London 2012 Summer Olympics

[Ingmar]

And now Lochte got his ass handed to him.   

 

[ghost]

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

[Sjofn]

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! 

[Ingmar]

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

Just sayin'.

[ghost]

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.  

[Surlyboi]

They are.

[Lucas]

Currently on an Olympics overdose, as expected 

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

[Strazos]

Been catching bits and pieces...

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

[ghost]

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.   

[Paelos]

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

[K9]

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.   

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.

[Ingmar]

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

[Merusk]

Been catching bits and pieces...

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

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.

[Cyrrex]

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.

[ghost]

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.  

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.

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

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.  

[Trippy]

Been catching bits and pieces...

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

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

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

[shiznitz]

Been catching bits and pieces...

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

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

[Paelos]

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/

[ghost]

Been catching bits and pieces...

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

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

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

[Cyrrex]

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

[Hoax]

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.

[Sir T]

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

[Merusk]

Been catching bits and pieces...

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

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

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

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

[ghost]

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

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.

[Chimpy]

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.

[Sjofn]

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.

[Paelos]

I like field hockey much better than softball anyway.

[Sjofn]

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!

[Ceryse]

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.

[ghost]

Also, having sports that have big professional/international tournaments that are the pinnacle of achievement in the Olympics seems silly.

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. 

[K9]

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

It was in the ancient olympic games: 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

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

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.

*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.

[Sjofn]

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.

[Sir T]

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.

[lamaros]

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.

[ghost]

Sports that should be added: Jousting

Fuck.  Yes.