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http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/olympics/teen-shooter-wins-usas-first-gold-medal-of-games/ar-BBvjYLS?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=ASUDHP

Hardly surprising because if there's one thing Americans know, it's how to shoot guns

Our teen-agers are the best at shooting things.

10 metre air rifle apparently is a sport in which most competitors regularly achieve the maximum possible score, so I'm not sure how the Olympic judges distinguish.

Still, fair play to her and I celebrate the first gold medal going to a woman.

Meanwhile in Rowing, the Serbian mens' coxless pair capsized during qualifiers and Did Not Finish, but they are in the repechage race so they could make it back in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and_audio/headlines/36997993

It looks like their stroke side blade hit a buoy and was sprung out of the swivel, which, a pair having only two oars, made a capsize practically inevitable.

It is the oars or sculls out to each side that give a racing shell most of its stability.

I hope they kept their mouths closed as they went under.

I'm going to change the title, a general olympics thread is probably a good idea. And fixing up the title since we have won 2 gold medals since haha

Also those 2 sisters for Australia in the pool, ridiculous. They romped home against the US.

I didn't know shooting a fancy airsoft gun was an Olympic sport

It's an air rifle shooting lead pellets.

 Ouze wrote:
I hope they kept their mouths closed as they went under.

It will all be fine ... two of the demonstration competitions this year are projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhoea (as in greatest distance reached) so they should be able to apply for these medals too now.

Whirlwind wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
I hope they kept their mouths closed as they went under.

It will all be fine ... two of the demonstration competitions this year are projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhoea (as in greatest distance reached) so they should be able to apply for these medals too now.

The Capsize and Recovery training that rowers get instructs them to try to avoid swallowing water. While many lakes and rivers are possible sources of infection, the more important reason is to minimise one of the effects of Cold Water Shock, which tends to make you inhale involuntarily.

Hopefully our crews have been out on the tide way. Looks like it could serve them well in those waters. It's not exactly calm.

In other sports, shame about the cycling, but I guess it was very much a climbers course. That looked brutal.

The main GB Rowing training centre is at Redgrave-Pinsent Rowing Lake near Caversham but they actually train at lots of different places.

You get waves on lakes, of course. The thing about the tideway is the tides, though it is rough as well. (I was bred up on the tideway.)

Watching the iPlayer rowing coverage from yesterday, the wind got up and by the time the women's single sculls heats were on, it had got very rough. The Sunday heats have been cancelled due to water conditions.

.

I saw a couple of Rugby 7s games yesterday. I'd never seen it before but I loved it. All the best bits of normal Union without any of the boring stuff. If they had a professional comp I'd seriously consider going along and watching a game or two.

Other than that... I saw some Judo, it was kind of interesting but very strange. I have absolutely no idea how anyone can tell what is going on in fencing. And there's been endless coverage of the swimming, which sucks because it really very boring, bring on week 2 and the track events.

 sebster wrote:
And there's been endless coverage of the swimming, which sucks because it really very boring, bring on week 2 and the track events.

The coverage down here always focuses heavily on the swimming, as it's one of the places Australia generally does best, so rates well.

Boring as all get out to watch, though.

 insaniak wrote:
The coverage down here always focuses heavily on the swimming, as it's one of the places Australia generally does best, so rates well.

Boring as all get out to watch, though.

Yep. And it isn't even like, say soccer, where I personally find it dull but I accept that loads of people really enjoy watching the sport. No-one, and I mean no-one enjoys swimming as an actual spectacle. They like winning gold medals and so they like watching, but the actual sport itself could be rollie pollies for all it matters.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

Whirlwind wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
I hope they kept their mouths closed as they went under.

It will all be fine ... two of the demonstration competitions this year are projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhoea (as in greatest distance reached) so they should be able to apply for these medals too now.

The Capsize and Recovery training that rowers get instructs them to try to avoid swallowing water. While many lakes and rivers are possible sources of infection, the more important reason is to minimise one of the effects of Cold Water Shock, which tends to make you inhale involuntarily.

