cowcards

For anyone wondering, Axente is ok. Nothing broken or anything.

It doesn’t help that the expectations are way out of whack and we can’t admit how much draw matters when you aren’t the #1 guy.

If Bball wins then the US and China will tie for golds.

China is done, I think, with 2 more golds than the US currently. The US could get 4 more (volleyball, wrestling, w bball, and cycling).

Japan isn’t all of a sudden good at wrestling. They’ve been a top-4 team for more than this past Olympic cycle. 2024- 1st medals/1st gold 2023- 2nd medals/1st gold 2022- 2nd in medals/tied 1st gold 2021- 4th in medals/tied 2nd gold They’ve been ahead or tied with the US, Russia, Iran multiple times. Looking at their finalists this year: Higuchi was a a former world champ/olympic silver Kiyooka beat a former world/olympic champ to make the team Takayuki is a world bronze Fumita is an Olympic silver/2x world champ Kusaka is a world bronze Fujinami is a multiple world champ Sakurai is a world champ Motoki is a world silver Kagami is a world champ All of those results are during this cycle. Only one of those moves up more than 1 spot and that’s Kusaka going from bronze to gold. In men’s wrestling they are alway really good from 74 and down. With the Olympics and less weights it makes them more likely to have a better than normal result. If you’d take off your USA glasses for a minute you’d see they have the better team this year. Hell, the best wrestler in the world (Susaki) coming in didn’t even make the finals! It could’ve been even better.

Another 2 exposure. It was right if you gave Dudaev 2 exposure prior to that

Anyone that wrestles in the Olympics is not allowed to wrestle in Worlds this year.

They didn’t disallow the challenge, the coaches cancelled it. The rule is actually straight forward. If the wrestler who initiates the action steps out in the process of a TD, then it is still a TD. Dake had a TD and the challenge would’ve failed and put Dake back in the lead. It was a good call not to.

This. The coaches were challenging the step out point because the point originally never went on the board until later after the sequence. I’m not sure if 2 of the refs even put up a point for it. I believe they even started wrestling again before it was on the board. Then the coaches challenge, but action had restarted and Dake was taken down soon after the challenge. Coaches were upset that the point went on the board, but also said that the challenge wasn’t acknowledged and subsequently Dake gave up another 2. So Dake is yelling about the TD as a challenge and the coaches are yelling about the step out and sequence after that.

She was moving everything they were checking, so that’s a great first sign. Hopefully, it’s nothing crazy and she recovers quickly.

Not to get in the way of a good whine, but Kyle has only been in the bronze match 2x in his World/Olympic career. He has more silvers and golds than his bronze appearances. So Kyle “Finalist” Snyder, who is in the finals almost 80% of the time he competes, is a more apt nickname. Maybe by the next Olympics you can switch it though.

Haha. It’s red. Rouge (sp?)

I mean Artur Aleksanyan took his medal off immediately and didn’t get in any pictures after they got off the stand. Even left the mat early while they were taking pics. I want to make clear I am not stating any opinion on Spencer’s actions. Just pointing this out since you asked about other silver medalists.

I read this as @Jason Bryant. He’s the only announcer I ever hear.

I don’t understand the disappointment in not getting a gold (yet). There was only one guy that was favored to win his weight and he got beat by a better guy today. It happens. We could still potentially get 5 medals out of 6 weights. That’s damn good. If you can look at it objectively: 57 - was never the favorite, randomly drawn in, and in his first big international competition at the senior level. Looks to be 50/50 with the former world champ and Olympic silver/gold. 65- TBD, but definitely not the favorite. In that 3/5 range where draw matters. Also going down in weight where he doesn’t ever look as good. 74 - favorite that was wrestled pretty perfectly and ends up with bronze (probably) 86 - never the favorite over Yazdani but a couple seconds from the finals. In that 2/5th range where draw matters. First big senior international competition. 97 - TBD, not the favorite, but capable of winning. 125 - not the favorite and in that 3/5 range where draw matters. Wrestled a bad match and that was it. When you’re in that range where you have to be on against good guys, you are going to have this type of thing happen here and there. If you’re on you have the chance to pull an upset and make the finals.

I was firmly on the side of she did the work and so she should get a silver. I’ve been swayed to the stance of getting DQ’d and not getting a medal, but the finals opponent should get a FFT win. Why does the semi loser get to advance when she already lost? But also why her and not the quarter or earlier rounds? Who’s to say she was the best one of the losers? Just because she had the luck of not drawing the finalist until later in the tournament?

It was not a cramp. It came out 4x.

I’m pretty sure Lee spent some time in Japan within the last year or 2. Edit - Looks like he didn’t train. Just went to get away from everything.

For anyone wondering where and when US wrestlers are up, the Olympic site actually is the best place for a schedule that I have seen. You can also get brackets if you click on any of the bouts (and navigate from there). This is today's schedule and order of bouts. https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/schedule/wrestling?day=9-august I haven't used it because I'm in person, but it says you can get live updates/reminders if you sign up by clicking the little ribbon thing for a match you want to favorite. Not sure how well it works or what it actually does though.

This is the good and bad about our system. A guy can train for one opponent or have a great weekend to make the team, but it isn't always going to be the best guy for international competition. There is no perfect system beyond being able to see into the future. I'd rather have this system that rewards the guy that wins than one that just picks guys. They give advantages to the guys that have produced in the past still, but don't just give them the spot. It happened last year with Richards and Marsteller, and probably happened this year with Brooks. It will continue to happen. It's amazing that we are able to argue about a guy still going for Bronze in the Olympics!

Are you watching on mobile/tablet? I always get commercials when I do. But when I use my browser, even this morning, I don't have any commercials on replay.

It's funny that Brooks gets bashed for taking a shot when leading and losing, but had he not taken a shot and taken down or given up a push out, he would be bashed for doing nothing. I think the real problem isn't the shot, but the fact he took it when so long left on the clock and just sat there. Allowing BUL way too much time to move through different techniques until he got to one that worked. If Brooks moves even a bit towards a finish/score, he probably doesn't give up the 2.

But we are tied with Russia!

I thought Higuchi was the favorite coming in, even when Micic was in the bracket. Still think that now. I think he is better on his feet and doesn't have any issues with a full high-paced match. Spencer certainly is more than capable of winning.

Thanks for this. I didn’t realize you were talking defending champs. I thought you were talking a champ at any point. Tracking you now. Another aspect to think about is that anyone that won at a non-only weight wouldn’t be seeded because they didn’t have enough points at the only weight. So if you’re seeded you can only draw a non-ply weight champ and if you aren’t seeded you can only draw an oly weight champ.