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2016 Rio Olympic Summer Games August 5th to 21st

hockeyfan1

New member
The Brazilian government yearned to host an Olympic Summer Games, and got it's wish when the Olympics Games were awarded to Brazil's second most populous municipality, Rio de Janeiro.  Many Brazilians rejoiced when the winning city was announced and could hardly wait to show the world how to party -- something Brazilians are keenly good at.  Afterall, where else will one find the world's largest Carnival, a festival of pomp and pageantry,  of wild partying & dancing, of larger-than-life celebrations and costumes (even some without), making it a near hedonistic experience.


Circa present day.  While Olympic venues were being completed at a frantic pace, many still have doubts about Rio's readiness for the Games.  What with the discovery of polluted waters (where even human body parts have been found), it's enough to make any participatory Olympic swimmer grimace at the mere thought of delving in those waters.  It doesn't stop there.  The threat of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne virus, hit Rio and the country of Brazil particularly hard with some devastating effects.


And what of the favelas -- the slums in the poor areas and neighborhoods in and around Rio?  Hidden against the backdrop of the Olympics venues, people here remain skeptical that these Games will generate any real change in Brazil's financial and economic landscape.  In fact, a government that has claimed time and again of not being able to provide economic aid to it's poor, yet, has somehow come up with the financing and funding to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to construct and stage a world event.


Brazil is in the midst of it's worst economic recession in years.  The awarding and partial building of the Games and venues occurred when Brazil was in the midst of an economic upturn. 


All this negative news.  How about some positives.  Heck, even the residents of the favelas enjoy and occupy themselves with nightly street dancing and music.  The sounds of Samba reverberate through the neighbourhood, as young teens twist and turn and breakdance with precision to the sounds of the music.  Just like Brazilians to know how to entertain and be entertained.


Hope all holds well for these Rio Games.  A little blessing from Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the city of Rio atop the high mountain will no doubt be welcome.  The statue sill be lit up throughout the duration of the Games. 


The opening ceremonies will commence tonight.  The world will be watching.  Sure to be colourful.  Ole Brazil!  Ole, Ola!
 
By the way I work in the Caribbean all summer, with my wife.  Yes Zika is there in a big way, but it is overblown  as well. Only those hoping to get pregnant or newly pregnant should avoid the tropics. There was an excellent article in the Globe yesterday about Zika and the risks, only one woman in 1000 passes on the virus to her child if she happens to be pregnant. To us that are past these ages, a Zika case results in mild flu for 3 days.

It turns out in Brazil the overwhelming majority of birth defects come from the NE of the country and they are now supposing there are other varibles contained in the mosquitos there. The outbreak they were expecting has not happened in the rest of the country and they can't understand why. For all those athletes who were to afraid to go to Brasil, one part of me can understand, but we take risks driving every day to work.  It is winter in Brazil, mosquito's are way down at this time of year and they are spraying the hell out of the rest of the venues. The chance of Jason Day or Raonic getting Zika are next to zero and now we are missing on their Olympic performances.  Does this mean in 4 years they don't go to Japan over fear of earthquake or tsunami.

Last year my wife contracted Chickungunya on the last day of our work in St.Thomas.  It laid her up for months, it affects her ankles still and has given her a heart defect. In almost all the areas we are speaking about Dengue still rules supreme and I can assure you, you don't want dengue. One of the four strains causes hermoraging and death. Yet we have a media stampede about the dangers of Zika. Yes a concern for sure but more than a mountain out of a molehill (excepting pregnant or about to be pregnant women).
 
Highlander said:
By the way I work in the Caribbean all summer, with my wife.  Yes Zika is there in a big way, but it is overblown  as well. Only those hoping to get pregnant or newly pregnant should avoid the tropics. There was an excellent article in the Globe yesterday about Zika and th |e risks, only one woman in 1000 passes on the virus to her child if she happens to be pregnant. To us that are past these ages, a Zika case results in mild flu for 3 days.

It turns out in Brazil the overwhelming majority of birth defects come from the NE of the country and they are now supposing there are other varibles contained in the mosquitos there. The outbreak they were expecting has not happened in the rest of the country and they can't understand why. For all those athletes who were to afraid to go to Brasil, one part of me can understand, but we take risks driving every day to work.  It is winter in Brazil, mosquito's are way down at this time of year and they are spraying the hell out of the rest of the venues. The chance of Jason Day or Raonic getting Zika are next to zero and now we are missing on their Olympic performances.  Does this mean in 4 years they don't go to Japan over fear of earthquake or tsunami.

