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Wanna talk Olympics?

#87
Today was the last day of the 10 day event window for the surfing, with semifinals and finals yet to be run for both the men and women. And there was yet another postponement this morning, but they finally managed to start at more or less the last possible moment to get it all in. There were some sporadic quite decent waves, but not a ton of them in most heats. Kauli Vaast, the local guy who grew up less than five miles from the break clearly had the best handle on identifying and maximizing, so when the best wave of the day rolled in at at about five minutes into the final heat he aced it, grabbed another good one about two minutes later and aced that too, and the Australian guy could only find one good wave over the 35 minutes, also right at the start of the heat. And then the last American woman standing won the semis on a tiebreaker, and then the finals, which were not decided until after time had expired.

I really enjoyed watching this event and caught danged near all of it on Peacock, mostly in real time. There have been a whole lot of beautiful and iconic venues at the Olympics this time, but I think the French decision to use Teahupo'o for surfing was especially inspired.
 
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#88
Passinwind said:
Today was the last day of the 10 day event window for the surfing, with semifinals and finals yet to be run for both the men and women. And there was yet another postponement this morning, but they finally managed to start at more or less the last possible moment to get it all in. There were some sporadic quite decent waves, but not a ton of them in most heats. Kauli Vaast, the local guy who grew up less than five miles from the break clearly had the best handle on identifying and maximizing, so when the best wave of the day rolled in at at about five minutes into the final heat he aced it, grabbed another good one about two minutes later and aced that too, and the Australian guy could only find one good wave over the 35 minutes, also right at the start of the heat. And then the last American woman standing won the semis on a tiebreaker, and then the finals, which were not decided until after time had expired.

I really enjoyed watching this event and caught danged near all of it on Peacock, mostly in real time. There have been a whole lot of beautiful and iconic venues at the Olympics this time, but I think the French decision to use Teahupo'o for surfing was especially inspired.
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Strange they didn't also do the kite surfing events there.
 
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#89
Killing Floor said:
Strange they didn't also do the kite surfing events there.
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The Olympic kiting events use foiling raceboards, not the more old school wave and jump oriented stuff that was partially developed where I live. There's a pretty happening kiting and windsurfing scene on the south French coast, with a lot more infrastructure than Tahiti for event management, spectators, and competitors. The surfing competitors actually stay with local families, which I find way cool.

I used to speed sail windsurfers competitively, so I'm quite interested in the new kiteboards, which can easily push 50mph in the right conditions. Their event just started a day or two ago and tentatively wraps up on the 8th.
 
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#90
Passinwind said:
The Olympic kiting events use foiling raceboards, not the more old school wave and jump oriented stuff that was partially developed where I live. There's a pretty happening kiting and windsurfing scene on the south French coast, with a lot more infrastructure than Tahiti for event management, spectators, and competitors. The surfing competitors actually stay with local families, which I find way cool.

I used to speed sail windsurfers competitively, so I'm quite interested in the new kiteboards, which can easily push 50mph in the right conditions. Their event just started a day or two ago and tentatively wraps up on the 8th.
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The contestants were delayed due to no wind. That’s a seasonal thing. There is wind at Tahiti. That’s why I said that.
 
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#91
Killing Floor said:
The contestants were delayed due to no wind. That’s a seasonal thing. There is wind at Tahiti. That’s why I said that.
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The first truism of sailing events is that there's always better wind somewhere or everywhere else on the days of the event. ;)

I did see someone sailing what looked like a wing foiler around outside the surf break one day, but that was during the storm event that jacked everything up so high a week ago. Today a whale did a full breach right on camera during one of the heats, I couldn't tell exactly how far out from the break it was though.
 
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#92
About Gabby Thomas, who easily won gold in the women's 200 meters (track & field):

"She holds a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas Health Science Center."

I'd love to see this kind of athlete get a lot more attention!
 
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#97
furym said:
I like the not normal sports. Fencing, Judo, and I discovered Women’s 7 Rugby. US took the bronze from Australia. First women’s 7 medal I think and first US rugby medal in 100 years. I still haven’t figured out the rules but it is fun to watch. I don’t like normal football, too much time wasted. This is 2 seven minute halves and the clock rarely stops, as do the players.
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My favourite form of Rugby. Fast and exciting.
 
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#98
It always amazes me how well Australia does. You guys know your sport!

retslock said:
Watching from Australia and loving it. Some events hold my interest more than others but overall just watching people doing better than they’ve ever done before is inspiring. I’m particularly pleased that this Olympics is Australia’s most successful. We do ok for such a small population.
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