Of course they could be forced to do so. If it was the rule and they refuse to finish the competition, then they get DQ’d.
And you know that for certain? If they both claim injury, then what?
The same thing that happens at any other portion of the competition where someone is injured.
They can’t be forced in the high jump (or the pole vault). World Athletics rules say that, at any time once the jump-off begins, if all of the tied participants agree, the remainder of the jump-off is canceled and the tied athletes share first place.
Which is?
Makes sense to me. Obviously not to @Snarky_Kong, however
No, the concept of ties makes perfect sense to me, thanks.
It’s a tie, but obvious asterisks associated with each medal. If both athletes want it, who are we to complain? This is also a possible outcome of major soccer tournaments. In lieu of a shootout, teams share the cup. The problem is you still need a shootout in the prior knockout stages.
[Non-gripey stuff begins after the strained-face emoticons.]
Hello. In past Olympiads I’d have a bunch of stuff to talk about long before now, but this year I’ve found it next to impossible to get worked up. Part of it was Japan’s highly questionable Japanese fans only decision. get the feeling that this notoriously insular nation jumped at the chance for a “pure” Olympics and a place like Spain or Brazil would’ve just worked out the health and safety protocols, damn the expense. An understandable decision, but I’m sorry, seeing empty grandstand after empty grandstand is soul-draining for me. Then there are the commercials, which have become the one thing in my life that’s interminable, wildly erratic, and incredibly repetitive. If I never hear that razzafrakkin eardrum-melting Miss America song again, it’ll be years too soon.
And then there’s the big problem, which I’ve dubbed “NBCification”, mainly because it neatly matches an unsettling trend I’ve been seeing for years on competitions like American Ninja Warrior and America’s Got Talent. The sheer sameness of the stories, the angles, the mindsets, the terms of the debates. In no previous Olympiad I’ve seen in history, on any network, were the athletes’ families more than an afterthought. Even at the height of CBS’ madness, the struggling dad or sick brother would get a couple minutes in a fluff piece and that’s it. Now I literally can’t go an hour without seeing a reassuring shot of the family cheering very, very loudly, and then an announcer will gush about how Even Though They Can’t Be There You Can See How They Support blah blah blah. IIRC, they began the opening ceremony with several minutes of this drivel. And of course, the announcers will remind us periodically (by which I mean all the goddam time) about how it’s been a Difficult Time, and there have been Great Struggles, and Covid Has Really Made a Hash of Things, Hasn’t It?
. So, so very .
All right, I’m going to quickly run down what bits of fairly interesting stuff I’ve been able to strain out:
The theme of the opening ceremony was…carpentry. Huh. I understand that if you want an aspect of Japanese tradition that gives a positive vibe, there isn’t a whole lot to choose from, but this seemed awfully generic. I would’ve gone with Enka, or maybe an aikido demonstration. Aikido is pretty.
Re. Simone Biles. It’s really regrettable what happened to her, but I’ve seen these mental breakdowns so many times that I’ve lost the ability to be surprised. Crap happens. That’s why we send five (six?) of them. Oh, and if you want to see a series of top-notch women’s gymnastics routines without a gazillion interruptions, you might enjoy this.
Re. basketball. Not surprised at all they came back from that legitimately embarrassing loss. These aren’t our most elite NBA players, they hadn’t gelled as a team, and they clearly got overconfident after that big lead in the 4th. France fought hard and scored a well-deserved upset. But it was ridiculous to think that Team USA would just give in to despair or dissolve into infighting. Podium? Seems likely. Gold? Uphill battle, but possible. Colin Cowherd predicted silver, and that makes as much sense as anything to me.
Re. the high jump tie: I woudln’t call it an “instant classic”, but it was a very nice moment. Two men honestly gave it their all, the official asked if they wanted to continue battling, and they decided that they were both worthy of the top prize and the other winning the gold did not diminish his. This is a thing that needs to happen more often. Think of how much happier baseball would be, how many phenomenal once-in-a-lifetime performance would have gotten their due if the sport had a shred of humanity.
Skateboarding left me mostly flat (“do one jump and one grind” should not be an event in any respectable sports showcase), but I liked what I could catch of the BMX, both races and freestyle. It can get chaotic, but a little chaos is fine…it shows that there will always be a risk element no matter how good you get. Didn’t see enough kayaking to form an opinion, but artificial rivers is a cool idea. I’d like to see one at a water park someday.
Dang, I had no inkling how wobbly fencing swords are. And they have to parry with those things!
Caught a bit of archery, and the thing that I noticed immediately was the facial expression. I say “expression” because it’s always the same intense, steely-eyed frown. Why is this? Is it just the easiest way to keep his head still?
I never mentioned this before, but rugby looks absolutely exhausting. And does it even allow substitutes?
3 on 3 basketball is a fun change of pace, but I’m not sure if I like shots from behind the arc being worth twice as much as normal buckets. That looks like it could lead to abuses.
Oh, here’s a working link for the badminton rant. I dunno. Sounds like she just had a bad day. (As a spectator sport, I think badminton is just as good as tennis. Make of that what you will.)
The favorite would have been Filipino gymnast Carlos Yulo, who took gold in the floor exercise at the most recent World Championship in 2019. Unfortunately his prelims were not good and he failed to qualify for the finals. He still has a chance in the vault, later this evening.
While I agree this is very annoying, I’m amazed that anyone who has watched the Olympics for decades could say this is new. They’ve been doing the background/families thing forever. In the 70s ABC was famous for it.
The thing to know is that the high jumpers who agreed to share the medal have been good friends for years.
This article has a picture of them at the jumper from Qatar’s wedding.
I am all in favor of having rules for tie breakers but sometimes there is just a tie. It has happened in swimming and it used to happen in gymnastics before they added their confusing tie breaker rules.
In this case, neither missed a jump until the final height that they both missed. I personally love the fact that they were given the option to have a jump off and decided to both get the gold. They both performed exactly the same. They both deserve gold.
ETA: I apologize for the article which has a lot of misinformation (identifies one as gold medalist and other as silver medalist, says the athlete asked for two gold instead of the official offering it, etc, ) but I wanted to include the wedding picture.
Canada 1 beat USA 0 in a football semifinal upset
Congrats to Canada. Im not sure that it was an upset. The USA has basically been crap the entire tourney and have had problems scoring.
It certainly was a surprise here in Israel. AKAIK, he had never been discussed as a possible gold medal winner.
Tournament soccer. Play without rhythm/cohesion. Get to knock out games. Hang tough. Win with a dodgy penalty. Repeat until it clicks.
Germany and Italy have won World Cups that way.
So close! Carlos Yulo, 4th in the vault. If he had stuck the landing on the first jump, the Philippines might have had another gold medal.
I went through high school with Andrew Hoy who has just picked up an individual bronze and team silver in the equestrian.
It’s his eighth Olympics and he’s Australia’s oldest Olympian.
So happy for the Canadian WNT to finally get past the USA. The match itself wasn’t the classic that the 2012 match was, but I’ll take the result!
Japan beats the Americans in baseball, 7-6 in 10 innings. Japan scored a run in the bottom of the ninth to tie and won it in the 10th.
US vs Canada was a fairly depressing game. No shots on goal for the entire first half. The Canada PK was their first shot on goal of the entire game. The US had several (and were mostly the better team, but not by enough to feel hard-done-by), but only one that was anything like a threat.
Maybe the bronze medal game will actually be an entertaining affair? It often is, as the stakes are lower… and it would be nice to (presumably?) send off the older generation of players with a bang and a win.