oh absolutely, it’s incredible to watch as a spectacle
lack of objective means to success = not a sport
pro boxing is a sport because tko and ko are a thing as well as points decisions. olympic boxing, a bit less so but still a sport
yes it’s scored by judges, but (as far as i know) the means of obtaining the points are objective. so it’s like clean punch to the helmet = 2 points (or whatever, i dont know) instead of “oooo superb technique on that right hook, add 2 more points!”
But diving and gymnastics have clear scoring systems.
They’re not “style” points, they’re execution of a skill.
I think we can all agree ice-dancing and synchronised swimming are a joke though.
Tbh, I used to be completely against anything that was “judged” as the subjectivity did my head in, but really the majority are just using the rules of the sport to create a scoring system.
Sure there is more space for arguments, but that space is far far less than a typical AFL match!
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oh i’m sure there’s criteria for scoring and not just vibes, but there’s way too much room for subjectivity for mine. if it were objective then why the need for 6+ judges?
Did they?
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And yet boxing was OK, even though boxing has had more riots due to dodgy scoring than pretty much any sport ever.
There’s “subjectivity” in pretty much every sport ever. In some it’s about the scoring system, in other it’s about the actions that lead to scores within a scoring system that appears “objective”.
Except running.
So Mack Horton can easily defend his title now … oh wait …
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Yeah I get that, I was salty writing it, but that Chinese flog has thumbed his nose at the world for too long. It’s great he’s been banned.
Let him come back as a 32 yo and he will be flogged by the next generation. China will arrogantly let him compete, they won’t be able to help themselves.
Athletes using PEDs are like the Hydra - cut one head off and another 2 take its place.
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Anyway, time to start learning athletes names!
Well here’s an athlete to learn. Inika McPherson. Going to be competing in the High Jump for USA.
This really is quite something 
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Could have sworn that said Inka then, … would have been a clear case of Nominative determinism … 
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Haha yes that did cross my mind too 
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The most incredible part is a 34 y/old competing in a speed/power event.
Even Bolt at the same age (which he is) would be struggling to reach the 100m finals if he continued his average regression from 2014-2017 through 2018-2021.
I don’t know, Linford Christie was still performing at a high level at 34…
High jump has a significant technical element as well
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Well she has served a doping suspension before. Maybe she’s on the good stuff again 
Turns out Inika was 2nd at the US Trials. 1st was Vashti Cunningham, whose father was a 16 season NFL QB.
Randall’s offspring?
A name and a face we are going to be seeing a lot of is Sha’carri Richardson. She’s the red hot favourite for the 100m sprint and has run the 6th fastest time of all time, 10.72 seconds.
As is often the case though, there’s more than a strong suspicion of doping by way of her coach who is renowned as dirty.
Sha’Carri Richardson’s image sullied by doping shadow of Dennis Mitchell
Dave Hannigan: US is about to fall hard for sprinter but associations raise questions
Thu, Jun 24, 2021, 05:00
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Sha’Carri Richardson is primed to light up the Olympic Games next month. Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images
At the US Olympic Trials in Portland, Oregon last weekend, Sha’Carri Richardson won the 100m in 10.87, stamped her ticket to Tokyo, and generally lit up the place. Wearing an eye-catching orange weave in her hair, elongated technicolor nails on her hands, and mink eyelashes, this stunning amalgam of glamour and pace inspired a thousand inevitable Flo-Jo comparisons. Still out of breath at the finish, the 21-year-old from Dallas ran straight into the bleachers at Hayward Field, clambered up the steps, and folded into her grandmother’s arms.
“Without them, there would be no me,” she said. “Without my grandmother, there would be no Sha’Carri Richardson. My family is everything, my everything until the day I’m done!”
At the very least, he might be deemed radioactive by any clean competitor. Not in track and field
After that piece of wholesome sporting theatre, she gave a live television interview, mentioning she’d found out earlier in the week that her birth mother, who abandoned her as a child, had died. A startling detail amplifying the growing belief America is about to fall hard for its new track superstar, a charismatic performer with a compelling back story (her girlfriend chooses her hair colour before races) that includes attempting suicide in high school. Yet, in nearly every interaction with the media, Richardson also pays homage to her coach, citing him as one of the only people who truly understands the struggles she has endured. And therein lies a problem.
Richardson celebrates winning the women’s 100 meter final with her grandmother at the US Olympic trials. Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Her coach is Dennis Mitchell. You may remember the name. You may even recall the sullied reputation. Finished fourth in the 100m final at the 1988 Olympics, the so-called dirtiest race in history. What came after was a career so tawdry that when the sports doping Hall of Fame is finally built, Mitchell deserves his own display, somewhere between the Lance Armstrong wall of tattered yellow jerseys and the glass case containing the full range of Barry Bonds’ incredible, expanding helmets. He might not quite have enjoyed the same stature as that pair but he has left his own indelible mark on cheating culture.
Radioactive
In 1998, Mitchell tried to explain away an excess testosterone finding by claiming the night before the test he’d drunk five beers and had sex with his wife four times. It was her birthday, and, in his words, “the lady deserved a treat”. During the BALCO investigation, he testified about receiving Human Growth Hormone injections from his coach, Trevor Graham, and, most recently, he was caught on tape assuring an undercover reporter he could get him steroids. A recidivist resumé that would be enough to get somebody drummed out of most sports. At the very least, he might be deemed radioactive by any clean competitor. Not in track and field.
“Y’all don’t have to worry about any doping situations coming from me,” said Richardson when asked about working with Mitchell earlier this year. “I back him 1,000 per cent.”
She has been similarly steadfast in vouching for Justin Gatlin, another sprinter with multiple steroids offences, who is one of her training partners in Clermont, Florida.
“She carries such a firecracker,” said Gatlin about Richardson last week. “She’s capable of running 10.6. I’ve seen her at practice, and she’s capable of running 10.5, actually. She can definitely shock the world.”
To understand how the country’s brightest young sprinting talent ended up in such nefarious company as Gatlin and Mitchell, we need to revisit the NCAA championships in Austin two summers back. As a freshman at Louisiana State University, she set new World Junior records in the 100m and 200m in the space of just 45 minutes, the emphatic manner of her victories and the eye-catching times announcing the arrival of a new sensation. Within days she turned pro, signed with Nike and started looking for a coach.
it seems a tad unfortunate that Nike has … nudged this young woman in the direction of a serial doper
“The way that me and coach Dennis ended up crossing each other’s paths was after the Nationals,” said Richardson. “Nike, myself and my agent - along with my manager - we all just sat down and we talked. That decision was made and I came down here and it has been a dynamic duo between me and him since then.”
Intensify
How shocking that Nike were involved when it was decided Richardson should go work with Mitchell. The same Mitchell, who, during a brief stint advising Marion Jones (once a star of so many slick Swoosh commercials), admitted having discussions about where to source her performance-enhancing substances. The same Mitchell who runs Star Athletics where his wife, Damu Cherry-Mitchell, a former Olympic hurdler banned for two years back in 2003 for testing positive for nandrolone, is vice-president.
Dennis Mitchell, with Carl Lewis on the left, at the 1992 Olympic Games. Photo: David Madison/Getty Images
It seems a tad unfortunate that Nike, the company which has, by sheer bad luck, repeatedly sponsored so many corrupt athletes through the decades, nudged this young woman in the direction of a serial doper. Perhaps they believe nobody cares anymore about guilt by association. Maybe when it comes to steroids and athletics very few people do.
“I just want the world to know that I’m that girl,” said Richardson last weekend. “Every time I step on the track, I’m going to try to do what it is that me, my coach and my support team believe I can do, and with the talent that God blessed me to have.”
As long as that girl remains with that coach, too much about her is going to be difficult to believe.
Yep