Football starts Wednesday. But men’s is a U-23 tournament and I don’t think anyone cares about Olympic soccer. Women start Thursday.
Handball starts Thursday. That’s my extent of knowledge of the sport
Rugby 7s starts Wednesday. Men play group stage Wednesday and Thursday morning. Quarter finals Thursday evening!. Semi finals Saturday morning! Medal matches Saturday night! Women start Sunday and finish on Tuesday. Football takes the whole two weeks and Rugby will be done in 3 days!
Mens England, Scotland, and Wales are the 5th, 6th, and 11th ranked national teams but the UK isn’t qualified. South Africa is #1 in the world followed by Ireland, NZ and France. Argentina, Italy, Australia, and Fiji round out the top 10, but Italy didn’t qualify either!
England does have the #1 womens team and they did qualify - Scotland being #6 in the world, Wales #8 doesn’t hurt.
I feel the same way about soccer. I generally don’t love Olympic events where winning gold isn’t the highest achievement in the sport (or very close to).
Mainly commenting to brag though - I’m going!
Will arrive just in time to catch the women’s road race and will catch the men’s marathon as we leave a week later. One day of T&F and one day of Modern Pentathlon at Versailles in the middle. Super excited.
Rugby 7s starts Wednesday. Men play group stage Wednesday and Thursday morning. Quarter finals Thursday evening!. Semi finals Saturday morning! Medal matches Saturday night! Women start Sunday and finish on Tuesday. **Football takes the whole two weeks and Rugby will be done in 3 days! **
Highly recommend the entertainment of Rugby 7s to anyone unfamiliar with the sport. It’s fast, exciting and high scoring.
Football (soccer) matches are (at least) 90 minutes.
Rugby 7s are 14 minutes. Yep, each half lasts only 7 minutes. Major tournaments are routinely completed in three days.
This year’s Hong Kong 7s featured 12 teams for both men and women, totalling 64 matches for the 3 day tournament. They even had time to squeeze in an additional 8 matches for a “mini tournament” featuring men’s and women’s teams from Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and China.
My money’s on the Aussies to win the Hershey Squirts sprint event after they and the athletes from other countries swim in the Seine.
Will the Seine be clean enough by the Olympics? Not even the experts know yet
I also predict that the Suicide Vest and IED (Pressure Cookers Only) waste receptacle distance events will be a close matchup between the Moroccans and the Algerians, with maybe an upset on the part of the South Sudanese in the offing. Who knows, though? All three of those teams are closely matched and they each came out of their respective tourneys in fine fettle, as they say.
All kidding aside, though. I’m more interested in which country will win the total medals count by the end. Everything else in between is just filling in the tip sheets.
The poor surfers have a long commute from the Olympic Village. Their venue is Tahiti. Maybe we could move the tri and open water swim there too? I guess summer swell in France isn’t the best.
I would like to see the event at a big wave pond some year. That would be cool to have assigned waves the same size/form over and over.
The poor surfers have a long commute from the Olympic Village. Their venue is Tahiti. Maybe we could move the tri and open water swim there too? I guess summer swell in France isn’t the best.
I would like to see the event at a big wave pond some year. That would be cool to have assigned waves the same size/form over and over.
Makes the sailors look soft, they are Marseilles!
I got a number of tiktoks this morning - mostly aussie olypians for some reason - ALL complaining on how horrible the beds are, how sore they are, and how bad they slept on the crappy mattresses
. . .
I got a number of tiktoks this morning - mostly aussie olypians for some reason - ALL complaining on how horrible the beds are, how sore they are, and how bad they slept on the crappy mattresses
Those cardboard beds are getting some positive reviews…
Sarcasm? Or the first thread expressing sympathy for a group of super fit surfer-kids getting to spend part of their summer surfing in Tahiti? People have mutinied to get back to Tahiti.
Streaming is a great plus for the Olympics. We can all watch the bits we want and avoid the bits we have not interest in. T&F, swimming, tri, rowing, and cycling (road, mountain bike and track) are the highlights for me. Not much interest in soccer/football, tennis, basketball, golf, rugby 7s or gymnastics…but random stuff can pull me in.
i really love Paris. Have done since i stayed at cite universitaire for 7 weeks in 1989. Hope they do a great job.
Paris is nice. We could probably stay in Viroflay just south and west with friends and take in some in person Olympics.
I kinda have mixed feelings about the Olympics. I will watch parts but shelling out money to see an event connected to a rather corrupt groupt (The IOC) isn’t in the works for me I guess.
The other things is I think the area will be tres occupe over the Olympics.
My money’s on the Aussies to win the Hershey Squirts sprint event after they and the athletes from other countries swim in the Seine.
Will the Seine be clean enough by the Olympics? Not even the experts know yet
I also predict that the Suicide Vest and IED (Pressure Cookers Only) waste receptacle distance events will be a close matchup between the Moroccans and the Algerians, with maybe an upset on the part of the South Sudanese in the offing. Who knows, though? All three of those teams are closely matched and they each came out of their respective tourneys in fine fettle, as they say.
All kidding aside, though. I’m more interested in which country will win the total medals count by the end. Everything else in between is just filling in the tip sheets.
Oh great, Kahuna’s back and providing the tip top tier of clever commentary. Diarrhea and terrorism. Great stuff.
A friend and former colleague’s daughter is rowing for Team USA. Their whole family, including the 89 year old grandmother, are headed to Paris tomorrow night!!
