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Archery has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1900.

Specifically, only recurve archery which uses a recurve bow (the ends of the bow curve away from the archer)



For some reason, South Korea is dominant in archery having won 34 medals (19 gold) since 1972.

USA is second with 14 archery medals, 8 golds.

Going into Rio this year, South Korea has the #1 Men’s archer in the world - Kim Woo-jin and the top 2 women archers in the world - Ki Bo-bae and Choi Mi-sun.

Top-rated Americans : Brady Ellison #3 male and Khatuna Lorig #8 woman.

Home favorite is Brazilian Marcus D’Almeida - #6 in world.

I read that Sum Ting Wong just missed the event.

Keep an eye-out for American champion archers Brady Ellison and Khatuna Lorig:

I'm so excited for this event that I'm starting to quiver.

According to KCNA (the North Korean Central News Agency), North Korean leader Kim Jung-un is an accomplished archer.

According to KCNA, Kim Jung-un is also an expert at:

archery
badminton
basketball
beach volleyball
boxing
canoe / kayak
cycling (track, road, mountain, BMX)
diving
equestrian (dressage, jumping and eventing)
fencing
field hockey
golf
gymnastics
handball
judo
modern pentathlon
rowing
rugby 7s
sailing
shooting
soccer / football
swimming
synchronized swimming
table tennis
taekwondo
tennis
track and field
triathlon (swimming, biking, running)
volleyball
water polo
weightlifting
wrestling
golf (added for 2016)
rugby union (added for 2016)
baseball (in 2008)
softball (in 2008)
climbing
karate
roller sport
squash
wakeboard
wushu
surfing
dancing
bowling
netball
croquet
motor boating
polo
tug-of-war
plunge for distance
underwater swimming
obstacle race for swimming
cricket
lacrosse
jeu de paume
racquets.
Chariot racing
Pankration
Pentathlon: Discus, Javelin, Jump, Running, Wrestling

Good one! Take a bow for that.

Ellison would look great on the cover of RQ magazine. (RedNeck Quarterly)



Tell you what. If I was a deer in the woods, I would not want to see this guy.

Or this guy (Ted Nugent)



(for you kiddies, Nugent used to be a hard rockin' musician)

For the first time since 1904 golf is back at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Wow, that’s 112 years. (I won a bronze in Olympic math).

There’ll be both a men's and women's 72-hole individual stroke play tournament in accordance with the official rules of golf.

In the event of a tie for any of the first three positions, a three-hole playoff will determine the medal winners.

I can’t wait for this. I wonder if the top golfers will play. I’m sure any one of them would love to add an Olympic medal to their trophy case.

1904? How did they mow the courses?

“Go mow the back nine.”

Congratulations to Louis Oosthuizen and Adam Scott. They are recipients of my biggest losers of the year award.

They are both refusing to represent their countries in the Golf event at the 2016 Summer Olympics to “focus” on golf. (Oosthuizen - South Africa, Scott - Australia)

What they’re really focusing on is money.

I’ll be rooting for any top golfer who sacrifices a few PGA tournaments to golf for their country in the Olympics this summer.

I hope Oosthuizen and Scott choke and don’t have another top-ten finish this year.

That's a bit harsh.

Both of them have represented their countries in the Presidents Cup in the past, they were even paired together in the last cup. The Cups (Presidents and Ryder) are team events and have always been golf's Olympics. Now the Olympics come knocking because they see more dollar signs and these players are supposed to just donate their time, again? How many more organizations should be making money off their talents without the benefit of compensating these players?

They're are not part of any team or owe their skills to any country, they're individual contractors, they can pick and choose when and where they play. I don't blame them a bit. This is what they do professionally, why give it away just because this organization finally decided to allow them in after a century of snubbing the sport?

You also have to consider it could also be that both of these young men are worried about contracting the zika virus. Who could blame them? Brazil is where it started.

OK Tulsa, that's a cogent argument for Oosthuizen and Scott's absence from the Summer Olympics.

Let me put it this way. I will be impressed with those top golfers who have also played in the Presidents and Ryder Cups and who are also "individual contractors" and who will represent their countries golfing in the Olympics.

Maybe I'm naive, but I still think the true spirit of the Olympics is world unity.

The true spirit may be about competition and unity but that spirit does not haunt todays olympics. Todays olympics is about mucho dinero.

NBC paid $1.23 billion for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I'm sorry I can't help but think of the pool scene from Caddyshack.

Oh, synchronized swimming is still considered a "women's sport". No men's synchronized swimming. Not in the Olympics anyway.

I'm sure they are very good athletes... but it's not a sport any more than ballet is a sport.

Another loser golfer bows out of 2016 Olympics:

Vijay Singh, Fiji

This loser can't go golf for a week in Brazil? For his country? It's only every four years.

He's always been a malcontent.

