The Miscellaneous Sports Thread

[Josquius]

I do wonder. Interesting coming not long after Osaka had similar. Wonder if there's a racist angle at work.

[garbon]

WTF is up with Simone Biles? Did the Russians zap her with their microwave gun or something?  Say all you want about how quitting is the new winning, but you don't just prepare for the Olympics for four years to quit in the middle of the games.  Whatever mental health issue she has must be crippling. 

Why because the pressure doesn't amp up once you reach the games?

[garbon]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/57982665

Biles, 24, scored 13.766 - her lowest Olympic vault score - before withdrawing from the event.

"After the performance I did, I just didn't want to go on," she said.

"I have to focus on my mental health. I just think mental health is more prevalent in sports right now.

"We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.

"I don't trust myself as much anymore. Maybe it's getting older. There were a couple of days when everybody tweets you and you feel the weight of the world.

"We're not just athletes. We're people at the end of the day and sometimes you just have to step back.

"I didn't want to go out and do something stupid and get hurt. ​I feel like a lot of athletes speaking up has really helped.

"It's so big, it's the Olympic Games. At the end of the day we don't want to be carried out of there on a stretcher."

[The Larch]

It has to be taken into accountt hat her particular case is rather sad/dissappointing, given the short careers that gymnasts have, and how the delay of the Olympics to this year might have affected her. I mean, she's 24 and in that interview she speaks as if she was a grizzled, over the hill veteran. It is already super high pressure to be at that level, it must be even more so knowing that you only have a couple of shots in your entire career at the Olympics. By contrast, Michael Phelps, who also started extremely young (he was already at the Olympics at 15, a similar age as gymnasts like Biles) competed in 5 Olympics before retiring for the first time (at 27), returning for an additional sixth Olympic (at 31) and then retiring for good.

I see on wiki that her career at the senior level started out when she was only 16 in 2013, and that an 8 year career for a gymnast seems to be extremely long by their standards, most don't seem to go beyond 5-6 years. I truly sympathize, we really have no idea what kind of pressure she must have been under these last few years.

[DGuller]

The Russian Internet had a speculation that Japan's tight restriction on some medications could've prevented Simone from taking prescriptions that she has exemptions for.  She infamously takes ADD medication, and I think she may also be taking anxiety medication.  If there is indeed something to it, then I can see how suddenly going off meds can completely demolish your confidence in yourself and your body.

[The Larch]

The Russian Internet had a speculation that Japan's tight restriction on some medications could've prevented Simone from taking prescriptions that she has exemptions for.  She infamously takes ADD medication, and I think she may also be taking anxiety medication.  If there is indeed something to it, then I can see how suddenly going off meds can completely demolish your confidence in yourself and your body.

Might be, but I doubt that athletes with the proper paperwork can't take the medications they need to Japan, even if local regulations are super strict, given all the dispensations that are made for the Olympics.

[Sheilbh]

Just catching up on some of the gymnastics which I always enjoy and only watch during the Olympics. I think it's the sport where the gap between me judging any of them and me being able to do literally anything they're doing is widest

Edit: Although on the floor gymnastics they sometimes do forward rolls and there was a point when I could do that - haven't tried in a long time and would probably just break my neck now...

[The Larch]

Apparently tennis players are dropping down like flies because of heat shocks.

[DGuller]

I have never been less interested in the Olympics than I am this year.  It feels like an obligation everyone has to get over with.  Does anyone feel the same way?

[PDH]

I watch the cycling 

[crazy canuck]

Rowing and swimming are what I like watching.

For some reason our broadcaster doesn't have a crew at the rowing events and so, for some reason, we are getting the UK feed.  And frankly those guys are terrible.

[celedhring]

I watch EVERYTHING.

I love the Olympics.

[Grey Fox]

I watch EVERYTHING.

I love the Olympics.

No. You love the summer Olympics.

[Liep]

I watch EVERYTHING.

I love the Olympics.

[DGuller]

Fine, enjoy.