Olympics 2008

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Alex

Congratulations to Iceland, Bahamas, and Australia for taking the gold, silver, and bronze in total medal count, adjusted for national population. Sadly, the good old USA came in 29th but the evil Chinese came in a horrible 57th.

I've decided that to the degree I care about medal counts it is the number of physical medals (gross number of medals adorning necks from each country; e.g., winning the a basketball medal counts as 12 since 12 people get a medal) as a proportion of national population.
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And thanks to a four hour conference call I have to be on but don't have to participate in, a table of the results:

I'd be a little more interested in that list if I knew it was adjusted by representation at the games. Obviously countries with exponentially-larger populations are not going to be equally represented at the games, due to efforts by the IOC to be inclusive to nations with a population disadvantage. Sort of like Rhode Island being disproportionately represented in congress.

[Ghoulish Delight]

It was pretty standard fare for closing ceremonies I thought. They never match the opening. Among other things, as mentioned during the broadcast, the stadium is in use until a few hours before the closing ceremony starts, so they simply don't have time to put on a show that's even a fraction of the scale of the opening. So they tend to revert back to standard marching band and half time show theatrics. I thought there were some cool elements, but overall it dragged and was pretty unspectacular.

What's really of note is the fact that during the London segment, when the little girl came out of the bus and took the soccer ball from the other little girl, there were actually 2 other girls who had won a contest but they were deemed too ugly so the real winners were actually back stage exchanging a real soccer ball while the more acceptable looking girls exchanged a fake one for cameras.

[innerSpaceman]

I'm not sure if that was a joke or not, but it's why the snowball rolled downhill from me staying up too late to watch the Olympics to reverting to my original personal boycott plans.

I decided to be cool and not base my opinion of the Olympics on China's government as a whole. But things related to the Olympics were fair game. So it all started with the contest winning singer being too ugly for prime time. Why bother to have a contest then? Cover-up, scandalous. Then the 24 ethnic kids during the same ceremony were also fakes. Ugh.

Gets worse. The Chinese female gymnast gold medalist is an underage cheat with China's complicity.

Last straw for me: There are 3 official protest zones. They're probably in the hinterlands (so far, no different than current America, to our shame) ... but you can apply for a permit to protest the Olympics. Except, in the immortal words of Admiral Akbar ... It's A Trap! No permits are ever granted and almost every applicant is sentenced to years in a re-education camp.


Sorry, my disgust overflows. I already ranted about the moral complicity of everyone involved, from the IOC officials down to the Athletes themselves. But as for me, I'm not even a Neilson family of one ... but I had to look away.




So I'm relieved the closing ceremonies sucked. But I'm sad I didn't get to see any diving. Oh well, there's always London.

[Ghoulish Delight]

As someone who was in some part in favor of some level of boycott before the Olympics, I came away with a hopeful feeling after watching them. The hope being that what the world saw was a country with over a billion people who are being controlled by a few very paranoid and very corrupt people. That the vast majority of Chinese are just people who want to live happy lives just as you and I do but can't because their dominating government remains assbackwards and closed minded. I hope that the revelation of the government's sloppy and pathetic deceptions show them to be not a country to be feared, but a ruling class out of touch with reality to be ridiculed. I saw faces of average Chinese citizens that want to be part of the world community but have no idea how to do so and need a lot of help to get there.




Changing gears: Tae Kwon Do competitor from Cuba kicks referee in the face for disqualifying him. Nice.

CP and I watched the gold medal boxing match between a Chinese and Irish boxer. The announcers showed complete disdain for the result (the Chinese boxer won), flat out accusing the judges of favoritism at best, perhaps even corruption. It ocurred to me how often I've seen that in boxing. Then it ocurred to me why. We're talking about a sport and sporting community populated by people who spend their lives punching each other in the face. No matter how many rules you create, how tightly you try to control things, that's not going to change. You're not going to get reason, sportsmanship, and fairness. You're going to get punched in the face.

[innerSpaceman]

And to me, frankly, all sport is but one stepped removed from punching your opponent in the face. The competitive nature encouraged in males by the indoctrination into the world of sport makes me ill.


Perhaps that's why I like gymnastics and diving best, where the competition comes from doing one's best just happening to be better than someone's else's best performed at a separate time or place, decided by another human being via imperfect means. I find this kind of stuff comfortably TWO steps away from punching each other in the face.



But it's still less admirable to me than the fella who hands a dollar to the homeless dude.



Sports. Feh.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

And to me, frankly, all sport is but one stepped removed from punching your opponent in the face. The competitive nature encouraged in males by the indoctrination into the world of sport makes me ill.


Perhaps that's why I like gymnastics and diving best, where the competition comes from doing one's best just happening to be better than someone's else's best performed at a separate time or place, decided by another human being via imperfect means. I find this kind of stuff comfortably TWO steps away from punching each other in the face.



But it's still less admirable to me than the fella who hands a dollar to the homeless dude.



Sports. Feh.

Olympic philanthropy? Not exactly friendly to the instant replay, is it?

[Strangler Lewis]

I'm a boxing fan of long standing, which I will from time to time feel bad about. However, Olympic thievery occurs in all sports, e.g., the 1972 men's basketball final. If Roy Jones, Jr. had been a gymnast, he still would have gotten screwed in Seoul.

At the pro level, I think the biggest problem is that boxing has no natural season. Hence, there is the temptation to create controversy to justify rematches.

[Not Afraid]

I always love the Olympics and this thime around was no different. There were some spectacular moments that I will remember always and I'm glad I got to experience them. Some of my favorites include: Women's Beach Volleyball, Bolt's 100 meters, Men's indoor Volleyball final, Men's 4x 100 swimming relay, Men's close call butterfly, Opening Ceremonies and the taste of London (I LOVED the look of it and am hoping that Matthew Bourne will have something to do with it).

I'm actually rather sad it is over, but I'll be happy to have my nights back. I have a list a mile long to catch up on.

[BarTopDancer]

Is it hockey season yet?

[Gemini Cricket]

I'm hoping the London Olympics will have quidditch.