Tokyo 2020 (21) olympics

F1Brits_90

World Champion
the Olympics unofficially start in 11 hours. & we still dont know 100% they are taking place. reminds of build up to 2019 Australian GP

although i have sympathy for tokyo because the IOC have said its now or never & they refuse to have 3 Olympics with a 2 yr period. so either they have the olympics or they spent 10.5billion for nothing & cant host it for at very least another 20yrs

 
very enjoyable that opening ceremony. slow going at the start but after the post nations parade, it picked up & was very good. it was nice to see we have return to 2 part ceremony either side of nations parade. as brazil 5 years ago couldn't be arsed certainly did it on cheap, that drone symbol was seriously impressive

ive clearly watched too much pointless, when i too happy when i saw the nations like Central African Republic, Vanuatu, Tuvalu & St Vincent & the grenadines
 
It's very strange given the lack of sports during lockdown, but I've fallen out of love with sport as a whole.

Before lockdown I would drive hundreds of miles to watch Football or Rugby. Would watch test and county cricket at various grounds and watch a lot of other sport either in person or on TV.

Right now, apart from Footy, there's a B and I Lions tour on and I'm not bothered. The Olympics, not bothered. Cricket, not bothered.

Totally losing sporting mojo.
 
i certainly went through that last season with sheff utd. i didnt know when we were playing & result didnt effect me either way

but now the crowds are back ive definitely come around the otherside
 
The UK has it's first golds with Adam Peaty in the pool, Tom Daley and Matty Lee in the diving, and Tom Pidcock on a mountain bike.

There are some odd sports at this Olympics. I've come across skate boarding, soft ball, and what looked like netball but with only one net so far. Still waiting for the extreme ironing to start and our own Brogan to be in the running for a medal.
 
Finally watched some of the Olympics. I have always tended to prefer the first week to the second because the first week contains a majority of sports not usually shown on TV.

Once the athletics starts next week it gets less Olympics and more like any other major athletics championships.

I think they are starting to reach the bottom of the barrel with sports to include now. Skateboarding, climbing, surfing and 3 on 3 basketball are all new this year.

There can't be many left to add before we get to board games.

And the gold medal in Monopoly goes to....

You join us for the Hungry, Hungry Hippo's final between Great Britain, China, the USA and the reigning world champions El Salvador.
 
i know cider_and_toast i thought things were we weird when I was hearing the winter Olympic commentators at the summer Olympics. but apparently they are going for a younger audience. 3.5 billion watched the rio Olympics. people like it as it is

amazing day at the Olympics 6 medals in 9 hours including 3 golds in 5. not seen much as it traveling day for holiday & most it was early morning. but great to see adam peaty cement his dominance. tom pidcock who was highly rated having won junior giro D'Italia. but over the moon for tom daley. if ever a person deserved a gold medal it was tom, 4th olympics & he finally did it
 
You may mock cider_and_toast , however, Poetry and town planning were at one point Olympic events

Yes indeed. Back in the good old days.

When the Olympics was about developing the mind as well as the body.

Imagine the town planning one today.

"You have no authority Jackie Weaver"

We need to get back to those days and forget about skateboarding and surfing.
 
We watched some as it ran on after an actual sport had finished. It appears to be children taking part and then there was a caption which said "Stance: Goofy", at which point this Boomer went, Nah, and switched off. Please, leave this for the X Games.
 
One thing that's grinding my gears is the absolute "wafflebollocks" the commentators come out with on the longer events to fill time.

I watched the Women's triathlon yesterday and very good it was to. One of the GB athletes got a rear wheel puncture halfway around the last lap of the bike phase. She knew she didn't have time to stop but just had to ride as best she could and keep in touch with leaders. She did a brilliant job and only lost about 25 seconds going in to he run.

Of course, according to the commentators, her hopes of a medal were over and now it was all about finishing etc etc.

3 laps into the 4 of the 10km run she worked her way back up from 5th to 2nd.

When she crossed the finishing line the commentators switched to it being a magnificent run and what an achievement etc etc. A complete opposite to what they were saying 10km earlier.

It's always on the longer events where the commentary team have time to add "wafflebollocks".

It's especially annoying when you have a GB athlete who isn't doing very well and they try and talk them up.

