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kleermaker

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stupidguy2

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Palace Revolution 2000

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Gazza
Yep..I was surprised to hear from American friends that the ceremony wasnt carried live and only excerpts were shown later (which from the comments Ive read here proves that in doing so it missed the context of much of it). I get the impression the coverage tends to be almost all geared towards covering US competitors, which I suppose I can understand to a degree if there are limited TV slots available, but in doing so it does miss the point of the entire competition.

In each Olympics, the BBC pretty much routinely provides blanket coverage for the whole duration - more so this year in the era of HD and digital TV as theyve actually launched almost 30 'temporary' BBC Olympic stations so they can extensively cover every sport. No doubt with the games actually being in the UK this time, this has made them up the coverage even more than usual, but theyve generally tended to be pretty comprehensive in previous games as well.

Sadly you are correct Gazza. I am in the USA, and many times in the past it has upset me how slanted the coverage here is. It is totally geared towards US competitors. I can understand some amount of preference for the hometown athletes, but so often I find the "Olympic spirit" missing, gone.
E.g. in an event the medals go to China/France/India; maybe it was a great competition up front, but all I hear about is the brilliant performance of US athlete at the 12th position. I was watching one event once where the winner was literally neglected, barely mentioned because they were from somewhere else.

That's always pissed me off. If an American athlete is not a favorite in the competition - most likely we won't see that competition. I'm surprised we saw the Aussie women's medal ceremony after the relay. We hear very little about the medal winners if they aren't American.......its been like this for years. Listening to Rowdy Gaines go on and on about the US athletes while some Chinese is breaking a world record is annoying.
And as for the opening ceremony - it was all but slashed ....we see only bits and pieces and it seemed very disjointed and lacking in context until....
I'm wondering if we'll get to see the Chinese or Soviet men or women's first round in gymnastics....

Forget about the Soviet men: they're almost dead and buried. As for the Olympics: it's bullshit: too commercial and too nationalistic. Especially in a country that I won't mention for some good reasons, but that thinks it's not only the best country in the world, but actually The Only Country In The World.

Sport and politics meet most at the Olympics. The richest countries and those who spend most money on the sports they pick always win the medals, and the message is: oh, isn't our country GREAT, because some 'fool' can swim or walk 100 meters just 0,0001 sec. faster than another. And no, no, no, no, no dope involved. Of course not, it's the Olympics, where men become brothers and participating is MUCH more important than winning, not to speak about fairness.

Of course politics is in play.....but I think the joy of watching the Olympics is the two-week drama: to see if this guy is going to finally get a medal, to see if that person can redeem himself from the last Olympics. Those of us who watch the Olympics will always see familiar faces from the previous games and watch as they either succeed or not, or we see younger newer faces - the changing of the guard etc...and then the controversies, like the North Korean fencer who refused a consolation medal after the judges @#$%& up...or its fascinating to read about suspicions of certain athletes and country's 'doping'.
And all those personal stories - sure they're 'corny' in the sense that they pull at the heart strings, but they're also human and the spirit behind most of the athletes is real and genuine. You can be cynical but I think that says more about you than the games.
I mean, what else can inspire a bunch of typically snarky rock and roll fans to discuss the the aesthetics of female gymnastics, or bemoan the lack of it....
Its great. It makes all of us fans of human striving and achievement for two weeks.
What else is there? The Bachelor?

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stupidguy2

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keefriffhard4life

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stupidguy2

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keefriffhard4life
the usa womens gymanstic team kicked butt. i will say overall it always seems the russian and romaniam teams are more graceful, elegant and beautiful. i'd have a field day in russia if most of the women looked like victoria komova and aliya mustafina

Props to the US women. But you're correct: watching the Russian and Romanian is like something else altogether. They all have a background in ballet, which elevates the the sport. Over the years, US gymnastics has become more and acrobatic, lacking the elegance...the Romanian and Russian women keep the more artistic elements....the best gymnast combines both and this year - we didn't really see that.

if you look the usa always has a difficult time on uneven bars and sometimes balance beam. its because they train the usa for power which leads to them looking great on vault and floor but then they lack grace on everything else and always look super muscular compared to other countries

Yes, and I don't get it. Most of the US coaches now are former Soviets, Romanians, the Karolis etc...
I actually prefer the Romanian/Russian style - it reminds me of Nadia at her peak. But even they've had to change because the technical aspects of the sport have diminished the beauty. The US women on floor in particular are more similar to the male gymnasts...all power and acrobatics. I get that - evolution-of-the-sport and all that - but at the same time, they've lost much of the aesthetics and that has made the sport one-dimensional.

And Keefhard, nothing beats those beautiful, doe-eyed, Audrey Hepburn-esque, petite and elegant Romanians of the 80s and 90s.

yeah i don't get it either. sure romania and russia and even china can't hang with the USA on the vault anymore and can't do the ultra hard floor routine but on the flip side the usa struggles pretty mightly against those countries on the uneven bars and if the usa doesn't pretty much stick the balance beam routines they suffer because usually they have a lower starting value because they lack the grace and balance to pull off some of the dance skills the other countries do.

i looked it up and victoria komova and aliya mustafina are in the all around so i expect russia to come out swinging. imo its between the 2 americans and the 2 russians for the all around medals. if someone else gets a medal other than the girls from russia or usa i'd be shocked. its pretty much experience vs. emotion.

aliya mustafina was the 2010 world champion and got silver medals on floor, uneven bars and vault.then she blew out her ACL in 2011 and is fighting to prove she can't still do it and said this may be her only olympics. victoria komova finished 2nd in the 2011 world championships by a very slim margin and got a gold medal on the uneven bars.

on the other side of the coin gabby douglas has never won an individual world championship medal for anything and aly raisman only has a bronze world championship medal for the floor.

