12/21/24
Olympics
October 01, 2023
Track and Field Official Struck by Hammer Throw: An official at the Asian Games broke his leg when he was struck by an errant hammer throw during competition. After the 16-pound flying ball from Kuwait's Ali Zankawi went far left and went into the netting and then hit Huang Qinhua, 62, Zankawi ran to the official and created a makeshift tourniquet with his hands to stop the bleeding. Video of the incident.
posted by rcade to olympics at 03:17 PM - 0 comments
June 26, 2023
Belgian Shot Putter Overcomes Hurdles to Save Her Team: When Belgium was facing disqualification from the European Championships for not fielding anyone in the 100-meter hurdles due to injuries, shot putter and hammer thrower Jolien Boumkwo leapt at the chance.
posted by rcade to olympics at 11:40 AM - 2 comments
June 11, 2023
Kenyan Distance Runner Breaks Two World Records in One Week: One week after setting the 1,500-meter world record, Kenyan distance runner Faith Kipyegon has set the 5,000-meter world record. No woman has held both records simultaneously since Paola Pigni of Italy in 1969. It was only Kipyegon's third time to compete at 5,000 meters and first time in eight years. Watch the race.
February 18, 2022
Tell Us How You Really Feel, Alexandra Trusova: "Everyone has a gold medal, everyone, but not me. I hate skating. I hate it. I hate this sport. I will never go out on the ice again! Never! I hate! It’s impossible, it’s impossible! You can not do it this way." -- Russian figure skating silver medalist Alexandra Trusova
posted by rcade to olympics at 04:01 PM - 0 comments
January 27, 2022
How Old is Too Old in Women's Figure Skating?: Two of the three American women competing in figure skating at the Winter Olympics next month are older than every gold medalist since 1932 but one. Mariah Bell is 25 and Karen Chen is 22. "I remember the first time someone asked me what it felt like to be a veteran and I was so shocked," Chen said.
posted by rcade to olympics at 01:36 PM - 2 comments
August 01, 2021
'Can We Have Two Golds?': afidelf on Twitter: "Fave moment of the Olympics so far. Barshim (Qatar) and Tamberi (Italy) were tied in the high-jump final. The official is there talking about a prospective jump-off, but Barshim asks immediately: 'Can we have two golds?' One look, no words exchanged, they know they're sharing it."
July 28, 2021
How Fear Affects the Mental Health and Physical Safety of Elite Gymnasts: "The twisties are a mysterious phenomenon -- suddenly a gymnast is no longer able to do a twisting skill she's done thousands of times before. Your body just won't cooperate, your brain loses track of where you are in the air. You find out where the ground is when you slam into it."
posted by rcade to olympics at 01:14 PM - 4 comments
April 22, 2021
Olympics Will Punish Athletes Who Protest: The International Olympic Committee plans to punish athletes who protest at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, claiming that 70 percent of the athletes agree with them. "We believe that the example we set by competing with the world’s best while living in harmony in the Olympic Village is a uniquely positive message to send to an increasingly divided world," the committee announced. Because there's no better way to demonstrate harmony than to ban disharmony.
January 22, 2021
2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics to be cancelled.:
posted by grum@work to olympics at 12:08 AM - 3 comments
October 28, 2020
Ken Pomeroy takes on Curling: Because everything is messed up, the last NCAA basketball tournament was cancelled, and who knows what's going to happen with the upcoming NCAA season, Ken Pomeroy has turned his statistical forecasting mind towards a niche market: Curling
March 22, 2020
The first domino falls: Canada pulls out of this summer's Olympics/Paralympics:
I suspect many other nations will follow suit.
posted by grum@work to olympics at 11:37 PM - 2 comments
October 26, 2019
'The French Olympic logo tumbles out of bed on a Parisian morning.': The Paris journalist Megan Clement had the best take on the newly unveiled 2024 Olympics logo, which was launched with the words "The medal, the flame, Marianne."
posted by rcade to olympics at 07:29 PM - 3 comments
October 12, 2019
Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Barrier in Marathon: Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya has become the first human to run a marathon in under two hours, a feat that's unofficial but still incredible. A July 2019 study by Simon D. Angus of Monash University predicted it will happen in an official race in 2032. I like the under on that.
posted by rcade to olympics at 04:39 PM - 0 comments
February 26, 2018
The 2018 Winter Olympics are over and Norway won: With a record-setting 39 medals (14 gold), Norway surely overachieved at these games. USA were the main gifters, I'd say, finishing fourth with 23 (9 gold). Esther Ledecka (Czeck Republic) was my favorite medalist at these Games, the first two win gold in two different sports at the same Olympiad, winning in both snowboarding and skiing. Tokyo is just over two years away, hey hey!
posted by billsaysthis to olympics at 11:25 AM - 5 comments
January 24, 2018
Up to 175 Years: "Once a world-renowned sports physician treating America's foremost Olympic women gymnasts, Larry Nassar now will spend the rest of his life behind bars."
posted by tahoemoj to olympics at 02:52 PM - 2 comments
July 23, 2017
Icarus: A new film exposes the level and scope of state sponsored cheating by Russia in the London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Olympics. And the limited ability of anyone to do anything about it.
