Tokyo Olympics - The 2020/2021 Summer Games

[Culturegeek]

Titmus vs Ledecky in that 400m final was sensational.

I do find that the swimming commentators just don't know how to the sport well.

[malcolm1980]

I just want to chime in here and say I’m thrilled the Philippines FINALLY won its very first gold medal thanks to female weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz!

[Above the Title]

(07-26-2021 05:08 PM)NUguy514 Wrote:  NBC, of course, only showed the American women in the team qualifications. Would I have liked to have seen any of Rebecca Andrade's routines, since she finished second in AA? Yes. Were we shown any? No. I love that a totally off night for Simone resulted in her qualifying for every event final, LOL. I was so impressed with both Suni and Jade, and I'm thrilled both qualified for two event finals. Jade's execution score on beam, though...I don't understand why it was so fucking low.

NU, do you have NBCSN? The app shows live feeds of every subdivision and then also a US-only feed, which just showed the US team...WITH NO COMMENTARY. It was kind of glorious to not have to hear bullshit. Andrade was subdivision 5 as an individual (Brazil didn't qualify a full team) if you want to see her. She was glorious. My fingers are crossed for her though, IIRC, she was in a similar position in 2016.

Re: Carey, I did think her beam score was too low, but my guess is she didn't get full credit for any of the leaps, which aren't usually at a full 180 degrees. I am so happy for Suni to clinch the second AA spot but I have to admit, even though I think Suni is more competitive for an AA medal, the CHAOS of the individual who qualified her own spot getting the second AA birth is also what we kind of all emotionally needed? Forster's head probably would have blown up on the spot.

So if anyone is friends with me on book of face (the social media platform for the elderly, but the one most conducive to freeform writing), I have decided to blog my thoughts on the women's gymnastics competition specifically. I'll copy and paste them here as well.

-“Underperformed” is relative. The team maxed out on qualifying two gymnasts to every final. Simone became the first gymnast since 1992 to qualify to all four EFs (on a terrible day by her standards).

-The US is learning the hard way that their dominance over the field right now is dependent on the 2-3 point lead from Biles. That cushion is enough to benefit her individually but not enough to benefit a team.

-That said…she should never have been put in the position to carry an entire team on her back. This is no way derogatory to these fantastic athletes. Everyone can have an off day. This is meant to point out that the new strategy of just taking the top five athletes at Trials instead of being strategic left gaping holes, notably that they chose an individual specialist with the exact same event strengths as the other qualified event specialist and therefore it was a wasted spot.

-WHAT A DAY for Jade Carey. It says a lot that she took her fate into her own hands and qualified as an individual on her own. It really allowed her to peak in Tokyo. Cannot believe she finished third AA for the Americans!

-This team needed the balance of a bars or beam event specialist, and somebody who more evenly matched Simone’s strengths. I was very much against putting Skinner on the full team initially because, again, she’s redundant with Biles and Carey there, but in hindsight Biles deserves the back up and support so success (however that is measured) is not almost completely dependent on her having a stellar day. I was a proponent of putting Wong on the team precisely because she had the highest score when vault and floor were added together...but now that I know she isn't vaxxed, I guess I will eat crow and say Skinner belonged on the full team. I am just upset that it's being portrayed that it is somehow Simone's responsibility to ensure nobody else screws up by not screwing up herself.

-Think about the courage of these teenagers and young women competing at the Olympics, away from home, without a support system, for a corrupt organization that has proven over and over again they don’t care about them.

-I do think the scandal has affected parents feeling safe putting/leaving their daughters in gymnastics. But, to the credit of the other countries, they have also improved tremendously. Russia was legitimately great today (which you wouldn’t know as they showed a whole two routines) and countries like Belgium have individual stars which will only improve their programs locally.

Also, non-gymnastics related, WOW did Titmus/Ledecky put on a show!

[Above the Title]

Ladies and gentlemen, your Women's High Performance Coordinator:

"I just want to re-emphasize, if anybody out there complained [that] USA Gymnastics only thought about medals, that was not the point. So, we did not make decisions over a couple of tenths for another medal. We went on rank order because we thought it was a good order, and I still feel good about it. … All the athletes want to win medals. Nobody comes here and doesn’t want to win."

