2024 Paris Paralympics

[gunnar hendershow]

Romania actually said that they didn't want to strip Chiles of the bronze and petitioned to have 3 bronzes awarded (the 4th place finisher also had some scoring mishap). It made sense to everyone and seemed like an easy way to not punish athletes. But alas

[Lineker]

 

Edited August 12 by Lineker

[K]

I see that Channel 4 will be streaming every moment of the Paralympics on YouTube. That's really cool. 

[GhostMachine]

I think its absolutely absurd that they added breakdancing, but Australia was so horrible I hope they don't even compete if its still an event in 2028.

Speaking of absurd, Embiid is saying he might play basketball for Cameroon in 2028.

 

[Colly]

They should combine the break and horse dancing.

[gunnar hendershow]

45 minutes ago, Colly said:

They should combine the break and horse dancing.

Truly this is what they should've updated in modern pentathlon.

[K]

1 hour ago, GhostMachine said:

I think its absolutely absurd that they added breakdancing, but Australia was so horrible I hope they don't even compete if its still an event in 2028.

Speaking of absurd, Embiid is saying he might play basketball for Cameroon in 2028.

 

breakdancing was never going to be in the 2028 olympics, LA have already picked their sports, adding Flag Football, Cricket, Softball, Lacrosse, and Squash.

[The Buscher]

As someone who knows nothing of breakdancing I think some of the comments on Raygun are a bit harsh and agree with the general "at least she tried" sentiment.  I mean if you had the chance to go to the Olympics doing something you're passionate about , why wouldn't you?

But plenty of people who follow breakdancing have basically said it's not really unfair to clown her because it's audacious that she thought she could compete at that level in the first place - she might be passionate but she basically insulted the art form by doing that on a global stage.

Some of the comments read like Jim Cornette covering breakdancing instead of wrestling.  Strange.

[lanky316]

One thing that isn't taken into account is that they were supposed to be graded on originality. Raygun was the only person who actually paid attention to that, including the judges, and was punished for it. Compare that to "road dogg wobbly walk, followed by spinerooni, followed by handstand" which felt like the majority of the performances. For what it's worth I do think there's room for breakdancing in the Olympics, the format and the overall "staging" of it however just added to how bad it came across. Treated similar to other artistic disciplines like the gymnastics floor excercise, dressage or even things like the skateboarding I think it could work. Get rid of the battles and say everyone has, say 2 minutes to do a routine to a setlist of preselected songs and rate it on complexity, originality and so on.

There are a whole heap of sports and things that could go into the Olympics and I can see and put forth a case for most things that aren't, or have been in the past that aren't anymore and how they could go there and I'm not going to snub something as "not sport" or just because it isn't for me.

[gunnar hendershow]

While the entire event bordered on cultural appropriation at times, Raygun frankly took that to an insultive level. However, I do believe they thought that they weren't mocking the artform though as they've "studied" it from the vantage point of someone from Australia.

Of course the irony in all this is Raygun will be the only breaking Olympian to make money off it.

[Colly]

There seems to be a lot of weird implication that she wasn't qualified to be there, despite regularly competing in international events. I don't really see how she's taken any cultural appropriation any further than anyone else really, it's been 50 years, the UK was doing it in the 80s at very latest, I presume similar in Australia?

[Bobfoc]

I had initially assumed it had been added in preparation for LA 2028, but that clearly isn't the case. We've seen certain sports brought in on the basis of their popularity in the host nation, such as karate in Tokyo and baseball going in and out, and then there's flag football coming in 2028 for the American audience.

It makes me wonder what might have happened in 2012, when no new sports were added. Something like lawn bowls or cheese rolling would have brought a local touch to proceedings.

[gunnar hendershow]

I think the world would be a better place with cheese rolling as an Olympic program.

[Bobfoc]

The world's population would probably decrease slightly too.

[GhostMachine]

3 hours ago, K said:

breakdancing was never going to be in the 2028 olympics, LA have already picked their sports, adding Flag Football, Cricket, Softball, Lacrosse, and Squash.

The only one of those that has me scratching my head is Cricket. A sport that would never get over in the U.S. "Its for people who don't think Baseball is slow enough!"

[Bobfoc]

3 minutes ago, GhostMachine said:

The only one of those that has me scratching my head is Cricket. A sport that would never get over in the U.S. "Its for people who don't think Baseball is slow enough!"

Cricket is massive in India, which is a big reason why it's going to be included. Trying to entice a population of 1.4 billion is a big strategy for the IOC.

[Chris2K]

Not from a pure "USA" standpoint, but Cricket is starting to take off a little in the US, there are enough people of Indian and Pakistani heritage (and the occasional Brit or Australian) for the US to host World Cup games, and a fairly successful Twenty20 franchise league.

And if we're judging sports by their popularity, Cricket is probably ahead of Tennis and Golf just from the billion people of India alone.

[Bobfoc]

Also, a T20 match usually takes about the same length of time as an MLB match.

[GhostMachine]

Well, the Romanian is keeping the bronze medal. But...it turns out that the Romanian was given a penalty for stepping out of bounds, which didn't actually happen, and that would have put her score higher than the American's if it hadn't been called. So now I have no problem with her keeping the bronze.

(It also shows that they need better judges!)

Edited August 12 by GhostMachine

[Adam]

8 hours ago, GhostMachine said:

Well, the Romanian is keeping the bronze medal. But...it turns out that the Romanian was given a penalty for stepping out of bounds, which didn't actually happen, and that would have put her score higher than the American's if it hadn't been called. So now I have no problem with her keeping the bronze.

(It also shows that they need better judges!)

I may be wrong but wasn't it the other Romanian gymnast, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea who placed 5th, who had a penalty wrongly given? You can see why there were calls to award a three-way tie for Bronze.