It seems to me that the coverage has been more evenly distributed than at some other events (meaning that they’ve given more equal time to all the riders rather than just focusing on the big names). Anyone else feel that way? I thought it was refreshing.
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Whoa! That was unexpected.
I really can’t believe how many horses activated that pin. I almost wonder if it was set to break too easily. I think they should be able to tap a fence without breaking the pin, but it seemed to break even if they hit it pretty lightly.
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They’ve been doing that at Badminton & other 5*'s for years.
I think they had one of those at the last Kentucky 5*? Not sure.
Agreed !!!
I love the voice of Jon Kyle. He is so good at this. He pronounces all the names as if he had been doing it his whole life.
Has anyone else noticed how everything is written in English? even the gymnasts jackets.
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What a show that was! I think they will be taking a good hard look at that one fence and all the 11 penalties. Some people hit is and it was shaking but didn’t drop then the next rider comes out and it drops.
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60 XC starters, 49 finishers. Seems like the course probably delivered what the organizers hoped. Time seemed much more attainable than originally thought. A handful of ugly moments, but overall, a good day of sport (my opinion). Will be interesting to see if they do anything about all those activations of the pin at 14 - I am thinking not because it didn’t happen nearly as often as the day progressed. Can’t believe it got Jung.
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I feel very badly for the Yoshi, of the Japanese team, who popped off when he seemed to be going so well. He has worked so hard at this for so many years and to have the Olympics in his own country must have been a dream come true. And the pop-off was so trivial in nature, just something that can happen. Just feels like that wasn’t supposed to happen, somehow.
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Other than Robin Godel, I didn’t see anything that looked terrible. Other than Godel about which I currently know nothing, there were a few rider falls but nothing serious, and no horses fell. We have to find out about Robin and his horse, of course.
The jumps & combos that gave the most problems were forgiving. More harm to pride than anything else…
So impressed with the Chinese and Japanese teams. Look forward to seeing even more of those riders at future 5*'s.
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Other than whatever happened with JetSet, the ugly moments I was referring to were the couple of horses that seemed to struggle toward the end of the course - as well as a couple that got hung up on obstacles.
Don’t know what the Brits did to ensure fitness, but it sure worked - maybe it was galloping in the nexk rugs. Just think - their reigning world champ is in the barn as the reserve, and they have no need of her. Thinking Chris Bartle may be the secret to international success…
Surprise of the day for me - the Chinese team finishing all their riders.
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The first Thai horse fell at the water jump.
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Ugh. My stream cut out at rider 32 and the nbcolympics.com link is going to prime time coverage. Gah…
Just my opinion, but that visual was not particularly ugly as the fall was somewhat slow, and the horse got right up and walked away under his own power. Hopefully he was not injured.
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I actually disliked it. I hated how much they showed after the finish line when other horses were on course. I felt like a lot of the big names got very little coverage. I only saw a handful on Michael Jungs course , despite being in the lead, and instead got tim price trotting into the cool off area for 30 seconds.
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The BBC had Nick Luck and Ian Stark commentating. Apparently comments were heard about the course not being that demanding. Stark thought it was (sadly) to err on the side of safety, like dumbing it down.
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I was very disappointed with the lack of time the US riders got. Proud of our team though!!!
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This is pretty interesting, especially the verbage;
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The Camera work seems really great! I feel like I am right in the action and I love love loveee seeing the cameras move with the riders as they gallop!
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Agreed - lots of shots of just galloping between fences. I can’t remember which horse it was, but he had a refusal and circled back and was about to retake it and they cut to another shot. I was like - but I wanted to see him make it! It seemed like they hardly showed Boyd.
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Found a leaderboard …
Look to the far right to see link buttons to scores, once scores are available.
Link here to XC
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Jet Set was euthanized.
I cannot stand commentary from Lucinda Green. It was absolutely cringeworthy during (non eventing) dressage. Not quite as bad for XC, but still.
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