f13.net

USA! USA! USA! :awesome_for_real:

38 Cal athletes, 37 for Stanford.  :grin:

Let's wait and see which group brings in the most medals :why_so_serious:

It's nice to see that people care about swimming and diving once every 4 years.   :why_so_serious:

Fixed.  I think ever since the Chinese decided to conquer the diving world, people care less about it than ever before!

Swimming has certainly had a greater exposure to the average American outside of the Olympics in the last 4 years.  Largely because of Michael Phelps, obviously, but it seems to get much more press, to the extent that there are other recognizable names and stories out there..  Probably won't stay that way once he retires.

For me, I freaking LOVE the track and field events, particularly the running.  Seriously, the events like the 100, the 200 and all the other relatively short distance events are some of the best and most intense drama in all of sports.  Even the females.

Diving is roughly 3000x more interesting to watch than swimming. I'm not sure there's a worse spectator sport than swimming in the Olympics.

I don't disagree with you, but I would place a pretty heavy wager that the swimming will get much higher ratings in general.  I have always thought competitive swimming was somewhat ridiculous, in that there are different methods being used that are clearly inferior to the others (e.g. breaststroke vs. crawl).  It would be the track and field equivalent of having the 100m sprint...only this time you have to run backwards.  Or just use the one leg.  Or with your hands tied behind your back!  And now we can repeat those same inferior methods over greater distances...how about the 10000m hopping on one leg backwards event!

And that's before you begin talking about how much their fucking clothing aids them.

You mean the hopping event in Track and Field -- aka the Triple Jump? How does that compare to the Long Jump? Or how about the Shot Put and Discus vs Javelin? Or what's up with those stupid hurdles and steeplechase barriers and water pits on the track? Why would you handicap yourself by putting that stuff out there? Why would you ever do a high jump when you can pole vault?

People care about diving, just ask any supporter of (insert your least favorite football/soccer team here)  :why_so_serious:

Hungary's not going to do well this year... at all. I'm not sure how much of this is due to the massive clusterfuck our country's been for the last 3 years or so...

False equivalency, in my opinion, though I would see why one would be attempted to compare.  Jumping hurdles in track is not equivalent to doing the butterfly in swimming.  Swimming underwater through hoops might be equivalent, but they don't do that (they totally should!). 

The difference in the track events is that the equipment is different.  The difference in the swimming event is the allowed body mechanics are different.

Speed walking!  That is a proper comparison of a track event.  And not suprisingly, it is ridiculous both to ponder and to watch.

All that said, I generally enjoy the swimming events.  But on a basic level, I still find them to be nonsensical.  It should all be freestyle, over different distances.  Unless they throw in some hoops.

Triple Jump and Long Jump the "equipment" is the same.

Go Italy!!!  :drill: :heart: :heart:

As always, we have big hopes for fencing and swimming (Federica  :heart:); I also think our female team in gymnastic (artistic) will provide a good show :). Oh, and Tania Cagnotto for diving just behind the chinese robots :P

Personally, beside the usual suspects like track 'n field, my favourite sports at the Olympics are:

- Archery (yep :P)
- 50km Race Walk (because it reminds me of Stephen King's "The Long Walk"...Someday, maybe they'll implement the same rules of the novel, muahhaha  :drill:)
- 10km Swimming Marathon (fascinating to see them swim outside of the usual, boring lanes)
- Tennis (because I love tennis in general)
- Triathlon (it's pretty funny if TV covers the event properly)
- Boxing (when it's not rigged...so that's difficult :P)

Enjoy the Olympics!  :thumbs_up:

Yay! time for the other Olympics.

We don't do quite as well at summer sports...

Time for us to dominate such high profile sports such as Kayaking!
Should still be fun though. Oddly, I'm looking forward to seeing Mary Poppins fight Voldemort in the opening ceremonies.

Like most sports, you have to know what's going on to enjoy it.  Swimmers love watching swimming.  I catch it any time it's on.

There's much more to each stroke than just doing it differently and distance makes a huge impact on strategy and physical exertion.  Cyrrex sounds like a guy who's never actually been in a pool at all and it's amusing.


Still better than nobody ever caring about fencing, judo, ping-pong, badminton and so many of the other sports that compete but are never recognized.

I love how ESPN, since they don't have the TV rights, is basically ignoring the games.

Oh and when they aren't, the headline story today is "Fear & Loathing in London"

Stay classy ESPN.  :why_so_serious:

I've never been much for the track and field events, but I could watch the indoor volleyball and table tennis/badminton events all day.  Handball, field hockey and Water polo too.  If curling could be in both the summer and winter olympics I'd be in heaven.  I'll be glued to the tv/monitor anyway.

http://deadspin.com/5929333/we-will-go-on-believing-that-the-olympians-crashed-grindr-despite-what-grindr-says

Other funny Olympic story that the gay cruising app Grindr crashed at the same time all the Olympic participants showed up.

Hey, I love fencing! And archery. I love watching archery.

I predict Archery is going to be very popular this Olympics thanks to The Hunger Games.

I like the Olympics. Mostly I like the obscure stuff like badminten and boating. I'll watch pretty much everything but the "women's" gymnastics which are just too  :pedobear: and massively over covered on US TV. My partner and I are both boxing fans and really looking forward to the debut of women's boxing.

And yeah, archery is going to be huge.

I remain skeptical on the archery front.  Even if it is popular, it hasn't been in the past and you - maybe- got an hour or so televised of the final round, but never during Primetime.

National Lampoon had the best satire of Women's Gymnastics years and years ago.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGwIyzrlOMQ  {NSFW}

For what it's worth the BBC are streaming literally everything this time.

Opening ceremony wasn't screwed up in any way this evening, another sigh of relief goes up across the UK.

Okay.  The announcer just said that England hasn't scored a goal in the olympics in football since 1960.  That's pathetic.   :oh_i_see:

They haven't even qualified for the main tournament since then.

In other news, Japan beat Spain? Madness.

That was certainly an opening ceremony.

The cauldron itself was very cool - but I really don't understand why it was lit by some random people apparently dragged in off the street.

Rest of it felt satisfyingly British and not in fact embarrassing.


Considerably more fun to watch than trainspotting or the beach.

Ceremony good.

Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera bad.

Very, very bad, yes.  Though it's mainly Meredeth. She, or whoever is writing for her, should stop trying to be funny.

Best part of the ceremony was Rowan Atkinson.  Otherwise it was ok.

I wasn't a huge fan of the theme of the opening ceremony, although it was well put together.  It seemed to say, "we had this beautiful country and then we turned into a huge pile of slag".  Reminded me of Lord of the Rings, in a way, with the industrialization, glowing rings and hobbit holes. 

The Queen looked a bit like my grandmother when she had late stage Alzheimers, i.e. like she had no fucking clue what was going on.  Does she smile? 

(http://i.imgur.com/usrKO.jpg)

Someone tell me when they are done introducing all the countries. *snooze*

McCartney did not sound good at all. 

The queen and Bond jumping out of a chopper  :drill:

And yea, if you're not a swimmer or diver, you won't get the nuance.

Olympic Welcome from Boris Johnson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEDFMKjhLRw)

Also, the opening ceremony was awesome.

Just turned on Eurosport to the pornography that is Womens beach volleyball.  :awesome_for_real:

They were seven youngsters who are expected to challenge for Gold at the 2016 Olympics, to fit in the whole 'inspiring the next generation' thing they have going.

It wasnt explained well to the outside audience though, so the confusion is understandable.

Also it was a bit of a rubbish idea.

I get a little laugh out of the google doodles that can't mention the Olympics because of the IOC's rabid trademark protection.

So we open the Saturday of coverage on NBC with a cycling road race and a women's basketball game...

Seriously? Maybe ghost is happy.

They can't show any of the more interesting things because watching it live when they can tape delay it for big time ad dollars during prime time makes them more money.

It fitted the theme very well, it was sort of, I'm not here basking in my achievements, I'm looking forward to seeing yours in the future.  False modesty, very British.  I tuned in expecting to be terribly embarrassed and was disappointed, except for the Queen jumping out of the helicopter bit which was a bit odd, it was pretty great.

Fucking right I am.   :awesome_for_real:

I have to say that I'm a bit torn at watching Vinokourov win the Gold.  On the one hand he's a feisty rider, always is attacking and rides hard.  On the other hand he's a known doper and I've generally put him in the "enemy" category when it comes to who I pull for.  But I respect his riding and it makes it fun.  I think he's retiring after this year and, if so, it would put a nice ending on his career.  If his pee samples are clean. 

