Tag: Tokyo 2020

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Sport spotlight – women’s road cycling

For some reason, women’s cycling is treated differently then men’s cycling. A marathon is a marathon, right? An Ironman Triathlon doesn’t have different rules for women. Unfortunately, for reasons that I don’t fully understand, women’s road cycling has different courses than the men – usually shorter with less climbing.

The Tokyo 2020 course for women is 137 kilometers with 2692 meters in climbing compared to the men’s course of 234 kilometers and 4865 meters. Here’s a great article describing the controversy and a side by side comparison for that article.

source – https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/olympics/riders-resound-womens-olympic-road-race-route-not-signal-equality-390119

The full route doesn’t have as much climbing as the men’s race which can eliminate some of the differentiation between riders and make the run in to the finish very hard.

source – https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/sport/olympic/road-cycling/road-detail/

The US women’s team has four riders able to participate in the road event.

No countries have five on their roster, and the teams with four are:

Australia

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

USA

The breakdown from other countries can be found here. 

As the countries make their team selections, more will be posted.

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Purdue athlete Annie Drews, with a Japan twist

I just highlighted volleyball for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. One of the Purdue athletes being highlighted by the university is Annie Drews. She is a member of Team USA in volleyball, a Mishawaka Penn graduate (not to be confused with Adam Driver’s Mishawaka High School), and a Purdue graduate.

Life in Japan for the Olympics won’t be hard for her as she was the Japan V-League championship game MVP playing for the JT Marvelous team. おめでとうございます!

I had never heard of JT Marvelous … but it sure sounds Japanese. It seems JT Marvelous is in Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan and the JT stand for Japan Tobacco Ltd. Why not light up after a match? Go JT Marvelous.

Nishinomiya is the home of the  Koshien Stadium (use this link for the official website of the stadium), used by the Hanshin Tigers and also the home of the two annual high school baseball tournaments. When I lived in Japan I would watch the high school tournament on TV when I could, and would always get teary-eyed at the end of a game watching all these kids who gave it their all trying so hard not to cry but more often than not sobbing heavily.

I dare you to watch this video and not get tears in your eyes.

I guess I’ve been through Nishinomiya as it is between Kobe and Osaka, but I didn’t pay attention.

Sorry Annie Drews for making a post about you turn into a walk down memory lane in Japan. But that’s why I’m blogging, making these discoveries and sharing them.

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Sports spotlight – volleyball

Some of the matchups for some of the events are starting to come out. When we bought tickets, we chose events like “Volleyball – Men’s Preliminary Round (2 matches).” There was no guarantee what teams we would see, or if the matches would even be close. Our tickets for volleyball are on July 31, from 9:00 am to 12:50 pm. Early morning for sure. The other day the volleyball schedule came out. What’s happening in the morning of July 31?

Looking at the official schedule …

source – https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/schedule/olympic/

Looking specifically at volleyball,

Source – https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/schedule/olympic/20200731_VVO.html

We get to see two North American teams versus two South American teams, and we get to see the US play against Brazil.

The top ten in the world rankings in men’s volleyball show Brazil as number one, the US as number 3, and Canada as number 10. It should be an excellent match between the US and Brazil and could be a preview of the finals.

Source – https://www.fivb.com/en/volleyball/rankings/seniorworldrankingmen

 

Source – https://www.volleyball.world/en/volleyball/olympics/2020/competition/formula

For the Olympics, in both men’s and women’s volleyball, there are only twelve teams competing. They are divided in two pools, each with six teams. The top four teams of each pool then advance to the quarterfinals. Interestingly, only four out of twelve teams do not advance to the single elimination tournament.  The way the semi-finals are arranged, the top two teams in a single group could meet again in the semifinals.

Source – https://www.volleyball.world/en/volleyball/olympics/2020/competition/formula
source – https://www.volleyball.world/en/volleyball/olympics/2020/competition/formula

The pools are ordered by number of victories, then by ranking points, then by set ratio, then by points ratio. Three points are given to the match victor if they win by a 3-0 set score, or a 3-1 set score. If they win by a 3-2 set score, the winner gets two points and the loser gets one point. If there is a tie in the ranking points, the next order is set ratio, where the ratio of sets won to sets lost breaks a tie. If there is still at tie, the ratio if points won to point lost sets the order. If there is a STILL a tie, then, “the priority will be given to the team which won the last match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2 and 3 will be made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.”

Follow along with the international federation on their Tokyo 2020 website. 

Qualification for the Olympics began in August 2019, when the top 24 teams in the world participated in six intercontinental qualification tournaments in six pools across the globe. The six winners of each pool qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Games. In January of this year, five continental qualification tournaments were held, and the winner of each of those tournaments filled the twelve team qualification pool. Japan, as the host, automatically qualified.

The men’s qualification path was …

source – https://www.volleyball.world/volleyball/olympics/2020/-/media/2020/fivb-competition/olympic-games/volleyball/qualification-process/

We also have tickets to a men’s semifinal match and the men’s finals.

