Olympics 2008
 

The Olympics start this week. Football starts on the 6th with the opening ceremony on the 8th.

Video of the opening ceremony was leaked last week, they look fairly impressive.

Are there any Olympics junkies out there?

Yeah! I love watching the Olympics, as long as they show events, not hyped backstories.

My husband has always been a huge Olympic junkie. Which is funny for a guy who used to hate sports but he admires what they go through to even get a spot on the team. Usually every tv in the house is on a different event, he records the rest!

I love watching the opening and closing ceremonies. That's about it...

Im with ya here. show me the competitions, not a zillion hours of back story followed by 5 min of event highlites that YOU deem watchable

Then you should write the network, because they produce that sh*t for you broads.

I'm a bit of an Olympics curmudgeon. If the opening ceremonies were limited to the parade of athletes and the release of doves, I'd be a happy man. I suppose this year it will be interesting to see if the doves fall back to earth gasping.

I would also favor the elimination of all Olympic summer Olympic sports that are not tests of pure athleticism (running, walking, jumping, throwing, gymnastics, swimming, women's beach volleyball) or somehow related to killing people (boxing, wrestling, shooting, fencing, archery, women's beach volleyball).

While I basically enjoy it, I have a hard time caring when, as with the Sydney Olympics, we in America knew who won everything about a week before the events were aired.

I'll watch the opening ceremony, but the Summer Games have never been my favorite.

Some interesting tidbits:

The order for the parade of nations is set by the number of strokes in the first character of the countries name in Chinese. The United States comes in 140th out of 205. Australia and Zambia (plus of course China) bring up the rear.

Time wise Beijing is 12:00 hours ahead of eastern time. (Which makes it easy for me to keep track of things....)

NBC has managed to get some finials moved early/late so they can be shown live.

The next summer games will be the 2012 XXX Games in London.

I have no interest in the various ceremonies (I don't even keep paying attention for medal ceremonies) and could hardly care less for watching the opening ceremonies. "Look! Croatia apparently has at least 8 people in it!"

I also don't really care for the sports that tend to be the focus of the Olympics. I don't like "subjective evaluation" sports much so diving and gymnastics are out (plus I'm a little yucked out by the creation of an environment where a 14-year-old doing vaults on a broken leg is considered a great thing).

I don't really care for spring sports because they tend to be really boring to watch, and in swimming most of the formats are just silly. If the goal is to go as fast as possible why limit yourself to a slower stroke. Why not add a sprint where everybody swims with their left foot strapped to their right thigh? If there is an advantage to a certain stroke (such as endurance) then only use it for races that cater to that advantage.

I do like the secondary sports such as team handball, badminton, table tennis, fencing, archery, etc. But these are rarely on TV, though I am hoping that the modern internet age will finally bring me the ability to watch them without having to stay up until the dead-air coverage at 3am.

Also, I hope that will avoid most of the annoying hyping and human interest stories we're forced to watch. So the end result is that I haven't really followed an Olympics since I was a kid but I'm hoping that will change this year.

However, if they bring back croquet as an official Olympic sport I'll promise to watch every hour.

I'm gonna watch less of them than ever. I'm a sucka for the opening and closing ceremonies. And I enjoy the winter sports far more than the summer ones anyway. So I'll thing I'll China boycott the rest.

The swimming events are borderline in terms of pure athleticism or war skills. I agree it probably would be better if the swimming events were more like Survivor events where everyone had to find a treasure or spear a fish underwater in the process. Much like biathlon.

Gymnastics is, indeed, a degenerate endeavor, but it still qualifies for inclusion despite its debasement.

Alex pretty much stated my whole feelings on the issue.

Don't forget TiVo, which will allow us to record freaking everything, fastforward through BS, and watch the 3am stuff. :snap: Shoot, gotta start setting that up...

I'm not about to go through all the listings for Olympics stuff and manually set up recordings. I haven't yet even taken the minimal steps necessary to stop my DVR from recording all 27 reruns of The Soup every week.

No, but you can pick the few sports you might actually care about and set up a keyword-driven season pass.

I'm the complete opposite of Alex. I want to see the theater of the ceremonies, and I ONLY want to see the subjective performances that are performances rather than sports, per se.

I don't give a fig about sports. And I don't much care to who wins the subjective contests in gymnastics and diving. I just like watching the routines and dives. They are artistic athleticism.

I don't care at all about races. Who's the 'fastest' doesn't interest me one bit ... even if the difference were in hours, much less the completely meaningless tenths of seconds that are not on a human time scale.



But much like the American government after 9/11, the Chinese government seems hell bent to squander the public relations earthquake sympathy they had going into these games with their blunderbus and misguided crackdowns of basic freedoms and human rights. So I think I'll give even the gymnastics and diving a pass this year, and not support this Olympics with my advertising eyeballs.

I have a feeling Swimming is the next Tour de France as far as doping issue go.

On one hand I want to boycott because it's being held in China.

On the other hand, Olympics are supposed to bring the world together.

Regardless, I'll probably watch snippets here and there, and grumble that there's nothing but the stupid Olympics on NBC for the next 3 years. Or weeks.

Advertisers could have refused to advertise in protest, but it wouldn't have stopped the Olympics. I am curious to see if anything happens in protest that makes it out over the airwaves. While they can try and squelch protests within their country, its doubtful the international media isn't going to be so quick to succumb to their demands.

I don't have Tivo, but the Comcast DVR. If it has any kind of "keyword-driven season pass" option I'm unaware of it.

Oh. Wow, even our crappy Time Warner DVR had some rudimentary keyword capabilities. But yeah, a quick google search turns up a lot of people complaining about no keyword search on Comcast.

I assume the money made from advertising doesn't go to the Chinese, but to the network.

It would be hard for one of us to truly boycott the Chinese gov't. I guess if you really feel we shouldn't be at the games, you should complain to the US Olympic committee, or to the International Olympic committee, or maybe to Bush.

NBC paid something like $500 Million for the rights to air the games but that money goes to the... Well not to the host city. It's a loss leader for them. So if you watch the games or not makes no difference to anyone except NBC.

The money is paid to the International Olympic committee and now that it's been brought up, it makes me wonder what do they do with all that booty? What do they pay for?

Oh, I wouldn't be buying anything advertised anyway. I'm not advertiser boycotting really. But my personal boycott for moral reasons will have no less effect than any 1-man advertiser boycott I could stage (especially since, as I said, I am not a consumer of anything advertised during the Olympics).


Nope, I just hate China ... and don't much care for the summer Olympcis ... and don't really watch TV EVER ... so, ipso factor ... instant boycott!

I object to the term "boycott" It should be "Personcott"

Well iSm is a boy....

Heheh, maybe it should be boicott?

Biscotticot?

Eunicott.

Epcott

apricot

no wait...tangerine....no wait....uh....kiwi

manicott(i)

Prescott, AZ.

Gul Dukat.

True Story:

I grew up with four older sisters and no brothers. When we went to one particular restaurant (Love's: my Mom worked there), I would always order a BOY cheese sammich because I already had enough girls in my life (I thought it was a "girl-cheese sammich").

My Dad still loves to tell this story :rolleyes:

On a more serious note, apparently a group of Islamic extremists today killed 16 people in some form of pre-Olympic terrorist event. I haven't read much about it, so I'm not exactly sure what happened.

Ah - here's a link with some details.

Possibly this?

Not good, but it is about 2000 miles away from Beijing.

I enjoy the Olympics. It reminds me of traveling to Indonesia for vacations when I was a kid. The trips always conincided with the Olympics. When I was missing home, I could watch the sports events on foreign televisions and feel comforted.

I love to watch synchronized swimming. It's amusing to me!

So we were trying to set up a keyword wishlist on our TiVo to catch as much of the olympics as we could. It became apparent that several of our favorite shows refuse to have the good graces to stop airing new content while the Olympics are running, so, even with 2 tuners, we were running into a LOT of conflicts.

Then it hit me...it costs all of $10 extra per month to get Time Warner's HD DVR. Hell, that's a fraction of the cost of triple-cast, it's in HD, and replayable whenever I want. And if I understand everything correctly, there's no fee to get it and no penalty to just return it at any time. So if we just do that, problem solved (assuming I'm right about no fees or penalties, and I'm pretty sure I am).

Now, the real question is whether we'll be able to resist just keeping the extra DVR, especially since it's HD (though if it's as sucky as the last Time Warner DVR we had, it'll be easier to send it back).

Before we got our HD TiVo, we had the TW HD DVR. Even though we've had the TiVo for a while, we still have the TW unit as well. Every once in a while, it comes in handy. And since it too (like the TiVo) can record two shows at once, we have the capacity to record up to FOUR HD (or SD) shows at once (although we've never gone beyond three and that was only once).

I love the Olympics - though I prefer to simply watch the athletics, the backstory crap isn't a massive turn off.

And, this sort of thing tends to motivate me to work out longer, better, more consistently. Not sure why - probably just watching all the athletes makes me a bit conscious of my own physical fitness.

I'd like them more if we could see more of the events and not just "the events USA medaled in"

I believe "Pre-Olympic" is used in a misleading way. It makes it sound like this was somehow related to the Olympics and from what I read in the story I don't see the link.

Gotta love China - "That's not pollution - it's only mist!".

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're not the Chinese people who must believe what they are told, or at least not question it, or face imprisonment.

They must have learned from Los Angeleans.

I like the pageantry, the fashions selected for each national team, the ritual of the opening and closing ceremonies, the unusual sports and gear.

I imagine I would enjoy the opening ceremony if I were there but somehow it doesn't carry across over TV for me.

But in HD

No, not yet... But give the Republicans time...

Last time I checked speech codes usually come from the left side of the spectrum.....:p

You just haven't been paying attention for the past 8 years, have you. ;)

No, we are the people who will have to make political protest inside Freedom Cages far from observation.



China's got us beat ... but only by degree.



* * * * *

I like all the things about the Olympics that €uro does, and i agree with Alex that the ceremonies would be far, far and far better live. But i remember when the Winter Olympics came to Utah, the opening and closing ceremonies were way beyond my means.


So i content myself with TV as a poor man's substitute. I can tolerate it ... but what I cannot stomach is being told what I'm about to see in 10 seconds throughout the entire 4 hours of the ceremony. Gak.

I watch gymnastics for the bone shattering, tendon tearing good times.

Winter Games has far more opportunities for severe injury, and possibly death than the Summer Games, so I watch those much more closely.

Indeed. But I would suggest that it isn't as close as you would say, but that's a discussion for a different forum.

