Olympics 2021

[muwarrior69]

Ugh! Who chose the lineup for the US mixed medley?

In tennis mixed doubles are two teams with one man and women on each team. Would be interesting if they had mixed relays in swimming and track and field. Would put men and women on equal footing.

[Warriors4ever]

They do have mixed relays in swimming and track. And I watched the mixed relay triathlon last night.

[Jockey]

Rowdy Gaines is the best analyst in any sport at the Olympics and has been the best for a long time.

[shoothoops]

Rowdy Gaines is the best analyst in any sport at the Olympics and has been the best for a long time.

Rowdy is great. Was a great swimmer and has been a great likable knowledgeable analyst a long time who knows the swimmers and spends time with them. (He's still a competitive National Swimmer for his age group.) Great swimming ambassador too.

You may want to give this guy a watch/listen on the CBC feed:

https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/1420882877013704705?s=21

[Warriors4ever]

I was in Vancouver in 2010 for a large part of the games and it was interesting watching the Canadian feed. Same with Lillehammer in 1994, watched the British feed a lot.
But yes I do like Rowdy Gaines.

[shoothoops]

So many good swimming events again, tonight, night after night. Really good. Bobby Finke 1500, (25.7 final 50) Caeleb Dressel 50. 4x100 medley relay World Record. Electric every night. So much beast.

Caeleb Dressel 5 Gold Medals ties Phelps, Biondi, Spitz for one Olympics.

Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Zach Apple on that 4x100 relay with Dressel

Smith Huske, Weitzeil, Jacoby Women's Silver 4x100 Silver. Jacoby was terrific. Great job.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Same with Lillehammer in 1994, watched the British feed.

Steven Van Zandt in the 2010"s was pretty good too.

[CreightonWarrior]

Great close to the Olympic swimming. Caleb is a monster.

[MuggsyB]

I don't know much about swimming but Finke sorta whooped some ass to close his races.  It's like he just shifted to 5th gear.  Sounds like an impressive night in the pool for the USA.

[warriorchick]

Rowdy is great. Was a great swimmer and has been a great likable knowledgeable analyst a long time who knows the swimmers and spends time with them. (He's still a competitive National Swimmer for his age group.) Great swimming ambassador too.

You may want to give this guy a watch/listen on the CBC feed:

https://twitter.com/richarddeitsch/status/1420882877013704705?s=21

I went to a Masters swim camp at Auburn awhile back and Rowdy was one of the instructors. Great guy. Pretty much the same personality irl as he is on TV.

[shoothoops]

I went to a Masters swim camp at Auburn awhile back and Rowdy was one of the instructors. Great guy. Pretty much the same personality irl as he is on TV.

That's great. That's a good, fun, experience.

His secret is that while he's knowledgeable, competitive and objective, but, he balances it by being relentlessly positive, encouraging, with good energy. Bill Raftery has that ability in basketball.

And he does this with anyone and everyone, enjoying what he is doing. And he has been doing that a long time, while being an all time great at his sport as well.That's rarified air.

It helps but it is not required that the U.S. is often good, ...adds to it. He can point out a mistake but pivot to positive solutions and say it in an uplifting way. He takes the time to get to know the swimmers throughout the year and work with them. He's genuinely happy for their success because of that. Rowdy's visual reaction when Dressel won Rowdy's race, 100 Free, was great. (Rowdy won Gold in 100 Free) They both live in Florida.

Rowdy won 3 Olympic Gold Medals, 5 WC Gold and 3 WC Silver. What some don't know or remember is that the 1980 boycott took away possibly 4 more Olympic Gold for him.

[shoothoops]

NM

[Warriors4ever]

Finley did just shift into another fear for the last 50 meters  last night, even Rowdy was like, whoa.... I mean, by the end it wasn't even close.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Rowdy Gaines is the best analyst in any sport at the Olympics and has been the best for a long time.

Yeah, he even makes swimming exciting, or really tries to, which is asking a lot.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Absolutely pathetic showing by the men's volleyball team.

Fire Speraw into the sun.

[The Sultan]

Watching field hockey now. Very strange.

[wadesworld]

Absolutely pathetic showing by the men's volleyball team.

Fire Speraw into the sun.

Yeah.  Brutal.

They're in trouble.  Anderson is old, Holt is old, and they don't have a quality second middle as it is.  And nobody in the pipeline to replace those guys.

Unfortunate because Shoji, Christenson, Anderson, Holt, Sander, and Russell are all elite.  Russell obviously out with injury hurt a lot.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Yeah.  Brutal.

They're in trouble.  Anderson is old, Holt is old, and they don't have a quality second middle as it is.  And nobody in the pipeline to replace those guys.

Unfortunate because Shoji, Christenson, Anderson, Holt, Sander, and Russell are all elite.  Russell obviously out with injury hurt a lot.

Serving has been a major issue for them all cycle. I get they're a pretty poor blocking team and they need to be aggressive.

But tone it down a bit and at least give yourselves a chance.

[wadesworld]

Serving has been a major issue for them all cycle. I get they're a pretty poor blocking team and they need to be aggressive.

But tone it down a bit and at least give yourselves a chance.

Yeah. Blocking is a major issue. And it really shouldn't be. It's not even stuff blocks. They got teams out of system, got a solid triple block up, and then just let them tool the block. They had no ability to put up a solid block and play defense around it.

[shoothoops]

Watching field hockey now. Very strange.

Something specific that happened or the sport in general? 

I've lived in and have visited other places where Field Hockey has a pretty strong following. The Women's NCAA playoffs this year had some great games and atmospheres. And of the Olympic play is a whole other level.

[shoothoops]

UC's Jordan Thompson has been outstanding and fun to watch for USA Women's Olympic Volleyball. Tough injury the other day.

[warriorchick]

Yeah, he even makes swimming exciting, or really tries to, which is asking a lot.

Watching swim races is exciting.  Training for swim races is possibly the most boring physical pursuit ever.  At least when you are running the scenery changes occasionally.

[MuggsyB]

Watching swim races is exciting.  Training for swim races is possibly the most boring physical pursuit ever.  At least when you are running the scenery changes occasionally.

I agree and really hadn't watched a ton of swimming before.  Although sailfish can swim close to 70 mph which I find more amazing.  Think about that for a second....what's the mph for Dressel or s Phelps?  7 mph?

[shoothoops]

This is how much it means qualifying for the 400 Meter Hurdle Semifinals for Colombia:

https://twitter.com/david_blough10/status/1421861879794835458?s=21

https://twitter.com/onherturf/status/1421589151577686024?s=21

https://twitter.com/sportsdayhs/status/1420570648162848768?s=21

[JWags85]

Watching swim races is exciting.  Training for swim races is possibly the most boring physical pursuit ever.  At least when you are running the scenery changes occasionally.

My HS had an excellent swim team and a couple of my friends/classmates ended up swimming at high level D1 programs. I just remember them always getting to school at like 530 to swim laps before classes started.  And then practice after school obviously.  And we had an Olympic pool but it was adjustable and since they used it for gym classes during the day, it was normally set to 25 meters in the morning so thats even more quick and repetitive.  I couldn't even imagine.  Mental challenges like you read about.