The Spirit of the Olympic Games?

[Unkotare]

Athletes from at least 7 different countries have been robbed while attending the games in Rio so far. The head of security for the opening event was robbed at knife-point while leaving that night. Dozens of tourists and other visitors have been robbed, beaten, and threatened. Just this morning, swimmers and divers were kept out of the pools for practice because of some slime and foul odor on the water (this in an indoor pool, mind you, not a pond or the ocean). Oh, the pageantry!

 

[Auld Phart]

Need A lot more cops


And these are just the street kids

 

[bodecea]

We just had a kook bomb the venue.

 

[Abishai100]

Dialogic Dozen


Investing in public sports arenas such as Wembley Stadium reveals how much we appreciate the idea of competitive athletics being used as a symbol of political co-existence.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Ya mean dey gotta pay taxes on dey's medals???...

Olympic champions will owe taxes on their medals, bonuses
Aug 10, 2016 - When Americans win at the Olympic Games, we all win. But some of us win a little more than others.

This is your periodic reminder that the Olympic medals, and the bonuses that the athletes win for snaring a gold, silver or bronze, continue to be taxed as income. You probably already know that prizes, such as lottery, casino or game show winnings, are taxable. Medals and prize bonuses fall under that same umbrella, even if winning an Olympic medal requires a bit more effort than, say, scratching off a card. In addition to a priceless memento, U.S. athletes also win bonuses of $25,000 for a gold-medal performance, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. All of that is taxable.

If there’s good news to this, it’s that the medals’ actual monetary value, the basis on which they are taxed, is surprisingly cheap. Forbes pegs the value of a gold medal at about $564, give or take depending on the price of gold. (A completely gold medal, rather than a gold-plated one, would be about $22,000.) Silver medals are worth about $305, while bronze medals, with their mixture of copper and zinc, possess “little intrinsic value.” Any athlete with a halfway decent accountant ought to be able to offset at least a portion of potential tax with expenses racked up for training and traveling, provided the athlete is treating their sport as a profession.

The idea of taxing Olympians strikes some as a bit unsavory, or at least seems an opportunity to score some easy political points. Sen. Marco Rubio proposed a bill in 2012 to exempt Olympians from the tax, saying at the time, “We can all agree that these Olympians who dedicate their lives to athletic excellence should not be punished when they achieve it.” That bill failed to pass, but another awaits action in the House of Representatives after passing the Senate, and President Obama has said he is in favor of an exemption.

Olympic champions will owe taxes on their medals, bonuses

Granny says somebody needs to call the pool man...

Olympic officials try to clean green-tinged diving pool
August 12, 2016 — Olympic divers planning to practice Friday arrived to a closed pool as officials took more time to clean the green-tinged water before holding the first individual event of the Rio Games.

The water suddenly changed color Tuesday, midway through the synchronized diving events. Officials insisted the water was safe for competing, even after a larger, adjacent pool used for water polo and synchronized swimming also turned a lighter shade of green. The diving well was shut down when athletes arrived for morning warmups, though it did finally open at 1 p.m. local time — just 2 1/2 hours before the start of the women's 3-meter event. The water color appeared to be closer to normal but was still shaded green. American diver Abby Johnston, who is competing on the springboard, said she showed up for her warmup, only to learn the pool was shut down without any notice. She wrote on Twitter that "#FixTheSwamp" should start trending. British diver Tom Daley, who won bronze in the synchro platform event, also commented on the state of the pool in a Twitter post. "Hopefully that means we haven't been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days!" Daley said.

Mario Andrada, chief spokesman for the local organizing committee, stressed that the pool was safe for competition, clearing the way for the 3-meter preliminaries. He conceded that some athletes were bothered by the water, but said that was a result of efforts to clean the pool. "We reiterate what we have been saying all along — the water does not offer any threat to the health of the athletes," he said. "In the first day of this water situation, one or two athletes complained about their eyes being itchy. This was a result that the first reaction when we saw the water turning green was to use one of the chemicals — chlorine — that is very common in swimming pools. We reduced immediately the quantity. We retested the water and it was totally within the parameters."

