The Olympics 2016: Discussion Thread

[nott theodore]

The Olympics are about to start and I'm sure you're all as excited as we are about it!  To mark this event, HPFT wanted to join in the worldwide celebrations.  Check out The Olympics thread, and the Recommendation Thread, where you can recommend your favourite sports stories!

 

This is a thread for us to discuss the Olympics in general.  What are you favourite memories of the Olympics?  Do you remember where you were when Usain Bolt broke the world records?

 

What about your own country?  Who are your medal hopefuls?  Which events are you most looking forward to?  Have you got any predictions for medal winners?

 

Let's start talking about Rio 2016!

 

[scooterbug8515]

 

It is only once every four years do I get excited about sports and this is it! *giddy*  I am so freaking excited!  I love the summer olymics!  (I know there is the winter ones and I enjoy those just not as much as summer).  Maybe I love the games so much because there are less main stream spots going on and I do like the less main stream sports. 

 

I was the little girl growing up in awe of the the magnificent seven.  Kerri Strug was my hero as a little girl.  Atalanta Olympics was like the first games I really paid attention to! 

 

Then I grew up, found boys to be attractive and it was the Athens olympics that I started paying attention to swimming.  I had a crush on Michael Phelps who was my age.  Of course that crush died, but I'll never forget being at college early and the Bejing Olympics aired and a small group of us early arrivals crowding around the common's TV and shouting at it, cheering Michael on to breaking world records in winning medals.  It was an epic experience that I will not soon forget.

 

Admittedly I missed the last Olympics but this time around I'm all about Nathan Adrian.  I have an RP character loosely based on him and have found myself smitten with Nathan.  He's freaking adorable and I am so excited to see what he does this year!  I mean last Olympics it broke a massive drought for America placing gold in the 100m free style.  Now, the man has come back from a shoulder injury and is chasing another record/dream to place gold in two consecutive events!  That is super exciting to me!

 

(I mean just look at that cutie face!)

 

I am also looking forward to gymnastics.  I think America has a good team and I would like to see how they do.  Sorry everything is about America in this post but that is what I know best but I am looking forward to hearing things from other people as they route for their countries and other countries.  It will be exciting to see who places in what!

[TidalDragon]

I'll just leave this here...

 

[Guest Tanda]

 

I have much expectation for men’s gymnastics team

and judo team, because they are Japanese specialties.

Among them, I pay attention to Kouhei Uchimura and

Kenzo Shirai who is the only student on the team.

 

[TreacleTart]

So as a kid I was really into figure skating. I did it for about 6 years and because of that I was super into the winter Olympics and the ice skating competitions. I think the one that really stands out in my mind was the Nagano Olympics when Michelle Kwan was the hands down favorite to win the gold...and out of nowhere Tara Lipinski showed up and upset the whole thing. Hardly anyone had ever even heard of her, let alone thought she'd win the gold.

 

In that same year, Surya Bonaly of France, in an act of protest did a backflip in the middle of her routine, which was illegal and automatically disqualified her from the competition. I remember finding it really edgy and cool.

 

 

I even had a vhs of the whole figure skating competition as well as the fun routines they did as an exhibition at the end of the olympics. I must've watched it a million times.

 

I think 2 or 3 Olympics back, I really enjoyed watching Shaun White kick butt in the half pipe competition. I remember seeing him stick his McTwist or whatever it was called and then go flying down the hillside screaming. It was one of those moments where you just couldn't help but feel patriotic.

 

Anyway, for the summer Olympics, I enjoy the gymnastics and I sort of pay attention to some of the swimming and running, but I definitely don't find it quite as exciting as the Winter olympics.

 

I haven't been paying a ton of attention to our athletes, but I do think the male swim team and the women's gymnastics are both expected to do well.

[Aphoride]

I love the Olympics! I'm so excited

 

Okay, first off, I'm rooting hugely for the refugee Olympic team. I really, really want them to do well - it would be so lovely for them, even if it's only a small thing and incredibly insignificant compared to what else they've faced in their lives. They're not competing in that many events - there's only 10 of them - but I really want them to do well and potentially medal. It would mean so much <3

 

Other than that, I love watching the swimming, gymnastics, tennis, cycling, and probably a handful more I can't remember I'm really excited about the 5k/10k runs - Mo Farah is my homeboy (London, baby! <3) so I really hope he does it again.

