Olympic Games | Page 2 | Vital Football

Olympic Games

Athletics not my bag, really. Didn't watch any of 2012 and couldn't say where 2016 was held.
You missed out big time, 2012 was great on TV and a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be there.

We were lucky enough to get tickets to the athletics on 'Super Saturday', though for the morning session. Nonetheless it was spectacular with a full stadium. 2 heptathlon events with Jess Ennis on her way to gold, 100m first round and first sighting of Usain Bolt on the track, 400m with Oscar Pistorius, then hero before becoming villain. Spent the next few hours in the park, hoped to watch the evening session on the screens but too crowded and ended up watching 'The Hour' of Ennis, Rutherford, Farrah on TV in the hotel with take-away and plenty of booze, great day, the atmosphere around the park and the city unforgettable.

I usually become an obsessive watcher of all sorts of weird and generally wonderful sports over an Olympic fortnight but without crowds, and with athletes constrained by covid and its protocols, Tokyo awill be a sad shadow of what an Olympics should be. I'll probably watch some of the highlights and live events at sensible UK times but can't help feeling this really should have been postponed another year.
 
And women's football underway already.
Huge stadia with no one watching. All looked quite pointless.

And as said above, I would not have football or any other team sport in the Olympics.
So farewell to hockey, baseball, softball(?), handball, volleyball, beach volleyball (utterly pathetic "sport" anyway), basketball, water polo (unfair on the horses), rugby sevens (seriously?), and no to things like eight in a rowing boat.
 
Same here.
I can watch the speed athletic events, such as the 100/200m. I find the rest pretty dull. 10000 metres is much like F1 for me, boring.
The things I really can't deal with are those that involve judges giving scores. Don't get me wrong, the skill and fitness of gymnasts is incredible. It's that the winner is decided by committee!

Yes, I enjoy the athletics, especially middle distances, but as a (retired) longer distance runner, I find the running of 10k metres round a track to be quite boring - to me it should be round lanes or streets!!
 
Yes, I enjoy the athletics, especially middle distances, but as a (retired) longer distance runner, I find the running of 10k metres round a track to be quite boring - to me it should be round lanes or streets!!

One oddity in the distances is nothing between 10k and marathon. Maybe either a 20k or half marathon could be included.
And perhaps go for some ultra distance events too...how about a 100k run?!
(And I have a friend who does events way longer than that...he's officially nuts!!)
 
One oddity in the distances is nothing between 10k and marathon. Maybe either a 20k or half marathon could be included.
And perhaps go for some ultra distance events too...how about a 100k run?!
(And I have a friend who does events way longer than that...he's officially nuts!!)

My elder son has done two Ironman triathlons, so swimming 2.4 miles and cycling 112 miles before running a marathon. My younger son and I have both done sprint distance triathlons, but as you say, that distance is nuts
 
One oddity in the distances is nothing between 10k and marathon. Maybe either a 20k or half marathon could be included.
And perhaps go for some ultra distance events too...how about a 100k run?!
(And I have a friend who does events way longer than that...he's officially nuts!!)
As a runner and a cyclist I work exclusively in metric
 
My elder son has done two Ironman triathlons, so swimming 2.4 miles and cycling 112 miles before running a marathon. My younger son and I have both done sprint distance triathlons, but as you say, that distance is nuts

Super impressive.
Mrs HGB once did a triathlon.
Me...ummm...I've watched...
 
More of a Mazzini man, me

A cousin of my dad's had Mazzini as a middle name as did various generations before and since. It's said that Mazz and Garibaldi visited them in Birmingham. I believe said ancestors worked in a gun factory.
 
Well I love the Olympics, and seems most events are in the daytime so will rig up a sneaky screen, benefit of wfh.
If I think back to 2012 feels like some kind of golden era of how the country was compared to now.
I’ll admit I’m not keen on some of the modern additions (climbing?) or as said Golf / Tennis where it’s not the sports pinnacle ( or if so why not every sport, cricket, darts et al). But not a blanket ban on team events, Hockey provided some of the best moments in recent games (actually I think an underrated sport).
Thinking about it, not sure why I haven’t ever been talent spotted by UK Sport as we’re very good at any sports which are performed sitting down, which is one of my specialities.
So I’ve got my guide in hand, ready for Taekwando, Canoeing & Table Tennis.
 
Well I love the Olympics, and seems most events are in the daytime so will rig up a sneaky screen, benefit of wfh.
If I think back to 2012 feels like some kind of golden era of how the country was compared to now.
I’ll admit I’m not keen on some of the modern additions (climbing?) or as said Golf / Tennis where it’s not the sports pinnacle ( or if so why not every sport, cricket, darts et al). But not a blanket ban on team events, Hockey provided some of the best moments in recent games (actually I think an underrated sport).
Thinking about it, not sure why I haven’t ever been talent spotted by UK Sport as we’re very good at any sports which are performed sitting down, which is one of my specialities.
So I’ve got my guide in hand, ready for Taekwando, Canoeing & Table Tennis.


Hockey was the one team sport I did ok at.
But I'd still bin it from Olympics.

Love the Taekwondo though. Jade Jones is just wow. Best ever at kicking people in the head...marvellous.