finally saw a little of the shooting; women’s 50m rifle. Not he most compelling thing to watch.
@Spoons, a question, if you’re still here. All eight women that I saw were shooting right-handed. I’ve noticed the same thing in winter biathlon; left-handed shooters are incredibly rare. I can see a reason for it in biathlon, but not when competitors have plenty of time to set up. Does no one make those specialty, high-precision rifles for left-handed shooters; or is there some other reason why lefties are rare?
Ooh, ooh, water polo, better not forget about water polo! 
It’s definitely the…for lack of better word, quirkiest sport I’ve ever seen. The thing that really stands out is that everyone moves super-slow, probably the slowest team sport of all. Of course this is a practical necessity since it’s hard to keep one’s head above water and control direction at the same time, especially when holding a ball. As such, it’s hard to make out the game elements that are obvious in other team sports, like formations, transitions, breakaways, zones, and spot shadows. But the ball moves so quickly that a score can happen in a blink, sometimes when you’re not even expecting a shot. On the other hand, the goal is smaller than in handball and it’s harder to aim accurately. Because the water is such a great equalizer, I’m not seeing that offense or defense has a major advantage; it all comes down to ball movement, communication, and anticipation. I don’t see myself ever becoming a fan of this, but it’s an interesting experience. Definitely a better use of airtime than soccer! (Or tennis. Or golf…)
Re. Imane Khelif. The facts of the matter are that she’s born female and, medically, she’s a woman with elevated testosterone, not a man. Her nation, Algeria, openly outlaws transgenderism and would never have allowed her to compete if she wasn’t verifiably a woman. Therefore, how one alphabet soup organization BUNGLED the situation in the past doesn’t matter one microflyspeck. She was and is 100% legit, which meant that everyone facing her should’ve been damn well prepared to face a strong, merciless woman (which they should be freaking doing ANYWAY 
). Based on the description in the article (it’d help if I could see the actual fight, but that’s not crucial), it looked like Carini went in overconfident and/or careless, got nailed early by a big shot that did some real damage, and immediately got put on her heels and never recovered. I’ve seen this exact scenario numerous times in the UFC, so this is nothing unusual. The fight game is merciless. If you don’t keep your eyes open and your guard up, you can find yourself taking a nap very quickly. That said, plenty of fighters have managed to keep their reputations intact after humiliating or even crushing defeats. The keys are to keep a positive attitude, don’t whine, and, most critically, don’t make excuses. You definitely should not say stuff like “I have never felt a punch like this.” 
Either you’re backhandedly raising a bogus accusation against your opponent or admitting that you went in completely unprepared; there is no possible interpretation that makes you look good. And it opens you up to massive ridicule (which I can verify she is receiving on Twitter, at least). I hereby declare Carini as fully deserving of whatever she gets, and with that important point made, I will say no more about this subject, least of all address the tedious assembly-line bleatings of right-wing professional know-nothings who always get vastly too much attention regarding these hot-button topics, which is to say any whatsoever.
Dinsdale - Oh, too kind, too kind. It’s not easy putting in the effort to be excellent, but seeing these acknowledgments makes it all worth it. 
Folacin - Oh yeah, I just noticed. Good reminder that for every spectacular win, there’s a spectacular loss on the other side. Reminds me of that Rick Reilly column about the Miracle on Ice.
Mark_Finn - Thanks for the link. I honestly think this is the best possible resolution. The IOC wants to present a good face to the world; of course they’re not going to allow a nation presently committing wartime atrocities (and yes, I think Israel should’ve been excluded as well). But isn’t it wrong to penalize an athlete for the actions of its government? Of course…so don’t. Let them compete for their friends, their families, their coaches, and, most importantly, themselves. Any serious jock doesn’t give a damn about colors or medal counts.
Rilchiam - I talked about that one. Yeah, that sucked, but I’m a bit iffy about exclduing countries based on toxic attitudes…seems like too much of a slippery slope. I’d be perfectly fine with TV crews skipping to something else when something embarrassing starts happening.
Oh, and since you brought it up: Two awesome high jumpers sharing the gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and, as a bonus, two very classy pole vaulters doing the same at World Championships. Crowning moments of awesome. 
Like I said, watching paint dry or grass grow is far more exciting than watching a shooting competition.