 

Cycling is, like, our thing - at the last Olympics, I think Team GB took home nearly every gold medal available in it, so we've got a lot to live up to But we've got strong teams in all events - especially in the men's and women's team pursuits (Sir Bradley Wiggins ahoy!), so we'll start as favourites, or close to, and hopefully pull it out of the bag again

 

Our men's gymnastic team has been pretty strong recently - but the Americans, Chinese and Japanese are always strong too. It should be a good competition, and hopefully it'll go well for us, but we'll see

 

I'm so excited for the tennis - it sounds like it's gonna be a great tournament. Murray in prime form, the defending champion, carrying the flag... just a few things for him to deal with And Nadal's back, carrying Spain's flag, and I'm so pleased to see him return - wrist injuries are horrible enough without being a tennis player and I just adore him <3 (Tbh, though, I want Murray to win, but I also kinda don't really want Djokovic to win - it would be a little obvious, and I'd love to see things upturned and some of the younger or lower-ranked players coming through and playing super well )

 

We have a couple of good swimmers, as well, but I just like watching that - it was my event at school for most of my school life, and I miss it from time to time

 

I don't really watch much of the athletics, but we should do well in the women's heptathlon - we've got two of the top competitors in it, and by all accounts they're each others greatest threats on paper - and the men's triathlon - the Brownlee brothers are both going for gold, and again two of the top competitors.

 

This is just making me more excited, guys! :) <3

[scooterbug8515]

Do you know what events the refugee team is competing in?  I am curious now and would like to watch how they do.

 

Also I want to toss out that my heart goes out to Australia because they have gotten the raw deal on a lot of things, burglary, fire, and from my understanding the bathroom stuff wasn't set up well and Rio's official response to the complaints and issue was EXCEPTIONALLY rude.  It made me mad when I heard.

 

I think the offering was 'do you want us to get a kangaroo for you?' or something of the like was was beyond rude and makes me mad at Rio.  I do hope things look up for the Aussies (save for 100m men's freestyle)  Sorry but I want Nathan Adrian to get gold and make history.  It is a bit of a long shot but I am hoping so hard.  I mean I love that boy!

[Aphoride]

I believe two are doing swimming, two are in judo, five are in middle-distance running, and one is in the marathon. Apparently, they're gonna walk out first at the Olympics, before Brazil <3 <3 <3

 

There's more information here (12+ - official olympic website)

 

That's pretty terrible! I didn't know about that! Wow, poor Australia! Aussies always do pretty well at the Olympics, though - I think they're normally top 5 in total medal tallies, so they should be good

[Ineke]

I personally prefer the winter Olympics to the summer olympics, but thats just because of the iceskating so there.

 

But! With the summer olympics I like to watch swimming and sometimes the gymnastics (but not all of it though). I think we could do well at the swimming (I mean Kromowidjojo) and maybe even get far with the cycling (Dumoulin, Vos), gymnastics (Zonderland) and athletics (Schippers). But we'll see!

 

One thing I do absolutely love is that the Aussie synchronised swimming team is supposed to use Nightwish' Last Ride of The Day for music and Nightwish is like my all time favorite band so I hope they do well on it!

[BlackPixie]

Also I want to toss out that my heart goes out to Australia because they have gotten the raw deal on a lot of things, burglary, fire, and from my understanding the bathroom stuff wasn't set up well and Rio's official response to the complaints and issue was EXCEPTIONALLY rude.  It made me mad when I heard.

 

I think the offering was 'do you want us to get a kangaroo for you?' or something of the like was was beyond rude and makes me mad at Rio.  I do hope things look up for the Aussies (save for 100m men's freestyle) 

HALLELUJAH SCOOTER!!!

 

That's pretty terrible! I didn't know about that! Wow, poor Australia! Aussies always do pretty well at the Olympics, though - I think they're normally top 5 in total medal tallies, so they should be good

Yep, Australia is typically up top and we hope to keep it that way

 

Sorry. As an Aussie, I am appalled by Rio's treatment of the Aussie team.

 

When the first lot of Aussie's arrived with our amazing Chief de Mission Kitty Chiller, they did a stress test, where they turned on many of the taps and showers all at once, to simulate what it is/will be like with all of the athletes using the facilities at once. The results were far from good, there were also electrical and gas problems, not just water issues.

 

The Aussie apartment block also wasn't finished when they first arrived, and Kitty Chiller made an executive decision to put the team in hotels where she could, as she didn't want to risk it.

 

And then there is the fire. There was a small fire lit in the Aussie team building, forcing them to be evacuated. Once they were let back into the building, they realised that important laptops, and some Zika-protective shirts were stolen. Kitty Chiller says she saw some of the Brazilian firemen walking out with the shirts, and thought nothing of it. She didn't know if they were volunteers who were given the shirts because they had been helping them.

 

All drama aside, I'm huge fan of the Aussie swimmers and track team.

 

I'm really sad that Sally Pearson wasn't able to compete, but on the other hand watching Michelle Jenneke will be super exciting!!

