Dylanlip

NBCSN still showing the drummers. And the commentators can't shut up. I'm in for a long show.

Woops the last tweet was already posted, mod please edit.

The ban's been extended to Pyeongchang now! Woooooo! http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-30/russia-now-banned-from-2018-paralympic-winter-games/7796888 Last week the Lausanne-based CAS, sport's highest tribunal, rejected an RPC appeal against the Rio ban. The decision to exclude Russia's team means at least 260 competitors from the country are now set to miss the September 7-18 Paralympics. The decision to exclude Russia's team means at least 260 competitors from the country are now set to miss the September 7-18 Paralympics. Russia has appealed against the CAS ruling to the Swiss Federal Court and a result is expected soon. The Federal Court can only overturn the CAS decision on the basis of a procedural mistake and not on the merits of the case. The IPC went further than the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which stopped short of a blanket ban on Russia at this month's Rio Olympics and left the decision instead in the hands of international sports federations. Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Paralympic ban cynical and immoral but also said Moscow acknowledged mistakes it had made in tackling sports doping. The country's track and field team was also excluded from the Olympics due to the sports doping program. Putin said the decision to bar Russian athletes, including those who had not tested positive for any banned substances, was a vivid manifestation "of how the humanistic foundations of sport and Olympism are shamelessly flouted by politics". "The decision to disqualify our Paralympic team is outside the law, outside morality and outside humanity," he added. "It is simply cynical to vent one's anger on those for whom sport has become the meaning of their life ... I even feel pity for those taking such decisions because they must well understand that it is so demeaning for them." The whole dispute centres on a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report that found the Russian government and the FSB security service had, over years, covered up hundreds of doping cases across the majority of Olympic sports and Paralympic events. Although not widely followed or celebrated in Russia, where rights campaigners say many disabled people are marginalised by regressive social attitudes and inadequate state support, the country's para-athletes are some of the best in the world. Their team topped the medal table at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in the Russian city of Sochi after taking second place behind China at London 2012. On the bad side, whistleblowers may get the short end of the stick. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-olympics-rio-russia-stepanova-idUSKCN10Q1VP If you think THAT'S bad, well... the IOC stoops to the lowest possible level it could go. (Bottom tweet)

No verdict yet. I'm waiting til the Paras are over, which is what everyone SHOULD be doing.

Well like Basketball and Football, that really only applies for the mens side (This aint no Open). For the women? This absolutely beats out any "womens majors" profile-wise. This aint Tennis where everyone plays the same grand slams with the same prestige.

Granted, NBC/Comcast does own Golf Channel in the US (Not to mention that I use 4 screens to handle different feeds & streams) so it was pretty easy to follow whilst still balancing other events. But yeah, for the layman, I can see the lack of interest in following the tournament other than maybe some brief highlights. Of course the same can be said for quite a few other more "niche" sports at the Games, since, well, that's the beauty of them. And I do agree that Rugby was an absolute success. I do think both will be kept in the long term. The response from the pros who did go to the Golf Tourney should be convincing enough for the rest of the bunch to show up for Tokyo. Not to mention that pretty much the entire womens pro field showed up from the LPGA, a great fact the IGF can bring back to the IOC when re-discussing Golf.

Speak for yourselves. The back 2 rounds of the Mens Tournament were thrilling! Real fun stuff! Lemme guess, not baseball fans either?

Both of them. As I said in the Swimming thread, no way to really single one out. They're both in the Olympic pantheon with guys like Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, and Michael Johnson. A better question would be, if Eaton keeps winning World Championship decathlons and (maybe) wins in Tokyo, would he also be considered in the same discussion? My thoughts are yes, but he seems to be pretty much invisible to the public (Even with all his commercials).

I'm actually shocked at how well everyone did considering that London was even worse! Oh yeah, this is typical stuff at least for the 50k.

Diniz shat himself twice! Though... er... that second time involved quite some blood. Then both times wiped himself with a sponge and threw the sponge into the crowd. It's amazing, after all that and collapsing/stopping twice, he still made 8th. So, uh, here's a collage the internet made up.

Well, there's that "last straw" I was talking about. Even with the extra funding, 10 nations still might not make it, along with the cuts listed in the BBC article. When the Paras finish this year, the IPC's either gonna start heavily scrutinzing Olympic bids for Paralympic readiness, or just go on their own, because what's happening right now is a disgrace, if not also a probable breach of contract. When I evaluate/judge a host city, I count how they handled the Paras as well. And so far, as Craven put it, "Never before in the 56-year history of the Paralympic Games have we faced circumstances like this". That's some damning stuff.

I will when we have full details of the case and publicized evidence in full. Hearsay and patches of back-and-forth statements say nothing and mean nothing.

Done, over with. No need for "perspective". You wanna appear better than any claimed "bad sport" Europeans during the Euros? Then don't do the same, and you'll be free of any criticism of the sort. And they didn't murder a ref for a red, they murded a ref for stabbing a player by beheading him.

Gleefully ignore later posts and information. Go ahead. Because there's no point talking to cherry-pickers.

