thiago_simoes

You guys know I live and breathe this sport for decades now. Comaneci is not my GOAT either. She was excellent for her time, but anyone who knows a bit about how gymnastics is scored nowadays would be aware that her routines which received a perfect 10 score would not have received a perfect 10 in execution today. Of course, anachronistic comparisons are almost always very hard to do correctly, so it might be pointless to compare today's scoring sytem with the system used in the past, but if we want to determine who is the GOAT, these kinds of comparisons are inescapable. The whole "she's the first perfect 10 in history" actually masquerades what was essentially a completely different way to understand this sport back then. Of course this doesn't diminish her achievements as a gymnast. There's a number of legendary gymnasts in this sport: Caslavska, Korbut, Shushunova, Boginskaya and Silivas; more recently, Chusovitina, Khorkina, Mustafina and, of course, Biles. However, Latynina won medals in every event at a single edition of the World Championships and in a single edition of the Olympic Games. Besides, Latynina has 18 Olympic medals, something that Biles will probably never be able to achieve -- even if Biles wins every possible medal this year and every possible medal in 2024, she will still fall short, with 17 medals.

I've never seen her as the greatest of all time. When she goes to an edition of the Olympic Games and wins 6 medals -- all of the possible medals in women's competition -- like Silivas did in 1988, then she can say she's the greatest of all time. Will she manage to do it here? Let's see. She's undeniably a very strong and talented gymnast. She has won countless world titles. She has pushed the difficulty way, way up, beyond what anyone could expect for now. But the greatest of all time? That's debatable. This is mostly US media trying hard to make the rest of the world believe their athletes are the best. However, I'm worried about her mental health. The pressure on her shoulders is monumental and this is not a sport where gymnasts should compete when they feel unsafe or unsure about themselves. She did the right thing withdrawing from team finals because she needs to keep safe above everything else. And she knows that nothing will change what she has achieved so far.

After a gold medal for Brazil today, Russia pulling two shocking wins in artistic gymnastics, skateboarding and surfing making a very successful debut, gold medals for Bermuda and the Philippines, first-ever medal for Turkmenistan and chances for medals in artistic gymnastics for Brazil, I have to say this is the best edition of the Olympic Games ever.

I'm still in utter and complete shock. losing without Simone is not a shock. Of course, Simone withdrawing is alarming and something I would have never expected. But winning a team medal is a huge, massive surprise. I never trusted this team. I was wrong.

It looks like for every unexpected medal -- Cargnin in Judo, Hoefler in skateboarding and Scheffer in swimming -- we lose a medal that was previously thought to be easy to get -- Pâmela and Letícia in skateboarding, Medina in surfing.

On the one hand, I loved skateboarding and it's one of the five Olympic sports I'll focus on watching from now on. On the other hand, surfing is very boring to watch with or without Brazilians competing. It takes too long, the moments where it gets exciting are too few and far between and, to be honest, it's not even really that exciting. It's weird because this is a sport that belongs to the Summer Olympics, but I just can't force myself to watch it anymore. I'll just look for the results after the competition is over.

In all of the sports where athletes are awarded scores, Japan has been very generously scored. They lost the gold medal in artistic gymnastics today because their team is actually not that great, but judges still did everything they could to give some hope to Japan. It's way beyond the point where it can all be considered a coincidence or a boost thanks to home advantage by now. They are being blatantly and deliberately overscored everywhere.

LOL, after the whole debacle between Medina and the national federation, it's funny to see him missing the final. I hope Ítalo wins the gold medal now.

What's your source? Unless you've asked every single individual, I'm really skeptical. And, no, this forum is not a reliable source for anything. We have a bunch of sports fanatics, some with very conservative and retrograde ideas, and most of whom deliberately promote a sports agenda that would benefit their own nation -- and, in this last topic, I include myself, since my opinion is not unbiased in any manner.

I totally disagree. I'm glad karate will be gone after Tokyo, and I hope sports climbing is the next one to go. There are also other sports, like wrestling and badminton, that I wouldn't be sad if they were the next ones to go, either. You see, it's impossible to create a program that will make the whole world happy.

