Paris 2024: Playing for Gold (Introduction and how it works)

Everything related to the Olympics, including our Olympics' contest
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Re: Paris 2024: Playing for Gold (Introduction and how it works)

#16

Post by Oploskoffie »

Event spotlight #3: women's marathon

The marathon is the only road running event held at the Olympics, with the men's version having been a part of the programme since the first modern Games in 1896. It took ninety years (!) for the women's event to be added.

Marathon running, as we know it today, was created and later refined through the Olympic competition. Based on the story/myth stemming from the battle of Marathon, in which Pheidippides supposedly ran from the town of Marathon to Athens to carry the message of Greek victory. In 1896 a distance of "around 40 kilometres" (25 miles) was ran with the gold medal going to a Greek water-carrier named Spyridon Louis. The winning time was 2 hours, 58 minutes and 50 seconds. How far and fast be have (be)come.

Early on, the distance varied per Olympic Games, with the distance between two points being key and as such going up or down a kilometre-and-a-bit from one Games to the next, though never below the 40 km mark. Since the 1924 Paris Olympics, the current distance has become the worldwide norm.

When looking at predictions for this event, most people will say they it is between Kenya and Ethiopia, as has been the case for probably the past decade. However, this is the Olympics and upsets are what sometimes great stories are made of. In Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the podium was Kenya, Bahrain and Ehtiopia while in Tokyo in 2021 Molly Seidel of the USA won the bronze. Go back a little further in time and you see Japan, Romania, China and Russia.

This year, the dark horse could very well come from the Netherlands. An absolute beast on the track, running at 1.500 metres, 5.000 and 10.000 and becoming European, World and/or Olympic champion at ALL of them, she made her marathon debut in London 2023, effectively coming out of nowhere to win that race. Later that year she also won the Chicago marathon in a European record time and the second fastest time ever ran by a woman.

The fun thing is that for these Olympics, she hasn't yet disclosed which distances she will be running. It is very unlikely she'll stick to just one event, having run three in Tokio. Her most recent forray into road running saw her finishing a "disappointing" fourth in the Tokyo marathon and people quickly saying she should focus all her attention on track events. However... Nobody tells Sifan Hassan what to do :D so we could be in for a surprise - either way!
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Re: Paris 2024: Playing for Gold (Introduction and how it works)

#17

Post by Oploskoffie »

A quick update: the deadline for your picks is this Sunday, July 28 at 12PM CET!
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Re: Paris 2024: Playing for Gold (Introduction and how it works)

#18

Post by Fastbackss »

How does the scoring work if the same country gets multiple medals?

Example - men's doubles - USA has chance for 2 medals.

The notes say the lesser medal - but I am not sure I understand
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Re: Paris 2024: Playing for Gold (Introduction and how it works)

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Post by Oploskoffie »

Fastbackss wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:08 pm How does the scoring work if the same country gets multiple medals?

Example - men's doubles - USA has chance for 2 medals.

The notes say the lesser medal - but I am not sure I understand
It all depends on the medal position you chose for a country. Say you predicted the USA to win the bronze but they win both the silver and the bronze. The scoring system is set up to check results in a certain order, which in this case means that as your bronze pick was correct, the silver and gold positions are no longer checked for a result other than bronze.

If a country wins all three medals in an event, the reference point is still the medal position you picked. The scoring system will always check in order of 100% correct pick, one medal position up or down, two medal positions up or down. In the case of an incorrect pick but the possibilty of partial poins, the awarded score is always based on the lowest valued medal of the two. So, if you picked gold, but the result is bronze, you get 1/8 of the value of a bronze medal, being 0,5 point for the other events and 1 point for the tennis. The same applies to scoring gold instead of bronze. Yes, the athlete or team are ecstatic but you were two positions of the mark with your pick, so... ;)

The above is also part of the reason why the three-different-country-must rule was introduced: there is a major premium on exact predictions, but at the end of the competition, perhaps the difference between places 1 and 2 will be a point. Or a half.
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Re: Paris 2024: Playing for Gold (Introduction and how it works)

#20

Post by Fastbackss »

Very well, thank you.

It "came true" for men's doubles for me. I picked bronze, and they won silver and bronze.
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