Yeah... I was just being facetious, it wasn't meant to be taken as a serious comment...

The road cycling course seems brutal. All over with now, but that climb just seemed unrelenting and the descent caught more than its fair shair of victims. Annemiek van Vleuten's crash was just sickening to watch. Fortunatly she seems to be ok.

Shame the UK did not do so well, but I think all the climing did not play well, and the lack of teamwork from the peloton and in the breakaways did not help. The finish of both races was close fought and good to watch, but only for the front 4.

That descent was pretty lethal, only one bad crash for the women, but a few for the men. The chase group of three worked so well together, but I really felt for Abbott.

@sebster, there is professional rugby sevens, at least for the men, the sevens world series. Australia takes it pretty seriously for the women as well, hence why they're the number one seed.

 sebster wrote:
I saw a couple of Rugby 7s games yesterday. I'd never seen it before but I loved it. All the best bits of normal Union without any of the boring stuff. If they had a professional comp I'd seriously consider going along and watching a game or two.

They have quite a few international matches and a fairly decent international circuit.

Sevens is the best form of rugby, after league of course, and it fits perfectly into the Olympics in permitting a fairly high turnaround of games

 grrrfranky wrote:
That descent was pretty lethal, only one bad crash for the women, but a few for the men. The chase group of three worked so well together, but I really felt for Abbott.

Ye, she raced so hard. To be beaten at the end like that was harsh, but they eventualy worked together well. It took them a while to work out a rhythm, but in the end they got there and still had the legs to out sprint Abbott at the end. She just had nothing left to sprint with after having been out on her own for so long. It's just a shame that no one in the peloton managed to do the same and form a second breakaway. They had the chance a few times to hunt down the first group, and could have latched on to the back of them, but never seemed to capitalise when they started to get going and they just broke down before getting a flow going.

 sebster wrote:
I saw a couple of Rugby 7s games yesterday. I'd never seen it before but I loved it. All the best bits of normal Union without any of the boring stuff. If they had a professional comp I'd seriously consider going along and watching a game or two.

Other than that... I saw some Judo, it was kind of interesting but very strange. I have absolutely no idea how anyone can tell what is going on in fencing. And there's been endless coverage of the swimming, which sucks because it really very boring, bring on week 2 and the track events.

If they had a professional comp!!!!! What the feth!!!!

No disrespect Seb, but rugby 7s has had a professional world tour for the last 25+ years, including stages in Australia

It's a very popular sport around the world, and even this nation called Australia has a team. Ever heard of them?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 stanman wrote:
Hardly surprising because if there's one thing Americans know, it's how to shoot guns

Actually, and very surprisingly, the USA doesn't feature that much when it comes to shooting events at the Olympics, which is surprising.

A nation with such a cultural heritage of gun ownership, has bound to have thousands of shooting clubs and events, so it's always been a surprise to me that the USA has never done that well at Olympic shooting. I wonder why that is?

But that could be because a lot of medals are won by members of the Chinese army, and sooner or later, we'll have to bow before our Chinese overlords, who will be very welcome


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 insaniak wrote:

 sebster wrote:
And there's been endless coverage of the swimming, which sucks because it really very boring, bring on week 2 and the track events.

The coverage down here always focuses heavily on the swimming, as it's one of the places Australia generally does best, so rates well.

Boring as all get out to watch, though.

We know why Australians are good at swimming - they get lots of praxctice at escaping sharks and crocodiles

and those scary spiders that can swim


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On a serious note, I've enjoyed the Olympics so far. A welcome distraction in these troubled times.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 stanman wrote:
Hardly surprising because if there's one thing Americans know, it's how to shoot guns

Actually, and very surprisingly, the USA doesn't feature that much when it comes to shooting events at the Olympics, which is surprising.

A nation with such a cultural heritage of gun ownership, has bound to have thousands of shooting clubs and events, so it's always been a surprise to me that the USA has never done that well at Olympic shooting. I wonder why that is?

