Tokyo Olympics 2020

fez said:
I think it came from a place of complete ignorance on the part of the olympics committee of what climbing disciplines are like and how very different speed climbing is. No one takes speed climbing seriously who also takes any other form of climbing seriously. Its a real shame they had to include that in the competition.
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I'd heard that because it was a new sport, the IOC would only allocate 1 medal to it. The idea is that it's easier to have the 3 disciplines combined this year and split them into separate medal events in future than it would be to choose 1 discipline this year and try to add additional ones in future.

*when I say "1 medal", obviously I mean 1 medal per gender not 1 total
edit: actually, I've just looked it up and Paris 2024 will have a speed climbing medal and a combined sport/bouldering medal
 
jpaul said:
can't see a decent description of the protocol - https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/sports/sport-climbing/
not sure if it on sight, and/or what the (joint?) preparation time is ?
since two folks do same route, at same time, it is only their relative time that counts too, so speed, to the point where you injure yourself might be reduced,
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The speed wall is the same, at every wall, everywhere in the world, they can probably do it with their eyes closed.

It's a daft sport that has bugger all to do with rock climbing.
 
touch said:
I'd heard that because it was a new sport, the IOC would only allocate 1 medal to it. The idea is that it's easier to have the 3 disciplines combined this year and split them into separate medal events in future than it would be to choose 1 discipline this year and try to add additional ones in future.

*when I say "1 medal", obviously I mean 1 medal per gender not 1 total
edit: actually, I've just looked it up and Paris 2024 will have a speed climbing medal and a combined sport/bouldering medal
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Having sport and bouldering combined is fine.....the training and skills are almost entirely transferable between the two. Happy enough with competitive ladder climbing aka speed being separate :P
 
Not sure what to make of this Simone Biles situation, like she seemed to fluff up one event and then just quit, not because of an injury but just citing mental health.

On one hand, mental health is important, it's good that it is being taken seriously these days but that might be undermined somewhat if people can just cite it as a general catch-all simply because things didn't go well or they suffered a setback. There was the tennish player not too long ago who made a fuss over being obliged to give interviews to the media (ultimately television coverage is part of what pays the bills there so ducking out of it because you don't like potential criticism is a bit dodgy) - she was applauded for it though.

With this Simone Biles situation this was a team event, she's dropped out for mental health reasons and a reserve team member has stepped up in her place but I suspect those mental health issues might well have been cured in a couple of days time when she has some individual events and potential to win some individual medals. If she competes for her individual events on Thursday after bailing on her teammates today then I could see why that might attract some cynicism - it generally goes against what we're taught about sport/teamwork etc.. it's not just about winning, you don't quit after a setback or give up on your teammates in the middle of an event.

I don't think it's necessarily going to harm her, the media coverage will still be generally supportive, especially if she goes on to win those events but probably even if she misses or has more setbacks there will be a lot of sympathy, especially as she's already done so well in her field. She'll have plenty of sponsors lining up with deals etc.. and mental heath concern is getting a lot of attention these days so that's only a plus overall.
 
dowie said:
it generally goes against what we're taught about sport/teamwork etc..
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She came out and said "We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do." she's a world leading athlete - she doesn't need excuses to not run in an event. She has nothing left to prove.

The same for Naomi Osaka, she is currently the second best Tennis player in the world. She again has nothing to prove.

Your post comes across as 'yeh mental health is important, but I don't believe them'
 
iamtheoneneo said:
Your post comes across as 'yeh mental health is important, but I don't believe them'
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Well that isn’t what I said, that’s some mind reading on your part. Whether she has anything left to prove is irrelevant to what I said too.

I’m not doubting that fluffing that event was a major setback and/or that they’re under immense pressure at the Olympics (or similar world sports events). I’m not doubting that it is having an effect n her mental health either, but she’ll probably make a trade off for the individual events in so far as even if her mental health is affected at the moment this is her last chance to rack up some more medals, or try and set new records. That trade off perhaps wasn’t there today though when the set back had occurred and she decided not to carry on with her team.
 
