This article has some explanation about it:
Note that it’s from before all the non-official (successful!) attempts to break 2.
Yes that article is very out of date considering it doesn’t mention the new running shoe technology. I mean, it predicts some new tech might come along, but new running shoes are a massive contributor to new records.
Half as Interesting did a short layman’s version of why the shoes matter so much a little while ago.
There was a local marathon near me. I thought it interesting that the winning men’s time was 23 minutes more than the records in Berlin. That’s not as much of a difference as I expected between the best in the world, and the best in podunk New Hampshire.
“Cara Weiner of Keene was the women’s full marathon winner, in 3:03:40. Samuel Fazioli of Derry won the men’s full marathon in 2:23:56.”
The hour record in cycling is one of the most interesting. It doesn’t sound it, because it’s just a solo rider going round a velodrome track for an hour, and whoever goes furthest gets the record.
However there are two records. One is for the super-specially-built bikes just for this record, with Chris Boardman’s “Superman” bike the fastest so far. This is the “Best Human Effort”
Then there’s the record for UCI-approved bikes. You can use any bike, as long as it could be used in any other UCI sanctioned track event.
Because the technology of the open category was so advanced, most people excepted Chris Boardman’s time from 1996 never to be beaten on a UCI approve bike.
BUT modern bike design and aerodynamics and what spokes are allowed have caught up. Also athletes get better over time.
Yesterday Filippo Ganna unified the two record categories:
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The size of the chainring. I could probably barely get it turning.
The first ever freestyle motocross TRIPLE backflip in competition? Great!
But it didn’t win the best trick competition!!!
Because a a few minutes later, another rider did the second ever triple backflip in competition, landed a bit more smoothly, and took the win:
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I gotta put this in the right thread:
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen” says driver, as he is passed on the outside.
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In a leg of darts you’ve got to get from 501 to zero points, and end with a double. The Nine-Darter is the quickest way to do it, but it’s very hard and quite rare. Not as rare as a 147 in Snooker, but in the same order of magnitude, like a grand slam in baseball.
So it’s very unlikely that two players could be on for a nine dart finish in the same leg.
And it’s even less likely this could be happening in the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS FINAL:
The commentary is good in this one, but what stands out to me is the crowd reaction. Everyone is perfectly in sync with each other and the action.
I saw Luka Doncic played an amazing intentional missed-penalty shot rebound with four seconds on the clock to take a match into overtime, and went on to win.
I also saw Luka Doncic had played a historically high-scoring game. A 60 point triple double. Which is insane.
It took me a few days to realise these had occurred in the same game!
I hadn’t seen the intentional miss. Pretty good one.
It’s such a rare situation that almost never comes up, but a play I want to see is throwing it immediately when the ref gives you the ball. Everyone does their normal free throw routine, then bonks the shot.
Go right now! The other team isn’t ready! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone successfully execute it in the pros.
For context, a very fun video about the whole tournament.
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I saw the video already yesterday since I am subscribed to the channel. But since its a baseball channel I am not sure he explains properly to someone who doesn’t already know who these people are and why the matchup is important besides it being in the final.
Mike Trout won the American League MVP award three times, 9 Silver Slugger awards (awarded to the best hitter in each position in each league), was the AL Rookie of the year in 2012 (a year in which he also lead that league in stolen bases), and many other accolades. He was the consensus best player in baseball basically until Ohtani arrived.
Ohtani on the other hand is a once-in-a-hundred-years player. He is the first pitcher to also bat since a short transition period for Babe Ruth a hundred years ago, playing both as starting pitcher and designated hitter. And he is incredible in both. He won AL MVP and a Silver Slugger in 2021 and would have won AL MVP again in 2022 if Aaron Judge hadn’t broken the AL home run record. This in addition to an already stacked resume in japan, which he cut short and also gave up a lot of potential money in order to play in the U.S. earlier due to the agreement between MLB and NPB regarding the importing of japanese players. For this trouble though he was AL Rookie of the year in 2018.
MLB.com lists Aaron Judge as the 2nd best player in baseball for 2023, sandwiched between these two. But for my money this is literally a duel for all the marbles between the two best Baseball players on the planet.
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I would love a Netflix documentary series or something in the vein of The Last Dance about this year’s WBC.
I have to admit that as a typical American, even as a semi-serious fan of baseball, the WBC wasn’t on my radar at all and I basically had no idea what was going on. It was only through the videos posted on this forum did I realize what I’ve been missing.
Good news on the WBC YouTube page they are uploading all the games in this tournament if you wanted to catch up.
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I noticed mostly via YouTube recommendations of baseball videos, I’m guessing based on me nerding out about new shot clock rules and enjoying Jomboy breakdowns of weird sporting moments.
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A hole in one in golf is already very rare and epic, even on a little pare 3 hole.
What if two holes in one in a row??
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World record for longest dirt takeoff to dirt landing jump on a bike. Also, in the same jump, the longest ever backflip on a bike. Pretty nuts.
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I thought it was going to be two guys aced the same hole. No, one guy back to back is crazier!