London 2012 Summer Olympics

[ghost]

Because you resemble Reese Hoffa?   

[01101010]

I take it that is a piece of marble? 

[Trippy]

US womens' soccer is trying really hard to lose to Canada.  Christine Sinclair is pretty much a badass. 

That was a ridiculously entertaining soccer game until the refs ruined it.

I've always hated soccer refereeing, but I'm willing to admit that debatable calls happen in the box - no one's perfect. But to have a call, that no one seems to even remember ever being called before in that manner, to give a free kick from the penalty spot, for delay of game in an Olympic semifinal - yea, I honestly really don't feel like watching any more of the games right now.

I don't know if I will.

Not that it'll make you feel any better but here's the US side of the story:

Abby Wambach's brains provided crucial assist to U.S. women's soccer's comeback against Canada

tl;dr Abby Wambach was continually making the referee aware that the Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod was slowing down the game by holding the ball longer than was allowed by the rules until finally the referee could no longer ignore the situation.

[Lucas]

Just finished watching a ridiculously good women's volleyball quarterfinal match between Russia and Brazil; the south americans won 21-19 in the fifth set tiebreaker after facing five match points; then, they won on their first one   . Awesome, awesome match (with gorgeous women, always a plus)  

In about half an hour, USA vs. Dominican Republic and then the last quarterfinal, Italy vs. South Korea (so, there is a high chance for a Italy vs. USA semifinal   )

[shiznitz]

Find your ideal Olympic match!  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19050139

Mine was Jun Zhang, Chinese shotputter.

Richard Lambourne, USA Volleyball.  Yes, I am tall.

[Sir T]

Martin Padar, Estonia, Judo 

[Paelos]

I got Natalya Fokina-Semenova, a discus throwing chick from the Ukraine.



Giggity 

[ghost]

Wow.  Gabby Douglas really mailed it in.   

[Sjofn]

You're tall.  

Heeeey, for all you know ol' Aleksandar is 5'3".

OK, yes. I am kinda tall.  

He's 6ft. And looks like an extra from GTA IV

Hey, I punched in 5'11"! Totally different!

And yeah I don't mind if people know my height and weight. I'm 5'11" and weigh 185 lbs. See?  


EDIT: I would like to say my face is not as chubby as Aleksandar's, though. My chubbiness resides in my butt and thighs.   

[Trippy]

Wow.  Gabby Douglas really mailed it in.   

She's been sucking in the individual events. Winning the all-around Gold apparently took a lot out of her

[ghost]

Yeah, if you watched her body language before the parallel bars last night you could see that something was wrong with her.  My wife and I thought that she might be sick or something.  She and her coach came out for the intros and then went back in for a bit.  I wonder if most of it isn't total physical fatigue.

[Ingmar]

In some sort of reverse symmetry, I got matched with a woman athlete:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Allen

[ghost]

The NYTimes has an interesting article that compares Usain Bolt's time in the 100 to every olympic medal winner ever. 

It's amazing to see how times have decreased over the years.  Hell, Gatlin this year would have had the best time ever if it weren't for the crazy Jamaicans. 

[DraconianOne]

Gatlin should have kept taking the drugs then. 

[ghost]

He may have.  It's his best time ever.   

[Cyrrex]

Honestly, it is starting to look physically impossible for these smaller guys to run lower than they already are.  Gatlin already runs like a freaking machine, it is hard to imagine that there can be many hundreds left to squeeze out of that frame.  Same with Blake.  Usain has them beat if for no other reason than his long stride. 

[DraconianOne]

Height in the 100m as huge a factor as you might think. Of the top ten fastest 100m runners in history, most are under 6'. Bolt and Powell are the tallest (6'5 and 6'3) but Maurice Greene and Steve Mullings, for example, are both 5'9.  Half the issue is speed out of the blocks - Bolt's strength and stride helps him in the latter part of the race but shorter sprinters get out of the blocks faster and have a quicker turnover to get up to speed quicker. (Short is relative - they're all still tall compared to most middle/long distance runners).

In the 200m, height and stride length are far more of an issue - most of the top 10 fastest runners have been tall - Michael Johnson is 6'1, Carter and Spearmon are 6'3 (Yohan Blake is one of the shortest at 5'11) and in the 400m, all of the top 10 are over 6'1.

[Cyrrex]

Height in the 100m as huge a factor as you might think. Of the top ten fastest 100m runners in history, most are under 6'. Bolt and Powell are the tallest (6'5 and 6'3) but Maurice Greene and Steve Mullings, for example, are both 5'9.  Half the issue is speed out of the blocks - Bolt's strength and stride helps him in the latter part of the race but shorter sprinters get out of the blocks faster and have a quicker turnover to get up to speed quicker. (Short is relative - they're all still tall compared to most middle/long distance runners).

In the 200m, height and stride length are far more of an issue - most of the top 10 fastest runners have been tall - Michael Johnson is 6'1, Carter and Spearmon are 6'3 (Yohan Blake is one of the shortest at 5'11) and in the 400m, all of the top 10 are over 6'1.

You are right, I didn't mean it to sound as if height was normally the deciding factor.  Only that in Usain Bolt's case, as an exception to the rule, it is a huge factor.  Usually these tall guys just aren't mechnically able to pump their legs fast enough to compete over short distances.  Bolt is a freak of nature, though, and despite relatively bad starts he manages to stay in contact over the first 40 or 50 meters.  He has already redefined what was thought possible from a human being.  Imagine if he could get out of the blocks as fast as Gatlin or Blake!

[DraconianOne]

Freak of nature is right. 