Or remove the homeless populations so that our sities look good when in the national spotlight, whether for the Superbowl as AZ and the city of Glendale did, or for the dem convention and what Denver is doing.

We got to see the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies when I volunteered at the Atlanta games in 96. It was very cool. We also got to skip all the boring speeches and the endless parade of nations, which is fun but only if you can fast forward through some of it. I like critiquing the fashions...

Wow. They have changed the way gymnastics is scored. No more perfect 10's. You can now get 14, 15, even 17 points.

Visible DS9 Mojo GD! ;)

I believe early round soccer matches are beginning today.

Past tense. The first round Woman's games were today, the men start tomorrow. I saw a bit of live coverage this morning (about 4:30am Socal time)

OK, I want to know how much the Chinese government spent bribing the Olympic officials to have the games held there.

I can't stand the government. WTF was the committee thinking?

I am particularly annoyed that there are censors all over the place and they are trying to control what the foreign media can do and say.

Yes.

If one thing comes from it, let it be the rest of the world seeing what's really up with the Chinese government. The US media won't stand for it, even if it's reported after they get back to the states. The athletes will have first hand accounts of how bad the "mist" is and how it effected them.

I'm really trying to look at the Olympics as a people-to-people/we're the same/we all bleed red type of unifying event above country politics.

If athletes collapse during the track and field events due to air pollution, will the Chinese allow those images out?

Hmmm... kind of a take on "if a tree falls in the woods"... nobody will hear it fall because that information will be censored! :eek:

Sky News had a piece on yesterday about people who were in Beijing from outlying areas to protest various grievances (corrupt officials etc.). Within minutes of the camera crew arriving there to film, the police were on scene, demanded the journalists' credentials, and took detailed notes about their reporting. Then the police started to drive away with the documents still in hand.

There are "official protest zones" but they're empty because everyone has already been rounded up.

I also saw a report on a whole group of people who were kicked out of their homes so that the government could build a new shopping area for the Olympics.

Unless they ban camera phones and block cellular service from the venue.

Wasn't Tienemin Square footage shot by a civilian or the foreign media who got the video out before the police showed up?

The first hand reports after it's over will be interesting. The Chinese can do their best to control what happens during the games, but once the athletes and press are back in their own countries (especially the ones with free speech...) they can't stop it.

The media is a business. GE owns NBC. You think GE is going to allow NBC to put at risk any business dealings present or future by having any negative reporting?

CBS and ABC and FOX may not have a similar motives, but they will find reason to glorify the host country. I really doubt there's going to be much negative news, but I hope I'm wrong on anything being censored from within the media community itself. I even think the USOC will pressure our athletes to keep their mouths shut. The cyclists already had to apologize just for wearing masks.

This is one of the reasons I believe huge multi-national corporations are a very bad thing.

Maybe not the mass media. But there's this thing called the internet where anyone can share information.

It's not smog, it's just haze.






(I actually heard someone use that phrase in an attempt to defend LA's weather.)

Okay, now I'm pissed!

Check out the regulations regarding beach volleyball players:whatWhatWHAAAAT!?!

So it's fine for the big-breasted Brazillian bombshells to wear bikini tops, but the ripped-abded beach studs have to cover up? LAME! :mad:

Hey! Way to tease and make me think there are actually some large breasted women in Olympic beach volleyball.

But here's the Brazil team:



I am, however, amused that their national abbreviation becomes a simple clothing label when put on their uniform.

Those are women?

The Chinese do have a sex check procedure for all participants, so perhaps not.

Damn, scheduling what I want to see looks to be a pain in the arse.

For example, I would like to watch the fencing on Saturday. The NBC schedule shows it as part of "multi sport coverage" from 2:00am to 7:00am. So I need five hours of record time for just one sport. That is going to be a problem.... Can your Tivo do better than that? I'm guessing not since the fencing coverage will be mixed in with other sports during that time frame...

In looking at options I think I'm just going to rely on YouTube to give me what I want and play it by ear for network coverage.

Did they already do the opening ceremony? Did I miss it?

NBC's coverage of the opening ceremony starts on Friday at 7:30 I think.

Yeah, I was confused by having some competitions early. Whew. Since that's likely the ONLY part of the Olympics i'll see this time, i kinda don't want to miss it.


Well, as far as TV goes anyway. I think YouTube is a brilliant idea.

Because worse than all the backstories is ... as Moonie points out .... most of the sports being part of a mish/mash that you have to slog thru to find the stuff that interests you. Blcch.

It's all about ratings. If they tell you when what you want to watch will be on then they don't have the crossover viewers.

I'm glad I didn't miss it. One must get in their fix of crepe paper streamers, confetti, dancing children and fireworks every two years or so.

They called that Light Magic and it was cancelled at Disneyland.

You know, Leo, only gay boys remember and talk about Light Magic.


:D

Something about those little fairies dancing so close to me was so...so...spine tingling.:)

Paging GC, iSm and MBC to evaluate this statement....

No evaluation needed. Just tell him that his gay is showing, BTD.
:D

Surprisingly, the IOC's test is chemical (hormones I believe) and not just a simple issue of "drop your drawers."

I have a vague recollection (though I think I am just making it up) of someone having as medal revoked because they didn't pass the gender test.

But then again, the way this day has been, I am probably just smoking something.

Thanks for the Torn Tendon reminder.... :p
They don't have Periods, they have peroids....

Go ahead punk, make my day. :D

Oh, I know why it's done. I still hate it.



Now someone tell me why the hosts unfailingly describe in detail what you are about to see in the Opening Ceremonies? Is it for all the blind people watching on TV? Why can't they just describe it as it happens ... or, hell, the blind won't know ... 10 seconds after?

Why is it always 10 seconds before, they tell you exactly what's about to happen??? I don't see the ratings advantage.

I have read that as well. I think it has happened 5 times, with a few being reinstated.

Leo has a "W" chromosome. Doctors are stumped.

It will most likely be dismissed as corporate BS, but in case anyone cares, here is an official statement regarding GE and the Olympics sponsorship.

Any one catch US vs. Japan? Good match. US let Japan get a few too many good looks on goal in the frist half, but did a good job of controlling things in the second. Good win against a team they definitely should have beat. Uphill climb from there.

On a tangential note, we watched the Last Comic Standing finale, which ran tonight smack in the middle of the absurd Olympic hype. Keeping it in that context, I was was able to partially forgive the ridiculousness of the opening bit (it was definitely one of those situations where they want to look like they were making fun of Olympic hype, but really they were, understandably, just part of the machine). It was pretty horrible. And then at the end when the winner was announced (yay Iliza!) they went a little overboard with the confetti. I'm pretty sure I saw Rip Taylor step on stage and say, "Hey, you oughtta tone it down a bit," then start stuffing confetting into his pockets.

I haven't watched the show at all but caught a bit of Jon Lovitz's set and it was seriously unfunny.

I watched the opening ceremonies live this morning via Nigerian TV (Fios is cool).

Overall I'd say they were typical. Long boring parts delimited by fun bits.

I have the DVR set to record the HD version tonight because there are a few things I think will be really cool in HD but I will definitely wait until at least Saturday to actually watch it so I can use the skip button liberally.

Fun/Sexy Game
 

Here's a fun little game from NBC: Guess The Abs
Pictures of male swimmers' torsos are shown, then a few seconds later the face is revealed.

Can you tell who is who just by the abs?

Do you care if you're wrong and just like the pretty pictures? :evil:

Wooooooooo I'm getting woooooooozy.

Zer-bee-yak, go check out page 1 of the Olympic Opening Ceremony thread and tell me what you think.

Nope, I didn't care at all. But the first one was the best, which was kind of a let down. Though I would say the series had the opposite effect overall.

I'm currently watching singles women's badminton live on NBCOlympics.com and it doesn't ANY commentary. Yay!

Perfect! Hot athletes and no commentary!

Simple arrogance. They want to demonstrate to you that they have superior inside knowledge, just to make sure you know they're better than you.

...Or something.

In a symbolic recreation of the Battle of Gallipoli, Indonesia beats Germany in three sets.

Good lord, would it START already? This is like showing up to a movie 20 minutes late and they're still showing previews

HEY !! Save that for the "Opening Ceremony" thread.

That's right, lady. This is the HAWT ATHLETES thread exclusively.

Pffft. I'll let you know when I see one.

(and since my tastes run to, shall we say, "softer" men, this may take a while)

Here are a few pictures of the USA cycling riders and more here.

We have a super strong contingent from the USA.

George Hincapie (United States Of America)Last chance I think, but the sacrificing rider will probably work for the others.
Levi Leipheimer (United States Of America) Relatively quiet this year, he should be in there with the climb involved with this one.
Jason McCartney (United States Of America)
Christian Vande Velde (United States Of America) Top Six in the Tour De France.
Didn't mean to interrupt, just excited to see our best guys go.

As long as some of the cyclists are cute, it's all good.

LeipHeimer and Hincapie could fit the bill perfect. They are both handsome.
The short and Tall of the team

BTW- Here is the link too the Live feed from Beijing the race just started.

I just downloaded the new Microsoft Silverlight player. I can't believe how crisp the live feed is for the road race.

The best part is there are no rattletrap inexperienced commentators at all.

They are covering every key move and change in the Peloton! This is better coverage then the Tour De France or any other race online.

Looked like an awful lot of Crotch Shots during the cycling (to me)

...it's cool seeing them cycle under/through the Great Wall !

LMAO! Yea they sure do. When you see them in a single file it means they are at least ( on the flat sections) doing 35 mph+. I've been there! :blush:

China is very green, plush. I like that.

Australia has a good chance! Too bad the Americans let this one slip by. Jason Mccartney is all over the front, since they missed the move.

Too bad, apparently baseball is not an Olympic sport this year. They have a substitute, but it isn't something I can get behind even if they're still calling it baseball. I propose that in the 14th inning batters start hitting off a tee.

The cameramen on the motorbikes are doing a good job of not covering the "nature breaks" while the riders are still going.;)

Imagine yourself on the back of a motorcycle with a 50 lb camera on your shoulder. Kudos to the drivers!

Okay, I concede, there were some hotties in that parade of nations :)

Now there's something I hadn't thought of.... you mean the cyclists just... I mean.... don't they stop or anything?... how about the folks travelling right behind them ?? :eek:

Occasionally, they do stop but in a race like the Olympics, there is very little time. And if its the race leader(or the guy they think will have the best chance to win from the team) half the team drops back too draft/ pull you up too the pack after your flat or nature call.

