Well our vaunted Womens soccer team got stomped by Sweden in the opening of pool play. We are in the pool with Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. A loss isn't fatal of course in these pool play setups.
I was delighted to see the kneelers lose. To get crushed after kneeling to salute BLM made it even sweeter. And the Swedish girls appeared to be much better looking as well. Now if Australia or New Zealand can polish these malcontents off they can get back to full time anarchy.
Bryson DeChambeau and John Rahm have tested positive for Covid and are out of the Olympics. Bryson will be replaced by Patrick Reed. Rahm will not be replaced.
That's pretty shocking. Of course the quality of basketball in Europe is much better than in the past. All you have to do is look at the number of Euros in the NBA.
There were very good foreign teams the past 3 Olympics. Makes me better appreciate the job Coach K did in constructing and coaching Team USA in international competitions.
A little harsh on Pop, who is one of the NBA's all-time great coaches. That he somehow hasn't a clue about basketball played in the Olympics is a bit of a stretch if you ask me.
Yeah he's no doubt he's not a warm fuzzy guy to reporters and he's very vocal and opinionated on all sorts of subjects. It's his job to take the talent and mold it into a winner. It's just 1 loss, still should win the Gold though, but it won't be an easy task.
The frog captured it perfectly. US basketball has become a showcase for individual athleticism while team play and basic fundamentals have taken a backseat.
I believe this nails a lot of what is happening. Frankly don't give much of a damn whether our NBA guys win or lose. I am so turned off to most pro sports right now that I don't really care one way or the other.
Well US Softball loses the Gold to Japan, another case of a sport we invented and other countries have caught up to us. I think this is different than the basketball situation. These women don't earn much if any money playing softball in the US, they are a long way from being media driven diva's. Simone Biles has some medical problem and USA Gymnastics, favored to win the Gold, finished with the Silver and the Russians won the Gold. Seems to be a lot of upsets going on with these Olympics.
A lot of talk recently on the mental health of high level athletes, especially. Biles commented that she is dealing with mental health issues and says that previous games were for other people but that she wanted these games to be for her. I'm not really sure what that means to tell you the truth. I have no doubt that the total dedication to training for this level of competition is a full-time job and dominates everything you do, and where failure to achieve whatever, the goal is (Gold medal or just be there) is devastating. We've seen it with the tennis player Osaka, with Matthew Wulf in golf, with various football players and other athletes. I doubt if this is a new phenomenon but just one that is getting more publicity. Kids have burned out on sports forever, with parents sometimes just pushing them too far. I have no doubt that it will continue and that there isn't really a solution.
Simone "Bails" has dropped out alltogther now. Can't take the pressure says the self-proclaimed Best Gymnast in Olympic history.
I respect her decision; I feel bad that she has reached this point and hope that she recovers. I mentioned in another post that it's more common today to learn about these athletes' mental struggles. Matthew Wulf a PGA golfer took time off from the tour due to mental "fatigue". The Japanese Tennis player who withdrew from the French Open talked about her mental health issues. I doubt that these are new, but in the past they just weren't talked about.