It's possible the decision cost her team gold but if she continued and she messed up again, they could end up out of the medals. Smart move if you ask me.

If she stumbled and limped off, no one would say a thing. :/
 
marc2003 said:
It's possible the decision cost her team gold but if she continued and she messed up again, they could end up out of the medals. Smart move if you ask me.
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She was obviously not up to performing well, and didn't want to let the team down. She's done right by them.

It's not unusual for athletes who have absolutely dominated their sports to have a real tough time if/when their performance wobbles.
 
Biles, in the USA, may have, similar to the celebrity, to that we attributed to the English football team, with similar media/social demands - she's withdrwan from individual too they just said r4today

mid_gen said:
The speed wall is the same, at every wall, everywhere in the world, they can probably do it with their eyes closed.
It's a daft sport that has bugger all to do with rock climbing.
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as you say,
I see only bouldering & lead have original routes they haven't worked - if they had an audience you'd want a spotter telling you which way previous competitors did it.
https://www.climbing.com/competitio...ow-about-climbing-at-the-2020-tokyo-olympics/
 
jpaul said:
as you say,
I see only bouldering & lead have original routes they haven't worked - if they had an audience you'd want a spotter telling you which way previous competitors did it.
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That is very much against the rules :p Competitors are held in an isolated room while the other climbers go out, so they can't get any information on the routes or how other competitors tackled them.
 
jpaul said:
Biles, in the USA, may have, similar to the celebrity, to that we attributed to the English football team, with similar media/social demands - she's withdrwan from individual too they just said r4today
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It was virtually impossible for her to live up the hype, anything other than gold would be a massive disappointment and her vault(?) prior to quitting was atrocious.

They're just using politics to cover the fact that she didn't perform and to try to preserve her reputation, yesterday it was mental health and today it will probably be racist abuse on Twitter.
 
I guess everything looks like politics when you don't get out of your basement :rolleyes:

If she stopped competing today she'd still be the greatest gymnast of all time, she doesn't need to preserve anything.
 
Mental health is becoming the catch all for any sort of issues that anyone has. Pretty much any time an athlete performs under their limit by any significant margin it will be due to injury or mental health. People used to call it form or ability to perform under pressure and if you couldn't do it then it was just a shame and you get on with it.

We don't know what has happened behind the scenes but she has let her teammates down and if she comes out and does well in the individual events then I think there will be serious questions asked. She has also invited pressure onto herself with the way she has promoted herself, monetised herself and the fact that she has a goat emblem on her cloths. Its the same with Osaka. Thats the price you pay for putting yourself in the spotlight and reaping the financial rewards. You are scrutinised, put under pressure and idolised. You will have people who worship the ground you walk on and others who think you are a complete ****.

To be at the top of your game in any sport you have to be one of the strongest mentally and if that ever leaves you then you probably need to take a step back. Naomi Osaka basically wants to play her tennis and not have anyone say anything negative about her or ask her any questions. Thats not how it works. I would love to just be left to get on with my work and not have management meddle in it but you know what, thats part of my job, much like her media commitments.

What I don't understand is how we think that exposing people to any sort of negativity is horrible and nasty and yet exposing people to constant over the top positivity is seen as brilliant. Social media is just a toxic place on both sides. On one side you have people saying that shes let down her country and her team and on the other we have people saying that talking about mental health means she has already won a far more important gold medal. Its mental on both sides. Neither one is healthy.
 
Was awake in the early hours last night so watched the gold medal favourites GB almost sink the Italians and finish 4th in the rowing. The BBC presenters and Cracknell? immediately questioned how GB rowing had fallen from grace so fast and asked some tough questions of three of the team post race. They said they'll look at what happened, apologised for letting people down but promised to comeback stronger. That's the correct attitude to have in sport, and a great example to kids, but they would all undoubtedly be national hero's to some right now if they had claimed mental health issues had hindered their performance :/
 
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