Early laps

Smith is just at the back of the pack keeping a watching brief. She's very experienced.

Middle laps

Smith is an experienced racer and knows how to kick. She won't want the leaders to get too far ahead, she has some work to do.

Later laps

Smith has left herself a lot to do her but she knows what she's doing.

Finish

Smith just ran out of it there in 24th. It was a fast paced race and she's just coming back into form after having both arms and legs replaced, a heart and lung transplant and a 15 year break from professional running to live and work as a painter and decorator. She will definitely learn from this and come back stronger.
 
The men's triathlon was a stonker! I have no idea how these people do it, and the Olympic distance is a baby triathlon.

Race TypeSwimBikeRun
Sprint Triathlon0.5 miles (750m)12.4 miles (20km)3.1 miles (5km)
Olympic Triathlon0.93 miles (1.5km)24.8 miles (40km) 6.2 miles (10km)
ITU Long Course Triathlon 1.86 miles (3km)49.6 miles (80km)12.4 miles (20km)
Half Ironman / 70.3 Triathlon1.2 miles (1.9km)56 miles (90.1km)13.1 miles (21.1km)
Full Ironman Triathlon2.4 miles (3.9km)112 miles (180.2km)26.2 miles (42.2km)

In addition to the full Ironman there are double and deca Ironman races. :-O
 
i was discussing this during the triathlon. you would impress most people by doing all 3 sections on consecutive days & they do them with a few hours

gutted for bianca walkden. leading semi final with less than a second & got done. lost but huge credit to come back & get the bronze medal
 
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Was it really a good idea to sell the rights to Discovery? I suspect they have lost more against selling off rights to many national free to air TV companies, another organisation that will find it's lost viewers for shorterm cash in hand
 
i know Dartman its incredible the amount of sporting organsations that cock it up, i always mention cricket took them 14 yrs to realise & had invent a new format just get it back on free to air only 6 nations are cleverness to realise that what they lose in money they gain 10 fold in publicity & exposure. the irony of Olympics is all about inspiring the next generation. so to do that we are going to sell of 90% coverage to pay tv for 1.3billion. so that the next generation cant watch it

blame lies 100% to the IOC & Eurosport with their deal that im amazed was allowed to take place in the uk as i assumed it was illegal as Olympics is protected event being on the crown jewels list. that says Olympics must be terrestrial tv & cant be sold to Pay Tv. so how the deal got done. dont know but some blame goes tories for allowing it to ratified. whats the point of the crown jewels if we arent going to enforce them

as the IOC should never have been allowed to sell the UK rights. its like FIFA doing the same deal with eurosport for the world cup.
 
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Bizarrely, the IOC sold the European rights which includes the UK.

I agree with much of the above. I was under the impression that the Olympics was supposed to be a protected program and be free to air at all times in the UK.

Apparently, Discovery considered selling the UK broadcast rights to the highest UK based bidder but changed their minds as they thought there would be a massive PR backlash.

That said, there is nothing to stop Discovery doing that for the 2024 Olympics.

It's clear that broadcast media and in particular, US broadcast media companies now hold huge influence over the IOC. This has been shown by the changing of the swimming schedules to have the heats in the evening and the finals in the morning to suit the US time zones.

PPV TV may show an initial profit and provide an immediate cash injection but time and time again it's been proven that, for the long term sustainability of any sport it's hugely damaging.
 
Apparently, Discovery considered selling the UK broadcast rights to the highest UK based bidder but changed their minds as they thought there would be a massive PR backlash.

That said, there is nothing to stop Discovery doing that for the 2024 Olympics.
Olympics on ITV in 2024 then. now that would be really odd

but what amazes me is surely there are IOC lawyers that know all the legals in each country. surely shouldve gone ah sorry discovery/eurosport. we cant include UK as by law its not allowed to be sold
 
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Unless the Olympics are held in this country then there is very little the government can do about it, exactly what would have happened if all the UK companies had refused to pay even for news purposes I'm not sure. No doubt Sky would have jumped in,
I would assume that the IOC could not have sold the rights if the Japanese government had not agreed. I'm sure that if all the governments that hold F1GP's stipulated that that it must be FTA and of a reasonable fee there is little F1 can do about it
 
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