Wow, Brazlian sources are saying Lochte lied? I'm flabbergasted. But really, again, the conflict of interest rears its ugly head from Rio officials. Remember this story? http://www.flograppling.com/article/44328-intimidation-and-irregularities-kidnapped-jiu-jitsu-athlete-update The guy was robbed by police then was retaliated against by said police for reporting it to..... the police! Do you see what's wrong here? If Lochte was robbed at all by police (He was at least robbed, the security guy found no wallet on entry), what would motivate the police to incriminate or investigate themselves if they're the ones doing the acts? This may simply be retaliation. Oh please. That kind of nonsense just exposes yourself. Holding two American athletes essentially hostage [not even named by the judge in the passport thing] for a weak case of he said she said is malarky, but we don't jump right to bombing nations. Listen to yourself talk. I would assume the US will negotiate/bargain to get everyone home. And if they refuse to release the swimmers, well... the rescue will be quick and easy.

Except we still don't know much of anything other than what the USOC wants to confirm. It's a matter of believing who you wanna believe right now. If Lochte really was robbed by cops, would they (the cops) not then want to hide that? How are we sure if any Brazilian police statement or judges word is verifiable if there's a potential conflict of interest? The answer is we're not. It's pretty hard to convincingly prove that the swimmers are lying about being robbed, or even being held at gunpoint, because petty theft and street crime is still rampant. We have many other less notable athletes who have been robbed by now. What point is there to prove by trying to take their passports and branding them liars? Save face slightly? Plus, taking the 2 other swimmers off their home-bound plane for holding isn't exactly a good way to avoid an international incident.

Not quite everyone safe just yet. The plot thickens......

Erm.... you guys realize that "best moment" was ruined by the crowd heavily booing the frenchman on the podium, right? He broke down near to tears and the IAAF President had to console him. It could've been a great all-time moment, but instead it will stand out for what the crowd turned it into, an embarrasment of a lack of sportsmanship from the host nation.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/olympic-volunteers-1.3721404 If you're not gonna pay the staff, at least feed them!

If that's the case, have the Closing downtown where the flame is. Oh wait, there's supposed to be "2 flames", remember? One that's visible to streetgoers, and one that's at least visible during sport, which is, you know, the whole point?

So..... football's on now in Maracana (W Semi), and no cauldron: there's no flame. Just the "sculpture" thing, which is not moving (Not running the motor?). So the flame's not visible during ANY sport by ANY spectator. The thing's just... there. What's the point?

A blue track would be less of an issue if everything else wasn't also blue. Take Olympiastadion in Berlin for example: The seats, wall coverings, and floor beneath the track are not also all blue like Engenhao, because concepts like colour theory and contrast exist when it comes to design. When near everything is the same shade of blue, you go beyond matching into just a lack of understanding. Red is what we're used to because of the evolution of the track material itself, and because it's a complementary color to green, the color of grass. The look then exists to provide further color in spaces with none, while still adhering to colour theory of course. For the look itself, there are too many inconsistencies. I did not have to grow to like Londons look. The Purple/White/Gold was beautiful from the start, and was used consistently, with one set in use. With Rio, there seems to be 3 different looks, with everything mismatched. There's a mostly orange set, a mostly green set, and a mostly blue set, with some banners exclusively using the base color of each. It's a mess to the eyes. I just wonder now, if they couldn't be bothered finishing the Olympic Look, what then of the Paralympic Look? I think we'll be seeing quite a few Rings during the Paras.

I'm talking about the Paralympics right now, which is a different beast from the Olympics. Olympic attendance has been terrible except for the very top marquee events, and looking at the trend followed by every single Paralympics save for London, attendance and interest WILL be worse. It's a matter of public attention burning out. People go back to work, kids go back to school. Folks on vacation return home. With the native population in Brazil, there's a stark difference in ticket sales. That's a given, but that's not the issue being discussed right now. The prioritization shown by the organizers is pretty disgusting, and could very well be the last straw for the IPC if it really does turn out that so many countries are out, because the Paralympics at that point would be ruined. At the same time, if the village isn't handicap/disability accessible for the para-athletes, then what? Does the government step in to add temporary housing and accomadations that then are accessible? How would this be handled? This ain't "a few problems" now, this ain't nitpicking. Typical non-disabled athletes could perhaps deal with the horde of village issues, but at a certain point the accomadations become unusable for the handicapped. And again, that's if the athletes even arrive for a legitimate Paralympics.

Um, no dude. No. Cities are already becoming overwhelmed with the current size of the games. It's not just "Preparing food" for an extra 5-6000. We're talking about basically building an extra Olympic village. What of transporting those extra athletes, not to mention all the extra families and coaches accomadations. The athlete parade would be 4+ hours alone, and that's if you can manage to build a stadium big enough to hold ALL athletes. Logistical issues would only increase and magnify, and burnout would eventually settle in with the public. The Paralympics really do need to start bidding on their own. Get cities interested and excited specifically in Paralympic sport, instead of just appeassing them to win what they really want (Olympics). London (& we'll see with Tokyo) has been the only truly successful games for both sides.

Some real heavy tropical torrential rains delaying Athletics. Was gonna post tonights attendance until now. It might be skewed by people checking the weather report and not bothering to show, so no use really judging.