Tokyo 2020(1) Fantasy Olympics

@markr,

markr wrote:

Were you using data from Gracenote that was newer than April? I never found anything newer than that. That's why I didn't use them as the "expert." Well, that and the fact that they never posted a complete set of data. They only showed the top 30.

Nothing newer. I only used their April top 30 that was linked in this thread.

They did mention that they expected Hong Kong to win five medals, which was more than the budget gave them credit for. So I included Hong Kong even though it wasn't on their top 30.

Now that I'm thinking of it, I had 12.5 credits left after applying all the countries Gracenote expected to exceed the budget performance, so I also picked Slovenia on my own too.

I didn't put any thought into picking Slovenia. I needed to spend 12 credits and they were worth 12 credits.

I did put a little thought into picking Tunisia for my last .5 credit because I didn't know of any other way to rank the .5 countries than to do it myself. I looked at the teams that every .5 country was sending, and Tunisia's team seemed the most robust.

1 Reply

@oralloy,

Tunisia turned out to be a really good pick. 8 points for half a buck.

0 Replies

The race is tightening!

Code:

2021 Standings			

1	tgordon92	569	911.50

2	markr		557	911.00

3	wheel158	555	911.50

4	McGentrix	548	911.00

5	George		528	909.00

6	Ecartmill	518	911.50

7	Ticomaya	517	911.50

8	Skin Rip	514	910.00

9	fbaezer		502	911.50

10	lmur		478	911.50

11	ehBeth		464	907.00

12	Oralloy		464	911.50

1 Reply

@markr,

Go USA! Probably a bad pick, but it makes watching more fun (for me).

0 Replies

And the lead has widened slightly...

Day 10

Code:

2021 Standings			

1	tgordon92	635	911.50

2	wheel158	616	911.50

3	markr		610	911.00

4	McGentrix	600	911.00

5	George		585	909.00

6	Ecartmill	581	911.50

7	Skin Rip	577	910.00

8	fbaezer		573	911.50

9	Ticomaya	558	911.50

10	lmur		544	911.50

11	ehBeth		525	907.00

12	Oralloy		512	911.50

0 Replies

Shh.
I'm sneaking up on McG.
Be vewy vewy quiet.

1 Reply

My picks are not doing very well, so far.

This is how I made my choice:
First, snub the USA. Cazeneuve before, AP and everyone now, they always overestimate the US because the market wants sweet news.
Second, pick Japan. Hosts are always underestimated.
Third, pick Australia. The best country in sports.
Pick China, on the thought they kept on training while others were in confinement.
Then, go for the other underestimated teams, IMHO. Ecuador was the easiest one, they had a cinch gold in weightlifting. Italy was another obvious choice, in my opinion, but they are lacking enough golds.
And then, fill-ins to make the budget, and here is where I have been very weak, so far: Kenya, Ukraine (ugh) and Germany have so far let me down. So has Malaysia.

0 Replies

@George,

Quote:

Shh.
I'm sneaking up on McG.
Be vewy vewy quiet.

I think he, and everybody else, heard you.

2 Replies

Things have gotten much more interesting. Only 10 points separate first from fourth.

Day 11

Code:

2021 Standings			

1	tgordon92	686	911.50

2	markr		683	911.00

3	McGentrix	681	911.00

4	wheel158	676	911.50

5	Skin Rip	655	910.00

6	Ecartmill	645	911.50

7	fbaezer		636	911.50

8	George		630	909.00

9	lmur		619	911.50

10	Ticomaya	607	911.50

11	ehBeth		604	907.00

12	Oralloy		587	911.50

0 Replies

This was a great race:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/olympics/best-race-in-olympic-history-inside-the-record-breaking-duel-between-rai-benjamin-and-karsten-warholm/ar-AAMRKHT?ocid=msedgntp

1 Reply

@wheel158,

Yes it was. On NBC, one of the track announcers mentioned something along the lines that there's pressure on the Italian-based track surface company to provide a springy (or something like that) track for fast times in the Olympics.

