As we’re watching the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games, the superb feats of all of the unimaginable athletes are clearly prime of thoughts. However generally there are another (lower-stake) happenings that worm their approach into our ideas too. And let’s simply say, we’ve racked up a lot of questions because the Paris Video games have been unfolding.
We took a deep dive into a number of the quirks, technicalities, and different defining elements that make every sport stand out. Go forward, give the listing a learn—we guess you’ve had the identical burning questions as properly. And hold checking again right here all through August; we’ll proceed to replace this story with extra questions and solutions all through the Video games.
Why do male gymnasts’ uniforms seem like footie pajamas?
For one, as WFLA experiences, the footie pj’s are literally stirrup pants and socks. And the selection of uniform is definitely for good purpose, as Ian Gunther, a four-time NCAA champion at Stanford, defined in an informative TikTok two years in the past. Whereas demonstrating on completely different apparatuses, Gunther says all of it has to do with security and judging.
Free-fitting clothes generally is a security hazard. “As a result of our fingers are going so near our legs, it’s straightforward to catch our thumbs and dislocate them,” he says. “It might probably additionally simply trigger us to fall in sudden methods.”
Tighter becoming pants assist forestall gymnasts’ fingers from catching on their garments. It additionally makes it simpler for judges to see how a lot their knees are bent throughout a routine. Pants and socks are required on 4 out of the six males’s gymnastics occasions (pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar).
What’s that cable that fencers are tethered to?
The cable—referred to as a physique twine—is linked to the fencer’s uniform and their sword to register when the athletes rating factors. With such a skinny blade and quick strikes, it could be extremely troublesome for judges to find out an correct level complete with the bare eye. That’s the place {an electrical} scoring system, which was first launched as early as 1933, is available in, in response to Olympics.com. Athletes put on an electrically conductive garment referred to as a lamé over the scoring space for every fencing sword kind, which picks up every level all through the bout.
Isn’t it…synchronized swimming? Why is it now referred to as creative swimming?
The game obtained a rebrand in 2017, when the worldwide governing physique modified the title. Officers stated there was confusion over the time period “synchronized,” which truly referred to swimmers mirroring the music, not one another, in response to NBC Olympics. The change was met with plenty of criticism from athletes, a lot of whom signed a petition towards the renaming on the time. However the governing physique maintained the transfer would higher illustrate what the game is about—and hopefully result in higher reputation. So creative swimming it’s.
Why don’t male gymnasts carry out their ground routines to music?
One thing we seen whereas watching girls on ground: a number of tunes. When the lads hit the mats? Lifeless silence. In line with Georgia Cervin, a former worldwide gymnast and creator of Levels of Problem: How Ladies’s Gymnastics Rose to Prominence and Fell From Grace, when the game was developed for ladies, they tailored the lads’s model to make it “applicable” for them. “Ladies had been anticipated to do tender, rhythmic, flowing, swish actions that emphasised magnificence and adaptability,” she advised CNN. “This is the reason they carry out to music, and the lads don’t. Males’s ground routines had been anticipated to emphasise power as an alternative.” Whereas there’s much more energy in girls’s ground now, the music nonetheless stays.
Why are swimmers decked out in huge puffy coats?
Proper earlier than their race, most swimmers seem like they’re about to hike on some snow-covered trails somewhat than dive into the pool. In line with Swimming World Journal, the coat helps hold the athlete heat and their muscle mass able to go. “The looser a swimmer is, the higher they may swim as a result of they may already be warmed up,” Temarie Tomley, an assistant coach for Georgia Tech, wrote. “Their temperature will then be higher as they swim and their vary of movement will probably be higher as a result of they are going to be looser.”
How do gymnasts compete throughout their interval?
Whereas the fatigue, cramps, and heavy circulation don’t make it straightforward, the very best gymnasts on the earth discover methods to cope with it and earn medals alongside the best way, SELF reported. In 2017, six-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman advised Cosmopolitan that she has needed to push by way of interval ache throughout competitions as a result of, frankly, she has no different selection. Whereas donning skin-tight leotards, gymnasts additionally should navigate the stress of a bloody leak or a rogue tampon string, as Olympic gymnast Danusia Francis shared in an essay she wrote for Newsweek in 2021. The Jamaican athlete additionally timed her contraception drugs to skip her interval for competitions. As girls throughout each sport have discovered, having your interval throughout competitions could be an annoyance, but it surely’s an essential well being marker that they’ll work with.
Why do rivals in archery put on bucket hats?
Whereas our Gen Z mates made bucket hats cool once more, they by no means went out of fashion for the world’s greatest archers. It appears that evidently many taking pictures specialists are drawn to the type of hat for its form and utility. In 2016, SB Nation got here up with just a few theories to clarify the choice, together with that bucket hats protect your eyes with out blocking the bowstring. Author Seth Rosenthal additionally identified it’s doable that powerhouse South Korea helped lead the development. The ladies’s staff has worn bucket hats for years, together with in Paris, the place they received their tenth consecutive Olympic gold medal.
How do gymnasts keep away from wedgies?
They flip and fly with ease and in some way keep away from main wardrobe malfunctions. That’s due to a really intentional design that ensures the material of gymnasts’ leotards doesn’t slip or slide mid routine. As Jeanne Diaz, the director of design at GK Elite, the unique supplier of American gymnasts’ on-mat apparel for the Olympics, advised SELF, the leotard’s match and materials are key to avoiding wedgies. “A correct-fitting leotard is the best approach to keep away from back-side discomfort whereas competing,” Diaz stated. “GK has spent many years growing and innovating proprietary designs, patterns, and specialty materials to make sure an ideal match and efficiency for our athletes.”
How do you get a gymnastics transfer named after you?
One of many issues that makes the game so distinctive is that elite gymnasts have the flexibility to create a brand new ability and etch their place in historical past by getting the transfer named after them. To perform this feat, a gymnast should efficiently carry out the ability and not using a main fault for the primary time internationally, like at a world championships or Olympic Video games, in response to the Worldwide Gymnastics Federations’ (FIG) Code of Factors. The ability have to be carried out for issue worth and meet a sure degree of issue. The problem worth and title have to be confirmed following a technical committee evaluation of the efficiency. The gymnast’s federation is chargeable for submitting movies and drawings of the proposed new aspect to the FIG technical committee president proper after the competitors. To this point, Olympic champion Simone Biles has 5 parts named after her, and we might see extra in Paris.
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