Olympics 2024

[220]

The only country I have ever seen do a medal tally on total medals is the USA, the rest of the world all use the number of gold even the official games website and rankings are based on the number of gold medals with silver used to split countries if tied for the number of gold and bronze if they are still tied on silver.
I have always thought the fairest would be to award 3 2 & 1 point for gold silver and bronze respectively and do the medal rankings based on total points but every Olympic games I have been alive for the official rankings have been based on the number of gold medals won.

[Coach]

The only country I have ever seen do a medal tally on total medals is the USA, the rest of the world all use the number of gold even the official games website and rankings are based on the number of gold medals with silver used to split countries if tied for the number of gold and bronze if they are still tied on silver.
I have always thought the fairest would be to award 3 2 & 1 point for gold silver and bronze respectively and do the medal rankings based on total points but every Olympic games I have been alive for the official rankings have been based on the number of gold medals won.

I agree

[Coach]

Great Britain won Gold in Men's Trap.

[220]

A few disappointments for us aussies today, womens rugby 7s failed to medal finishing 4th. We lost to Canada in semis and USA in the bronze medal match. Gold to NZ silver Canada Bronze USA, I think it might be the USA's first rugby 7s medal, interestingly it is not the USA's first rugby medal having won 2 gold in 15 aside rugby when it was in the Olympics early last century.

Aussie shooter was the first of 6 shooters eliminated in the final, I am still not sure if I am a fan of current finals in shooting. It certainly makes shooting much more appealing as a spectator but there is no reward for shooting well during qualification.
Trap is funny in that shooters are allowed to fire 2 shots at targets during qualifying but only one in the finals, a shooter can be shooting poorly by their standards and needing a second shot to break targets in qualification and still post a very good score then really struggle in the final. Best example is twice Olympic champion Michael Diamond who shot the only perfect 125/125 Olympic qualification score in history at London but failed to medal.

We have won another gold in the pool with Kaylee McKeown defending her 200m backstroke Olympic tittle from Tokyo. Despite all the success Australia has had in the pool until this Olympics no Aus female had defended an Olympic tittle since 1964. We now have 2 that have done it this games.

[220]

Waiting to see if the Triathlon will be held today, yesterdays mens event was postponed due to the water quality in Seine river being unfit to swim in.
No idea if they have a backup venue if things dont improve, the open water swimming is also due to be held in the Seine but the rowing venue is the alternate venue if water quality is poor. With the triathlon I dont think it is an option with the run and cycling legs around the streets of Paris.

[rickhem]

As was mentioned in prior posts, the shooting that happened yesterday did make it to broadcast. I just missed whatever they showed prior to Trap, but I did watch the trap finals. The shooter from Great Britain dominated in that final. I was wondering about the single shot part, since international trap is two shots per target, but a lot of the shooting now has "finals" stages that came from an effort to make things more spectator (and broadcast) friendly. They use the targets with the bright colored powder so hits are more visible, but even that didn't show up well on the TV. Still, it was on, so that's a good thing.
I've also watched some whitewater canoe competitions, and my mind goes to how that course gets set-up in the first place. There must be some crazy big, high-capacity pumps that move the water from the bottom of those courses, back to the top. If they're going to do the human interest little vignettes, that is one I'd like to see. Show me the design engineers and construction guys that built that course, and tell me how many GPM flows down it during the competitions. You can see the wing dams that help break up the laminar flow down the course, but what do they have that we can't see under all that water, redirecting it, and creating problems for the competitors to solve on their runs.

[220]

Dont know if its getting much coverage in the USA but a lot of the Australian athletes complaining about the Olympic village and food with swimmers saying it is a major contributor to the lack of world records. Organizers insistence on 60% of food being vegan saw them run out of meat, milk and eggs before competition even started, The anti sex cardboard beds are far from ideal with most saying they can not get a decent nights sleep. No air conditioning in the village or on the buses competitors use to get to venues. I suspect the Australian team isnt alone in purchasing portable aircon units for athletes in the village.

In competition the Australians have picked up a few more medals among them a bronze in the womens trap and a gold in the white water canoe slalom that have lifted us back to 2nd on the medal tally one gold behind China. With swimming finals still to come today we may be able to overhaul them.

[Coach]

Australia is playing USA in women's soccer right now.

1-0 USA @ half time.

[220]

2-1 USA at full time.
Our womens soccer would be by far the most over hyped team in the country.
May still sneak into the finals on the back of 2 losses and a 6-5 win against the world no 65.
I actually hope Canada win their match, it may well mean Aus dont progress but after having 6 points deducted it would be quite an achievement for Canada to make the finals and they are more deserving of a spot.

[Coach]

2-1 final.

The Matildas didn’t have a spectacular comeback today. They did have a late goal though

Question for 220- Where did the Matilda’s come from?

[220]

I dont honestly know, just about all our national teams have a nickname kangaroos & wallabies for or rugby teams, the swim team are the dolpins, hockey the kookaburras etc.
Matilda comes from German and means might in battle, our unofficial national anthem is Waltzing Matilda, it is also a girls name.
Not long before it was adopted the movie adaptation of Roland Dahl book Matilda came out and the mascot for the 1982 commonwealth games held in Aus was a 15y high female kangaroo called Matilda.
Someone obviously thought it would make a good nick name for the womens soccer team given all of that and it stuck.

[Coach]

[rickhem]

Saw the Women's Trap finals on TV last night. Guatemala took the gold, so they had medals in both Men's and Women's trap events. That should raise some interest in that country for trap shooting. France came back and tied Greece in the Men's Handball event last night with a goal in the last seconds of that game. I don't understand the rules, but a close match in any event is exciting to watch.
The news this morning keeps talking about the air pistol events, and what they feel are new glasses that most competitors wear. Those have been around for decades, but I guess people are starting to notice them now. You see them a lot in Rifle as well. But the guy from Turkey that took the silver in air pistol is the polar opposite of all that extra tech equipment, and he looked like he just walked in off the street. Proof that you don't need all those extras to succeed.

[220]

I had a laugh at this,

[220]

I dont follow surfing and have no idea how they seed surfers for the olympics but looking at the quarterfinals it appears it is done in such a way that no country can win 2 medals.
Brazil, France and Australia all have 2 surfers in the quarter finals, in all 3 cases they are competing against their fellow countryman so only one can advance to the final 4.

[Coach]

I had a laugh at this,

Yep, We got first and second loser...

[Coach]

[220]

Big day for Australia with 3 more gold medals, back to second equal with France, 2 gold behind China 2 ahead of the USA.
With a few days of swimming competition left we might stay close to the top of the table for a little longer.
Mixed sex medley relay tomorrow, USA and AUS both lead off with women in the heats both won their heats with the men coming from well behind. Watching you dont think there is a chance they could overhaul a 10m lead in 100m but they do it easy and are nearly into the lead after the first 50m lap.
USA broke the WR in the heats of the 4x400m mixed relay on the athletics track, just about every team that qualified for the final set a national record but USA is nearly 2sec faster. They just need to hold onto the batten and gold is theirs.

[Coach]

[Coach]

Simone Biles is cleaning up in Gymnastics.

She has a strong chance of getting 2-3 more Gold Medals.

Getting ready for Track and Field...

Our Women's Soccer team moved in to the Semi Finals with a win over Japan and our Basketball teams keep rolling on.