Steerpike

You guys don't intend to watch any? Boycotting the TV?


I had no interest in the Olympics right up to and even after the opening ceremony; but now I'm mesmerized by the US women's gymnast team. Watching those tiny girls on the balance beam is just crazy.


Anyone have any theories as to why the US teams do so well in so many sports (forget basketball, tennis, etc, which really have no business being in the Olympics)? Is there a lot of sponsorship money supporting these kids through their development? I have some friends who are parents of budding gymnasts, and it seems to be a real hard slog and no obvious financial support.

penguinsix

US universities are huge training grounds for Olympians of all countries. Football and basketball revenue, which is in the millions per school, is often funnelled to other non-revenue sports like swimming and athletics. In addition Title 9 requires US schools to spend equal sports dollars on women as well as men which means quite a bit of funding is made available for things like women's soccer and basketball.

Tirytory

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...west?CMP=fb_gu

I think the line at the bottom is just for you.... "It's ok to have sex feelings, just watch where you're spraying them"

Tirytory

Surely it's just the huge size and population to match, there will be sports scholarships for those that are brilliant, but with all the children coming through those sports, the school's get to choose the best of the best..

Beaverstate

I might watch some of the sports they don't show.

Steerpike

I specifically said 'ignoring baskeball, tennis, etc ' ... and these gymnasts are REALLY young - 16, 17 ... not yet university. So where is the funding / support coming from? These kids are getting trained from the age of 5, it seems. I was reading about Simone Biles; her mother was a substance abuser and she was adopted by her grandparents ... doesn't sound like a particularly comfortable environment to be growing up in, but she's the best in the world. Quite amazing.

sir_eccles

Read it carefully, he said the money from the popular college sports trickles down to the minor sports.

That said you're right, the gymnasts are not at college and Ledecky is actually turning down the chance to go professional in order to attend Stanford.

I think a lot of the track and field athletes are college trained.

For many of these sports unfortunately the answer is they are rich people's sports, gymnastics, figure skating, swimming have to be started young and are hard on the pocket.

Tirytory

We're not rich and our son is in a competitive stream for swimming. We fell into club swimming by default really thinking it the best way to become a good swimmer but he loves it. Still even our small club offers to cover fees for those that genuinely want to swim and can't afford it.

Steerpike

Which is why the Simone Biles story was amazing to me. I didn't read enough to get the specifics of her economic situation, but her mom was a substance abuser, and her grandparents adopted her. That just doesn't reek of money.

Rete

Why? Rich people aren't substance abusers?

Lorna at Vicenza

I'm not sure any country's coverage can be as bad as the Italian RAI channel (like the BBC). It is so bad that when I turned it on yesterday they were showing repeats of Italians winning and standing on the podium rather than show anything different. Repeats! And nothing of the rest of the Olympics going on.

Steerpike

Of course they are! But does this sound like a rich family to you?


https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...erica-rio-2016

SultanOfSwing

Did anyone watch the mens' all-around gymnastics last night? That final rotation where the Ukrainian missed gold by .09 of a point (or something like that) was quite a finish.

Also Kazakhstan winning a gold in swimming was a surprise, too. Wrestling or weightlifting I'd expect, but not swimming.

Wintersong

I've been enjoying the rowing today. Swimming's always fun as well. Diving, canoeing, archery...

Basically anything which doesn't take a year and a day to whittle the competitors down and determine a winner.

sir_eccles

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...