I rather liked it. The Cauldron bit was really well done, I liked the whole Britian Forging Their Ring of Power and Taking Over Half the Word (that symbolized Britian Imperialism, right?).

Actually the effects were rather interesting, and the whole thing was very British -- which I prefer to Shock and Awe approaches. I'd like to see the country's actual flavor, humor, and style.

The 100 foot Voldemort made me hope that when Japan gets the Olympics, there's a massive brawl between Godzilla, Pikachu, and --- I dunno, insert your favorite Giant Robot. (Big O!).

I was a little pissy that James Bond and Mary Poppins showed up, but no Doctor? Not even a Blue Box? Obviously my happy little dream of the Tenth Doctor running up and lighting the thing wasn't going to happen, but come on. :)

The American voice over people -- jesus fucking condescending christ. I was wincing in places. It was just...jesus. No wonder people think we're arrogant jackasses. I'm not sure if I can put my finger on any given moment, but especially during the parade of nations it was....ugh.

I did find myself wondering, during the Parade bit, whether everyone else's outfits were (in their home countries) basically as bland and inoffensive and boring as the American ones. Way to go, Ralph Lauren. You managed to nail "Patriotically colored Yachting Club" on the head.

McCartney didn't sound the greatest, but I think he actually choked up on the intro to Hey Jude, so that's forgiveable. :) Made me want to play Beatles Rock Band, and then wondered how he felt being the only Beatle left for so damn long.

I was surprised by how many flag carriers were fighters -- taekwondo, Judo, boxing should up a lot.

My in-laws hated the whole thing.

Didn't see the opening ceremonies, did catch Mr. Bean having good fun online.  The bike race was pretty cool, actually pretty dramatic at the very end.  Mainly enjoyed seeing British countryside and city streets.  Then caught Phelps almost not making the swim finals but his unguarded post-swim interview was cool.  I turned it off at women's basketball.

If only NBC would lose the Olympics, god they suck.  They never, ever shut up.  Al Michaels is the exception.

This. A thousand times this. Three villains and just Mary Poppins to fight them?

And Ringo's not dead yet.

Their coverage of sports is atrocious. They've lost every major sporting contract except the Olympics over the years. Oh, and ND football nobody gives a shit about. The only remotely interesting contract they still contract is the Sunday Night NFL contract. However, since they don't start flexing games until November, you can get a bunch of early shit matches like the Saints v. Colts sans Manning.

I thought it was interesting at how similar the Russian outfits were to ours.

I loved the parade as it went so much faster than prior years that I've watched.  The overall "show" part of it left a little to be desired for me, but it was obviously well done. 

Watching womens indoor volleyball. Memo to parents everywhere, if your last name is Hooker, please don't name your child "Destinee".

Haha, you think that's bad you should see some of the names down here in Atlanta.

Right now I'm trying to get news on the shooting and archery, but there's very limited play of those events. Other than that, most of what I'm interested in is at the end: Sailing, the long bike (especially mountain bike), the triathlons, the marathons, and rhythmic gymnastics (which, again, is hard to find on TV). So much of the coverage is full of pool swimming (which is dull as paste), artistic gymnastics (which is a freakshow), football and basketball.

I'll probably have to catch the events I love on some bizzare NBC channel at 3am.

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this already, but if you have a cable package which has the NBC channels, you can stream everything from www.nbcolympics.com  It picked up on our Comcast subscription right away.  I guess I'm finally going to make use of that cable package my wife convinced me to get  :why_so_serious:

Best part of Comcast owning NBC - not allowing non-cable users to watch, even with ads, olympics online.

To be fair, the sign-in requirement is similar to what you need for WatchESPN, but then ESPN has tons of content on ESPN3 that just requires you to have a specific ISP, not a verified cable package with their channels on it.

Pretty lame that it's all behind the same wall AND the OTA TV coverage is tape-delayed for an age if you're on the West Coast.

I just posted this on FB-


Seriously WTF? How did she not end up on the pole at least? Child abuse.

Destinee.

Pretty sure that's worse, not sure if it really matters though...

I'd say she was raised by rednecks, but the fact she is black and born in Germany sorta threw me for a loop.

She's black. We do shit like that.

Michael Phelps has apparently smoked too much pot since the last olympics.

No, his heart's not in it.  Watch the interviews with him, he's already decided it's over for him and isn't going to stay in for 2016.  Instead of being in the "I'm going out with a bang and showing these guys I'm the best" mindset he's in the "this is it, it's all over. What do I do now?" zone.    I thought he was dogging it at the trials but based on the interview with Seacrest (seriously, why is that guy in EVERYTHING?) and the post-race interview you can see it's really a mental thing.   

The 4th place finish is really a matter of the lane he was in.  Even with the free lane between him and the side of the pool it's a bad spot.  All the waves created in the pool bounce-back off the wall in to those lanes the most so there's a lot more turbulence in the water on both the end lanes.   Add that to not being near the other leaders to attempt to draft from and it's more physically exhausting.

His heart hasn't been in it for a while, hence the too much pot (and general partying).  If his heart had been in it he wouldn't have been out fucking around all the time.  Hell, I don't think he go into a pool for a year or more after the last Olympics.  

Otherwise, did you see Abby Wambach get the shit knocked out of her?

Eh, he wasn't even going to do this race originally, he hasn't been training for races of this length I don't think.

Also good god the other guy seems like a total douchebag.

I'm beginning to think all swimmers are douchebags at this rate.  :why_so_serious:

:awesome_for_real:
(seriously)

You are only beginning to think that? I thought it was commonly agreed that was the case.

Yes, Lochte has always been a douche and I've never really cared for him.  I was kind of happy he took a back seat to Phelps who while a bit of a dork & a huge mamma's boy is a nice guy.   Most of the top ones these days are douches, yes.  I blame Thorpe, that's where a lot of it started.

Yeah, the "Thorpedo" was a complete tool. 

If I never had to watch any swimming this Olympics, I'll be a happy man.

That and the marathon are some of the most piss-poor TV events in sports.

It goes back a lot further than that -- Mark Spitz is and was an asshole too:

Phelps (and most American swimmers) are really un-popular where I am. Most American athletes are. Question of cash and exposure, really. Especially the swimmers and their dolphin DNA and over-engineered suits. They really need to give everyone the same stuff. Thankfully coverage here in Canada is so much better now that we don't have to leech off of American coverage to get a better experience (when CBC had the Olympics the coverage was abysmal compared to the American coverage).

I don't mind watching the swimming, personally, but I much prefer to watch the Tennis, Badminton, Volleyball, combat sports and rowing -- oh and the freaks that are in table tennis. Too bad my country is atrocious at the summer events. Maybe global warming will help change that  :awesome_for_real:

They made a suit ruling after 2008 when so many records fell.  Men can only wear them from hip to knee and women have to have exposed arms and below-knee.   This was primarily done because the swimming overlords were freaked that the sharkskin suits were dropping so many records, but the secondary effect is that it makes them more affordable, too.   Anyone swimming at this level has a sponsorship, anyway, so they've got access to the suits.  It's just that in 2008 not everyone was on-board with them as being effective.  The games showed those poo-pooing them to be totally wrong.

Yes, Spitz is an asshole. I'd forgotten about him; a fitting fate for his kind of douchebaggery.

WTF!!!  Whats up with this women's beach volleyball match???   Why are they wearing body suits and not the skimpy bikinis??? :ye_gods:  I want my 30 seconds back.

Interesting; didn't know about that suit ruling. Good thing, because yeah, in 2008 it was a big deal here in Canada.

Now we just need the Americans to stop injecting dolphin DNA into their swimmers :why_so_serious:

Its interesting to hear a lot of disappointment already here in Canada and the games have barely started, like its any surprise.

I LOL'ed when the Canadian Olympic committee said their goal was a top 12 finish in the medal count for London.  Good luck with that. :oh_i_see:

Olympic swimmers tend to be either complete tools or just really nice people with not much in-between. Same for water polo players, mostly because they come from, pun intended, the same general pool. I was on the same high school team as a couple of former olympians and yeah, weapons-grade douchebaggery.

Phelps is not nearly the tool that Lochte is, and it's showing here. The media has played up this huge rivalry between him and his roommate and he's not going for it. It is a bit mental, but it's also just him saying, "fuck this, you guys aren't going to build another narrative around me."

The only sport that interests me in either the winter or summers games is hockey.  Go figure.

Ginaz; blame the weather in London, apparently. CTV did a story on it, actually.. guess it was a big deal to have a lack of flesh exposed. And yeah, a top 12 finish is not going to happen. We were lucky to finish 15th in 2008 and have already had a couple potential medals slip away.