April 04, 2017
NHL will not officially release players to play in the 2018 Winter Olympics.:
Some teams (Senators) have announced they will not allow their players to participate, while other teams (Capitals) have said they will release their players to play if they choose to go.
August 15, 2016
Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky in the Same Relay? It Could Happen.: What if there were one last event, a mixed-gender medley that teamed the nation’s winningest women with its most-medalled men.
posted by bender to olympics at 12:57 PM - 3 comments
August 11, 2016
WGN Anchor Goes on Epic Rant About Rules for Covering Olympics: Fed up with the restrictions on video and logo usage imposed by NBC Universal on other TV networks and stations, WGN sports anchor Pat Tomasulo had an entertaining Howard Beale meltdown. "I'm not even going to report on the Olympics, I'm going to report on that other event that's going on -- the international athletic competition run by one of the most corrupt organizations in the world," he says.
posted by rcade to olympics at 01:26 PM - 4 comments
August 04, 2016
FINA - as bad as FIFA? : The murky waters of international swimming.
June 16, 2016
Even With Confession of Cheating, World’s Doping Watchdog Did Nothing: "WADA, the global regulator of doping in Olympic sports, did not begin an inquiry, even though a staff lawyer circulated the message to three top officials, calling the accusations “relatively precise,” including names and facts. Instead, the agency did something that seemed antithetical to its mission to protect clean athletes. It sent Ms. Pishchalnikova’s email to Russian sports officials — the very people who she said were running the doping program."
posted by kokaku to olympics at 10:11 AM - 0 comments
December 01, 2015
The Natural: In October 2014, Andrea Duke, 35 years old and a competitive runner for only one of them, qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials.
posted by rumple to olympics at 07:29 PM - 3 comments
August 11, 2015
Katie Ledecky: now 8 seconds faster swimming 400 metres freestyle than Mark Spitz ever was.
posted by rumple to olympics at 03:07 PM - 0 comments
July 31, 2015
The IOC announces Beijing as the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics.: Beijing, which hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008, barely squeaked out a 44-40 win over its only competitor, Almaty, Kazakhstan. Pointing at the fact that a Beijing hosted Olympics would require relying on artificial snow, Almaty's campaign slogan was "Keeping It Real".
posted by Ufez Jones to olympics at 01:45 PM - 3 comments
July 30, 2015
There's something in the Olympic water in Rio...and it's not good.:
Athletes competing in next year's Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games
posted by grum@work to olympics at 01:30 PM - 11 comments
July 27, 2015
Boston 2024 is DEAD.: After Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced he would not sign any Olympic contract that required the city to make up cost overruns, it seems that the city and the USOC have gone their seperate ways.
posted by ursus_comiter to olympics at 03:20 PM - 2 comments
June 22, 2015
Tokyo 2020 Committee Releases Short List of New Sports: Eight sports are in line for addition to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics: baseball/softball, bowling, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, surfing, wushu, and karate. Tokyo 2020 organizers will make their recommendation this September, with the IOC making its final decision next August. The list of non-recommended sports was a vast one: air sports, bowls, bridge, chess, dance sport, floorball, flying disc, football, korfball, netball, orienteering, polo, racquetball, sumo, tug of war, underwater sports and waterski and wakeboard.
posted by Etrigan to olympics at 02:13 PM - 7 comments
May 06, 2015
The Man Who Never Was, Or Who Was He?: The story of Clifford Grey and the gold medal winning 1928 and 1932 bobsled team.
December 08, 2014
Alia Atkinson Becomes First Black Female Swimming Champion: The Jamaican Alia Atkinson became the first black woman to win a world swimming title, taking the 100-meter breaststroke at the world short-course championships Saturday. The 25-year-old also tied the world record of 1 minutes, 2.36 seconds set by Ruta Meilutyte. Check out the link for a photo of her epic reaction upon learning what she did.
