XXXth Olympiad - London

[Pegaritaville]

I really don't know what was worse - that they were doing it, or that they were doing it so blatantly.

In the end, the officials made the right call.

Yeah, had they made it less obvious, they might have gotten away with it, but that was so in-your-face that even the most casual observer could see what was going on.

Not sure how they could go about it, but I wonder if there's some way to change the format to prevent teams from sandbagging their way to a better draw.

 

[Angel4576]

Yeah, had they made it less obvious, they might have gotten away with it, but that was so in-your-face that even the most casual observer could see what was going on.

Not sure how they could go about it, but I wonder if there's some way to change the format to prevent teams from sandbagging their way to a better draw.

Get rid of the round-robin format.

 

[Starkers]

Team GB up to fifth in the medal table after two more Golds.

On the subject of the medal table, I appreciate Gold is worth more, but it still seems silly to see South Africa with three medals ahead of Japan with 17! Surely they could give 3 pts for a Gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze or something?

 

[Roger Wilco]

Doping favours bad athletes, and disadvantages talented ones.

Nah, it favours both. Good athletes aren't flowless and they still use drugs to improve whatever they think they need to improve.
It standardizes some athletic parameters.

True, but in an utopian clean sport, the best athletes tend to win. In a dirty sport, mediocre guys can suddenly beat the shit out of everyone else; cycling being a big example because we know so much about what was going on between the early 90s and mid 2000s now (and we don't know as much about most other sports) - Rominger, Riis, Armstrong, Museeuw, Zülle, Basso, Ricco, fucking joke, the whole lot of them, and so many others, and impossible to tell who the real talents are. Who knows if Moncoutie wouldn't have won five Tours without all the dope?

 

[Roger Wilco]

Team GB up to fifth in the medal table after two more Golds.

On the subject of the medal table, I appreciate Gold is worth more, but it still seems silly to see South Africa with three medals ahead of Japan with 17! Surely they could give 3 pts for a Gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze or something?

The whole idea of a medal table ranked by nationality is an absurdity that goes against everything the Olympics supposedly stand for, I wouldn't take it so seriously.

 

[marillion]

I learned something new yesterday.. I had absolutely NO idea that athletes from some countries get paid for their medals..

The US team members get 25k, 15k and 10k respectively for gold, silver and bronze. Countries like Russia and Italy pay even more..

It came to light yesterday that Team USA members also have to pay up to 9k in taxes for these monetary prizes.. Incredible.. I realize that it counts as income and taxes need to be paid on it, but still.. That's a lot of dough. Apparently there's a move on right now to have that reduced or eliminated.

In a somewhat related note, I read that the gold medals are worth upward of $600+, Silver in excess of $300 and bronze... Well the bronze medals are worth about 5 bucks.. Seriously??

Strange stuff.

 

[Shaytan]

True, but in an utopian clean sport, the best athletes tend to win. In a dirty sport, mediocre guys can suddenly beat the shit out of everyone else; cycling being a big example because we know so much about what was going on between the early 90s and mid 2000s now

Actually that was already known at this time. Medias were just playing blind at this time but everyone, including the public, knew.

(and we don't know as much about most other sports) - Rominger, Riis, Armstrong, Museeuw, Zülle, Basso, Ricco, fucking joke, the whole lot of them, and so many others, and impossible to tell who the real talents are.

Are you trying to kill my childhood ?

Anyway, nothing could have been done and I'm still sure that's a lot too late to do something. We'd better accept it or it will kill all the fun.

Who knows if Moncoutie wouldn't have won five Tours without all the dope?

The foreigners would never have known what to do with all those vowels !

 

[Gryffindorian]

I learned something new yesterday.. I had absolutely NO idea that athletes from some countries get paid for their medals..

The US team members get 25k, 15k and 10k respectively for gold, silver and bronze. Countries like Russia and Italy pay even more..

It came to light yesterday that Team USA members also have to pay up to 9k in taxes for these monetary prizes.. Incredible.. I realize that it counts as income and taxes need to be paid on it, but still.. That's a lot of dough. Apparently there's a move on right now to have that reduced or eliminated.