Last year my wife contracted Chickungunya on the last day of our work in St.Thomas.  It laid her up for months, it affects her ankles still and has given her a heart defect. In almost all the areas we are speaking about Dengue still rules supreme and I can assure you, you don't want dengue. One of the four strains causes hermoraging and death. Yet we have a media stampede about the dangers of Zika. Yes a concern for sure but more than a mountain out of a molehill (excepting pregnant or about to be pregnant women).

Yes, it's true the Zika virus situation has been, as you say, overblown.  Even thongh Brazil has been hard hit by it, it shouldn't put a damper on the Olympic mood.  Still, one cannot blame certain  people/individual athletes who, of their own accord,  wish to skip these Games (for whatever their reasoning be it Zika or other).

But, again, as with many things media, certain things do tend to get overblown and/or conflicting information sets in leading to confusion and fear.
 
Wow!  And that's an understatement.  These opening ceremonies Friday night at Maracana Stadium featured spectacular fireworks.  In fact, it has been reported that these opening ceremonies were done at half the cost of the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games' version.

Team Canada's athletes looked resplendent in red and by the way, that was supermodel Gisele Bundchen -- aka Mrs. Tom Brady -- walking the runway, definitely proud of her country's moment in time.  Good work, Brazil!

Here are some highlights (fireworks spectacle) including Team Canada:

[youtube]GiNGyiFnfVs[/youtube]
 
Pretty good start in the team sports. Women's soccer and rugby 7s are both 2-0. Women's basketball won their opener today as well.
 
So far so good for Rio. I mean they are well ahead of the worst put together summer games I have watched the Atlanta 96 games.

 
Great day today for the rowing anyway...

And the Belgian girl who crashed in the cycling road race and ended with multiple fractures of her spine. Horrible incident.
 
Time for my biennial Olympic curmudgeonliness:

1. Sports with weight classes are stupid

2. The idea that minor variations to a sport invent an entirely new sport worthy of a separate medal is stupid

3. I'm fairly suspicious of people who get really good at obscure sports.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Time for my biennial Olympic curmudgeonliness:

1. Sports with weight classes are stupid

2. The idea that minor variations to a sport invent an entirely new sport worthy of a separate medal is stupid

3. I'm fairly suspicious of people who get really good at obscure sports.

Watching the Swiss Beach volleyball team makes everything better.
 
OldTimeHockey said:
Watching the Swiss Beach volleyball team makes everything better.

Which is a perfect example of #3. Does Switzerland even have beaches?
 
OldTimeHockey said:
Nik the Trik said:
Time for my biennial Olympic curmudgeonliness:

1. Sports with weight classes are stupid

2. The idea that minor variations to a sport invent an entirely new sport worthy of a separate medal is stupid

3. I'm fairly suspicious of people who get really good at obscure sports.

Watching the Swiss Beach volleyball team makes everything better.

Amen.

88596584-patrick-heuscher-and-sascha-heyer-of-the-gettyimages.jpg
 
ICYMI: https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/comments/4wjcqp/olympics_provide_the_simple_pleasures_in_life/

d12d81b8945164792e1cfae0dc97e0cb.jpg
 
Nik the Trik said:
Time for my biennial Olympic curmudgeonliness:

1. Sports with weight classes are stupid

2. The idea that minor variations to a sport invent an entirely new sport worthy of a separate medal is stupid

3. I'm fairly suspicious of people who get really good at obscure sports.

Agreed with 2 and 3, definitely not 1 (in most cases)
 
I would replace 3 with synchronized sports, especially diving. They seem so pointless. It astounds me that these are sports, but they're getting rid of wrestling, one of the only sports that's been in every Olympic games.
 
Canada's Women's Rugby 7s team wins Bronze, a "freakin' historic moment" in the words of team Captain Jen Kish, in a convincing 33-10 win over Great Britain.

Way to go, ladies!


http://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/canadas-bronze-rugby-sevens-freakin-historic-moment/
 
Canada's Kylie Masse finished third in winning the Bronze in the Women's 100m Breaststroke Final.

Gold went to Hungary's Katinka Hosszu while the silver was captured by Kathleen Baker of the US.


http://www.sportsnet.ca/olympics/canadian-kylie-masse-wins-bronze-womens-100m-backstroke/
 
Bullfrog said:
Nik the Trik said:
Time for my biennial Olympic curmudgeonliness:

1. Sports with weight classes are stupid

2. The idea that minor variations to a sport invent an entirely new sport worthy of a separate medal is stupid

3. I'm fairly suspicious of people who get really good at obscure sports.

Agreed with 2 and 3, definitely not 1 (in most cases)

To be clear I'm not saying the sports themselves are stupid(Judo seems like a reasonable enough thing to do), just the dividing them up into weight classes is.
 
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