Roger Federer retires

USA protesting with more kneeling during certain events. Soccer if I am not mistaken, and on like day one. Bad coverage and turned people off.

The Japanese won't be pleased, it will cost them millions if the US market doesn't tune in and advertise during the Olympics. I thought all that one knee stuff was over, are we going to see that again in the NFL? Any Tennis players taken one knee yet before their game?

Dennis - In the soocer in the UK, kneeling is still happening. At this stage it's just pointless. In the AFL in Australia there was kneeling for I think a few weeks, then it stopped.

As usual in the tennis, the big names in the womens game lost, and the big names in the mens game are still around. Osaka losing was a beautiful result. You can't expect to just turn up without playing any tennis and think you'll win gold.

Glad Osaka lost. Anyone will be good for me now.

Yeah, the kneeling is going to be a thing in the NFL.

Olympics stuff definitely isn't being helped by Simone Biles dropping out overshadowing everything. She pulled out of team and individual gymnastics and literally all of the olympic coverage has been about her instead of the people actually competing. I'm sympathetic for mental health especially when she is a 24 year old being called the GOAT but not when it takes away from the events. Plus it seems awful convenient she messes up in qualifiers and looks poor and all of a sudden has mental health issues.

Yeah, all about Biles since yesterday. I don't agree with her decision to bow out in the middle of a team event. If you're having stress issues, then drop out during the preliminaries (she was off even then), but not during the real thing for the team event. Shoot, even drop out of your singles event, but not in the middle of the team event. I'm sorry, but I've played team sports and you don't do that to your teammates unless you get hurt. Even in the preliminaries, she was getting the highest scores despite clearly not being in it. Pull through and then drop out of the rest.

« Last edited by Warrior13 on Jul 28th 2021 »

Yeah, when I was in school and playing sports and in group projects if I decided to not be involved last minute to "take time for myself" I certainly wouldn't have gotten applauded for it.

Stress issues, I think all that is is pressure to win the gold medal which everyone expects her to do and it has got to her mentally. Pulling out and letting down her team mates was bad, that damages the morale of the whole team. Unless you are injured you should continue contributing to the team to the best of your ability regardless if you are in form or not.

Definitely. Just stay focused, finish the team portion, and then sit out from there. That, or decline to go to the Olympics in the first place so someone else has a shot.

And now the Biles story will go into next week since she has yet to decide if she will participate in the four solo events she qualified for.

So much money in sports these days it's no wonder you see high profile players cracking up under pressure and expectations and not performing up to their abilities. Bottom line is some athletes are tough enough to handle adversity while others aren't.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Jul 29th 2021 »

If you cant handle the heat, get out of the kitchen.

People like Osaka and Biles are getting applauded for pulling out of tournaments and looking after their mental health. This is wrong. We should be sympathetic for them (even though Osaka's was likely fake), but not congratulating them. We should be congratulating those who fight through stress and anxiety, and achieve the top results. During the week Novak said that professional sports would not exist without pressure.

Germany's Alexander Zverev stunned Novak in the Olympic semi, winning 1-6 6-3 6-1. Novak lead by a set and a break (6-1 3*-2), but then crumbled under pressure while Zverev started peaking.

Then in the bronze medal match, Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta stunned Novak, winning 6-4 6-7 6-3 in a high-quality match. Novak saved a match point in the 2nd set and then saved 4 more when Carreno Busta served for the match in the 3rd, but he got it done with quality serves at deuce.

Novak is 0-4 in Olympic semi final matches in all fields. He plays the Australian team featuring Barty in the mixed doubled bronze match later, and could go home with 0 medals.