 

And then there's CAM MCEVOY THE HOTTIE. *blushes*

 

like srsly, that dude is great. Same with Magnussen and Mac Horton.

 

Im also rooting for the Campbell sisters and Emma McKeon, as well as Maddie Groves.

[LadyL8]

I prefer the winter olympics as well, Ineke, but that's mostly because we do much better in winter sports. Skiing is practically a religion here.

 

But anyway, I'm absolutely OBSESSED with women's handball. I always read myself up on all teams, find out who their best players are and their weaknesses, how to pronounce names right, check the stats and often find myself correcting the commentators when they say something wrong because I watch way too much handball. So hopefully there's another handball fan here so I'll have someone to discuss the matches with.

 

Our team has been one of the top teams for the past 10-15 years, and we won the last two Olympics, the last World Championship and the last European Championship, so we of course expect another medal this year. I'm not too worried if we lose our first match though. It's a tough one against the home team Brazil, and besides, we always do badly in our first matches and then gradually do better until we reach the level we're suppose to be at. But we're certainly going to have tough competition this year, so I'm not taking it for granted that we'll get another medal. Everything can happen in the olympics.

 

And you know what, I just love that about the olympics. There are always some surprises. Last summer olympics we got a silver medal in fencing. No one had even heard of the guy. He barely made it into the olympics and was ranked 47 in the world at the time, and somehow he won a silver medal (he's not competing this time though). So I'm just really excited to who'll surprise everyone this year. Not just from my own country, but from all over the world. I just think the surprise victories are the best

 

But anyway, I'll have to watch gymnastics this year, because we're competing in that for the first time in 16 years. And I've actually met our swimmer a couple of times, so I'll be cheering for him as well. But we'll likely have our worst olympic year in over 20 years, so I'm guessing I won't be seeing a lot of medals. But again, you never know with the olympics. There are always some surprises

 

 

[nott theodore]

I love the Olympics, I'm so excited for them!  I've never been a big fan of the Winter Olympics, but I suppose that's probably because Britain never win anything and we don't tend to play many of those sports, whereas we have people competing in a lot of the main sports for the summer Olympics.

 

I think one thing that I'm really excited about for these Olympics is that I'm actually at home for them, because I can get to watch stuff fairly easily (although the majority of the finals are at 2am here at the moment ).  The first Olympics I really remember was Sydney in 2000, and that's only because with the time differences I used to get annoyed that gymnastics and swimming were on TV instead of my kids' TV programmes   Then in 2004 we had to do a summer project about the Olympics in preparation for learning about Ancient Greece that year at school, and since then I've really enjoyed watching them.  This is the first Olympics since then that I've actually been at home for the whole time though, and not on holiday, so I'm looking forward to seeing a bit more of the events (although I did manage to watch some of the best British medals for London, thankfully!).

 

The events I always enjoy watching are the swimming and athletics, partly because Britain has some great medal hopefuls in those events, but also because I always think they're quite exciting to watch - it's quite easy to see a surprise winner in them and you can't take anything for granted.  Then, like Laura said, GB are normally quite good at cycling, so I'm looking forward to that, and it'd be awesome to see us win something in the gymnastics, too (although the other teams are really good).  I do like watching the gymnastics just because I'm always so impressed.  Oh, and I can't forget the tennis - I didn't get to see the tennis from London 2012, but Murray won a gold and silver, and off the back of his Wimbledon win this year, I'm really hoping for something

 

Besides those events, I'm excited for the rugby sevens - I love rugby, and it's the first time that it's been in the Olympics in ages.  GB women have a really good chance in that, but so do Fiji, and I'd actually kind of love to see them win because Fiji have never won a gold medal at the Olympics and they'd definitely deserve it.

 

The refugee team <3 They're so amazing, I am rooting for all of them so much.  I know that Yusra Mardini won her heat and it's a shame she didn't get through to the semi-finals, but I was so pleased for her.  She's only 18 and her story is honestly wonderful.  I love that the refugee team are such a beacon of hope for people around the world and are achieving so much, despite the terrible things they've been through.  I managed to stay awake for long enough to see them walk into the stadium during the Opening Ceremony and it was so heartwarming to see the reception that they got <3

[mydearfoxy]

I missed the opening ceremony and am just now getting in on the Olympics. I love watching swimming, because I used to swim. And of course gymnastics is so fun and impressive. I LOVED watching the US girls team in 2012, and I'm sure this year's team will be great, too.

 

I complete agree with Sian about the refugee team. I would love to see those athletes shine! Since I don't have TV at home, I've missed a lot - if anyone has tips of specific things to watch online, please let me know!