That Neymar guy is pretty good.

 :grin:  Just a function of population.  We've got more people so we're going to be doing better because of a bigger talent pool.   China's kicking everyone's asses (again) for this exact reason.  11 medals to the US' 10, but 6 of China's are Gold.

Yeah, I was thinking Mark Spitz was a douche (although I had a fondness for him anyway because of his doofy mustache), but I didn't really notice that they all seem to be douchebags until recently.

I still like watching swimming, though, dunno why. I'd rather watch some other shit but my main preference is actual sporting event as opposed to bullshit tinkly music human interest pieces.

I almost wonder if it's a self-conscious thing.   I found a pic of Jen Kessy (34) without one of those tops. She looks damn good for a 34-year-old who's had kids (3 IIRC) Up against some of the younger women she'd look haggard and you know she'd be compared because the media is a bunch of catty bastards.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4453664/Sexy-volleyball-players-keen-to-net-Prince-Harry.html

I'm pretty sure it is just cold in London.

That.

Yeah there was a shot of the line judge during yesterday's US/Australia match and they were bundled the fuck up, including having her (possibly his, it was impossible to tell!) hood up.  :why_so_serious:

Doesn't explain why the US is the only team wearing them. Even teams from hotter climates, like Argentina, are still wearing the bikinis.

The net judges are wearing some sort of environment suit (the grey bulky thing) but they appear to be the only ones as I scan through the net feed.  The sideline judges are all wearing shorts and short-sleeves so it can't be that cold.  Just looks to be rainy from the amount of umbrellas in the stands.   Weather reports the highs have been in the mid 60's to low 70's, but rainy.  *shrug*

The Australians were all bundled up last night as well, acutally, more than the Americans.

Wasn't just the US. Both pairs in Brazil vs. Netherlands had black full body suits on.

Well, the Italy/Russia match doesn't feature any body suits. Don't think its something that's threatening to over take the sport.

I just watched that match and was surprised at the body suits.  There was a men's match the day before and they weren't wearing that stuff.

I was at a bar so the sound was off and I didn't hear why the cameramen weren't zooming in on the the sign language they use on their butts...

Terrible loss, especially with the Brazil team.

WRT the swimming douches, wasn't there something during the Beijing Olympics when the Australian relay team beta the US team and they were mocking the Americans by playing some air guitar?  I think someone on the US team made a comment about the Australian team and had to eat some crow after he lost.

Edit: Found it.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-08-06/swimming-form-guide-mens-4x100m-freestyle-relay/466940

Ah Dutch field hockey. Thanks for showing up!  :drill: :grin:

Field hockey has to be the most boring sport in the world.

I don't follow field hockey anymore and haven't seen any of the Olympic coverage on it, but the field hockey I remember was entertaining just for the sheer brutality of it -- especially women's. It wasn't uncommon for games to have 3-4 serious injuries (such as broken legs and the like) from all the thwacking, spearing and out-right 'beat the other team with this handy stick!' aspect of the game.

The only field hockey game I've ever watched had a stoppage of play every like 15 seconds.

Regarding some of my swimming posts back on Page 1:

- Yes Trippy, triple jump is kind of a good comparison too.  It is kind of silly (and also looks stupid as fuck).
- Merusk, I do understand the nuances of the race, but you weren't too far off about your comment about my likely water sport abilities.  I stink at swimming.  If there was an Olympic event call the "4 x 100m sink-to-the-bottom-of-the-pool-and-die medley" then I'd be solid choice for anchor.

Mostly I was joking, even if I still find it funny that they have the different strokes they use.  Regardless, I rather like watching the swimming events.  Maybe because I am a terrible swimmer, I am rather in awe of them.

Pretty much this. There is no aesthetic quality to field quality as far as I'm concerned.

The Dutch team is pretty. So I like it.

Who'd known that fencing could be that exciting.

Wow.  The US mens' gymnastic squad really shit the bed.   :uhrr:

Be even better if they'd allow shields.

(http://percentsign20.com/files/random/london/bbc-w-epee-3.jpg)

So yeah, I've become mildly obsessed with this Women's Epee Semifinal.  Short version: tied at 5 with one second left, a very long second passes, and the German fencer (and defending Gold medalist) scores a hit right at the buzzer.  Pretty much everyone acknowledges that the timekeeper (which is separate from the referee at large televised events) was slow on starting the clock after the referee started them up again.  A 25 minute or so huddle of various officials ensues.  Match is called for the German.  The South Korean fencer is still standing there (she'd been on the verge of completely breaking down for most of this) apparently because she has to or else she accepts the result.

So she's stuck up there for on the stage while this whole appeal process is going on.  We're about an hour out from the match "ending".

E: Scaled screen cap down.

And the jig is up... (sorry for the crappy VPN-tunneled video quality)

(http://percentsign20.com/files/random/london/bbc-w-epee-7.jpg)

(http://percentsign20.com/files/random/london/bbc-w-epee-8.jpg)

(http://percentsign20.com/files/random/london/bbc-w-epee-10.jpg)

Handball is pretty dull from what I can see. On the flip side, the cycling and weightlifting have been exciting to watch.

Also, it's really not cold at all in London right now.

And now Lochte got his ass handed to him.   :oh_i_see:

He's the anti-Phelps. A douche wrapped in a loser.

 :yahoo:

I like seeing the US people do well, even if they are assbags. 

I'd rather be cheerful about the swimmers from the US that I don't know for certain are douchebags. Semi-rooting against your own country because they're assholes is totally American, dammit!

And also rooting for other countries because you're "from" there. Like I totally root for Poland!  :why_so_serious:

(http://www.kastawayswimwear.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/lochteshoepr1.jpg)

Just sayin'.

I placate myself by assuming that the competition for these guys are probably blowhard assbags too, but just in another language so I can't understand their assbaggery.  

They are.

Currently on an Olympics overdose, as expected  :woot:

Very happy about the italian expedition, so far: 'til today in the afternoon, we were right behind China and the U.S. in the medal standings. Confirmed our legendary status in the women's foil, and it was a great showing in the men's archery team contest, among other stuff.

I really enjoyed the match between USA and Brazil in women's volleyball earlier in the afternoon, and cheered like a madman 'til half an hour ago for the italian women volleyball team, who beat Japan 3-1 ; can't wait for Pellegrini tomorrow in 200m swimming final; today, gymnastics and Epee fencing were interesting to say the least :P

Been catching bits and pieces...

Air rifle is stupid. Sure, it might be a sport...sort of, but it's bloody boring to watch.

I don't see how we can have air rifle but no baseball.   :oh_i_see:

Because MLB plays in the summer and nobody wants to watch scrubs play.

Baseball isn't competitive enough globally; it's why softball got the axe after Bejing. America does well enough already, you don't need two more free gold medals.

Dressage on the other hand, can fuck right off. I fail to see how this is in any sense athletic or even a sport.

If MLB players were available, then I think you'd actually see pretty decent competition from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, etc.

Air rifle? Like... BB Guns? This is new to me, time for research.


Also: Britain Men's Gymnastics got robbed. Japan's dude did not go up into a handstand, he flubbed it before going vertical.  Fuck appeasing the favorites on reviews.   Grats on the 1st medal anyway, even though you thought you had the silver.

Not knowing the intracacies of the judging and appeal system, I would have to assume that they technically made the correct call according to the book.  That said, fuck the book, because that was one shitty dismount.  It sure as shit didn't meet any reasonable person's definition of a handstand.

Speaking of gynmastics judging, the judges seem to get too caught up in things.  While their scores weren't exactly stellar, the Chinese performance on their very last event, the pommel horse were so bad as to be cringe-worthy.  I felt embarrased watching it, it was so bad.  Some of the poorest horse routines I ever recall seeing.  Now, it wouldn't likely have made a difference in the grand scheme, but their scores were just too high.  Even the aforementioned Japanese guy who fucked up his dismount was better than the Chinese in this event.  They shortened their routines, struggled to stay on the horse, smacked their hips routinely on the grips every time they rotated, and generally all had a hell of a time even getting into dismount position at all.

Also, Pommel Horse routines in general are just completely dull.  Used to be some crazy looking ninja shit on that thing, now they just twirl around over and over with straight legs barely over the horse.  It has become more boring than ever, and that is saying a lot.

Okay.  You got me.  I know that air rifle is a super competitive sport worldwide.   :awesome_for_real:

I also know you're aware that South Korea, Australia and Cuba also won medals and that the US didn't even medal in 2004?  Just because it's not a European thing doesn't mean it isn't a worldwide sport.  

