2016 Rio Summer Olympics

I will never understand how throwing loose powder all over something like the balance beam increases traction and grip.
I don't think the bar rotates. The powder actually decreases traction so they don't rip their skin off.
 
I cannot get into gymnastics. I need an objective measurement. Yeah, routines look cool but why don't they all do the same to make scoring easier?

Well, a) boring. And b) the gymnasts, at least when you're talking about the all-around part of the competition, have to compete on four apparatuses. (Apparati?) Take Aly Raisman, for instance. Her strengths, from best to worst, are floor, beam, vault, and then uneven bars. For her to have to do the same routine on floor as someone who is weak on floor would be an injustice to Aly to not be able to show her strengths. Flip the script...someone very good on uneven bars, to have to perform the same routine as Aly, would not be able to show their strengths.

This is why routines are given a difficulty score right off the bat. Then, deductions for errors in execution are made accordingly. Someone may perform an absolutely flawless routine, but because of the starting difficulty score, they may score lower than someone who has a slight bobble, but starts with a higher difficulty score.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: cowgirl836
Well, a) boring. And b) the gymnasts, at least when you're talking about the all-around part of the competition, have to compete on four apparatuses. (Apparati?) Take Aly Raisman, for instance. Her strengths, from best to worst, are floor, beam, vault, and then uneven bars. For her to have to do the same routine on floor as someone who is weak on floor would be an injustice to Aly to not be able to show her strengths. Flip the script...someone very good on uneven bars, to have to perform the same routine as Aly, would not be able to show their strengths.

This is why routines are given a difficulty score right off the bat. Then, deductions for errors in execution are made accordingly. Someone may perform an absolutely flawless routine, but because of the starting difficulty score, they may score lower than someone who has a slight bobble, but starts with a higher difficulty score.

an injustice to her? the USA women's basketball team destroy's everyone they play yet they all play in the same bracket.

Now that I think about it - why are there sop many similar track/swimming events but only one team event? Why not separate events for penalty kicks, one half of play, a full game, etc? seems kind of unfair that phelps can win 8 medals in one games while a soccer player can only win one.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: cyhiphopp
an injustice to her? the USA women's basketball team destroy's everyone they play yet they all play in the same bracket.

Now that I think about it - why are there sop many similar track/swimming events but only one team event? Why not separate events for penalty kicks, one half of play, a full game, etc? seems kind of unfair that phelps can win 8 medals in one games while a soccer player can only win one.

Why? Because that sounds awful.
 
an injustice to her? the USA women's basketball team destroy's everyone they play yet they all play in the same bracket.

Now that I think about it - why are there sop many similar track/swimming events but only one team event? Why not separate events for penalty kicks, one half of play, a full game, etc? seems kind of unfair that phelps can win 8 medals in one games while a soccer player can only win one.
Well, why don't we just give everyone a participation medal just for making it to Rio? Seriously, man...you're waaaaaay overthinking this.
 
an injustice to her? the USA women's basketball team destroy's everyone they play yet they all play in the same bracket.

Now that I think about it - why are there sop many similar track/swimming events but only one team event? Why not separate events for penalty kicks, one half of play, a full game, etc? seems kind of unfair that phelps can win 8 medals in one games while a soccer player can only win one.
What? No. Stop.
 
an injustice to her? the USA women's basketball team destroy's everyone they play yet they all play in the same bracket.

Now that I think about it - why are there sop many similar track/swimming events but only one team event? Why not separate events for penalty kicks, one half of play, a full game, etc? seems kind of unfair that phelps can win 8 medals in one games while a soccer player can only win one.
Life isn't fair
 
  • Agree
Reactions: VeloClone
I got a kick out of the microphones picking up on the gymnastic girls conversation after their last routine. When you watch them you forget they are teenage girls. Then you hear the "OMG I was so close to vomiting on our way out" talk and you're reminded that they are just that.
 
I got a kick out of the microphones picking up on the gymnastic girls conversation after their last routine. When you watch them you forget they are teenage girls. Then you hear the "OMG I was so close to vomiting on our way out" talk and you're reminded that they are just that.