Read at your own discretion here in this.



It's unwritten rule not too attack a respected rider(although that carries no weight whatsoever) but it still happens.

I don't know if anyone hasn't seen the event yet, so I'll spoiler this...

If there was any question of whether the "eyes" of the world are on Phelps, the pan across the gazillion cameras in anticipation of his 400 IM final answered that question.

I couldn't even count the number of lenses.

You should probably say what event in the future.

As is typical for our home, the Olympics are playing on the TV in the background when we're not watching movies. This is our first one in HD, so I'm probably watching more than I used to.

I love that NBC uses the theme from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr as one of its themes for their Olympics coverage... I think I'll have to pull out the DVD set when the games are over.

It was strange hearing it, esp when...

Yeah, flippy...

Can someone explain to me the appeal of the Olympic sport of horse dancing? I guess the proper name is "dressage", but it's horse dancing.

This is a sport? And an Olympic Sport?

??????????????

Doesn't strike me as any sillier than diving.

Um, ice dancing anyone?



Speaking of which, from the other end of the spectrum, I'm glad baseball's being dropped after this Olympics. Oh, it's a sport alright. I just don't cotton to professional-type sports mixing with Olympic sports. Yes, that includes soccer.


I think the Olympics should be an outlet for the weirdo sports no one ever gets to see ... like horse dancing.

I'm not a diving fan (no gymnastics, for that matter - any sport that has to be "rated" by judges to me is always suspect - not to say gymnastics is easy), but this seems particularly silly. I'm sure training the animal is challanging, but athletic prowess is involved for the human? At least the other events like diving invovle some sort of athletic involvement for the human.

With you - i think that's ridiculous as well....but at least it is humans doing the work.

yet we differ on what interests us in the Olympics. I don't give a rat's asshair who comes in 15 tenths of a second faster in a race. Oh, I admire the athleticism of running or swimming at incredible speeds, but it doesn't matter who "wins."

And so, by that same token of it not mattering who wins, I find the athleticism displayed in the judged competitions of diving and gymnastics to far exceed in human ability, not to mention artistry, the mere notion of moving fast.


So it doesn't matter to me whether the win is competely whimsical or subjective, any more than it matters who's the fastest person on that particular day by a measurement of time completely meaningless to the humans being measured. Diving is fantastic to watch. Gymnastics are amazing to behold. The "contest" is - like most contests - just plain silly.

Have you ever tried it? It isn't easy for the human either. It's not like you take a trained horse out there and just sit there while it runs through a pre-programmed routine.

Dressage is insanely difficult for the human on the horse. The problem is it involves tiny physical cues given to the animal that can't really be seen by an observer. The judges only see the results of those cues (changing leads, etc.).

Believe me -- giving those cues takes YEARS to even learn. Dressage is most certainly a sport.

I'm not trying to imply it is easy. Cleaning my grill isn't easy but I don't think it should be an athletic event. The training, etc, of the animal is very difficult and I said that. It just doesn't seem require athleticism.

I've ridden horses. When the horse is galloping, there is some effort involved. When the horse is walking, not too much is involved that requries physical effort.

I guess I'll take your word for it. Are those cues physically demanding?

I wonder what will happen to the Chinese athletes who "bring dishonor to their country" by not receiving a gold medal.

Have you ever ridden a horse at all, let alone such precision riding? Yes. It's physically and mentally demanding.

And we've had this discussion before, iSm. The vast majority of races are NOT decided by inhumanly small margins. You may not be able to count to 5ms, but you can see who crosses the finishline first. Photo finishes are rare exceptions, not the rule. And even when they do happen, the photo clears it up. A winner is declared based on perfectly perceptable, clear cut criteria. Just because we can't count to 1/27 mississippi doesn't mean it's not human scale.

Did you read the earlier post where I said

Have you been involved with precision riding?

All I did was ask a question, and even said I'd take the word of the person who said it is indeed a sport.

I am enjoying the new round of commercials (though admittedly I've DVR'd right past many). I caught some beautiful animation and realized it "Rhapsody in Blue"... one of my favorite tunes, and... the old United theme which I haven't heard in what seems like forever. As a marketer, I'm glad to see them repositioning themselves to where they were in an economic heyday.

Back on topic... loving the Olympics. We've been absolutely glued to our sets. Watching it during the day - setting the sleep timer and falling asleep to it at night.

Thank you, Olympics.

We posted at almost the same time, so I think you didn't see my answer. [edit I see you did :) ] But since I see you've ridden a horse at a gallop I'll try to elaborate: while on that horse you were probably using your leg muscles to stay on right? Gripping the animal? In dressage you can't do that as every move of your body is a cue to the animal. The rider essentially balances on the animal, and uses their muscles to control his movements -- like lead changes (which forefoot is placed down first). It's very difficult and counter-intuitive when one is on a massive cantering animal. I've ridden a great deal and can't do dressage. I think Boss Radio's wife can though...

Interesting. OK.

I still don't think I could get into watching it, but I have a better understanding of it now.

Well, a lot depends on how you define athleticism. And whether athleticism and sport are synonymous or just frequently go hand in hand.

And yes, it is all very muddy. I don't really consider gymnastics a sport but it is certainly athletic. The target shooting competitions essentially involve the ability to not move at all, the opposite of athleticism and are still widely accepted as sport.

As far as athleticism goes I'd put dressage much closer to gymastics in athleticism than shooting.

:) I was just about to add pretty much the same point Alex.

Agreed. I hadn't even considered shooting, which indeed isn't very athletic. At least that can be quantified by closest to the middle of the target methodology.

I admit a bias against Olympic events that are scored by judges.

I have that same bias as well (against subjectively judged events) and among the horse events dressage is my least favorite while the others are scored by mostly objective measures of time and penalties.

I was watching boxing for about 15 minutes last night and was amazed at just how subjective the judging has become. The commentators were quite openly disgusted with it.

The range of games played at the Olympics is part of the multiculturalism of it. It recognizes that it is all subjective, and to get billions of people to care, they have to cover a wide range. I tend to feel inclusive in this regard because the whole concept is to include everyone. Chopping out either the "less athletic" or "split second" events would exclude those that like them, and eventually would undermine the rest of the games.

True. I don't really have a problem with those being in the Olympics, they are just of very little interest to me. In fact, I would be much more interested if they did include more regional events than they currently do. Even if I still didn't watch them.

Though I wouldn't mind seeing a return to a principal of amateurism. I would be fine with rules saying that if you make your living being paid to perform your sport then you're not in the Olympics.

A bit of a departure from the current train of thought in this thread....with China being a relatively closed society with control over the media, I was reminded of a story from something BTD had posted regarding athletes who don't win gold failing to bring honor to China.

I have an acquaintance named Charlie Hickcox (I used to coach his kid in basketball) who won several swimming medals (3 gold and a silver) in the Mexico City 1964 Olympics. He told me once the US swim team had a two country meet with the Soviets in Moscow shortly thereafter, and the US team beat them rather handily. The press in the Soviet Union reported that in the international meet, the Soviets took second and the US placed next to last.

I thought that was pretty creative spin. Might be tough for China to spin the media that much in this day and age.:)

I watched a lot of the USA-China basketball game. I think the US could struggle when they play against teams that know how to control tempo. From what I saw, the US struggled in the half court offense - they scored a very high percentage of their points off the break off of turnovers.

Also, China got many, many outside shots and just didn't hit them. The US will need to D up better than that on shooters.

I watched that game, and all I could think was how totally different world basketball is from the days of the Dream Team. The US beat China, by a lot in the end. As they should have. But it wasn't because China sucked. China played a great game in the first half. They let the US go on one big run, outside of that they played them even. They just don't have the conditioning to keep up with the intensity that the US can maintain for the whole game, especially since the game is 1/6 shorter than what they're used to playing. But China didn't look foolish out there, they looked like a somewhat outmatched team. LOVED Yao cheering them on for good plays, even when down by 27.

The difference between this team and the '04 team is that they're actually taking it seriously. The world snuck up on them in '04 and they learned they can't just phone it in. They've put a lot more work in than the '04 team did and it shows. Even the loose defense they showed in today's game would have been beyond that '04 team.

Of course, the other teams have progressed too, but I'm betting the US takes it.

Yeah, China didn't suck, but they didn't have any real shooting threats either. The US should indeed take it, but the European teams, and probably Brazil and Argentina will have much better perimeter shooting.

I have tremendous confidence in Krzyzewski.

The Dream Team was awesome. I watched the game too (used to love BB back when.... almost as much as I love hockey now). Completely different playing field. Team USA can't walk in and expect to win anymore. I think they see it, but they aren't used to the playing styles of the teams they are playing now - even if those teams have NBA players on them.

No doubt. But as long as they actually play and don't get sloppy, they'll win easily. And they've at least done a good job of making it appear like they've put the preparation in to make sure they don't get sloppy so we'll see.

Quick question - I seem to remember that when I was a kid, the Olympics were broadcast on multiple networks. Am I remembering correctly? I could swear that I remember (before a million cable stations) changing the channel to watch different events. And if they did used to be on multiple networks, when did it change?

All I recall is other stations like TNT or MSNBC or CNBC or some cable stations sometimes broadcasting (like they are this time around), but I don't remember being able to switch from ABC to CBS to watch a different event.

I'd forgotten anybody other than NBC ever did them.

According to information at Wikipedia, in the United States each individual Olympics has had single network coverage* since 1960, though the network involved has changed from event to event and this is NBC's fifth consecutive summer Olympics.

1960 - CBS (summer and winter)
1964 - NBC (summer) / ABC (winter)
1968 - ABC (summer and winter)
1972 - ABC (summer) / NBC (winter)
1976 - ABC (summer and winter)
1980 - NBC (summer) / ABC (winter)
1984 - ABC (summer and winter)
1988 - NBC (summer) / ABC (winter)
1992 - NBC (summer) / CBS (winter)
1994 - CBS (winter)
1996 - NBC (summer)
1998 - CBS (winter)
2000 - NBC (summer)
2002 - NBC (winter)
2004 - NBC (summer)
2006 - NBC (winter)
2008 - NBC (summer)


* Also according to Wikipedia, for the 1998 TNT paid CBS $50 million for rights to air 50 hours of coverage.

A fair number of hits that weren't counted as 'clean' seemed pretty damn clean to me. I need to look into it further, but if what I'm understanding is correct, all judges have half a second to all hit the button for a hit to be considered valid. One or two judges falling asleep at the switch could turn the tide. Caught a bit of a Brazil v Haiti fight, and they didn't give the Haitian points until almost the end, and punch after punch from him early on that went untallied indicated (to me) that he should have won the fight at the end of the day.