Yup, like BB guns except the projectile is more like a cylinder, apparently, to make the hole in the target more obvious.

Judo was also disappointing.  Two people grabbing each others' clothing for 3 minutes and then someone gets flipped and it's over.

NBC is getting blasted here in the US for their coverage of tape delay without live coverage (given that we live in the 21st century and have twitter). Also, they completely botched an event lead-in by saying "Next we go to so-so's quest for gold" then cutting to a promo for the morning show where they say outright they are going to have her on the show to discuss her gold medal. This all happened before they even showed the event on tape delay.

So yeah, they even screwed up their own coverage due to a promo.

Story here: http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-georgia-sports/2012/07/31/nbc-spoils-missy-franklins-gold-medal-race/

I expect The Matrix or I'm not watching martial arts.

MMA as an Olympic event?  Probably just a matter of time.

No it isn't. Do you see what they do to boxing in order to let it in? There's no way to get the blood out of mma so its not going to be in the games any time soon.

Also the baseball/softball argument is bullshit, its quite competitive.

Not worldwide. Cricket has a better case for getting into the games than baseball, as that has a huge worldwide following.

Yeah I saw the pellets on wikipedia and said "oooh, pellet guns."   Nifty!   Then I read how obsessive they are about the ammo and went :ye_gods:

Let's see, Cricket has Asia, the UK and Australia (I suppose South Africa and the Carribean play as well).  Baseball has Latin America, South America, Asia and (apparently) Australia.  Baseball has more worldwide appeal, sorry.  

Addendum-  I personally would prefer to see cricket in the Olympics as I find it more interesting to watch, but I think baseball deserves it much, much more than cricket.

Baseball/ softball were removed more to lower infrastructure construction costs than to de-Americanize the games. Building multiple singleuse fields which require  large tracts of land is cost prohibitive for many countries. Also, having sports that have big professional/international tournaments that are the pinnacle of achievement in the Olympics seems silly. The whole point of the Olympics is to be the biggest stage for the sport every four years. They really should remove soccer/football too as the World Cup is already bigger than the Olympics.

The "lack of competition" reason was the reason I remember being given for baseball and softball getting cut, though (I did think it was funny softball got the axe supposedly because the US completely owned everyone at it, and they promptly lost in Beijing).

I do think it's a bummer softball got yanked, just because it's not like there's a time softball gets attention otherwise. Baseball, eh, whatever.

I like field hockey much better than softball anyway.

The US is super terrible at men's field hockey apparently, something I find hilarious for basically no reason. It's like we don't really have that here or something!

Pity Raonic couldn't pull off the upset in the marathon tennis match against Tsonga.

And yay, more medals for Canada! Looking little less pathetic. We really need global warming and another 10-20 million people to make a real go of the summer olympics, though.

Not if it provides for a group of people to play that wouldn't typically get that big stage, e.g. the younger soccer players in the 23 and under rule now.  Baseball also really doesn't have this sort of even, although you do have a point with the infrastructure costs. 

It was in the ancient olympic games: Pankration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration)

Further thoughts:

 - Diving is actually more fun to watch than I expected
 - Foil is a lot more interesting to watch than Epee
 - Women's Basketball and all forms of handball are dire
 - The folks doing the weightlifting are some pretty insane athletes in their own regard

Sports that need to be axed: Dressage, Eventing, Football, Most of the swimming bar the IM and Freestyle events, Walking, Most of the shooting events, Women's Basketball
Sports that should be added: Jousting


*shrug* it's a bit of a moot point, neither sport is really well suited for the Olympics, and both have international tournaments that are arguably more meaningful. There's plenty of other sports more deserving of the attention boost the Olympics would foster for them.

No soccer would be bizarre. I understand the thought that "well, there's the World Cup which is way more awesome," but soccer is like. THE international sport. It would be weird to have a huge international sporting competition and not have the one sport pretty much everyone plays.

I haven't been able to watch fencing at all. None of the channels I have are showing it. :( I really wanted tro watch it this year too. Ah well the wemens Weightlifting was fun to watch today.

The coverage here is dire. Only show bits that an Australian competitor is in, and then often just highlights. I was watching it last night when there were about 15 events on, including the gold playoff for the rhythmic gymnastics, and they showed an interview with the 'royal' dressage girl and a completely useless 'guide' to London by the I'll-fuck-anyone-to-get-ahead ex-swimmer journo that was basically stock footage and inane cliches instead.

Oh, and the 1000th (literally) piece on why the Aussie men didn't win the 4x100m freestyle and how 'the missile' was going to bounce back.

Anywhere I can watch the actual games online?

Edit: Also I don't think any directly competitive team sports should be in the Olympics. Bye-bye soccer, handball, water polo, basketball, hockey, etc.

Fuck.  Yes.   :heart:

Unless they have a medal ceremony for the horse, I find the equestrian events to be extremely stupid.

Why? Still takes a lot of skill to ride a horse well, even if it is a good horse.

The oldest competitor in the dressage is 71; this casts somewhat of a shadow on the notion of it being about athleticism. It takes skill to play chess and paint pictures, doesn't really mean either warrant being olympic sports.

See, I love the sports where age doesn't really matter much. I'd rather ban 15 year old kids before axing sports where it isn't a big deal if you're old.  :oh_i_see:

Surely the athleticism is from the horse, the skill is the rider.

There isnt much athleticism in the shooting either, but plenty of skill, I wouldnt want to see that go either, diversity and niche sports getting some publicity seems a major point of the olympics to me.

Besides, we have the 14th in line to the throne riding for us, and her mother is on the olympic committee , so I doubt its going anywhere soon.

The horse is the athlete and its rider is just a coach with a kinky riding crop.  The horses should get the medals.

The horse gets the garland in Kentucky, they should get the medals in the Olympics.

Wow.  Apparently 8 female badminton players were disqualified (http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/badminton/story/_/id/8221408/2012-london-olympics-eight-badminton-players-disqualified-trying-lose-matches) for trying to lose in order to get a more favorable spot in the tournament.  I'm not sure exactly how that works.  I guess it's a round robin first? 

The whole plan seems pretty potheaded though.  I mean, if you're good don't you want to face someone with a lower seed because then technically they wouldn't be as good? 

Meanwhile, in fencing... (http://www.buzzfeed.com/ktlincoln/an-olympic-fencer-refuses-to-leave-the-floor-after)

Tough situation.

Regarding shooting and equestrian events, we need to remember that the Olympics remain a nostalgic echo of the world that was.  Marksmanship and horseback riding were critical skills for hundreds of years and that tradition should not be abandoned quickly.  We live in a world in which the newest and most valued modern skills involve fingers and monitors.  The Olympics should remind us of where we have come from and keeping the anachronistic events is valuable in that regard.

They didn't want to play their countrywomen before the final so were trying to rig the draw.

Wow.  She got fucked-  the fencing chick, that is.  


Only the South Koreans, I would imagine. 

Considering how popular Curling is/was in the winter Olympics I'd be curious to see Croquet have another shot at least as an exhibition sport. Although that may be something that's much more fun to play with in nice weather with alcohol than it is to watch. Beyond that, some of the events are much more about skill than athleticism but the modern Olympics were originally founded as a celebration of all areas of human achievement. They ditched poetry and sculpture primarily because it was pretty much impossible to get non-professional competitors (IIRC). I'd kind of rather see some of the smaller time sports and a strict amateurs only enforcement, although I admit in the current sports climate that would pretty much mean only sports no-one watches or people who just aren't good enough to compete at an international level for the others.

Although I don't really watch it now with all the professional athletes in it anyway.

Nah, it was the Chinese who started it, the Koreans just followed suit.

Metaphors!

China has the two best pairs. They've been intentionally throwing matches for a while now so that the pairs don't meet before the finals. Finally the sport did something about it.

I don't want to get rid of equestrian. I just want to give the medal to the real athlete.

Simon Jenkins' take on the badminton scandal: (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/01/london-2012-chinese-badminton-players-medals)

He even Godwins it. Still somehow too subtle for the comments.

I guess that makes a lot of sense.  I was under the assumption that each country would typically only have one "team" in these things. 

I would love to see a video of the Chinese vs South Korea match where they were both apparently trying to lose.

Dunno if the whole match is anywhere, but there is a highlight reel: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/badminton/highlights-badminton-players-try-to-throw-match.html

I can't see it because of country restriction nonsense, I found some of it here. (http://www.thespec.com/news/article/771955--video-8-badminton-cheaters-tossed-from-the-games)  That was fantastic, they were just intentionally faulting at the serve by either hitting it into the net or out of bounds.

