2016 Olympics thread!

Oleksiak is a beast. An Olympic record [HTML_REMOVED] her 4th medal. Making us proud.

The women's team, sure. But many people were actually pretty confident that the men would qualify this year until they blew it and lost to the Cubans in Edmonton. Sure, having to go to the last chance qualifier in Japan was nerve wracking but if you look at it, there are four NORCECA countries currently in Rio and Canada is ranked ahead of both Cuba and Mexico and just beat the #5 ranked Americans. If they hadn't have qualified for Rio it would have been a huge disappointment.

Part of the success goes to Glenn, for those who don't know he has been around since the dawn of time. Took a risk and changed up some of the team this year.

What most don't realize when they watched the men's team, is how many of the players spend half the year in Europe with pro teams in various countries. As my wife said, it is highly competitive over there.

Oleksiak is a beast. An Olympic record [HTML_REMOVED] her 4th medal. Making us proud.

Keep in mind she is only 16 and only just graduated grade 10 last June.

It is well known that Canada's world ranking is not representative of how dangerous our team is. This was evident when the USA stumbled and our guys took it to them. They are not there to be tourists.

As my wife put it best….USA came out doing chest bumps, high fives, and so on. Canada walked out and played. As she commented…USA had everything to lose, Canada had nothing.

And don't forget, some countries treat sport like volleyball as serious business. Joely when she played on the national team in the late 80's to early 90's told me of the training facilities down there. Concrete floors those kids would train on for example.

The crazy stuff the gymnasts do is mind blowing. Incredible athleticism. The raw power, and how they control it, is a wonder to behold.

unfortunately, the sport just destroys their bodies.

For golf types….golf is back in the Olympics. And Ray Whitney the ex NHLer is the caddy for Graham DeLaet .

Believe it or not, Canada won the last gold medal in Olympic men's golf. George Lyon is the reigning champ.

BTW, pls tell Joely that Dan says hi. I met her at the CCAA national championship in Quebec two years ago. My daughter was setting for GP.

Joely says hi.

Joely says hi.

Cool. From the short time I talked to her I got the impression that she is a very good coach. My youngest daughter thought so too. She would have played for her in a heartbeat. In the end she didn't want to move that far away from home. She is staying pretty close to PG and going to Thompson Rivers.

unfortunately, the sport just destroys their bodies.

From accidents? Or the exercises they do?

Brazilian female gymnast is 16 and only 69 pounds.

From the intensity and type of training at such a young age. It's crazy what competitive kids are doing. My daughters, as many girls do, go to recreational gymnastics, and there are often competitive kids practising at the same time. I can barely stand to watch some of the ways that they bend and stretch themselves.

It's an ongoing debate, with no clear cause and effect evidence, but negative effects are claimed to be body deformation, stunted growth, delayed puberty, stuff like that.

Upset of the day … Sweden eliminates US in women's soccer!

unfortunately, the sport just destroys their bodies.

This is true of many, many athletes - male and female - who reach the elite level of sports. Are you suggesting that there is something wrong with "girls" who sacrifice and push the limits in the pursuit of excellence?

You could make an even more compelling statement that many popular sports do even more damage by destroying the athlete's minds (football, hockey, boxing, MMA, pro wrestling etc) along with their bodies.

This is true of many, many athletes - male and female - who reach the elite level of sports. Are you suggesting that there is something wrong with "girls" who sacrifice and push the limits in the pursuit of excellence?

You could make an even more compelling statement that many popular sports do even more damage by destroying the athlete's minds (football, hockey, boxing, MMA, pro wrestling etc) along with their bodies.

It's not about male/female. As PaulB mentioned above, I believe the current theory is that the combination of training intensity and duration (often starting at age 4 or 5) wreaks havoc on the bodies "normal" development. Most other sports and Athletes don't begin training with the consistency and intensity of Olympic gymnasts until after they have either started or sometimes even finished puberty.

I know here in Canada we take our hockey seriously and the kids start playing really young - but their not "training" the way gymnasts apparently are.