A thread for your stupid Olympics questions

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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?

Not the thing about live events on IPlayer but why is it so hard to find individual sports or events to watch? They're all there but you have to forward through 2 hrs of other things to get to the one you want - or am I doing it wrong?
I'm sure in other years IPlayer has organised the viewing in a way that was more user friendly.

Worth buying discovery+ on amazon prime. They have about 10 channels at any one time 😊

For gymnastics they had five channels tonight - one camera focussed on each apparatus and one showing the main group (Simon Biles etc) - so its really worth it IMO.

A poster.

@summerdazey my doctor father once had to treat a Boston Marathon runner who had diarrhoea during the race and kept going. She was in quite a bad state by the end poor thing.

I may be well behind the times but why are the asymmetric bars now called uneven bars, when did that happen?

@Canttouchthis88 i would have thought they'd bring their own boats! A friend's son does competitive sailing and they bring their own boats to Italy where he often competes and he's just an average lad. But they don't. Approved boats are provided by the committee so they are all on level playing field, so to speak. They can bring their own sails and rigging though.

I was surprised to see in the women's freestyle 1500m swimming yesterday that they didn't kick their feet very much. In fact, once I'd pointed it out, that's all we could see! Not a question as such, but does anyone have any insight into this? Id have thought feet would obviously propel.

Love this thread, very insightful.

Really like Rebecca Adlington and her commentary.
Fun fact from her: in a relay, only the first swimmer's swim can be counted for a personal best time.

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

I am loving all these swimming questions (I'm an ex-swimmer so this is like Christmas for me) on this thread.

They don't kick because (A) it creates more waves in the pool which makes it choppier and harder to swim and (B) it increases lactic acid and it effects your oxygen intake which means you end up being less efficient.

If you compare a 50meter to a 1500 meter, in a 50m the swimmers will breathe once or twice (because they know they can just gasp at the end) whereas in the 1,500 even at the very start, when they are 100% fresh, they will breath every other or every three strokes - to ensure a steady supply of oxygen. It's also why they don't go as far underwater on the 1,500 (usually pop up by the 5 meter mark) compared to the shorter distances.

1500 is far more tactical in that respect than any other distance 😊

@Elliania glad it does exist even if it wasn't for this. There are so many posts online with a grain of truth but slightly twisted to get spread.

Also for anyone with Sky not sure if it's all subscription packages but a lot have Discovery+ free with their package

@Killingoffmyflowersonebyone with the front crawl I was always told to breathe every three strokes on alternate sides but I’ve seen swimmers breath every stroke once same side. Is this to see what the competitors are doing in the other lanes?

Why are there little fountains spraying water into the pool under the diving boards?

To break the surface tension so the divers can see the surface, also why they used to throw a towel into the pool as well

Likely!

But it's poor training and technique either way - breathing that often slows you down. If you look at a slow-downed replay of someone swimming, they noticeably have to slow to breathe - you just can't get the oxygen into your lungs otherwise. So if you're breathing that often you're slowing yourself down. On short distances, (50M) swimmers will breathe once, maybe twice. On longer distances like 1,500 where it's a different technique and tactics, they'll breathe every other or every three strokes (Katie Ledecky is a great example of this and breathes every two strokes from her first length - this is to ensure she gets oxygen circulating).

@Ihaveaquestionn - it's to help the divers see how close they are to the surface of the water. If the water is stagnant it's harder to judge the distance 😊

Partly but also partly to do with what distance they are swimming. 50m don't breath at all, 1500m breath a lot. Everything else somewhere in between and can digger between swimmer.

Killingoffmyflowersonebyone fascinating! Thank you.

Enjoying the men's medley at the moment. The mens 50m freestyle was MANIC! Watching from the camera above them was wonderful.

I also need to know where I can get my hands on one of China's swim team long red puffer coats, they're gorgeous!

What did Samuel Dickinson do in the triathlon that helped Yee win? They said he helped him but I couldn’t understand how

@elQuintoConyo spotted those red coats! So stylish.

He rode at the front in the cycling (a hard positing to be in needing a lot of exertion) and controlled the pace, basically stopped someone making a breakaway and getting significantly ahead in the cycling stage whilst letting Alex Yee get the benefit of riding in the peleton. They knew if Alex Yee came out near the front after the cycle he’d have a good shot at gold as he’s a strong runner.

He helped Yee 'break' the pack and control the pack.

So the pack is what a group of cyclists are called in something like a triathlon. The pack can be really dangerous because (A) lots of people cling on top of each other means it's more likely someone will crash or hit someone else and take lots of them out and (B) it's more people competing and in with a chance for gold.

It's really hard to pull away from a pack alone - you need someone or 3-4 others to go with you. You see it often in cycling where people try to but no one wants to and so they don't do it.

The fact that Dickinson did it for Yee (they train together) meant that Yee had someone going with him who he knew and knew the pacing of. Dickinson essentially threw his own race and his own chances so his friend could get gold.

He deserves so much respect for that. True sportsmanship.

Interesting that drafting is allowed in Olympic triathlon. Presumably because the distances are much shorter than IM, half IM etc.

I think uneven bars is the British term, and asymmetric bars is the American term.
Americans tend to refer to the balance beam and the Brits just say beam. A bit like Americans say horseback riding just to make it clear it’s horses, not camels, donkeys or anything else they’re riding!

As for why Simone Biles approached an Olympic official, I imagine only a certain number of coaches, physios etc are allowed to be with the gymnasts, and she wanted to check if it was ok to speak to someone who was beyond the barrier.

Most classes are in supplied equipment. One design classes so hulls and sails are supplied. Sailors will have brought their own control lines and tillers etc to rig boats how they like