Thanks to the extraordinary class swimmers and gymnasts, US is now much ahead of others with 16 gold already.
Michael Phelps and Simone Biles are the superheroes so far.
And under the rule of a black President, first ever black swimmer Simone Manuel took the gold as well.
And to add the political touch, the US gymnast Aly Raisman dedicated her first Gold to the 11 Israeli athletes killed in Munich Olympics.
Now imagine the uproar had any US olympian (muslim) dedicated his/her gold towards Palestinians :)
On a side note if u look to the table tennis competition , it is like all chinese competition. Almost all europian and america countries having playeers of Chinese descent
*Belgium and Argentina in Men's Hockey Final
*
You read it correctly
Belgium beat Holland 3-1
Argentina beat Germany 5-2
Although Belgium and Argentina are good teams, both results are huge upsets.
Both teams esp. Argentina good in soccer too
I think Argentina was good loong time back in parallel with Pakistan. Or am i mistaking it with someone else?
Belgium is a total surprise for me. But i guess hockey is so changed now that these teams are excelling the conventional ones. Its good for the competition, not good for teams like Pakistan who arent ready to learn or adapt
However, a population of 1.3 billion and huge money spent towards everything in sports from cricket to what not, i dont think except Sakshi there should be anything for them to boast around.
Just wait till there’ll be few bollywood movies coming up on her.
I think Argentina was good loong time back in parallel with Pakistan. Or am i mistaking it with someone else?
Belgium is a total surprise for me. But i guess hockey is so changed now that these teams are excelling the conventional ones. Its good for the competition, not good for teams like Pakistan who arent ready to learn or adapt
Pakistan won the 1978 World Cup in Buenos Aires (Argentina). beat Holland 3-2 in extra time.
Argentina and Belgium have been good for a while and have beaten many good teams including Pakistan in the past but they have never been in the final of a major title before.
However, Hockey of today is unrecognisable from the beautiful game played in the 70s and 80s
It is less about skill, dribbling and short passing now and more about stamina, penalty corner conversion, long passing and scooping the ball. Not an attractive sport anymore
Men's hockey does not get much coverage in the UK. Women's hockey is more in the news. Great Britain beat NZ in the semis last night.
Men's hockey does not get much coverage in the UK. Women's hockey is more in the news. Great Britain beat NZ in the mis last night.
Funning thing is that FIH has been making all these changes in the name of making hockey a spectator sport! And it has failed miserably. Hockey still comes at 36 in popularity list among 36 sport in Germany despite winning so many trophies in hockey. This was the situation 30 years ago.
GB - Holland Women’s Hockey Final 3-3 in normal time. The Dutch dominated the game esp. the second half and were leading 3-2 with 8 minutes left before Britain equalised via a penalty corner. Just shows that possession is not everything in hockey.
**
Great Britain are the Olympic Women’s Hockey Champions**, win 2-0 on penalties to deny Dutch a hat-trick of Olympic wins
Video referrals is a nice new innovation in hockey
An a indian lady got sikver in badminton. An Indian gymnast got 4th in one gymnastics lady competition. (I though she shoukd have been 3rd - but maybe that's my bias).
I was impressed by indian men 4 by 400. The 1st two runners did very well. The 3rd runner was viciously pushed to the ground during baton exchange by a neighboring runner. He fell.down and got up - so conceded a led. India finished 7 out of 8, with only 3 sec behind leader.
Not saying india wouod have made it to finals. But it was encouraging to see the gap decreasing wrt lead countries in thus grueling event.
Pakistan won the 1978 World Cup in Buenos Aires (Argentina). beat Holland 3-2 in extra time.
Argentina and Belgium have been good for a while and have beaten many good teams including Pakistan in the past but they have never been in the final of a major title before.
However, Hockey of today is unrecognisable from the beautiful game played in the 70s and 80s
It is less about skill, dribbling and short passing now and more about stamina, penalty corner conversion, long passing and scooping the ball. Not an attractive sport anymore
Men's hockey does not get much coverage in the UK. Women's hockey is more in the news. Great Britain beat NZ in the semis last night.
Hockey has become an ugly sport. Players with the ball make 360 deg turn,.and they can't be taken wrong side. It is become line soccer.
In the mean time an indian wrestler was kicked out for failing drug test.
Indians should have been doing faar better considering the volume and money they spend. If you consider the reign of PT Osha, decline of Indian athletes performance is YUUGE..
Although I personally think that they'll improve more as they focus more on these games than IPL. There is no scarcity of talent for sure.
I think the popukation part is misleading. With 80 pct below poverty level, not sure what pct of popukation actually gets access to facilities etc.
What encouraged me was that in track, they are closing the gap. I saw a lady steeple chase runner who did quite well. She did fall down or close. But finished respectably.
PT Usha was a cut Above the rest. Showed that it can be done.
There were others.befor El Sid was born. Sriram Singh was 7th in 800 m circa 1976 or 80. Shivnath Singh was a good marathoner and I think a good international 10K runner. Yohannan in long jump was world class (or was it triple jump). Suresh Babu was a good high jumper. All in late 70s, early 80s.
Bahadur Singh I believe was good in discuss or Shot put.
Vijay Amritaj world class tennis player.
Ramanathan Krishnan could hold his own in the 60s in tennis.