I'm wondering if there will be any challenges to this increasingly subjective style of judging.

It's not so much subjectivity that's a problem as subjectivity masquerading as objectivity. They introduce these fancy systems to supposedly make it less subjective when, unless there is a knockout, subjectivity will always be a part of it. In non-Olympic boxing they make no bones about the fact that the decision is subjective and it's not like anyone's trying to change that.

If you add up the "true" ages of the girls on the Chinese Women's Gymnastics team..I doubt even then that you'd come close to 16.

16 years old my a$$.

:mad:

Wouldn't that be a scandal. Forged passports and other government documents too (they said the IOC verified ages using passports).

Swanie - is that a pic of the Chinese gymnastics team in you avatar?

Literal lol here, Scaeagles- we were just commenting on the Chinese girl gymnasts a minute ago.

Now there are reports that a 3rd Chinese gymnast may be under age.

From the CBC...
Then from the NY Times...
I know none of this is new, but in this day an age it seems ludicrous to simply accept photocopied passports as proof. By having the due diligence be the responsibility of the submitting country, the IOC is turning a blind eye to this kind of cheating. By their non-involvement they are basically condoning it.

I'm sure I have a photocopies of their passports around here somewhere... ;)

I say let them compete at whatever age. If they can get their Olympics career out of the way at 13 that is four fewer years of exploitation and abuse.

Watching the USA ladies gymnasts tonight was nerve wracking for me. It's like when I watch the skating during the Winter Olympics. I keep thinking someone's going to totally eat sh!t. (And a couple of times tonight they did. Ouch.)

When did they change the vault apparatus?

Seems like it would make for less spectacular failures. And really everybody is watching for the spectacular crashes. Nothing funnier than an apparent (even if really 23) 13 year old doing a face plant.

4x100 relay swimming result spoilered for those of you on Pacific time..

Whoda thunk? A 33 year old female gymnast!

amazing freakin race!!!! I'm so glad I caught it.

Yeah - that was an Olympic moment if ever there was one

I didn't. To this day I still think of CBS as standing for "Can't Broadcast Sports" because of their last bout of coverage. Glad NBC has it now.

Now Kevy Baby,

Play nice...my Mother's sister's auntie's younger brother's step father twice removed was French once.

Have a heart.

:cool:

There is nothing better than defeating someone who thinks they have already beaten you.

The only way to regain anything resembling respect if you are the defeated is to take the loss and compliment the ictors unconditionally....which they losers in this case certainly did not do.

Thank you.. I thought, perhaps, I was losing my mind.

And, while I'm thinking of gymnastics, did anyone else think that Shawn Johnson got a bum deal when it came to her score on the beam. With the exception of one little wobble, she performed what seemed to be a perfect routine, including a solid landing. Then she got a 9 in execution... WTF?

I'm really becoming annoyed with the scoring in these Olympics, and not with just points Americans are getting, but other nations too.

As for the Men's 4x100m relay... how freaking awesome was THAT??! I was screaming with joy, still cheering as it seemed the Americans might not pull it through, and then they did! Favorite moment, again, was the podium with Phelps. Even if I was inserting my own thoughts... it seemed as though he and the guy to his left were going to crack up when the anthem started playing. When they did only two intros and completed the song, there was a chuckle of relief...

... or so I say.

BTW, here's a link to the race video for anyone who didn't see it or wants to watch it again -

2008 Olympics Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay

Thanks for the link. I rely on them to see any of these Olympics.


Yes, very exciting race. Um, paging Ghoulish Delight, though ... exactly the kind of essentially meaningless difference between 1st and 2nd place.




And what's with that Huge Bruise on George Bush's arm??

This is exactly what is so exciting, though, ISM. To beat the French, the American anchor (Lazek?) come from a half second behind in one length of the pool to edge him out by 8 1/100ths of a second. That .08 seconds is exceptionally exciting and there is no issue of judgement of the wall touch, which is electronic.

Wow, it was an awesome race! I hate the tape delay for the west coast, but it was great to see it. There was an Olympics party going on across the street last night, when the race was won, an earth shaking cheer was heard all up and down the block. It was very cool.

I felt sad to see the Latvian beach volleyboll team lose to Argentina.

I have to give major chops to the lady cyclists, could those conditions have been any worse to race in?

I enjoyed the coverage I was able to catch over the weekend. It was fin, exciting and I enjoyed seeing the Korean swimmer get the first gold in swimming for his country, his Mom was priceless.

I'm looking forward to diving and men's gymnastics and more swimming. I wish I could catch some of the archery and shooting and equestrian. Don't know how the scheduling will go.

No, you miss my point, scaeagles. It DID make the race super ultra heart-pounding exciting. I LOVED watching it. I'm happy that, um, my countrymen whom I know no better than the French boys won. Er, strike that. I hate the happy feeling I get when the U.S. wins. What does that mean to me? It's shameful nationalism. To the extent the French were trash-talking, if that's at all unusual for this sport, I'm glad they got the cumuppance of, what, a silver medal?


But the result, sir, is what I find meaningless. 1 second faster between what's taken to be shining glory and what is seemingly perceived as horrible defeat.


Just as silly as me finding more joy in Americans winning than equally unknown-to-me humans of any nationality.


Fun? Yes. Dumb? Certainly.

Why is it shameful? Don't you suppose that most every person on the face of this planet wants the athlete from their country to win? Or is it that everyone is shameful?

Everyone wants to be a part of the winning team. Granted, none of us here were swimming, but we are Americans and I think that feeling is wonderful. It is wonderful for whomever win and their countrymen (er...and countrywomen....ok, countrypersons).

Dear IsM,

Please show the First Lady a bit of respect.

Love and hugs,

The Stoat XXX.

<---- <3's LashStoat

I don't know if all of you west coasters stayed with NBC's coverage until the end (luckily, ours ends an hour earlier being on MST right now), but the swimming commentators were able to isolate a very cool moment at the end of the 4x100 race...

As Lezak and Bernard were closing in on the wall, there was a moment when Bernard turned and looked at Lezak and Lezak returned the glance...as he pushed past him to the wall. It was AWESOME!

It reminded me of "the look" Lance Armstrong gave to Jan Ullrich in the Tour a few years ago just before he blew past him up the climb.

:D

I wouldn't use the word shameful. It is simply silly. I don't gain any excitement from an American winning as opposed to a Kazakh. To the extent I enjoy watching a sport it is to see it well played. Simply being American is not a personal connection to the competitor. If I knew one of the swimmers personally (or even knew someone who knew them personally) then it would be a bit of a rooting interest. And yes, I carry that to the sport I most love: baseball. I'm a fan of whatever team is local, not because of that local connection but simply because it is more satisfying to root for the team I can actually watch regularly. Since I don't watch swimming events except at the Olympics there is no "local access" advantage to any particular team. If I were to move from Oakland to Dallas I would immediately switch allegiance from the Athletics to the Rangers, just as I have already done from the Mariners to the Athletics.

In fact, because so many people are engaged in what I see as silly nationalism I kind of end up actively rooting against the American teams simply to be contrarian. I've certainly been pushed by endless hype into hoping Phelps loses soon so people will shut up.

My problem with a 0.08 second difference (and with all sports which inherently produce such slim margins) is that it is essentially a meaningless increment of time. So far as I'm concerned they were tied.

Isn't smack talking between countries in Olympics normal? Not sure why the French comments were so highlighted. I'm sure they aren't the only country who want to beat another country in Beijing... The "smash incident" sounds contrived to me. You know, to get people to stay up, stay tuned and watch the swimming event. And there's celebrating, but the French team did come very, very close to the US time, so they should be thinking about how they almost got their tails kicked. Also, Phelps got the US off on a slow start... Oh, and Lezak is hot.

As for Bush's arm, it looked like a scrape or something. Maybe from biking? But, sheesh, cover the thing up.

There was a Bush interview by Costas during (after? I forget) the Women's Gymnastics qualification round. It totally came out of nowhere. It wasn't even announced it was coming up. All of a sudden, 'Hey, we have the president here.' I was like, 'Uh, okay.' And it was painful to watch as always. He kept repeating 'engage' over and over. It was weird. And he brought up religion 3 times during his short appearance. I'm thinking free speech in China would be the topic I'd highlight if I was him.

The interview was mentioned at the top of the broadcast.

On the topic of smack talking, apparently one of the female rowing teams (Australian, I believe) called another team (Netherlands?) fat.

ETA: Finland, not Netherlands. story

Ah. I sat through the entire Women's Gymnastics section and didn't hear about it. Was it before that? I'm thinking a 'coming up next, the president of the United States' would have been in order.

They showed a clip during the Bush interview where he was talking to Putin. They were standing right in front of Laura. Laura seemed to be ticked having Putin's rump in her face.

With all this rooting* going on, I'm surprised that anyone has the energy to toss their javelin !!!

*In Oz, rooting is a birds and bees topic.

:blush:

I feel a connection to swimming because I used to swim. I feel no connection to anything to do with horses though and while I want our team to do well in every event it's not something I'm going to go out of my way to watch or root for.

Team USA is the home team in the Olympics. I want them to do well. I also want the world to be reminded that the USA isn't just Bush and war. It's people, just like them.

Alex pretty much answered it for me, scaeagles. Except that I'll go him one further and say that rooting for your city's home team, while admittedly fun, is pathetic ... to the exent most people refer to it as "my team" - as if they have some kind of ownership stake, or are, heaven forbid, PLAYING THE FRELLING GAME THEMSELVES.


Alex makes a good point about a team you are used to seeing play ... but they still HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.



BTW, if 217 of the 640 Chinese Atheletes win gold medals, China will have won ZERO gold medals. Despite the tyrannical MACHINE the Chinese have to churn out Olympians ... the fact remains: Countries don't win medals, Individual Human Beings DO.


As such, I really feel somewhere between silly and shameful when I experience a tinge of nationalistic joy at Americans winning some competition. The competition itself is silly, my personal connection to American atheletes is non-existent, and the nationalism is, imo, contrary to the higher spirit of the Olympic Games.


I am happy for ANYONE who wins. I am happy for ANYONE who can even compete at this level.

And yeah the race was exciting. The Americans were overjoyed, the French were dispondent. Ugh, since - as Alex pointed out - the race was a freaking TIE.

One of my favorite 'human interest' stories from rowing.

