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Thread: 2016 Rio Olympics

  1. #61
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    This is my doom

    Robots are coming after my job. Where is Sarah Connor when you need her?

    A Chinese news outlet used an incredibly efficient “robot reporter” to cover the Olympics


    Forty stories a day. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)

    WRITTEN BY
    Echo Huang Yinyin
    OBSESSION

    Machines with Brains
    August 24, 2016

    A Chinese robot reporter produced 450 Olympic news items over the 15-day sporting event, mostly about China’s dominant sports, like badminton and table tennis. While its prose was criticized for being somewhat rote, the coverage certainly was speedy, appearing minutes after events ended.
    The “AI writing robot” Xiaomingbot (link in Chinese) produced 30 to 40 pieces most days of the Olympics, and on August 14 it published 58 (link in Chinese), according to co-inventor Toutiao news. Toutiao, or “headline news” is a search engine and news syndication service with a website, app, and public WeChat account that boasted 530 million total users in August.
    Most of the robot news items were 100 words or so. The most-read was a piece on a Badminton Women’s Singles game won by London Olympics sliver medalist Wang Yihan. The piece came out two minutes after the match ended and had over 50,000 views (link in Chinese):

    Briefing: China’s Wang Yihan won. The game last for 46 minutes, world ranking No.2 Wang played against world ranking Karin Schnaase. Wang finally won the Olympics badminton women’s singles with two matches. The game was held at Riocentro – Pavilion 4 on August 15, 2:30 am, Beijing local time.”
    On online critic said,” ‘China’s Wang won’ is too robotic, it should be ‘Wang claimed the victory,’ okay? The wording is bad.” The piece was followed by two other badminton articles with over 22,000 and 17,000 views, respectively.
    Xiaomingbot’s artificial intelligence relies on the Olympics database. It can also write longer pieces like a 821-word article on the Chinese Women’s football tournament (link in Chinese), but that was only viewed by 243 people.
    It’s the first Chinese AI machine to report the Olympics, according to co-inventor Peking University (link in Chinese), and it will also follow the European Football Championship using a list (link in Chinese) of ongoing matches and reports.
    It was not, however, the only AI reporter at the Olympics. The Washington Post’s Heliograf also generated short items on game schedules, results, and top medal tallies on Twitter.

    Follow
    Post Olympics @wpolympicsbot
    Medals as of 12:00 a.m.
    Medals leader board
    1. #USA: 43 G, 37 S, 36 B
    2. #CHN: 26 G, 18 S, 26 B
    3. #GBR: 27 G, 22 S, 17 B
    9:00 PM - 20 Aug 2016
    Retweets likes
    A post comparing the two writing machines, which was read over 20,000 times on WeChat, criticized (link in Chinese) Heliograf’s robotic style while praising Xiaomingbot for its speedy reports, rich content, readability and variable events coverage. “Chinese player Xiaomingbot inspires national pride and crushed competitor Heliograf across the Pacific Ocean,” it said.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  2. #62
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    Sign of the times my friend.
    Psalms 144:1
    Praise be my Lord my Rock,
    He trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle !

  3. #63
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    Olympic TKD was weird

    I couldn't follow the action at all. The electronic scoring system has ruined the sport.

    Is that a kick? Taekwondo fighters devise new ways to score
    AP 10:12 a.m. EDT August 20, 2016


    (Photo: The Associated Press)

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Taekwondo may be best known for its flashy and acrobatic kicks, but the electronic scoring system used at the Olympics apparently doesn't care whether or not fighters use the correct technique. That's resulting in a lot of bizarre kicks that no true practitioner of the Korean martial art would recognize, in a departure that some say cheapens the sport.

    Sparring in taekwondo has traditionally relied on numerous kicks delivered with technical accuracy; depending on the kick, fighters usually strike with the blade of the foot, the heel or the front of the foot, with toes pointed back. To take advantage of the electronic scoring system — which merely detects force rather than a competitor's skill — some taekwondo fighters and their coaches have figured out that the best-scoring kicks sometimes sacrifice form for expediency.

