2020, uh, 21, uh, who knows Tokyo Olympics thread

Nah. The Milwaukee version of Oscar, which was the version most of us saw on teevee, could best be described as a power point guard.
His basic offensive move was just to back the opponent down butt first from half court and pull up for a 10-foot jumper.
Oscar rarely ran the fast break or took jumpers more than 15 feet.

 

That’s true, I meant it more in the sense if you are reading it and trying to get an idea of what a 24.5 meter throw would be. You can get close in your head (about 26 and some change yards so about 80 feet) if the conversion isn’t there.

 

Kazakhstan wrestler does a Tyson impression as his Indian opponent goes for the pin.

 

...or woman.

That Springsteen story was a missed opportunity. I read stories about David Broome and Sportsman when I was a kid and know the right person could get a better story than the one that was published.

 

As a GK, I hated Olympicos. As a former GK, I love them.

 

This is the Rai Benjamin interview after the 400 hurdles race. Best interview of the olympics. Real heartfelt stuff.

The US men's 4x100 also could be best, for other reasons. That was the most awkward sports interview I've seen in a while. Can't find it online.

 

I can go back and re-watch, but pretty sure Ato Boldon said right after the 4X100 relay that the US didn't have any handoff issues. I know he only has one set of eyes, but I almost jumped off my couch when it happened. The HAVE to have spotters there to help.
Not fans of Boldin or Richards-Ross. I think they are substandard. Miss a lot. And if I heard "iron sharpens iron" one more time during w/r/t McLaughlin, I was going to stick an iron ice pick in my brain.

I think the new pbp guy is okay. What happened to Tom Hammond? Did he age out?

 

Leigh Diffey is very good at auto racing. But his excitement level is all wrong for track and field. Thankfully, I was watching the B Team on USA Network last night -- and they were way less about cheerleading and more about reporting. Surprisingly, no "iron sharpens iron" or "Simone Biles" references, or worse, switching to beach volleyball or a recap of women's gymnastics. Just 100 percent track and field.

The Detroit Lions are perhaps the only team more hapless over a generation than the US men's 400 relay team. I see where Carl Lewis -- who would be a pretty good authority on the subject -- called them out for being unprepared, among other severe criticism. It's not like there aren't relay teams in high school, AAU and college, and yet four elite athletes can't figure it out.

And when the shot put finalists came out into the stadium yesterday, it looked like the crowd at the monthly tractor pull. How good was Ryan Crouser? He broke the previous Olympic record on every one of his throws.

 

Why would you compare him to past-his-prime Oscar?

 

Yes, I was watching that when it happened.

I don't think Rai thinks he "won" the silver medal.

 

Lewis is correct on pretty much all of his criticisms.

One thing I noticed while I was watching is they had Fred Kerley running the second leg and Ronnie Baker on the third.

The second leg is a straightaway and the longest run of the four legs, while the third man runs the curve.

Kerley was the Americans' top finisher in the 100, but he's also a longtime 400 guy with tons of experience running curves. Baker is strictly a 60/100 runner -- he's run one race longer than that since 2018 when he ran two 200s, which is the most he's ever run in one year during his pro career. He hasn't run a 200 in conpetition this year at all. So he is not at all familiar with running the curve.

So why not have Kerley on the curve and Baker run the straight line?

 

Apparently Lyle's gave an amazing interview.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2021/08/04/noah-lyles-bronze-olympics-depression/