In a somewhat related note, I read that the gold medals are worth upward of $600+, Silver in excess of $300 and bronze... Well the bronze medals are worth about 5 bucks.. Seriously??

Strange stuff.

You know, I didn't realize that, but I'm not surprised. The athletes have to be compensated somehow for all their hard work. If American football, baseball, and basketball players make millions of dollars per season/year, then $25,000 for an Olympic gold medal isn't so bad a reward (plus the endorsements they get from various companies).

 

[Angel4576]

Chris Hoy - 5th gold medal - legend!

 

[tomalak301]

I learned something new yesterday.. I had absolutely NO idea that athletes from some countries get paid for their medals..

The US team members get 25k, 15k and 10k respectively for gold, silver and bronze. Countries like Russia and Italy pay even more..

It came to light yesterday that Team USA members also have to pay up to 9k in taxes for these monetary prizes.. Incredible.. I realize that it counts as income and taxes need to be paid on it, but still.. That's a lot of dough. Apparently there's a move on right now to have that reduced or eliminated.

In a somewhat related note, I read that the gold medals are worth upward of $600+, Silver in excess of $300 and bronze... Well the bronze medals are worth about 5 bucks.. Seriously??

Strange stuff.

You know, I didn't realize that, but I'm not surprised. The athletes have to be compensated somehow for all their hard work.

Tell that to college athletes.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Chris Hoy - 5th gold medal - legend!

Impressive from Team GB for sure, not the last gold they'll win on the track this week.

But the women's race was a fucking farce. I really felt sorry for the Chinese women, who were clearly the best and only lost out because of a totally incomprehensible rule. No blame to the Germans, but they shouldn't even have been in that final, the British getting relegated was just as nonsensical. And the Germans weren't even as fast as the Australians in the bronze medal match...

 

[Angel4576]

But the women's race was a fucking farce. I really felt sorry for the Chinese women, who were clearly the best and only lost out because of a totally incomprehensible rule. No blame to the Germans, but they shouldn't even have been in that final, the British getting relegated was just as nonsensical. And the Germans weren't even as fast as the Australians in the bronze medal match...

In the last day or two there have been a few things cropping up to sour the occasion. The above example, I completely agree with.

The boxing last night left a lot to be desired - the Iranian getting disqualified, and then even more unbelievably, the Japanese guy who was eliminated despite knocking his opponent to the floor six times in the final round of their bout. Fortunately that one was over-turned on appeal.

Apparently there was some sort of screwup with the assigning of proper racing lanes in the rowing this morning as well.

This of course coming after the Badminton farce....

 

[Mr Silver]

Michael Phelps is just something else, there is just nobody that has ever performed the way he has and in so many different strokes as well!

I honestly reckon that he could keep up his level of success if he decided to enter the 2016 Olympics - of course, he's said this is his last Olympics. Regardless, it's amazing that a 27 year old is completely dominating and this is why I reckon he's got another Olympic games in him.

 

[Angel4576]

I'm beginning to think that Phelps is part-fish.

What a fantastic Olympian!

 

[Gryffindorian]

I learned something new yesterday.. I had absolutely NO idea that athletes from some countries get paid for their medals..

The US team members get 25k, 15k and 10k respectively for gold, silver and bronze. Countries like Russia and Italy pay even more..

It came to light yesterday that Team USA members also have to pay up to 9k in taxes for these monetary prizes.. Incredible.. I realize that it counts as income and taxes need to be paid on it, but still.. That's a lot of dough. Apparently there's a move on right now to have that reduced or eliminated.

In a somewhat related note, I read that the gold medals are worth upward of $600+, Silver in excess of $300 and bronze... Well the bronze medals are worth about 5 bucks.. Seriously??

Strange stuff.

You know, I didn't realize that, but I'm not surprised. The athletes have to be compensated somehow for all their hard work.

Tell that to college athletes.

I should've said Olympic athletes.

 

[Relayer1]

Doping favours bad athletes, and disadvantages talented ones.

Nature isn't fair. If I'd been born with an athletic physique, great reflexes and a psychotic competitiveness, I could have won a medal too.

