Olympics

mace1229 said:

I feel so bad for Simone. I don’t know why anyone would be upset with her decision, including her teammates. It’s not like she withdrew to go film a movie and bail. She was doing worse and worse every day and feared for her safety and knew someone else could do better. They wouldn’t have even won silver if she stayed and fell off the beam a couple times.
This was no doubt the toughest decision of her life. This sport at that level you don’t have a life outside gymnastics. You give up your childhood (and as we later learned, a lot more than that) for just a few moments at the olympics. The window where your body can perform is so small you’re lucky if you get 2 chances. She will almost certainly be retired in 3 years. There’s no way she would withdraw her second and last chance to compete unless she had to and it was for the best. This may be the most demanding sport. It’s not like curling where you work at Best Buy and practice on the weekends then go for a beer. You train full time, all year. She gave all that up. That decision was not made lightly. She will be asked for the rest of her life why, and the what if’s. 
Hoping she can perform in the individual events. Haven’t heard anything on that yet.

mace1229 said:

Jumb0 said:

Zod said:

Meltdown99 said:

I read Japan will lose at least 20 billion…lmfao.  Toyota cancelled their ads in support of the Japanese people who wanted the games cancelled…

and yes fans matter.  Now Japan and her citizens are really on the hook…

and many of those venues will not be utilized when the games are over.

countries need to re-think if the bullshit Olympics are worth it anymore…

Yah, I read the Japan legally didn't have the capacity to cancel or postpone them.  They got stuck in a bad place.

I'm not sure why countries are so eager to host them.  It does seem like a giant money pit of which you have very little control over.   Japan is probably the worst example, because of the pandemic, and not getting any ticket revenue.. but other years countries end up losing too.

Maybe countries will be less eager going forward.  Maybe repeating cities from the past that already infrastructure in place?

There should really only be 2-3 "permanent" hosts for each of the summer and winter Olympics. It's a huge money suck for most countries who have to build a ridiculous amount of infrastructure/stadiums/arenas etc. Then after the olympics are over almost all of the facilities are just abandoned. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/abandoned-olympic-venues-around-the-world-photos-rio-2016-8

It would make sense to me to not host them all I. 1 place. Why not 1 country do water sports that already has the pools, another dog gymnastics, another open water sports, etc. you who’s t have to build a village to host thr athletes and staff, or not one nearly as big. Smaller investment for the country, and you’re not stuck with the same 3 or 4.

lastexitlondon said:

mace1229 said:

I feel so bad for Simone. I don’t know why anyone would be upset with her decision, including her teammates. It’s not like she withdrew to go film a movie and bail. She was doing worse and worse every day and feared for her safety and knew someone else could do better. They wouldn’t have even won silver if she stayed and fell off the beam a couple times.
This was no doubt the toughest decision of her life. This sport at that level you don’t have a life outside gymnastics. You give up your childhood (and as we later learned, a lot more than that) for just a few moments at the olympics. The window where your body can perform is so small you’re lucky if you get 2 chances. She will almost certainly be retired in 3 years. There’s no way she would withdraw her second and last chance to compete unless she had to and it was for the best. This may be the most demanding sport. It’s not like curling where you work at Best Buy and practice on the weekends then go for a beer. You train full time, all year. She gave all that up. That decision was not made lightly. She will be asked for the rest of her life why, and the what if’s. 
Hoping she can perform in the individual events. Haven’t heard anything on that yet.

I agree  i saw her there cheering on the team and her  team mate  getting  gold.  My heart is with her. Im not American  but i am human.
Let me run into the rain to shine a human  light  today!

mace1229 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

mace1229 said:

I feel so bad for Simone. I don’t know why anyone would be upset with her decision, including her teammates. It’s not like she withdrew to go film a movie and bail. She was doing worse and worse every day and feared for her safety and knew someone else could do better. They wouldn’t have even won silver if she stayed and fell off the beam a couple times.
This was no doubt the toughest decision of her life. This sport at that level you don’t have a life outside gymnastics. You give up your childhood (and as we later learned, a lot more than that) for just a few moments at the olympics. The window where your body can perform is so small you’re lucky if you get 2 chances. She will almost certainly be retired in 3 years. There’s no way she would withdraw her second and last chance to compete unless she had to and it was for the best. This may be the most demanding sport. It’s not like curling where you work at Best Buy and practice on the weekends then go for a beer. You train full time, all year. She gave all that up. That decision was not made lightly. She will be asked for the rest of her life why, and the what if’s. 
Hoping she can perform in the individual events. Haven’t heard anything on that yet.

