OLYMPICS 2021

[Star555]

Haven't found a thread for Olympic sports discussions so I'm starting one. This thread is only for discussions of the actual sporting events as they happen over the next few weeks, not the unfairness of IOC's rules/philosophy (e.g. allowing a male athlete to declare himself a woman and compete in the women's category...which is immoral, unscientific, and wholly unjust, but that topic already has multiple separate threads).

Although this will be an Olympics like no other, I'm excited for the opening ceremony tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing gymnastics and swimming especially!

I remember when British gymnasts were lucky if they got past qualifying rounds, and to watch our guys up there with countries like China ( whose training system in gymnastics is pretty dire) , and Russia , ditto, makes me so proud. Well done Team GB, you got there on skill, determination and hard work.

Oh Lauren, your interview was great.

she did so well, grrr about those last few seconds..

That was so close!

Lutalo is amazing, lovely, knowledgeable. he sounds like he's a very patient guy.
I really like his voice, so calm & gentle.

btw I've asked MNHQ to create an Olympics topic and they replied that they agreed it was a good idea and they will try to set it up soon!

yay!!!

is everyone watching on BBC?

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

Lutalo is amazing, lovely, knowledgeable. he sounds like he's a very patient guy. I really like his voice, so calm & gentle.

My thoughts exactly! Want a super guy and his voice is just so calming 💙

Can someone explain the scoring in gymnastics, is 16 the highest you can get

I love watching gymnastics, precisely because I could never do any of it!

@Bryonyshcmyony

Can someone explain the scoring in gymnastics, is 16 the highest you can get

It's made up of two parts. The routine gets a difficulty score, then execution is out of ten and they get added together.

So if your routine has a difficulty of 4.3, your maximum score is 14.3. If your difficulty is 5.8 your maximum would be 15.8.

So if you have higher difficulty you can "get away" with a few little soups. But it works the other way as well — you might be better with a slightly easier routine you can perform brilliantly.

Can someone explain the scoring in gymnastics, is 16 the highest you can get

So execution score is out of 10, old school style. Start with 10, deductions for every error to get your e-score

Then you have d-score, which is difficulty. Complicated but involves difficulty of moves, connections, credit for using different elements. Usually around 5-6.

Add the two together to give total score. So a routine with a 5.5 d-score excecuted perfectly will get 15.5, for example

Soups?! Slips.

the gymnastics commentator explained at one point that the Execution score is out of 10, and then they add the Difficulty Score on top of that. So I guess that leaves room for higher and higher scores as they invent more difficult moves!

Although some gymnasts have complained, because this new scoring system favours some things over others for difficulty, so there are some nice moves that people just don't do now because they're not worth it.

is it just me, when they are on the high bar,, who keeps thinking "don't slip off"?

So I guess that leaves room for higher and higher scores as they invent more difficult moves!

Not really as a) difficulty doesn’t really move on that quickly, unless you’re Simone Biles.
And b) the difficulty system is reviewed frequently, so easier moves are downgraded as harder ones replace them. Unless you’re Simone Biles when they just make up a low dd for the new impossible move you’ve just invented . Also it isn’t just the difficulty of the moves, dance elements etc are also credited- which is why the women always do those god awful wolf turns.

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

is it just me, when they are on the high bar,, who keeps thinking "don't slip off"?

I am fine watching the high bar, but am always a bit hand over eyes with the parallel bars, and as for the women’s beam I am ducking behind a cushion - or the sofa if I am on my own. I love both men’s and women’s floor exercises, I just cannot believe that human beings can do those tumbling routines.

Yes it's the beam routines that seem most heart-in-mouth to me, maybe the parallel bars as well. I wonder if the women's competition is less consistent as a result of having two events that seem to be able to veer from triumph to catastrophe so easily, whereas the men seem less likely to have these dramatic falls - some on the horizontal bar but never seems to happen as often with the single bar. And the beam just seems to depend so so so much on the tiniest movements or loss of balance. Always potential for mistakes in the other disciplines as well of course, but those ones seem the most prone to falls or other really big mistakes.

I have no idea how they can do all of that with the nerves on top of it!

I find the floor the most stressful!

Joe Tracini's alternative gymnastics commentary

twitter.com/i/status/1418974062257258504

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

btw I've asked MNHQ to create an Olympics topic and they replied that they agreed it was a good idea and they will try to set it up soon!

yay!!!

is everyone watching on BBC?

Thanks!! It would be good to have separate threads for different events.

I am watching on BBC, but some are watching Eurosport and Discovery.

@MichaelMumsnet

Would you please move this to Olympics topic when ready?
thank you x

@viques

I remember when British gymnasts were lucky if they got past qualifying rounds, and to watch our guys up there with countries like China ( whose training system in gymnastics is pretty dire) , and Russia , ditto, makes me so proud. Well done Team GB, you got there on skill, determination and hard work.

I would be careful assuming that the abusive coaching only happens in countries like Russia and China, they have a problem there for sure, but gymnastics as a sport has a horrible culture of abusive coaching being the norm in pretty much all countries. British Gymnastics is currently under review after some whistle blowers opened up, they have received huge numbers of complaints.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/gymnastics/56203877

Even in selecting the women's team for Tokyo now they passed over Becky Downie, a genuine medal hope for her beautiful bars work, in favour of a team consisting of all arounders because they 'targeting a team medal' (good luck with that when you have Russia, China, and USA in a league of their own). Becky and her sister Ellie were the only two active gymnasts to speak out against British Gymnastics, so the fact she didn't make the team seems like she is being punished.

@JacquelineCarlyle they get something called 'podium training' which is a couple of days before the qualification starts, I think they get a few hours to get used to the environment and feel of the equipment. They then had qualifications on Saturday, so today would have been their third time on this exact equipment. While in Tokyo they have access to training gyms with the same brands, so should be a like-for-like. Also, the equipment is announced at least a year in advance, so a country like GB will ensure their national training centre has the same equipment so they can already be getting used to it.

Thanks @SummaLuvin - good to know how it works! I love watching gymnastics (& all Olympic sports) but don't generally have a clue as to the rules nor what the situation is!