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Potential Purdue athletes

My connection to Purdue University runs deep, so it is exciting to me that several athletes from Purdue have a chance at participating in the Summer Games this year.

I think it is great that Robbie Hummel has a good chance to be there. His playing career in college and the pros was greatly impacted by injury and he began a career as a broadcaster. He’s good at that too. Then he started playing 3×3 basketball and was last year’s USA Men’s Basketball player of the year. How cool is that for him?

David Boudia was a diver at Purdue, and rose to fame as a 10 meter platform diver. Injuries drove him to stop 10 m platform diving and instead compete in 3 m springboard diving this year. He won the gold medal in the 2012 London Games and the bronze in the 2016 Rio Games. That’s quite an accomplishment. Oh, and he also got silver with fellow Purdue diver Steele Johnson in the 10 m synchronized diving in Rio in 2016.

Not sure why Steele was left off this list. Maybe only a few athletes are being spotlighted.

For sure I’ll follow all the athlete’s journeys as the run up to the 2020 Summer Olympics continues

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USA women’s soccer qualifies

As the reigning World Cup Champions and the dominant team right now in women’s soccer, there was little doubt that the USA women’s team would qualify. However, one of the interesting things about sport is you still have to play the games to win, and anything can happen.

What happened? The USA women scored a total 25 goals in 5 matches, compared to zero from their opponents. They beat Mexico 4 – 0 in the semifinals to officially qualify, and then beat Canada 3 – 0 in the finals to win the tournament.

Let’s hope they continue their winning ways and we get to see them in the finals in Tokyo.

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Meeting last week’s ticket challenge

Getting a low number in the queue is always the challenge when tickets first go on sale. Since tickets are limited the most desired tickets go early. Without getting too specific, we had multiple computers with multiple browsers up and running, as well as phones and tablets. Our lowest queue position was 250 and our highest was around 8000.

We were able to get tickets to the Women’s Soccer Finals. The closing ceremonies were finally available, but at a price above $2000 per ticket, we decided to pass. We do have a budget after all. Although we were interested in judo, the prices were also very high, so we decided to pass on that too. Today was successful though, as we purchased one of the few remaining events were targeting.

Note: This is a modified re-post because a strange blog setting caused my blog to roll back several edits. 
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CONCACAF Women’s Olympics Qualification

The field is set for the elimination rounds of the CONCACAF Women’s Olympics Qualification. The US won the Group A pool by going undefeated, scoring 18 goals in three matches and holding their opponents scoreless. Costa Rica finished second, losing only to the US. Canada won Group B, scoring a whooping 22 goals and also holding their opponents scoreless. Mexico finished second, losing one match.

The semifinals will be USA versus Mexico, and Canada versus Costa Rica. The winners of the semifinals will be the CONCACAF qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 games. LA folks, you can go to this tournament at the Dignity Health Sports Park (formerly StubHub Center formerly Home Depot Center) in Carson.

Ticket prices range from $25 to $250 for both semifinals matches on February 7, and then again $25 to $250 for the finals match on February 9.
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Sport spotlight – men’s cycling

People that know me know I’m a big fan of cycling. Here’s a picture of me in the Tour de France King of the Mountain jersey in 2000.

2000 California AIDS Ride, Day 4

Pretty cool, huh? Context is important though, because that is a replica jersey bought in Verdun, France in 1993 (another time living in Luxembourg …) when a stage finished there. This picture was during the 2000 AIDS Ride and I wore the jersey because it was the hilliest day.

Interestingly, in 1993 in Verdun, some brash 21 year old American in the US champion’s Stars and Stripes jersey won his first ever stage of the Tour de France. His name was Lance Armstrong. I was so excited, an avid cyclist and American with an American winning the stage. Then he had his post-race interview, and it was unpolished and rude, and I was embarrassed. From that day, I had a love/hate relationship with him.

Watch this long video with Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, and look at the lineup of dopers! There is also a bit of a Verdun history lesson as well.

Lance didn’t win the Tour that year, and he wasn’t considered a GC rider at that time, but his time would come. His post race interview with Paul was pretty calculated. Lance certainly understood cycling even early in his career as that same year he went on to win the World Championship.

We have tickets to the Men’s Road Cycling event, which ends at Fuji International Speedway (the Japanese site is much more interesting). The course takes the cyclists from Tokyo, over some mountains (Doshi Road / Yamabushi Tunnel), over the 1451 m (4760 ft) Fuji Sanroku, a pass through the speedway, a run around Lake Yamanakako, back through the speedway, then onto the very steep Mikuni Pass followed by the Kagosaka pass, before descending and returning to the speedway for the finish. Cycling is a hard sport to watch, and probably best enjoyed watching the highlights. Flag to flag coverage can get a little boring. I’m not sure what the experience will be at the Olympics, but I am hoping they have lots of big screens so we can watch how the race unfolds. Otherwise we’ll just be sitting in the hot July weather, roasting until the leader or leaders approach the finish. There’s no way though that I wouldn’t try to be there. In my fandom, I’ve ridden the 1984 Olympic course in Mission Viejo.