Yes, I watched rowing.

Except it wasn't a tie. Have either of you swam competitively?

It's effort and technique coming into the wall. You can't just float on in and hit the wall. In a race that close you're finishing technique better be damn good.

I suppose silly is in the eye of the beholder. People make and feel connections with others for all sorts of reasons.

If it is silly to be happy for the American to win in his/her/their event, than I am happy to be silly (though I don't consider it to be so).

If it is contrary to the spirit of the Olympic games, ISM, why doesn't the IOC throw out the concept of country from the games entirely? Anyone can compete in regional trials for individual sports, make their own teams to compete, etc.

I think the competition between countries is ingrained into the Olympics. It may not be by design, but to eliminate it, no one should represent countries, just themselves.

Yeah, it's not a tie. I swam on two swim teams in Hawai'i.

To that end, it would be good for us to do pretty well, but also good for us to not totally dominate. Some close calls, some occasional very near losses, those are good for national goodwill. Though it's good to be victorious, we can't seem unbeatable either.

Yeah, it's not like the swimmers don't know where the finish line is. They either give it that last minute push or they don't.

I know it's technically not a tie. There was a 1 second difference. I am suggesting that difference is completely meaningless, though humans have ascribed the meaning of "winning" to it. It's absurd.

Yes, it's a race, and a win is a win even by a second. But it's why I simply don't care for races. How can it conceiveably matter to anything but the race itself whether one human is faster by one second at that particular moment of that particular day?


I admire the skill of the winners. I don't admire the skill of the so-called losers who came in second by one single second any less at all.




And Kudos to Gemini Cricket for rooting for the underdog. Root for whomever you please. It's fun.

If I recall correctly, there was a "coming up next" announcement as well.

But we skipped right over it (we were on self-imposed Tivo delay so we could skip the commercials).

Oh, I'd like to add that I also root for which ever male athlete is the hottest. It's not as noble as rooting for the underdog but, hey, I'm only human. When is wrestling, btw?

It's a competition, not an exhibition. What is to be admired is the ability of an individual to perform as well as they possibly can in a situation where one small mistake means they don't succeed.

And while such a small margin seems meaningless on the scale of an individual race, that gold medal race is not an isolated event. On top of all of the qualifying rounds are the years in between of world championships. And what you'll find is that the best in the world seem to more often than not end up on the plus side of those seemingly insignificant margins. So much so that it becomes clear that it's not a matter of luck, it's a matter of will. The best in the world will, when it matters most, find that extra step, have their timing down just that little bit better. And if they aren't able to do so in the most important race, they are not the best in the world.

I would be fine with eliminating the "country" concept from the Olympics. If the 23 best shot putters in the world are from Lithuania and there's only room for 25 shot putters, then I'd rather see 23 Lithuanians than the 163rd best shot putter from Namibia. But I know it won't happen because if you eliminate the silly nationalism of it all then you eliminate any emotional justification for the hassle of hosting it.

Of course silly is in the eye of the beholder. Just because I think you're being silly is no reason for you to change your behavior. But yes, being happier about a victory just because that person is American is, to me, pretty darn silly.


BTD, no I haven't swam competitively but I have done other things that are inherently differentiated by very narrow margins. And I still say it was a tie in all but the most technical sense of the word. The French result was 0.03% slower than the American result. That's just not a difference I can work myself into caring about.

Okay, I am sure it is just another name in Isreal, but there is an athlete named Nimrod.

I'm sorry: I know it is juvenile, but I laughed when I saw that last night.

I'm sorry, but I find this ridiculous. Isn't the Olympics about bringing the best of the world together and seeing who wins? Honestly, if the french (just singling this out as one example) have bad will toward America because they lost the 4x100, that's their problem, not ours.

I'm loving the Olympics this year :)

Enough so that I'd consider buying a DVD set of all the broadcast coverage, if such a thing were to be sold.

I'm not suggesting it as a strategy, but the reality of it is, such things DO have an impact on international relations and on the sentiment one country holds toward another. That's kind of the point. Using sports as a way to compete and yet cooperate with other countries and generate goodwill.

Or perpetuate ill will :)

OK....makes more sense (and not ridiculous), but I suppose it is a sad thing that anyone would have to worry about someone disliking them because they win. I will always reagrd that as an issue of the loser having a problem, not the winner. Of course, there is such a thing as being a bad winner, though the initial exuberance of winning doesn't fall into that.

What makes one better in any competitive endeavor is going against those who are better than you and forcing you to find a better way to do things. I don't hate my main basketball rival, but I want to beat them desperately. A couple of years ago I lost to them by 23. Four days later we beat them in overtime because I was forced to try some different things to beat them. Made me a better coach, made my players better, too. And it was one of the most satisfying moments of any athletic moment of my life.

It's a biblical name (grandson of Noah and builder of the Tower of Babel per some stories). It's meaning of idiot is somewhat recent and generally credited to a Bugs Bunny cartoon (but such usage actually seems to predate the cartoon and it was probably an intentional combining of the Hebraic meaning of "hunter" with the existing slang meaning of dolt; very appropriate for Elmer Fudd).

The things I occasionally remember from various "Word of the Day" mailings.

Wow.


Well, except for that last bit of historical revelation ... I've decided to just say "ditto" to all of Alex's posts on the subject of the Olympics.

You know we have a lot in common! I've also been known to root for the one with the cute smile.

Also I always feel bad for the person in fourth place, they did just as well but get nothing to show for it. I think they are all winners just because they made it to the Olympics in the first place!

I had Gary bring up a list of the countries last night because I couldn't figure some of them out. Wow there are a lot of listed countries, a lot of which I have no idea where they are!

I basically agree. However, as a kid, I used to think that it must be cool to get any kind of Olympic medal. It's sad to think that the reality of expectations means that someone would be disappointed with a bronze.

The only reason anyone would have to be disappointed with bronze is if they don't perform as well as they know they can. If you perform your best and you're still beaten, you applaud the guy that beat you and move on.

It should be noted that the IOC maintains no official record of total medals won by countries. Not that it's hard to piece it together, but any stats you see regarding total medals by country are handled entirely by media outlets and not the IOC.

I knew the feet thing was fake. Just like the fireworks at the televised Garth Brooks Central Park concert that made giant cowboy hat shapes in the air.

Geez, talk about a buzzkill... that totally diminishes the effect. I thought they'd actually arranged to have pyro going off in various locations around the city. Far less interesting now :/

They did, but what we saw on television was a recreation due to the fact that it wouldn't look right on TV and that having a helicopter flying through mortar fire wasn't considered safe for some reason.

Heh, imagine that :rolleyes:

Okay, as long as they actually DID the firework footsteps...

And NBC did announce the footsteps as a "virtual" shot during the broadcast.

I'm sure there are those who will declare that we are being bamboozled, but as I have not heard of anyone attending the opening ceremony saying that they didn't happen, I'm taking the official story at its word.

Well, of course, if you were attending the Opening Ceremonies, you would have no way of seeing the Footsteps pyro until they creeped up on the edge of the Bird Cage.


But as I'm still pointing out in the Opening Ceremonies thread, NBC made it pretty clear they were digitally recreating the visuals of the Footsteps over Beijing.

Since I'm pretty sure my original comment of wanting the world to see that the US was more than just Bush and war prompted this exchange, I'll go on to say graciously winning every event is a lot better than "in your face" winning one or two event

I'll give this analogy - I want the Ducks to dominate the NHL again. But I want the former Ducks to do well in every game they play, except when they play against us. I want every athlete from every country to do their best, but I want ours to win.

.

If it's an event I know we have a chance of winning, I'll root for the U.S.
If it's an event I know the U.S. has no chance in, I will simply root for a highly competitive finish.
If it's an event I know nothing about, I will root for the U.S. until it's clear that the U.S. has no chance. Then, I will root for the highly competitive finish.
I will never pick a favorite based on an NBC back story.

What's your point?

Dear Mom,

You are 4 hours ahead. I don't want to talk about today's events!!!!!!

NBC just did a day in the life bit on Michael Phelps. The boy eats 10,000 calories a day and still can't crack 200 lbs. :eek:

Pure muscle. :drool:

Lani and I have agreed that Phelps is fine from the shoulders down (thought so out of physical proportion on the lengths it is kind of weird) but he's kind of hard to look at from the neck up.

First of all, men's synchronized diving is on. Great bodies, tiny swim suits.

Secondly, commentary that goes like this:

Question from our viewers; why do the men go to the showers immediately after their dive?

Female sportscster: The water is cold so they go there to warm up, stay loose and have FUN!

LOL!!!


Also, great Honda commercial
Car Salesman: "looking for a car with better gas milage?"
Shot of customer looking at Suburban
Customer: "Ahh, I haven't done as much river fording as I thought."

I root for whoever seems most likely to have a dramatic (possibly tragic) physical/emotional breakdown during competition.

When the 1984 Olympics were in L.A., I got to go to a few events, including Men's Soccer at the Rose Bowl - I rooted for Egypt to beat Italy, but alas, despite a brutal player (who ended up with bandages on his head after some wonderful interactions with opponents), Italy won :(

FWIW, the women did it too

I knew that sychronized diving is lame, but I'd never had such a strongly negative reaction to it before.

Then after about 10 minutes I realized that the female commentator has a voice that is a dead ringer for Nancy Grace. Apparently that produces a deep visceral and immediate hatred. Once I realized that I kept expecting her to say "and to have a chance at taking silver they need to average 6.5 and why did you kill your wife sir?!"


And speaking of subjective judging, it just strikes me as completely broken when two judges can look at the exact same thing and one gives a 4.5 on execution, as New Zealand on China's last two dives, while the Japan judge gives 9.0 on the same dives.

I think I gained 10lbs watching that :eek:

The American Heart Association is going to be all over him.

I think you're being bamboozled.

..or is it just the Darvon talking? :p

cos japan's just kiss-assing to become friends with China again?

Are we related?! My Mom is driving me crazy by telling me stuff. The first words out of her mouth every night is " Did you see.... win?". Followed by her saying " Oh, you probably don't want to hear the results do you.?", umm I think you already did thanks!

Well, on a different dive by the Russians the New Zealand and Japan judges were switched and NZ gave 9.0 to the Russians while Japan gave 4.5 to them. Do kiwis love Russia (or maybe hate Georgia)?

This is why I hate the subjective scoring system. At least when a race is close you don't have one clock saynig Team A won by .07 seconds and team B won by .13 seconds.

Are you sure they were grading the same diver? The 1st two scores are for one diver and the 2nd two scores are for the other diver.

