Damian Warner is amazing. His numbers? He would have qualified for the 100m final, set an Olympic decathalon 110m high hurdle record, would have won the bronze in the long jump (according to one announcer). He’s come close to the overall decathlon score before and might do it if his second day is as good as the first one.
Canadian men have just missed out on so many medals it is refreshing to see Canucks in 1st and 3rd place in the toughest event. And great to see De Grasse set a personal event with a 200m time which exceeded Bolt’s performance in Rio (but not his world record).
That’s the all time record for 100m in a decathlon, and the Olympic decathlon record for long jump.
I realize 10.12 seems pedestrian after you watch the 100m specialists - the 100m final had six guys under 10 - but decathletes are jacks of all trades.
I don’t understand this TV coverage. The basketball team is in the semi-finals tonight, but are not airing anywhere except on streaming. The broadcasts are of the lesser sports. Back in the day, this would have been on the network channel.
Ryan Crouser(2016 Gold Medalist) is killing it over on men’s shot put right now. He broke the Olympic Record and then broke that record. He would have almost Gold through Bronze on just his throws if you could win multiple medals.
American Joe Kovacs appears to be winning Silver as well. America has really become dominant with these guys in shot put.
As I type this, he just threw his furthest and just missed the world record, but set one more Olympic record. Incredible, truly one of the best of all time.
Apologies if this has already been discussed, but i just watched the 400m hurdles, men’s and women’s. And in both, the silver medalist beat the prior world record.
That’s phenomenal. What’s going on? Is this an extraordinarily fast track?
I’m hearing about the fast track and a new kind of spikes, but not a ton of other records have fallen. I’m not sure if we just have some great hurdlers out there this year.
I keep hearing news about nations you’d never expect to excel in certain fields not only win medals but gold. Poland in the 4 x 400M mixed relay. An Israeli in men’s floor exercise. An Italian in the 100M dash. (Sheesh, I knew it’d be open after Usain Bolt left, but not that open! ) Heck “Not Russia, yes, again” were told they could only win for themselves, and thus far they’ve been doing it in spades. For whatever reasons…although the end of the Cold War undoubtedly played an enormous part…the Olympiad has been democratized to an unprecedented degree.
Will it stay that way? I hope so. There’s so much predictability and rote in sports, a few days of freewheeling any-given-Sunday once every four years really isn’t too much to ask.
Did I mention that I haven’t heard one insipid yoo-ess-ay chant so far? At all? It’s like, “Look, we’re going to ace the medal count this Olympiad and every other Olympiad until our Olympic Committee gets sucked into the military-industrial complex like everything else, so that doesn’t matter anymore, so everyone please stop this infinitely tedious Temple of Doom droning and just enjoy the frigging contests for once. Thank you.” This is a big, big step forward. Heck, I just might find the next American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. The World bearable.
In archery, keeping one’s face exactly the same for each shot is critical for a consistent anchor, and therefore accuracy. Moving a cheek muscle just a bit spoils the shot.
Yes, I’ve run into a couple of these quite unexpectedly just picking events i enjoy to watch. It feels very… Olympian, by which i mean it feels like the spirit of good-natured international competition. I watched the end of the men’s high jump. A Korean, an Italian, and a guy from Qatar. Racially all over the map, and yet they all looked kinda the same (really really tall, lanky, with enormous hands and feet. I bet an extra centimeter of foot is a huge help in the high jump.) And all so happy to be there, and so supportive of each other. So… Olympian.
I think it was unwise of Japan to hold these games, but gee, i admit I’m enjoying them.
Belgium win gold. Tough but fair result. Could have gone either way.
Kookaburra’s long record of winning everything but the Olympics continues.
10 medals, one gold.
) Heck “Not Russia, yes, again” were told they could only win for themselves, and thus far they’ve been doing it in spades. For whatever reasons…although the end of the Cold War undoubtedly played an enormous part…the Olympiad has been democratized to an unprecedented degree.