European Union solidly at #1 in the medal ranking again!
Spain v India in the bronze medal match for hockey. Right on the buzzer, Spanish player takes a dive close to the goal circle, trying to milk a penalty. Ref absolutely not having any piece of it, just walks away from the whinging Spanish players. Brilliant to watch. Love that this sport seems to have much more integrity than soccer. Well played India, a well-deserved bronze!
Damn this thread is so mega… so many comments…
I’ll start. Favorite events you’re looking forward to?
Yeah normally I'd start the conversation off, but I was running, then driving ~40 mins away to have dinner with the parents.
Watching the climbing at the moment. Geez it's impressive what they can do.
Yeah Olympics are awesome for just admiring people’s skills at niche sports.
And no judgement. Reality comes first. I’m just poking fun at Lemmy’s small user base
Modern Pentathlon is such an interesting discipline. How does one even get started with it?
I've heard jokes (especially back when they were discussing what should replace the horse leg, and one of the popular proposals was some form of cycling) that modern pentathletes are failed triathletes. The fact that one of the commentators was Heather Fell, former Olympic pentathlete-turned triathlete and presenter on the Global Triathlon Network YouTube channel is a pretty good example of this. Though Fell herself got into MP because she grew up riding horses and swimming competitively.
I know someone IRL who tried to get into MP via fencing. He was an extremely good HEMA fencer who also competed at a reasonably high level in sport fencing. I don't know how successful he actually was in MP though.
I think that's the great thing about a sport as weird as MP. There are so many different paths into the sport.
...especially back when they were discussing what should replace the horse leg, and one of the popular proposals was some form of cycling...
You know, I'm happy they went with the obstacle course thing instead of cycling. Keeps the spirit of the sport of both the ancient and modern pentathlon - vital skills of a good soldier.
I think that's the great thing about a sport as weird as MP. There are so many different paths into the sport.
That's interesting! My first instinct was that the barrier of entry was high because I assumed the horse leg made it prohibitively difficult to get into.
Netherlands v Germany, gold medal match in hockey.
Down to a penalty shoot-out. I really like the format they use for shoot-outs here. It's so much better than soccer. It's still a bit of a weird minigame and divorced from the core of the normal game, but it feels a lot closer to normal play than in soccer. And it makes the whole thing so much more intense and captivating to watch.
If you prefer the hockey shootout over penalties in football, better get a time machine (and an airplane perhaps) and go watch the MLS in the 90s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNExAtWu0CU
Åhman and Hellvig goes all the way to the final of beach volleyball, taking their inventive style to the top of the Olympics. Two 22-year-olds from Sweden of all places revolutionising Beach Volleyball^[1] What a story and what a fun team to watch.
Got the MP fencing on at the moment. I'm enjoying this way more than the specialist fencers. Feels like the quality of their fencing is actually much better, with more concern for their safety.
