2024 Olympics

[CouncilSpectre]

Stunning finish from Alex Yee in the Men’s Triathalon - about 15 seconds down going into the last Km and a half and then just turned in the afterburners to win by 6 seconds. What a finish!

Matched mere minutes later by the ladies in the Quad Skulls final

[mysticwaterfall]

Gymnastics wasn't even a contest last night with how dominant Team USA was. Surprised China didn't medal though.

[Mike0284]

[MifuneFan]

Katie Ledecky was incredible as usual in the 1500m, and a new olympic record too. She now has the 20 fastest time ever, which is just unbelievable.

[Bigdog]

Originally Posted by Mike0284

Nice, good win against the upside down peoples....

[bruceames]

I read the relative lack of World record swimming times is due to the Olympic pool being only 7.2 ft deep instead of the usual 3 meters. Interesting, but still everyone is on a level playing field, so to speak, and the times are very impressive.

[ChadFL]

Anyone know if any website is showing tracking medals won vs. projected medals to date? Really sucks fivethirtyeight.com stopped doing that after tracking those counts during the past few Olympic games and nobody else is covering it this time around.

My best guess is Team USA is currently about where they were expected (or very slightly worse off) in total medals, but much worse than expected in gold medals. The pre-Olympic projections has USA winning the total medal count by a wide margin - around 115 medals vs. ~85 for China, 60'ish for Britain and France, 55 for Australia. Gold medal projections has USA winning around 40, China 35, France in the mid-20's. Looking like USA still wins the most medals, but a lesser margin then expected, while the gold medal count might be a fight between USA, China, and possibly France. Though USA likely still has an edge there.

[ChadFL]

I will say, I've been surprised at China's flatlining at the Olympics post-2008. Between 1992-2008, China saw a steady increase in medals, with a huge surge in 2008 when they were the host nation. I recall thinking it was inevitable that they'd become the new USSR of the Summer Olympics, beating USA in both total medals and gold medals in most Olympics over the coming decades.

Except... that wasn't what happened at all. Post 2008, China really stagnated, settling into a consistent 90'ish medals (with 30'something golds) in most Olympics. Good enough to make them. the usual #2 nation in both medal counts, but well behind USA's usual 100-120 medals (with 40-something golds) in most Olympics, and no upward trend. Hell, Britain won more golds (and almost as many total medals) in 2016 than China, with like 5% of China's population.

Not entirely sure what caused it, but two things come to mind - newly added Olympic sports being very favorable to USA and other Western nations and not favorable for China and other nations, as well as crackdowns on doping. I know all nations have engaged in doping to some degree, but systematic/institutionalized doping does tend to skew much more towards authoritarian nations (ex. Russia and China). That sort of thing is harder to pull off in more open, democratic nations, where that level of widespread corruption is difficult to last long with a media guaranteed to report on such scandals and a legal system more likely to prosecute. That would make sense given Russia and China have both seen their medal counts stagnate or drop over similar spans in time.

[Mike0284]

[Lacit170]

Originally Posted by R3P0

As much as I want to comment on this we should probably refrain from the subject. It will only end in suspensions and forum bans, and possibly loss of ppl we converse with.

it appears there is more to the story making it even weirder/harder to make a judgement call on. well, not for me personally, but from others arguments.

apparently this boxer is NOT trans but rather born with elevated levels of testosterone. that is what i gathered from some research..

so, the argument is relatively the same though. if testosterone levels are too high, thats an unfair advantage and still should not be allowed to compete.

just my opinion of course.

[dancerslegs]

Originally Posted by Lacit170

it appears there is more to the story making it even weirder/harder to make a judgement call on. well, not for me personally, but from others arguments.

apparently this boxer is NOT trans but rather born with elevated levels of testosterone. that is what i gathered from some research..

so, the argument is relatively the same though. if testosterone levels are too high, thats an unfair advantage and still should not be allowed to compete.

just my opinion of course.

Should Michael Phelps have been banned from competition for the myriad of "unfair" advantages he had over his peers?

https://www.biography.com/athletes/m...-body-swimming

Researchers have found that Phelps produces half the lactic acid of his competitors. These low levels of lactic acid mean Phelps can recover quickly, which can be especially helpful when pushing through grueling training sessions.

Phelps has been said to possess extremely high lung capacity — twice that of the average human, or 12 liters rather than six. If your lungs send more oxygen to your muscles, it can help improve your performance in any sport.

[dancerslegs]

If nothing else, it's evident that several members in this thread know nothing about Algerian society.

I wonder if they'd be able to point the country out on a map?

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by Batman1980

Yup, a man fighting a woman at the Olympics went exactly the way most people would expect it to.

Hate to say it, but we're seeing somewhat similar stories for people as young as grade school children. When I was a kid in the 80's-90's everything was boys and girls in their own leagues, with the rare exception being something like baseball, where only a couple girls participate, so they played in boys leagues. These days, it's almost co-ed, which is ruining sports for girls. My niece is 8 and played in the local rec basketball league this summer. She plays her best, but as with virtually every girl in the league, she simply cannot compete. The top few girls in her league were still worse than a majority of the boys in the league. Most of the girls, unlike the boys, cannot even get the ball high enough to get a basket. And it talent gap only expands with age. Girls, by and large simply can't compete with boys in almost all sports - especially those with a high degree of strength and athleticism. I certainly do believe in equality in the workplace, where women can do most tasks as well as any man, but society is pushing gender equality in sports, where it simply doesn't exist.

