20XX Olympics

[Violentvixen]

So the Tokyo Olympics are going to be a mess for so many reasons, pandemic-related or not. Going to acknowledge that.

But I was still excited to learn that the US Olympic Trials are going on right now and replays are available. Swimming and diving is so fun to watch. This also made me realize I've completely lost track of the status of fencing, I have no idea who has qualified for which team, that'll be my afternoon project I guess.

 

[Violentvixen]

Damn, from the very first stream I watched I'm hooked. For the men's 400IM the winner came up in breaststroke after being 3 seconds behind, his breast stroke and the glide is just beautiful. And then in the women's 400IM someone came back from 5 seconds behind, then four swimmers finished within a second of each other?! This is why I love watching 400IM, four different strokes and there's different rankings of swimmers in each, it's essentially four different sprints in one race.

 

[Ixo]

Isn't the US Olympic swim team really young this time around? I saw something about how a bunch of the athletes are still teenagers.

(One internet search later)

11 out of the 53 are in their teens! Good for them!

 

[Paul le Fou]

Aw, man. When I was teaching in Japan, I had a student (middle school at the time) who was a swimmer, won some national events. He said he dreamed of going to the Olympics in 2020, and he's been competing nationally and internationally since. But at least one website I looked at doesn't have him on the Japan team's roster. That sucks and I'm sad now!

 

[Ixo]

Opening Ceremonies happen tomorrow morning. Here's the schedule (in US Eastern time) from NBC:

6:55 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.	Live Opening Ceremony Coverage
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.	Special Edition of TODAY
1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.	Tokyo Olympics Daytime
7:30 p.m. – Midnight	Primetime Opening Ceremony
12:35 a.m. – 5:00 a.m.*	Overnight Replay of Opening Ceremony

This is also your friendly reminder that NBC continues to use the Brisco County Jr. theme during its Olympic coverage and I love it.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Best of luck to all the athletes performing in this, and hope all of y'all enjoy watching this. But I'm out this year. The IOC is one of the more corrupt and disgusting sports organizations there are, but what they're doing to Japan this year is beyond the pale. The people who run the IOC should be locked up in prison and the key thrown away.

 

[Violentvixen]

Yeah, I feel like I started this thread and then they just got even more horrible ever since. I do want to support the athletes but holy crap it's awful and makes it hard. This is essentially the one time every four years I can watch fencing, which used to be such a significant part of my life.

In much less pressing thoughts though I'm very curious if the reporters are going to highlight or cut out the gundam during the open water swims in Odaiba park.

 

[Ixo]

I’ve got NBC’s rerun of the opening ceremony on out of curiosity and it’s just...uncomfortable... Big ol’ empty stadium is not a good sight.

 

[Violentvixen]

I am enjoying the 4-way split screen of fencing, that's really the way to go for broadcasting the first round of this sport. I'm glad they alternate the sound though so you can hear all the sabreurs yelling about everything constantly.

I miss this sport so much.

 

[Purple]

I’ve got NBC’s rerun of the opening ceremony on out of curiosity and it’s just...uncomfortable... Big ol’ empty stadium is not a good sight.

I'd certainly hope the seats are all empty, given that the whole thing is prophesied to E * X * P * L * O * D * E

 

[Violentvixen]

First triathlon false start ever, and goodness I'm glad no one was near those propellers.

If you've never done a triathlon, the start of the swim is utter and complete chaos and you just go as fast and as hard as you can to escape the pack. It's 100% feasible someone would have slammed into the boat if it hadn't been so obviously in the way of the entrance dive.

 

[Zef]

Oof, that false start.

While the boat's pilot should have gotten out of there, what the hell was the signal giver looking at, that he missed the huge black boat in the way?

 

[Violentvixen]

Oof, that false start.

While the boat's pilot should have gotten out of there, what the hell was the signal giver looking at, that he missed the huge black boat in the way?

I'm really curious what went so wrong. The media boat was only about halfway through the pan of all the athletes, which I assume would be a scheduled shot? But yeah, how do you not notice the boat?