It made for a HUGE disparity on a few dives.

Ok, that would explain it. But if each judge is only paying attention to one of the divers how are they rating the synchronization?

I can't speak for your example since we're an hour ahead here, but the 1st 4 scores (2 and 2) rate the divers individually. The remaining scores rate the pair's synchronization.

I found this on the grading system...

Is your mom in Nova Scotia right now?

I managed to cut her off "MOM! You're 4 hours ahead! I DON'T WANT TO KNOW".

Thankfully she comes home tomorrow.

When did they add instant replay to the judging arsenal for gymnastics?

First, judges on the floor give initial scores. Then the head judge can authorize a second look in which a gymnast's scores can be devalued or increased based on slow motion or regular speed replays. :eek:

Even after that, I'm guessing it still isn't going to "fix" the judging problems. :rolleyes:

Dear Michael Phelps

When on the medal stand and the National Anthem is playing, the protocol is to put your hand over your heart; NOT to grab your left breast.

Sincerely,
Me

why is the nail biting stuff on after 11?

I hate to tell you but your final event won't be finished until nearly 12:30am your time. :(

bring back plain onw at a time diving... mt brian hurtsd

YAY !! Silver for Australia for the womans synchronised diving W00T

lashy is the only person who has made drugs appealing to me. Mind you, I have no desire to seek them out or anything, but I'm getting a vicarious, free, happy-feeling from lashy's posts. Go lashy!:D

you shoul talk, Mrs Gleeb. Blairn. Lort! :D

i'm going to sway to ther windoiw and talk tol the little buirdies now...

ETA - Stoat sayds he cvan jusdt hear Grace Jons singing: 'sway.. to the window, daance, tio the window'

I cheated. I looked at the final results on line - then went to bed. I can't stay up to 1:00 am then get up at 6. My body will scream.

Nope, she's was in the midwest yesterday and did it again last night! The good news is she's flying to Laughlin today so she'll only be an hour ahead on tv. Of course I'm guessing she'll be too busy playing bingo to notice the Olympics for the next week but when she gets home it will start all over again!

I wonder how many times that Lashie is getting quoted lately?

Susan stayed up and watched the results and left me a note for this morning.

I looked online before I went to bed. I did get to see some of the equestrian (and two bad falls, poor horses)

Hmm, not sure what you mean by "softer", but check out US gymnast Sasha Artemev:


If the image crapps out, you can see him on this page.

I'm confused. :confused:


Was that supposed to make me softer???






it had the opposite effect.

I thought I've seen just about everything, but thanks to NBC, I've now been subjected to Panda Porn. Complete.with.sound.

:eek:

I get a little chill whenever I hear the bars for "land of the free".

Okay, I grant that there have been some very nice bodies. Still too skinny for my personal taste, but admirable in form none the less.

BTD - Is that you in the Phelps Phan commercial?

:D

Haha. :p

I know better than to move to a podunk town ;)

Gymnastics on both sides has been a lot of fun to watch this year.

Michale Phelps is inhuman.

Synchro diving is neat but gets really boring to watch after a while. And frustrating because clearly the judges are looking at different details than I look at.

I've been watching the races, and the announcers are calm, cool and collected just knowing he's going to win. Meanwhile I'm a ball of nerves. Overconfidence leads to mistakes. Thus far it seems the overconfidence is contained to the media, and not the athlete.

I've enjoyed Gymnastics and swimming as well this year. I'm not so excited for Track and Field to start. The pool has been a place for many shattered records. I hope there is not doping scandel in our future.

Besides the bodies, the best thing I like about the synchronized diving is the camera that follows the diver into the water. That's so cool.
:)

There may be but the chatter I'm seeing seems to credit technology and pool design. The pool has several new features designed to reduce water resistance and improve performance, even the lane dividers are designed to help the swimmers go faster.

That's what I'm seeing too. The enhancements come with the design.

Now, if that's fair to previous records or not (along with the enhanced suits) is up for debate. Sure, the record was technically broken, but it's not a level playing field. If the previous record holders had these advantages, would their records still be able to be broken? Or would they merely be tied.

There has been a lot of attention on the new swim suit from Speedo (Fastskin LZR Racer). It was supposedly designed with help from NASA.

I think it is as simple as gravity "driving" the camera. There is a guy off to the right of the podium (as you look at it from afar) that I keep seeing. I've seen him A) pulling up on a rope, and B) possible just "dropping" said rope as the divers make their leap. I think the camera is housed in the black-faced square tube.

Just my $0.02 on the subject.


ETA: Garrett Brown is the guy who invented the Dive-Cam as well as the Steadi-Cam and many other camera innovations. Story about him on Wired.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the medical, and technical improvements feeding into the new world records.

I agree that there is no reason for it to be a camera in freefall doing the diving coverage. Still a nice way to see it though. Synchronized diving, however, is still firmly in the lame camp. I look forward to synchronized discus just so we can get some more medals into the Track & Field area.

I call it synchronized boredom.

And uh....Olympic injury video. Weightlifting. Not for the squeemish.

Ick.

Oh, that is brutal. But I do admire how they have the "screen people" rush out to block the view. That's a smart touch.

That goes back to what I was saying. Who knows what those records would have been if this technology was available then.

Breaking the record by a small amount is feasible, but by several seconds? That's technology.

Eh, old news. Every few years they've come up with some amazing new suit. The records that are currently being broken due to technology were set due to technology, so I have a hard time feeling it's unfair. Technological advancement is part of the sport.

I agree, I was just responding to the question of whether there's a drug influence.

However, it does raise the question of whether we should be racing people against each other or instead just have Phelps swim each distance five times, each in a different suit and then award gold to the manufacturer that wins.

Phelps does not wear the new techno-nifty suit, or at least not the top half.


Phelps has also volunteered for the "super tester" program where he has been baseline tested leading up to the games and is tested daily.

I know Phelps only wears part of the suit. Which is completely irrelevant to the point. But let me rephrase, Phelps can swim the race five times in five different pool configurations and we'll award the gold to the contractor that built the fastest.

And the great thing about our modern drug environment is that I view passing drug tests as essentially meaningless. Several of the recent drug scandals are not from people failing tests but being forced to admit they were taking the drugs while passing the tests.

I have no particular thought that Phelps (or any other swimmer) is doping, I just assume every athlete is -- especially since modern nutrition and medical treatment is essentially doping anyway, we just like some forms more than others -- accept it, and move on.

Does this work for ya?
Here's a close-up of his face--he's a cutie!

Tech advances resulting in broken records is kinda like the new box office champ. The money and time are true, but comparison to past "accomplishments" is practically meaningless.

I wish they would just tout what the result was, and not feel the need to rank it. The rankings are misleading. You can't turn back time.

Does anyone else think that Chris Collinsworth bares an odd resemblance to Will Arnett? Especially if you're fast forwarding?

Why must you insult Will Arnett like that?

And no, I don't think I'd be likely to confuse them. But I haven't tried fast forwarding through Collinsworth to see. Maybe I'll put in an Arrested Development DVD, fast forward and see if it makes me want to talk about football.

My BIL is over in China working the Olympics for his company for 2 weeks. He sent photos of the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. Here he is outside the stadium...



Talk about the chance of a lifetime! He's on a 4 days on/2 days off schedule, so he has plenty of time to see the country on his company's dime. He hasn't made it to an actual event yet, but he's hoping to soon.

I'm enjoying seeing the diversity of "athletic" bodies of the Olympics - the giant upper bodies of the swimmers, the tiny girl gymnast, it makes me think of how much biology dictates the potential for doing well in a given sport - Michael Phelps' size 14 feet/flippers for example. Peter Greenaway needs to direct a nude parade of nations a la Prospero's Books.

I just my heard my new favorite line: "World's Best Breast Stroker"

Good badminton match and nice to see it on TV even if it was only because the U.S. softball game had a rain delay.

I just found the channel that's been broadcasting boxing, badminton, judo, etc. It's on the odd Time Warner "special events" channel which is where they show local baseball in HD (some half-ass deal with FSN or something I gather).

It also seems to be showing just about every soccer match, which seems excessive.

Well, I love playing soccer. I'm not a soccer watcher. I'll watch Olympic soccer and World Cup soccer, but only if I happen to catch a game, I don't seek it out.

But even if I did watch it, the number of games that station shows would be a lot to watch. But then, I imagine there aren't really people wanting to watch them all, it's probably more about just having all the games available so people can pick the ones they want to watch.

Technically they are all supposed to have be 16 this year but one of the gymnasts apparently just lost her baby tooth and still has a gap where her adult tooth hasn't grown in yet.

Chinese women gymnasts take gold, Americans hint of cheating:

"Half of the team - He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan - is under age if online sports registration lists in China are correct. The international gymnastics federation, however, said those gymnasts were eligible and that the ages on their passports were correct."

OK see, I think the girls did a fantastic job, and I really liked the show they put on in the floor routines. But if the government is (once again) pushing for these little girls before their time, "for the sake of the country" well then it's just one more proof to me that the the government is EEEEVIL I TELL YOU. RAGE!!!! :mad:

The IOC is as impotent as the UN and nothing will ever be done to investigate it.

The Chinese gymnastics coach has dimissed criticism by likening it to looking at a very muscular American and assuming they are doping. No a bad argument, really. i don't buy it, but not bad.

Couple of funny things....Some doctor is saying that the music Michael Phelps listens to before he races can have the same effect as doping, giving him an unfair advantage.

Other than the fact that it is against the rules I don't really have a problem with them being 12 instead of 15 (they don't have to be 16 right now, just 16 by December 31).

It isn't like their exploitation is going to stop just because they're not performing this year. If they weren't it would just go on for another 4 years until the next Olympics. I don't approve of what women's Olympic-level gymnastics has become but I don't think the age limit does anything to improve that situation and I'd get rid of it. If an 8-year-old and compete at the highest levels, let her. The problem will lie with us for getting excited about 8-year-olds.

I don't think an 8 year old should compete in the Olympics. That would be too much strain on their little bodies before they are ready. Let alone they wouldn't be able to reach half the bars!

I agree that some of Chinas gymnasts look 12 and I'm pretty sure they are too young from the stuff I've seen online. It just seems like cheating to me!

Armstrong wins Gold! ;)

Levi Leipheimer of Santa Rosa, Ca captured bronze in the Men's Time Trial.

I knew Cancellara would win Gold. He's a rocket on a bike!

NBC had an interview with Mark Spitz today. He seemed genuinely happy for Phelps and USA Swimming. Plus the man has aged surprisingly well.

