Olympian1010

4 years ago to the day, Brazil opened wide to the world, with warm embrace, to welcome world’s biggest festival of human athleticism. Brazil showed the world it’s beauty, it’s faults, and it’s aspirations. So began the Games of the XXXI Olympiad...

Gronevegen‘s behavior wasn’t egregious or abnormal, until he gave that final little elbow. That’s what really pisses me off. That contact was purposefully malicious. It would be one thing if he moved over to block the other and it ended there, but forcing the other rider to the barrier and then finishing him off with the elbow is completely unacceptable.

So the UCI punishing the rider who caused the accident is an overreaction, but being outraged the TV Director showed the accident isn’t? I’m not trying to defend anyone, but let’s not attack the TV Director for doing their job. I’m certain he (or she) knew just about as much as we did about the condition of the riders involved. Also, these crashes at the finish are somewhat commonplace in cycling, and this on par with the coverage I’ve seen of similar incidents. I’m actually thankful they showed the crash from a couple of angles, because I can actually understand the circumstances of the crash.

A nice throwback for all of us who watched the OBS feeds 4 years ago.

One hospital as been completely decommissioned by the blast, and ABC is reporting that people are driving to cities 50 miles away from Beirut in order to seek treatment, since hospitals in Beirut have reached capacity. I’ve seen media outlets reporting as many as 4000 (or more than that because numbers still aren’t fully known) people injured. It’s a complete catastrophe

For context, the Oklahoma City bomber used 2 tons of ammonium nitrate to carry out his terrorist attack. The store of the same material that exploded in Beirut today was somewhere around 1,300 times larger.

The Lebanese government is fucked. Apparently a store of (confiscated?, discarded?) ammonium nitrate is responsible for the explosion. It’s also being reported that this store of ammonium nitrate has been left unchecked for 6 years. 6 years!

If you need an underdog to cheer for in Tokyo next...

Lebanon was already dealing with an economic collapse, massive political upheaval, and a serious Syrian refugee crisis. I don’t know if they can comeback from this. It could honestly take a few days just to understand the scale of the damage Edit: It should also be mentioned that hospitals were reported to be complaining about a lack of capacity due to Covid-19 earlier this week.

Israel and Hezbollah have both denied responsibility.

I’m worried about the firefighters currently on scene too. We could have a Chernobyl/9-11 type situation where dangerous chemicals are in play and they haven’t been warned. Lebanese Red Cross is reporting over 1,000 injured. Again, I haven’t seen that number vetted, so don’t take it as fact immediately.

Plus that cloud looked much more like a sonic shockwave.

That was my immediate thought as well. Lebanon isn’t known to have any nuclear bombs though. Plus, the damage, while bad, would be much worse if that were a nuclear bomb. I’ve seen the explosion blamed on fireworks which seems plausible given what the area looked like pre-blast. If I had to guess, I would guess some chemicals that should never be mixed, got mixed.

Massive explosion in Beirut. The video I’ve seen is horrific, but I haven’t be able to find any verification of its authenticity. From the authentic reports I’ve seen, there is widespread damage throughout the city.

I don’t know, I’d thought the subtle rip-off of DRC’s flag was nice too

I’m assuming the state legislature said that had to be on flag. No motto should ever be on a flag, especially one that reads “In God We Trust” when religious freedom is guaranteed in said country. The best troll flags were the one written in all Arabic, and the once that included the hammer & sickle

Here’s the submissions for Mississippi’s new state flag. There’s some really nice ones, and some “interesting” ones.

This is a little last minute, but would anyone be interested in watching the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony together to celebrate the 4 year anniversary of the Games?

Yep, definitely going to have to show my age here. I’ll write first about memories from Games I watched, and then about moments I’ve seen from other Games. Torino 2006 - I was five. I vaguely remember watching snowboarding (I think it was Parallel GS) with mom. I can remember anything besides that. I just know I watched some events on a weekend afternoon with my mother. Beijing 2008 - Remember watching the opening ceremony. I remember watching coverage of Phelps swimming pursuits. I remember sitting on the floor of my living room watching Bolt win his first gold medal. Vancouver 2010 - These Olympics were in the same time zone as me. Unfortunately, I missed quite a bit because of school. I do remember racing home to watch the cross country sprint finals though. I also remember watching Vonn’s golden performance. London 2012 - Again, who doesn’t remember the opening ceremony. I actually strangely don’t remember a lot from these Games. I vaguely remember watching some track cycling with my dad, but that’s it. I know I followed the Games just as I would now, but for reason I just don’t have a lot of memories. Sochi 2014 - The opening ceremony is unfortunately memorable for the epic mishap with the rings. I actually enjoyed the ceremony besides. I remember the Russian teams entry into the stadium with that rap song. Torch lighting was pretty cool too. These Games are tainted too much by the Russian doping scandal for me to view warmly. I remember watching tons of cross country skiing and biathlon. The surprise silver medal for Andrew Weibrecht in Alpine Skiing was a good moment. I vividly remember watching the debut of slopestyle, as well as, many of the other freestyle events. Rio 2016 - Another opening ceremony that won my heart over. I remember watching Fiji (who I had already been cheering for on the 7s tour for 2 years) progress towards the finals in men’s 7s. Unfortunately, I had fricken cross country practice, so I missed the final! I do remember being out in the middle of the desert running, while desperately checking my phone to see how Fiji was doing. I remember being elated with their victory. Another great memory was watching WVN win the 400m and break the world record with my dad (an athletics junkie). Having some connections to Casey Eichfield I also followed his progress in the C1. That was a fantastic competition. Really grew to love Judo at these Olympics. I’m pretty sure I watched every session of that. Of course I watched all my other favorites too: Sailing, Shooting, Track Cycling, Canoe Sprint, etc. Great memories from Rio. Pyeongchang 2018 - First Olympics where I watched every event. Ester Ledecka’s coronation as snow queen of course tops my list. Caldwell/Diggins gold in the team sprint was a special moment for many Americans. In fact, I really enjoyed the cross country skiing at these Games. Biathlon was good as always. I remember Sweden being surprisingly good. I was a little disappointed with short track since and failed to win medals. As a roller speed skater, Pedro Causil’s 4th in the 1,000m was memorable. The same goes for Erin Jackson’s surprise qualification for games. These were a solid Games in my opinion. Other moments - Basically any of the marathons from 1896-1908. Squaw Valley 1960 - Not really a memorable Games, just love area. I have skated on the Olympic Ice Rink though, and I do remember that. Barcelona 1992 - Cauldron lighting (I mean come on, who doesn’t love that). Atlanta 1996 - Keri Shrug’s inspiring vault. Mohammad Ali fighting Parkinson’s to light the cauldron. Park City 2002 - Don’t know much about the Games, but I’ve been to most of the venues. I really like the Park City area as well. Athens 2004 - Opening Ceremony really began to set the standards for modern major multi sport games ceremonies.

I wasn’t a fan of black hole either. I much prefer the traditional funnel event. Solid day for the Orangers though. I’ll take a 6th place, especially when it places us back in control of the overall standings.

Just watched “And Breathe Normally.” I quite liked it.