I think a lot of young people aren't watching because they just don't care. Most of these types of competitions are "old school". I think even skateboarding (X-games) interest is starting to wane. I think older people aren't interested because the sports entertainment industry is over saturated and bloated. There were several other kinds of sports on TV last night to chose from other than the olympics. Heck, there even was Championship Cornhole on. Add the fact that it is summer and people are getting outside after long periods of lock downs, and of course the whole thing about every sporting event becoming a platform for virtue signaling athletes who are more interested in drama and endorsements than the sport itself.

I think they should have just cancelled the 2020 olympics because of all the COVID stuff, instead of "shoe horning" it in right now. It is all bad timing. The world, especially here in the U.S., is just not in the mood for it right now.

That is indeed one major factor. The bottom line is that at least in the US, the days of scheduled network tv programming are rapidly coming to an end.

edit: I just saw LB4's post and I agree with it 100%

I have ponder why they bite their medals.. I thought it's cos they are hungry after physically demanding exertion.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/sport/olympics-biting-medals-storage-spt-intl/index.html

You never got a medal that was covered in gold-leaf but was chocolate inside?

No I didn't play sports in school.

You don't have to play sports to get a medal.

To further your education, https://www.canstockphoto.com/chocolate-coins-wrapped-with-shiny-16717173.html

I want chocolate.

Simon Biles, who many consider the Greatest of all Time (a rather pretentious sobriquet, considering "of all time" includes future gymnasts), has taken herself out of most or all of the remainder of her events. She cites mental health issues due to the stress of practices and competitions. Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French open earlier this year for the same reason. Fellow athletes from many sports have voiced their support and related similar experiences. AND people around the world are making excuses for them, some saying they deserve special treatment.

Does anyone else remember when one mark of a TRUE champion was not only how well he or she competed, but how well he or she handled the pressure of "the big stage" whether that was the Olympics, a Grand Slam tennis tournament, the Super Bowl, the World Cup, or whatever? It seems like it was only yesterday.

And they want to talk about about pressure? Try going to a job that you don't particularly love, day after day, knowing you could be fired if you don't meet the company's expectations, all with a family that depends on you for support. Billions of people face that pressure every day of every week of every month of every year of their working adult lives without the support team...including emotional support...that athletes at her level have and don't earn a fraction in their lifetimes of what most of the poor, unfortunate athletes will in just a couple of years in salary and/or endorsements.

Sympathy level=0

Great post vonBaur.

A "greatest of all time" would not crack under pressure and drop out of a tournament. They would power through, Pete Sampras style, and never give up.

When I was a kid, if an athlete quit, shame followed them for the rest of their lives.


If you step up to the plate in baseball, if you never swing, you will never hit the ball. The ball, however, might hit you... But if you swing and miss, at least you tried to do something, and that's a lot better than giving up, or worse, never having swung at all.

Surely you mean candy?

The SImon Biles thing is another example of the "drama" that has suffocated sports. Not only are the biggest stories coming out of the Olympics "controversial", if you have the wrong opinion about them you are chastised. What a tedious and exhausting way to have the Olympics. Can't wait for them to be over. NFL season starts in a few months, so everyone can just move on to the next round of "controversial" topics to get upset about.

As for SImon Biles. I don't care one bit. Let her have her Wheaties box cover and Today show appearances. It doesn't matter.

Her WIKI. She competed before many times. Look at all the Gold medals. Her can't take the pressure excuse is questionable.

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

I renewed this thread this morning with some thoughts and I purposely left out the Biles thing. But now it's out there so I'll comment.

I'm in no position to pass judgement on what she did. I don't know exactly why she felt that way, nor any other issues she may be dealing with. I'm a big advocate for liberty and I would be hypocritical (and I despise hypocrites) to suggest she isn't in control of this, that it isn't her decision alone. Therefore I don't pass judgement on her decision to quit.

But what I do pass judgement on is the rush to frame her as some sort of heroine for doing so. I'll leave it at that.

You don't have a f..ing clue what kind of pressure her or anyone else is under to perform.

I quite enjoy the boxing!

I'm not following the Olympics closely, but the Simone Biles thing is pretty hard to miss while consuming news.

I don't want to push this into PWEC territory, but I will say that I think a number of commentators from the same portion of the political spectrum that I occupy have been misguided in their criticism of her decision / actions.

What is often overlooked is that in quitting the team competition, she saved the opportunity for the team to win the silver medal. Had she continued vaulting the way her first vault went, the team would not have had a chance to take silver.

On top of that, in light of how technically demanding/dangerous the vault moves are that they execute, she may very well have injured herself severely had she continued vaulting while her head was not in the right place. Maintaining correct spatial orientation while performing all that twisting/flipping at high speed is absolutely critical to landing safely. Think about how easy it would be to get that screwed up while distracted, and how hard it could end up being to regain your confidence in getting it right.

A wimp/wuss/snowflake does not accomplish the things that Simone Biles has in her career. Given her current age, this was probably her last time competing in an Olympics. In my mind, she deserves to be cut some slack on this.

Good post CB.

Who called her a "wimp/wuss/ snowflake"? Not I. NFB questioned the legitimacy of her claim based on her past experience, which showed that she'd handled it before, but he didn't denigrate her in any way. She's great. Possibly the greatest of her generation. But to be the greatest of all time you need to be able to handle the pressure. Every time. That was what I said then, that's what I say now, and that's what I'll say tomorrow. And in my opinion, to say otherwise denigrates the efforts of those who do handle the pressure every time.

I looked a bit on the internet for a picture, but was unable to find it. It was from the Olympics in the '70's or 80's, so some of the "more seasoned" members may remember it. It was of a female gymnast, Eastern Bloc IIRC, on the balance beam. She was lying on her chest with her legs bent over her head and her feet touching or almost touching the beam. The photographer had a perfect angle, right down the beam, looking right into her face. The look of concentration and focus wasn't one of someone who felt no pressure, but of someone who knew how to ignore the pressure when she had to.



I'm not familiar with scoring team sports in the Olympics. Is it not the cumulative scores of ALL of the competitors on that team? If it isn't, it should be. The only way I can think of for her dropping out to benefit the team is if it's an average, which is BS because then you enter only your top two. A member of a team who does not compete should score a 0 for each missed round and/or event. I wrestled in high school. If we didn't have someone at a certain weight class, for whatever reason, it was a forfeit and it hurt the team.


ps
If you felt my referring to her as "Simon Biles" was some kind of insult, I assure you it was not. It was a typo that got past some obviously shoddy proofreading on my part, and by the time I noticed it it was too late to correct.

vonBaur
https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/oly...ics/results-women-s-team-fnl-000001-.htm