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 completely agree, you’d think someone would have come up with a better solution by now - maybe the Velcro they use for netball bibs, or print their names on the material of their tops? Surely they could run to the expense for the Olympics. The number of times I’ve seen junior athletes with soggy numbers falling off halfway through a distance race in the pouring rain…..

Even champion swimmer's can get into difficulty if they suddenly become unwell. Look what happened with Christian Eriksen. If they hadn't been so on the ball he would no longer be here.

There is a flag on the committee boat and a flag on the pin mark. The start line is between those. The sailors will take transits looking along the line to make sure they can judge it when right on the line.

Is he a Bengal by any chance? Bengals love water I only know because there's one that lives near me. Tried to scare him away by spraying him with water and had the opposite effect.😂😂😂

Do the long hairstyles that are currently fashionable not slow women sprinters down? Or get sweaty and uncomfortable?

Can someone please explain 'neutralised start' in cycling? I've googled but am still unclear. It was nice to see all the cyclists looking fairly relaxed and chatting to each other yesterday, though!

Yes this is an annoyance to my DS as all his fastest swims comes in relays and he is always the anchor leg.

You get a time advantage on relay take overs. Can be as much as half a second. (My ds is also a swimmer)

As for the question about not kicking in LD swimming. They will kick at the end. A coach often uses the phrase "go to your legs". You preserve all the strength in them.

A bit of a sore point for my ds - a para swimmer - who uses everything his legs have just on dive and turns 😂 His stroke is more aligned with a distance swimmers than a sprinters - but he's actually a good sprinter 🤔

Yes this. Imagine being brought up thinking (knowing) you were one thing and then one day that is all of a sudden put into question. Add the complication of your profession having no clear guidance as to whether this changes what you are allowed to do. She is not at fault as an individual and does not deserve this vitriol.

If anything the situation highlights how difficult it is to draw a clear distinction between biological sexes. ALL successful profesional athletes are biologically abnormal/unusual in one way or another. Be that lactate threshold, height, ability to withstand hypoxia, testosterone levels, musculoskeletal structure…

I’m not saying that those with DSD should be able to compete in women’s categories. Perhaps chromosomes are where the distinction SHOULD be drawn. I think it can be easy to forget that actually being a professional athlete or Olympian isn’t a right. I think it was Jan Frodeno who once argued that perhaps if you need a TUE, profesional triathlon isn’t for you for example. Perhaps, unfortunately, if you have DSD professional sport is not for you.

It just means the race doesn't actually start right at the beginning. They'll ride out together usually behind a lead car to a point where racing actually begins. You'll see it quite often in thing like stages of grand tours where a day might start in say a small town square but you actually wouldn't really want a couple of hundred pro cyclists racing there. So you have a neutralised start so that the crowds get to see everyone and it's a great atmosphere, but the racing proper doesn't begin until they are out of town onto more suitable roads.

They are checking they have their feet on the ledges correctly and keep them there. That when they raise up they remain in a legal position. They also check starts as timing pads fail but if they call a false start they will check the timing pad to see if it's true.

In para euros this year a swimmer (who is amazing and wins everything in their classification!) was disqualified for a false start in the final. An appeal meant the block was checked (freestyle) and they were reinstated. Meant gold got silver, silver got bronze and bronze lost a medal - it's harsh!
My ds went from 5th to 6th! Not quite as traumatic for him as he wasn't expected to even final!

@MrsAvocet thanks, I couldn't stay past the very beginning of the race - so that means they all lined up at a more appropriate (wider, I guess) spot, and then there was a gunshot or whatever and then they began?

I also want to know why the sprinters use safety pins to attach their paper numbers. The drag on them must have an effect, and when hundredths of a second make the difference, I'd have thought there would be a more modern method.

I dont think so I think they just keep going but at a particular point the race begins. Cycling races are so long and feature so many that the traditional idea of a start line and a ready set go type start isn't really necessary.

I was out yesterday so didn't see the road race unfortunately but generally no, they don't stop again, it's a rolling start. Usually the race director is in the lead car and waves a flag to start the actual racing.

Michael Johnson has gone on record several times criticising bibs and safety pins saying that they look terrible and are . He's setting up a new track league to start in 2025 and has said that there won't be using safety pins, but it hasn't been revealed yet what will happen if the athletes will have numbers at all.

I said the same thing, there was even a shot of one of them having someone do up the safety pins like a social race in the park. Its so antiquated, why not print their names onto the tops, it's not like they have to share clothing

What's the deal with the hurdles? Does it matter if you knock them down?

No, as in you don't get disqualified of you do, but hitting them slows you down.

I think this about the hair and nails tbf!

DH wandered past the TV during some gymnastics the other day and asked why Johnny Vagus was doing the commentary. I can't unhear it every time Craig Heap speaks now.

you'll get disqualified if deliberately knock them down - you have to make an 'honest effort' to hurdle them.

factoid - at the 1932 Olympics Bob Tisdall of Ireland gold in the 400m hurdles in the fastest time ever ran, 51.7 seconds. However, he wasn't attributed a world record as he knocked over the last hurdle which was against the rules at the time for WR purposes but the guy who finished in silver also broke the previous record and so became the WR holder. The rules were later changed so it didn't matter if you knocked over any hurdles.

It won’t help that the fencing commentary has been absolutely woeful. They keep saying all sorts of things about the rules and procedures which are just incorrect!

And how come all participants and all sports have the most fantastically white teeth? - really amazing!

How does it work with athletes practising once they are at the Olympics? Are there lots of gyms in the Olympic village? Or do they get practice slots out of hours say in nearby swimming pools or secondary schools? Or is that it once they are in Paris until their event, just push ups in their rooms?

There are practice tracks/pools etc and for things like the rowing they get dedicated slots to practice at the actual venues.