According to our commentators yesterday, there are fixed values for the tricks and judges score how well these are performed according to how much they're worth. I agree that it's not immediately clear which tricks are harder, but maybe it's because of lack of familiarity. One of the criticisms from the commentators is that the values of the tricks are the same for men and women, and since women perform, at this point, much simpler tricks, their values are much lower than the men's tricks. Even in gymnastics, skills performed by men and by women are scored differently. For example, a double layout somersault on floor is worth 0.6 for women and 0.4 for men. Maybe skateboarding needs this kind of adjustment too. Another cool addition would be nominating which tricks they are going to perform, pretty much like in diving. So, there could be an animation showing how the trick should be performed before they try it, and how much it's worth in scoring. There's no point in comparing this to any Winter Olympic sport, in my opinion. At least when it comes to the Summer Olympics, it tries to do its own thing. Also, many people here believe this sport would attract teenagers and I see that there's a clear attempt by the IOC of doing exactly that. However, it has a broader appeal, too. I'm 37, probably one of the oldest members of this forum, and I still had a blast watching it even when no Brazilians were competing. Of course, everyone is entitled to have his or her own opinions, and I'm not saying everybody will like this, but it's also a mistake to assume that only teenagers will enjoy watching this sport.

Maybe the problem is that you guys are trying hard to compare this sport to other sports, while it tries to do its own thing. Wait, aren't you a big fan of ski jumping?

In my pre-Olympics analysis, I mentioned that I didn't trust the Japanese team at all and, well, I had a strong point in the end. Silver is still better than what I expected for them. Japan has always had the worst and less logical selection system for gymnasts for the team competition, and I hope this silver medal will help them understand that. China with yet another bronze medal will surely be a big disappointment, but at least now this time they have at least three big, clear chances for a gold medal in artistic gymnastics, not to mention in trampoline. Their gymnastics disaster in Rio will not happen again unless the gymnastics god really hate China for some reason. Congratulations to Russia. It's great to see Nagornyy, Belyavskiy, Ablyazin and especially Dalaloyan with a gold medal. All four of them deserved it for a long time and now it finally happened!

That was FANTASTIC! Congratulations !!!

Scores for Japan have been very generous, to say the least, both in men's events and women's events. Unfortunately, Great Britain, USA and Ukraine have their worst teams in a long time and can't really challenge for a team medal. It would be great if Russia, China and a surprising team could kick Japan out of the podium.

At least here in Brazil, skateboarding was a HUGE hit and I'm sure Brazilians will RIOT if it gets removed from the Olympics. I agree that the format of the competition is not great, though. This is the Olympics, not some random best trick competition. Both runs should count, with no discarded scores, and three out of five tricks should also count. And even though two Brazilian skateboarders got medals, Brazilian fans are in love with the Peruvian male skateboarder and the Filipina skateboarder. This sport needs some adjustments, but I have to say it's now one of the top 5 Olympic sports I'm going to watch, with or without Brazilians competing.

What are the chances of in men's football?

Totally unexpected! And no finals for at all. Not even all-around final. This is the most shocking result for me.

This was immediately after she realized she wouldn't qualify for any final. Poor girl.

The reigning Olympic beam champion is 10th overall, 7th when we count 2 per country. After the performs in their rotation, she will already be out. Anyway, it's impossible to make the final by the end of the day.

Unpolished vault from Lee. I'm shocked. She looks disconnected today.

LOL at Ferrari ahead of Biles. Not a fan of either gymnast, but it's undeniably a fair result.

The floor scores for the US are realistic for once? WHAT THE HELL? Is this real life?

Peru is the best country I've visited in my life. If I had to move away from Brazil, I'd live in Peru, no question about it. I just love Lima so much!

Well, even with a little help from the judges, Japan still finishes behind Italy. Italy had a nightmarish pre-Olympics season but still managed to pull ahead of Japan. Well done!