Time to start wearing the padded sports bra?
These guys doing the qualifying for the 200 are amazing. And, yay for Canada’s Andre De Grasse for the fastest qualifying time in the ten heats!
Different issues involved. In the case of Olympic athletes you have US citizens who are living in the US and who compete in international events outside the US from time to time.
US taxation of non-resident US citizens worldwide income isn’t new. In the last 6-7 years there has been an increase in the number of people renouncing their citizenship. Estimates for the total number of US citizens living abroad vary greatly. Though even with smaller estimate, renouncing folks are small percentage of the total.
Though ultimately discussion of US tax policy is beyond the scope of this thread and likely would be deleted.
Back to the Olympics. Felt horrible for Abbey D’Agostino who was the US athlete in the semifinal for the 5000m. She got tripped up with a runner from New Zealand Nikki Hamblin. Both helped each other up. But Abbey twisted her knee and couldn’t really run on it when they both tried to continue. Abbey pleaded with Nikki to continue on without her which Nikki reluctantly did. Eventually Abbey struggled to her feet and limped along. Looked like she would never be able to finish the race. But somehow she did. Over two minutes behind the fastest time.
Nikki was waiting at the finish line for her. They both appeared to be smiling and hugged each other. To me the Olympics are more about that than winning medals. Two athletes who trained long and hard for a chance at the Olympics. Bad luck removed that chance from both of them (no idea if either really was expected to advance). Both could have been bitter over the missed chance. Neither was.
And now it looks like Abbey has been advanced to the final on Friday.
http://www.foxsports.com/olympics/story/abby-dagostino-fall-5000m-race-finish-081616
The American equestrian show jumping team in doing great. 3 of the 4 riders jumped clear and the team is tied for 1st place going into the next day of team jumping.
^^I love watching the equestrian events. My problem is that there are so many different things on. CBC has 7 or 8 different channels of coverage so there are just too many options! And, of course, we get the NBC channels, too, although I have rarely watched it.
This afternoon is women’s soccer semi-finals. Sweden and Brazil are still at 0-0 into the second half. Canada plays Germany at 3:00.
“because they presented themselves as police, with a badge.” - They could have been a police, there is no proof right now that it was not a police who robbed them. The police is corrupted over there, the excuse is that they are not paid enough.
They weren’t police. They were imposters.
@MiamiDAP, where do you come up with this stuff?
Feel like the diving across the finish line is blatantly unfair (though I recognize it’s currently legal). Any track experts here on what the prevailing opinion is in the track & field community?
Not a track expert but one of the many articles about it today reported how a man on the USA team did the same thing in the 400 in 2008, ironically beating out a Bahamian.
women 's soccer … What a save by the German!
Here is from one of my running forums:
."… the purpose of defining the torso as the part of the body beginning below the neck helps to eliminate subjective finishes like being lucky and having your foot farther out in front of you than your competitor, or being in stance phase at the line with your legs under you while your competitor’s body is behind you but their foot is out front, or a lucky hand flail, or reviewing footage to determine whose hips are positioned where…or whether it was an unintentional fall versus an intentional dive.
Bmart dove to make the team in the 1500.
Prandini dove to make the team in 200 (nipping Felix, fool me once…).
American Neville dove for bronze in Bejing in the 400…where was the outrage?
Brazilian Oliveira (sp?) just dove to qual for the semis in the 110H.
I think the rule is well known to competitive track athletes. Honestly, I don’t understand the social media outrage (or at least criticism of Miller) because, from my perspective, it is fair and legal and has a strong precedent…and is sometimes unavoidable. I’ve done it, I’ve seen plenty of high school and college races with diving/falling as well. That said, it’s still not common because it hurts and the benefits are questionable. Runners dive and LOSE their place by a fraction of a second, too."
Had the result been flipped (American diving over line to win gold), I wonder if the reaction would have been different. Would it have been a gutsy, brave, smart, inspirational, amazing, etc. way to win rather than unfair?
In my corner of the track world diving for the finish line is viewed at a legitimate way to win. It’s also seen as a desperation move that fails more often then it succeeds, but I’ve never heard anyone says it was cheating or should be illegal. I bet the people complaining wouldn’t have minded at all if it had been Felix who won with a dive. They probably would have seen it as a bold “refuse to lose” maneuver (which is exactly what it was for Miller).
I certainly didn’t hear any Americans complaining back in 2008 Olympics when American David Neville used the dive to win the bronze medal in the men’s 400m:
@Scipio , I think you are right. Personally I find diving for the line kind of weird. However, if it was against the rules, then she would not have been given the medal. Other people have done it so if it is such a horrible way to win, then why don’t people try to have the rule changed? Miller won, we need to get over it.
A good game but the Canadian women lose to Germany. Now on to the bronze medal game against Brazil on Friday!
The mechanics (and other aspects) of diving:
Watching the German women going up against the Chinese in team table tennis was not much fun. Winning a set was an achievement! I remember a 16 year old American was able to take 2 sets off Li Xiaoxia back in London:
What an accomplishment that was. I heard she got into Princeton.
Malaysia will be playing for gold in mixed badminton today against the powerful Indonesians. Their men’s doubles team will be playing the favoured Chinese for gold later as well. Their best player, Lee Chong Wei, is going into the semi in the men’s singles event. This may be their year to get that first gold. I am rooting for them. After all, Singapore did it.
The Chinese team is having a terrible time. They are out of the women’s doubles event completely and I can not remember them not winning in women’s doubles. Their gymnastics teams, both men and women, were a disaster. Their best lifter was injured on the first lift. Their sharp shooters were missing. What is going on? Does anyone know?
At least their divers and table tennis players are still winning.
Watched Katie Ledecky with Ryan Seacrest on the late night show. She is undeclared major at Stanford but said she might be interested in Politics/Government. First, I know this is not what I should focus on after all her achievements … but her USA polo dress was adorable in the preppy style (with really cute Sperry topsiders). She presents herself so well in interviews for her age… Katie Ledecky for President! just kidding
Simone Biles and Aly Reisman (especially) came across as airheads in their interview, IMO. I double checked their ages on google because they came across so young.