I don’t expect my tastes to be universal and am sure it has many fans. But clearly it is more difficult to synchronize many people rather than fewer. Which does not necessarily mean it is easy.
They even walk on water.
That’s insulting to dime stores! 
The twisties sound absolutely fucking terrifying. For Simone Biles to pull out of competitions for this reason isn’t “giving up” or “quitting” or “letting her team down”…it’s the smartest thing she could do.
If you are talking about Beach volleyball, then no they don’t have to wear Bikinis, but many do anyway..
The fine was for a netball tournament, not in the Olympics and in Europe.
Handball.
You misspelled “sympathy”.
Does anyone remember 90s high school horror “The Faculty”? It’s a so-so body snatcher film with the kids catching on that the adults have all started behaving weirdly. As in this scene:
Stan Rosado: I’ve just been thinking ahead, Coach, and I’ve decided to quit the team and concentrate on my academics.
Coach Joe Willis: Okay. Stan, we’ll miss you.
Stan Rosado: That’s it?
Coach Joe Willis: Well, what do you want me to say? My star quarterback comes to me the day before we play Brun County, the only team in the district that can kick our ass, and tells me he doesn’t want to play. There’s something up with that. You seem to be going through some life-defining turning point, and I’m not gonna stand in the way of the human condition. You do what you have to do.
Stan Rosado: Thanks for not reaming me, Coach.
Coach Joe Willis: What kind of human being would I be if I did that?
The big joke being of course that this is how the coach gives away that he is, in fact, no longer human.
Similarly when Simone Biles pulls out of Olympic competition there are two possible reactions:
-
Wow, that’s a really big deal. Whatever’s going on with her must be a proportionately big deal too. I hope she’s OK.
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Boo. Boo. Boooooo. Failure. Disgrace. I sneer at her. Much weakness, such derision.
One of these reactions makes a person look like an entitled little shit and one does not. I’m not going to insult your intelligence by telling you which one is which.
I’d like to make a new rule that whoever bites their medal has to give it back. Unless they have a record of being so gross that they routinely bite their pocket change.
Maybe someday there will be a big name female gymnast who wants to compete on the rings and pommel horse, or a male who wants to do the balance beam and uneven bars. Unless and until there’s enough of them, and if they can do it well enough to put on a good enough spectacle that people want to watch it because TV ratings are really what count, we’re stuck with the arbitrary divisions.
Yeah, they do sound bad. If someone at her level and who worked as hard as she did to get to this moment says she can’t do it, then who am I to second guess her?
For some reason, I thought this nasty tradition would disappear because of COVID-19 precautions. In so many of the pictures from previous games, the athletes looked like they were only biting the medals because the photographers wouldn’t leave them alone until they did.
About medal biting. Timely article on CNN today.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/sport/olympics-biting-medals-storage-spt-intl/index.html
The official Tokyo 2020 account even went as far on Sunday to try to remind people that the medals are not, in fact, edible.
And @WolfpackJeep is right about the photographers bugging them.
“It’s become an obsession with the photographers,” says Wallechinsky, co-author of “The Complete Book of the Olympics.” “I think they look at it as an iconic shot, as something that you can probably sell. I don’t think it’s something the athletes would probably do on their own.”
I think it’s cool that the medals are made from recycled electronics and one guy knitted a pouch to keep his medal in so it won’t get scratched. Represent, brother!
So you feel like the aliens’ compassion was a mark of their inhumanity?
That was the film’s joke. The strong implication was the real human American High School coach would have reacted differently i.e. angrily and unsympathetically to his star quarterback bailing before the big match.
It’s not a subtle film.
Kerri Strug was made to do her vault in spite of having a badly injured ankle and not actually needing to do it in order for the USA to win and wound up in the hospital afterwards. Bela Karyoli told her she had to do it. That sounds pretty apt to me.
The more I read about the Karyolis and their isolated cultlike ranch the more creeped out I get.
Ah, it’s been awhile since I saw it. Not subtle, but a lot of fun.
How else do you suggest they enjoy the chocolate filling? You think the IOC wouldn’t leap at the chance to use less metal?
Actually I wonder if one of the souvenirs is a chocolate version of the medals. (I know there’s a brisk trade in souvenir pins.)
Biles stepping aside gave other teammates opportunities. It is not like there are not alternates available. If she is too overwhelmed to do (by her level) basic stuff in practice why would competition be easier? She probably made the right call.
Gold medals are silver with a gold plating on them. They don’t want people to be tempted to melt them down.
Varsity Blues describes a more plausible scenario: a high school football coach who readily risks his players’ bodies and academic prospects in pursuit of victory.