I can't wait to watch the world's best golfers tear-up the new course at Barra da Tijuca.

Vijay is 53 years old. He hasn't won a tournament since 2008 and hasn't won a major since 2004. He plays on the Champions Tour now. Why donate his time playing against players 20 and 30 years younger where he has absolutely no chance?

You really must hate golfers. Did one hit your dog once with a 9-iron?

The true spirit was amateurism.. when that was lost, almost everything "pure" about the Olympics went with it.

Yes, I know we were sending amateurs and a lot of other countries were sending professionals and we didn't always win as much as we could have if we had competed on an even playing field....but I didn't care. I can watch Adam Scott and Oosthuizen and McIlroy battle it out many times a year, I can watch them battle it out for national/regional pride in the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup.. I would much much MUCH rather watch the 10 best amateur golfers in this country battle it out against the best amateurs from around the world.... but I accept that doesn't have the draw for a lot of people like it does for me...

As for Vijay-jay.. I've never really liked the guy but he's old, is he the only golfer on Fiji's team? How did they even qualify?

quote above by DC:

" I would much much MUCH rather watch the 10 best amateur golfers in this country battle it out against the best amateurs from around the world"

Right!

"Big 10-4 ditto on that good buddy. Do you copy?"

quote above by Tulsa:

"You really must hate golfers."

You're missing my discontent.

It's the participation. The proudly representing your country.

It doesn't matter if it's golf or Olympic Tiddlywinks.

It doesn't matter how old Singh is. As Fiji's best golfer, he should proudly golf in Brazil.

You don't realize that? I don't understand where you're coming from.

These guys have plenty of money. This is only every four years.

It sounds like you hate the Olympics.

I'm not missing it, I just don't agree with it.

This isn't every 4 years, I mentioned this above, they've not had Olympic Golf in a century. They're just making a cash grab on the backs of contract workers who are typically paid to play. They aren't supported by the Olympic Committees like the other athletes are.

There are other tournaments these players do participate in for their country and for no money. Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup. Every year you get one of these two, who needs the Olympics?

Just because the Olympics now wants a piece of the action the players should just bend over and take one for the team? Oh I forgot, there is no team, you are still just an individual player in this format.

As DC mentioned, the Olympics should be about amateurs. It's not about the athletes or the countries they represent, it's about the draw they can bring to TV, it's about the cash. NBC doesn't pay $4.38 billion to televise this if they can't make back more. All the while asking these athletes to donate the skills they worked a lifetime achieving, on their own, so other people can get paid. It's obscene.

I'd rather see a skills challenge from these guys than a stroke event. Make it a decathlon style with 10 events. Something like:

1. Longest Drive
2. Straightest Drive
3. Closest to the pin from X yards
4. Closest to the pin from a blind bending shot
5. Bunker challenge
6. Chip challenge from 30 yards
7. Chip challenge over a bunker or water to a tight pin
8. Longest putt
9. How many putts from 6' in 10 or 20 seconds
10. Player discretion (a show off event of a particular skill of their choice to be voted on by the other players.)

This brings every player into the event into play.


But in no way am I going to rag on any professional golfer who does not choose to donate his time. What if he gets injured, is the Olympics paying his medical bills, are they repaying him all the monies he lost in events he can't participate in?

I see NBA players are starting to come up with "injuries" they need to rest instead of going to the Olympics. Damn communists.

I hope LeBron doesn't play, dude is aging and needs to rest. Playing through the finals every year, the last 3 Olympics.. take some time off...

The fun of the Olympics is watching the sports you rarely see.. track and field, decathlon, swimming, curling, luge, gymnastics..

I can turn on my television any weekend of the year and watch the best golfers, basketball players, baseball players, hockey players in the world.... maybe other countries view it differently because so many of the best athletes at those other sports play HERE.. maybe in that we are a little spoiled and the rest of the world wants to see it. I don't.

Canoeing and kayaking have been Summer Olympic sports since the 1936 Berlin games.

Not to be confused with rowing which has been an Olympic event since 1900 and is done in row boats called coxless and sculls.

There are 14 medal events in canoeing and kayaking - 8 mens, 6 womens in two categories: slalom and sprint.

Sprint events are in calm water. The slalom events in in turbulent water (rapids). Each event is a different distance for instance 200 meter and 1,000 meters.

The slalom events are August 7-11.
The sprint events are August 15-20

For some reason, there are no woman canoeing events (just kayaking). I’m not sure why. (more dangerous?)

While there aren’t generally accepted rankings in the sport, Dana Jackson of the USA is probably the best slalom kayaker in the world.



I don't get it. There's no women's sprint canoeing (canoe racing on still water) in the Olympics. But there's women's slalom kayaking (in rapids).

The women canoers are of course pissed.

A couple notes about the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Berlin was chosen to host the Summer Olympics by the OIC in 1931; two years before Hitler and the Nazi party came to power in Germany (1933).