Simon Langford, chief spokesman for the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, said the pool was closed to allow additional cleaning. He said the decision was supported by world governing body FINA. "The reason is that the water must be still so the pool can return to its blue color as soon as possible," Langford said in a statement. Andrada said officials were caught off guard by the pool's deteriorating condition. "Chemistry is not an exact science," he said. "Some things, as you can see, went longer than expected."

Rain the past couple of days made it even tougher to get the water color back to normal. "The rain doesn't help," Andrada said. He added that athletes had access to dry-land training in the morning, but conceded that "was not ideal." He explained that the changing color of the pool was the result of increased alkaline levels, much like aquarium water can turn green when not monitored properly. "When we went to fix the green, there was a discussion about the best chemicals. We can't use too much chemicals in the water because athletes are training in it," Andrada said. "We certainly could have done better in the beginning to prevent the water from turning green. Once it turned green, we again made another bit of a mistake."

Olympic officials try to clean green-tinged diving pool

 

[waltky]

USA wins 1,000th Olympic gold medal...

United States wins 1,000th Olympic gold medal
Sun Aug 14, 2016 - The United States won its 1,000th Olympic gold medal on Saturday when the American women's 4x100 meter medley relay team clinched victory at the Rio Games.

The honor of reaching the milestone was shared by Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel, who got to the wall first ahead of Australia. "One thousand gold medals is a remarkable achievement made possible by the culture of sport that is the fabric and foundation of Team USA," United States Olympic Committee (USOC) head Scott Blackmun said. Of the 1,000 gold medals, more than half have come from track and field (323) and swimming (246), USOC added. The U.S. team had arrived in Rio with 977 gold medals, according to Olympstats.com, and had sat on 998 for much of Saturday until long jumper Jeff Henderson put them on the brink with his victory.

2016 Rio Olympics - Swimming - Victory Ceremony - Women's 100m Medley Relay Victory Ceremony - Olympic Aquatics Stadium - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil​

Sprinter Tori Bowie nearly took the U.S. over the top in the 100 meters but she was finished second behind Jamaica's Elaine Thompson, leaving it up to the swimmers to complete the feat. "It really makes me think about all the generations of Olympic teams and athletes I watched and the inspiration that I have had," Vollmer said. "We're here getting that 1,000th medal for the U.S. and it seems absolutely incredible. "We've had an amazing Games and so many people getting their hand to the wall one after another we've fed off that and this is a great way to end."

If the U.S. women had not captured the landmark medal, Michael Phelps and the men's 4x100 medley relay squad would have done so, the quartet winning gold in the next event in the pool, which was also the final race on the Rio swimming program. Manuel might have also had a chance to grab the 1,000th earlier in the 50 freestyle but finished 0.02 seconds behind Denmark's Pernille Blume. "It's really special that I could do it with the relay is amazing, just sharing it with three other women is icing on top of the cake," said Manuel. "I mean 1,000 gold for the USA is a nice number."

United States wins 1,000th Olympic gold medal

 

[Auld Phart]

Granny says, "Ya mean dey gotta pay taxes on dey's medals???...

Olympic champions will owe taxes on their medals, bonuses
Aug 10, 2016 - When Americans win at the Olympic Games, we all win. But some of us win a little more than others.

This is your periodic reminder that the Olympic medals, and the bonuses that the athletes win for snaring a gold, silver or bronze, continue to be taxed as income. You probably already know that prizes, such as lottery, casino or game show winnings, are taxable. Medals and prize bonuses fall under that same umbrella, even if winning an Olympic medal requires a bit more effort than, say, scratching off a card. In addition to a priceless memento, U.S. athletes also win bonuses of $25,000 for a gold-medal performance, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. All of that is taxable.

If there’s good news to this, it’s that the medals’ actual monetary value, the basis on which they are taxed, is surprisingly cheap. Forbes pegs the value of a gold medal at about $564, give or take depending on the price of gold. (A completely gold medal, rather than a gold-plated one, would be about $22,000.) Silver medals are worth about $305, while bronze medals, with their mixture of copper and zinc, possess “little intrinsic value.” Any athlete with a halfway decent accountant ought to be able to offset at least a portion of potential tax with expenses racked up for training and traveling, provided the athlete is treating their sport as a profession.