They could have been a little more subtle about it.  Christ, that was terrible. 

Currently watching porn beach volley.

Czech Girls  :drill:

I generally dislike events where it comes down to subjective judging. I prefer the ones where its clearly "you went fastest, you scored the most points, you moved the most weight" etc.


I think that's why I enjoy the winter games more, most of those events come down to actual measurable events.

I've found weightlifting to be surprisingly entertaining on the live watcher thing.  No inane commentary, and they move that event right along.  Also easy to follow.  Pick up weight?  Good.  Not pick up weight?  Bad.   There is some strategy in deciding what weight to pick up, since you only get 3 attempts, and they go in smallest-weight-to-biggest-weight order (so if you plan poorly, you might go twice in a row). 

And the crowd is really supportive, they cheer for everyone, and extra loud on the third attempts, and everyone just looks like they're having a fun time.

Whoaaa......And the Brazil women's volleyball team is (very) surprisingly down two sets against South Korea: 25-23 and 25-21. Intriguing match!

And yet, we're still subjected to seemingly endless amounts of figure skating coverage when they happen.

You are maybe.

The Canadian Coverage is pretty amazing now that CTV took over.

People said that the coverage was much better when NBC took over from CBS too. Give it time :p

ABC and the late Jim McKay is what I will always equate with the best coverage in the states.

Well, after Pellegrini awful performances in swimming, tonight was a night to remember for Italy: last saturday, three italians conquered the entire podium in women's individual foil (fencing), with Di Francisca, Errigo and Vezzali; tonight, they won the gold medal in the team competition :). Italy has a great tradition with fencing, both male and female, and with the latter we've always been on the podium since Seul 1988, but today was really the pinnacle for the entire generation (especially Vezzali, who is also our flag bearer).

 :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :Love_Letters:

Grats Lucas!  I wish they'd show fencing on primetime, but I guess Team USA is maybe not so good at it.

We have some decent fencers, I think. Of course I say that and when I looked up some matches, we had two people in the bronze medal rounds lose (individual men's epee and women's individual saber. U S A! U S A!).

Fencing provided the highest amount of medals for Italy in modern olympics history: with tonight's one, 119 medals (46 gold) . Of course it may seem small if you compare it to the medal count U.S. (or China, or Soviet Union back in the day) got in its entire history from Swimming, Athletics or whatever, but not bad considering the size of our country and the horribile dis-organization we have in sports beside football (soccer) :P

Glad to see Phelps go out on a high note and kick Lochte's ass in the 200 IM.   :awesome_for_real:

Seriously, I was sick to death of Phelps going into this Olympics. It took one Goddamn Human Interest Piece about Lochte to put me back on Team Phelps.

You know what I'm sick of?  Seeing and hearing about John Orozco's parents.  He seems like a great kid, but his parents make me want to put a bullet in my TV.

I would agree, except I only had to hear about them once, and his mother made me crack the fuck up with how she can't even watch. <3

Yeah, but imagine seeing it 10 times.  Hell, it was bad even at 2.  It was pretty amazing how Leyva was able to win the Bronze after royally fucking up the pommel horse.

Boxing. An absurd sport and still massively dubious, even at the Olympics.

I still find it preferable to MMA even if it does blow chunks.

Wow, US women are kicking ass in gymnastics this year!

Lotta pissed off corn-country gymrat rednecks right now.

Wat?

He is suggesting racists are upset the black girl won.

No rednecks down here watch the Olympics, let alone women's gymnastics.

They are still pissed women got the vote.

I'm so naive about that shit.  It never even entered my mind. 

It is funny watching people skirt around the color issue when they are explaining why she'll be such a popular athlete for sponsorships"she has a wonderful smile!" yes she has great qualities but her color is actually a bonus for her in the advertising world

Oscar Pistorious is pretty awesome.

Really enjoying the heptathlon at the moment. It's pretty mental that Jessica Ennis' 100m hurdles time would have been fast enough to win her gold in the standalone event in most of the other recent Olympics, and she does six other events (and the individual hurdles) on top of it all.

i dont agree with the bullshit that america is racist,where are the black prime ministers in europe?

You never fail to disappoint with your posts.

:headscratch:

Whatever happened to the Olympics being non-professional?  I'm sitting here watching Roger Federer play the same dude he mowed down at Wimbledon and it just doesn't seem right. 

Not sure what happened there.  Combination of Murray finally running at the ball and Federer going "meh".

I know you didn't miss the Dream Team in 1992.

I know.  I'm just trying to figure out when, exactly, it happened and what the reasoning for it was.  I don't think the Dream Team were the first professionals.  If I remember right they started playing the pros in response to other countries using their own professional athletes so we were getting our asses handed to us. 

If you take away tennis pros, you're not left with much.  College students and juniors.  Tennis has probably allowed pros since the start of the open era.

Aren't the Olympics supposed to present the world's best? So what if some of them happen to be good enough in sports which are widespread/popular enough to have professional leagues - they're still the country's best in the chosen sport, right?

Not in all sports.  Football (ie the round type) in the Olympics is under 23s if I recall.

Saturday night was incredible watching it live, within an hour Jessica Ennis, heptathlon, Greg Rutherford, long jump & Mo Farah in the 10,000m.

That was forced on the Olympics by FIFA, who is afraid it will challenge all the money they make from "the supremacy" of the World Cup.

Which is pretty fucking retarded.  They're should be no restrictions on any athletes.  Let the Olympics be the best athletes in the world competing against each other, period.

I think that team ball sports shouldn't be in the Olympics, period. I think it's more important to showcase our best athletes, not our best teams.

Dump Basketball, Soccer, Handball, Hockey, and Volleyball. Keep the singles versions of badmiton and tennis and rowing. Keep sailing because it's impossible to do it alone, but it's not a ball sport.  

Pick up the individual sports. Golf, Billiards, Bowling, and Racketball/Squash.

Nothing to say that we cannot, you know...do both. I agree with some of your additions, and your subtraction of basketball (only because I think it's a terrible sport, personally).

Get rid of dressage and archery and replace them with Horse Archery.

Basketball is becoming the worlds biggest sport after soccer.  It is played everywhere now, and the olympics have become basketballs equivalent of the world cup.  The tournament is highly anticipated and heavily watched all around the world.  Dropping it would be silly.

Personally I think they should make the world championships for all ball games be based around the Olympics instead of there own tournaments, but I know that's not realistically possible for a number of reasons.

If you tried to combine the World Cup with the Olympics you'd have some real challenges finding nations with enough resources to cover both at the same time.


Definitely, I'm really enjoying the spill-over euphoria the games are generating here. It's crazy to thin the riots were just a year ago, and now this. It's nice to have everyone feeling good about things for a change. Saturday night really capped that off.

Whoever said jousting was fucking spot on. 

I don't really have a problem with the team sports, but I get pretty bored watching the NBA finals again, or the Wimbledon finals again.  I say let the pros have their own deal and have it be an under x age amateur tournament (with no exceptions like soccer has).

I would dump basketball because it's ridiculously 1-sided, the the talk is that the NBA isn't going to send the best anymore after this year. Outside of Argentina winning in 2004, when the USA again didn't send it's best players, we are unlikely not to win the gold medal.

Basketball was pretty interesting when the US wasn't sending the dream team.  It should go back to amateurs or under 19 or somesuch. 

Golf is being added, I believe, although I don't really get why that's OK but, say, water polo or crew isn't. Nothing about "team" suddenly makes a sport less a showcase of athletes doing their athletic thing.

I'm totally on board with bowling being added. The more sports that have a wide range of ages capable of competing, the happier I am. Shit like "women's" gymnastics gets me down when you're basically too old for the sport before you even hit the legal drinking age in the US, you know?

I think most of the X-Games stuff should be added to the Olympics.

Most of those "women" are barely legal adults as it is.

Women's gymnastics probably shouldn't skeeve me out as much as it does, but it does.

All the artistic gymnastics skeeve me out. They're creepy and bizzare. At least rhythmic gymnastics is beautiful.

I knew a guy in college who did the male gymnastics stuff.. and he had callouses on his hands so thick that when he closed them into fists they formed solid tubes. Then one day while on the pommel horse the ones on his left hand cracked and while he was having it examined by the medic the WHOLE SURFACE OF HIS PALM CAME OFF.

I liked women's gymnastics at UGA. I don't think that's the same thing as the Olympics though.

There's talk that the NBA (i.e. David Stern) may do something similar to soccer and only allow NBA players 23 and younger to play in the Olympcs.

