Michigan at this summer's Rio Olympics
Earlier in the week I read that women's track runner Cindy Ofili put up the second fastest time in the 100m hurdles at a meet last week. It also mentioned she'll likely suit up for Great Britain like her sister did at the Rio Summer Olympics this year. I was curious if anyone who follows the Olympic sports closer than I do has a line on likely current or former Michigan athletes who are or are likely to make it to the Olympics this summer (USA or otherwise).
The one that immediately jumps out to me is Sam Mikulak in men's gymnastics but I heard he's recovering from an injury.
I'm pretty sure softball has not yet been reinstated to the Olympics. Too bad because we likely would have scored a few there.
Are any of the current or former swimmers in line to compete liek Tyler Clary or Connor Jaeger? I know that there are multiple current swimmers who will compete for other countries (Bosch for South Africa and Nielsen for Denmark) and a bunch of current and former swimmers are trying for the Canadian team.
Betsey Armstrong was on the womens' Water polo team last go round. Not sure if she's still competing. [EDIT: Apparently she's retired as she's not on the current US senior team roster]
I also know we've had some rowers in the past and may have heard that a former women's team member has already qualified but I'm not certain.
EDIT: Women's Rowing alum Ellen Tomek is the frontrunner to qualify in women's double sculls (that's rowing) this weekend and has represented the US in the last three world championships so UM might punch its second ticket to Rio before Monday.
I am very excited for golf to be a sport in the Olympics.
Are they letting pros compete or will it be amateurs?
Its everyone. But a handful of the men have said they aren't going to play. Louis Oosthuizen was the fourth one to announce he's not paying today. He joins Adam Schoot, Vijay Singh, and Migual Angel Jimenez in sitting this one out.
Personally, I don't know why you'd pass up a chance at it. You only get one crack at a gold medal every four years. If you have to miss a random dumb tourney to do it, so be it.
Totally agree, mate. Golf players get paid a lot of money. I'm sure they can skip a tournament or two. If it were a major tournament, then I can see not playing the Olympics, but other than those, they should play if able.
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If I were a good enough athlete where I was making bank all season long, I would gladly go to the Olympics. But then again I was a swimmer/water polo player/rower, and so the Olympics is where the glory is for those sports.
You have to figure in also most tour quality golfers are paid HUGE endorsements to show the endorser's brand on the tour and media. If they compete in Olympics, not only is time taken from the tour (events and training), but also they can't wear any of their endorser's brand. (Or worse, may have to wear a competitor, which their endorser may forbid.)
Rickie Fowler is and I'm really jazzed about that.
for a while anyway, it seems that you have consistantly negged about 90% of thread OP's, and I'm not attempting to come across as giving you a hard time about it, just curious as to your reasoning, if any?
That 90% is incredibly false.
Who cares?
He only negs 90% of the interesting threads. He doesn't bother with negworthy threads. :)
Mikulak will be fine. He's about 90-95% healthy according to him and he's one of the top gymnasts in the world. There's also this guy Michael Phelps who is pretty solid.
The crazy thing I've heard from a bunch of swimmers is that they are all expecting Phelps to be better than ever. Supposedly he really only started training hard for London 6 weeks prior to the games. For Rio he's been much more locked in and serious and has been training hard for a while.
He has been putting up some good times at the Arena Pro Series. It will be interesting to see what he decides to swim in Rio. I'm guessing that he will end up cutting one race.
for DUI and smoking pot, he finally seems to have his head on straight and is taking this thing seriously. Can you imagine that he's just now training more seriously than ever before? That is one crazy-gifted athlete.
I see him doing the 100 fly, 200 IM and maybe one more individual event (100 free, 100 back, perhaps). He will be on all three relays.
I hope there are no Michigan athletes doing any of the open water swimming after what I've read about the water there.
I think they are moving those races to a crapton of those "endless pools" swimming machines.
I don't think this is an option for any of the sailing sports.
I think a lot of those fears and concerns are overblown. I talked to a bunch of Olympians about a month or so ago and asked them about that and none of them are concerned. A lot of the ones that will be competiting in Rio have already competed in the waters there and they aren't worried about it. There hasn't been any more or less sickness due to being in the water there than anywhere else they compete.
The thing is that they all travel and compete in varying degrees of nice/poor conditions around the world and are just accustomed to it. They know how to take care of themselves when they have to compete in literal shitty water. Its not the same as if you or I took a dip in the water there.
I also think Zika concerns are overblown. The game will take place in Rio's winter so mosquitos won't be at their peak. Plus, with the world watching, they'll spray the shit out of everything. Every Olympics has some OMG its gonna be awful thing. The water and Zika appear to be Rio's.
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That's part of it and its also why its a big story. For non-athletes, bad water and scary mosquitos is something we wouldn't risk dealing with because there's no reason to. The risk/reward is way off for us.
But for every single Olympian I talked to, none of them were worried about either thing. 1) because of the years of training part, and 2) because a lot of them have already been in that water, and don't see it as being any different the water they compete in elsewhere in the world. People they compete with aren't getting sick from it, so there's no reason to be worried about it outside of the normal concerns you'd have anywhere you compete. So there really is no risk in their eyes. Rinse off good when you're done competing, clean all of your equipment good, and you'll probably be fine.
the numerous hospitalizations from training athletes down there. Reading any of the scientific reports that have come out in the last year is horrifying. The athletes will essentially be competing in raw sewage, with contamination levels more than *1 million* times greater than what most would consider acceptable, and those levels are consistent more than a mile offshore in Guanabara Bay.
Yes, the mind-set of most olympians is such that they'd walk into machine-gun fire for a chance at a gold medal, but that doesn't make the conditions any better.
Former University of Michigan men's swimmer Sean Ryan (2011-14) qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio on Monday (July 27) after he finished fourth in the open water 10K at the 2015 FINA World Championships.
LINK: http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-swim/spec-rel/072715aaa.html
Will he be allowed to swim in a full body condom with SCUBA gear?
Softball/baseball are being considered for 2020 and won't be included in 2016.
Nick Willis is qualified for his fourth Olympics, competing for New Zealand in the 1500m. He already has one silver medal and depending on health he should be in contention for another one.
I don't know if he wants to be claimed. Isn't he showing up at Arizona State games now. I know he's with his coach Bob Bowman who is now the head coach and training there. Don't know if he's taking classes there or just training but he never technically completed any of his classwork here.
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Siobhan Haughey (UM Soph to be) will be swimming for Hong Kong.
April 23rd, 2016 at 10:21 AM ^
Jackhammer Throw???????????????