    "I've definitely seen some weird kicks that you would never teach at any taekwondo school," said Steven Lopez, the sport's most decorated athlete, who was competing in a record fifth Olympics. "They flick their legs up trying to do something to score, but it is not taekwondo."

    Unfortunately for Lopez, his Tunisian opponent Oussama Oueslati, in his bronze medal match on Friday didn't have a problem with those unusual techniques — and used many of them to defeat him.

    Oueslati repeatedly used a move referred to by some as a "scorpion kick," where he would swing his leg up towards Lopez's head and then snap it back like a scorpion tail. No such kick exists in the traditional taekwondo repertoire but because the technique results in the foot tapping the head guard, it frequently scores on the electronic system.

    "Fighters won't care whether it looks like a banana kick or a twist kick or whatever it is, as long as it's working," said Australian taekwondo competitor Safwan Khalil. He recalled a fight he had during the Rio Games with an opponent whose strange kicks caught him off-guard. "When he started throwing those twist kicks, I was just like, 'OK, What are we doing here? This is taekwondo?' But you just have to roll with it."

    Kim So-hui, this year's Olympic taekwondo champion in the women's 49-kilogram division, said she isn't thrilled about the evolution of the martial art either.

    "Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about it," said the South Korean athlete after clinching the gold medal on Wednesday. "It's the taekwondo federation that decided that, not the athletes," she said, noting that she declines to use any of the hybrid techniques.

    The sport's governing body acknowledged further scoring changes might be necessary.

    "Athletes are at the very heart of the World Taekwondo Federation and so we are always ready to listen to feedback from them on how they think our sport can be improved," said Jung Kook-Hyun, the federation's chairman of the technical committee, in an email. "We are committed to constantly modernizing the sport but we always want to find a balance with honoring our traditions," he said, adding the federation would consider possible reforms after Rio.

    Some coaches are divided about whether or not to recommend using the unorthodox kicks.

    "I don't like teaching these techniques, but that's the sport," said Jean Lopez, who directs the U.S. taekwondo team, including his brother Steven. "I think it's compromised taekwondo so that it's become less about fighting — and taekwondo is a martial art, a fighting sport," he said.

    Many athletes say that because the odd techniques often score, they cannot be ignored.

    "Our job as athletes is to adapt as best we can and still give our best and produce good results," said South Korea's Oh Hye-Ri, gold medalist in the women's 67-kilogram division. Oh dominated most of her opponents by employing a steady stream of old-school head kicks that her competitors were unable to counter.

    Still, she said that she wasn't opposed to the evolution of the sport, even though it means extra training.

    "I also practice a lot of those kicks as well," she said, providing a quick demonstration of what some describe as a "donkey kick," where fighters jerk their leg up awkwardly to twist the back of their foot onto their opponent's body protector. "If it can win the fight, you have to try."
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  4. #64
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    Helen Maroulis

    I'm going to post this here for now. If Helen really does go MMA, we'll copy it into a separate thread like with Randi Miller, Ben Askren, Satoshi Ishii, and of course, Ronda Rousey.


    You got to click to TMZ to see the vid.
    OLYMPIC WRESTLER HELEN MAROULIS
    I'M OPEN TO MMA CAREER
    ... 'There's a Possibility'

    8/25/2016 2:49 PM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
    EXCLUSIVE

    IT'S POSSIBLE TMZSports.com
    There could be a HUGE new star in the world of women's MMA -- because the U.S. Olympian who just won the gold medal in wrestling says she's open to the idea of getting in the cage.
    We spoke with Helen Maroulis -- the 24-year-old phenom who dominated the world at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio -- and asked her straight up if MMA is in her future.
    Maroulis made it clear wrestling is her main priority and first love ... but says a transition to MMA is definitely a possibility down the road.
    The best part of the video ... Maroulis says she'll 100% return to the Olympics in 2020 to defend her title.