Here's the problem with some of those professional sports (team or otherwise), in my opinion:

- Watching the Dream Team isn't compelling in any way, unless you enjoy lopsided humiliations.  Watching a group of multi millionaires pummel a sorry group from Country X that only might have 1 millionaire on the team is not good sports.

- Watching the Williams sisters, who have won countless individual and doubles titles the world over - and have made millions upon millions of dollars doing so - go in and beat a random combination of other tennis players and then proceed to act as if they have actually accomplished something special (complete with possibly fake dance of happiness), is not interesting.  If you actually think they care as much as they would about, say, a French Open title, then you obviously didn't watch Federer play yesterday (and why would you?)

- There are already plenty of tournaments, to determine who the best soccer teams in the world are.  We already know, without a doubt, who they are and we don't need yet another tournament to find out.  And when Bolivia or some other country ends up running away with the gold, not one of us actually believe them to be the best soccer team in the world anyway, so why waste our time?

- The best golfers in the world play each other every week already.  I mean, practically every damn week, and almost all year round.  Why on earth would we need to see yet another week of it?   

And so on.  There are exceptions.  Volleyball is still so obscure that it can be compelling sometimes.  Hockey somehow manages to become more interesting in the OL.

Hockey is interesting because there are no international competitions to put the best from the US and Canada against the rest of the world at other times.

As you point out, this already happens in Tennis, Golf and Soccer.  Basketball isn't as competitive anywhere else in the world as it is in the US (which is why you 'retire' to the European league) so that's a lopsided and unfun affair.

But all you young ones don't remember the US getting tarred in basketball for decades because NBA players weren't allowed in while European semi-pro players were.  I have no issue with our basketball team winning by 50. 

No it's not. Or, if it is, someone forgot to tell Ryan Giggs.

Each team gets three exceptions to the rule. 

Also the women teams aren't U23s.

US womens' soccer is trying really hard to lose to Canada.  Christine Sinclair is pretty much a badass. 

That makes more sense. Not that I've watched a single second of the football.


Greco-roman wrestling though - there's a sport I absolutely cannot take seriously.

Handball, hockey and water polo are fucking dull to watch. I don't doubt their worth as sports (well, maybe handball's) but they are not made for spectators.

Water polo I would agree, unless you follow the sport, cause so much happens under the water but handball? That seems very spectator friendly. It's like a cross between basketball and soccer with lots of scoring.

Most of the handball I have seen seems to involve an awful lot one team standing in a line in front of the other team with everyone waving their arms a lot and not much happening. It doesn't have the movement of either basketball or football. I'm also going to make the probably unpopular observation that beach volleyball as a sport is pretty poor, and vastly inferior to true volleyball in terms of how fun the games are to watch. YMMV.

That was a ridiculously entertaining soccer game until the refs ruined it.

I also prefer indoor volleyball to beach, but part of that is that a lot of my family played volleyball through our school years so it's something I keep up with outside of the Olympics.

I've found team handball to be pretty fun.  I randomly flipped over to a women's pool play game the first day and have been hooked ever since.  It does have some of that "pass along the perimeter and wait for an opening in the defense stuff" that K9 talks about, but it also has a lot of the drive and kick that's really fun in basketball.  It also gets sufficiently violent for my tastes and the relatively small size of the court makes the "goal kick" equivalent a super exciting outlet pass.  Also penalties are fun.

Only sport I ever played throughout college. Messed around in beach leagues in the summer, but preferred indoor when I could get it before the season started. It is the only thing I actually try to catch during the Olympics. 

Find your ideal Olympic match!  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19050139 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19050139)

Mine was Jun Zhang, Chinese shotputter.

Even if the current matches are lopsided, I'd like to see it stay in the Olympics to help it grow, because eventually its going to be very competitive.  Basketball has become the top played youth sport in many countries around the world (higher than soccer in many places even).  Globally, its basically at the point soccer is in the US, as being primarily a kids sport with semi-pro leagues.  Another generation or two of kids growing up primarily playing that game should result in some great competition, and help grow the sport even more around the world.

I like both styles of Volleyball, but do find Beach Volleyball to be more exciting.

In Australia basketball basically died after Jordan retired. Only just got a new men's pro league in the last two years.

Lots of the decent players, who aren't good enough to play OS, get picked up by the football codes which pay better. As most decent sports kids here play 2-3 or more sports.

Hiroki Sakai, Japanese soccer player.

I've always hated soccer refereeing, but I'm willing to admit that debatable calls happen in the box - no one's perfect. But to have a call, that no one seems to even remember ever being called before in that manner, to give a free kick from the penalty spot, for delay of game in an Olympic semifinal - yea, I honestly really don't feel like watching any more of the games right now.

I don't know if I will.

Charlotte Dujardin and Georgina Cassar. Dressage and women's gymnastics.  :oh_i_see:

Miguel Nunes, Portuguese Sailor or Milica Mandic, Croatian Taekwondo or Aymen Mejri, Tunisian Rower.

Carl Myerscough must be massive.

Aleksandar Karakasevic, Serbian table tennis player. <flex>

You're tall. 

Neringa Aidietyte, Lithuania, Women's 20km Walk   :hulk_rock:

I get Matthew Wells (UK rower), Glen Robinson (UK water polo), and Kevin Sireau (France track cycling).   Had a Great Britain mastery of the seas theme going, but then France guy ruined it.

Heeeey, for all you know ol' Aleksandar is 5'3".



OK, yes. I am kinda tall.  :heart:

He's 6ft. And looks like an extra from GTA IV

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/sos2012/images/ic/athletes/144x180/9/9a3e9b70-04ac-4c0c-8ccd-dafa495c8212.jpg)

You know you just outed Sjofn's height and weight, right? :why_so_serious: :grin:

Italian Josefa Idem, competing in her eighth olympic games, 47 years old, just qualified for the Women's Kayak single (K1) final, arriving first in her semifinal  :thumbs_up:

http://www.london2012.com/canoe-sprint/event/kayak-single-500m-women/phase=cfw115200/index.html

They outed themselves by giving answers to that test. Why do you think I haven't said who I resemble?  :grin:

Because you resemble Reese Hoffa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reese_Hoffa)?   :grin:

(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/8/3/1343987735279/e45bf870-0e39-420a-bc79-f98ab8f52edd-460.jpeg)

I take it that is a piece of marble?  :why_so_serious:

Not that it'll make you feel any better but here's the US side of the story:

Abby Wambach's brains provided crucial assist to U.S. women's soccer's comeback against Canada (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--abby-wambach-s-brains-proved-to-be-big-assist-to-u-s--women-s-soccer-s-comeback-against-canada.html)

tl;dr Abby Wambach was continually making the referee aware that the Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod was slowing down the game by holding the ball longer than was allowed by the rules until finally the referee could no longer ignore the situation.

Just finished watching a ridiculously good women's volleyball quarterfinal match between Russia and Brazil; the south americans won 21-19 in the fifth set tiebreaker after facing five match points; then, they won on their first one  :drill: . Awesome, awesome match (with gorgeous women, always a plus)  :heart: :heart:

In about half an hour, USA vs. Dominican Republic and then the last quarterfinal, Italy vs. South Korea (so, there is a high chance for a Italy vs. USA semifinal  :drill: :drill:)

Richard Lambourne, USA Volleyball.  Yes, I am tall.

Martin Padar, Estonia, Judo  :grin:

(http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/sos2012/images/ic/athletes/112x140/6/69312ea6-7a6f-406c-bdf5-eb557ce2e2f2.jpg)

I got Natalya Fokina-Semenova, a discus throwing chick from the Ukraine.

(http://d.yimg.com/i/ng/sp/reuters/20110827/02/1715666343-27082011020514.jpg)

Giggity  :awesome_for_real:

Wow.  Gabby Douglas really mailed it in.   :oh_i_see:

Hey, I punched in 5'11"! Totally different!

And yeah I don't mind if people know my height and weight. I'm 5'11" and weigh 185 lbs. See?  :why_so_serious:


EDIT: I would like to say my face is not as chubby as Aleksandar's, though. My chubbiness resides in my butt and thighs.   :oh_i_see:

She's been sucking in the individual events. Winning the all-around Gold apparently took a lot out of her

Yeah, if you watched her body language before the parallel bars last night you could see that something was wrong with her.  My wife and I thought that she might be sick or something.  She and her coach came out for the intros and then went back in for a bit.  I wonder if most of it isn't total physical fatigue.

In some sort of reverse symmetry, I got matched with a woman athlete:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Allen

The NYTimes has an interesting article that compares Usain Bolt's time in the 100 to every olympic medal winner ever (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/05/sports/olympics/the-100-meter-dash-one-race-every-medalist-ever.html?ref=sports). 

