Women help USA top China in Gold including 4 ND women!
by Domerduck (2021-08-08 10:56:39)
Edited on 2021-08-08 11:42:59

Team USA got 3 Golds in the last few hours of the Olympics including individual track cycling (take note NDDoggie78), 1st Gold ever for Women's VBall over Brazil, and 7th straight Gold for WBBall which include two ND players: Skylar Diggins and Jewell Loyd. That gave USA 39 over China's 38. ND contributed to 3 other Gold medals with Lee Kiefer's fencing Gold, Jackie Young's 3x3 Bball team, and one of ND's VBall bests Angie Harris Akers coaching April Ross and Alix Klineman to their 1st Beach Volleyball Gold.

Overall ND had a few non-Team USA participants but none medaled. In addition to the Golds ND also helped Team USA win the overall medal count (113 to China's 88) with ND contibuters to Men's Team foil Bronze (Meinhardt & Itkin) and women's marathon. To me Molly Seidel's Marathon Bronze behind the two Kenyans who perenially dominate these distance events was the biggest ND alumni accomplishment as she was certainly not expected to do that well. Lee Kiefer's Gold was the next, but she has been a world champion before. Still a big accomplishment since her Gold was the first Fencing Foil Gold for Team USA, an event held since 1924. With Mariel Zagunis' two sabre Golds, ND Women have accounted for every Gold that Team USA has ever won in Fencing.

As for the two Women BBall Golds, USA Basketball has dominated the world winning the last 8 Golds (7 Team + the only 3x3 event so far) so the biggest accomplishment there for the ND players was being named to Team USA. The last time that happened for an ND woman was Ruth Riley winning Gold in 2004 in Athens. It hasn't happened for an ND man since Adrian Dantley was on Team USA winning Gold in 1976.

Congrats to all these ND medalists and also to all that represented their country at these games. It was fun to watch them all perform or qualifyin these OLympics in the sports they excel in. Yared Nuguse's accomplishment qualifying for the 1500m still is great despite getting injured last minute so he couldn't compete. Great representation for the University and proud of them all. Hopefully it inspires more ND contributors 3 years from now in Paris.


Desirability and Performance Indices
by SixShutouts66  (2021-08-11 14:39:16)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

if you'll live with terms I may have invented, count.

The count for overall medals obviously matters, but most countries have a set of medals they really care about and evaluate their results in those events more highly. I don't mean to downgrade our athletes who participate in sports like badminton, table tennis, archery and others; but a victory in the 100 meter dash is a bigger deal than a medal in what most Americans consider minor niche sports. For me how well we did in T&F, swimming, and most team sports and the medal counts in these sports define our success.

The second, related measure is how well we performed in the Olympics relative to expectations. For instance, our talent level going into the Olympics for the men's 10K may have indicated we had little realistic chance of winning a medal; so being shut out doesn't disappoint. Whereas in some races we had legitimate chances and may not have have reached that level. In one sense we're looking at the expected medal counts in events versus the actual.

However, not all medal achievements are equal. Compare the bronzes won by Molly Seidel and the USWNT in soccer. Or consider the feel-good aspect of Mackayla Skinner's silver medal after being left out of the vault competition by rules, flying home, and returning after Simone Byles' withdrawal. Or consider the silver won by Rai Benjamin in 400 meter hurdles when he broke the world record and finished second in an epic race.


Medal counting to the max- count every medal in team sport
by NDoggie78  (2021-08-17 17:15:10)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Currently, team sport counts as 1 medal, if you counted all players on the team that received a medal, I would guess we would increase our lead

Basketball
Volleyball
Water polo
Baseball
Soccer
Gymnastics
Fencing
Swimming and track relays (do athletes who help in qualifying get a medal too?)

Other countries would have
team handball
field hockey
synchronized swimming
doubles in ping pong and badminton would be 2
etc


I stayed up to 3:00am watching womens volleyball
by NDoggie78  (2021-08-08 20:14:26)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

And they showed end of the bike gold. I actually watched that race today - crazy sport.

Anyway, I am taking credit for the reverse jinx (we also won a canoeing gold) that gave us the total medal lead.

Still would like to see the USA to do better in those sports


I did too. The omnium was ridiculous
by Radi-skull  (2021-08-09 17:31:12)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

It also pisses me off that in the final event, last 40 laps or so it looked like the dutch rider took out the 2nd place Japan on purpose

Similar thing had also happened to the American Velente


If you had to assign points to gold, silver, and bronze,
by G.K.Chesterton  (2021-08-08 17:28:41)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

which system would you come up with? I realize that for many, it's only about the golds, but silver and bronze should mean something as well. I just wondered if anyone had ever come up with an agreed-upon point system. What about one of these formulas?

Gold - 10
Silver - 5
Bronze - 2

OR

Gold - 10
Silver - 4
Bronze - 1

Back to your point. It's a great look for ND and the Paris Olympics are only three years away, so maybe many of these same ND athletes will be back (I doubt it for the med school fencers). I am hoping maybe Nuguse can try again and that other ND athletes will be ready to in three years for the Olympic trials.


I always did reverse points, 3,2,1 Gold, Silver, Bronze
by Radi-skull  (2021-08-08 20:04:32)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

I agreed with myself that it worked.


Run that proposal by Molly *
by nd67  (2021-08-08 19:27:11)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post


I am bending over backwards to accomodate those who
by G.K.Chesterton  (2021-08-08 23:02:04)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

feel that gold medal count is the most important count.


I would go with 3:2:1 or 4:2:1
by fortune_smith  (2021-08-08 23:47:26)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Your first proposal is equal to 4:2:0.8, so pretty close to the second one above.


Agree, often times the dif is tenths of sec
by nd67  (2021-08-08 23:30:28)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

between gold and bronze.