But that could be because a lot of medals are won by members of the Chinese army, and sooner or later, we'll have to bow before our Chinese overlords, who will be very welcome

I get the feeling that target shooting in the US is seen more as training than a sport in itself, or as a hobby. Most of the shooters in the US seem to either shoot targets to set up guns and practice for hunting or self defence, or plinking for fun, rather than training for events. Also the olympic sports are air rifle and rim fire. In the US they are seen much more as childrens guns. It's like playing soft ball.

 Steve steveson wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 stanman wrote:
Hardly surprising because if there's one thing Americans know, it's how to shoot guns

Actually, and very surprisingly, the USA doesn't feature that much when it comes to shooting events at the Olympics, which is surprising.

A nation with such a cultural heritage of gun ownership, has bound to have thousands of shooting clubs and events, so it's always been a surprise to me that the USA has never done that well at Olympic shooting. I wonder why that is?

But that could be because a lot of medals are won by members of the Chinese army, and sooner or later, we'll have to bow before our Chinese overlords, who will be very welcome

I get the feeling that target shooting in the US is seen more as training than a sport in itself, or as a hobby. Most of the shooters in the US seem to either shoot targets to set up guns and practice for hunting or self defence, or plinking for fun, rather than training for events. Also the olympic sports are air rifle and rim fire. In the US they are seen much more as childrens guns. It's like playing soft ball.

Or perhaps the USA is not as good and/or knowledgeable with firearms as they make themselves out to be...

Or perhaps the USA is not as good and/or knowledgeable with firearms as they make themselves out to be...

Rimfire is for girly boy Europeans...sorry. In America we deliver Freedom at bullseye rifle and shooting events with actual firearms. Airguns are cute but they aren't firearms.
The first firearm I shot was an M1 Garand. Holding a .30-06 like they do would send yon rifle skittering across the floor.
Now the winter Finnish Winter War competition (whatever they call it where you ski 20 kms then shoot a rifle then ski away) now thats a shooting competition. Strangeley Russians don't like this competition...

Now back to the Olympics. Am I correct in that golf is now again an event?
I tried to turn on the judo but they had two guys playing table tennis and I became royally ticked off.

Target shooting, Frazz style:

I can't open it, but if you have an Orc Nob firing long uncontrolled bursts, that'd be correct.

Note: if you tell a new shooter at a match "now remember, long uncontrolled bursts" they will look at you funny.

It's a 240 mm howitzer M1.

Or something like this:

(see 4:47, the effects of an MP5 on biathlon targets)

 Frazzled wrote:

Or perhaps the USA is not as good and/or knowledgeable with firearms as they make themselves out to be...

Rimfire is for girly boy Europeans...sorry. In America we deliver Freedom at bullseye rifle and shooting events with actual firearms. Airguns are cute but they aren't firearms.
The first firearm I shot was an M1 Garand. Holding a .30-06 like they do would send yon rifle skittering across the floor.
Now the winter Finnish Winter War competition (whatever they call it where you ski 20 kms then shoot a rifle then ski away) now thats a shooting competition. Strangeley Russians don't like this competition...

Now back to the Olympics. Am I correct in that golf is now again an event?
I tried to turn on the judo but they had two guys playing table tennis and I became royally ticked off.

You are correct in thinking that Golf is an Olympic sport, but instead of making it amateur, which would have been a good thing IMO, they made it a pro event, and crammed it in the middle of a busy schedule

Predictably, the vast majority of pro players have given it a wide berth.

As to my earlier point Frazz, you're missing the big picture here. People like me sleep easy at night, safe in the knowledge that the American eagle watches over us, gives us freedom.

But now, the Chinese Communists have scored a massive propaganda victory over the USA, because we know that by winning shooting medals, they're better shots.

Now I don't sleep easy at night, now I look for reds under the bed...

It's a new cold war Frazz, we need American freedom and pistol gold medals like never before

Tennis upsets have blown me away. Venus Williams loses in singles, Williams sisters getting drubbed in 2 straight Doubles sets and Djokovic getting knocked out. Methinks the lack of moolah may have prevented said individuals from training and preparing seriously...or it may have been over confidence.