I love watching swimming.
I seriously just love the Olympics, I'll watch almost anything, especially if it involves Canadian athletes.
The road course (cycling) for both men and women was arguably the most difficult single day race those athletes will face this year. The climbs put the hurt in, and the decsents downright harrowing. The course tested every aspect of a good racer's toolbox, from ability to stay with the leaders on the climb, ability to technically race the descents, time-trialing on the flat sections between climbing, then on the final stretch. Added to that, it came not too long after the TDF; the guys were coming off an emotional and physical peak, so to have to recover and dial it in again for the Olympics, very tough. Some great racers crashed out, or simply dropped.
For all the hype the golfers are getting for shunning the games (no money, Zico, whatever), the best professional cyclist in the world showed up and raced that course as hard as they would in for their teams in the professional circuit. Total respect for their efforts (we'll see if they pass doping control another story on it's own).
Looking forward mostly to BMX, to see if Tory Nyhaug can pull off getting into the final. He's managed to stay injury free this year, and has had some good results at World Cups (several podiums), his best World's result as an elite senior is a silver a couple of years back, and then the Pam Am Games win last year. He's poised to make the main (final), then once in, he's favored for a top 5. Win? Don't know. He's healthy. BMX is a thankless sport, but I've watched first hand how Tory, since he was a junior, has worked his ass off to the amongst the world's best. His rise to the top was against the grain in our country, where BMX is not well supported amongst all the cycling disciplines. His parents should write a book titled, "Building an Olympian".
Good vid here, check it out, and the one straight after. https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/y...=4fb87c2730f85a394a9a726ff51bde75&action=view
I seriously just love the Olympics, I'll watch almost anything, especially if it involves Canadian athletes.
The road course (cycling) for both men and women was arguably the most difficult single day race those athletes will face this year. The climbs put the hurt in, and the decsents downright harrowing. The course tested every aspect of a good racer's toolbox, from ability to stay with the leaders on the climb, ability to technically race the descents, time-trialing on the flat sections between climbing, then on the final stretch. Added to that, it came not too long after the TDF; the guys were coming off an emotional and physical peak, so to have to recover and dial it in again for the Olympics, very tough. Some great racers crashed out, or simply dropped.
For all the hype the golfers are getting for shunning the games (no money, Zico, whatever), the best professional cyclist in the world showed up and raced that course as hard as they would in for their teams in the professional circuit. Total respect for their efforts (we'll see if they pass doping control another story on it's own).
Looking forward mostly to BMX, to see if Tory Nyhaug can pull off getting into the final. He's managed to stay injury free this year, and has had some good results at World Cups (several podiums), his best World's result as an elite senior is a silver a couple of years back, and then the Pam Am Games win last year. He's poised to make the main (final), then once in, he's favored for a top 5. Win? Don't know. He's healthy. BMX is a thankless sport, but I've watched first hand how Tory, since he was a junior, has worked his ass off to the amongst the world's best. His rise to the top was against the grain in our country, where BMX is not well supported amongst all the cycling disciplines. His parents should write a book titled, "Building an Olympian".
Good vid here, check it out, and the one straight after. https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/y...=4fb87c2730f85a394a9a726ff51bde75&action=view