Note that the route to Fuji Sanroku takes you on the roads that will get you to the Yamanashi 5th Station for climbing Mt. Fuji. Here’s my adventure from that starting point back in 2009. If you are following this blog, the Mt Fuji story is definitely worth reading.

The course and the profile for Tokyo 2020 are below.

source: https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/sport/olympic/road-cycling/road-detail/

 

People unfamiliar with cycling think it is an individual sport, but really it is a team sport. Typically a rider is designated as the team leader, and all the other cyclists in some form or another protect that leader physically and tactically throughout the race. That’s why it is important for nations to have the largest number of qualifiers possible. The maximum number is five, and unfortunately the US only has two. There are a total of 130 riders in the men’s event. Here’s the complete list of rider allocation per country. It is too long to list here.

Countries with five riders are:

Belgium

Colombia

Spain

France

Italy

Netherlands

Countries with four riders are:

Australia

Denmark

Great Britain

Germany

Norway

Slovenia

Switzerland

The qualifications are based on that country’s points according to the international governing body (UC).

The US determines its team either through an automated spot through meeting certain criteria, or by a selection committee.

Although I don’t have tickets to the women’s event, I’ll cover that separately as there are differences between the men’s and women’s events, and the US women are performing much better on the world stage than the US men.

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Sport spotlight – Soccer

Soccer, or football to the rest of the world, doesn’t seem like it needs a spotlight. However, I have lots of questions including how qualification is determined and how do national federations choose who will represent their countries. We have tickets to two men’s preliminary matches, two women’s preliminary matches, and one of the women’s semi-finals.

As an interesting aside, the 1994 Men’s World Cup  was held in the US, and I was lucky enough to attend two matches at the Rose Bowl. I can remember seeing Romania versus Colombia, and the star Colombian player, Carlos Valderrama had some very crazy hair. Reading about that game again, I also now remember Gheorghe Hagi from Romania and his 35 yard goal. Then, I was able to see a semi-final match between Brazil and Sweden. I had to do some research to remember the Brazilian star was Romário, but I know the name of the Swedish goalie was Thomas Ravelli. The guy who lined up our tickets for that event might be reading this blog – thanks Harvey!

Sadly, the Columbian defender Andrés Escobar was killed after returning to Colombia, allegedly as a result of an own goal he scored against the United States.

The Men’s World Cup is coming BACK to North America in 2026. I hope I can get tickets to matches in LA in this soccer crazy town.

 

For the Olympics, men’s and women’s team are represented differently. For the men, the under 23 or below U-23 teams are allowed to participate. There are no age limits for women’s teams.

According to the Regulations for the Olympic Football Tournaments: Tokyo 2020: 

  1. The draw for the final competitions shall take place in principle at least three months prior to the opening match of the final competition.
  2. FIFA shall form groups for the final competition by seeding and drawing lots in public whilst taking sporting and geographical factors into consideration, as far as possible.

The men’s pool will consist of four Groups, with four teams each. The teams ranked first and second in each group qualify for the quarterfinals. The points scoring in each group is typical of FIFA matches with three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. The tie break criteria are defined in the FIFA Regulations for the Olympic Football Tournaments: Tokyo 2020. 

The women’s pool will only have three groups with four teams each. Like the men, the teams ranked first and second in each group qualify for the quarter finals. The remaining two places are filled by the two best third place finishers as determined by:

a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;

b) goal difference resulting from all group matches;

c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches;

d) highest team conduct score relating to the number of yellow and red cards obtained in all group matches and calculated as per step 2 (g) above;

e) drawing of lots by FIFA.

On the men’s side, 16 teams will compete. The allocation is three African nations (U-23); three Asian nations plus Japan (U-23); four European nations (U-21); two from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean; one from Oceania; and two from South America. The North America, Central America and Caribbean entries will be determined in a tournament from March 20 to April 1. The South America entries will be known following their tournament January 19 to February 9.

The men’s teams currently in the field are:

Côte d’Ivoire

South Africa

Egypt

Australia

Japan

Korea Republic

Saudi Arabia

France

Germany

Romania

Spain

New Zealand

Follow the US Men’s U-23 Team as they prepare for earning the right to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

On the women’s side, 12 teams will compete. The allocation is one position from Africa, plus the African runner up will participate in an international playoff against the runner up in the South America tournament. Asia will be represented by two teams along with host Japan, with matches on February 3 to February 9, leading to two matches to determine the final two teams. Europe is allocated three teams chosen by the top three European teams from France 2019. North, Central America, and the Caribbean will be represented by two teams determined by the outcome of the qualifying tournament from January 28 to February 9. South America will send one team, plus participate in the international playoff with Africa.

The women’s teams currently in the field are:

Japan

Great Britain

The Netherlands

Sweden

New Zealand

Brazil

Of course, as the reigning World Cup champions, there is a high likelihood the USA Women’s Team will qualify. On January 28, they beat Haiti 4-0 in their qualifying tournament. The knockout round is at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA, February 7 through February 9. Support the team and get tickets!