@Liz - is that a pun in the title (Cdn gynmast pulled out of all around due to hurting her ankle in training - truth!!) 

my only comment is ‘too much’ .. according to my 5 yr old who wants to watch her shows unless it is gymnastics

Oh my gosh hahaha! Clearly my autocorrect corrected wrong today. Updating it ha!

@john.desborough gymnastics is the best!! What events is she watching? 

@Liz - gymnastics on loop.. she knows how to make the channel go back in the broadcast and replay the section with the gymnasts.. all the women’s events.. and she practices her own moves on a mat in front of the tv.. (don’t tell her we do get a chuckle out of her doing her “training” while she tells the girls to point their toes and stretch their arms long!! ) 

she will watch some swimming and is ok with football (aka soccer for the uninitiated) - thankfully she is a die-hard Liverpool fan and understands the offside rule .. 

Isn't @Paulo himself in Japan? He may be able to give us live commentary from the Olympic ground

Oh what a thread! I'm completely in love with the Olympic Games!

In fact, I worked as a sports journalist in the Rio 2016 Olympics. That's a photo of me (five years younger  ) in the Olympic Park! How I love #tbt's!


Talking about Tokyo 2021(2020), I gotta say that this week I was crying my eyes out when watching the Brazilian Ítalo Ferreira winning the gold medal in surf! It's the first time this modality is in the Olympics, so it was beautiful to watch! 

On the other hand, I feel heartbroken with Simone Biles' situation. I cannot even start imagining how much pressure she must be dealing with. How is the American press dealing with this situation, @Liz? 

I’m so sad about Biles, too, @Gabi Amaral .  Though, most of the press has been really kind and find her inspirational for stepping back, thankfully! 

I feel like you need to share a closeup of the photo on the badge LOL.

Just WOW. Congrats Sunisa Lee 

"Lee, 18, has trodden a unique path to her distinction as Olympic all-around champion. She became the first Hmong American ever to be selected as an Olympian. Her route to Tokyo has been paved with tragedies and struggles; her father fell off a ladder just before the US national championships in 2019 and was paralysed from chest down. She has lost an aunt and uncle to Covid-19. She spent much of the pre-Olympics stretch performing with a concerning ankle injury. Her perseverance and drive has allowed her to keep moving forward"

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/29/sunisa-lee-wins-womens-all-around-gymnastics-tokyo-2020-olympics

@Gabriel - Lee’s story is a good one.. but this one made me stand and applaud when i saw her last performance this year. 

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/gymnastics/gymnastics-oksana-chusovitina-tokyo-2020-final-bow-uzbekistan-1.6116743

So incredible. I’m also surprised, in a positive way, by the coverage of mental health and other topics that usually get negative press in the Olympics. Maybe the pandemic has something to do with it ha!

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/07/28/breaking-news/ok-not-to-be-ok-mental-health-takes-top-role-at-olympics/

Yes. The pandemic has been really tough for most people, specially mentally. It’s raised a lot of awareness about the need to take mental health more seriously. 

That’s just incredible. Hats off, what a woman and warrior. 

@Gabriel I wish I could help with live commentary from the Olympic ground, but it's robot development season for this guy. Unfortunately, so far I have not been able to watch any Olympic events, not even on TV, including the opening ceremony.

You'll have to follow it all here in the community, @Paulo 

I can't believe I'm sending this photo here @Liz! Hahaha Feel free to make fun of me until the end of time! 
 

@john.desborough, check out this article on how the Australian team organized a coffee chart in their section of the Olympic village! They wanted the athletes to have a taste of home while competing! 

@Paulo I've heard Japanese people were kind of against the idea of hosting the games (because of the pandemic). Do you think that now that the Olympics began, they are changing their opinion about it?  

@Gabi Amaral - i had heard about that from a friend of mine who knows how much i love coffee.. I would also like to own one of those coffee machines they are using.. i need my stock portfolio to go up for a few days to cash in some shares to get one of those.. 

Coffee is important and good coffee is even better - there are days when i sit here and think, i should just take a page out of the “kids handbook” and instead of a lemonade stand, put a table at the end of the driveway with my coffee machine on it and make/sell coffee to folks walking through the neighbourhood. I would probably end up drinking all the profits. 

one thing i never forget to pack when i am on a cycling trip - my portable espresso maker and my jetboil, along with my fave beans… a person has to do what a person has to do.. 

a side note: one of my favourite musicians, Jesse Cook, (you can see some of his songs in the music to typeform by thread) can be seen using his coffee machine as a percussion instrument in one of his at-home-during-covid videos: this is the same machine that is packed up in a travelling case and goes on the road in their tour bus, so that he and the band can have good coffee on the road.. 

speaking of which.. i need another cuppa.. 

