2021 Summer Olympics (Tokyo)

giorno

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Men's GB team should be going for the world record in the 4×200 now
 

giorno

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Nope. Damn why you brits have to be so disappointing all the damn time :lol:

EDIT: fecking individual gold medalist screwed them out of the world record :lol:
 

Wibble

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Some surprise results in men's Water Polo.

Greece beat Hungary and drew with Italy so they are going well.

Spain are going very well and have beaten powerhouses Serbia and Montenegro

Australia stated with a loss to Montenegro after leading but running out of steam in the last quarter. But then last night they beat Croatia 11-8 after going i to the last quarter leading by inly 1 goal. Probably the upset of the tournament so far.
 

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GB quartet just blitzed the 4x200 freestyle with a two second lead for most of the second half of the race. Incredible to see that from GB.
 

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Really impressive swim. Special shout out to that Matt Richards guy who did the third leg. 18 years old in his first Olympics and he went from us clinging on to the pace to putting us well ahead.

Swimming is almost the opposite experience to the rowing. Not long ago (Beijing/London) the pool wasn’t really a big success area for Team GB bar a couple of individuals like Adlington, and now there’s clearly a great structure and set of individuals in place and they’re all feeding off each other.
 

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Tom Dean, who won gold in the individual with a 1:44.22, swam a 1:45.7
Well, that's not ideal specially if you consider he went as the last person. They're not swimming 100 meters but still the 3 last swimmers have the advantage that they can move before their relay arrives; that allows for a faster entrance into the water and is very common for swimmer in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th position to register faster times than when they swim with the normal start. The record was really up for grabs. :lol:
 

croadyman

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Really impressive swim. Special shout out to that Matt Richards guy who did the third leg. 18 years old in his first Olympics and he went from us clinging on to the pace to putting us well ahead.

Swimming is almost the opposite experience to the rowing. Not long ago (Beijing/London) the pool wasn’t really a big success area for Team GB bar a couple of individuals like Adlington, and now there’s clearly a great structure and set of individuals in place and they’re all feeding off each other.
He is from my hometown so that makes the win a little bit extra special
 

giorno

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Well, that's not ideal specially if you consider he went as the last person.
He went first. But the point is the guy who should have been their fastest swimmer and set the tone instead swam a time slower than the 8th guy from the individual final, and forced them to come from behind
 

Wibble

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Hell yes! That’s a huge win
Really impressive as Croatia are a really top side. Still a big ask for Australia to qualify from their group as only Kazakhstan aren't a top notch side. Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Spain are also in the group and only 4 qualify. And if we qualify 4th then the winner of the other group awaits in the first playoff round.
 
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Acheron

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He went first.
Ohh, wasn't paying much attention to who was swimming but assumed he was the last swimmer as normally teams leave the fastest person in the last relay. :lol:

Anyway I've liked the swimming a lot so far it seems like the last olympics for a lot of swimmers I grew up watching. Chad Le Clos struggled so hard just to get in the final in the 200 butterfly, he didn't win but being lates 20s is already considered old in swimming and the butterfly is super hard and demanding. Katinka Hosszu is like 32 so I'm also surprised she made it to a couple of finals, didn't compete in one event at the end (the 200 butterfly I think) and wasn't even close to win, a japanese girl won both the 200 and 400 IM. Mireia Belmonte was also present and I don't expect Spain to produce a better swimmer than her any time soon, then Federica Pellegrini also competed in a final today against Ledecky and Titmus so really impressed with all those veteran swimmers who are considered ancient still competing against the younger generations.
 

giorno

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Ohh, wasn't paying much attention to who was swimming but assumed he was the last swimmer as normally teams leave the fastest person in the last relay. :lol:
Duncan Scott - silver in the individual - went last. Those two are the reason why the expectation for them was whether they'd break the WR rather than gold - it was a given that they'd win