By 1936, Hitler wanted to showcase German superiority via the olympics. But American athletes such as Jesse Owens had other plans (winning 4 track gold medals).



Hitler tried to ban Jews from participating in the games but was forced to relent after several countries threatened to boycott the games.

On the lighter side, not only canoeing, but basketball and handball also made their olympic debut in Berlin. (basketball and handball were played outside)

I saw Jesse Owens speak at the college in my little town just a few years before he died and got to shake his hand after.... I was in Jr. High I think.... I can't remember a single thing he said but even as an old man, he had a tremendous presence about him just being in the room.

In terms of physical intensity per second, no sport comes close to diving.

The average dive only lasts ~ 2 seconds.

The greatest divers of all-time are generally considered to be female Chinese diver Guo Jingjing with six medals in total (4 gold) between 2000–2008. And male US diver Greg Louganis also with four gold medals. (Remember Louganis? He was elected to the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in 2013)

Currently the sport is dominated by China. (with an honorable mention for Kim Kuk-hyang - probably currently North Korea’s greatest athelete - she’s 5’1” and 79 lbs)(I’d cry too if I was a North Korean Athlete)

The U.S. team has not reached the podium since Mark Lenzi's bronze medal in 1996.

This year there’s eight diving events (4 each men and women): springboard, synchronized 3m springboard, 10m platform, and synchronized 10m platform.

Some diving terms:

Springboard - an old fashioned diving board.
Platform - solid like concrete.
Synchronized - two divers at once.

Respectively:



Don’t try this at home kids. To compete in diving at the 2016 Olympics, you must turn 14 years-old by or on December 31, 2016. (so 13 is OK)

I once did a triple sow-cow / belly-flop off my brother's diving board. Everyone said it was spectacular. (By "everyone" I mean my wife and my brother's Labrador retriever, Roxy.)

I remember doing a belly flop "just wrong" off the high board at Lakewood Park pool.

Best way I could describe the pain is it felt like I had ripped open the front of my body.

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving has accepted an invitation to play for Team USA in this summer's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

I love this. (Irving headed to the Olympics. A true love of playing basketball)

The complete US roster.

F 20 Anthony, Carmelo 32 – May 29, 1984 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) New York Knicks United States
G 21 Thompson, Klay 26 – February 8, 1990 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Golden State Warriors United States
G 23 Irving, Kyrie 24 – March 23, 1992 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Cleveland Cavaliers United States
G 26 DeRozan, DeMar 26 – August 7, 1989 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Toronto Raptors Canada
G 29 George, Paul 26 – May 2, 1990 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) Indiana Pacers United States
C 36 Cousins, DeMarcus 25 – August 13, 1990 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) Sacramento Kings United States
F 37 Green, Draymond 26 – March 4, 1990 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Golden State Warriors United States
F 39 Barnes, Harrison 24 – May 30, 1992 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) Golden State Warriors United States
F 52 Durant, Kevin 27 – September 29, 1988 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) Oklahoma City Thunder United States
C 53 Jordan, Deandre 28 – July 21, 1988 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) Los Angeles Clippers United States
G 59 Butler, Jimmy 26 – September 14, 1989 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) Chicago Bulls United States
G Lowry, Kyle 30 – March 25, 1986 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) Toronto Raptors Canada

That's a hell of a roster and a gold medal winner; however, think about how much better it COULD be if:

Lebron James (instead of Harrison Barnes)
Russell Westbrook (instead of Kyle Lowry)
Steph Curry (instead of Demar Derozan)
Anthony Davis (instead of Deandre Jordan)

I'm giving LeBron my official rockyhilldawg dispensation.

He already has two gold medals (2008, 2012)

You're welcome LeBron.

I deon't want any of my team playing in that infested country.


WTH?????

Good news is that Kyrie is the only one.

G - Kyrie Irving | Kyle Lowry
G - Klay Thompson | Jimmy Butler | DeMar DeRozan
F - Kevin Durant | Paul George | Harrison Barnes
F - Carmelo Anthony | Draymond Green
C - DeMarcus Cousins | DeAndre Jordan

That team is still gonna kill everyone. You have some of the best defensive players in the NBA at their position in Thompson, Butler, George, Green, and Jordan. Then you have 3 elite scorers in Irving, Durant and Anthony.

Obviously you'd like to see guys like Lebron, Curry and Davis to just obliterate the entire thing, but that roster is more than good enough. They'll be exciting too.

It's hard to deny Kyrie the chance for a gold medal and adding that to his resume, especially after just adding NBA champion. If he can get through injury free, I think he'll be fine for the season.

This year’s favorite to medal is the team from the small country of Parmakystan which features the top bowlers in the world: Stan Kowolski, Stosh Prezymslaw, and Gregorz Wojciehowicz