https://www.rio2016.com/en/schedule-and-results/day-3
Looking forward to watching womens soccer this afternoon. Go Canada!
Thank you for starting the thread!!!
Interesting. So some of the competitions are starting before the opening ceremonies.
I feel as if I will be watching it with my fingers over my eyes, waiting for disaster to strike.
I hope I’m wrong.
I am very worried for the open water swimmers and tri athletes.
I’m so sad for these athletes. Many of these athletes work for this their whole lives and now some will have to choose between their health and their dreams.
Just ugh…
Very excited and happy to hear that Michael Phelps will be carrying the USA flag!!!
http://time.com/4436506/michael-phelps-usa-flag-bearer-rio-olympics/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook
So happy for him! Hope he has a blast at the Games. 
If you have not seen these videos, take a peek:
https://swimswam.com/watch-all-4-michael-phelps-under-armour-videos/
20 seconds in and it’s 1-0 Canada. Beautiful pass by Christine Sinclair!
Did you see where the USA basketball team is staying in a luxury cruise ship rather than the Olympic village. What a bunch of spoiled brats.
I went to the Olympics in London in 2012. It was such fun and incredibly well organized. The volley ball match in the stadium set up by Horse guards Parade was such an amazing experience - this really modern sport surrounded by all these amazing historical sites that you could actually see while watching the volley ball. My brother was actually in the closing ceremonies (he was dressed as an Edwardian gentleman).
Hope Rio can surprise us all and put on a good show for the world.
I don’t think the USA basketball players are spoiled brats. They are professional athletes making millions of dollars. They spend half of their year on the road in hotels. They don’t have to go to the Olympics, look at the golfers. They have a short off season and instead of being home or on vacation, they are playing basketball (which is their job).
Now they have a great job I know. Besides the exception of Steph Curry, basketball players are big and don’t fit in normal beds.
Maybe if the PGA chartered a luxury liner, more players would have played. And the women’s basketball team is also staying on the boat.
I read some reports that athletes from other countries are staying elsewhere because the Olympic Village was still unfinished when they arrived for training. I do not blame the basketball team at all, especially if both the men and the women are staying on the boat.
I feel the point of the Olympic Villages is for the country’s athletes to be together as a team. For certain well paid US athletes to get luxurious accommodations while the other US athletes are treated differently just seems against the whole spirit of the Olympics to me. Given the stories about the unfinished accommodations, I would find it OK if all the US athletes were rehoused together in better facilities. But just the basketball team? I don’t think it is right.
Though maybe it is the same with all the elite players - tennis players for instance? I’d never really thought about it before.
Of course, I am old enough to remember when Olympics were for amateurs not professionals. I think maybe that was better overall. I imagine it is still the case really for many of the sports (those that don’t really have a professional audience).
It’s great that athletes are together in the Olympic village. And if they still used college basketball players, then great, they would stay in the village. But the Olympics wanted pro players, it’s a tv show, and the USA doesn’t want to lose.
But honestly those pro basketball players would not have a moments peace in the Olympic village. They are big stars and would be mobbed.
Besides I can’t imagine that Serena Williams stays in the Olympic village. It would surprise me if the tennis players or golfers or other highly paid professionals stay in the village. They probably flew down in their private planes and are staying at a luxury hotel or private home. Just like they do the rest of the year when they are on the road.
You are probably right. I hadn’t though about it before, but the rich professional players probably don’t stay in the village.
I can’t remember when it changed. It was definitely amateur still in my lifetime. I remember a British ice skating duo that had won Gold medals but then went pro doing shows. They couldn’t do the Olympics anymore , then all of a sudden they could ( I think they went back and got another medal but not gold). Must have been the 80s or 90s it changed.
I thought I read awhile back that Serena plans to stay in the village - though I might have heard it on a podcast. I’ll see if I can find it.
I do know Roger was planning on staying in some resort town and helicoptering to the tennis venue - but he’s out for the rest of the year so it’s moot now.
Are there any updates on the water quality in the village and in the other buildings?
I lost all interest in Olympic basketball as soon as they started having pros play. The only Olympic tennis match that ever interested me was Andy Murray in London, for sentimental reasons.
I can’t blame them for not staying in cramped, inadequate quarters with no privacy. Why even bother to pretend that they are anything other than professionals making incredible sums of money. But I won’t watch them.
And yes, I know that Soviet-bloc athletes were essentially pros for decades before that, but somehow it wasn’t the same.
I don’t mind that athletes from various sports are pros. When I lose interest is when the Olympics are not the biggest prize in the world for that sport. So track athletes are pros, but I still watch with great interest, because the Olympic games are the pinnacle of their sport. Same with gymnastics, figure skating, etc. But hockey, basketball, soccer, tennis, and now golf. Meh. For all those sports the Olympics are merely a side event. Their championships lie elsewhere. For athletes of those sports, if their top focus is outside the Olympics, then so is mine.
good start for the ladies! Funny the Brazilian crowd chanting “Zika” at Hope Solo, lol.