SPORTS BALL!!! v2.0

Xprimentyl

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If it wasn’t for the fact that his defending literally ended Norris’ race, I’d agree with him. Not a Verstappen fan by any stretch, but if I was the best at something with the best equipment to do it, I’d also be “balls to the wall” every time I had to do that thing.

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Offworlder

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If it wasn’t for the fact that his defending literally ended Norris’ race, I’d agree with him. Not a Verstappen fan by any stretch, but if I was the best at something with the best equipment to do it, I’d also be “balls to the wall” every time I had to do that thing.

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It was the most boring race up until the the last 10 mins haha.

They were racing, it happens, Verstappen has had it happen to him before. At least it actually gave us a unique ending rather than Verstappen pulling ahead and staring 10 seconds ahead.
 
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Xprimentyl

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It was the most boring race up until the the last 10 mins haha.

They were racing, it happens, Verstappen has had it happen to him before. At least it actually gave us a unique ending rather than Verstappen pulling ahead and staring 10 seconds ahead.
Oh, don't get me wrong, their fight was highly entertaining; easily the best part of the whole race. But Max putting his elbows as far out as he did felt unnecessary, and the fact that it ended Lando's race just felt, I dunno, obnoxious? I'd feel better about it if Max finished outside of the points, but nope; he still managed 5th to Lando's DNF. Proper villain was Max this time. I just hope this bodes for more fighting out front to come.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Lewis Hamilton won his home race at Formula 1’s Silverstone GP. For the first time ever… I was actually happy to see him win. Not dissimilar to Max Verstappen’s dominance now, Hamilton’s dominance up until a few years ago made the sport boring and predictable. But over the past few years, Hamilton has been humbled, and has stayed mostly quite amidst a flurry of harsh criticism from fans who are notoriously smug and vicious. Ever since the Abu Dhabi 2021 debacle where an 8th title was stolen from him (yes, I’m on that side of the “great debate,”) he’s just done the best he could with what he was given. Mercedes struggled, but finally have put together a reasonably competitive car again, and Hamilton managed his first win in two and a half years, and it just happened to be at home. Also, you can't NOT be happy for a guy who gets out of the car and goes to hug his mom.
 

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Meanwhile Sauber takes their sweet time with pit stops. Anyway, RB, Mclaren and Mercedes are pretty equal on some tracks on some conditions, bringing some fun into watching the races. Not that it's going to stop Max from winning in the end.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Meanwhile Sauber takes their sweet time with pit stops. Anyway, RB, Mclaren and Mercedes are pretty equal on some tracks on some conditions, bringing some fun into watching the races. Not that it's going to stop Max from winning in the end.
Max has looked fairly mortal these past couple of races, and the shake up has indeed made the races more interesting. I'd like to see this continue, but you're probably right; these past few weeks are probably an anomaly, and Max will be back to his winning ways.

But what the hell is going on with Sergio Perez? It's the "same" car as Max, but Perez has barely made a podium this year. And despite signing a contract extension, he's still not safe in his seat. Apparently, the contract has a performance based clause he's not living up to, and Red Bull could still oust him. It's going to be interesting coming out of this summer break with all the potential shuffling of the grid; I'm sure Perez isn't trying to be a part of any of those tough discussions...

 

Xprimentyl

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Formula 1’s Hungarian GP yesterday was highly entertaining. Verstappen proving that his confidence and swagger is a façade, and doesn’t hold up when truly tested. McLaren took 1 and 2 with Hamilton locking out the podium at 3 after having held off Verstappen for what felt like forever. You could tell Verstappen was frustrated when his last lunge to pass Hamilton resulted in contact with Hamilton, sent his car into the air, and netted him a penalty instead of 3rd place. Max spent the whole weekend basically complaining over the radio when the simple facts are other teams have improved, Max is a mortal man, and his wins aren’t a foregone conclusion anymore. If Max ain’t winning, he’s whining.

But the best story of the day was McLaren, and the battle between Lando Norris, his teammate Oscar Piastri, and their pit wall. Piastri had the lead of the race for quite some time, and the team made some questionable calls that ended up botching their pit strategy, put the team’s 1-2 advantage in jeopardy, and effectively took the lead from Piastri and handed it to Norris. Norris has always been an F1 “nice guy,” but when the team asked him to swap places with Piastri, Norris went basically radio silent as his gap from Piastri in P2 grew from 1.5 seconds, to 3 seconds, to over 5 seconds…
Yeah, Norris went full-on Frodo with the One Ring on us. The pit wall was literally begging Norris to "do the right thing," and it wasn't until the final couple of laps that he conceded and let Piastri take his well-deserved maiden win. At the podium, you could see the frustration on Norris' face, but he didn’t take away from his teammate’s moment and his first win. The post-race interview with Norris was him biting his tongue and smiling over gritted teeth, but he kept it civil, so I guess he’s still an F1 “nice guy,” but I’m sure the post-race debrief was a heated affair.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Anyone watching the Olympics??? Anyone?? Any...?

