The 400m hurdles result is insane.
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My guess is it starts with the 100, double that and you have the 200. Double that you have the 400. Double that you have the 800. Each race twice as long as the one before. 500 has a hard time fitting into that scheme
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The chick who fell down yesterday and still won her qualifying heat totally dominated for gold today. Good for her.
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Double that you have 1,600, wait what? They run 1,500? Stupid math.
Well they run the 1600 in the US.
The 1500 came from the French who used to have 500M tracks. But tracks influenced by the British in that time were all 400M tracks. Since a French guy helped organize the 1896 Olympics, the 1500m was introduced alongside the shorter distances.
Interesting, I just looked at the Utah High School Track and Field record book because my junior year in HS they changed from yards to meters (we also at the same time got our cinder track rubberized).
Turns out in yards they ran 100, 220, 440, 880, mile and 2 mile. Now in meters they run 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200.
But if the French had 500M tracks why would they run the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500? And the Olympics changed from having a 3000M to having a 5000M race after '93. And they have a 10K as well.
The results for the whole field in Mens 400M hurdles is insane. college roommate called it the best olympics race ever, better than the 2012 mens 800M. (he was an awesome runner, still involved in the sport. i trust his judgement.)
i rewatched 800m from 2012. it was damn near perfect. smooth as silk up front for the WR. 49.4/51.6 splits. whole field dragged to the best opportunity to run fast ever. and yet…this year’s 400H is better.
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Better than the 1972 800M?
Olympics were attempted to be started up in England many times in the mid-1800s, to varying degrees of success. The guy who championed it was English. England still had tracks that were 440 yards (1/4 mile, 400 meters) But he was getting older in the late 1800s and met a French guy who took up the cause. That French guy ended up forming the first IOC and starting the olympics in Greece, using the template from the English games of the mid 1800s. That included the 100, 400, 800. He brought in the 1500 which France had just used at their initial championship in 1888. This replaced the mile and was sometimes called the “metric mile”. This was the only race that a Frenchman medaled in in 1896. The 200 was added the next olympics in 1900. It wasn’t until 16 years after that first event that they added the 5K and 10K
A few highlights: 3 of the 4 fastest times ever run in history were in that race. The 2nd place finisher also shattered the prior WR. The 3rd place finisher damn near hit the prior WR, and would have set the WR just a few weeks ago. He wasn’t very close to the leader either
To make the semifinals in the 400M (no hurdles!) it took a time of 45.64. Warholm at 45.94 came close to that time with hurdles in his way. His hurdles time was better than 23 Olympic sprinters ran without hurdles.
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72 wottle came back and it was awesome. but the time was not the peak of human performance, no.
the 92 was a machine running 1 rpm below redline for 800m dragging the whole field. if you like the 800, it matches diamond league races except the rabbit never faded.
the 400m hurdle - the opening 200 was FAST. the final result is top 2 beat existing WR. 8 finishers: WR and 5 national records behind it. i like championship races where the top people go after it. this is all of that.
but if you prefer 72 that’s ok. the best part of these discussions is the reminder to rewatch the races on youtube or whatever. i can’t believe what Im seeing every damn time, wottle included. i just now rewatched the 96 mens 10k last 5 laps. I mean, good gravy.
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I didn’t realize the “Caster Semenya rule” only applied to races from 400m to 1500m.
The silver medal in the 200m went to C. Mboma while B. Masilingi came in 6th both women from Nambia. They were hoping to compete in the 400m but after competing recently they were tested and found to have too high a level of testosterone and were banned from competing in the 400m so they switched to the 200m.
Canada and Sweden asking to push back the start time for the soccer final.
If they were smarter, they’d ask for an EARLIER start time, before it gets hot. Not sure what else is happening at the National (“Olympic”) Stadium that day, though. It is where the Athletics events are held.
OK, wiki is my friend, evening, unless otherwise indicated:
Mens: 5K, 4x100, 4x400, 50km walk (morning)
Women’s: 400, 1500 4x100, 20km, javelin
Could move it to another stadium. No fans are affected, for the most part.
It seems to have been created specifically to exclude her, as best as I can tell.
My understanding of the rule is that the WA/IAAF would have expanded it to cover all races (shorter and longer), but they only had data from races 400m-1500m. Any expansion of the rule would have been appealed and overturned. Caster Semenya is not the only runner impacted by this new rule. As 321 mentions above, some other runners shifted to longer distance races not yet covered by the rule.
Are you looking for something other than the difference between an authoritarian regime that breeds and rears athletes like a disposable resource versus a much freer society in which individuals sort themselves into their preferred activities, and therefore learn bad habits because they have been allowed to?
That’s probably the case. That skill level may just not be worth the effort if you have a choice. The difference is very stark though.
Question really is: is being a country great at sports all that important? China seems to think so. I know the USA used to think so, but maybe not anymore.
Meanwhile, KD and DG seem to think that American Media are supposed to be supportive of the USA Basketball team. I think they should be more about kicking asses, literally metaphorically (i.e., in the written word), so that the team has some additional motivation, as if the gold medal isn’t enough. Such snowflakes. “And now it is my duty to shit all over these guys who didn’t believe in us, just because we lost some games we should easily have won. How DARE they??”
USA’s expectations for basketball will continue to be sky high until the rest of the world eventually catches up to their level in quality and quantity. It has been going in that direction for a while now on the men’s side, they’re still the favorites – just won’t be nearly as dominant as 20+ years ago. They will (gasp!) actually have to work for it. It’s fair game for the media to bash them if they don’t work hard for it. (But maybe not press the panic button after losing exhibition games… yawn.)
Having said all that, there can be a separate conversation about how this team could have been more smartly constructed to make them a better TEAM, if not in terms of (available) talent.
Is being a country great at sports all that important? Maybe not all sports, but sure – the ones that countries have a passion for or take pride in being great at. Friendly competition is fun to be part of (and watch).
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Come on, except for the games they lost and the gold medal game, the USA men’s basketball team’s average margin of victory was over 30 points per game. If that isn’t domination, I don’t know what is.