It's amazing to see how times have decreased over the years.  Hell, Gatlin this year would have had the best time ever if it weren't for the crazy Jamaicans. 

Gatlin should have kept taking the drugs then.  :oh_i_see:

He may have.  It's his best time ever.   :grin:

Honestly, it is starting to look physically impossible for these smaller guys to run lower than they already are.  Gatlin already runs like a freaking machine, it is hard to imagine that there can be many hundreds left to squeeze out of that frame.  Same with Blake.  Usain has them beat if for no other reason than his long stride. 

Height in the 100m as huge a factor as you might think. Of the top ten fastest 100m runners in history, most are under 6'. Bolt and Powell are the tallest (6'5 and 6'3) but Maurice Greene and Steve Mullings, for example, are both 5'9.  Half the issue is speed out of the blocks - Bolt's strength and stride helps him in the latter part of the race but shorter sprinters get out of the blocks faster and have a quicker turnover to get up to speed quicker. (Short is relative - they're all still tall compared to most middle/long distance runners).

In the 200m, height and stride length are far more of an issue - most of the top 10 fastest runners have been tall - Michael Johnson is 6'1, Carter and Spearmon are 6'3 (Yohan Blake is one of the shortest at 5'11) and in the 400m, all of the top 10 are over 6'1.

You are right, I didn't mean it to sound as if height was normally the deciding factor.  Only that in Usain Bolt's case, as an exception to the rule, it is a huge factor.  Usually these tall guys just aren't mechnically able to pump their legs fast enough to compete over short distances.  Bolt is a freak of nature, though, and despite relatively bad starts he manages to stay in contact over the first 40 or 50 meters.  He has already redefined what was thought possible from a human being.  Imagine if he could get out of the blocks as fast as Gatlin or Blake!

Freak of nature is right.  :grin:

That is going to be the next step in the evolution of the race-  tall guys that can get off the blocks relatively quickly and have a long stride.  Bolt is so far ahead of everyone else that it's silly. 

I'm not so sure.  Bolt is an anomaly, an outlier.  Will there ever even be other guys that can get off the blocks and run as fast as him at his height, or is he just a geniune freak of nature?  My guess is that I won't see another like him in my lifetime.  Even if someone like Yohan Blake eventually runs a 9.58 (which I highly doubt, even if it is drug fueled), I still don't think you will see another Usain Bolt any time soon.

Those same quotes have been said about basically every gold medal winner ever.  The same stuff was said about Carl Lewis.  As Draconion One mentioned, biomechanically it only makes sense that increased leg length (and therefore stride) is the next area where athletes will improve their sprint.  25 years ago people were tall like that but didn't have the muscle mass of someone that was 5'10" so it was hard for them to compete.  I'm not saying that you'll see 6'10" guys out there running in the 100 and 200, but I think you'll start to see more 6'2" guys in the next 25 years. 

Unfortunately that's not really true. Both Carl Lewis and Linford Christie were 6'2 and there were other 6'0 - 6'2 100m sprinters around as well. Lewis was a phenomenonal athlete because of winning at 3 events (100m, 200m, Long Jump). The guy won Long Jump gold at 4 Olympics - that's unheard of, not to mention breaking the 100m world record 3 times. That's why they said you won't see his like again, not because of his 100m performance.

Bolt's strength lies in the ability to consistently maintain a fucking fast speed over the last 60m of the 100m. - the key word being consistent. On his world record race in Berlin, he kept up a speed of 0.81 - 0.83 per 10m for each of the last 6 splits. Prior to that, the fastest people over the last 30m were the likes of Carl Lewis and Tyson Gay who had splits of 0.85 over the last 20m but would sometimes hit the same speeds in the middle of the race as Bolt.

Bolt's 10 - 40m splits were comparable to someone like Maurice Greene (0.99, 0.9, 0.86) but his first 10 meters is much slower than a load of people (1.89 in Berlin compared to say Maurice Greene's 1.69 in his WR race in Athens '99). Also, his reaction time of 0.146 in Berlin would only have been the third fastest reaction in the sunday's final. (Worth mentioning that Lewis was also as astoundingly fast over the first 50m too - and Ben Johnson was faster but he was stupid and took drugs)

There have been other runners who were quicker than him over the first 40m. Also, his reaction time is pants. Even on Sunday he had a reaction time of 0.165 and was beaten out of the blokes by 4 other people. Even on his Berlin world record run, he would still been 3rd out of the blocks.

There's more to it than that, mostly to do with his training and coaching but I don't have time to go into it right now.

I bet we will see more fast tall guys like Bolt in the next 50 years, easy.

 :awesome_for_real:

I'm not sure. It's possible but there are a couple of factors.

1. Recent studies and research (http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/medimen.htm) have shown that the theory that humans are getting taller over time may well be a fallacy so height may stay consistent.
2. There are lots of tall track and field athletes - but many become high jumpers, discus throwers (gold medallist Robert Harting is 6'7) or decathletes (Daley Thompson's great rival, Jurgen Hingsen, was 6'7, UK Decathlete Dean Macey was 6'5, Trey Hardee - currently 2nd in Olympic Decathlon today is 6'5)
3. There's more money to be made in other sports like Basketball and American Football etc so fast, exceptionally tall athletes may well find their vocation there rather than track and field. (Where available, obv)

But on the other hand, Bolt's legacy might be that coaches won't tell taller athletes they're too large for 100m and encourage them into 200m or 400m without a second thought.


Good point... sure that's what I meant although both are true.

Those are all good points, but this may be a driving factor going forward.  Now that people have seen what a guy like Bolt can do it's a known commodity.

What if every Olympic sport was photographed like beach volleyball? (http://www.metro.us/newyork/sports/article/1148979--what-if-every-olympic-sport-was-photographed-like-beach-volleyball)

:awesome_for_real:

(http://i.minus.com/iWoeb5vI5FnY1.gif)

The fuck happened there?

It pretty much tells it's own tale, I think.

Spain was flopping constantly during the game and so the French player had enough and wanted to give them a real reason to flop. Also there was a lot of animosity built up against Spain for throwing their game against Brazil.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--team-usa-delivers-olympic-spirit--ndash--not-tanking-and-groin-shots.html

Meh, it's a cheap shot, but I get it. The Olympic format has been rife with people throwing games in the prelims. They need to re-evaluate that format.

Wel it certainly improves a lot of sports for me!

There's at least one picture there that I thought to myself, "Man, I wouldn't mind that at all."  :grin:

Live action reenactment of the Peninsular War.

I thought it was sexist. It was all males. It should've had some women too. This NSFW Collection of Olympic tattoos  (http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/olympics-wildest-olympic-tattoos-slideshow/canadian-swimmer-sports-olympic-rings-tattoo-aquatics-centre-photo-113046310.html) NSFW was at least a good mix of both.

I would hate to work someplace where that was considered NSFW.

Photo 1 was questionable enough for me to add a warning, and there are a couple out of the 50+ images that do indeed qualify.

There certainly were some super shitty tattoos in that bunch.   :awesome_for_real:

There were tattoos in some of those photos?

With how draconian the IOC is about their rings symbol I'm surprised they didn't sue all those athletes.

Pretty sure some of those ring tattoos are temporary/spray on. Others might not be though...

Like this one... pretty apparent from the overspray.
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/33271127/olym.JPG)

What is it with the nonsense about Lolo Jones and Gabby Douglas's hair?   :oh_i_see:

Women are catty racist bitches.

So how badly are we really beating China in gold count? I love how every member of a relay/gymnastics/diving team gets a gold medal but you get one for winning water polo, soccer, basketball, volleyball etc. What the fuck?

We have 39 Gold and 90 Overall. China has 37 Gold and 81 overall.

It's actually quite easy to get the results. Google just displays it above search results.

Medal Count

http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/index.html

:facepalm: He means how many actual medals have been give to participants. E.g. there are 18 members of the US women's soccer team that just got gold medals. That only counts as one medal in those medal charts.

A facepalm, really? There wasn't any reason to not think they meant the normal medal count. I wasn't trying to be dickish by the google thing, btw. I think it's neat that they have that feature.

Judging by the amount of time our local sports talk spent 'analyzing' the drama it isn't just women.

There's been nonsense about hair?

Yeah, but it's our way to blame the women.  Hence, Christianity, Islam, et al. 

Of course, you think we can let a black woman get away with winning a gold medal without taking some kind of shot at her appearance?

http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/espnw/story/_/id/8232063/espnw-gabby-douglas-hair-criticized-social-media-sites

Nobody is talking about it down here. It's all about college football.

