Olympic Games: Paris 2024

[Bedford Roughyed]

Cycling time trial is a bit damp.  Adds a lottery element....

[Bedford Roughyed]

Triathlon might become a duathlon?  The heavy rain isn't good for the river Seine...

[Futtocks]

29 minutes ago, Bedford Roughyed said:

Cycling time trial is a bit damp.  Adds a lottery element....

Absolute carnage, especially for the USA rider Taylor Knibb, with three falls plus her mechanic also face-planting the tarmac as he ran up to her with a replacement bike following one of her crashes.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Anna Henderson comes 2nd in the cycling time trial to give Britain our 2nd medal of the games!

[Spidey]

Question for @gingerjon are goalkeepers in handball generally useless? Watching Norway v Argentina - neither seem very energetic 

[gingerjon]

13 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Question for @gingerjon are goalkeepers in handball generally useless? Watching Norway v Argentina - neither seem very energetic 

It is a very good question.

I'll just say: you notice the good ones but most shots are going to go in because by the time the shot comes in the attack should have created the space for it to be a near certainty.

As in football though, a good goalie gives the defence more confidence and options.

EDIT

Also, Norway and Argentina are not going to be troubling the medals in this one.

Edited July 27 by gingerjon

[EggFace]

Well done France and Antoine Depont is a gun....would love to see him in Rugby League.

[17 stone giant]

5 hours ago, gingerjon said:

It is a very good question.

I'll just say: you notice the good ones but most shots are going to go in because by the time the shot comes in the attack should have created the space for it to be a near certainty.

As in football though, a good goalie gives the defence more confidence and options.

Would having an incredibly big and fat (especially wide) goalkeeper be a good strategy, or would their lack of mobility offset the advantage gained from them blocking up a significant part of the goal?

[gingerjon]

6 minutes ago, 17 stone giant said:

Would having an incredibly big and fat (especially wide) goalkeeper be a good strategy, or would their lack of mobility offset the advantage gained from them blocking up a significant part of the goal?

Some goalies are big and wide but they still need to able to do the thing where they get their foot level with their head or else they're a bit useless.

[Spidey]

Flicking through the sports and was surprised to see Surfing.  Even more surprised to see it was being hosted in Tahiti. How does that work?

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

Faster, higher.....

Canada's women's football team have been deducted six points from their group in the Olympics and coach Bev Priestman has been banned for one year after a drone was used to spy on a rival team's training sessions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/articles/ckdg0gqk4kqo

[gingerjon]

11 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Flicking through the sports and was surprised to see Surfing.  Even more surprised to see it was being hosted in Tahiti. How does that work?

It's more France than, say, the British Virgin Islands are Britain.

It's obviously an extreme example but a fair few sports are not actually in Paris.

[gingerjon]

7 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Faster, higher.....

Canada's women's football team have been deducted six points from their group in the Olympics and coach Bev Priestman has been banned for one year after a drone was used to spy on a rival team's training sessions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/articles/ckdg0gqk4kqo

And if you think that only the Canada WNT have done this then I have ... a drone? ... to sell you.

[gingerjon]

Denmark 25:26 France

Fourteen minutes to go.

This game is ludicrously fast. There is defence but *so many* attacks.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

1 minute ago, gingerjon said:

And if you think that only the Canada WNT have done this then I have ... a drone? ... to sell you.

As long as it's not the same model as theirs; that's clearly too obtrusive.....

[The Hallucinating Goose]

54 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Flicking through the sports and was surprised to see Surfing.  Even more surprised to see it was being hosted in Tahiti. How does that work?

France is interesting when it comes to territory. Unlike Britain, where our overseas territories are dependencies that have their own governments, French overseas territories are fully incorporated regions of the French Republic, so Tahiti, and the wider French Polynesia are actually parts of France itself as much as, say, Wales is part of the UK. 

Something that really highlights this is the French Cup in football, which like the FA Cup being open to any team in England, is open to every team in France and so theoretically a team from Tahiti could play a team from French Guiana, say, and that would still be a game played within the Republic of France.

[gingerjon]

21 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

France is interesting when it comes to territory. Unlike Britain, where our overseas territories are dependencies that have their own governments, French overseas territories are fully incorporated regions of the French Republic, so Tahiti, and the wider French Polynesia are actually parts of France itself as much as, say, Wales is part of the UK. 

Something that really highlights this is the French Cup in football, which like the FA Cup being open to any team in England, is open to every team in France and so theoretically a team from Tahiti could play a team from French Guiana, say, and that would still be a game played within the Republic of France.

And this is how you get the perfect trivia question.

”With which country does France share its longest land border?”

Answer: Brazil.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

41 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

And this is how you get the perfect trivia question.

”With which country does France share its longest land border?”

Answer: Brazil.

You can have lots of questions like this.

"Which country lies within 6 continents?"

"Which country spans the most time zones?"

"How many continents does the EU span?"

...and loads and loads more clever trivia questions!

[Mark S]

Struggling to get into this year’s Olympics, I usually love loving the niche sports. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

 

[bobbruce]

Just watched Rosie Eccles lose in the boxing to an absolutely disgraceful decision. 

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, bobbruce said:

Just watched Rosie Eccles lose in the boxing to an absolutely disgraceful decision. 

Amateur boxing at the Olympics with beyond dodgy decisions, you say?

[bobbruce]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Amateur boxing at the Olympics with beyond dodgy decisions, you say?

Just going through and thought I’d watch it to see if it’s got any better I won’t bother watching anymore. I know scorings all about opinions but for me the GB boxer won every round and in the last round the Polish boxer had a point took off her for consistently dipping her head. I’ve no idea how they could get to her winning. 

[bobbruce]

Just now, bobbruce said:

Just going through and thought I’d watch it to see if it’s got any better I won’t bother watching anymore. I know scorings all about opinions but for me the GB boxer won every round and in the last round the Polish boxer had a point took off her for consistently dipping her head. I’ve no idea how they could get to her winning. 

Just to add you know there is something wrong when the French crowd are booing a decision that sees a British athlete lose. 

[Futtocks]

3 hours ago, Mark S said:

Struggling to get into this year’s Olympics, I usually love loving the niche sports. 

Early days, and a lot of the niche and mainstream sports haven't even started yet. There's a lot of Tennis, Football and Rugby Union Sevens happening, none of which really feel like they belong (see also the Golf, when that starts).

I've enjoyed some Volleyball (the real thing, not the beach poseurs), but I'm currently watching the Women's RL Nines from Hull instead of action from Paris.

I'll probably start in on the gymnastics coverage this evening.