Paris Olympics

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Nor should they have to. It's absolutely ridiculous what some cities have done in terms of building brand new venues and then never reusing them.

 

[Jimjamesak]

Nor should they have to. It's absolutely ridiculous what some cities have done in terms of building brand new venues and then never reusing them.

Even London probably built way more than necessary. Though they have at least had some justification with providing training infrastructure for various Olympic sports.

On that note, the World Athletics Championships are being held in Tokyo. So at least some of the athletes from 2020 are getting to race in front of crowds in that stadium.

 

[Spartanforlife4]

I might have mentioned it earlier in this thread, but LA is shipping softball to OKC so they don't have to build a softball stadium. UCLA's stadium would be too small with no room to expand, USC doesn't have softball, and I don't think they'd want the look of softball in a baseball stadium like Tokyo had.

 

[cF[Authentic]]

I booked tickets to two US men's hockey games in Milano in February and the ticketing is so weird. I paid for "Group A" which is the most expensive of the three but I won't actually know which section or row my seat is until it's assigned in December.

I had to include my nationality and residency info to order so I'm curious if I get sent to a USA section. Also, will be interesting for the game against Germany if they go by my nationality or residency for where I get placed.

 

[Jimjamesak]

Well they can’t assign you a seat or section because the arena hasn’t finished construction.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

I booked tickets to two US men's hockey games in Milano in February and the ticketing is so weird. I paid for "Group A" which is the most expensive of the three but I won't actually know which section or row my seat is until it's assigned in December.

This is the way World Cup ticketing is working also.

 

[Jimjamesak]

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the 400m in a time of 47.78. Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic was second at 47.98.

McLaughlin-Levrone and Paulino’s times are the second and third fastest 400m times in history and only the third and fourth times that a woman has run the 400m in under 48 seconds.

The other two are the world record of 47.60 run East Germany’s Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia’s 47.99.

It should be noted that both Koch and Kratochvilova’s are tainted by the fact that both have a suspected history of state sponsored doping through their entire careers (though both publicly deny it).

 

[RaceBoarder]

I mean those times have only stood for 40 or so years now... Nothing sus about that

 

[Jimjamesak]

I mean those times have only stood for 40 or so years now... Nothing sus about that

The fact that Koch’s time still stands as a world record is one of the biggest travesty in sports. It’s not only well documented in the Stasi files that she was receiving oral turinabol, she has a letter in the files that she wrote complaining about the fact that a rival athlete was receiving higher doses. Yet to this day she repeatedly denies that she ever used PEDs.

Kratochvilova at least falls into the category of “Track athlete in the 80’s who probably doped” which basically means she was a track athlete in the 80’s.

 

[Jimjamesak]

Double posting but if you want a perspective of how ridiculously tainted Koch's 400m world record is I'll give it a go.

Here's the list of current World Records.

On the Men's side, in the major, regularly run events, Yuriy Sedykh's Hammer Throw record is the oldest, dating back to 1986, and Sedykh does have doping allegations. There's Mike Powell's 1991 Long Jump record, which is a whole other discussion, but most of them are less than 30 years old.

On the Women's side, the records for the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 4x400m relay are all 30+ years old (and the old 4x100m record has only been broken twice) and are all held by athletes with either confirmed doping allegations or very very questionable histories.

Comparing the Top 25 all time records in the 400m between the men and women also shows how questionable it is.

For the men, the 400m world record is held by Wayde van Niekirk of South Africa at 43.03. The winning times at the Paris Olympics are #4 (Quincy Hall) and #5 (Matthew Hudson-Smith) all time at 43.40 and 43.44. The World Championship time (the #10) this year was Collen Kebinatshipi at 43.53. Notably, all the times are with half a second of the world record.

On the women's side, prior to this race, the world record was Koch's 47.60. The second fastest was Kratochvilova's 47.99 while the bronze medalist in this race Salwa Eid Naser had a 48.14 in 2019. The winning time at the Olympics last year was Paulino's 48.17. Both the #3 and #4 times were over half a second off the world record.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Yeah, Koch's record is 100% tainted. They literally forced their athletes to take so many PEDs, that a few female athletes ended up transitioning and now identify & live as males.

 

[Jimjamesak]

Yeah, Koch's record is 100% tainted. They literally forced their athletes to take so many PEDs, that a few female athletes ended up transitioning and now identify & live as males.

A bunch of them had complications including cancer and miscarriages.

A great documentary on the subject.

As for the records, I’m convinced that there’s some sort of silent agreement that keeps Koch’s 400m and Kratochvilova’s 800m records standing in exchange for keeping Flo-Jo’s 100m and 200m records, and legacy, intact.

 

[Jimjamesak]

US Men's 4x400 relay finished 6th in their prelim race and were eliminated. However both them and Kenya will run a re-race tomorrow morning after the Zambia team was DQ'd for some fairly obvious impeding in the baton exchanges.