The idea of taxing Olympians strikes some as a bit unsavory, or at least seems an opportunity to score some easy political points. Sen. Marco Rubio proposed a bill in 2012 to exempt Olympians from the tax, saying at the time, “We can all agree that these Olympians who dedicate their lives to athletic excellence should not be punished when they achieve it.” That bill failed to pass, but another awaits action in the House of Representatives after passing the Senate, and President Obama has said he is in favor of an exemption.

Olympic champions will owe taxes on their medals, bonuses

Granny says somebody needs to call the pool man...

Olympic officials try to clean green-tinged diving pool
August 12, 2016 — Olympic divers planning to practice Friday arrived to a closed pool as officials took more time to clean the green-tinged water before holding the first individual event of the Rio Games.

The water suddenly changed color Tuesday, midway through the synchronized diving events. Officials insisted the water was safe for competing, even after a larger, adjacent pool used for water polo and synchronized swimming also turned a lighter shade of green. The diving well was shut down when athletes arrived for morning warmups, though it did finally open at 1 p.m. local time — just 2 1/2 hours before the start of the women's 3-meter event. The water color appeared to be closer to normal but was still shaded green. American diver Abby Johnston, who is competing on the springboard, said she showed up for her warmup, only to learn the pool was shut down without any notice. She wrote on Twitter that "#FixTheSwamp" should start trending. British diver Tom Daley, who won bronze in the synchro platform event, also commented on the state of the pool in a Twitter post. "Hopefully that means we haven't been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days!" Daley said.

Mario Andrada, chief spokesman for the local organizing committee, stressed that the pool was safe for competition, clearing the way for the 3-meter preliminaries. He conceded that some athletes were bothered by the water, but said that was a result of efforts to clean the pool. "We reiterate what we have been saying all along — the water does not offer any threat to the health of the athletes," he said. "In the first day of this water situation, one or two athletes complained about their eyes being itchy. This was a result that the first reaction when we saw the water turning green was to use one of the chemicals — chlorine — that is very common in swimming pools. We reduced immediately the quantity. We retested the water and it was totally within the parameters."

Simon Langford, chief spokesman for the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, said the pool was closed to allow additional cleaning. He said the decision was supported by world governing body FINA. "The reason is that the water must be still so the pool can return to its blue color as soon as possible," Langford said in a statement. Andrada said officials were caught off guard by the pool's deteriorating condition. "Chemistry is not an exact science," he said. "Some things, as you can see, went longer than expected."

Rain the past couple of days made it even tougher to get the water color back to normal. "The rain doesn't help," Andrada said. He added that athletes had access to dry-land training in the morning, but conceded that "was not ideal." He explained that the changing color of the pool was the result of increased alkaline levels, much like aquarium water can turn green when not monitored properly. "When we went to fix the green, there was a discussion about the best chemicals. We can't use too much chemicals in the water because athletes are training in it," Andrada said. "We certainly could have done better in the beginning to prevent the water from turning green. Once it turned green, we again made another bit of a mistake."

Olympic officials try to clean green-tinged diving pool

Olympic officials try to clean green-tinged diving pool

 

[Ridgerunner]

It takes years for these Cities and Countries to pay for these ugly ass facilities that are used for a couple of weeks and then set empty 99% of the time. These Governments that are begging for the games to be held in their cities get rich off of graft and corruption. It is all bullshit in the name of something that at one time may have been honorable.
When I am in charge there will be a permanent boycott against the Olympics until Permanent Facilities are built and maintained... Pick a winter and summer location and keep the games in these locals forever...

This is a post I made back when the Summer games were just beginning this year. I feel that in retrospect the post is spot on. I understand that a undertaking of this magnitude will always be plagued with technical issues and Murphy's law being broken everyday of the games.
Rio has justified my opinion that permanent locations should be chosen and eliminate the massive amounts of financial expenditures in building these facilities... Don't get me wrong there will be enhancements to the permanent facilities, but nowhere at the cost of building from scratch...

What say you?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Acrimony around 2020 Tokyo Games already starting

 

[Abishai100]

Currency Crazy

The upcoming Paralympic Games (Sept 7-18) in Rio has people talking about how the proletariat can direct social activity.


Rio Paralympics