What they do already is more strain than their bodies generally can or should handle.

The same can be said of NFL players, truck drivers, factory workers, etc...

I don't think you can paint with so broad of a brush here. If you have a child who loves the sport, wants to compete at the highest level and is willing to put in the time then I say bravo to that. Support them as much as you can.

On the other hand if you take a 3 Year old away from their family to live at the gymnastics camp for the next 20 years or so, that is a problem. As is the overbearing parent who is pushing their kid to accomplish something they themselves never could.

What about the parent that lives in utter poverty and who sees that their child's only possible path out of that poverty is to send them away at 3? It's not a good thing that that's their only option, but it is the reality.

They are doing what they see as right for their child. Is it what's best for the child? Maybe, maybe not.

But the question is, do you think it is wrong for any child to train as hard as the elite level athletes do?

As much as I enjoy watching gymnastics I think the entire culture surrounding it is unhealthy.

When that elite training will have lifelong repercussions for their physical well being, comfort, education, and general health. Yes, I'd say so.

When being allowed to train for a goal where you'll then be told that the expectations and hopes of national glory ride on your shoulders? Yes, I'd say so.

Yes, there is a risk of serious injury in pretty much any athletic endeavor. But in women's gymnastics (more than male where the emphasis is more on upper body strength that doesn't fully develop into adulthood) it is endemic for them to essentially be walking stress fractures, engaging in a level of physical activity that delays maturation (stunting growth), and generally being removed from anything resembling a normal life. Sure, it may not be as overt as the factory system of the Chinese but it is nearly just as bad here.

All so that every four years millions can look on and say "ooh, pretty." Yes, it is pretty. It is also, in my opinion, wrong.

People should be willing to sacrifice themselves in some way for my personal amusement. I see no problem with that.

Then Spitz has been taking acting lessons. ;)

My Mom used to work for Arena swimwear back in the day when they did the suits for the Olympics. Unless he has found a change of heart (which based on other recent interviews..I'm sure he hasn't), the man was as pompous and arrogant as they come. He was a horrible person to deal with, so much so that the entire staff would cringe when he'd walk in. I'm guessing he's making nice now because someone has finally talked to him. No one likes seeing a poor loser, and that's what he's been doing in the lead up to his record hopefully being broken.

For example, I love this commentary written in the Baltimore Sun...
Dear Mark Spitz, Get Over It. Move on with your life.

Bottom line...he was a great athlete, just not a good man.

Add another "not a fan of the man" here....he attended the Special Olympics summer games 3 different times when I was involved as both coach and director of our area and he was a pompous arse to the kids but they didn't realize it. The volunteers all did and none of us made much of an effort to stroke his ego after the first time 'meet and greet' with the guy.

My boss's daughter is way into gymnastics. She's had two knee surgeries and now has a very serious back injury. She's 15.

Maddys cousins were way into it as well. Driving two hours each way from their home for training. When I asked why I got the well they could get college scholarships. Um not if they're injured. Wouldn't it be more prudent to put all the cash you're spending on meets and gas and lessons into a college fund? You'd probably have more at the end of the day.

Hrmmm... then I am going to assume you have never read the 1995 nonfiction book "Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters" by SF Chronicle sports writer Joan Ryan.

You will never, ever look at Olympic-level female gymnasts the same way again. Ever. Trust me.

On the whole, absolutely. But on the scale of individual choice, I find it hard to fault the parents who are stuck within a scenario that leaves them little other choice.

In China, that could mean do what the government says or be shot.

I'm not sure it is any more unhealthy than the figure skating, ballet or beauty pagent culture. Why is it that cultures dominated by girls are the "unhealthiest"?

I definitely include figure skating in my gymnastics stance. I was just saving it for 2010. Ballet, at least, can lead to a lengthy adult career and beauty pageants may increase emotional problems that lead to physical problems but they don't (so far as I know) directly cause physical damage.

Maybe because they generally don't recruit boys when they are tiny children for any of those things.

I never said those cultures were healthy, just referencing gymnastics since that's what prompted the discussion. Those are all cultures that promote super skinny bodies on top of being athletic which in turn promotes and can coddle eating disorders to maintain the perfect body.

With boys, emphasis is put on being muscular and toned. Girls is you have to be skinny, even when you have muscles.

It was fun to watch Olympics coverage in two other languages in France. (Euro Sport coverage was in German).

I even got to see some coverage of fencing, which was great.

For gymnastics, more than skinny you have to be tiny in stature - same with ballet. At least with contemporary dance, that has changed quite a bit. The main body type requirement is muscular.

OK keep in mind my views are very heavily influenced by having read that book ("Pretty Girls in Little Boxes"--see my previous post).

At least figure skating and ballet will garner a profession in a performance industry. Female gymnastics has NO performance career outside of a handful of Cirque jobs and the like (they have 9 Olympians on their payroll but I don't know if they are all gymnasts). Once you give up your Olympic/world competition regiment you are DONE. You start eating more than 900 calories a day (that's all the gymnasts are allowed to eat, even though they work out 6 hours a day), and you start having your period. Once you develop some semblance of hips and breasts, your career is OVER. And the gym and your coach? They will be busy working with prepubescent (artificial or otherwise) girls to mold them into the next Olympian.

Each of the tracks you mentioned have their faults. Interestingly, all of them are very stringent about food intake and a strong effort to stave off reproductive development (although that may not be quite so bad in figure skating or the beauty pageant circuit), but I believe all of them are exceptionally strict about dieting.

The thing is, when you take a 4-year-old child who has some flexibility or shows a bit of talent, and begin to mold them into these candidates, they aren't exposed to anything else--so OF COURSE they most happy when they are working out and they do well and their coach praises them. They are starved for affection and attention, and they know that if they don't perform well, they are ignored.

You know the irony of women's gymnastics? There is a single person on this planet solely credited with its current state of using little girls: Bela Karolyi. He was Nadia Comaneci's coach back when he worked with her in Romania, and he is credited with helping her perform the perfect 10s in the 1976 Olympics. It changed the entire landscape of female gymnastics. Up until then, most female gymnasts were oh, in their early 20s. There was a bit of controversy that Nadia was so young, but that all flew out the window when she did so well.

After that, there was a big movement to start them younger, to mold them earlier, and get them prepped to be Olympic-ready as soon as they were age-eligible.

And for all the harm that Karolyi did to women's gymnastics, the hunger for such success was so great that we embraced him with open arms when he immigrated to the U.S. to open his own gym here.

How is he so successful? A lot of people accuse him of abusing the girls. He berates them, insults them, is verbally and psychologically abusive to them publically. If you mess up, he won't even look at you. How's that for wanting your father-figure's love and acceptance?

I have no doubt that if the Karolyi's could get away with cheating and using younger girls, they would. Damn the US government and their record keeping.

Although, Karolyi has been VERY outspoken about the obviously younger than 15 girls on the China team.

I know a lot more about skating, ballet and beauty pageants (I hung out with Olympic skaters, danced myself for 13 years and was 1st runner up Little Miss America 1968) but I've never had much contact with gymnasts, so I can't speak for the sport knowledgeably enough to argue a point.

Did someone already mention this article in Time magazine?

Pretty sick.

True, but only because the U.S. team observed the limit. His solution is to get rid of minimum age requirements. His complaint isn't so much that China used 14 year olds but that we didn't get to.

I agree that if Olympic gymnastics is going to emphasize skills best done by 12 year olds then they should allow 12 year olds to do it. The real answer, though, is to change the sport to once again emphasize skills best done by adults. In my view, if a 13 year old can compete globally in your sport then you haven't so much created a sport as a playground game.

Ugh, I remember that. I was pretty young, but even I was creeped out by that whole series of events. I don't know if I became aware of that paradox in '84 when he was just coaching MLR or '88 when he was the head coach, but I just remember being pretty distressed that there was this lurking possiblity that his reformation was an elaborate facade and that he really was practically torturing the team.

I "trained" (aka took gymnastics classes) at SCATS back in the early 80s, around the time of the 84 Olympics (I think I was 6 or 7). Even the supposedly beginners fun classes there was tremendous pressure to maintain a certain look and punishment if you failed to complete a routine or exercise the way it was expected.

My mom pulled me from the program because of the "culture". I took classes elsewhere for awhile but the culture was the same.

I remember coming home upset because I wasn't as flexible, or as skinny as the other girls and had to do punishment exercises because I wasn't as good.

Good coaches rarely, if ever, should give out punishment exercises for lack of skill. I only do for one thing - missing open layups in practice. If you can't make an open layup in practice 99.9% of the time you shouldn't be playing HS basketball. Those types of punishments typically just instill fear, and not many athletes are motivated well by fear.

Now for not doing what they're told....yeah. Run 'em till they drop.

Hey now, hey now... I don't know about anyone else but I kinda thought Alicia Sacramone was a little on the 'stacked' side of things... And that Shawn Johnson... anyone looked at that ass. Might be the best one I've seen all games long. ;)

And as much as I said that tongue-in-cheek, I am actually rather serious.

Though I mostly agree, the pressures of 'communism' cannot be ignored for its treatment of not only gymnastics, but of other Olympic events, perhaps most notably swimming and diving. Watching the diving competition, you hear nothing but tales from athletes and correspondents of the age they are taken from their families to be (somewhat) isolated and begin training - much more rigidly than in the US.

In fact, they are crediting a recent change within the American system that has encouraged increased isolation (i.e. when they are starting their teens many world-class-potential divers move to Indianapolis where they can begin intense training at the HQ), a la China, with improving scores.

I'm not saying it's right, wrong, or anything - it is what it is, IMO.

Well Nastia Liukin won the gold medal and she looks to be somewhat older than 13. Can we all breathe a big sigh of relief?

Not really, it is great that she won at 18 but she is very much a product of all that I despise about the Olympics gymnastics system. The only reason she wasn't on the Olympic team at 14 in 2004 is that it would have been against the rules.

I do give her story a bit of a pass since she literally grew up in the sport since both of her parents were Olympic gymnasts and so at least she got to have their significant involvement beyond driving her to boot camp at 5 in the morning.

Great. Our cable just went out last night and TWC can't be here to fix it until Saturday afternoon - just in time to have missed Michael Phelps eight gold medal swim.

Uch, another gold medal, how boring.

I'm very happy for Nastia. She has been my favorite member of the US team. I'm sorry I missed the live coverage, but the bit of replays I saw looked like she did great.

Her first 2 rotations were so-so, but the last two were really great. She earned it.

