Olympics 2008

[Strangler Lewis]

Didn't see it all, but as Olympic closing ceremony hooey goes, that was quite beautiful. However, it was also a little frightening, in a "we will bury you" sense. Lots of war drums, and all those little people scampering up and coming off that tower reminded me of Cloverfield.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Heehee, the mayor of London was an overgrown UK schoolboy. He was cracking me up. Nice finale, though the part they called the " athletes party" featured opera singing? Hell of a party...

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Heehee, the mayor of London was an overgrown UK schoolboy. He was cracking me up.

"Who, me? I'm supposed to take the flag? Cool!"

[BarTopDancer]

Watching the closing ceremonies, and the montages reinforced that we are one world. Yes, we think China is fvcked up government wise but their people are still people. Our government isn't anything to write home about these days either. Some people want change, some don't. But like Middle East, it's not really our place to impose our thoughts of an ideal country on them. We can express our disagreement but we aren't their mother.

It wasn't that long ago that Los Angeles was living in a constant state of smog. We cleaned it up, but it wasn't overnight.

We are one world, it's all we have and in the end all it's people bleed the same color.

[mousepod]

Wow. I had such a different impression of the closing ceremony. I thought that the beauty and precision of the opening ceremony was trashed in favor of a garish CdS-style spectacle. Maybe it was the crappy out-of-sync audio... maybe it was the giant phallic monument being f***ed by suspended gymnasts in bike helmets, maybe it was the "Logan's Run meets Tron" floating people... maybe it was the slo-mo British "dancers" running for the bus... probably it was all of the above. Yuck.

[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.

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:

Spoiler:

             TOTAL MEDALS (Events)   /MM Pop

Spoiler:

Iceland                14 (1)          44.30
The Bahamas             5 (2)          15.11
Australia             150 (46)          7.01
Jamaica                17 (11)          6.26
Norway                 26 (10)          5.44
Cuba                   47 (24)          4.17
Netherlands            64 (16)          3.89
Trinidad & Tobago       5 (2)           3.75
Denmark                18 (7)           3.28
New Zealand            14 (9)           3.27
Belarus                30 (19)          3.10
Hungary                27 (10)          2.69
Slovenia                5 (5)           2.46
Estonia                 3 (2)           2.24
Armenia                 6 (6)           2.00
Slovakia               10 (6)           1.85
Spain                  73 (18)          1.58
Serbia                 15 (3)           1.52
Mongolia                4 (4)           1.52
Lithuania               5 (5)           1.49
South Korea            68 (31)          1.41
Georgia                 6 (6)           1.37
Germany               111 (41)          1.35
Argentina              53 (6)           1.32
Latvia                  3 (3)           1.32
Bahrain                 1 (1)           1.32
UK                     80 (47)          1.31
France                 74 (40)          1.15
Croatia                 5 (5)           1.10
USA                   320 (110)         1.05
Romania                22 (8)           1.03
Canada                 34 (18)          1.02
Russia                143 (72)          1.01
Finland                 5 (4)           0.94
Switzerland             7 (6)           0.92
Kazakhstan             13 (13)           0.90
Azerbaijan              7 (7)           0.83
Mauritius               1 (1)           0.79

===================MEDIAN===================

Sweden                  7 (5)           0.76
Italy                  43 (28)          0.72
Ireland                 3 (3)           0.68
Ukraine                31 (27)          0.67
Bulgaria                5 (5)           0.65
Singapore               3 (1)           0.65
Greece                  7 (4)           0.63
Czech Republic          6 (6)           0.58
Poland                 20 (10)          0.52
Belgium                 5 (2)           0.47
Brazil                 75 (15)          0.40
Japan                  51 (25)          0.40
Kyrgystan               2 (2)           0.38
Kenya                  14 (14)          0.37 
Austria                 3 (3)0.36
Zimbabwe                4 (4)0.30
Tajikistan              2 (2)0.30
 Panama                  1 (1)0.30
Moldova                 1 (1)0.26
North Korea             6 (6)0.25
Uzbekistan              6 (6)0.22
Dominican Republic      2 (2)0.20
Portugal                2 (2)0.19
Republic of China       4 (4)0.17
Nigeria                24 (4)           0.16
Togo                    1 (1)0.15
China                 188 (100)         0.14
Israel                  1 (1)0.14
Turkey                  8 (8)0.11
Tunisia                 1 (1)0.10
Ethiopia                7 (7)0.09
Ecuador                 1 (1)0.07
Thailand                4 (4)0.06
Algeria                 2 (2)0.06
Morocco                 2 (2)0.06
Chile                   1 (1)0.06
Cameroon                1 (1)0.05
Mexico                  4 (3)0.04
Colombia                2 (2)0.04
Malaysia                1 (1)0.04
South Africa            1 (1)0.04
Afghanistan             1 (1)0.04
Venezuela               1 (1)0.04
Indonesia               7 (5)0.03
Iran                    2 (2)0.03
Sudan                   1 (1) 0.03
Egypt                   1 (1)0.01
Vietnam                 1 (1)0.01
India                   3 (3)0.003

[Moonliner]

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 find it fascinating that if Michael Phelps was a country he would have tied Italy for 9th place in the gold medal count. Finishing ahead of France, Japan, Spain and a host of other countries.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

I always love the Olympics and this time 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.

Wow: I could posted pretty much the exact same thing.

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

Is it hockey season yet?

Anxious to root for the San Jose Sharks again?

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Anxious to root for the San Jose Sharks again?

Only when it benefits the Ducks. So ask me again in April/May

[Snowflake]

There were things I loved and hated about the Olympics this time around. I really do not like NBC sometimes. Since we're getting so much of it delayed on the west coast, is there any real reason we can't at the very least see the entire rotation for the diving finals? Not just the US divers and/or the top divers (and in some cases not even that, much of the diving finals had a Cuban in 2nd place, never even saw him).

I must have totally mistimed it, I never saw even one single event for the Decathalon. In fact, I missed most of the track and field events, except for the Bolt races in repeats over several days. Those were thrilling, dayum he is one fast runner, lightening bolt, indeed. I don't think I could get my a$$ out of the blocks in 9.67 seconds, forget actually running the 100 meters!

I loved both the opening and closing ceremonies and agree, the Mayor of London really needed a suit that fit (button up dammit, this is the Olympics) and a haircut. All the beautiful scenary really made me want to visit China.

I enjoyed it, had trouble finding events I really wanted to see, kept finding the endless coverage of the gazillion rounds of boxing (feather, welter, heavyweight and everything in between).

Looking forward to London in 2012.