 

[Violentvixen]

I watched all of sport climbing and holy shit that's intense and impressive. Really hope Bassa Mawem recovers quickly though, what a bummer.

 

[Kirin]

Oh dang, is that the super fast climbing wall thing? I didn't realize that had made it to the Olympics! I've previously seen vids of some top competitors though and they are just jaw-dropping.

 

[Violentvixen]

Oh dang, is that the super fast climbing wall thing? I didn't realize that had made it to the Olympics! I've previously seen vids of some top competitors though and they are just jaw-dropping.

They combined all three types of climbing into one event in one day which is insane, in Paris it'll be separate events. You're thinking of speed climbing, which is the first thing they do, then bouldering (which was fascinating to watch), then they do lead climbing, which is crazy to do right after the other two!

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Didn't they do the climbing in front of the Unicorn Gundam?

 

[Violentvixen]

Didn't they do the climbing in front of the Unicorn Gundam?

Yep, climbing, the triathlon and the 10k swim have been under the statue (I thought there was another one, but I think these pictures are the same one with different panels/lights) watchful eyes which I find delightful. Maybe some other sports have too but those are the ones I've seen.

 

[Kirin]

Yeah, the Unicorn Gundam has unicorn mode and "destroy mode", where the former has the single horn and all-white scheme and the latter splits it into the tradition Gundam V-fins and opens up a lot of glowy red panels; the statue is designed so it can do both.

 

[Violentvixen]

Too questionable/controversial to start a new thread, but feel I should acknowledge the winter Olympics have started. I'm not as into most winter sports and China is such a human rights hellhole and I feel like we're about to go to war in Ukraine ugh.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Honestly, the Olympics have become such a farcical, corrupt institution that I'm ready to just wash my hands of all of it. I believe in the mission of the games. But the people running it obviously don't. Accepting bribes to put the games in countries that aren't ready for it, or that are bad faith actors on the global stage, or putting the games in cities where the necessary investments make the games a financial loss is already a dizzying betrayal of the spirit of the Olympics. But the supposed non-political nature of the games/how our athletes aren't supposed to protest and make political statements during them, but it's ok for China to just block Taiwan from the opening precession is just the last ounce of legitimacy gone in my eyes.

 

[Olli]

I haven't followed the games at all, so I was quite surprised to hear that Finland made it to the ice hockey finals, for the second time in history.

 

[Violentvixen]

The Olympic swimming trials have already been exceptional to watch.

 

[Kirin]

My wife and I watched the US women's gymnastic trails/selection (she was a big fan back when we were kids) and they were honestly pretty great. Some exceptional performances and some exciting drama. Even though 4/5 of the team ended up being locked up by vets, the competition for that last spot was super intense, with a bunch of exceptional new teenagers in play. And of course Simone Biles continues to be dang near superhuman on the floor, though even she had a rough spot on beam.

 

[Violentvixen]

The opening ceremony has just started and I'm enjoying everyone on boats.

Also Lady Gaga just showed up and damn I had forgotten what an amazing voice she has.

But overall the rail attacks are a worrisome sign.

 

[Violentvixen]

Yes thank you more Les Miserables in opening ceremonies please

and Habanera dang

 

[Kirin]

Oh yeah, this is today. I think there’s a re-play scheduled for the evening.

 

[Violentvixen]

Oh nice, two animations that explain the sports @LumberBaron and I did:

Epee (which we both did) is the easiest to understand, it's just "stab the other guy"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1817062495648911496

Sabre (which I did) has more nuance due to rules and very quick changes of who is able to score a point

https://twitter.com/x/status/1817077589556469767

Foil is boring so I'm not going to bother to look for the video.

Anyway, I made this post because this clip is going around and is highly entertaining:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1817249720584077421

 

[Kirin]

Aw, apparently the clip you wanted to show already got taken down by a copyright strike.

 

[Violentvixen]

Aw, apparently the clip you wanted to show already got taken down by a copyright strike.

I can't find the original clip but found this fighting game overlay version which is highly amusing

https://twitter.com/x/status/1817972009751675114