It's not a level playing field anyway...drugs don't make it any less fair.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It came to light yesterday that Team USA members also have to pay up to 9k in taxes for these monetary prizes.. Incredible.. I realize that it counts as income and taxes need to be paid on it, but still.. That's a lot of dough. Apparently there's a move on right now to have that reduced or eliminated.

In order to be taxed $9,000 dollars though, you'd have to a) win gold and get the $25,000 bonus, b) have an annual income of at least $388,350 per year and thus have to pay the 35% tax rate, and c) not write off the prize money against the cost of your training and Olympic/sports-related expenses. While some athletes will make enough to be charged that because of endorsement deals (and therefore will probably be able to cover it easily), most in less popular sports will not have that kind of income and will be taxed much less. It's sort of a tempest in a teapot because I highly doubt anyone is being blindsided by something they can't afford.

 

[Relayer1]

It came to light yesterday that Team USA members also have to pay up to 9k in taxes for these monetary prizes.. Incredible.. I realize that it counts as income and taxes need to be paid on it, but still.. That's a lot of dough. Apparently there's a move on right now to have that reduced or eliminated.

In order to be taxed $9,000 dollars though, you'd have to a) win gold and get the $25,000 bonus, b) have an annual income of at least $388,350 per year and thus have to pay the 35% tax rate, and c) not write off the prize money against the cost of your training and Olympic/sports-related expenses. While some athletes will make enough to be charged that because of endorsement deals (and therefore will probably be able to cover it easily), most in less popular sports will not have that kind of income and and will be taxed much less. It's sort of a tempest in a teapot because I highly doubt anyone is being blindsided by something they can't afford.

In the UK our elite athletes get grants to support them, expensive facilities to train in, coaches, staff, physio's etc. They make a fortune from advertising and appearance fees and are very wealthy.

Our students have to take out repayable loans to attend university.

Why don't these athletes have to repay the taxpayers outlay ?

 

[Holdfast]

What's everyone's take on the badminton match fixing

Sharp practice, but IMO acceptable. Fault of the format, really.

It's certainly not cricket, of course, so I don't criticise the officials for using their leeway in interpreting the rules to disqualify the athletes. But on another day (or if the athletes been a little less blatant) they'd have got away with it, so I can't really criticise them much either.

This was one of those strategic moves you know is shaded in grey and therefore open to harsh interpretation. If you do it and then get clipped by officials, you have to face the music. If the officials don't pay attention, you get an advantage. Up to the individual to decide whether to risk it or not.

On the subject of the medal table, I appreciate Gold is worth more, but it still seems silly to see South Africa with three medals ahead of Japan with 17! Surely they could give 3 pts for a Gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze or something?

The whole ranking table is just a bit of fun for the media and public to play around with. There's no canon way to do it IIRC (as someone else said upthread, it's a pretty non-Olympic concept if you think about it), so feel free to rank them however you like.

For example, I like ranking them whichever way GB looks better.

I learned something new yesterday.. I had absolutely NO idea that athletes from some countries get paid for their medals..

The US team members get 25k, 15k and 10k respectively for gold, silver and bronze. Countries like Russia and Italy pay even more.

Again, only IIRC, but I think the bounty on medals reaches six figures for some countries.

In a somewhat related note, I read that the gold medals are worth upward of $600+, Silver in excess of $300 and bronze... Well the bronze medals are worth about 5 bucks.. Seriously??

It's a beautiful demonstration of economic theory in action. The monetary value of an object is not determined through the value of its component parts but rather through supply and demand for the object itself. In this case, you cannot obtain the real winners ones without extreme competition (and the competitive process itself adds value) therefore their monetary value if resold would far exceed those figures.

... a totally incomprehensible rule...

I actually still don't understand what the rule was.

I'm beginning to think that Phelps is part-fish.

See, I said upthread that we should allow genetic modification...

 

[Angel4576]

See, I said upthread that we should allow genetic modification...

Well he's either part fish, or part-outboard motor, I can't quite decide!

A phenomenal athlete though.