Similar to the hair flying free, runners with bouncing gold chains and trinkets - I’d think they’d want to remove those for races.
I officiate high school track meets and we have these arcane uniform and jewelry rules. The girls would always point out to me what the Olympic women are wearing. Agree with jewelry and hair distraction. I thought I saw flying hair knock off the pole in the women’s pole vault?
The women’s 4x100 was amazing. They were in lane 1 (not the most advantageous lane on the track), had to run an additional race the day before just to qualify, and still won by a large margin in the 2nd fastest time all-time. Way to go!
When I see the strength of these athletes it puts me to shame. I don’t think I would survive one lap in track.
I would love to be able to swim laps like the Olympic swimmers do without getting tired just for a good workout. My doctor told me swimming is the best form of exercise. If I could run laps like that my excess would just melt away.
I wondered the same think about hair flying and name tags coming off. It is more of an issue with swimming because water is so much more resistant than air, making drag a bigger concern. Still…
I really feel sad for Malaysia. They had 3 chances for their first gold and failed on all of them. Losing the mixed double to Indonesia I can see, but their men’s double team simply choked against the Chinese.
This morning Lee Chong Wei lost again. In Beijing and London he lost to his friend and nemesis Lin Dan. In Rio he finally defeated Lin in the semi-final in another epic, but at 33 he simply can not keep up with the young Chen Long. (In London he defeated Chen in the semi and lost to Lin in the final).
The Chinese nicknamed him “thousand years number 2”. What a sad ending for one of the greatest in history.
@raclut, I want your doctor. My sport of choice is swimming, I used to do 45 minute workouts multiple times weekly. Then three different MDs told me I had to switch to more weight bearing exercise to prevent osteopenia from becoming worse. So now it’s treadmill, stair master, weights - just not the same. I can understand the lack of weight bearing in swimming, but I’d been raised to think that swimming was a great form of exercise also. Maybe my MDs are missing something?
No, they’re not; swimming is fantastic cardio. It’s just that if bone density is a concern, it’s no help with that. Same for cycling.
Also, most people aren’t proficient enough at swimming to get to where they are getting enough benefit.
Hair is certainly a question, but the name placards should be a non-issue since everyone wears a placard of the same weight and size.
With regard to jewelry, I suspect some of the American here’s wear specific pieces for luck.
Just watched the canoe double 1000 meter. That was exciting. The two members of each team are rowing on one knee. I could just sit by the water and watch canoeing or kayaking all day. I would find it so relaxing looking at the waves in the water. Now watching the kayak single.
@Momofadult
My doctor suggested swimming because it is less impact on the knees and ankles. You hurt those areas more pounding the treadmill. I have done treadmill and elliptical most of my life to the point my ankles get sore.
I’ve really been enjoying the kayak and canoe races all week, too, @raclut. So fast and such unison!
A story tangentially related to the Olympics that I thought I’d share. Tonight, CBC is cutting away from their Olympic programming on the main channel (the other 6 or 7 channels will continue to show Olympic coverage) to broadcast the final concert by The Tragically Hip. For those of you who aren’t familiar with The Hip, they are a much beloved Canadian rock band. In May, the founder and lead singer, Gord Downie announced that he had terminal brain cancer but that they band would tour one last time this summer.
Tonight they will play the final concert in the town where they grew up and where the band was born, Kingston, Ontario. CBC will broadcast it live across the country. It’s going to be a special night.
4x100 Men’s Relay
Great win for Jamaica and another in a long litany of failure by the US men. I don’t understand why four of the best sprinters in the world can’t execute a one lap relay without messing up the exchanges. Boys teams from over 10,000 high schools across the country master this skill every year. But our “best” men? It’s just too hard for them.
Running Aerodynamics
You see the clothing engineers try to develop some sort of breakthrough suit every few years. Flo Jo and the US men’s relay team in Seoul and Cathy Freeman in the 400m in Sydney come to mind. But is seems like what really happens more then anything is that the athletes don’t run any faster and they end up looking like the team from Middle Earth wearing their elfin hoods.
Aerodynamics is a Big Deal in cycling where the speeds are much faster than in track and in swimming where the water is much denser than the air in track. But when moving through the air at running speeds aerodynamics just don’t seem to matter that much at the micro level. You can’t be dragging an open umbrella behind you as you run down the track, but small things such as hair styles, facial hair, jewelry, track suit design, all don’t matter nearly so much as they do in swimming or cycling.
Depending on which American jurisdiction one’s talking about, what the security guard did may not have been considered “extreme”.
In a FB discussion about that matter, a lawyer friend pointed out that in Texas, what the Brazilian security guard did was a slight extension of the expansive Castle Doctrine law which allows home/business owners and/or their employees to use deadly force to defend their/their employer’s property.
Maybe the US men should spend more time practicing their exchanges. The commentator said the Japanese practice this skill for about a year, while other teams only practice for weeks or months.
Brazil just scored! Really hope they can pull off a win. Given their history in the game and being the host country, I hope they win this soccer game. Not surprisingly, the stadium is packed! No problem selling seats for this event.
^ That’s a beautiful goal by Nemo.
Neymar
I’m watching men’s water polo. Love watching all the water sports. Looks really tiring to play water polo. Either they are treading water or swimming back and forth.