Bill1978

With the huge gap between 1A and 1B I feel like 1A really should be season 1 and 1B should be season 2. It's not like they filmed A and B together.

Pretty certain there is still one spot open for the '5 local sports' unique to each Olympics. Paris has dropped Baseball/Softball and Karate but has only adding Breaking so I guess anything is possible between now and then.

Here in Australia, I usually wonder how long it will take one of the commentators to mention that the athletes coming in was first suggested by an Australian boy who wrote a letter to the IOC and that it first happened in Melbourne 1956. They didn't disappoint, as soon as the athletes started streaming out they mentioned it.

I am always concerned when someone cries over not getting Gold. Like I worry about what is going to happen to them after the Games are over to respond that way for being second best in the entire world.

Quick question and not sure if anybody would have the answer but were the commentators covering the artistic swimming told not to mention the C word when telling the TV audience that Greece had to pull out of the Team Event? Here in Australia the coverage just said 'Unfortunately Greece are unable to participate in the event, anyway here is the next team' I had to use Google to find out why Greece were a DNS.

Are inquiries only unique to Rhythmic? I don't recall seeing anything in Artistic or Trampolining. It's also so weird that the inquiry stops everything. I really felt for the teams who had to sit and wait for their scores because the inquiry took precedent. And between you, me and the board I was kinda happy to see some apparatus stuff ups in the finals. It meant Australia wasn't the only one to suffer them in the contest.

It's been wonderful to see the success we've had AND for the Australian public to re-embrace the discipline. Who would have predicted that the most watched event on Australian TV for the Olympics would be a semi of the men's 100m and then the final of the men's 800m. True the stats do benefit from the swimming finals being held during the day and outside of primetime viewing. Hopefully the sport (and athletes) sees a genuine boost in the public profile in this nation.

My favourite part of the Team Event in Rhythmic Gymnastics was learning that the Australian team give little nicknames to moves to help them remember them. You know cute names linked to Australia like Koala, Possum. But the absolute favourite was the opening move to their Ball routine being called The Pig Roast. Man I love our (Aussie) sense of humour. If you manage to see footage of it, it is a very appropriate name.

Having watched the Women's Modern Pentathlon live and witnessing the moment as it unfurled I can confirm the horse had the last laugh as the coach's athlete fell from first to no chance of medalling. I understand the German athletes frustration with the way the horse was behaving, I really do. But part of the sport is hoping on an unknown horse and knowing how to deal with it. The more upset the athlete got, the more stubborn the horse became. The coach should not have hit that horse no matter their frustration. What I find fascinating in the story is the focus on a favourite being knocked out cause of a difficult horse, but there is little mention of the other athlete who also got knocked out of contention because they rode the same horse and it was being difficult. The only mention is 'the horse behaved similarly with an earlier rider'. Each horse gets ridden twice. I imagine all the horses are vetted before being chosen for the event but clearly there was something spooking this particular horse that day, and hitting it (coach) and having a meltdown while on it (athlete) wasn't helping the situation. And once the horse has entered the competition it can't be replaced. And all horses are assigned randomly based on a split field and points.

German coach thrown out of Olympics for punching a horse

At least Lead has that thrill of when you fall you are done, plus the cool shot of someone falling and swinging.

I think it's time to bring back Ski Ballet (Acroski) into the Winter Olympics.

The Australian broadcaster showed a replay of the Women's Sport Climbing Finals this morning while waiting for today's competition to start. The host said 'Wow hasn't Sport Climbing been a breakout sport these Olympics with it's thrills and spills. It's composed of 3 stages - speed, boulder and lead. We go now to [insert park's name] with our commentators' And no joke they showed Speed and Lead. Totally jumping Boulder. Guess the station has the same views of Boulder as I do. That's it not really that thrilling to watch on the TV.

Should I be surprised that Australia isn't racking up the medals in cycling? Has my memory duped me into thinking we were once a force? I wasn't expecting a gold rush but I thought we use to get a decent amount of silver or bronzes.

I'm really impressed that Australia has their first Rhythmic Gymnastic team competing at the Olympics. We've always managed to send an individual but never a team. And I know we only qualified as the Continental Representative and the scores reflect how far behind we are with the rest of the world, but considering we couldn't manage to field a team in Sydney with automatic qualification, I think it's cool that we've progressed so far since then to have a team this competition.

Australia wins their 2nd Bronze in Track & Field. This time in the field with Women's Javelin. I know it's only 2 bronzes but wow I am so impressed with what our Track & Field team have achieved in this Olympics. So many finalists compared to recent Olympics. Almost feels like we are making a return in the sport. I know it will never be to the level of Swimming success, but it is so nice to finally hear people and the media talk about Athletics as possible medal contenders again.

