A thread for your stupid Olympics questions

[FriendlyNeighbourhoodAccountant]

If you have any "stupid" questions about the Olympics here's the place to ask them. Hopefully some knowledgeable people will know the answers.

At this temperature it's too hot for me to walk my dog but the horses are participating in the jumping events. Does the heat not impact them in the same way? Is it because they're bigger? Is it just because they're horses?

I think the horse riding is being replaced by obstacle racing, but I can't work out from this if it's for the 2024 Olympics or not. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_pentathlon

Oh yes!! The random horse lottery

DISTRESSING CONTENT IN VIDEO

Very distressed horse and it gets hit by a coach.

It was this shit show that led to the event being banned.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/07/german-modern-pentathlon-kim-raisner-coach-thrown-out-of-tokyo-olympics-for-punching-horse-annika-schleu

DISTRESSING CONTENT IN VIDEO

The official Paris Olympics website suggests they are still horsing this year

The obstacle racing looks like it might be an Olympic Tough Mudder, which for some reason I find very funny.

Thanks, I hope they treat the horses better.

That's a disgrace if true because they said it had been banned/suspended

Thanks for that, I'm glad it's being discontinued really. It has provided a few comedy moments over the years but it isn't really fair on the horses who didn't volunteer to be there and don't know what's going on.
I liked the idea of their rider giving the entrants tips about how to ride the horse, it might have helped eliminate all the whipping and jabbing 😬

I know nothing about horses but I just wish one day one would decide to bite someone treating them poorly. Horses get a bad time of it in sport 😢

Back to the subject onTV Channels showing Olympics, Eurosport have 3 channels on all day, although sometimes only showing 2 different sports.
Schedules: there are Team GB and Olympics Apps free from App Store with details of timings, results, althletes and medal table.

https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/sports/modern-pentathlon

Thanks for this thread OP. Fascinating stuff. Passing out with tiredness now but will be picking it back up up tomoz ☺️😴

I'm wondering if they felt that giving only 3 years notice of a major change to the sport was too much of an ask given how far in advance the games have to be organised plus any change would have to be tested at major tournaments before the Olympics to make sure it worked. I agree, I'm glad the horse riding element is being banned; I read somewhere that part of the issue was that the equestrian element didn't award as many points as some of the other disciplines so a lot of athletes didn't practice it as much. This obviously led to them not being able to adequately ride the horses.

Actually now I think about it; the equestrian part of the pentathalon is the perfect argument to anyone who says "Oh equestrianism isn't a real sport, the rider just sits there and the horse does all the work." Nah mate. Watching footage of both events is like night and day and really shows how much difference there is between a world class rider and a less experienced one. (Yes I know the showjumpers train with their horses constantly and know them very well but I feel that a lot of them would do far better on a strange horse than the pentathalon athletes)

In some show jumping competitions competitors swap horses for a round which would be interesting to see at this level. We see the result of years of training together so it looks effortless but in reality if you or I sat on one of these horses we would be on the floor in seconds!

This was my question too!

If you're talking about Imane Khelif then you need to make sure you have the full facts. It all seem quite unclear but she is not a transgender man.

Poor woman has chromosomes which makes her XY and female. Not her fault, but equally a mind bendlingly difficult issue for the IOC and boxing federation to solve. Just as athletics had to wrangle to snake with Caster Semenya who was also a DSD female athlete.

It seems to be a really complicated issue and if I had my way nobody would be hitting each other in the face regardless of sex.
However, using this person as part of a wider transgender athlete argument is incredibly unfair.

I only caught the medal ceremonies for the women's eights and I'm sure I couldn't Google this but in the interest of keeping the thread going.. why are there nine team members if it's called eights?

One of them is the cox! Eight rowing, one shouting instructions about stroke rate etc!

Is it 8 people rowing and then a cox?
I actually came on with a similar question. In one men's 8 team they seemed to have 1 woman with them. So is the cox allowed to be female even in a men's race (and vice versa I suppose?)

I agree that it’s a dreadful situation for all concerned, including the DSD athletes. But they are not female. They are male. They have XY (male) chromosomes, internal testes that make male levels of testosterone, and their bodies can use that testosterone in the normal way for males.

I'd like to know where to get the white flat cap - is it baker boy style? - worn by the assistants to the officials, not the french team kit but the staff/crew hats

Thanks.. second question.. what's a cox? Just someone who takes charge?