Paris 2024

[steve58]

Summer Games start today in Paris and they're off to a rocky start.

Paris rail system disrupted just hours before Olympics opening ceremony.

[Gusington]

Oh dear.

[Sir Slash]

I understand the desire to have the games inside Paris but it has to be a security nightmare for the police and army.

[Con]

As much as I would have personally liked it we dodged a bullet by tanking the Boston 2024 Olympic bid
It looked like it was a done deal intil people realized the financial scam that props it up

[steve58]

I like the Olympics.  I liked them better when they were held every 4 years (more anticipation for the summer/winter games) vs every 2 years (too soon, didn't we just have an Olympics?).

I'm more a fan of the Winter Olympics, but would've peeked in on some of the summer events like Diving.  I'm now pretty sure I won't be watching anything from Paris 2024.

https://x.com/i/status/1816931037055775055

Hope anyone swimming in the cesspool Seine doesn't get too sick.

[Gusington]

I also prefer the winter names, but I'll watch a little of the Paris Olympics...some of the drama is just too delicious 🤤

[Pete Dero]

I like the Olympics.  I liked them better when they were held every 4 years (more anticipation for the summer/winter games) vs every 2 years (too soon, didn't we just have an Olympics?).

The Olympics are still every 4 years.  But the Tokio 2020 games were delayed for a year and held in 2021 (Covid).

[steve58]

What I meant was yes,  the Winter Olympics are every 4 years and the Summer Olympics are every 4 years, but since 1992 the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics are only 2 years apart.  So we get Olympic media-hype every 2 years, which is too frequent for me.

[Gusington]

Yeah the hype and drama is a little much

[Pete Dero]

What I meant was yes,  the Winter Olympics are every 4 years and the Summer Olympics are every 4 years, but since 1992 the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics are only 2 years apart.  So we get Olympic media-hype every 2 years, which is too frequent for me.

We don't do winter sports in Belgium so we ignore the Winter Olympics    .

[Sir Slash]

Do we have any Grogheads in any of the competitions? 600 Meter Dongle Relay perhaps or maybe Synchronized Drinking? 

[Grim.Reaper]

I remember back in 1984 or around there when McDonald's had some game based on the results and I was like eating from there free every day:)

[JasonPratt]

Well, last night the women's foil gold medal was won by a young lady from the University of Kentucky fencing team! She fought her US teammate, who was on Harvard's fencing team, ranked 1st and 11th in the world respectively -- and it was a clear demonstration of all the difference in the world between 1st and 11th! Kentucky smoked Harvard 15 to under 9 points (can't recall if it was 6 or 8), one point of which was just an error by KY walking into the point while trying for her usual flick to the shoulder. But US got the silver and gold that way, which hasn't happened since the early 2000s.

Mom asked if we had fought UK when I was in school, and I thought not -- which was explained soon afterward by the commentors noting that this was the 20th anniversary of Kentucky's fencing program, and I had been out of any competitions by then (and long gone from UTK). THEN THE AGE STARTED TO BURRRRRRNNNNNNN... and I mercifully forgot this fact until just now, sigh.

Men's epee also had their bronze, and silver-gold matches last night (before and after women's foil); Japan took home the gold, and France the silver. France's fighter was a giant frankenstein looking guy, who had reach on the little Japanese fighter, but was too slow and with too much target area he wasn't doing a good job protecting compared to the winner. It wasn't as much of a crushing defeat, but only because epee tends to be highly defensive and low scoring at this level. The bronze match, by contrast, was won by Egypt in a last second tie-breaker in overtime (against Hungary if I recall correctly).

The former fencing coach-side of my brain kept cringing at the sloppy forms by everyone involved (especially the four epee fighters), but I mean I couldn't exactly critique Olympic finalists on their effectiveness! Just an amusing side-effect of high-intensity fighting, which has usually been true at my much lower level since back when I was fighting. France at least might have won had he practiced better technique: protecting his chest, and keeping his damn point in line with literally anything on his opponent (the entire body is legal target in epee). Also stop bouncing around! -- you'll burn energy much faster than he will!  Though to be fair their match was significantly less 'vertical' than the constant bunny-hopping of Egypt vs Hungary. But France should have carefully advanced under his protected reach forcing errors from Japan. The commentors later noted (as did Mom) that France looked like he had picked up a bug recently and wasn't fighting up to his usual standard. The home French audience was very gracious about Japan winning. (As a disclosure, I did root for Japan simply because short guys have a lot more trouble against tall guys in epee.)

[Sir Slash]

I watched some of the Fencing. It was great.

[steve58]

While I am not watching the games, I did stumble across this story.  Not sure if he can claim this as a win or a loss.

https://x.com/Glodyswotcher/status/1819673693897031898