Well, I am. Men's Gymnastics was particularly exciting with USA taking Bronze in the team event, first medal in nearly two decades. Bronze being the least of the awarded spots, you'd have thought those guys won Gold for how hyped they were. It came down to their final gymnast, Stephen Nedoroscik, who only performs ONE skill, the pommel horse. While all the others were flipping around on the high beam or tumbling on the floor, Nedoroscik sat quietly in his chair meditating. It came down to him; he had to perform almost perfectly to get USA that Bronze. He took off his glasses, mounted that horse, and flipped and twirled his ass off. His teammates lifted him into the air in celebration. The Internet has dubbed him "Clark Kent."


Women's Gymnastics was equally dramatic. Simone Biles returned after bowing out in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to her mental health. She returned in grand fashion helping team USA to win Gold, as well as Gold in the individual all-around. I don't think there was a single person from any country rooting against her as her 4'8" self looked like a giant amongst dwarves.
 

Kyrian007

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Anyone watching the Olympics??? Anyone?? Any...?

Well, I am. Men's Gymnastics was particularly exciting with USA taking Bronze in the team event, first medal in nearly two decades. Bronze being the least of the awarded spots, you'd have thought those guys won Gold for how hyped they were. It came down to their final gymnast, Stephen Nedoroscik, who only performs ONE skill, the pommel horse. While all the others were flipping around on the high beam or tumbling on the floor, Nedoroscik sat quietly in his chair meditating. It came down to him; he had to perform almost perfectly to get USA that Bronze. He took off his glasses, mounted that horse, and flipped and twirled his ass off. His teammates lifted him into the air in celebration. The Internet has dubbed him "Clark Kent."


Women's Gymnastics was equally dramatic. Simone Biles returned after bowing out in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to her mental health. She returned in grand fashion helping team USA to win Gold, as well as Gold in the individual all-around. I don't think there was a single person from any country rooting against her as her 4'8" self looked like a giant amongst dwarves.
I've been watching. Well, here and there anyway. Seen some U.S. Women's Field Hockey. Watched some men's and women's beach volleyball. Been missing my favorite event, because the U.S. team didn't qualify and so it isn't getting much coverage. But I'll pull up the medal game of Court Handball at some point and watch it.
 
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Xprimentyl

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I've been watching. Well, here and there anyway. Seen some U.S. Women's Field Hockey. Watched some men's and women's beach volleyball. Been missing my favorite event, because the U.S. team didn't qualify and so it isn't getting much coverage. But I'll pull up the medal game of Court Handball at some point and watch it.
Yeah, we've watched a lot of the Volleyball too. The US Men's AND Women's were stressing us out! They'd dominate a set, then act like they've never played the game before in the next. But so far, undefeated...

Are you doing anything at all work-related for the Olympics, or is that out of scope for your particular field?

EDIT: Sorry, the Men did lose to Cuba, I believe, but have held unsteady since.
 
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Kyrian007

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Yeah, we've watched a lot of the Volleyball too. The US Men's AND Women's were stressing us out! They'd dominate a set, then act like they've never played the game before in the next. But so far, undefeated...

Are you doing anything at all work-related for the Olympics, or is that out of scope for your particular field?

EDIT: Sorry, the Men did lose to Cuba, I believe, but have held unsteady since.
Yeah, we're doing some light reporting and commentating. We are tracking down a few local former Olympians for interviews. Pretty common stuff for local media during an Olympic Games. We go a little harder on Olympics if there is a local competing. A hometown favorite. But this time around, we really don't have one here.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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The Olympics after the Philippines got its first ever gold medal, our golden boy Carlos Yulo won TWO gold medals for men's gymnastics. I wonder if that will finally get our athletes some fucking support in their careers.

I also watched a bit of badminton, as that's what I'm currently playing. It's so intense to watch, I'm genuinely shocked it and volleyball are not more popular spectator sports.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Agreed, net sports in general are a lot more interesting and intense than they get credit for. I think it’s because for someone just channel surfing, they seem like effortless back-and-forth. But if you actually invest some time, learn the rules, and WATCH, you see something really exciting. I’ve learned to appreciate the skill that goes into them, and appreciate when I see that skill performed exceptionally. Watching Djokovic vs. Alcaraz yesterday (#1 and #2 in the world respectively in tennis,) I had about four strokes; that match was incredible!