I figured it was "blah blah black woman hair," because of course it was, I just wasn't sure which direction they were getting it from.  :oh_i_see:  Hooray for "wrong either way" situations!

So something I don't understand about myself, I find Usain Bolt's bullshit amusing and almost endearing, when I would generally want to punch someone so cocky. I dunno why!

Because he backs it up! Heh. Seriously, I don't know. I crack up at him too. It feels more like pure confidence than showmanship kinda stuff.

The fact he can back it up probably DOES help, but it's still odd.

Speaking of odd, synchronized swimming is SO FUCKING WEIRD. Like ... the athleticism involved is amazing AND it is like watching a bizarro fever dream. SO WEIRD.

I like Bolt.  His antics are awesome.  I hope he's not a doper. 

Just a different kind of doping.

I still don't understand what happened even after reading the article.  What exactly were they criticizing about her hair?

You're overthinking it. Think Don Imus.

The moment a black woman does anything awesomely cool, you can expect both sides to start launching petty grenades. That's what happened.

NBC walk out of Olympic boxing arena after being asked to be quiet (http://london-games.reuters.com/london-olympics-2012/articles/boxing/2012/08/10/nbc-asked-cease-ringside-commentary)

Heh, even the officials are asking NBC to shut the fuck up.  I know they are getting good ratings, but there isn't exactly a ton of good counter-programming out there, it's Summer.

What's sad is that NBC has the games until 2020.

Bolt's antics are actually funny and pretty much self-contained. He's not really a dick about it and like others have said here, it's not just bravado, he backs it up.

Is travelling no longer an offense in Basketball? Made the Olympic event near unwatchable and has spoiled any fun I had watching the NBA.

I remember a time when players were actually dribbling.

In news that I'm sure will make Paelos very concerned, the IOC has finally stripped Tyler Hamilton of his 2004 Gold Medal. (http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/11/sport/olympics-hamilton-doping/index.html?hpt=hp_t2)  I'm not sure why it took them this long to decide.  It's been 8 years, for fuck's sake. 

So the US wins the medal total with 46 to China's 38.  Great Britain comes in third with 29; their best in 104 years!  That's a really impressive tally considering how small GB is compared to the US and China.  I didn't think of the British as a summer sport people. 

India only won 6 medals, two silver and four bronze.  With a nation that populous, why the low count?   

According to this (http://www.medalspercapita.com/#weighted-per-capita:2012), Grenada pwns everything, apparently  :awesome_for_real:

I was kinda surprised to see Hungary doing so well... failboated a few of the 'lock-in' medals like waterpolo, but got a lot of unexpected golds/silvers from other places, so yay?

Thanks, that's interesting.  Yep, India is dead last on that chart.  Wow, look at NZ up there, never would have thought that.

Also, just watched some wrestling.  With only two minutes per match, was very enjoyable.  Still can't get into volleyball.

Ten minutes into the closing ceremony, and apparently Danny Boyle decided the opening wasn't weird enough.  :awesome_for_real:

Host nation gets all sorts of free slots to automatically get athletes into sports.  The host country always ends up with a medal bump from this (not to take away from their achievements, just point out this usually happens).

The UK has also spent a significant amount of money on its athletes. Funding and organised programmes go a long way.

Yeah, we got one gold in '96 and went "Fuck that shit, have sacks of money".

Soul-crushing poverty and corruption.  Funding an athlete at this level isn't cheap in the first place.  The amount you have to pay to just live a 'normal' life is staggering.  Stack the graft that would be required for everything related to testing, training, access to facilities, etc and there's not going to be enough people that can fund that. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/19/corruption-india-anna-hazare

As opposed to the opening ceremonies, I have found the closing ceremony to be awesome.  George Michael's voice was a little flat, but he was completely fabulous nonetheless.  Can't wait to see the Spice Girls.   :awesome_for_real:

Fuck NBC and their stupid shit, seriously. They cut out The Who from the ceremony broadcast simply so they could get people to wait an hour for it as a "closing party"

Not to mention, commercial free new tv show but they stopped the closing ceremony broadcast every ten minutes for commercials. God damnit.

I would watch the closing ceremony online with extra commercials right now if you'd let me, NBC.

Did not watch a lick of NBC coverage. We had four channels covering it up here, so I had no reason to.

Closing ceremonies were fun, probably only about three songs I didn't know. Do have to wonder how you include The Who and Queen as "pop" music, and then don't have the Stones. Also, may be the first time in my life I've heard We Will Rock You not followed by We are the Champions.

Maybe the Stones said they weren't interested? 

On the Stones thing, I read that a lot of acts they invited said "not interested" originally and then turned around last week and wanted in but the show had already been set and rehearsals were going on so there was no room. Quite possible that was part of it.

On the no We Are the Champions thing, it could have been the hosts not wanting to seem like they were gloating as this was being beamed to a global audience.

If the global audience were being considered, then the Spice Girls would have sang something other than "if you wanna be my lover."  Promiscuity is frowned upon most places

If you wanna be my lover...you'll get stoned by my friends.   :why_so_serious:

Is that why there are almost 13 billion people in the world?   :grin:

The only consistencies I'm aware of across all human are pornography and hypocrisy.  These things are not mutually exclusive and often paired.

I understood your initial point.  I was just poking at you to see what sort of day you were having at work.   :awesome_for_real:

However it did get me to thinking that most of society isn't so straight laced as they put on.  I mean, if every woman that got pregnant out of wedlock was stoned to death there might not be as many of us running around. 

Re: bands - I dunno, as an American, when I think of British bands, I always think of the Who pretty much first. Probably because they're always using the flag and such in outfits or album covers or whatever. Makes them a natural choice vs. someone like the Stones, I think. They're pretty far down the list, honestly. Should have brought out Priest to do something off of British Steel, too.   :drill:

That said, they should have brought out Bowie and Jagger to do an old man reenaction of their Dancing in the Streets video.

God, when they started playing Fashion I was so stoked.  I would have loved to have seen Bowie.  It also would have been cool to have Bowie come in and seeing Pressure with Brian May instead of that trash bag Jesse J.  I didn't get to see the Who.  It was past my bedtime.  The Who are pretty hit and miss for me.  Some of their songs I love, some I could care less about.  There's little gray area for me with them.  I don't typically like "classic rock" though.

Bowie told the Queen to fuck off when she wanted to co-opt knight him, which may have something to do with it.  Or maybe not. 

Bowie's also rather proud of his New Yorker status now too.

I wouldn't have expected Bowie to show up, but I was pretty excited about the idea that he might.  Oh well.  Such is life.  I've got a live DVD of his that is really bad ass.

While all this was going on I accidentally ended up at the cool person's version of the closing ceremony - the Hyde Park end-of-olympics concert headlined by blur.

http://blur.co.uk/hydepark2012/#

It was fricking awesome and has given me maximum smug credibility in what, right at this moment, is the most smug city on earth.

(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/85841906/London%20from%20space.jpg)

He is old as fuck and I thought he didn't want or need to perform much anymore and is enjoying his well-deserved rest.

He's younger than the Who and McCartney, I believe.  A lot of his compatriots still perform, like the Stones.  Still, McCartney didn't do himself any favors, in my book, with that shitty ass performance of Hey Jude. 

McCartney's is well past his sell by date, IMO. And Bowie doesn't NEED to share the same stage as the freaking Spice girls.

I was thinking of more of "in lieu of" situation.   :oh_i_see:

The McCartney "Hey Jude" was awesome. Simply because he got choked up by the moment. I'll never fault the man for that.

That said, I just got the closing ceremony album. It's fantastic. NBC should be drawn and quartered for fucking that up.

McCartney's voice sounded like shit. 

I can't decide if McCartney continues to perform because he doesn't know anything else, wants to continue to fund bad wedding decisions or is simply that much of a grandstanding self-promoter that he can't disappear quietly.

Bowie was always an odd duck and hasn't performed since ~2006.  Evidently he's decided to retire and go out well-remembered instead of turning in to a sad, doddering husk of a man shigttng all over people's good memories of him in his prime.  Y'know, like Mick, Keith and Paul.  Good on him.

I have no problem with Paul continuing to play, but let's be realistic-  he's a shell of his former self.  It's like Sinatra when he got older.  He was still fun to watch, but it was shocking how much his voice had deteriorated in his later days. 

As old guy voices go his hasn't gone as bad as some. Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull can barely talk.

Thank god....

C'mon now, this isn't politics, Vanguard, or Trammel thread.  We can't revel when things fail.

Some of us still hold a grudge due to the Grammys twenty odd years ago.