3 ms·

This dynamic already exists in almost every competitive sport. Certainly the ones where you go head-to-head with an opponent in a match format vs a race. Which

This dynamic already exists in almost every competitive sport. Certainly the ones where you go head-to-head with an opponent in a match format vs a race. Which is why most sports have a variety of formats or phases to address that. The most typical being a regulation season where there is a winner at the culmination. Sometimes those then feed into the more bracket-like format. The idea that any one of these methods is the path objectively measures the one true best player/team is a fallacy. That any particular award within the same sport is deemed more prestigious than another is largely down to marketing.

noobermin 4y ago
I would agree with your last two statements except for the fact that this is the Olympics we are talking about, which literally is the highest competition for sport in the world. Picking out the best is the point of it. Of course likely no one structure can be the best, but choosing a better structure seems wise for a competition which purports to do just that. I don't really care to attack the structure too, but if the structure is so important that it should be kept, then there still is a good argument that really, arguments about statistics is really not relevant (which is half of what people are arguing with me about). However, a flat structure of just games is specifically the right place to make statistical arguments and judgements because it is naturally ergodic.
- eru 4y ago
  > Olympics [...] literally is the highest competition for sport in the world. Says who? This is strictly down to prestige. Btw, association football is played at the Summer Olympics. But you'd be hard pressed to argue that it's the highest competition for football. By prestige, that's the FIFA World Cup. By skill, it's perhaps the UEFA Champions League. [0] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_Summer_Olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_Summer_Olympic... [0] I don't know enough about football to say for sure that the Champions League has the highest skill on display. But even the Champions League has way more prestige than the Summer Olympics for football.
  - ajsnigrutin 4y ago
    I don't watch football at all, but fifa world cup and champions league are the ones everybody around me watches, from friends to random people, to our cities being half-empty (except the bars with TVs) during final matches. Olympics are more "meh" and not something people really cared about.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    I think this is the case for most of the well-known team sports. The professional teams pull players from around the world, and have lots of experience playing together. Plus the professional teams are have intentionally developed rosters. In the Olympics, if it turns out that Canada has produced the two best goalies this year, then the world's second best goalie will be benched unless there's an injury.
  - eCa 4y ago
    Men’s football at the Olympics is also an Under 23 competition. I assume FIFA had a say in that.
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  > I would agree with your last two statements except for the fact that this is the Olympics we are talking about, which literally is the highest competition for sport in the world. I don’t think it is. People don’t really care about the olympics. It’s a far cry from the FIFA World Cup where basically every bars broadcast the games. Football is the most popular sport in the world and used to be absent from the Olympic and is now present in a mostly uninteresting format. Tennis is fun but not taken that seriously now that it doesn’t carry ATP points. It’s fairly important for swimming, track and field and the other sports people never watch otherwise.

noobermin 4y ago

I would agree with your last two statements except for the fact that this is the Olympics we are talking about, which literally is the highest competition for sport in the world. Picking out the best is the point of it. Of course likely no one structure can be the best, but choosing a better structure seems wise for a competition which purports to do just that. I don't really care to attack the structure too, but if the structure is so important that it should be kept, then there still is a good argument that really, arguments about statistics is really not relevant (which is half of what people are arguing with me about). However, a flat structure of just games is specifically the right place to make statistical arguments and judgements because it is naturally ergodic.

eru 4y ago
> Olympics [...] literally is the highest competition for sport in the world. Says who? This is strictly down to prestige. Btw, association football is played at the Summer Olympics. But you'd be hard pressed to argue that it's the highest competition for football. By prestige, that's the FIFA World Cup. By skill, it's perhaps the UEFA Champions League. [0] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_Summer_Olympics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_Summer_Olympic... [0] I don't know enough about football to say for sure that the Champions League has the highest skill on display. But even the Champions League has way more prestige than the Summer Olympics for football.
- ajsnigrutin 4y ago
  I don't watch football at all, but fifa world cup and champions league are the ones everybody around me watches, from friends to random people, to our cities being half-empty (except the bars with TVs) during final matches. Olympics are more "meh" and not something people really cared about.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  I think this is the case for most of the well-known team sports. The professional teams pull players from around the world, and have lots of experience playing together. Plus the professional teams are have intentionally developed rosters. In the Olympics, if it turns out that Canada has produced the two best goalies this year, then the world's second best goalie will be benched unless there's an injury.
- eCa 4y ago
  Men’s football at the Olympics is also an Under 23 competition. I assume FIFA had a say in that.
WastingMyTime89 4y ago
> I would agree with your last two statements except for the fact that this is the Olympics we are talking about, which literally is the highest competition for sport in the world. I don’t think it is. People don’t really care about the olympics. It’s a far cry from the FIFA World Cup where basically every bars broadcast the games. Football is the most popular sport in the world and used to be absent from the Olympic and is now present in a mostly uninteresting format. Tennis is fun but not taken that seriously now that it doesn’t carry ATP points. It’s fairly important for swimming, track and field and the other sports people never watch otherwise.