Quaker2001

Have they set the full schedule for that or just the groups? Tokyo site has nothing thus far

This isn't quite as bad as some formats where every team makes it to the knockout stage at the same starting point. 1st place in your group means the worst you can do is play for the bronze medal. 3rd place means 1 more loss and you're out. If a team finishes 3rd and then gets to the gold medal game, they'll probably have a better overall record than another team that didn't get there. It'll all even out in the end in that regard

True, but team Israel made it to the 2nd round of the last WBC. In 2013, Italy advanced out of their group. Baseball results tend to be somewhat random that way.

Technically it's 50/50 since there's only 6 teams and 3 get medals

Oy, another major crash in the peloton. No fan interference this time Chris Froome and Andre Greipel among the riders involved

I feel like that's a good rule in life, not just when you're watching cycling. If there's traffic headed in your direction and you don't actually have eyes in the back of your head, maybe check to see what's oncoming!

Took all of 1 day for an idiot fan to forget not to get too close to the riders and completely fuck up the 1st stage. Someone needs to find that guy and publicly shame the shit out of him

That's where the slippery slope comes in and why I'm largely on the IOC's side on this one. I don't know what the happy medium is and where you draw the line, let alone where the IOC is supposed to be in charge of that. "do the BLM" The idea that the IOC has these rules and doesn't really specify punishment for breaking them is just to try and strike the fear of G-d in them. Particularly for athletes who are unlikely to make it to the next Olympics (and/or if they even care)

The IOC can't have it both ways. When the Koreas marched together in 2018, they wanted to claim credit for that. When the world has a beef with China and the IOC is turning a blind eye to human rights abuses, they'll pretend like the issue doesn't exist. Yea, it would be nice to keep sports and politics separate, but we don't live in that world. And if advocating for equal rights is "being political" then we need to take a long look at ourselves. The best irony here for me is that the same group of people that say "keep politics out of sports" are largely aligned with the group that will be upset if politics is kept out of sports with the 2022 Olympics. Same deal everyone.. which is it? Can't have it both ways.

It's still a slippery slope for the IOC to decide what is or isn't acceptable when it comes to protesting. And as usual, simply by acknowledging this, they're going to piss off both sides. The anti-protest side will still be like "if I see 1 raised fist, I won't watch the Olympics." And the other side will be "how dare they suppress free speech, I won't watch the Olympics."

From NBC... RECORD 178 COMMENTATORS JOIN NBC OLYMPICS’ COVERAGE OF THE GAMES OF THE XXXII OLYMPIAD FROM TOKYO, JAPAN

It's one of my favorite shows and I watch every week (haven't gotten to this week's episode yet because I was out of town over the weekend). Yes, they've received awards and praise from many news organizations. But Oliver has said that it's a comedy show and a satirical look at the news. If this was hard hitting investigative journalism, probably wouldn't have included a Japanese condom advertisement.

As of 2 years ago, yes he is officially a dual citizen. Still, my point stands that this isn't really the best viewpoint of American media

Not sure if you realize this, but that "American media" you're referencing is actually a British comedian. So I don't know how much you can read into that report that the American media is suddenly paying attention to what's happening in Japan. Remember also that media rights for the Olympics are held by NBC Universal, so many other media outlets have little interest in the Olympics. And obviously NBCU won't want to say anything bad when they already know they're likely to struggle to gain viewership. That all aside, it's tough for Americans, particularly sports fans, to have an appropriate view of what's happening in Japan now. We played sports through the pandemic because of the money involved with television rights, but there were also a lot of safety protocols in place in comparison to the "playbook" for the Olympics which doesn't seem as secure by comparison. And now, despite our collective incompetence and mishandling of the virus early on, our vaccination numbers are climbing and many of our sports stadiums are opening back up to full capacity. So we're a little perplexed that Japan is still struggling to the extent they are (my basic understanding is that a lot of it is internal politics and a lack of trust in the country's leadership) and that the per capita death rate from COVID is still higher in the United States than it is in Japan. And their numbers have been dropping over the last month since their previous surge.

Schedule set for 3x3 basketball... https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/schedule/3x3-basketball-schedule

Great to see Team USA in the field, especially with no Cuba to content with.

Kerri Walsh Jennings, Brooke Sweat miss qualification for Tokyo Olympics Walsh-Jennings and Sweat got passed in the rankings by Kelly Claes and Sarah Sponcil for the #2 American slot. So Walsh-Jennings will not compete at her 6th Olympics (5 in beach volleyball, she was on the indoor volleyball team in 2000 in Sydney)

Should be more like the World Baseball Classic where results don't carry over and the 2 teams from the same pool play each other again. Would only extend the tournament by 1 day to do that and it's not like there's travel involved.

Yes you would. You would be absolutely stunned if Australia talked about withdraw. GTFOH with that kind of fear-mongering. I respect Australia's response to COVID in order to contain the virus, but for crying out loud, let's keep perspective on just how much COVID is circulating around Victoria right now compared to locations in other countries.

The issue isn't so much about the spread of COVID, even though a lot of people think that will be a big issue. Taking care of 10,000 athletes plus all the necessarily support staff and media and everyone else descending upon Tokyo in July requires a lot of people to make the operation run. Including medical personnel that their healthcare system might not so easily be able to spare. We've seen plenty of sports leagues and tournaments operate through the pandemic without using up resources that the general public needs. That might not be the case here, so that's where they are going to struggle with holding the Olympics. And why the Japanese public opposes it. Not because they think visitors will bring the virus into the country, but that the Olympics may be a priority over Japanese healthcare

Nearly every Olympics in recent memory has seen negative stories in the media leading up to the games. So that's nothing new. But again, a once-in-a-century worldwide pandemic that already caused a postponement is not like anything we have ever seen before. Right now, NOlympics has a great case to make that the Olympics shouldn't be held this Summer. And you can be sure they'll push the narrative that it is being forced upon them by the IOC when Japan wants to back up. Sadly, there is at least some truth to that.

Eh, let's be real here. The Olympics are more dangerous than most events simply because of their size and scale. They can be held safely if the proper protocols are in place. But that's a big "if" and we can't count on all of the athletes being vaccinated. There is cause for concern. Time will tell if it is warranted or not

You can't compare Zika in 2016 to COVID now. Yes, this is going the NOlympics movement a lot of reason to push back against the Olympics. But that's because Japan has caused these problems. And it's easy to blame the Olympics rather than to blame Japan's handling of the virus. On what planet is it "obvious" that China did this, let alone that the reason was to ruin Japan's Olympics? That's absolutely ridiculous

Exactly. Can we just jump straight ahead to when the Games begin so we can actually talk about the Olympics and not all of the BS that 5 minutes after the Olympics end we're going to pretend was never a big deal? I really want to start bookmarking some of these articles and social media posts that are so sure that the Olympics will be a massive super-spreader event. Speaking as an American, how many thought there was no way we could play a baseball season or a football season or a college basketball season during a pandemic. It happened, so at this point, all of this ongoing fear porn is getting a little excessive.

U.S. Warns Against Japan Travel, Sowing New Doubt About Olympics