I think, if she can and wants to.  She could do it again.  Oksana Chusovitina.

She’s the crazy rare exception. When’s the last time we had an American gymnast over 25? I can’t even remember any over 20. My wife and I commented this group is the olde at I can ever remember, all look to be 18+, and we figured it was USA gymnastics trying to reimage themselves after the last few years. Even going with an older group, 27 in gymnastics is like 54 in the NFL.

mace1229 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

mace1229 said:k

tempo_n_groove said:

mace1229 said:

I feel so bad for Simone. I don’t know why anyone would be upset with her decision, including her teammates. It’s not like she withdrew to go film a movie and bail. She was doing worse and worse every day and feared for her safety and knew someone else could do better. They wouldn’t have even won silver if she stayed and fell off the beam a couple times.
This was no doubt the toughest decision of her life. This sport at that level you don’t have a life outside gymnastics. You give up your childhood (and as we later learned, a lot more than that) for just a few moments at the olympics. The window where your body can perform is so small you’re lucky if you get 2 chances. She will almost certainly be retired in 3 years. There’s no way she would withdraw her second and last chance to compete unless she had to and it was for the best. This may be the most demanding sport. It’s not like curling where you work at Best Buy and practice on the weekends then go for a beer. You train full time, all year. She gave all that up. That decision was not made lightly. She will be asked for the rest of her life why, and the what if’s. 
Hoping she can perform in the individual events. Haven’t heard anything on that yet.

I think, if she can and wants to.  She could do it again.  Oksana Chusovitina.

She’s the crazy rare exception. When’s the last time we had an American gymnast over 25? I can’t even remember any over 20. My wife and I commented this group is the olde at I can ever remember, all look to be 18+, and we figured it was USA gymnastics trying to reimage themselves after the last few years. Even going with an older group, 27 in gymnastics is like 54 in the NFL.

People are being able to perform highly at longer times.  Look at our swimming team.

The old guard has been outed from women's gymnastics so I would think and hope that just because you are older doesn't mean you can't compete.  Simone has already proven that.

I would love to see multiple Olympic participants.  I think FloJo could have competed in 92 if she wanted but Olympians weren't viewed like that back then.

Female gymnastics is much harder on the body than swimming though. While swimming at the Olympic level still requires full time training and conditioning, it doesn’t wear on the body like gymnastics does with the tumbles, flips, hard landings, injuries and so on.
Its possible she competes in 3 years, I just see it as unlikely.

mickeyrat said:

Yefa said:

mace1229 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

mace1229 said:

I feel so bad for Simone. I don’t know why anyone would be upset with her decision, including her teammates. It’s not like she withdrew to go film a movie and bail. She was doing worse and worse every day and feared for her safety and knew someone else could do better. They wouldn’t have even won silver if she stayed and fell off the beam a couple times.
This was no doubt the toughest decision of her life. This sport at that level you don’t have a life outside gymnastics. You give up your childhood (and as we later learned, a lot more than that) for just a few moments at the olympics. The window where your body can perform is so small you’re lucky if you get 2 chances. She will almost certainly be retired in 3 years. There’s no way she would withdraw her second and last chance to compete unless she had to and it was for the best. This may be the most demanding sport. It’s not like curling where you work at Best Buy and practice on the weekends then go for a beer. You train full time, all year. She gave all that up. That decision was not made lightly. She will be asked for the rest of her life why, and the what if’s. 
Hoping she can perform in the individual events. Haven’t heard anything on that yet.

I think, if she can and wants to.  She could do it again.  Oksana Chusovitina.

She’s the crazy rare exception. When’s the last time we had an American gymnast over 25? I can’t even remember any over 20. My wife and I commented this group is the olde at I can ever remember, all look to be 18+, and we figured it was USA gymnastics trying to reimage themselves after the last few years. Even going with an older group, 27 in gymnastics is like 54 in the NFL.

The team that won in Rio in 2016 had 2 19-year olds, 2 20-year olds, and Aly Raisman was 22.  

I agree with you that it's unlikely that Biles will compete in Paris in 2024.

Ms. Biles has her own gym in Houston that this team trained at. I can easily see her supplanting US Gymnastics in training, bringing in sponsorship dollars, the whole ball of wax.

In effect she already has. She tweets, they jump.

Hobbes said:

Medals were made from recycled phones and other devices. Too cool!

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Medals - the Greatest Honour for Athletes (olympics.com)