Olympics 2024
in Not Football
Somewhere to bitch about French misspelling, the death of the Olympic spirit or just maybe to extol the virtues of some righteous performance recently witnessed.
To kick things off, I got through about 15 minutes of Argentina vs Morocco in the football before having to turn it off. In that time, both sides had tried to win dubious penalties and several Argentines has been cured of what at first sight seemed like career ending injuries. Now watching the rugby sevens, Australia vs Samoa, really enjoying a seldomly broadcasted sport,
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Really hard to see how Beach Soccer keeps getting rejected as an Olympic sport if they include seven-a-side rugby, unless it is a warm up event to test access and egress?
Argentina’s equalizer was a comedic masterpiece.
@peterparrotface I would far rather beach football or 5-a-side football over the 11-a-side code Teqball need not apply, it is a dreadful watch.
And, I believe I saw, 3 on 3 basketball this time as well.
Extraordinary ending to Morroco and Argentina, from BBC sport
‘Crowd trouble forced the first football match of the Olympics to be delayed by more than an hour.
Morocco had been 2-0 ahead against Argentina, but Cristian Medina appeared to have equalised in dramatic fashion with a header in the 16th of 15 scheduled minutes of injury time at the end of the second half.
A number of cups and bottles were then thrown at the celebrating Argentina side before what appeared to be a flare landed near the players and coaching staff.
A number of fans in Morocco colours also ran on to the pitch.
The referee immediately took the players off the pitch and a message on a big screen in the stadium said: "Your session has been suspended please make your way to the nearest exit."
However, it was then reported the final three minutes remaining in the match would be played in an empty stadium with no fans present.
But before the match could be played to a finish, it was announced that Argentina's potential equaliser was actually ruled out by a video assistant referee decision that showed a player was offside before Medina scored.’
They played the last three minutes, Morocco held on to win 2-1.
Wait.. what !?!? Has some of it started already ? I'd just assumed it wouldn't all kick off until after the opening ceremony on Friday
Football always starts a bit earlier because it takes so long.
That Mountain Biking was pure sporting theatre of the highest kind. The lead must have changed hands 4 times at least in the last lap - and the final, audacious move just a few hundred metres from the line was a piece of genius. Classic shit or bust from the British Boy Wonder... And that's before you consider the puncture and the earlier lost 30-odd seconds that he gradually wound back on the head of the field in order to even be challenging for the gold.
Sensational stuff. Had to turn my camera off in my meeting as I knew there was no way I was going to keep a straight face
Wyatt Sanford looking good in the boxing for Canada this morning
That is what the Olympics is all about. Drama. Tears galore here. Very poor the French booing what was genius and not bad sportsmanship by any sense. Their man was 45 seconds up and blew it. Don't boo brilliance, recognise it.
I am not really bothered about the Olympics, but someone at a party I was at yesterday claimed that breakdancing is part of the current Olympics. Can anyone verify he was not just making it up for a laugh?
I also wonder what would be the five most non-sporting events they could add at this point? My guesses:
Formula 1
Pooh sticks would be amazing
I bet they could make a sport out of the ‘rolling the ball along the ground to each other’ that the ball kids do at the tennis
Do enjoy the Olympics. Must be an unbelievable feeling to be a parent of anyone representing team GB.
Mini golf
I once knew a retired professional who sank his earnings into a failed new sport he invented that was basically 'Ceiling Ball'. While I felt bad for him, I have never been able to shake the image of every serve being an ace and every game ending in a draw as a result.
@Shev yes, breakdancing is an Olympic sport now, might seem ridiculous at first but no more so than ice dancing which has been a staple of winter sports for blimmin’ ages. I am quite looking forward to seeing it.
I would love to see kabaddi taken up by the Olympic movement, used to love watching it on Channel 4 in the 80s, around the same time that they were broadcasting sumo wrestling.
In all, just a few days in and I have loved the canoeing, mountain biking, diving, badminton and the eventing, don’t really get the street skateboarding though, not my thing. The beardy smurf in the opening ceremony was a fun chap.
My highlight of the opening ceremony... hearing “Supernature” by Cerrone, which I bought as a single in 1977 and have not listened to since, during the Eiffel Tower laser show...
Driven by my insatiable curiosity, I had a quick listen. Probably partially (wholly?) an age/generational thing, and of course the iPhone sound quality isn’t exactly high fidelity, but, to me that is an unholy racket.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1pVv6xuGvyY&si=8jFRKleycYCwTBXA
I can fully understand why you’ve not listened to it for 47 years !! But, thinking about it, you are probably only a couple of decades younger than me.
I used to watch that same Kabaddi back in the day!
I just think if you have one type of dancing in (which in fairness to your point, we already have with ice dancing) you have to acknowledge dance in general as a sport, and allow tap dancing, ballet, swing dancing and ballroom dancing. Not to mention Lord of the Dance - there is an Irish gold locked up for the next century!
Ultimately, I am not a big fan of anything that has to be subjectively "judged" as an Olympic sport rather than objectively timed, measured or scored. It just seems rife for even more controversy than we have with VAR!
And where does it end? Should we have Olympic guitar playing and drumming? Why should music be any inferior to dance as a sport? And if music, why not the other arts? Olympic Modern Art, where artists are given seven random items and the one with the best excuse for why they "made art" wins gold? Olympic basket weaving? Olympic knitting?
I am looking forward to Olympic karaoke in 2028, though.
The ancient games used to have all sorts of artistic disciplines, they understood well the link between the body and the mind, put the two alongside each other and celebrated high achievement in both. Pre-WWII artistic disciplines were a feature of the modern games as well.
Music and dance are closely linked but there is an obvious physical aspect to dance that bridges the sporting and artistic world, it is a mode of expression which demands feats of strength, endurance and balance, almost seems like the perfect Olympic event.
@micra I’m well used to people trashing my musical taste. 🙂 However, I still think there’s something very much “of the time and place” about that Eurodisco ‘smash’, and so I was equally delighted to hear “Spacer” by Sheila & B. Devotion earlier in the piece, another late 70s disco tune which (apart from being sampled in a more recent song) I haven’t heard since my teenage years... don’t tell me you haven’t got a soft spot for Mr Chic himself, Nile Rogers, either?
There is ”Unholy racket” and there’s the stuff @glasshalfempty listens to... 😂
Surely the Olympics was brought into irredeemable disrepute the moment they invited the golfers in?
@our_frank You’ll change your mind when this gets an airing in the opening ceremony in 2032...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UJfP6G0LSEA&list=RDie1fZCY8iKY&index=32&pp=8AUB
Unless the Olympics is the pinnacle of your sport it should not be included -
Bye bye tennis, golf, football
Andy Murray says winning Olympic gold at London 2012 will be the memory he looks back on with the most fondness when he walks away from professional tennis.
I'm not going to disagree that Murray winning Wimbledon in front of a home crowd at Wimbledon was not an amazing moment. But if you ask all the pro's I am guessing they will not say winning gold at the Olympics is THE title. It will be a slam. In golf it will be The Masters. In football it will be the world cup.
Exactly this. Men's football in particular doesn't belong.