And congrats to the Philippines on the Golds! Can’t believe we missed it; we’ve tried to watch all the gymnastics that’ve been televised, but we’ve also been jumping between channels with Olympics on two TVs trying to keep up.
 

Xprimentyl

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Okay, new respect gained for Artistic Swimming.

I never gave it much thought; dismissed it as a bunch a cute chicks playing choreographed splash, and had never actually watched it. But I just watched it for real a few moments ago and:
News to no one but me, I'm sure, but it's like highly technical gymnastics... but you're swimming the whole time... in sync with like a half dozen other people. It's actually really amazing what those women are able to do. I love the camera angles that show their legs pumping away beneath the surface where the REAL work is being done. I defy anyone who doesn't take this event seriously to do something like what's seen in the video below. Much respect, Artistic Swimmers. I'm eating my crow thinking you were just "cute chicks playing choreographed splash;" you are clearly ATHLETES, and your event is very much a SPORT like any other, i.e.: something impossible for 99.9% of people to perform competently at the highest levels let alone the fucking Olympics.

 
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Anyone watching the Olympics??? Anyone?? Any...?

Well, I am. Men's Gymnastics was particularly exciting with USA taking Bronze in the team event, first medal in nearly two decades. Bronze being the least of the awarded spots, you'd have thought those guys won Gold for how hyped they were. It came down to their final gymnast, Stephen Nedoroscik, who only performs ONE skill, the pommel horse. While all the others were flipping around on the high beam or tumbling on the floor, Nedoroscik sat quietly in his chair meditating. It came down to him; he had to perform almost perfectly to get USA that Bronze. He took off his glasses, mounted that horse, and flipped and twirled his ass off. His teammates lifted him into the air in celebration. The Internet has dubbed him "Clark Kent."


Women's Gymnastics was equally dramatic. Simone Biles returned after bowing out in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to her mental health. She returned in grand fashion helping team USA to win Gold, as well as Gold in the individual all-around. I don't think there was a single person from any country rooting against her as her 4'8" self looked like a giant amongst dwarves.
 
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Xprimentyl

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As impressive as that sounds, the spring floor used in floor routines has, well, SPRINGS beneath it. Give me a trampoline, I could jump over Shaq too. Not taking away from Biles by any stretch; I've watched her a lot over the years, and she has earned each and every medal to her credit, but with my little knowledge of how horizontal momentum multiplies vertical momentum, I say she ain't jumpin' 12 feet in the air from level, solid ground.
 
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As impressive as that sounds, the spring floor used in floor routines has, well, SPRINGS beneath it. Give me a trampoline, I could jump over Shaq too. Not taking away from Biles by any stretch; I've watched her a lot over the years, and she has earned each and every medal to her credit, but with my little knowledge of how horizontal momentum multiplies vertical momentum, I say she ain't jumpin' 12 feet in the air from level, solid ground.
Of course it’s not a standing vertical lol. The 12ft is also just where the top of her head reached off the board, not ground clearance.
 
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Xprimentyl

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Of course it’s not a standing vertical lol. The 12ft is also just where the top of her head reached off the board, not ground clearance.
Yeah, I watched the event live where she hit that 12' mark with her signature pass. I wanted to post the video from YouTube, but they prefer you watch it there. It is amazing what she and all of those athletes are able to do; most of them could clear Shaq... on a spring floor, which is something I'd wager most normal people couldn't do. Now, find me someone who could clear Shaq on a sidewalk, flips and all, landing on their feet and saluting judges afterwards, and I'll eat my shoe and all of its contents while I'm wearing it.

 
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Xprimentyl

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As I've mentioned a few times, as much as I like a lot sports, one I can't get into is basketball. But I DO like the Olympics, and will watch pretty much anything being televised, and the only thing on just now was basketball, USA vs Serbia. And holy fucking shit, what an exciting game!!! USA, heavily favored to win it all, was down by as much as 15 at one point, and it wasn’t until the 4th quarter that they charged back to win it 95-91 and a berth into the Gold medal game. That was easily the most fun I’ve had watching a basketball game. If every NBA game had the gravity of an Olympic game, I’d probably be a fan. But as it stands, the NBA is still a league of selfish divas I can’t get behind, but when they pick the best of them to form a team and represent the USA, and they play like what I just watched…