[ghost]

That is going to be the next step in the evolution of the race-  tall guys that can get off the blocks relatively quickly and have a long stride.  Bolt is so far ahead of everyone else that it's silly. 

[Cyrrex]

That is going to be the next step in the evolution of the race-  tall guys that can get off the blocks relatively quickly and have a long stride.  Bolt is so far ahead of everyone else that it's silly. 

I'm not so sure.  Bolt is an anomaly, an outlier.  Will there ever even be other guys that can get off the blocks and run as fast as him at his height, or is he just a geniune freak of nature?  My guess is that I won't see another like him in my lifetime.  Even if someone like Yohan Blake eventually runs a 9.58 (which I highly doubt, even if it is drug fueled), I still don't think you will see another Usain Bolt any time soon.

[ghost]

Those same quotes have been said about basically every gold medal winner ever.  The same stuff was said about Carl Lewis.  As Draconion One mentioned, biomechanically it only makes sense that increased leg length (and therefore stride) is the next area where athletes will improve their sprint.  25 years ago people were tall like that but didn't have the muscle mass of someone that was 5'10" so it was hard for them to compete.  I'm not saying that you'll see 6'10" guys out there running in the 100 and 200, but I think you'll start to see more 6'2" guys in the next 25 years. 

[DraconianOne]

25 years ago people were tall like that but didn't have the muscle mass of someone that was 5'10" so it was hard for them to compete. 

Unfortunately that's not really true. Both Carl Lewis and Linford Christie were 6'2 and there were other 6'0 - 6'2 100m sprinters around as well. Lewis was a phenomenonal athlete because of winning at 3 events (100m, 200m, Long Jump). The guy won Long Jump gold at 4 Olympics - that's unheard of, not to mention breaking the 100m world record 3 times. That's why they said you won't see his like again, not because of his 100m performance.

Bolt's strength lies in the ability to consistently maintain a fucking fast speed over the last 60m of the 100m. - the key word being consistent. On his world record race in Berlin, he kept up a speed of 0.81 - 0.83 per 10m for each of the last 6 splits. Prior to that, the fastest people over the last 30m were the likes of Carl Lewis and Tyson Gay who had splits of 0.85 over the last 20m but would sometimes hit the same speeds in the middle of the race as Bolt.

Bolt's 10 - 40m splits were comparable to someone like Maurice Greene (0.99, 0.9, 0.86) but his first 10 meters is much slower than a load of people (1.89 in Berlin compared to say Maurice Greene's 1.69 in his WR race in Athens '99). Also, his reaction time of 0.146 in Berlin would only have been the third fastest reaction in the sunday's final. (Worth mentioning that Lewis was also as astoundingly fast over the first 50m too - and Ben Johnson was faster but he was stupid and took drugs)

There have been other runners who were quicker than him over the first 40m. Also, his reaction time is pants. Even on Sunday he had a reaction time of 0.165 and was beaten out of the blokes by 4 other people. Even on his Berlin world record run, he would still been 3rd out of the blocks.

There's more to it than that, mostly to do with his training and coaching but I don't have time to go into it right now.

[lamaros]

I bet we will see more fast tall guys like Bolt in the next 50 years, easy.

[ghost]

(Worth mentioning that Lewis was also as astoundingly fast over the first 50m too - and Ben Johnson was faster but he was stupid and took got caught taking drugs)

 

[DraconianOne]

I bet we will see more fast tall guys like Bolt in the next 50 years, easy.

I'm not sure. It's possible but there are a couple of factors.

1. Recent studies and research have shown that the theory that humans are getting taller over time may well be a fallacy so height may stay consistent.
2. There are lots of tall track and field athletes - but many become high jumpers, discus throwers (gold medallist Robert Harting is 6'7) or decathletes (Daley Thompson's great rival, Jurgen Hingsen, was 6'7, UK Decathlete Dean Macey was 6'5, Trey Hardee - currently 2nd in Olympic Decathlon today is 6'5)
3. There's more money to be made in other sports like Basketball and American Football etc so fast, exceptionally tall athletes may well find their vocation there rather than track and field. (Where available, obv)

But on the other hand, Bolt's legacy might be that coaches won't tell taller athletes they're too large for 100m and encourage them into 200m or 400m without a second thought.

(Worth mentioning that Lewis was also as astoundingly fast over the first 50m too - and Ben Johnson was faster but he was stupid and took got caught taking drugs)

 

Good point... sure that's what I meant although both are true.

[ghost]

But on the other hand, Bolt's legacy might be that coaches won't tell taller athletes they're too large for 100m and encourage them into 200m or 400m without a second thought.

Those are all good points, but this may be a driving factor going forward.  Now that people have seen what a guy like Bolt can do it's a known commodity.

[sickrubik]

What if every Olympic sport was photographed like beach volleyball?

[MrHat]

[Paelos]

The fuck happened there?

[sickrubik]

It pretty much tells it's own tale, I think.

[Trippy]

The fuck happened there?

Spain was flopping constantly during the game and so the French player had enough and wanted to give them a real reason to flop. Also there was a lot of animosity built up against Spain for throwing their game against Brazil.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--team-usa-delivers-olympic-spirit--ndash--not-tanking-and-groin-shots.html

[Paelos]

Meh, it's a cheap shot, but I get it. The Olympic format has been rife with people throwing games in the prelims. They need to re-evaluate that format.

[Maledict]

What if every Olympic sport was photographed like beach volleyball?

Wel it certainly improves a lot of sports for me!

[Sjofn]

There's at least one picture there that I thought to myself, "Man, I wouldn't mind that at all."