Rio Olympics

[PeDe]

August 13
WaxMax attended the Men's 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final on eighth day of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

[PeDe]

August 14
The Dutch royal family attended the golden race of Dorian van Rysselberghe during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

[PeDe]

August 15
CG and Silvia arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the 2016 Summer Olympics and watched the men's preliminary handball match between Sweden and Brazil at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

[PeDe]

August 15
The Dutch royal family attend the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Artistic Gymnastics events at the Rio Olympic Arena in Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They celebrate Netherlands' Sanne Wevers on winning the women's balance beam event final of the Artistic Gymnastics.

[QueenEM]

Incredible Tennis!!!
After playing for 4 hours and 4 sets ~ a BIG Congratulations to Andy Murray of Great Britain on winning the GOLD in men?s singles tennis!   

Back-to-back Olympic Gold Medals! First man in history to take back-to-back Gold in Men's singles!  Congratulations Andy!!!   

Congratulations Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina on taking home the Silver!

Thank you gentlemen for an incredible match!

Yes, it was an incredible match. Del Potro was dead on his feet for several days, so we are very proud on how he gave his all and managed to still make a great match (finally something this country can agree to  )

Yesterday I saw the male pole vaulting. It all ended up being decided between french Lavillenie (world record with a 6.16m jump) and brazilian Da Silva (Latin American record with 5.95m jump).
When Lavillenie flawlessly cleared the 5.98m jump (breaking the past olympic record, also his), Da Silva decided to skip that jump (as Lavillenie, unlike him, had made all of the jumps at the first attemp and he was in the lead even if Da Silva did make the jump). Da Silva's coach looked at him very resigned with a 'do whatever you want at this point, its ok' face. Da Silva cleared the 6.03, setting a new olympic record and winning gold. He took a risk and payed off greatly. US Sam Kendrick just seemed like a really nice guy, chatting with the others as they made their jumps, congratulating them and making jokes (or so it seemed), the only one who was doing that.
It was really exciting to see whether they make it or not.
Like the female 400 race where Miller just threw herself onto the finish line to win 

[Hermione]

Congratulations to Sanne Wevers  
I love watching artistic gymnastics at the Olympics and surely the triple A enjoyed it too. It's really sweet the whole family was there to watch Wevers win!

[Kimothy]

I was just introduced to this swimmer from China via YouTube and OMG!!  She's adorable!!  Here's an article on her from Huffington Post.

Enjoy! 

http://www.huffingtonpost..._57aa0ecae4b0ba7ed23da025

[Duchess of Verona]

13 August 2016

Rio's main Olympic pool will be drained as part of major work to prepare for Sunday's synchronised swimming.

The larger pool in the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre turned green on Wednesday, a day after the diving pool had also changed colour.

Officials blamed high chemical levels, and divers were unable to use the pool as work continued to change the colour.

Rio communications chief Mario Andrada said a ''more radical approach'' was being taken to prepare the water.

''One of the measures is to replace a big part of the water in the main pool,'' he added.

The larger pool is used for water polo as well as synchronised swimming.

Gustavo Nascimento, the director of venue management, said clean water from a practice pool would be transferred to the main pool.

That was necessary, he said, to ensure clear water for synchronised swimming judges and competitors, with the majority of the competition taking place under water.

The diving pool will remain in use as officials say there are no health risks to athletes.

Organisers said adding hydrogen peroxide in an effort to clean the pool had caused algae to grow.

''This is a way of cleaning swimming pools but you're not supposed to combine it with chlorine,'' said Nascimento.

Source: www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/37074145

At least one pool remained blue. So...who dumped the hydrogen peroxide in the other pools?

From Facebook:

Stephan Feck
August 12 at 4:24am ?
The moment you want to do some workout and the pool is closed😱 the whole venue smells like somebody has fart

Lastly:
The chief spokesperson for the Maria Lenk pool in Rio says they were caught off-guard by the change in colour, adding: ''Chemistry is not an exact science.''

No, no it isn't.

Well, unless you actually study chemistry, in which case one would know that the exact same experiment, performed correctly, would yield the same result each time. How silly of me to think that the Olympics would have this under control. There are 100 million pools. This is not the frontier of space.

[PruNordstrom]

Lastly:
The chief spokesperson for the Maria Lenk pool in Rio says they were caught off-guard by the change in colour, adding: ''Chemistry is not an exact science.''

No, no it isn't.

I was being sarcastic.

Well, unless you actually study chemistry, in which case one would know that the exact same experiment, performed correctly, would yield the same result each time. How silly of me to think that the Olympics would have this under control. There are 100 million pools. This is not the frontier of space.

Duchess of Verona's post is supported by at least these two references:

How is hydrogen peroxide dosed?