@Gabriel I think that's what I'm going to do!

@Gabi Amaral Nope! They are still, for the most part, angry with the government's decision on the Olympics. The general feeling I see is that, with the exponential increase in Covid-19 cases since the start of the Olympics, people just want it all to end soon.

@john.desborough I wish I could know as much as you do about coffee!

We all know that coffee is usually very good for athletes, and I think they're always monitoring the quantity of caffeine they consume in the Olympics. I still remember when drinking a certain amount of coffee was banned by WADA (World Anti-Dopping Agency)! 

Will check Jesse Cook's videos and his coffee machine (Very smart idea and a great song name!) 

@Paulo Indeed, it must be hard for them. Do you think the government will reinforce the restrictions after the Olympics? 

THIS is sport! … 

Ah, I can’t see the video @john.desborough ! What is it? 

And wow, that coffee article, @Gabi Amaral ! I think we need to request @Gabriel get us our own coffee cart team so we can function just like Olympic athletes in the community. 

sorry @Liz  - it was the moment in the men’s high jump competition when the rules official said they needed to go to a jump off but the Qatar jumper asked if they could share the medal/have two golds …. after all the Italian is his best friend as well as a competitor. and the Italian was completely overcome with emotion… if you can find it on your local network carrier check it out .. absolutely beautiful moment

hopefully you can see some of the replays wherever you are.. to me this was what the olympics are all about - why does someone have lose when both can win. 

there have been other moments in the olympics this year when athletes fell and another stopped and picked them up.. incredible 

@john.desborough I can't see the video as well, but I've checked out their story!!!  Indeed, that's what the Olympics is all about. The Italian jumper was so so happy, it was beautiful to watch!

I was reading about it and the last time something like that happened was in the London Olympics in 1908, when two pole vaults athletes shared the gold medal!  

Canada has Golden Girls of Footie !!! huzzzah!

des

Oh man, just jumping on board this topic! Even though the olympics are over I can most definitely appreciate that article about the Aussies scoping out their own flat-white-making coffee arena As an ex-Melbournian I can say that we are indeed #coffeesnobs haha

Touching on the discussion around the Japanese people’s sentiments about Olympics-hosting during the pandemic, I gotta say, this doesn’t surprise me at all. While it’s been a pleasure to watch the Olympics and a wonderful opportunity for our athletes, I imagine it didn’t help the “stop-covid-spreading” situation on the ground in Japan. Similar sentiments were felt by (some) of Aussies about the Aus Open tennis comp going ahead earlier this year, particularly since a lot of Aussies were/are still stranded overseas while covid-positive foreigners were getting flown in  

Re. fave sports/events for this year – women’s beach volleyball, artistic gymnastics (is that what it’s called?), badass ping pong comps, skateboarding & surfing (stoked these sports finally made it to the olympics!). 

Speaking of, who’s still catching up on the replays? ‍♀️

@belinda_long - i watched way too much from the igloo here in Ottawa, Canada… though i did ‘tape’ a few of the events that were on at stupid-o-clock in the morning ie 4 am for the women’s footie semifinal.. at least they put the final on at 830 am local time lol.. killed the working morning but.. 

i enjoyed the indoor volleyball (played for junior national team back with Moses and Methuselah) and actually competed at club level with the Canadian men’s coach ‘back in the day’. I really like the track and field coverage (except on the American TV channels - it was so nice of the Japanese to host the American championships???) - especially with De Grasse from Canada winning a bronze in the 100, gold in 200 and bronze in the 4x100! The men’s high jump was terrific from the way it ended with shared golds. oh and the decathlon champ being a Canadian scoring over 9k in points - rare air indeed. 

ok enough tooting the Canadian horn - how very atypical of a Canadian. Sorry.. 

now we are back to drinking coffee at normal hours of the day

des

@belinda_long Yes, I understand Japanese people not being onboard with the Olympics. Something similar happened in Brazil this year with Copa América (The same thing as Euro Cup but for America). No other country wanted to host it because of the pandemic, then Brazil accepted it! People were furious, to the point they didn't even care that we lost the finals against Argentina!

@john.desborough I'm still watching some of the best moments of it! You know I used to work as a sports journalist, and I have a lot of friends that were in Tokyo covering the Olympics, so I'm still hearing a lot about it! 
 
 I love handball and basketball. I played these two sports for years when I was a teenager! I also enjoy the beach and indoor volleyball! However, this year, men's indoor volleyball was disappointing to me because, after decades, Brazil was not on the podium!