Do we have a real example of a 9-10 game? Or was that just a number thrown out in this thread without basis?
What is surface of the field hockey field? I had assumed it was played on grass but the blue field doesn’t even look like astro turf.
Field Hockey pitches are well-regulated. Here is the FIH page on pitches.
Glancing through pdf links, synthetic surfaces are now very common, of a variety of types. The generically approved color is green with white lines. I cannot find reference to blue, other than a remark that non-green/white schemes must be approved by the FIH.
The blue hockey pitch was addressed today in a BBC piece London 2012: 20 more Olympic oddities:
London 2012 is the first world hockey event to be played on a different coloured synthetic turf to the traditional green. The water-based surface at the Hockey Centre at the Olympic Park in London uses a high-performance polyethylene resin, helping to make it the world’s fastest pitch. The run-off areas are shocking pink, and the colour changes are designed to improve viewing for players, officials, spectators and broadcasters.
NBC’S online schedule for today shows a “women’s classification (11-12)” game in field hockey, which I assume is the game to determine the final rankings of the 11th- and 12th-place teams.
AFAIK, neither beach nor court volleyball have additional games to determine anything below 4th–you lose in the quarterfinals and you’re done.
And the boxing doesn’t even have a play-off for the bronze medal so that top eight claim for every event is bunk. Boxing News, Live Events and latest Highlights
Incidentally, does anybody know why they don’t have a bronze playoff? I initially assumed this was because it would be churlish to force people to cause potential injury to each other for just a third place but that doesn’t seem like the sort of thing the boxing authorities would want to insinuate.
It’s rare in the Olympics but boxers do sometimes lose by being knocked out. To force someone who lost in the semi in this manner to box again the next day isn’t a good idea.
That makes sense, thanks.
Anybody know why the Men’s Soccer final was played in the afternoon? I was expecting to be able to watch it in the afternoon here in Texas (like the Women’s final, Euro Cup final, Champions League final, etc.). I figured soccer would be a “prime time” type event. I slept in without checking the schedule and it was already over by the time I woke up.
To add to the discussion of places below 3rd, basketball had games to decide down to 11th/12th place up through the 2004 games. The last 12th place finisher was Angola.
The U.S. women’s 4x100 relay team broke the world record, which was held by East Germany. Does anyone know if there are any other records still held by countries which don’t exist anymore, particularly East Germany and the Soviet Union?
If you include individuals rather than just “team”, there are several. Look here - there’s men’s hammer and quite a few women’s records.
Trivia note: spotting was first allowed after American Jennifer Sey broke her leg at 1985 Worlds after hitting her leg on the top bar. I have seen some coaches break an athlete’s fall, but some coaches don’t spot (i.e. use their arms) if an athlete looks like she is headed for a safe fall. There’s a deduction from the athlete’s score if the coach touches her and she doesn’t fall.
On a bail-half (aka shootover or shoot-half; about 0:25-0:27 here) some coaches put an arm up as a visual cue.
I think your “belly flop” is a Shushunova (0:58-1:00). The Shushunova is no longer as valuable as it once was since it’s harder to connect to more highly valued moves.
There is a new rule in the Code of Points (official gymnastics rules) that women have to stick their tumbling passes as the men do. About 18 months after the 2009-2012 Code was released, some clever coach realized that if a gymnast leaps out of her tumbling pass the “stick” is easier to fudge. So–the reason for the leap is both to avoid deduction and to accrue bonus.
The Code gets revised after each Olympics and rumor has it that the next code will allow women to take the traditional lunge out of one pass but that the others must be stuck.
Taking the easiest part of this question first–there are 2 panels in gymnastics, difficulty (D) and execution (E). The max start value of a routine is automatically the D score plus 10 (the maximum execution score). When your TV provider flashes the maximum score they’re just showing the D panel score plus 10. Each routine’s D score is assessed based on what the gymnast actually does, not what they did on another day.
The gymnast can improvise, but it’s tough to do on bars–far easier to cover up on beam or floor. In this instance, Gabby gets her E-score deducted for lack of flow and her D-score suffers because she didn’t complete the intended pirouette and does not connect the pirouette to the next move.
I don’t see that listed. Whereas this page lists bronze medals for boxing.
http://www.london2012.com/boxing/medals/
That was my original surmise, but watching it in action, it might be able to fudge a small off-balance, but they tend to stand out by the directional movement of the bounce. Instead of being straight up, they move forward, or to the side. And there’s big risk, where we saw several bounce out of the ring. Because a small hop in place near the edge of the ring becomes a big lateral motion over the line.
I can certainly see that. Stuck landings are one of the hallmarks of good gymnastics, having them go away is a shift in tone. Limiting the use of the bounce outs seems reasonable.
Nitpick - the D score must be based on something. It is based upon the routine that the gymnast submits as to what they intend to do. Otherwise, the officials could not preannounce the D score for the event. Notice the board near the event where they announce the competitor? That has the D score posted before she goes. Ergo, the D score is written up in advance.
Now how they adjust to a change during the event is a question of interpretation. They can either recalculate the D score based upon what actually happened, or they can just record it as a “miss” - they didn’t do that element. The result should be the same, to my understanding, but I could be wrong. It might depend on the flow aspects and connection points.
I think this contributed to the challenge the US offered on Aly Reisman’s balance beam score. She performed, was given a low number, and was just under third place. Immediately the US officials told the judge to file a protest. Apparently you cannot protest the judges’ evaluation of the technical merit, only the D score. So they quickly wrote down the routine as they thought Aly performed it, the judges reevaluated the recorded performance, and they corrected the D score to reflect that change. Thus, Aly won the Bronze on Beam, and bumped the Russian. Was that because the judges missed something? Why was it not obvious from the pre-competition D score listed for Aly? Or was it a case of pointing out a connection element, for instance, that was actually there that they overlooked?
[aside] Did anybody else notice how the Russian girl always looked like she was about to cry right before she performed? I’m not talking the girl who kept taking step outs, I’m talking the one with all the glitter. I swear, her look of concentration or whatever looks like the verge of tears. [/aside]
Both semi-final losers are awarded bronze.
If you click at the bottom of that table to go to “full medal count” and add up all the medals, you’ll see that there were 13 gold, 13 silver, and 26 bronze medals awarded.
ETA: You’ll see the rules listed at the same site under “Competition Format” here.
Interestingly, it turn out that Judo, Taekwando, and wrestling also award two bronzes, except they do it completely differently. Losers in previous rounds get to compete in a repechage, the two winners of which compete against the semifinal losers; the winners of both those matches get a bronze. This seems a little convoluted; why not just have it be simple elimination, with the two semifinal losers competing for a single bronze?
I think it’s because in boxing, you can lose by a knockout, in which case you’re not allowed to box again for some time period. So you can’t compete in a repechage.
I understand that about boxing. The question is why do they have the repechage in the other three? Why not simply have the losing semifinalists compete for one bronze, instead of having the repechage and two bronzes?
You’ve hit on one of the oddities of gymnastics. In vault only, the gymnast posts the D-score for the vault they intend to do.
For the other apparati, the judges use a type of shorthand to document the routine as it is performed and calculate the D score.
A nitpick here–it’s Aly’s coach who filed the protest, not a judge. In Aly’s case, the issue was that the judges called her front pike a front tuck, which reduces the value of the skill.
During video review, they concluded that her knees remained straight for longer than they originally thought and gave her credit for the front pike.