Olympics thread. Tokyo 2020

Just watched the Olympic Karate, not live, since it is 3:00am Friday in Tokyo. I will say this, I liked it a whole lot better than Olympic TKD. But some of the rules seem strange

 

Yes, on the whole I found it easier to watch/follow.
As a spectator I find it hard the the action it stopped every time a point is potentially scored and reset, but in contrast Olympic TKD is often stopped and reset as they get stuck on the "clinch" frequently.

 

I watched a couple of the karate kumite finals earlier and it was a totally different rule set to what my organisation used (the ye-olde WUKO rules) but my first impression was that it had followed TKD's "feet up, hands down" approach though that's totally to be expected if punches score low compared to kicks. The old getting your opponent in the corner and waiting for a jogai approach still showed up though.

I've been watching the skateboarding too, just with it being on first, and even though I can't understand a word of what the commentators are saying (the last time I took notice of skateboarding was back on the original Tony Hawk's game on the first Playstation) I can't take my eyes off what they're doing and the approach of the men to the lasses was totally different - in the first round the lasses were just trying to get a clean run and maybe 30 points whereas the men thought "ah, I'll just go for it" and were getting 70+ points on their first go.

I did catch the highlights of the climbing as well. I'm glad that the speed climbing has already been split off for the Paris games but I wouldn't put it past Adam Ondra to try and qualify for that as well as boulder/lead just for the challenge after he took loads of time out of his PBs.

 

The skateboard park run abs climbing were both entertaining to watch.

Luckily I am used to the skate terms as I used to skateboard and snakeboard in my teenage years. I'm pretty sure my right hip, knee and wrist have some long term damage from all my half pipe and mini ramp antics. Amazing seeing so many young competitors!

 

I think that's why they've got these new sports in now and will have breakdancing in 2024 - to get younger people interested in the Olympics. I mean I know I like watching Brits win shiny things but even I draw the line at horses dancing and their humans getting all the praise.

 

Hahahah.

You are about the fifth person I know that has expressed a negative opinion of dressage. I'm sure its a hard sporting discipline that requires hundreds of hours of practice, but the cynicism is palpable. In comparison Pentahletes had it worse. Horses that refused to jump or even threw off their riders.

Horse says no:

Uncooperative horses wreaked havoc and killed dreams in the weirdest event at the Olympics

and one coach lost her patience and quite rightly sent home:

German modern pentathlon coach thrown out of Olympics for punching horse

 

I always thought that having a draw of horses was risky, and if you came across such instances you should have another go with a different horse?

 

Yeah, I saw the news articles about the horses getting their own back in the pentathlon. I did wonder if the coach who punched the horse was a Newcastle United fan though.

 

Apparently not. At Uni I used to know pentathletes. Once during squad training I asked one if he was injured during epee practice, as his lunge was not with the usual acceleration. He said he got injured over the weekend during a penthalon comp.

Apparently he looked at the horse that was selected and immediately sensed that it was going to do a number on him.

He got his mandated bonding time (20 min I think) and the nag suspiciously performed perfectly to his every command.

Then when it game to show jumping on the 7th/15 jumps the horse decided simply to bolt him off.

In his opinion mostly its poor rider ability if the horse does not cooperate. But sometimes the horse simply decides it doesn't like you.

Or so I was informed. I defer to others judgements on horses. I haven't picked a Grand National winner yet...