My surprise hit this Olympics has been Sabre. I love watching Sebastien Patrice in particular. France vs Iran men’s team sabre is ongoing right now if anyone wants to check him out.
That final move by him to win the bronze match was just the perfect example. So fun to watch.
Really interesting. I’m curious, how much experience do you have with fencing previously? Do you find it easy enough to follow the sport on TV?
I did do fencing when I was younger, though it’s a long time ago now. Never did saber though, I only did épée and foil.
I do find it fairly easy to follow, but maybe that’s my experience talking. It’s a fast sport but there is slow motion replays to help the viewers catch what happens. I will say there are occasional confusing ref calls, but that’s part of the sport.
The novelty factor of Patrice was a breath of fresh air for me with his unorthodox moves. That jumping parry-riposte to clinch bronze was something else.
Oh yeah, neat! I also did sport fencing a long time ago. I still fence, but have moved into HEMA rather than sport fencing. And even when I was doing modern fencing it was never with electrics.
Still, I honestly found it quite difficult to watch. The replays were never slow enough and it’s so fast live that it’s just hard to keep track. The more I watched the better I got at it, but it was never as good as I feel making calls live.
Olympic triathlon is such a weird event. Us plebes literally can’t partake in it. We can do the Olympic distance alright, but the age groupers are always non-drafting, which completely changes the dynamics of the race.
I tried to get into a draft-legal triathlon near me last year. Sadly it turns out you have to have a pro card to participate, there’s just no way to do it as an amateur.
TriathlonTbh I’m surprised it went ahead as scheduled. If conditions were too bad for the men to go ahead yesterday, it’s difficult to believe it really was fine today. A YouTube triathlon channel suggested they’d probably make sure it goes ahead no matter what, and the athletes won’t mind if they get a bit sick—as long as it comes on after the race. I’m inclined to agree.
Geez this swim is brutal
And the cycling conditions are pretty brutal too, with how slick the roads are.
Sad I’m going to miss the men’s triathlon, because my fencing club starts 15 minutes after it does.
