Olympic Tennis 7/24 - 7/30 2021

[ponchi101]

I remember all those amateur Soviet, East German, Chinese and Cuban athletes racking up medals, because the athletes from the other countries had bills to pay and jobs to pay those bills, while the amateurs did nothing but train as state sponsored workers.
I am that old.

[mick1303]

And I liked this part too:
"I'm sorry to Nina for not being able to play, but my body just gave up,'' Djokovic said, adding that he has "several'' injuries. "I played under medicines, unbelievable pain and exhaustion.''

So, he won the Aussie after he was nearly forced to retire due to is chest/abdominal injury, and here he was also in deep pain, after cruising in his first four matches and winning Wimbledon, his most recent tournament, with ease.

I want a proper definition of "unbelievable pain".

I like Novak "on-court" persona. I like how he fights (in most cases). But his behavior here was utterly disappointing... And I'm afraid that it might return and bite him in his behind in US Open.

In a hindsight, he probably should've ignored those journo-woodpeckers, who were repeating "Steffi, Steffi" and skipped this Olympics. What Steffi done in 88 is in no way comparable, because WTA Grand Slams are way watered down due to best of three format.

[ashkor87]

apropos nothing, i wonder if the bronze medal should be called the brass medal.. it is closer to brass than bronze - bronze has tin.. the medal contains zinc, which is what brass is made of (along with copper)..'brass medal' doesnt sound as good, though, sounds a bit brassy..

[dmforever]

apropos nothing, i wonder if the bronze medal should be called the brass medal.. it is closer to brass than bronze - bronze has tin.. the medal contains zinc, which is what brass is made of (along with copper)..'brass medal' doesnt sound as good, though, sounds a bit brassy..

Do the names of the medals refer to the metallic content of the medals or the color? I always thought it was the latter. Are the gold medals made of gold? They're pretty valuable if they are. Ditto the silver medals.

Kevin

[Suliso]

In the past silver was from silver and gold was gold plated silver. Now they might have come up with something more funny

[ponchi101]

From the web:
Are the Olympic Gold medals made from pure gold?
For each Olympic event, the medals are made differently as host countries produce them prior to the events with unique designs.
The Olympic medals stopped being made of pure gold in 1912 and are instead made of six grams of gold plating while the rest of it is pure silver.
The silver medals are made entirely of pure silver, while the bronze medals are made of red brass, 95% copper and 5% zinc.
The gold medals are worth only around $800 if melted down due to the gold-plating surrounding it.

[mmmm8]

I think this year's medals are made from recycled electronics.

[Suliso]

You'd be better off with Nobel prize medal. I believe that one still pure gold.

[ponchi101]

I remembered something else last night, regarding Amateurs in the Olympics.
Athletes like Yulimar Rojas or Catherine Ibarguen could not be Olympians if they were amateurs. Venezuela and Colombia simply cannot afford to help them, if they were simply amateurs. Rojas trains in Guadalajara, Spain, and as talented as she is, in Venezuela there are no facilities nor support personnel that could have made that medal possible.
Poor countries would be relegated to boxing, long distance running and a few other sports. Everything else today needs way too much dedication to have a 9 to 5 to deal with too.

[ponchi101]

You'd be better off with Nobel prize medal. I believe that one still pure gold.

They are. Plus the prize.

[Suliso]

I remembered something else last night, regarding Amateurs in the Olympics.
Athletes like Yulimar Rojas or Catherine Ibarguen could not be Olympians if they were amateurs. Venezuela and Colombia simply cannot afford to help them, if they were simply amateurs. Rojas trains in Guadalajara, Spain, and as talented as she is, in Venezuela there are no facilities nor support personnel that could have made that medal possible.
Poor countries would be relegated to boxing, long distance running and a few other sports. Everything else today needs way too much dedication to have a 9 to 5 to deal with too.

All that amateur thing was an invention of late 19th century gentlemen. That way sport would be kept as a noble pursuit of middle and upper classes.

Soccer started out as a game of lower classes hence it became professional very quickly. Rugby was a favorite of British upper classes and therefore it became fully professional only relatively recently.

[dmforever]

I somehow missed this. He's such a jerk. I will not be sorry when he retires, which will hopefully be soon.

https://www.out.com/sports/2021/7/29/ol ... lames-heat

It's not about offending people's sensibilities, Fabio. When you "apologize" like that, it's not really an apology. It's subtle, but his fauxpology made it about the other people and how sensitive they are. When you apologize, the focus should only be on yourself and what you did.

If you know Italian, you can read the article here to see exactly what he said. If you don''t, he said the equivalent of the "f" word, which, coincidentally, is also an "f" word in Italian.

https://www.lastampa.it/sport/2021/07/2 ... 1.40549382


And I know I've posted about him before, but he really pisses me off, so please indulge me. Years ago he also posted a video to his social media using the same word.

Kevin