Brandie and Melissa, Canada’s power beach volleyball duo, narrowly lost a tough gold medal game against Brazil. Canada lost the first set after many extra points, which ultimately made the difference. I’m so proud of these women for winning the silver! They played so well. I don’t watch much beach volleyball, but can’t remember every seeing the game pause for extended trash talking. That was weird.
Is that a fact? If so, I’m sorry to hear it. I’m enjoying it as much as I do artistic swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. Meaning, a lot. And Snoop Dogg did the coup de baton, because of course he did!
But for anyone who did watch the women’s breaking event today, did you notice one little moment? Or non-moment. After a face-off, the opponents would acknowledge each other, usually by hugging, occasionally fist-bumping. But in the one instance when it was China vs. USA, the two competitors were heading towards each other…and the shot abruptly cut to American fans waving flags. And when we saw the stage again, they were both facing away. Can’t show any kind of positive moment between China and the US?
Meanwhile, I’m gonna google this, but does anyone know if there was a genuine problem with the balance beam, the thing itself, during the individual all-around? Several women fell, although I’m not sure if it was always from the same spot. The announcers were discussing this, saying that this was the last performance after a tough week+, and perhaps people were on fumes. Maybe, but it’s also possible that after a week+ of heavy use, the surface of the beam was damaged. ???
Apparently Lyles was rather dismissive of the Canadian men’s relay team last spring:
I felt bad when André struggled and was so pleased to see the Canadians win gold in the 100m relay. I think being on the end helped free Canadian runners from the distraction of what was going on with other teams in the middle lane. Great job, guys.
I rhink every member of the US women’s team plays on an overseas pro club. My daughter’s college coach has had a few of his (male) players get picked up by European clubs to play professionally, so it’s not unheard of on the men’s side as well. US volleyball leagues have been started in the past - one in the 70’s included Wilt Chamberlain - but every attempt tends to be underpublicized and undercapitalized, and can’t seem to generate enough interest to become self-sustaining.
Women’s volleyball is very popular at the college level because it uses the same floor as basketball, so equipment and capital costs are low, but the rosters are large enough to go about 1/5 of the way to offsetting the football roster that brings in the cash from filling the stadium. As a result, it’s become a way for families with tall, athletic teen girls to chase scholarships. I would guess there’s between 1.5 and 2 million girls a year playing club volleyball, so it’s a pretty immense talent pool to draw from and big incentives for those who are talented and stick with it.
More on the Canadian 100m mens relay team. Just because I want to post it.
“It feels pretty amazing,” De Grasse told reporters after the race. “To be out with these guys, my brothers, I’ve been with them since the beginning of time, so it’s amazing. We talked about this moment for years. It feels good to bring it to fruition. I’m super grateful.”
This is the same Canadian team that competed at the 2020 Tokyo Games, running in 37.70 seconds to initially finish third behind Great Britain and Italy. They were later upgraded to a silver medal after one of Great Britain’s team members tested positive for performance-enhancing substances.
The team also got together up for the 2022 world championship in Eugene, Ore., winning in a world-leading time of 37.48 seconds.
Summary
One of the weird problems with American athletics (IMHO) is that the Big 4 (NCAA FB, NFL, NBA, and MLB) plus the Not-So-Big 3 (NHL, MLS, and WNBA recently - previously NASCAR) suck all the oxygen out of the room. They get the TV time and thus the advertising dollars. And that just doesn’t leave room for much else. Europe seems much more diverse - obviously football is king, but they seem open to having smaller leagues in more diverse sports that also get TV time and ad dollars, but that’s an admittedly Yank perspective.
ETA, sorry this is a complete hijack of the Olympics thread. Please don’t respond and I’m going to hide my post.
It might come back in future Olympics. Events come and go, especially the newer ones. But if there’s sufficient interest, especially among the young, then it’s more likely to be back in 2032 or later.
Sorry to drone on about the 100m relay. It is an event I find particularly interesting. Everyone goes on about 100m times of stars like Usain Bolt, Carl Lewis or Donovan Bailey. Ben Johnson too, though after the stanazolol accusations I noticed the media changed their description from “Canadian champion” to that “Scarborough sprinter”.
André deGrasse ran the anchor 100m with a time of 8.89 seconds! Most relayers have a running start, so run faster than Bolt’s record 100m time of 9.58 seconds. Andre’s run was actually among the fastest times recorded, though I did not hear commentators or journalists discuss this. The article below does. Lewis did 8.85s. Depending who you ask maybe Bolt 8.71s and Powell 8.70s, but not everyone accepts this. 8.89s is perhaps in the top ten?
I’m not sure what you are asking, but it is also possible a runner doesn’t run the full 100M based on where they grab the baton.
I am saying that 8.89 is one of the fastest times ever for a relay leg. Modern video analysis lays doubt to some of the times recorded in Mexico City, but credits Lewis with 8.85s and possibly faster for Bolt and Powell. There is a 10m acceleration zone for a running start, and since 2018 the 20m baton passing zone is connected. But I believe runners do run 100m, maybe more, but not less. Perhaps you are right. But although 100m is approximate I think it is a minimum (100m beyond the exchange zone?) as this implies.
Yep. And there were either 3 or 5 judges (I forget which).
If 2 out 3 or 3 out of 5 (i.e. the majority for whichever number of judges it was) pressed the button within a certain window of time, it counted as a landing a hit and scored a point.
Connected to what?
From the start line to the finish line is 400m. If one member of the team runs more than 100 meters with the baton, someone on the team must be carrying it for less than 100m.
If it was me, I’d put lines on the track every 100m, and time each leg based on when the baton crosses each line. The actual handoff may happen a few meters ahead of, or past the line, but each leg would be an equivalent distance. The first leg would take the longest, since it’s from a standing start.
But I don’t think the anchor sprinter runs less than 100m.
It depends where you start measuring from. If the leg is timed from where the runner takes hold of the baton, then the time would be pretty meaningless.
The last exchange zone is 20 meters that straddles the 3/4 point of the race, i.e. 290 to 310 meters. If the last runner takes the handoff at the end of the zone, he runs 90 meters.
Ultimately. If so, that does not change the fact it may have been among the fastest anchor relay sprints.
The women 200m singles canoe final was on this morning and there was an amazing photo finish. The Canadian won the gold by 1/100 of a second and the picture looked closer than that.
Just watched a heart-breaker. US women’s water polo lead the bronze medal game the whole time, but Netherlands tied it up and scored the winner with 1 second to go.
8 out of 8 medals for China in the diving, but Team GB’s Noah Williams sneaks into Bronze after a few mistakes from those who might have been expected to finish ahead of him
EDIT: That’s 8 out of 8 Gold medals for China