Your Rio 2016 Summer Olympics anticipation thread!

i agree about hope solo too. she's a jerk, it would have been inauthentic for her to have behaved otherwise. i hate this idea that all athletes need to be exemplary/boring people

it's probably a 'make-up punishment' for those who thought the squad was too soft on her 2014 arrest

she also goes after her own teammates, so she's not exactly good for the locker room

that's who she is though, idk. she's a great goalie.

tho it's definitely double-standardy considering what Dempsey did in 2015 in that Gold Cup match (taking the notebook out of the refs pocket and ripping it up) was far worse and got a much lighter punishment

she's a great goalie, I prefer Ashlyn Harris tho

my problem isn't the fine or the suspension or (in lochte's case) the possible legal repercussions for lying. it's the whole scarlet letter bullshit that pops up around these controversies.

(xp neanderthal. yeah, I should of had the air quotes around "foreign speaking" but I think people understood what I meant)

(But yeah, there probably would of been a lot less heated exchanges in some of the resulting Lochte discussions if I had used the air quotes to begin with. Thanks for the apology)
:)

It's not a scarlet letter. It's basically a timeout. Lochtes dumb ass will be back in another 4 years. It's not like getting dropped by sponsors is so bad literally the week after the olympics is over..

Isn't he getting on a bit for an athlete already. From what I read he's already 10 years older than most of the rest of his team and will be 36 by the time of the next one.
Is he going to pick up new sponsors so easily at his age and with stigma attached to him from this? I thought it was most of his non-Olympic sponsors that ad dropped him too.
Would think to get into the olympic team he'd have to still be a lot better than people a lot younger than him in 4 years time and be on the right side of the Olympic management.

yeah he's prob done. got smoked in his best individual event and other dudes will be able to beat his times for relays.

Also Lochte has historically been a 'big event' swimmer - he peaks at Olympics/Worlds and swims like a dead dog the rest of the season (this has generally got results, until this year). This means his non-sponsor earning potential at Pro Series/World Cup meets is way less than year-round pros like Chad Le Clos or Katinka Hosszu. For context, Hosszu is the only swimmer to ever top $1m in career prize money, and she is a massive outlier - unless you race every weekend like her, the prize money barely pays your airfare/accommodation - definitely not coaching/physio staff etc. I doubt Lochte's new cough sweet gig will make up for the loss of the Speedo contract so maybe he'll switch up his in-season game. He's going to have to do *something* different as his last few years of peripatetic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ training clearly didn't do the job: while he won the 200IM at Worlds last year, it was with a now-illegal underwater kick, clearly making up for lack of closing speed (last length was half a second down on his WR split; on the 200free he was 2nd for 150m then went backwards on the last 50, finishing 4th) which was fully exposed in Rio (last length 1.5sec down on his WR split!). It will be interesting ('interesting') to see if he does try a Hosszu and goes for prize money, or sacks off any sort of credibility and goes full-on Cher infomercial. I doubt he'll quit just yet but I can't see him making the 2020 team.

Right, I'm re-lurking now - unless a dedicated swimming thread starts up I'll see you all in 4 years :)

If you'd write more posts as interesting as that, I would definitely be pro a dedicated swimming thread :)

fo real, tell us more about the illegal kick thing!?

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/fina-officially-makes-ryan-lochte-turn-illegal-in-im-races/

Backstroke kick is faster and less effort for Lochte, saving energy for his final free leg. So basically his 200IM finish has suffered a fair bit as a result of the rule change. Still world class obv, but no longer the gold-medal-cert-if-Phelps-isn't-around of the last 4 years. I guess his best shot now is the 4x200 relay, where he's always been consistently good (even this year). Can't let your teammates down! Apart from doing a runner & saddling them with a $10k fine!

interesting, thanks!

good posts, ty!

These Russian leaks are insane. And the state news are using it for propaganda purposes. Throw this asshole state out of professional sports at this point.

Bill Sweeney, chief executive of the British Olympic Association, said: "The British public have a fantastic opportunity to meet their Rio heroes."

The velodrome training centre for Team GB's track cycling athletes, who have brought home 11 Olympic medals, is based in the city with many of the team living nearby - including Sir Bradley Wiggins who will be absent from both celebrations.

it is quite heartwarming to see someone who isn't really into all this vulgar showiness, such modesty and humility should be applauded.