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?

How does the grass where they do javelin and shotput stay looking perfect? Surely shotput in particular takes big chunks out and I wouldn't have thought could be smoothed over that effectively afterwards? Is it one of those things where up close it looks terrible but from the distance of a camera you can't see the bumps etc?

I think it must be that @ShotsSpeedCustard, I was thinking that watching the women's hammer throw yesterday - that looks like it really buries itself into the ground, it must be a mess up close.

I was watching 'Tonight at the Games' on iPlayer and it started with a really nice animation of various sports, with a French song. Does anyone know whether that animation is something the BBC has made, or if the organisers of the Games have made it, and it's being used by broadcasters all over the world?

According to the website of the Channel Swimming Association, there have only been 2 successful butterfly swims, both women. (I had to do an advanced search of the full list, by stroke).

The second of them (and the faster), was Julie Bradshaw - claim to fame, I rented a room in her house when I was at Loughborough University.

This is such a boring question but does anyone know how to watch the synchronised swimming on iPlayer? It's so hard to find the sport you want! Google tells me that it's started but I can't see what time or day iPlayer screened it.

It's a BBC graphic - they will have paid a production company a handsome sum for it, but they definitely get their use from it, it's at the start of every single bit of programming (and was used as trailers).

I don't know the song, but it's likely something in the public domain that they've paid royalties for.

Why are runners not made to stay in their lanes throughout a race?

Because the runner on the outside lane will have a lot further to run than the one on the inside - for long distance anyway. Obviously short distance they do stay in lane.

Depends on the race. Shorter distances you stay in your lane, longer distances you don't have to. It's harder in the outside lanes so would be unfair to do 10,000 metres stuck in the outside lane for the whole time.

Edit: should have said harder because it's longer. I had staggered starts in my head when I was typing and forgetting why they line them up like that in the 200m.

I'm now wondering how much of a head start you'd have to give someone in the outside lane to make it equivalent to the inside over 10,000m.

In a 400m race the runner in lane eight starts 53.032 metres ahead of the person in lane one. A 10,000m race is 25 laps of the track so if you had an eight person race, run in lanes, the runner in lane eight would start 1,325 metres (three and a quarter laps) ahead.

Well, they're not exactly ahead as they would still be covering the same distance, but I think this answers your question.

Quite a lot! I run a training session at the track where I run 2 laps in each lane, getting faster each time I move over a lane.
Last time I did it, I ran 18.5 laps (inc warm up/cool down etc), and it was just over 8,000m. If I'd run all those laps in the inside lane it would have been 7,400m. So 600m over the course of those laps. If I'd run them all in the outside lane, it would have been even more.

Thank you! But aren’t the starting positions staggered to allow for this? If not, why not!

Well yes, but as others have pointed out the staggering would be too much for a long distance race. Did someone above say 1,325 metres in a 10,000m race? How would that work practically?

Just a grumble about that BBC graphic which an agency will have been paid a ton of money for... nice of them to exclude rowing, which has contributed the third most medals to GB across all Olympics :(

Fantastic, thank you!

I think the staggering is to allow for natural thinning of the pack before they all move to the same lane. Not necessary in a road race for 10 or 15 people (although some big road races do separate/staggered starts)

My daughter asked if the umpires/judges have to be from countries that aren't competing in that event. I wondered if their nationality is accounted for or if they're all considered neutral, given a lot of events have so many countries competing.

For events that are judged, there’s usually a system where the highest and lowest scores are excluded. That helps to minimise the impact of any bias.

Watching the women’s beach volleyball and very pleased to see that there has been a relaxing of the uniform rules. But now I’m wondering why the players are referred to by their first names only. I can’t think of any other sport where this happens officially, on the scoreboard, not just from the commentators.

Love this thread .....
But ohh my ...I so do not understand the cycle races !

4 start . 1 drops off / or up the track ..
But then somehow a team wins. ,
How ?!

In cycling riding on the front and ‘breaking’ the air is much harder work than sitting in the slipstream.

In the team pursuit they ride in teams of 4 and cover 4km. They swing up the track to get to the back to recover behind the other 3 and they rotate through to share turns at the front. The team’s time is taken from the 3rd bike to finish, so they can afford to completely sacrifice one rider who will work harder/do longer on the front than the others in the first half.

In the team sprint the time is the fastest single rider over the line based on 3 laps, but they start as a team of 3. As only 1 needs to finish the other 2 do a lap each at the front and swing off once their effort is done. Because this race is short they don’t join back on the back.

Its all about riding as close as you can in the wheel/slipstream of the rider in front to save power in your legs.

Discovery + has everything

Well done. I thought that interview was appalling.

Why does the BBC not let us watch much of any field events before switching back to the interminable chatting? I was enjoying watching the pole vault and now there’s some random cycling medal ceremony and interview. Is it a licensing issue?