Olympic Games: Paris 2024

[17 stone giant]

5 hours ago, Sidi Fidi Gold said:

If anybody's interested, there are 4 football matches on Eurosport today

I like the women's football as that's full strength teams. I have zero interest in the men's with its under 23 and overage player nonsense.

[Just Browny]

Am in France at the moment and it's fair to say the locals are excited. I'm a long way from Paris but it does look like it will be a great games to attend, with lots of the events set up in the heart of the historic city with some amazing backdrops to come.

This 'rugby sevens' nonsense should be nowhere near of course, no reason why a training ground knockabout sport wins you an Olympic medal.

[Maximus Decimus]

3 hours ago, HawkMan said:

Never sure really why football is in the Olympics,  sportsmanship is never an important aspect of the game. Argentina v Morocco starts tournament off to a new low.

• Morocco beat Argentina 2-1 after dramatic men's football match which takes four hours to reach conclusion

• Fans appear to throw missiles at players after Argentina's leveller in 16th minute of injury time makes it 2-2

• Players then taken from field before equaliser ruled out by VAR almost two hours later as play resumes for final three minutes in empty stadium

I love the Olympics, but it seems to have gone down the route of the more sports the better. It seems to be an absolute behemoth now with the sheer number of sports included.

[gingerjon]

8 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I love the Olympics, but it seems to have gone down the route of the more sports the better. It seems to be an absolute behemoth now with the sheer number of sports included.

Football has been in since 1896.

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

2 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Football has been in since 1896.

There was an event at the 1896 Olympics called " Men's sailors 100 metre freestyle " there were 11 entrants, all Greek but when you read the small print it says " only sailors in the Greek navy were allowed to enter "

 

[ivans82]

On 23/07/2024 at 15:55, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

And we're off...

Charlotte Dujardin, Britain's joint-most decorated female Olympian, has pulled out of Paris 2024 after a video emerged showing her "making an error of judgement".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/equestrian/articles/c97d4vnxv45o

Guessing it`s an ex employee who left a bit disgruntled or was sacked  .  Decided to make a point and waited until the week before the Olympics before releasing the video  to scupper Her chances of another medal .Anyway the plan seems to have worked .

[Maximus Decimus]

6 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Football has been in since 1896.

Oh yes, I'm aware of that, I think I was getting that rather than take away events that shouldn't be there (to which I think football is one) they seem to add more and more events.

I've always preferred sports where the Olympics is the pinnacle of that event. I'm not sure what Golf, Tennis, Football etc actually adds to it. For so many sports, the Olympic medal is what they've always dreamt of, for these sports it's like a nice little add on.

Similarly, modified versions of sports like Rugby 7s and 3x3 basketball don't seem quite right.

I don't lose any sleep over it, but the sheer amount of sports can make it hard to keep up at times.

[ivans82]

Further on the Charlotte Dujardin case  .  The whisteblower has said He or She had to post the video because they were worried about the future of equestrianism/dressage if horses were "trained" this way..............yet waited several years to post it............come on its simply down to someone bearing a grudge nothing to do with horse welfare or they would have been straight onto the RSPCA...........anyway the best thing they can do with the huge amount of money they will have made from the video is donate it to said charity !

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, ivans82 said:

Further on the Charlotte Dujardin case  .  The whisteblower has said He or She had to post the video because they were worried about the future of equestrianism/dressage if horses were "trained" this way..............yet waited several years to post it............come on its simply down to someone bearing a grudge nothing to do with horse welfare or they would have been straight onto the RSPCA...........anyway the best thing they can do with the huge amount of money they will have made from the video is donate it to said charity !

If you want to make maximum impact about cruelty in an Olympic sport you don't release the video - which is apparently 2 not 4 years old - outside of the Olympics.

[HawkMan]

59 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

If you want to make maximum impact about cruelty in an Olympic sport you don't release the video - which is apparently 2 not 4 years old - outside of the Olympics.

Sky had an interview with the lawyer representing the whistle-blower ( WB). The WB has nothing against Dujardin and has been agonising whether to release video, the WB feared reprisals from the equestrian community,  and still does. Then a few months back some other riders were banned by the sports governing body for similar practices. The WB then decided that Dujardin should not win medals and gain hero status after the said cruelty. On advice she decided better to release it now rather than after the Olympics, which would have tarnished the games.

[gingerjon]

21 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Oh yes, I'm aware of that, I think I was getting that rather than take away events that shouldn't be there (to which I think football is one) they seem to add more and more events.

I've always preferred sports where the Olympics is the pinnacle of that event. I'm not sure what Golf, Tennis, Football etc actually adds to it. For so many sports, the Olympic medal is what they've always dreamt of, for these sports it's like a nice little add on.

Similarly, modified versions of sports like Rugby 7s and 3x3 basketball don't seem quite right.

I don't lose any sleep over it, but the sheer amount of sports can make it hard to keep up at times.

I do agree but also love the sheer array of sports. 3x3 basketball I've found to be genuinely enjoyable to watch, similarly the climbing.

I can't see anything to justify the inclusion of golf once they decided that it wasn't going to be nation v nation matchplay. And the same with tennis. I can just about see the point of football on historic grounds - it predates the World Cup after all - but you wouldn't be able to justify it going in now.

Anyway, the handball started stunningly well in the women's tournament yesterday. Shock wins for South Korea over Germany and Sweden over Norway.

[JohnM]

Something for everyone in this sad  dressage episode, from conspiracy believers, through those  mis-prnouncing Dujardins name to those drawing parallels with Strictly Come Dancing.

Edited July 26 by JohnM

[HawkMan]

Jonathan Liew of The Guardian on Sky Sports News, Back Pages Tonight ( fab show), said if anyone thinks Dujardin is the only one doing this then he'll sell them some magic beans. Also he asked why are we making horses dance, and giving out medals for such nonsense.

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

I'm not impressed by the athletes sailing down the rover on boats, I always liked it when they walked into the stadium.

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

Lady Gaga on now, why do France have to import foreign artists, I want to see Vanessa Paradis belting out Joe Le Taxi.

[graveyard johnny]

have  I just put eurovision on?

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

Some of those waves on the Seine look a bit big, I hope there's no athletes crying of with sea sickness in the morning.

[Futtocks]

12 minutes ago, Sidi Fidi Gold said:

Lady Gaga on now, why do France have to import foreign artists, I want to see Vanessa Paradis belting out Joe Le Taxi.

Daft Punk could have got back together and created a playlist for the whole event.

Or we could find out if Johnny Halliday was interested.

[graveyard johnny]

this is dreadful - a pantomime of dancing prancing prats 

[Futtocks]

There's someone on Notre Dame with a naked flame.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with that.

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

1 minute ago, Futtocks said:

Daft Punk could have got back together and created a playlist for the whole event.

Or we could find out if Johnny Halliday was interested.

Maurice Chevalier ?

[Futtocks]

Ooh, French Heavy Metal! Rightfully as famous around the world as it currently is.

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

Can Can, I was expecting Buster Bloodvessel to turn up.

[Futtocks]

An aria from Carmen, the opera set in *checks notes* Spain.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

6 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Daft Punk could have got back together and created a playlist for the whole event.

Or we could find out if Johnny Halliday was interested.

We could have just had a 3 hour Daft Punk gig, that would have made this Goose very happy!