I'm SCREAMING!!!!! Nobody said don't try to win medals and just do whatever. We said don't ABUSE KIDS FOR THE SAKE OF MEDALS.

[misplaced validity]

Titmus/Ledecky was super exciting, and along with that Ledecky is just incredible. Her swimming schedule these Olympics (not to mention in a lot of other competitions over the years) is just grueling. I am impressed every single time that she navigates it so well and is able to break records along the way.

[NUguy514]

(07-26-2021 11:57 PM)Above the Title Wrote:  NU, do you have NBCSN? The app shows live feeds of every subdivision and then also a US-only feed, which just showed the US team...WITH NO COMMENTARY. It was kind of glorious to not have to hear bullshit. Andrade was subdivision 5 as an individual (Brazil didn't qualify a full team) if you want to see her. She was glorious. My fingers are crossed for her though, IIRC, she was in a similar position in 2016.

I don't have the NBCSN app, but I did find and watch Guan Chenchen's beam routine on the Subdivision 2 replay on the NBC Olympics site.

I deleted my Book of Face page over a year ago, so thank you for pasting thoughts here!

Tom Forster can go fuck himself, but I will forever be glad that he didn't put Skinner on the team.

What would your lineup be for team finals? Simone and Grace on all four, Suni on bars and beam, and Jordan on vault and floor?

[misplaced validity]

(07-27-2021 02:44 AM)NUguy514 Wrote:  What would your lineup be for team finals? Simone and Grace on all four, Suni on bars and beam, and Jordan on vault and floor?

So, it's only 3 per event? I assume that means all scores count?

[Above the Title]

Happy to share my thoughts - I'll do the same for the other women's rounds of gymnastics.

Yes, exactly that lineup. But also...it will be the line-up because Forster will go with the scores from yesterday and not take into account anything else. It's unlikely Chiles would score less than McCallum on both bars and beam again, but he's proven he's a "by the numbers" man. Of course, under Marta, we would literally never see Jordan Chiles ever again. Remember how Courtney McCool made some mistakes in team qualifying and she pulled her from EVERY event for finals? She put Bhardwaj on beam with a SV of 9.8 to avoid using McCool. And Mattie Larson at 2009 Worlds!

For order, I'd go with:

Vault
McCallum
Chiles
Biles -- **NOTE FOR THE PEOPLE: Team Finals is where Biles is expected to do the Yurchenko double pike. She said she wouldn't do it in qualifying because it was too risky if she missed and then didn't make event finals, and for event finals (where she theoretically needs it the most), they don't have a warm-up so she'd be going in cold. (BUT WE CARE ABOUT ATHLETE SAFETY.) I hope she still does it even though she had an unsatisfactory day yesterday.

Bars
McCallum
Biles
Lee

Beam
McCallum
Lee
Biles

Floor
McCallum
Chiles
Biles

Honestly...four people is too small for a team and I am so glad they are reverting back. This team needs another bars person to relieve some of the pressure from Simone. She CAN compete all four in team finals, all four in AA, and all four in event finals...but she shouldn't have to. In an alternate universe where it's a five member team, individual spots don't exist, and Tom isn't the Coordinator, I do think Biles, Lee, Chiles, Carey, and McCusker would be a pretty unbeatable team!

[Above the Title]

(07-27-2021 02:58 AM)misplaced validity Wrote:  

(07-27-2021 02:44 AM)NUguy514 Wrote:  What would your lineup be for team finals? Simone and Grace on all four, Suni on bars and beam, and Jordan on vault and floor?

So, it's only 3 per event? I assume that means all scores count?

3 up, 3 count. Which is why it would have been valuable to, you know, take the highest scoring team when you count only three scores per event.

[misplaced validity]

(07-27-2021 03:08 AM)Above the Title Wrote:  Vault
Biles -- **NOTE FOR THE PEOPLE: Team Finals is where Biles is expected to do the Yurchenko double pike. She said she wouldn't do it in qualifying because it was too risky if she missed and then didn't make event finals, and for event finals (where she theoretically needs it the most), they don't have a warm-up so she'd be going in cold. (BUT WE CARE ABOUT ATHLETE SAFETY.) I hope she still does it even though she had an unsatisfactory day yesterday.

What about in the AA event?