Swimming

[surfgirl]

9 hours ago, NUguy514 said:

SAAAAAAME!  I cannot stand him.  He reminds me of narcissistic asshole gymnastics coaches like Bela Karolyi and Steve Nunno who made it all. about. them.  (And, in Bela's case at least, emotionally and verbally abused young female gymnasts.)

BINGO! I almost said this same thing.

Edited August 6 by surfgirl

[Quiet1ne]

Rowdy Gaines is sooooo subdued calling the marathon/open water swimming races compared to how over the top he is for the pool events.  He sounds like a completely different person.

[NUguy514]

21 minutes ago, Quiet1ne said:

Rowdy Gaines is sooooo subdued calling the marathon/open water swimming races compared to how over the top he is for the pool events.  He sounds like a completely different person.

I noticed that, too!  I caught a bit of one of the women's open water events, and he and Mary Carillo sounded like they were at a funeral.  It's like this was the Jekyll version of Rowdy and the insane Hyde comes out with the pool events.

[surfgirl]

So I was watching the Paralympics 200m freestyle this morning, it was a mixed event with disabilities of all sorts. Some athletes could not use their legs, others had leg mobility but not arms/hands, and two athletes had no arms. One of them won IIRC. It was incredible to watch these athletes do their thing! I came away from that event thinking that while yes, competing at the Olympic level is something, a huge achievement, being an athlete who competes at the Paralympics takes that level of accomplishment and achievement to another level entirely. It was incredibly inspiring to watch, looking forward to the next two weeks!

[wanderingstar]

I was bummed that I'd missed several races, but I got to see the men's and women's 50m free and 200m butterfly. I'm so thrilled my Olympics-watching summer gets to continue!

Edited August 30 by wanderingstar

[surfgirl]

@wanderingstar Peacock is worth itnright now. We've been watcning swimming all evening and it's been incredible! I'm quickly learning the different categories, and thr Paris crowds are amazing. Another two weeks of Games, yeah, I'll take it!

[wanderingstar]

Catching up on the Paralympic swimming, and I'm now obsessed with Gabriel dos Santos Araujo and Maisie Summers-Newton!

 

[surfgirl]

Watching swimming all tonight I looked up the different Para categories and it's really helpful. If anyone is interested go here, and check out the sport you're watching for the breakdowns:

https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/paralympic-games/paralympic-classification

I was wondering about the above because some swimming events the athletes don't appear to have a disability that is visible. I learned that S13 is swimmers with the least visual impairment, and S14 are swimmers with intellectual impairment.

[possibilities]

I've noticed in a lot of the coverage, they don't explain what the category is, and I have no idea what the rules are to qualify. I appreciate the reference!. 

[wanderingstar]

Two races into today's medal events, and already 2 new world records! Mariia Pavlova (NPA) won the women's 100m breaststroke (SB7) with a world record, and then China's Guo Jincheng won the men's 50m freestyle (S5) also in world record time! Both were absolutely mesmerizing to watch in their swims!

Edited September 5 by wanderingstar