    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  5. #65
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    Yvette Kong

    From watching Bruce Lee movies to winning wing chun gold: wushu brings Yvette Kong serenity in the swimming pool
    The Hong Kong record holder credits southern China martial art with helping to save her swimming career and Olympic dream
    PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 16 May, 2018, 12:20pm
    UPDATED : Wednesday, 16 May, 2018, 9:45pm
    Chan Kin-wa
    361SHARE


    Yvette Kong Man-yi has qualified for her first Olympics after six years of struggle and mental anguish. Photos: K.Y. Cheng
    HONG KONG

    What is the relationship between Chinese martial arts and swimming? Olympian Yvette Kong Man-yi may be best-placed to demonstrate.

    The 25-year-old, who represented Hong Kong at the Rio Games two years ago after becoming one of the few local swimmers that made the “A” qualifying standard, recently won a gold medal in wing chun at the Hong Kong International Wushu Championships.

    “I liked wushu since a very young age, I was always play-fighting with my brothers and cousins and watching Bruce Lee movies,” said Kong, who is preparing for the Asian Games in Indonesia this summer.

    “When I was young, my mother once ordered me to learn ballet because of cultural stereotype but I quit after two lessons. I was simply too active and always had wushu on my mind.”


    Yvette Kong Man-yi says she liked wushu from a young age. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

    Kong then took up swimming, which she has been involved with for over two decades, and she is the Hong Kong record holder in four events – 50-metre, 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke, and the women’s 4x100-metre medley relay when they won bronze at the 2009 East Asian Games in Kowloon Park.

    But she has also practised wushu from the age of 12 under Bruce Lee Chun-pong, who coached her to her recent victory in wing chun.

    The southern China martial art was popularised in Hong Kong by the 2008 box-office smash Ip Man, in which wing chun grandmaster Donnie Yen played the titular role.

    “Practising wushu has helped me in different stages of my life,” said Kong. “When I was young, it was like a form of expression for any active teenager and as I grew up and started serious training in swimming, it helped my back muscles.

    “When I was more mature, it helped not only on the physical side but also the mental side, as wing chun focuses on close range movement and every step must be well-controlled and performed with great power.


    Yvette Kong, pictured at the Asian Indoor Games, says wushu helps her handle the mental side of high-level swimming. Photo: Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee

    ‘It helps you become more patient and to stabilise your mind, so that you know exactly what you are doing in every movement.”

    Kong said she reached a crossroads in her swimming career after failing to qualify for two successive Olympics, at Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.

    She then moved from the United States after finishing her studies at Berkeley in California to train with the Edinburgh University swimming team in Scotland.

    “The years between 2009 and 2015 were probably the worst in my swimming career. I just couldn’t do well and I quit swimming for a short period,” she said.

    “But then wushu came in and my mental character became stronger and the new environment in Edinburgh also worked well for me.

    “Eventually I made it to the Rio Olympics and I would say my training in wushu did play a role.”


    Yvette Kong poses with her gold medal alongside one of her coach’s young students, who was also a winner at the Hong Kong International Wushu Championships. Photo: Handout

    With her lifelong goal of competing at an Olympic Games achieved, Kong said she had the opportunity to realise some of her smaller ambitions, which included taking part in the Wushu Championships.

    “Wushu is a big asset of Hong Kong with a long tradition. I appreciate it very much and always want to spread it,” said Kong. “But now of course my focus is back for the Asian Games which is just around the corner.”

    Kong will be attempting only the 50-metre breaststroke in Jakarta and the women’s 4x100 metre medley relay if she gets selected for the team.

    “I would be very happy to get the relay chance again and of course I also want a breakthrough in a shorter distance,” said Kong, whose bronze in Incheon four years ago was her first Asian Games medal.

    “Powerhouses China and Japan are always strong in the relay and we must beat South Korea if we want to join the two heavyweights on the podium.”
    I love these kinds of stories.

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    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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