That, and these excerpts from the article:

Quote:

Until the beginning of last month, the world record was 46.78 seconds. It was set by Kevin Young in 1992 - before Benjamin and Warholm, both 25, were born. The top three finishers all bested it Tuesday.

And it wasn't just the medalists. Six of the eight men in the race set new national records for their respective nations. The times recorded by fourth- and fifth-place finishers - Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands and Abderrahman Samba of Qatar - would have been good enough to win gold medals at any of the past five Olympic Games.

"It's just crazy that we're all good at the same time," Benjamin said.

make me wonder if it's not really as "crazy" as Benjamin suggested.

1 Reply

@markr,

Interesting take on the track surface. I didn't realize it was any different than the track from 2016. It does make you wonder about the WR.

However, there's no disputing that 400 m Hurdles event was fast. Especially if you compare their times to the regular 400 m race.

The times from Warholm and Benjamin were so fast that they would have been competitive even in the regular 400-meter field. Forty-eight men entered the 400 at the Tokyo Olympics, and Warholm ran faster than 18 of them Tuesday, while also jumping over 10 hurdles. Benjamin ran faster than 14.

1 Reply

@wheel158,

I don't know that it is different - just pointing out that they intentionally make it fast - but since technology improves with time, maybe it is faster.

On a related note, I recall someone on NBC also commenting about some new technology in shoes (not sure which sport).

1 Reply

@markr,

Here's just the beginning of an article on the shoe topic.

Quote:

New 'super-shoes' are allowing athletes at the Tokyo Olympics to smash world records thanks to their carbon-fibre plates and air pod 'mattresses'.

Sports chiefs were already facing huge pressure to ban high-tech footwear before the delayed games even began.

And now the controversial issue – which has been brewing for years – has been thrust into the limelight once again, with all eyes on Nike’s Air Zoom Maxfly.

Norway's 400m hurdles gold medal winner Karsten Warholm today launched a rant against Nike's 'bull****' spike technology after winning one of the 'greatest Olympic races of all time'.

He obliterated his own world record to claim gold while wearing the £170 ($236) Puma EvoSpeed Future Faster+ spikes, designed with the Mercedes F1 team.

But Rai Benjamin from the US, wearing the £165 ($229) Nike Maxfly spikes, came in a very close second ,and also beat the previous world record of 46.70 seconds set by Warholm in Oslo last year.

The new generation of high-tech running shoes – branded a technological arms race between footwear giants – have been created to boost performance, further enhanced by specially designed running tracks.

Expert say this means current speeds achieved by modern athletes can't be compared to those of the past due to the boost the technology provides.

This came from:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9857017/Rise-athletics-super-shoe-Carbon-fibre-plates-air-pods-boost-speed.html

0 Replies

Wikipedia seems to be slow to update. I've modified the spreadsheet to pull scores from the official site - the website was already getting data from there.

1 Reply

@markr,

Well - that didn't work out, so back to wikipedia.

1 Reply

@markr,

markr wrote:

Quote:
Shh.
I'm sneaking up on McG.
Be vewy vewy quiet.
I think he, and everybody else, heard you.

Curses! Foiled again!

0 Replies

@markr,

You're missing a gold medal for Georgia. Their weightlifter demolished the world record today and won by 47kg, so perhaps that broke your data scraping!

Quote:

@markr,
Well - that didn't work out, so back to wikipedia.

1 Reply

@tgordon92,

Looks OK to me; perhaps there was a delay? On the spreadsheet for Georgia, I see:

2 Gold
4 Silver
1 Bronze

I see the same tally on https://www.nbcolympics.com/medals

1 Reply

You pulled ahead with a big lead! I need as many points from USA and India as I can get; otherwise, I'm toast.

1 Reply

Tokyo 2020(1) Fantasy Olympics

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