Anyway I've liked the swimming a lot so far it seems like the last olympics for a lot of swimmers I grew up watching. Chad Le Clos struggled so hard just to get in the final in the 200 butterfly, he didn't win but being lates 20s is already considered old in swimming and the butterfly is super hard and demanding. Katinka Hosszu is like 32 so I'm also surprised she made it to a couple of finals, didn't compete in one event at the end (the 200 butterfly I think) and wasn't even close to win, a japanese girl won both the 200 and 400 IM. Mireia Belmonte was also present and I don't expect Spain to produce a better swimmer than her any time soon, then Federica Pellegrini also competed in a final today against Ledecky and Titmus so really impressed with all those veteran swimmers who are considered ancient still competing against the younger generations.
Yeah. It also helps put the anomaly that was Phelps into even better perspective - the guy wasn't participating into his 30s, he was winning
 

Dargonk

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Really impressive as Croatia are a really top side. Still a big ask for Australia to qualify from their group as only Kazakhstan aren't a top notch side. Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Spain are also in the group and only 4 qualify. And if we qualify 4th then the winner of the other group awaits in the first playoff round.
I watched the Croatia game, and it was really fun to follow. Looks exhausting though, and the constant wrestling would really piss me off if I every tried to play.

Out of interest where do we rank in the game compared to the other teams.

Also did you son end up making the team?
 

Wibble

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I watched the Croatia game, and it was really fun to follow. Looks exhausting though, and the constant wrestling would really piss me off if I every tried to play.

Out of interest where do we rank in the game compared to the other teams.

Also did you son end up making the team?
We usually rank in the top 8 and occasionally we do better. We were 6th at the last World Championships and won an big international tournament in Croatia in mid-2019.

It is an incredibly physical sport and demands a level of fitness and swimming ability that tires me even thinking about it.

My son was in the Sharks A team (2nd team) and on a scholarship at the NSWIS but not in line for Tokyo as far as we could tell. Only 1 player his age has made it - Tim Putt - and he is exceptionally good. And my son is a centre forward. They tend to mature late as you really need to bulk up and mature. He is 194cm tall but was only about 105kg at the time. I'd say he is now closer to 120kg which is much more like it. So rather than hang around just playing a support role he did what many do and headed off to the States to play College Polo with a Sharks A team competion against China on his way out. He has about 18 months and 2 NCAA seasons to go and will land back in Sydney at the end of 2022 just in time to play National League and hopefully put himself in line for Paris. If the new coach (whoever that is) doesn't fancy him he will likely head overseas to play pro for a bit.
 
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Dargonk

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We usually rank in the top 8 and occasionally we do better. We were 6th at the last World Championships and won an big international tournament in Croatia in mid-2019.

It is an incredibly physical sport and demands a level of fitness and swimming ability that tires me even thinking about it.

My son was in the Sharks A team (2nd team) and on a scholarship at the NSWIS but not in line for Tokyo as far as we could tell. Only 1 player his age has made it - Tim Putt - and he is exceptionally good. And my son is a centre forward. They tend to mature late as you really need to bulk up and mature. He is 194cm tall but was only about 105kg at the time. I'd say he is now closer to 120kg which is much more like it. So rather than hang around just playing a support role he did what many do and headed off to the States to play College Polo with a Sharks A team competion against China on his way out. He has about 18 months and 2 NCAA seasons to go and will land back in Sydney at the end of 2022 just in time to play National League and hopefully put himself in line for Paris. If the new coach (whoever that is) doesn't fancy him he will likely head overseas to play pro for a bit.
Thanks for that Wibble,

Fingers crossed for him to make the next Olympics then
 
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RobinLFC

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Men's TT gonna be a nailbiter it seems, unless Ganna or Van Aert destroy the field at the first interim point.
 

Brwned

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Not sure about this one. She said she pulled out because she didn’t feel right after that first performance, and she wanted to protect her mental health. Yet it’s possible that pulling out of her last olympics, for that reason, might do more damage to her mental health in the long run.

