Thought it might be worth a thread with a number of Yorkshire competitors including the Brownlee brothers and the introduction of Rugby Sevens.

Starting off did anybody see the crash that Dutch rider took in the cycling earlier. Jesus Christ she flew over the handlebars and planted into the ground like a javelin (I hope she's ok). Chris Boardman was right, that part of the course looked way too dangerous.

Shan't be watching a millisecond of it.

Still, good to see the BBC has its priorities right in sending over a team of 455 to cover it (100 more than the number of GB competitors).

Other people's money & all that.

Whilst the army of BBC staff is a good topic I don't see why you wouldn't watch any it if you enjoy sports (I'd hazard a guess as a Leeds RL fan you must like watching some other sports?). Granted quite a few like fencing, Water polo and beach volleyball leave you asking why the hell these are involved but still plenty of quality sport to watch.

Watching the women's rugby 7's earlier and just thinking how good it would be to see RL 9's on that stage.

Oi Printer, you leave the women's beach volleyball alone. It's epic, compelling sport at its finest.

Um, you may have a point. I might make an exception on my self-imposed exile from all things Olympics for the splendour that is women's beach volleyball.

I only said beach volleyball in general, I didn't mention gender......I hope you're watching the men's beach volleyball for the compelling sport it is too

That Van Vleuten crash was sickening. She's ended up with concussion and three small spinal fractures, which in the end is about as good a result as could have been expected.

Had she hit her head on the kerb rather than landed on the road, I don't see any way she would have survived. Boardman was spot on. That descent was way too steep and way too technical in the best of conditions. Add in the light rain that was falling at the time and it made it lethal.

Good to see GB off the mark in terms of medals on day two, despite a few near misses earlier in the day. If he wants it, there's no reason why Adam Peaty can't go on and dominate that event for years.

I've found the Sevens coverage hugely irritating, mainly due to the constant insistence of the likes of Inverdale referring to it as "rugby sevens" and dropping the fact it's only one version of the game. They even had Brett Gosper the head of World Rugby on last night's coverage, giving five minutes of Union propaganda about how this will help spread the sport. Just a shame that with the specialised nature of sevens these days there aren't a few League boys in there to highlight our game.

Interesting for those who moan about uncompetitive international RL though. There are realistically three teams in with a chance of winning the womens sevens then a big gap to the rest. Yet nobody has made a big deal out of it or questioned its point, because it provides exposure of the highest level of the sport to a wider audience.

There's also an RL link in Team GB, who are coached by former Castleford winger Simon Middleton.

Great to see Adam Peaty destroy the field and his own world record last night. Better though for me was to see Jaz Carlin get her silver. Great swim. Seen her train many times down at Bath and my son even raced a relay with her a couple of years ago. She was devastated after missing London with illness and nearly chucked it in.

never watched a second of London games and Rio will be the same. Tour de France was also a huge no no.
no interest and a waste of money nowadays

I really enjoy watching new sports so I will be tuning in as much as possible.

There's a young boxing prospect from Keighley called Muhammad Ali. No pressure on him with that name!

The walking event on Friday should probably convert you.

yeah right mate. been on a big digger at a girls school for 3 months. that's all the excitement I need!

Sickening fall on a par with the vaulter whose leg collapsed under him!!

If the descent was so difficult how come so many managed to navitage it multiple times without any falling off? This is elite sport and as such should be the ultimate challenge.

The problem with the descent was the combination of difficulty and lack of any kind of margin for error or safety precautions in the event of someone getting it wrong. Vincenzo Nibali is one of the best descenders in world cycling, yet it caught him out on Saturday. If you're going to have a descent that tricky and made even more so by the shadows cast by the trees over the road, then you can't have six inch deep gutters on both sides of the road that will throw anyone getting it slightly wrong over their handlebars. It's like putting concrete walls with no deformable barrier on the fastest part of a Formula One track.

I agree. I get Sal's point about it be the ultimate challenge to win an Olympic gold so of course it should be difficult but they seemed to go beyond that to almost reckless/careless. It says it all about the course when we are relieved that it's 'only'.a severe concussion and three spinal fractures. Perhaps also 'fortunate' that she was on her own and not in a group of 3/4 that could've caused mutiple injuries.

As for others making it down safely, I'd imagine that with her being in 1st place at the time that others may have gotten a heads up to use caution going into that particular turn, especially as she still lay motionless on the side of it. In the gymnastics that's just an unfortunate injury that can happen in sport and whilst cyclists know that crashes come with the territory, this was pretty much asking for something serious to happen.

I thought straight away at the time when she didn't move at all that she had broken her neck, was awful viewing. I fully agree the course should be difficult for the Olympics - but not so barbaric that any mistake not just costs you the race but potentially your career. I do however think she got the speed and angle of entry into that particular turn all wrong, she was far too narrow for the tight bend under no pressure from other riders - I guess they will have ridden the course many times before the actual race (?) so that turn shouldn't have been a surprise.... however mistakes like that should cost time allowing the pack to catch up somewhat, not have you speared into a concrete wall fracturing your back!

always look forward to the Athletics, that is the Olympics for me. I will watch a few of the other things going off involving Brit hopes but things like football and Golf etc.. wouldn't give it the time of day as Olympic sports go they just don't belong for me.

I'll watch the athletics and maybe Nicola Adams in the boxing thats all for me though. No interest whatsoever in the other stuff

455 to Brazil is hard to defend. More than Wigan took to Donny for a cc semi final

I've seen a lot of discussion on this in the cycling forums I hang about, and there is various discussions about how they could mitigate against this, maybe hay bales but if it rained this could have caused flooding, and its not possible to have a net here (like that which caught Richie Porte the day before)

I can see from her Strava she had been down this same descent 3 times last week, maybe many times before. How many of those would be at the same intensity & pressure as leading the race for Olympic gold, with a decent gap back to second (caught with 150m to go & finished 4th)?

She's done thousands of similar corners while descending before, but got caught up in the pressure of the moment. Its the equivalent of passing the ball to Tony Clubb on the 5th tackle, in a Grand Final.

That was a shocking performance by GB's women 7's side. Completely choked with a bronze medal up for grabs.

Nibali also fell in the TDF on a descent this year so maybe he has become a bit blaze about going downhill maybe he is no longer as invincible as he believes he is.

The points I was trying to make are: it wasn't the first time they made that descent IIRC three times during the race and the number of fallers were few. Thomas fell but that is not new for him last year he spent more time on his bum during the classic season than on his bike.

The fencing was excellent, got right into that, never watched it before and now looking forward to the team event gb good chance of a medal

Not sure you're quite comparing like with like there...



Olympics for me is all about the track & field and particularly the 100m. That's pretty much the pinnacle of competitive sport of any form.

Other than that will watch the later round basketball, and accidentally saw some of the women's rugby 7s and it was actually quite good, so might watch the men's too. Remember quite enjoying the Handball during London 2012 too.

There are a lot of ridiculous sports there though, anything that needs to be scored by judges or involves a horse for a start.

Whilst the track and field is the main one I enjoy watching a bit of a number of others like the swimming and track cycling. I enjoyed watching the synchronised diving last night, the Chinese pair were just unbelievable and I don't mind catching a bit of the gymnastics usually.

Ones I'm not fussed by are the football (see enough of that year round), any of the boxing, judo etc, weight lifting and hockey. Usually watch golf when the majors are on but probably won't bother with too much of this as they'll be plenty of others things going on at the same time and the best players have opted out.