EDIT - Novak withdrew from the mixed doubled bronze medal match, with a 'shoulder injury'. This is fake. It was fatigue from playing lots of matches. But surely he could've walked out on the court tired and tried to win a medal. Harsh for his doubles partner too.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Jul 31st 2021 »

I make you right in what you say Matt, we should be applauding the athletes who have the mental fortitude to withstand the intense pressure of representing their country and winning a medal against the best competitors in the world. These athletes who are 'looking after their mental health' are just using it as an excuse to give up and not face the pressure. Terrible really when you think they took away from another athlete the opportunity to represent their country.

Novak Djokovich just threw his dummy out the cot because he didn't win a gold medal in his two attempts, nothing wrong with him. If he had two gold medals in the bag he would be going all out trying to pick up a third. Have to feel sorry for his doubles partner, as far as I am concerned he let her down.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Aug 1st 2021 »

Zverev destroyed Russia's Karen (male) Khachanov 6-3 6-1 in the mens gold medal match. This was one of, if not the best match I've ever seen Zverev play. If he plays like this, he is the favourite for the US Open.

Switzerland's Belinda Bencic beat Czech Republic's Marketa Vondrousova 7-5 2-6 6-3 in the womens gold medal match. Considering the underwhelming tournament, it was a high quality final. Vondrousova (Osaka-slayer) used a special ranking to enter the Olympics, and now she walks away with a silver medal

Mens Singles:
Gold - Zverev (Germany)
Silver - Khachanov (Russia)
Bronze - Carreno Busta (Spain)

Womens Singles:
Gold - Bencic (Switzerland)
Silver - Vondrousova (Czech Republic)
Bronze - Svitolina (Ukraine)

Bencic also won a silver medal in doubles. French Open singles & doubles winner Krejcikova won the doubles gold medal. French Open singles runner up Pavlyuchenkova won the mixed gold medal. Marin Cilic bizarrely won a silver medal in doubles. A Brazilian womens pair who were alternates, saved 5 match points in a row to win the bronze medal.

What has happened to the U.S., they used to produce athletes regularly that would dominate the Olympics. The same thing is happening in professional Boxing, the best prospects now seem to be coming from Russian countries and the U.K. The current Heavywieght Boxing Champions for example are both British - Anthoney Joshua and Tyson Fury. It's almost as if America is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to sports development.

I have no idea who any of those people are. lol

Eh, the US is still #1 in the total medal count by a good margin. One of our swimmers has 5 golds. I'm not really seeing a difference overall. There might be less US people dominating but I think that is more other countries catching up in training and nutrition than it is the US falling behind. At a certain point the athletes can only get so big/fast/strong and all developed countries have such great training programs that there's just not much of an advantage anymore.

The U.S. may have more gold medals than anyone else but they are a bunch of no-names in meaningless sports. I'm talking about the prestigious field events like the 100 metres, the decathlon, and boxing.

Warrior13 hit the nail on the head when he said he had never heard of the current heavyweight boxing champions. In years gone be the whole world could tell you who the heavyweight boxing champ was. All American superstars larger than life, I'm talking about Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Mike Tyson Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman. The last three in my list where also gold medallists in the Olympics. America hasn't produced a superstar gold medalist boxer at the Olympics since 1992 with Oscar De La Hoya. Before then they used to produce them regularly in all weights.

Who does America currently have who is the next Carl Lewis, Florence Joiner or Michael Johnson, I can't name you a single U.S. athlete.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Aug 2nd 2021 »

From my understanding, the US have a lot of good swimmers. But swimmers are basically irrelevant except for the Olympics.

I think these days there are so many elite athletes, that there aren't many standout athletes. If someone asked me to name 5 elite superstar Olympic athletes, I would only be able to say Roger, Rafa, Novak, Serena, and probably another tennis player. There aren't many athletes who are known to the general public.

I think the extra year has either hurt or helped most of the athletes. Ledecky was a year older and slower, only winning the long distance swims instead of basically everything per usual. And it obviously has caused Biles to get WAY into her own head.

If the USA were on their A-Game, I think there would be a bigger gap at this point. Still, I think they will finish with the most medals. Maybe not the most gold.