Paris Olympics

[Spartanforlife4]

Women's basketball wins their 58th Olympic game in a row to cap off 3-0 in group play, though if France beats Australia by 17 they would not be the top seed going into the knockout round.

[Jimjamesak]

The Men's 100m definitely lived up to the hype.

[MichVandal]

The Men's 100m definitely lived up to the hype.

Indeed it did. Wow.

[RaceBoarder]

Question after the Men's 10K and with the marathon upcoming:

Are running shoes with those proprietary carbon fiber inserts still a thing and giving those that are affiliated with companies that produce them like a 4-7% peformane boost? Or has the Track & Field sanctioning body nuked that idea and made it so the stuff is available to everyone or no one?

[MichVandal]

Question after the Men's 10K and with the marathon upcoming:

Are running shoes with those proprietary carbon fiber inserts still a thing and giving those that are affiliated with companies that produce them like a 4-7% peformane boost? Or has the Track & Field sanctioning body nuked that idea and made it so the stuff is available to everyone or no one?

Yes, they are. This is very informative- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfIW...nnel=CleoAbram

[Jimjamesak]

What an exciting end to the women’s road race!!!

Third Alaskan to win a medal this Olympics. Second straight Olympics with an Alaskan winning a Gold Medal.

[MichVandal]

Someone needs to explain how Jordan Childs went from 4th to 3rd like that for the floor finals. Something odd happened there.

[Russell Jaslow]

Someone needs to explain how Jordan Childs went from 4th to 3rd like that for the floor finals. Something odd happened there.

The poor Romanian girl was up on the "stage" waving her country's flag celebrating.

From what I understand, they basically called for a "VAR" review. The review found the degree of difficulty was higher than originally scored. Ergo, the higher score.

But a) the optics look bad and b) there has to be a better process to go about that. (To be fair, when the initial score was announced, both Childs and her coach were quite animated as if they felt something wasn't right from the get go.)

[Jimjamesak]

Soccer is #1 in Brazil but volleyball is definitely #2. Crowds have been electric for volleyball.

[SonofSouthie]

The kid breaking the pole vault world record(after setting the Olympic record)on his last attempt was pretty sweet.

[MichVandal]

Soccer is #1 in Brazil but volleyball is definitely #2. Crowds have been electric for volleyball.

I'll repeat a question I posted before- given the popularity of volleyball in the US, especially mens, how is it that the US has a pretty darned strong team for mens volleyball? It seems that it's mostly a California only sport.

At least womens is played in pretty much all HS and college programs. Mens is really rare here.

[Jimjamesak]

I'll repeat a question I posted before- given the popularity of volleyball in the US, especially mens, how is it that the US has a pretty darned strong team for mens volleyball? It seems that it's mostly a California only sport.

At least womens is played in pretty much all HS and college programs. Mens is really rare here.

There’s enough numbers coming through the college programs into professional ranks that it’s enough to be competitive.

I think people kind of lose sight of how much other countries put into sports. For the most part, a lot of countries dump so many of their resources into soccer that even sports that might be #2 or #3 really don’t get very much. Volleyball is a prime example. Even though there’s professional leagues in Europe, Japan, and Brazil, they’re not as big as they’re made out to be and even the medium effort the US puts in is enough to be competitive.

[Spartanforlife4]

Could've had Morocco-Egypt in men's soccer. Instead it'll be France-Spain for the gold.

[MichVandal]

There’s enough numbers coming through the college programs into professional ranks that it’s enough to be competitive.

I think people kind of lose sight of how much other countries put into sports. For the most part, a lot of countries dump so many of their resources into soccer that even sports that might be #2 or #3 really don’t get very much. Volleyball is a prime example. Even though there’s professional leagues in Europe, Japan, and Brazil, they’re not as big as they’re made out to be and even the medium effort the US puts in is enough to be competitive.

What colleges? That's my real question- where are these guys coming from? I know the B1G doesn't have it. Between the P12 and the Big West- that's enough to keep the team on the top of the world? Given how much closer the rest of the world is to our very pro BB team- it just seems odd that such a limited source can be such a strong team.

And is there a pro men's VB series in the US (not including Puerto Rico- they do have pro VB, but they also represent themselves).

[Jimjamesak]

What colleges? That's my real question- where are these guys coming from? I know the B1G doesn't have it. Between the P12 and the Big West- that's enough to keep the team on the top of the world? Given how much closer the rest of the world is to our very pro BB team- it just seems odd that such a limited source can be such a strong team.

And is there a pro men's VB series in the US (not including Puerto Rico- they do have pro VB, but they also represent themselves).

Penn State, Ohio State, Harvard, Princeton, there’s a few there. There’s not a men’s pro league here in the US AFAIK.

For most Olympic sports, the numbers don’t have to be big. If there are 10 guys coming out of college volleyball every year to go play pro somewhere, that’s enough to be competitive.