There are such rifles, but they are rare. Basically, manufacturers don’t make many of them for the same reason many golf club manufacturers make very few left-handed clubs: there are very few lefties. Here’s the best image I can find of a left-handed competition rifle:
We wouldn’t be using telescopic sights in competition, not at 50m anyway, but the important thing is the stock. See how it’s designed and shaped for a left-handed shooter’s left hand? Left index finger on the trigger, left thumb through the hole in the stock, with a cavity shaped for the left hand. Look carefully, and you’ll see that the bolt lever is on the left too.
Now, let’s look at the same rifle (Anschutz 1813) made for a right-hander:
I’m a rightie, and the rifle in the photo is much like mine was, though there are a few differences. But see how the right side of the stock is carved out for the shooter’s right hand and thumb? Note, though, that it has iron sights, which is what we had to use.
There was/were one or two manufacturers who made ambidextrous rifles, especially for Sporter class (note that the rifles pictured above are for Match class). Martini was one, they made a nice one-size-fits-all Sporter rifle with a lever action that both lefties and righties could use comfortably.
We did have one member of our club who was left-handed, but he had learned to shoot right-handed years before, and stuck with it, and he was a good shot. So there’s a chance that some of the shooters you saw were indeed left-handed, but they had learned to shoot right-handed.
Anyway, yes, in answer to your question, there are left-handed competition rifles made, but very few of them are made.
Aren’t about 10% of the population left-handed? Seems like there would be enough of a market for left-handed rifles, and golf clubs. I’ve wondered the same thing about people who join the Army. Are they allowed to shoot left-handed, and can Army weapons be used left-handed?
Part of the reason I ask is that I’m right-handed, but left-eye dominant. The few times I’ve shot a rifle, the only way I can do it is lefty. It feels much more natural to aim with my left eye, support the front of the gun with my dominant hand, and just squeeze the trigger with my left. I guess my chance of becomng a champion shooter is just that much more unlikely.
What I read about biathlon, by the way, is that the skiers enter the shooting range from the left side, ski to their shooting station, and prepare to shoot. A left-handed shooter would have to ski a little further in order to turn their body all the way around facing back to the left. Again, when they’re done shooting, they have to turn farther around to continue skiing to the right. I’m not sure I totally buy that; it can’t add more than a second or two. There is one woman biathlete I’ve seen who shoots left-handed; I always cheer for her.
I think there is a strong possibility that the trans-panic got in her head pre-fight, she got popped (possibly harder than ever before, possibly just thought it was because she was expecting a ‘man’ to hit harder) and couldn’t mentally continue. She’s not completely a victim - but the TERFs I think take the lion’s share of the blame.
This appears to be mostly more right wing panic and bigotry. The Algerian lady was hardly an unbeatable juggernaut, I saw where her lifetime record was 9-5.
You are a hoot, man! I vastly prefer reading your posts over watching the coverage!
I guess this is just illustrating how little I enjoy watching most sport on TV. Or, at least, how my wife’s and my tastes do not overlap in that respect.
I could imagine doing a deepish dive into the separate sports on Peacock (just last night made the effort to see where they are.) But I don’t think my wife would care to sit thru potentially boring, more obscure sports. Yesterday we actually turned on the live surfing. My wife said she’d like to see Colin Jost in Tahiti. As with the previous time I tried, 2 women were just bobbing up and down, looking seaward. I think 1 of them rode 1 wave during the 10 or so minutes that we wathed. Was enough to drive me back to my book, and I believe my wife switched to the primetime coverage of gymnastics and swimming all the time.
US Men’s soccer eliminated 4-0.
Embarrassingly bad.
I don’t even care who it is, I’d love to be in Tahiti to see them.
Kidding aside, the bits he records in Tahiti (supposed to be comedic?) are really bad. Bad enough that I’m not sure why they thought actually airing them was a good idea. But I guess some people like them?
I haven’t watched SNL is a couple decades at this point, but I hope for the sake of his career he does a much better job there. I can only surmise he does given the length of his tenure.
Teddy Riner gold in +100kg Judo!! Ippon versus the Korean in a minute match.
We are third place in Medals ! ! !
Why is judo so popular in France?
Isn’t this some kind of youth team? Not a proper USMNT (same would apply to the Moroccans).
I think most people fully expected them to lose this match.
I mean in another quarterfinal it is Paraguay vs Egypt, not exactly a battle of soccer giants.
Correct, it’s an under-23 tournament. Been that way for the men since Barcelona (1992). FIFA created a lot of restrictions to make it difficult for pros to participate, thus retaining the World Cup as the premier football event. Each team can have up to 3 players over 23.
There are no such restrictions on the women.