Most hydrogen peroxide applications consist of hydrogen peroxide injection into flowing water. No other chemicals or equipment are required. This application is used to control biological growth, to add oxygen, to remove chlorine residues and to oxidize sulphides, sulphites, metals and other easily oxidized materials. The suitability of hydrogen peroxide for these applications is influenced by pH, temperature and reaction time.

Ref: www.lenntech.com/processes/disinfection/chemical/disinfectants-hydrogen-peroxide.htm

LiveScience
Did Hydrogen Peroxide Really Turn Olympic Pools Green? Not So Fast
By Laura Geggel, Senior Writer
August 16, 2016 07:14am ET

Olympic officials in Rio de Janeiro announced this past weekend that they had found out why the water in two pools turned bright green, but their explanation has at least one chemist scratching her head.

The confusion comes down to an understanding of basic chemistry and swimming pool maintenance, said Susan Richardson, a professor of chemistry at the University of South Carolina and a former pool owner.

...''Someone, the officials said, mistakenly added 160 liters [42 gallons] of hydrogen peroxide on Aug. 5, neutralizing the chlorine and allowing the growth of 'organic compounds' that might have included algae,'' the Times said.

...If enough hydrogen peroxide were poured into a chlorinated pool, it would react with all of the bleach, until there wouldn't be any chlorine left to kill algae and other organisms that thrive in warm pools, she said.

...However, when Olympic officials monitored the pools, they found the proper amount of chlorine in the pools, but didn't know that the chlorine wasn't working, Gustavo Nascimento, director of venue management for the Rio Olympics, told the Times.

This doesn't make sense, Richardson said. ''Even if they had 'accidently' added hydrogen peroxide, they should be checking the chlorine level regularly,'' Richardson said. ''They would have known immediately that the chlorine was gone.''

Ref: www.livescience.com/55770-hydrogen-peroxide-in-olympic-pools.html

So everyone swimming in green water pools was swimming with algae bloom and ''other organisms'' in the pool and the Oly maintenance crew wasn't in a hurry to fix it. I truly hope no one has any after-effects from the poorly maintained pools.

[PruNordstrom]

I no longer have any respect at all for the 'rules' by which a winner is determined in any of the footraces held during the Olympics. I know it's 'whatever part of the body crosses the line' determines the completion time. But the track races are FOOT RACES. It should not be whatever body part crosses the finish line. The foot crossing the line should determine the winner. Not someone's fingertips, or their elbow or the top of their head after they faceplant on the surface. The finish in the 400 meters was a purposeful cheat by the athlete. You will never convince me otherwise. She couldn't run as far as her nearest competitor so she threw her body over the finish line. Not an athlete, a slacker. Tactics used by those that know they can't win by running faster on their own two feet.

10,000 meter race; foot over the finish line:


400 meter race; finger tip over the finish line (cuz that's the body part that propelled the body through the race?); cheater tactics. IMO

[QueenEM]

^IIRC the winner is the one who crosses her/his chest  across the finish line, at least that was what they were saying on the tv while waiting for the winner to be decided. 

 

[Molly2101]

I'm still gutted that team GB were disqualified from the men's 4x400 relay...and now Brazil have made it in as a fastest loser...


Also devastation for Tom Daley who completed fluffed up his dives in the semi-final to come last.

[PruNordstrom]

Talking with neighbors yesterday evening (15 of us) and found that all but one stopped watching the Olympics after the first few days. Most were recording the broadcasts to watch later but found the programs too disorganized. Most don't believe that the athletes trained and competed without 'supplements.'  No one talked about any particular sport or athlete, even ignoring the story of the idiot swimmers out drinking. The idea of an Olympic competition moving from country to country now seems a waste of funds for each country. More permanent sites (plural) should be built and maintained. That's the neighborhood report.
 

[bumbershoot]

From my perspective the U.S. TV coverage -- NBC, of course -- has been pretty disgraceful, so totally focused on just a few U.S. athletes to the exclusion of almost everything else. And many commentators have called NBC on some of its sexist comments.

That said, I've enjoyed seeking out the non-prime-time coverage available through my cable company. That way I can watch the sports I want to see and watch the competitions from beginning to end. Last night I was doing some hand sewing and watched most of the rhythmic gymnastics, a form of gymnastics that is not particularly prominent here in the U.S. It seemed a bit silly at first, but the longer I watched, the more I saw how much training and innate athleticism is involved. (Although the costumes/uniforms would put the average Vegas showgirl to shame, I thought).

[ortensia]

the italian public tv coverage was excellent : 3 channels 24/7 and if you wanted (like:if you were imprisoned or ill) you could watch every sport.
it was so good because nobody really care about olympics, infact if you want to watch much more salivating italian premiere league,champions' cup,formula 1 races etc you have to pay SKY (at least over here).

this said, have you seen how little (if none) new world records were made?? in the past it was all a "new olympic record,wait,new world record,wait,two new world record".this year,nada.