The interviewer brought that up in the post interview and you could see she was a little shocked, thinking no one heard her say that.
 
Well, a) boring. And b) the gymnasts, at least when you're talking about the all-around part of the competition, have to compete on four apparatuses. (Apparati?) Take Aly Raisman, for instance. Her strengths, from best to worst, are floor, beam, vault, and then uneven bars. For her to have to do the same routine on floor as someone who is weak on floor would be an injustice to Aly to not be able to show her strengths. Flip the script...someone very good on uneven bars, to have to perform the same routine as Aly, would not be able to show their strengths.

This is why routines are given a difficulty score right off the bat. Then, deductions for errors in execution are made accordingly. Someone may perform an absolutely flawless routine, but because of the starting difficulty score, they may score lower than someone who has a slight bobble, but starts with a higher difficulty score.


seriously, any casual watcher of gymnastics can pretty quickly tell that someone like Simone Biles did a better job than random Ukrainian girl. To dumb everything down so a segment of the audience who doesn't care and doesn't want to learn about the differences can understand it is stupid. And like you said, it's unfair to Aly to have to dumb down her routine so people not as skilled as her can compete. On the flip side, you can't just have say well everyone has to include all these super hard skills that someone like Simone can do because now you're putting some of the athletes at a higher risk for injury. There are minimum numbers of skills, releases, tumbling passes and such that each apparatus requires. Going beyond that is rewarded and reflected in the starting value.
 
an injustice to her? the USA women's basketball team destroy's everyone they play yet they all play in the same bracket.

Now that I think about it - why are there sop many similar track/swimming events but only one team event? Why not separate events for penalty kicks, one half of play, a full game, etc? seems kind of unfair that phelps can win 8 medals in one games while a soccer player can only win one.

and the US women's basketball team is allowed to use their full skill set, right? They aren't told well it's really hard for Lithuania to shoot the 3, so you don't get to do that anymore. Or you can't use this type of play because the other team hasn't mastered it yet.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: isutrevman
seriously, any casual watcher of gymnastics can pretty quickly tell that someone like Simone Biles did a better job than random Ukrainian girl. To dumb everything down so a segment of the audience who doesn't care and doesn't want to learn about the differences can understand it is stupid. And like you said, it's unfair to Aly to have to dumb down her routine so people not as skilled as her can compete. On the flip side, you can't just have say well everyone has to include all these super hard skills that someone like Simone can do because now you're putting some of the athletes at a higher risk for injury. There are minimum numbers of skills, releases, tumbling passes and such that each apparatus requires. Going beyond that is rewarded and reflected in the starting value.


Different degrees of difficulty add strategy to gymnastics. You could do a technically perfect routine of simpler elements and not have a chance to catch someone who did a good routine of extremely difficult elements.

They actually do a better job now of giving you the max possible score and the amount of deductions they received.

Just because not everyone "gets it" doesn't mean it needs to change.
 
Different degrees of difficulty add strategy to gymnastics. You could do a technically perfect routine of simpler elements and not have a chance to catch someone who did a good routine of extremely difficult elements.

They actually do a better job now of giving you the max possible score and the amount of deductions they received.

Just because not everyone "gets it" doesn't mean it needs to change.


it is extremely similar to what you will see in figure skating. A lot of the men will now do a quad jump. But for some, it's still not a skill they have mastered, so they will take the lower value and try to do a higher number of technically perfect triples instead of the higher risk/reward of the quad that they don't feel likely they will successfully complete.
 
Different degrees of difficulty add strategy to gymnastics. You could do a technically perfect routine of simpler elements and not have a chance to catch someone who did a good routine of extremely difficult elements.

They actually do a better job now of giving you the max possible score and the amount of deductions they received.

Just because not everyone "gets it" doesn't mean it needs to change.
The new method of showing the score is an improvement, IMO...but there are times when I really wish they would list the actual deductions. I wonder if the athletes get that info, so that they know what to improve on for the next event?
 
  • Agree
Reactions: ISUME

Latest posts

Help Support Us

Become a patron