You can take a break in The Amazing Race, but it doesn't mean you will win haha

I stayed up to watch the 1500m cause I've been eagerly following Ashley's achievement since the Decathlon started and I thought this could be the surprise medal I've been waiting for. While everyone else appeared to be watching the Matildas battle for bronze and the Kookaburras fight for gold, I was eaglery watching the Decathlon's javelin. I got so nervous in the 1500m I was pacing the loungeroom floor. And when he discovered he got Bronze I may have teared up a bit. I live for these moments. So imagine my disappointment this morning when the radio news did an Olympic update and only told me the Matildas lost, the Boomers lost and the Kookaburras lost. Where is the celebrating of an Australian first?? Oh that's right, it's just a boring Bronze in an event no one knows about. I shouldn't be suprised cause the news also ignored Tyson Bull's historic achievement in gymnastics but informed me about an American winning Bronze in Gymnastics. OK OK Im getting off my angry soapbox. And I am so stoked that the Track and Field team finally have a medal to go with their outstanding achievements these Olympics. I cannot think of another Olympics where we have had so many competitors which the finals of events.

You forgot Cathy Freeman! Sorry, whenever I bring up what you've mentioned I get Cathy's name shouted at me like she ran in Rio 2016. :D I've become really invested the Decathlon cause we have an Aussie current;y doing really well and again the media has no idea that he is doing well. And I didn't hear anything on the news about our 2 women qualifying for the 1500m. Seriously I know we aren't winning medals but this is the most exciting Track and Field Meet Australia has had in a long long time at the Olympics. I'm finding their achievements more impressive than the Swim Team to be honest. But I am a ex Little Athletics participant so I may be bias,

So as an Australian, clearly our drunk athletes are all over the news. But I just can't help but think about perspective. A team gets drunk and vomits, breaks a cardboard bed and leaves a hole in the wall and makes headlines around the nation but the Belarussian athlete's story barely registers a blip. I'm not condoning our athletes behaviour but I know which one is more shocking and newsworthy and worthy of discussion.

Skateboard - I honestly don't know what I really expected from the skateboarding events but what has been shown at the Olympics has been a little disappointing. I am not dismissing the athletes skills and talents but in generally I've left both events feeling that's it? I think I prefer Street over Park if I had to choose. And maybe the Men's Park competition will change my mind but who knows. But I just expected more impressive tricks or something. I described the Park to my friend as follows "Imagine a half pipe, but make it a salad bowl. And then dump a giant concrete butt into it" Glad I;m not the only one who thought that. I did hear a commentator call it a volcano. Sport Climbing - I want to like this sport but bouldering really leaves me cold and I wouldn't mind them ditching it. People make fun of sports like artistic swimming or rhythmic gymnastics for being 'silly'. And I just find Bouldering silly. Look I understand the difficulty and all of that but to watch it, it isn't that exciting/tense as Speed (who will get to the top first and how fast) or Lead (ooh they are climbing climbing oh no they just fell game over). I described Bouldering to the same friend above as 'Imagine 4 people standing around looking at plastic rocks, they then clean the rocks with a broom, start climbing, fall off and do it all over again - for 4 minutes' I'm not sure if it's the format of multiple attempts (removing the need to be perfect first go) or the fact they disappear and reappear from the stage and you can't really see a competitor's full attempts cause the stage is so busy with 4 people competing and doing different things. I assume its a popular aspect of sport climbing but it isn't something I would choose to go and watch - the other two aspects though I'm there.

So proud of Tyson Bull. First Aussie male to ever qualify for an Olympic apparatus final and he managed to move up from his qualification position of 7th to 5th. An incredible effort. I was hoping he would sneak a surprise medal but it was not to be.

Made sure I was home in time to watch the debut of Sport Climbing. I was not expecting what I saw in Speed Climbing. Wow, I was impressed. Got me excited for the sport. I can see why it is becoming its own event in Paris 2024. I had no idea there was a sport that was quicker than the 100m sprint. After the Speed round I came back to watch Bouldering and my interest has dropped dramatically. Maybe it was a bad idea to start with Speed Climbing or maybe it's not fun watching people constantly falling off a wall at an elite level or maybe its because the Aussie isn't succeeding.

And today's haul of 4 gold medals in one day makes it our most successful day ever in Olympic history. I wonder if we can beat the total medals collected in Sydney which was 58, currently we are at 31

Are you my friend that I text this news to? Cause that's exactly what I told her haha