Athletes before have talked about how common it is to fall into some kind of depression after the Olympics are over. If you add in a conscious choice to accelerate that process, it could easily intensify it. And it isn’t something you can easily see into the future. It might feel easier for her now and much harder in two weeks. She might think she could have turned it around if she just had more self belief.

Athletes shouldn’t push themselves past their limits but I’m not sure lowering the bar to this extent is helpful either. It is good that she has that choice and support structure though.
 

Ainu

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Men's TT gonna be a nailbiter it seems, unless Ganna or Van Aert destroy the field at the first interim point.
Looks like it's going to be a nail biter. Roglic, Van Aert, Ganna, Dumoulin and to a lesser extent Dennis, they're all going strong.

Edit: at the half way point it looks like Roglic might be the best of the lot. Long way to go though.
 
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RobinLFC

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Looks like it's going to be a nail biter. Roglic, Van Aert, Ganna, Dumoulin and to a lesser extent Dennis, they're all going strong.
Fecking hell this is unbearable. 4 guys 8-10" behind Roglic.

Roglic and Dumoulin very surprising to me, didn't expect them to be this good after their respective struggles this season. Would be some story for Dumoulin if he gets a medal here.
 

giorno

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Roglic is flying

Yeah, he's destroying the competition :eek:
 
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RobinLFC

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Roglic on course to gold. Hopefully Dumoulin gets top 3, maybe alongside Ganna or Dennis. Van Aert is done.
 

Ainu

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Looks like it was a good decision by Roglic to leave the Tour early and also don't really push in the road race.

Roglic on course to gold. Hopefully Dumoulin gets top 3, maybe alongside Ganna or Dennis. Van Aert is done.
Tour and road race have done the damage for van Aert. It had to end at some point. Shame his drop in form came just a little too early.
 

RobinLFC

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Take a fecking bow Roglic, what an out of this world performance.
 

RobinLFC

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Looks like it was a good decision by Roglic to leave the Tour early and also don't really push in the road race.



Tour and road race have done the damage for van Aert. It had to end at some point. Shame his drop in form came just a little too early.
I wonder what he would be able to do today if he had focused on this TT like the likes of Dennis, Ganna, Dumoulin, Roglic after the Tour, ... He's amongst the very best even after his very heavy schedule, so I can't help to think what he'd be able to do if he focused solely on things like this. Sometimes he is a victim of his own versatility.
 

Ainu

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I wonder what he would be able to do today if he had focused on this TT like the likes of Dennis, Ganna, Dumoulin, Roglic after the Tour, ... He's amongst the very best even after his very heavy schedule, so I can't help to think what he'd be able to do if he focused solely on things like this. Sometimes he is a victim of his own versatility.
We'll never know but I wouldn't want him to do that either. We get to see him compete pretty much everywhere, all year long. Not that Roglic specializes that much, his focus on the TT is just a result of his crash and early exit in the Tour I think.
 

RobinLFC

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Entire podium will ride for Jumbo-Visma next year :lol:
 

Agent Red

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Tom Dean, who won gold in the individual with a 1:44.22, swam a 1:45.7 :wenger:
I think it’s maybe not a total surprise Dean was the slowest. He probably spent a lot of emotional and physical energy yesterday with his individual win and maybe didn’t sleep as well etc. I’m sure he was still giving his all for the team and fully focused as much as he could be, but maybe he didn’t have quite as much left in the tank as the others.
 

DomesticTadpole

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I think it’s maybe not a total surprise Dean was the slowest. He probably spent a lot of emotional and physical energy yesterday with his individual win and maybe didn’t sleep as well etc. I’m sure he was still giving his all for the team and fully focused as much as he could be, but maybe he didn’t have quite as much left in the tank as the others.
He also swam the heats, I think they rested Duncan for the semi.
 

giorno

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Any aussies in here i can heckle? Man-bun only there to get dunked on, thybulle can't shoot, crocodile dundee is a cnut and the rest of your team sucks! You're lucky you didn't bring Ben, Gallo woulda ended his career for good!!!

Except Patty, he's ok

We're gonna smash yas :devil: