Paris Olympic Games 2024

[backspacer]

Both Annett and Tamara gone. Annett getting comforted?

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

JJH vs SXN. Two veteran of the sport going toe-to-toe now.

 

[driversbeat]

Both Annett and Tamara gone. Annett getting comforted?

Crashing down from the heavens. A lot to take for an 18 year old.

 

[dingyibvs]

Annette really lost the service/receive game, and she let the ensuing frustration affect the rest of her game as well. Good lesson for the young player.

 

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Crashing down from the heavens. A lot to take for an 18 year old.

Yeah, Harimoto isn't much older either. Lots of bitter experiences in these Games.

 

[driversbeat]

Shan needs to just turn on the aggression. She can't win like this.

 

[turbozed]

Welp doesn't look like we gonna get the Kaufman SYB matchup.

Today was maybe a bridge too far for the youngster.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

Set2:JJH enters into BEAST MODE lite!
Those shovel serve of JJH is so good at setting up her 3rd ball attack.

 

[turbozed]

Shan needs to just turn on the aggression. She can't win like this.

She's playing way too negative. Just getting it on the table and hoping Jeon misses.

I usually root against this style of play when it's the auntie or uncle at the local club. But I'm rooting for some more matches and it doesn't look like we're gonna get it.

 

[driversbeat]

Only started smashing toward the end of game 2. Hopefully she can take a third game, if only to not end the Olympics on such a sour note.

 

[dingyibvs]

The problem with that narrative is that just about no one else pushed FZD and WCQ except Truls and Sweden.with the notable exception of Harimoto (who lost to FZD, LYJ, Kallberg and Felix). But you forget conveniently that Omar had beaten Truls the last two times they played each other as well. Shinozuka beat Truls the last time they played. If WCQ is unlucky to get an opponent he has.never lost even a game against, then you can tell any story you want. The truth is that Truls likely mostly as a result of improved fitness did a great job. WCQ was not unlucky because of seeding difficulty. He was unlucky to lose.

What does Kallberg and Karlsson's performance have to do with Truls? What does Omar and Shinozuka beating Truls recently have anything to do with anything? Truls did well to return to form for the Olympics, and it is this form that we all know he's capable of reaching that makes him a dangerous opponent, one that any top seed would be unlucky to draw in the Ro32. It's not unlike men's badminton, with the reigning world champion Vitidsarn being in poor form coming into the Olympics, having not won a single tournament and only made the finals once and got seeded #8. The unlucky #1 seed met him in the quarters and got dominated.

 

[Gozo Zyreruna]

KOR to GER:

 

[NetProphet]

Due to the dominance of the Chinese, I think what's been overlooked a bit is that the men actually got pretty unlucky this tournament. It started with the draw, particularly WCQ's. As the #1 seed he drew the #39 seed Yang Wang as his first round opponent, which is pretty high for a Ro64 opponent. For the second round he could face anywhere from the #17 seed down to #67/qualifier, and he drew the #19 seed Moregard. The only 2 seeds higher than Moregard are Kallberg at #18 and Groth at #17, and even before the Olympics few can argue that they'd rather play Moregard than Kallberg or Groth. In the entire 17< seed field I can only see #31 Noshad Alamiyan with similar giant-slaying possibility as Moregard, with Kallberg just behind. If he had faced say #32 seed Pucar instead, and then #16 seed in the Ro16 who is Assar, then he IMO would've had 2 relatively easy games to get over his broken racket.

For the men's team they drew Korea in the quarterfinals, which at least on paper was arguably the hardest quarterfinals opponent. It wouldn't have even been arguable IMO if Korea brought LSS instead of CDS for whatever reason. Then you get into the actual games, my goodness the amount of lucky edges and nets France had against China, particularly in the 2 singles matches. It was wild how uneven it was. The TT Karma was certainly not very instantaneous there!

You have to play the big seeds at some stage, what does it matter if it's R32 or last 8?
I don't really see that as bad luck. If WCQ needed to play a ranked 50 player to progress then he was going out soon anyway.
For WCQ anything less than gold was going to be failure so even a last 4 or last 2 loss wouldn't be enough.
Same with team, play Korea in qtr finals or Semis, I personally don't see the difference?
As good as it all was there was only 1 surprise (that I can remember) and that was Truls beating WCQ so convincing.
I think everything worked out to form, Gold Silver and Bronze to the correct teams/people.

 

[driversbeat]

Congratulations Jeon Jihee and Team Korea!
Shin Yubin being a great team player, Lee EunHye shutting down a major threat in Kaufmann, and Jeon contributing two points to an Olympic medal 8 years in the making.

In the post match interview, Jeon Jihee thanks Shin Yubin for raising her own world ranking and giving them the third seed.

Shan Xiaona absolutely devastated, must be tough dropping the final match on two consecutive Olympics. But she did her part winning doubles in R16 and Quarterfinals to bring an unfavoured Team B this far.

Oh Gwang Heon also getting in some aegyo.

 

[dingyibvs]

You have to play the big seeds at some stage, what does it matter if it's R32 or last 8?
I don't really see that as bad luck. If WCQ needed to play a ranked 50 player to progress then he was going out soon anyway.
For WCQ anything less than gold was going to be failure so even a last 4 or last 2 loss wouldn't be enough.
Same with team, play Korea in qtr finals or Semis, I personally don't see the difference?
As good as it all was there was only 1 surprise (that I can remember) and that was Truls beating WCQ so convincing.
I think everything worked out to form, Gold Silver and Bronze to the correct teams/people.

The difference is that WCQ could've had some easier matches to get used to his new primary racket before meeting the "big seeds".

 

[Lazer]

You have to play the big seeds at some stage, what does it matter if it's R32 or last 8?
I don't really see that as bad luck. If WCQ needed to play a ranked 50 player to progress then he was going out soon anyway.
For WCQ anything less than gold was going to be failure so even a last 4 or last 2 loss wouldn't be enough.
Same with team, play Korea in qtr finals or Semis, I personally don't see the difference?
As good as it all was there was only 1 surprise (that I can remember) and that was Truls beating WCQ so convincing.
I think everything worked out to form, Gold Silver and Bronze to the correct teams/people.

Yes, one has to remember, sports doesn’t always turn out “as expected”…
And anybody is just as as there and then everything else is unimportant…
If you didn’t win… you just didn’t win, maybe next time.

That’s the beaty of sports…

Cheers
L-zr

 

[dingyibvs]

Interesting video that attempts to shed some light on maybe why the CNT looked so displeased by Chen Meng winning gold.

I don't take it was 100% gospel. The channel is generally critical of China. But she does provide some details I didnt know about, like companies already having ad campaigns ready for SYS's gold and things like that.

Also mentions how a similar situation happened in badminton in the past and the fallout from that.

The video is also argues that the vast majority of medals that China is winning isnt due to homegrown interest in the actual sports, but mostly due to state sponsored geopolitical strategy. This results in a degradation of popular sports culutre in general. I'll let you guys decide whether that's a worthwhile criticism.

For balance reasons, I'd like someone to find good counterarguments to these claims argued in as coherent a way as this lady.

Looking so displeased, like these?

They do look pretty stern after a gold medal win, that must mean they really didn't like Chen Meng winning the match. Oh wait...those are screenshots after FZD's win over Moregard.

Here are some arguments against what she said. First, the facts. The CNT has a lot of stern faces in it. This is after ML's victory over FZD in Tokyo:

No coaches came down to congratulate either guy then either. This is standard practice for the CNT, not something against CM. Second, SYS has more fans than CM in China, that's a very well known fact. It's not surprising that a lot of them are disappointed that she didn't win, it's not a state directed conspiracy. It's also no secret that China uses sports as a political tool, and strategically focuses on niche sports to boost gold medal count. But that doesn't really have anything to do with CM, now does it? The athletes are incentivized to win with millions of yuan of potential rewards? Isn't that the hope of most athletes? That's better than athletes supporting their dreams with OnlyFans accounts, no?

Olympians are turning to OnlyFans to fund dreams as they face a 'broken' finance system

Dire financial straits are leading droves of Olympic athletes to sell images of their bodies to subscribers on OnlyFans — known for sexually explicit content — to sustain their dreams of gold at the Games.

apnews.com

Next, the logic. If the Chinese government really wanted SYS to win, they could've just told CM to lose on purpose. If they felt CM wouldn't listen, they could've put WMY in. There are so many ways to make it happen.

Third, the channel. That channel isn't "generally critical of China", it's exceptionally consistently critical of China. That's no surprise as it's a Falungong sponsored channel, like China Uncensored or The Epoch Times. I suggest you not to pay any attention to their drivel.

 

[Sageofchess]

WMY,SYS,CM. Damn lineup of those three would have a 50/50 chance of even beating Ma long WCQ and FZD

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

Sounds like one of those "CCP bad" propaganda videos that keep telling us China is going to sh#t.

I guess we'll never know because the link you posted doesn't work.

Let me just say this, and I won't mention anything about politics. This was my honest reaction after the WS gold medal match and nothing to do with the video. I have watched every Olympic gold medal table tennis match starting with Deng Yaping and have never seen a reaction from the CNT and Chinese crowd like what transpired in WS in Paris. The atmosphere was if someone just died. No polite applause. No smiles... not even fake ones. Nothing but sad faces. I mentioned this before, but the chanting of SYS's name during CM's solo photoshoot was just plain rude. And flipping off CM (which I did see in the posted video) is over the top. I mean come on.... this is a compatriot of yours that just won BACK TO BACK GOLD MEDALS. Only highly venerated Deng Yaping and Zhang Yining have done that. At least respect the historical significance of that. This makes me respect CM even more seeing what she has to put up with.

 

[pongfugrasshopper]

WMY,SYS,CM. Damn lineup of those three would have a 50/50 chance of even beating Ma long WCQ and FZD

Nah... If Nikhil Kumar can beat SYS, the CNT women have no chance against ML, WCQ, and FZD.