[Ineke]

Can I just say that the women cycling today was literally not good for my heart at all? First that horrific crash from van Vleuten, then the closing of the distance between Abbot and the first group containing van Breggem, and then that sprint in the last few metres dear god I was shaking like mad.

 

Thank god first messages are that van Vleuten is doing well though. Concious and talking, which is a relief, seeing how horrific that crash was and how she was lying after that

[scooterbug8515]

OH no!  I fell asleep before the end of cycling.  I am happy that she is okay.  I am currently on the edge of my seat about the Men's 4x100 free style!  My favorite swimmer Nathan Adrian is in it!  Michael Phelps is too and the swim will be SUPER tight.  Like there are 4 contenders for gold which is rare and unheard of!  My heart is in my throat and we haven't even started.  Women's back stroke smei-finals are up right now.

[Ineke]

You missed a lot. Like seriously. Van Vleuten fell (she tweeted today that she was going to be fine, though she did have a concussion and three fractures in her spine), and then Abbot was in the lead (because van Vleuten had cycled away from her). TGhe no's 1 to 3 were behind Abbot and managed to close a 30something seconds gap on the flat course, drove past her, and literally in the last 200 metres or so van Breggem started to sprint and the latter two responded too late to that. It was so nervewrecking!

[Bat Stitch Crazy]

Anyone have an updated medal count?

[BlackPixie]

Tasha, I do. Here you are:

 

 

 

 

All you really need to do is search up something similar to 'medal tally rio' and it'll come up at the top.

[scooterbug8515]

I have also been updating the main Olympic thread with updated medal counts and there is a link to said count that you can expand.

[Bat Stitch Crazy]

Yeah i saw that after I posted....

[scooterbug8515]

No problem love.  I just like being helpful and I know that thread may not be the 1st place people would think to look for that information.  I have been trying to update things sometime after the close of events for the day before the open of events on the new day.

[nott theodore]

I know I can't really complain because the last Olympics were in London and I'm lucky enough to be from a country that a lot of things are centred round, but it turns out that the time difference between the UK and Rio makes it really difficult to watch a lot of the events live

 

Anyway, Great Britain is finally on the medals table!  I was starting to think that we weren't going to get there - we've definitely had quite a few disappointments in the last few days (the Murray brothers going out, coming fourth in the women's rugby sevens, missing out on a medal in the men's team gymnastics), but we did it in style!

 

Adam Peaty was so awesome!  I don't know if anyone else saw his race (I watched it this morning, I couldn't stay up that late for it unfortunately ) but he broke the world record in his qualifier, his semi, and then again in the final of the 100m breaststroke.  It was really exciting to watch and he's only 21 as well, it's his first Olympics, so hopefully he'll have a good future, too!

 

And then we also won silver right afterwards with Jazz Carlin (Katie Ledecky though!  She's incredible, it was amazing watching her win), and two bronzes today.  So we've finally started winning something, which is nice.  I feel like it always takes us a few days to get started

 

The 4x100m freestyle was fantastic to watch, too - did you see it in the end, Marshall?  Michael Phelps had such a brilliant race, there was no way the USA weren't going to win after that.

 

I've really loved watching the women's rugby sevens, too, even though GB didn't win It's such a fast-paced game so it's really exciting to watch, and they're playing so many games in a day and still brilliant.  Australia really scored some great tries in the final.  Plus, I think it's going to be really good for women's rugby, and hopefully people's perception of rugby in general, that the first time it's reintroduced in the Olympics both the men and women are playing it, rather than it just being a "male" sport

[scooterbug8515]

Did I watch the mens 4x100 freestyle relay!?

 

Do humans breath air?

 

Does the sun set and rise?

 

Oh you can bet I watched it!  My boy Adrian was swimming!  Phelps did good but Nathan Adrian helped bring it home!  46.9 split for Nathan which is rather good and super good for him.  I am so excited about that time and can't wait for his 100m swim!

 

Swimming is my jam when it comes to Olympics.  I work night shift, and as such I sleep during the day but have been waking up early so as not to miss a thing when it comes to swimming.

[ichigopan]

I've only been able to catch the swimming and beach volleyball matches.

 

Currently watching USA play Italy in the Round of 16. So weird to not see Misty May paired with Kerry Walsh-Jennings anymore...

 

I've been trying to catch the single tennis matches, but alas, no such luck. But congrats to Nishikori making it to the final four, a first for Japan since 1994.

 

All I can say for swimming is Phelps and Ledecky are CRAZY. I felt really bad for Franklin and Lochte last night after their matches.

[scooterbug8515]

I am watching the same game which is now over.  Ledecky is stellar!  I love her.  I also got an update on shot-put where US won the gold and I am excited about it because she is a plus size athlete, not big because of muscle she is full figured and I love it!