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RIO 16 - Best bits


Which Tyler

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What's your best moment of the games?

Opening ceremony?

Phelps extending his legacy?

Manuel and Oleksiak sharing Gold?

Fiji's gold, and singing in the huddle, honouring the patron of the SRU (originators of 7s)?

(same sport) NZ women's crying Haka?

Various world records being trashed?

Simone Biles inspiring absolute awe?

 

 

Fiji's medal etc is my choice - never seen so many smiles on the faces of a losing finalist; the emotion of their nation's first ever medal of any colour, and they trounce the entire field, stepping up a gear with each day of competition.

I don't think I've ever seen the medal-giver crying with the emotion before.

 

Of course, you can suggest anything else as well; including as they come.

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So far for me it's been Simone Biles. Throughout the entire competition she was such a nonchalant little person who sat at the side, did some magic when her name was called, then went back to not being fazed by any of it. But when she won the individual gold you could see the weight of the moment overtake her.

The Belgian heptathlon competitor also--Thiam. Every time she does exceptionally well its like she can't believe she's the one who did it. My dad and I were on the edge of our seats during the high jump, cheering her on as though she were South African.

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While Phelps is always...Phelpsian, in swimming the most impressive ones to me were the ladies, most specifically Katie Ledecky and The Iron Lady, Katinka Hosszu. Just amazing.

But the most awesome scene so far is the French volleyball player making a save while jumping the advertising banner, and then coming back to score the point in the match against the US. Shame I couldn't find a link. 

 

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Fu Yuanhui.

performance wise the mens 400m world record last night.  

personal satisfaction, the cycling team being freaky again as usual.  and all the whining and moaning from the anti GB brigade about how we must be doped up to the gills. 

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3 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

performance wise the mens 400m world record last night. 


While I agree- that shit was ridiculous, - a genuine question: why do you find this less suspicious than the women's 10k? It was exactly the same kind of paradigm shift.

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2 hours ago, polishgenius said:


While I agree- that shit was ridiculous, - a genuine question: why do you find this less suspicious than the women's 10k? It was exactly the same kind of paradigm shift.

i think it was suspicious, but he has been knocking around with some decent performances for a while and there has been a bit of chat that he might do something special.  the womens 10k was totally out of the blue.  

also, agree with @baxus that single sculls was incredible.  the runner up was so gracious and dignified as well, proper olympian.

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Simone Biles - just her poise and overall excellence. It's amazing to see what she can do, the height on the floor exercises is mind boggling.

Team USA womens gymnastics / swimming - to see a team with several ethnic back grounds was cool. Until the last couple games it was basically a white wash and now you are seeing more and more of the population being represented. The look of joy on Simone Manuels face, after winning the 100m free was amazing.

Usain Bolt just toying with the other racers during his heats, talk about feeling frustrated. Imagine being one of the best in the world at something that is over so fast, and yet here is this guy smiling and slowing down at the end! Watching him run, I see Randy Moss in his prime streaking down the sidelines for Minnesota. They just seem similar in stride, maybe a cross between Moss and Terrell Owens?

Katie Ledecki, seeing that shot of her at the end of the race where it looks like she is the only person in the pool because she is so far ahead of everyone else.

Phelps - Pretty much his entire Olympics. The guy IMO, is the GOAT. No one else is even close.

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Well, he does have 28 medals total. Next closest is 18. He has 23 gold medals, next closest is 9.

Longevity, check, multiple Olympics

Diversity, check, 4 different swimming disciplines, and differing lengths

Most importantly in this time, he has been shown to be clean. He even volunteered for the clean project and got tested an extra 30 times.

After that it just become semantic argument about eras and sports. But looking at medals, which is what they are there to win, he is hands down the leader.

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43 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

 

For swimming? Obviously.

For all sports? Nah. Up there, but certainly not well clear of the other greats.

without any doubt he is the greatest swimmer.  however it is so hard to judge due to the number of strokes, distances and relays against weaker countries.  

the preeminent sportsman of all time thread (Which i can't find for some reason) had some interesting discussions around this area. 

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Phelps is the most decorated Olympian to be sure.  He's an amazing athlete, absolutely.  He's also in a sport that allows for a shit ton of events and thus a shit ton of medals.  As someone noted elsewhere on the forum, it's not like Usain Bolt can get medals to run forwards and backwards and sideways and hopping and then do several different relays with all of these combined each and every olympics.  There's only one gold medal for beach volleyball players.  Gymnastics have a two per country rule and so if they qualify third in the world but come in .01 behind two other teammates, they are SOL (not to mention that longevity in gymnastics for women means something very different than longevity in other sports). 

So yeah, the dude is the best swimmer, most decorated Olympian, but I'm sick of hearing that he's the best of the best og all athletes or Olympians that ever existed because it doesn't acknowledge the realities of his sport compared to others.  

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Yeah, he's in the conversation for sure; and being the most decorated olympian in the sport with the most medals available per olympian is a great achievement; but doesn't make him the GOAT.

 

Phelps is up there for discussion, along with the likes of Zaharias, Federer, Redgrave, Joyner-Kersee, Ewry, Jordan, Ali, Bradman, Bolt, Pele etc

Of course, we had this discussion 4 years ago; and I personally went into it in way too much detail; pity the board and posts all got deleted; I really can't remember which gems I found who I'd never really heard of before, but had records that stood for themselves.

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2 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

Of course, we had this discussion 4 years ago; and I personally went into it in way too much detail; pity the board and posts all got deleted; I really can't remember which gems I found who I'd never really heard of before, but had records that stood for themselves.

We came down to Gretzky vs Bradman iirc.

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25 minutes ago, Slick Mongoose said:

We came down to Gretzky vs Bradman iirc.

 


Iirc Bubka came up in the discussion a lot too.

But it's Bradman all the way for me if we're talking any achiever in any sport and not just Olympians. I don't even like cricket but his stats defy hyperbole.

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no idea what is happening with the quote function at the minute.  anyway, any discussion about greatest has to involve 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Einar_Bjørndalen

both for achievement and longevity.  also possibly the hardest sport in the world, with shooting a gun under physical and psychological pressure thrown in.  however, it is much easier to be the greatest if you do quite a niche sport.   that has to affect any discussion re GOAT.

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