Incidentally, "Nastia" needs to be a female villain name in the next Bond movie.

If you are referring to Phelps, I think of it as history in the making. And you never know what exciting moments there might be: I am still buzzing from the finish of the relay that earned Phelps his first gold.

I'm thinking iSm was being sarcastic.

Yes, history in the making. But boring history. I'm pretty actively rooting against him just so people will shut up (nothing against him personally). If they'd waited until race five or six to start the endless hype I'd have been fine but now I just want him to lose so all the hype monkeys look foolish.

They are rerunning the coverage this evening.

If it weren't for that relay, I don't think it would have been as bad as it is. But that image of him cheering happened so early, and is the kind of image a producer of hype segments has wet dreams about, so they've jumped all over it. It was also the race he stood the biggest chance of losing, so once that was sealed, they could pretty safely just go ahead and talk as if it were a guarantee from there on out.

Oh :blush:

I had heard endlessly about his march to history before the Olympics began. So yeah, that may have been a key hurdle and launched to another level but it was hardly the start of annoying-level hype.

Well, let's set aside the fact that Sacramone failed miserably in the team competition, falling on her butt and whatnot. Ouch.

Shawn Johnson is a little packed powerhouse. She kind of reminded me a little of Mary Lou Retton.... just that huge burst of strength in such a tiny package.

If you look though, she had developed BUTTOCKS. NONE of the women had wide HIPS. Once your body starts to mature and your pelvic bones start to widen, and you get a noticeable waist and wider hips like an adult woman, it's physically more difficult to do some of those movements.

I agree with Alex. We should be judging adults on what adults can do, even if it means they might not be able to do quite the same limber stuff as a 14-year-old can do.

Steph -- that Time article is the ick. All the more reason for me to increase my hatred towards the Chinese government. Patooey!

One of the (Bulgaria? Russia? not sure) volleyball players playing against the US last night had the last name "Gaydarski".
I found that funny in a juvenille, silly way.

I imagined him going around to all the athletes in a thick accent:

"You, American diving of synchronicity, you are a gay."

"You, rolling in sand with other female volleyball player. You are gay female like Etheridge, Melissa."

"You, Phelps. You are not a gay. But many queens across your country have crush on you..."

"You male gymnast, you are gay like male hanging out in Build-A-Bear Store without girlfriend."

:D

That's frelling hilarious!

I think this one would trip a different -dar than gaydar.

So I know all the men swimming at the Olympics are physical freaks, but I've decided that France's Alain Bernard takes the cake as the most freakily proportioned:



I mean, look at his shoulders, they're absurd!

He looks a little less freakish when he hasn't just exerted himself and is celebrating a medal, but still....



And I've just realized what he reminds me of. I feel bad as I think this is kinda insulting, but none the less, it's the image that I get when I see him:

Sounds like someone wishes he was a disproportional French goon.
:D

And big shoulders are inevitable if you swim. My shoulders got wider when I swam.

Yup.

There was member of the women's team on What Not to Wear who was having a heck of a time finding tops that fit correctly because of her shoulders.

Like I said, I know they're all freaks. But if you'd seen the wider shot of the first one I posted, he's stands out even among that crowd as an uber freak.

Yeah, I know. I'm not arguing. I do think he's kinda hot, too.

It was funny, as a kid I was on two swim teams and practiced everyday. Then one day my friend said, 'Hey, your shoulders are big!' And I looked in the mirror and saw that she was right. Didn't even notice or think about it.

Watching the swimming made me want to get back to swimming.
:)

When I was swimming regularly what freaked me out was the muscle at the front of my armpit that got really big really fast. I felt like I was sprouting wings or something.

I hated the butterfly stroke. Couldn't do it to save my life. But I was really good doing the backstroke and freestyle. The breast stroke bored me. It felt like I wasn't moving fast enough for all the effort put into it...
:)

And that is when you knew you were gay.

I also figured it out when I was not able to get out of the water when the buff guy swimmers were using the outside showers in their Speedos.
:D

I can imagine. Also, without perfect alignment of your "rudder" you'd end up swimming in circles.

Exactly. Good thing for the lane lines.

Yes.

Sorry to be so late in responding, it's been a busy day at work.

But my remark needs some 'splaining.



We were once chatting with some German exchange students about our respective grade school field trips. Whereas we would go to things like The Post Office ... they were always going to Castles. Without exception.

After a while, their actual reaction was, "Uch, another Castle?! How boring!"


So I have adopted that as my reaction to anything that's spectacular, but perhaps in danger of losting luster by being too repetitive.





ETA: and if swimming gives you shoulders, where do I sign up??

Yay - Bronze for Australia in what I call "The Wobbly-Walk" :D

Universal HD is showing an AWESOME boxing match right now. An Uzbeki (Tulashboy Donyorov) vs. an Indian (Jitender Kumar), and Donyorov is fighting dirty.

Wow, that was crazy. When exactly did Olympic boxing devolve into anarchy?

What happened? So far all of the boxing I've seen (and that seems to be 80% of what they show on Universal HD) has suffered from excessive boringness.

OMG, dude came in grappling. No bones about it, he was wrapping Kumar up and taking him down to the matt. Continuously. And the only official warning, costing 2 points, was issued to Kumar because he got frustrated and pushed Donyrov off with a forum.

Kumar won the fight, by a big margian, and did a remarkable job of keeping his cool.

I admit that my skepticism about the US Men's basketball team is waning.

The main reason I don't like the NBA is lack of team play and lack of defense. After watching a lot fo the USA - Greece and USA- Spain (that game is currently at half time), I am impressed with how the US is doing both of these (I won't bore anyone with my analysis as to why). As GD said earlier in this thread, these guys have come to play.

And on another note.... .01 seconds. Wow. The Serbs protested, but the slow mo replay clearly showed the win (or so I read - I haven't examined the slo mo). I suppose this will give the freakishly small amount of time margin haters fodder.

The women's singles badminton finals were on. A shot hit the net and trickled over. The annoucer said "That landed like a butterfly with sore feet".

What??????

That Jamaican runner dude is freaking incredible. Looks like he's just jogging along, and is miles ahead of eveyone else. Bizarro.

Chinese iron grip on games slipping

A sad and somewhat revealing article on China and the games.

A non-competitive marathon doesn't not make good TV.

Even so, I am in AWE of the women running. The leader is consistently running a 5:25 mile. I can't run one 5:25 mile, let alone one at mile 25.

:eek:

Ohhhh, man! They rolled that tape out within her view! Can you imagine what was going through her head watching them roll "her" tape out?

Marathon finish... that is a HARD moment to enjoy! Look at her face!

We have skipped most of the women's marathon, but started watching as they were outside the Bird's Nest. We got a hearty laugh out of the lens being wiped down on live TV.

Okay, just have to say that the "escort" dresses are beautiful!

Seems to me the US should get partial credit for training half of the world's athletes. ;)

One more race then sleep. Fingers crossed.

He did it.

That Bolt dude from Jamaica is freakin' FAST!!! I think he could have run the 100M even faster

That 100m was unreal.

BTW, that marathon winner is 39!

Another board spoiled me on the Phelps win. Stupid internet. Anyway, I love the 41 yo gal who got her silver!! Go Dara!

phelps who?

That doesn't surprise me much, elite marathoning is an (relatively) old person's sport. The winner isn't always old but it isn't uncommon either (I think the mens 1984 winner was 38 or something like that).

All three of the women's medal winners are 30+. Yay old people sports.

Phelps - wow. That was awesome to watch. Good for him.
Torres - amazing.
Bolt - fast, great athlete... too cocky.
:)

I really dislike the sprinters. Their egos are way too huge. That guy was showboating before he even finished. I wish he had tripped and lost.

Hooray for the US women's foil team who won a silver medal yesterday! First ever US medal for team fencing. They look so excited in the photos and a local woman was on the team. Great coverage in this morning's paper.

I would agree. He is obviously an amazing runner, but a little sportsmanship wouldn't have hurt any.

I had a coach once tell me that when you're great or have accomplished something great, everyone knows it. When you act like you're great or have done something great, everyone knows it but thinks you're an a$$.

99.9% of the time I agree, but for some reason I'll never understand I forgive it in 100M sprinters.

So, yesterday we were watching the trampoline event and during a slow-mo replay, it was impossible not to notice that one of the Chinese participants was pitching a tent during his routine. So we were already giggling like 12 year olds at that, so you can imagine our juvenile glee when his score came up, revealing his name..."Dong Dong".

Dong Dong? Bwahahahaha!!!!!!!

Hmm, I guess it's all a matter of perception, then. From the look on his face, I believed it was elation and some surprise that he was alone up front. Prior to the run, they'd talked about his biggest competition, and to not see them in his periphery must have been a thing of shock and joy.


I'm still enjoying the Olympics immensely. Unfortunately, I'll be missing the last week of it being in Cali. (Worse yet, I'll be so busy, I won't have time to hang out with anyone :( )

If you can run 30 miles per hour and it isn't straight down the side of a building, you get to do whatever you want.

Plus that is good practice for his future NFL career where slowing down and holding the ball out in premature celebration has a history of bad results.

I hate that attitude in all athletes, really.

There's a difference between the elation of a moment (perhaps spiking the ball after a big touchdown in a big game) and moonwalking into the end zone.

That's why I always liked Barry Sanders so much. Never any of that. He was great, just did his job, another day at the office.

I like it when elite athletes demonstrate that they are still aware that the only reason they exist is to act as dancing monkeys for the general populace. And that means throwing poop.

Maurice Greene's tongue?

Hmmm....best beware or you'll be called a racist.

I've been called worse. Besides, I was thinking of Shawn Johnson when I said it. She's a little pygmy dancing monkey.

Dance monkey dance! Shake your booty! Shake it!





Is statutory lechery an improvement?

Thorpedo! Loved him and missed him this time around!

That sounds like a marital aid.

My bottom hurts just thinking about it.

Did anyone post this yet?
Lego Olympics

The cutie Matthew Mitcham made it into the semifinals today! Wooooot! (Yes, he is the only out gay man in the entire olympics, can you believe it)

Five posts above yours.

Would-be protesters detained for filing request to protest

Look at this awesome cyclist tattoo!

Aw jeez... *smacks forehead*

I've figured out why Michael Phelps is doing so well...

He's the Mariner!

Is trampoline the gymnastics for those who couldn't make the gymnastics teams?

Olympic Gymnastic scoring sucks












ETA: and why is it a bad thing when girl's legs some apart?