Males transitioning into females and being able to compete in women's sports is also a serious problem. We see this time and time again where they have a massively unfair advantage when competing against those who were born female.

[dancerslegs]

Originally Posted by ChadFL

Hate to say it, but we're seeing somewhat similar stories for people as young as grade school children. When I was a kid in the 80's-90's everything was boys and girls in their own leagues, with the rare exception being something like baseball, where only a couple girls participate, so they played in boys leagues. These days, it's almost co-ed, which is ruining sports for girls. My niece is 8 and played in the local rec basketball league this summer. She plays her best, but as with virtually every girl in the league, she simply cannot compete. The top few girls in her league were still worse than a majority of the boys in the league. Most of the girls, unlike the boys, cannot even get the ball high enough to get a basket. And it talent gap only expands with age. Girls, by and large simply can't compete with boys in almost all sports - especially those with a high degree of strength and athleticism. I certainly do believe in equality in the workplace, where women can do most tasks as well as any man, but society is pushing gender equality in sports, where it simply doesn't exist.

Males transitioning into females and being able to compete in women's sports is also a serious problem. We see this time and time again where they have a massively unfair advantage when competing against those who were born female.

Imane Khelif is not transgender. It is literally illegal to be transgender in Algeria. (See the link I provided in an earlier post.) She was born and raised as a girl. There are pics of her on the web as a little girl, if you bother to look for them. She apparently has some sort of developmental disorder that causes her to produce elevated testosterone levels—similar to Caster Semenya—although what that disorder is is in dispute. The Russian president of the IBA made a charge of her having a 46XYDSD intersex condition, but has provided no documentation as evidence and has refused to elaborate further.

But as so often happens, why let reality get in the way of an off-topic culture wars rant?

[Lacit170]

Originally Posted by dancerslegs

Should Michael Phelps have been banned from competition for the myriad of "unfair" advantages he had over his peers?

https://www.biography.com/athletes/m...-body-swimming

laughable comparison.

Originally Posted by bruceames

Was looking for the vid of the 46 second fight on Youtube but it's nowhere to be found (just vids showing stills of the fight, no actual footage) Is it being banned (like the opening ceremony) because of the controversy, or it just hasn't shown up yet?

It was all over IG right after the fight...i'll try and find it and post if i can...

Originally Posted by dancerslegs

Imane Khelif is not transgender. It is literally illegal to be transgender in Algeria. (See the link I provided in an earlier post.) She was born and raised as a girl. There are pics of her on the web as a little girl, if you bother to look for them. She apparently has some sort of developmental disorder that causes her to produce elevated testosterone levels—similar to Caster Semenya—although what that disorder is is in dispute. The Russian president of the IBA made a charge of her having a 46XYDSD intersex condition, but has provided no documentation as evidence and has refused to elaborate further.

But as so often happens, why let reality get in the way of an off-topic culture wars rant?

and here comes the person who gets the thread shut down

yes, you are correct with the little information we have. its a very fine line to say the boxer is either male or female. the reality of the situation is, the elevated levels of testosterone is what gives her an unfair advantage. end of story. there should be set testosterone limits for women fighters and if they do not meet those limits, you cant fight. how anyone could argue against that is

[dancerslegs]

Originally Posted by Lacit170

laughable comparison.

*snip*

yes, you are correct with the little information we have. its a very fine line to say the boxer is either male or female. the reality of the situation is, the elevated levels of testosterone is what gives her an unfair advantage. end of story. there should be set testosterone limits for women fighters and if they do not meet those limits, you cant fight. how anyone could argue against that is

Fighting in her weight class (light welterweight), she has a 9-5 record. If her elevated testosterone levels give her such a supposed "unfair" advantage, how is it that she has lost over a third of her bouts against other women fighters? Doesn't sound remotely like the sort of overwhelming dominance some people are quick to claim that she enjoys.

At any rate, where is the outrage in this thread over Steven van de Velde, a convicted child rapist and real threat to the safety of women and girls wherever he goes, being allowed to compete in the Games? Unsurprisingly, folks supposedly concerned about Olympic "integrity" suddenly don't seem to care when it's a case that doesn't fit into the usual roster of culture wars grievances.

[Lacit170]

Originally Posted by dancerslegs

Fighting in her weight class (light welterweight), she has a 9-5 record. If her elevated testosterone levels give her such a supposed "unfair" advantage, how is it that she has lost over a third of her bouts against other women fighters? Doesn't sound remotely like the sort of overwhelming dominance some people are quick to claim that she enjoys.

At any rate, where is the outrage in this thread over Steven van de Velde, a convicted child rapist and real threat to the safety of women and girls wherever he goes, being allowed to compete in the Games? Unsurprisingly, folks supposedly concerned about Olympic "integrity" suddenly don't seem to care when it's a case that doesn't fit into the usual roster of culture wars grievances.

there was and is plenty of outrage over the dutch volleyball player. surprised you havent seen that already....

[mwynn]

Track and Field I believe starts today.

[dancerslegs]

Originally Posted by Lacit170

there was and is plenty of outrage over the dutch volleyball player. surprised you havent seen that already....

Not in this thread, though, while people are freaking out in post after post about a female boxer who's never seriously hurt anyone.

[Lacit170]

Originally Posted by dancerslegs

Not in this thread, though, while people are freaking out in post after post about a female boxer who's never seriously hurt anyone.

well, thats typically how life works. when a recent event occurs, that is when people talk about it. weird, i know....

as for the Dutch guy, it was announced so long ago he was competing and the discussion around him happened a while ago.