I find the decathlon an absolutely fascinating event. Far, far more than with triathlon and modern pentathlon, the ideal body type for the separate events of the decathlon varies so much. The dedicated shot putters don’t look anything like 1500 metre runners or pole vaulters. So the decathletes are necessarily a compromise who literally can’t be as good as the specialists—not just because of a lack of specialisation in training. I just find that fascinating.
Just turned on to the athletics to see a dude holding a big stick walk out. Much too big to be a baton, much much too small and too stiff to be a pole vaulter’s pole. Dunno what it was. Looked cool.
Men’s 100 m. A false start has to be heartbreaking for the athlete. But I’m not sure what argument he was trying to make with the judges. The Mozambican runner took off long before the gun, to the point that he flinched, nearly stopped, then took off, then stopped himself, and the gun never went off at all. Really sad for him.
The road race is on! But at 270 km, it’s gonna be a long one. Plenty of down time to flick over to other sports.
Oh huh. Switched over to the basketball. I didn’t realise Puerto Rico had a separate Olympic team. I think this is the first time I’ve seen them this Olympics. I mean it makes sense. China has two teams, one for mainland one for Hong Kong. Bermuda competes separate from GB (not to mention Northern Irish athletes mostly compete for the Irish team, though they have the option of either GB or Ireland). It’s just not something I’ve noticed before.
Repechage heats are a really interesting concept. Especially in the longer-distance runs. Not sure it applies as much in the 200 m and 400 m, even though it is being used. First few in the first heat go through, the rest go to a repechage heat, instead of deciding who gets into the semis purely based on time.
I like it, because especially as distances increase, your speed is not purely based on your personal performance, but also on the mood of the group of runners, in a way that’s kinda similar to the road race in cycling: do people decide to play it safe and go for a bunch sprint at the end? Does one leader get out in front early with the rest believing they’ll be too tired to keep it up? Does one go fast and the rest speed up to keep up? Deciding who qualifies for the semis based on placement rather than pure time in these events is a good idea, IMO.
Oh gods a puncture by the leader of the road race with less than 4 km to go. He’s in such a hurry he jumps on the first bike that gets near him, not even taking the time to swap his bike computer. He’s still in the lead, but cut to just 1 minute.
But he’s actually extending the lead. Gesturing with relief to the camera. “Phew, that was close!”
Watching the sailing for the first real time this Olympics. The Israeli sailor apparently went over the line early the first time around (commentators seemed to disagree, and based on the graphics they were showing us, so do I). So they had to go around and restart the race. This time, the Israeli has a 5 second penalty. The Aussie and Dutch sailors are looking very close.
Israel so far ahead, even if he does take a 5 second time penalty I’m pretty sure he’s won it.
Oh, sounds like actually there wasn’t a 5 second penalty given anyway.
Commentators not doing a great job of explaining this sport to newbies. They keep saying things like “is he on the lay line?” But I have no idea what that means.
USA vs Puerto Rico in basketball. 6:30 left in the 2nd quarter and the score is 35–34 in favour of PUR.
Damn, US up 45–64 at half time.