October 03, 2014
Why no one wants to host the 2022 Olympics: The surest sign that the bid process for hosting the Olympics is broken is actually not the trail of bribe money or crony-rich government contracts at the feet of International Olympic Committee members... The effect is the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games, which is now down to just two cities. The final vote comes next summer. There's Beijing, China, which doesn't actually sit within 120 miles of a usable ski mountain, and there's Almaty, Kazakhstan, which in its bid touted itself as "the world's largest landlocked nation." It's down to these two cities not because the IOC narrowed the field, but because every other city in the entire world said no.
posted by Ufez Jones to olympics at 12:25 AM - 11 comments
February 24, 2014
How Cities Fared After the Olympics Left Town: CBS News returns to the Olympic Games venues of the past three decades to see how many of the facilities constructed for the event are still around benefiting their communities. The gold medal of sadness goes to 1984 host Sarajevo: "The bobsleigh and luge track on Mount Trbevic was turned into an artillery position from which Bosnian Serbs pounded the city for almost four years."
posted by rcade to olympics at 08:48 PM - 14 comments
February 23, 2014
Dutch Speedskating Coach No Fan of American Football: Dutch speedskating coach Jillert Anema, fresh off his country winning 21 of its 22 medals in that sport at the Sochi Games, has a unique theory for why the U.S. wasn't as successful in that competition: "You have a lot of attention for foolish sport, like American football. You waste a lot of talent, athletic talent, in a sport where it's meant to kill each other, to injure each other. … And when you compete once every four years, with talent, with a few lone wolves, who are skating, you can't beat the world, it's no way. [The US.]. is so narrow-minded, and you waste a lot of good talent in a sport that sucks."
posted by rcade to olympics at 04:33 PM - 3 comments
February 19, 2014
Olympian Took Name of German Underwear Company: One of the men's luge competitors, Bruno Banani of Tonga, renamed himself after a Germany underwear company of the same name. There are Olympic rules about marketing athletes, but none that prohibited Fuahea Semi from taking the name as part of an effort in Tonga to get an Olympian to compete. He failed to qualify in Vancouver four years ago, crashing and waking up in the hospital, but made it to Sochi. "This is the name that made history for me," he said. "And I will stay with it. The name will always be there. Whatever people want to call me, it just doesn't matter."
posted by rcade to olympics at 05:08 PM - 2 comments
February 06, 2014
Why is the world's gayest sport stuck in the closet?: A perceptive long essay from buzzfeed examines sexuality and men's figure skating.
posted by rumple to olympics at 07:19 PM - 2 comments
How to Watch the Olympics: The Winter Olympics begins today in Sochi, Russia, with events broadcast on several NBC TV networks. Also, every event will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.Com, as long as you have a cable or satellite TV subscription.
posted by rcade to olympics at 08:46 AM - 18 comments
September 07, 2013
Tokyo Wins the 2020 Summer Olympics: After Madrid was eliminated, Tokyo beat Istanbul in the final vote for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Concerns over the lingering environmental effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster may have been outweighed by concerns over Middle East unrest and Spanish economic woes. This puts the Olympics in East Asia for consecutive events, with the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea.
posted by Etrigan to olympics at 04:58 PM - 8 comments
August 11, 2013
Usain Bolt Meet Lightning Bolt: Photo by Olivier Morin of AFP: Jamaica's Usain Bolt wins the 100m final at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
August 01, 2013
Sochi Athletes Subject to Anti-Gay Law: Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko warned Thursday that athletes and visitors to the Sochi Olympics will be subject to the country's laws against promoting homosexuality, contradicting a statement from the International Olympic Committee that the government had promised they would be exempt.
posted by bender to olympics at 08:49 AM - 2 comments
February 14, 2013
Oscar Pistorius Suspected in Girlfriend's Death: The Olympics and Paralympics runner Oscar Pistorius is suspected of murdering his girlfriend, the 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp. Around 4 a.m. local time Thursday, Steenkamp was shot multiple times at Pistorius' home in Pretoria, South Africa. Police dismissed press reports suggesting that he mistook her for an intruder and said they had been at the house in the past for "allegations of a domestic nature." After winning a fight to compete with his "blade runner" prosthetics, Pistorius reached the 400-meter semi-finals at the London Olympics. Yesterday, Steenkamp expressed excitement on Twitter about Valentine's Day, posting the message, "What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow??? #getexcited #ValentinesDay."
posted by rcade to olympics at 08:33 AM - 30 comments
February 12, 2013
Olympics drop wrestling for 2020: The International Olympic Committee has dropped wrestling from the list of "core" sports as of the 2020 Games. The shocking decision would mean that the sport, which had 18 events for men and women at last year's London games, is off the program for the first time since 1900.
posted by Etrigan to olympics at 01:11 PM - 26 comments