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jpasc95

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Edith Grove

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Max'sKansasCity
============================================
NEWS STORY
sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--eight-badminton-players-booted-from-olympics-for-throwing-matches.html

While the matches led to ugly scenes of players deliberately serving into the net while the Wembley Arena crowd booed and jeered, it is the organizers of this event who are responsible for allowing the tanking to happen in the first place. By implementing a controversial group system instead of a single-elimination format as used previously, Games chiefs left themselves open to the kind of nightmare that transpired late Tuesday.

When highly rated Chinese team Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei surprisingly finished second in their group, it suddenly became more beneficial for group opponents Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China and Kim Ha-na and Jung Kyung-eun of South Korea to lose and avoid meeting them. After Wang and Yu capitulated amid a series of embarrassing mistakes, they then became the newest opponent to avoid. Therefore, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung of South Korea and Meiliana Juahari and Greysia Polii of Indonesia then needed to lose to avoid them, leading to another farcical match of little effort.

The pairings could all afford to lose, having guaranteed a qualifying spot by winning their first two group matches.

The disqualification of the teams has created a logistical nightmare. As of Wednesday it was still being decided whether to simply have the four remaining teams in the competition play the semifinals and cancel the quarterfinals session, or to promote teams that had already been knocked out to take their place

In the badminton community, there has been widespread fury at an incident that has thoroughly besmirched the sport. "It was sickening, disgusting," said retired British badminton great Gail Emms, who won a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games. "They should be banned."

Chinese badminton authorities promised to look into the matter independently. However, suspicions that Chinese players have regularly thrown matches against teammates in the past are rife.

The real issue here is that this is a problem that could have been foreseen and it is the main reason why a group system in a tournament such as this doesn't really work. Table tennis caught on a decade ago, getting rid of the groups in singles and doubles play after the 2000 Sydney Games.
===================================================

So, bottom line, the Chinese are accused (again) of cheating, and this time in Badminton ?

There is another big question about the Chinese swimmer, Ye Shiwen, who is suspected of doping.
It is said that she swam as fast as Lochte in her last 50 meters while she's only sweet 16.
What's wrong with that ?

It's really, really, really fast for a 16-year old.
I feel bad for the girl. But I first saw her swim at the 2010 World's and it made me wonder then, but I didn't hear anyone raising any serious suspicions then....she had broken a record set previously by a swimmer in the now-banned super suits the previous year. She then disappeared. Most elite swimmers compete consistently in international competition, but she didn't. She also slashed between 6, 7 off her qualifying time weeks ago. In swimming. that's like going from high school track star to Usain Bolt in two weeks. Swimming is all about shaving 10ths, 100ths of seconds over a period of time etc..
Even the great phenoms like Phelps. Ian Thorpe and Janet Evans had to gradually get to that level over a stretch of time - from teen sensation to elite...which stretched over a year of intense training. She did it in a few weeks.
It doesn't help that China has a not-to-ancient history of doping.
I remember watching the 2000 Olympics - and seeing the Chinese swimmers with their bulky frames and unsettling rough facial features.
Its sad because this is a 16-year old kid. If she is clean, its unfair. If she is doping, its very likely unbeknown to her. But China has a reputation that follows its athletes, fair or not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-08-02 07:55 by stupidguy2.

Interest take on Ye Shiwen.

[www.latimes.com]

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NICOS
Watch this girl: Ranomi Kromowidjojo from Holland

With pleasure

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

Quote
Rolling Hansie

Quote
NICOS
Watch this girl: Ranomi Kromowidjojo from Holland

With pleasure

She sure looks sweet and doesn't need to swim.
She's obviously from Indonesia Nicos.

Quote
stupidguy2

Quote
kleermaker

Quote
stupidguy2

Quote
Palace Revolution 2000

Quote
Gazza
Yep..I was surprised to hear from American friends that the ceremony wasnt carried live and only excerpts were shown later (which from the comments Ive read here proves that in doing so it missed the context of much of it). I get the impression the coverage tends to be almost all geared towards covering US competitors, which I suppose I can understand to a degree if there are limited TV slots available, but in doing so it does miss the point of the entire competition.

In each Olympics, the BBC pretty much routinely provides blanket coverage for the whole duration - more so this year in the era of HD and digital TV as theyve actually launched almost 30 'temporary' BBC Olympic stations so they can extensively cover every sport. No doubt with the games actually being in the UK this time, this has made them up the coverage even more than usual, but theyve generally tended to be pretty comprehensive in previous games as well.

Sadly you are correct Gazza. I am in the USA, and many times in the past it has upset me how slanted the coverage here is. It is totally geared towards US competitors. I can understand some amount of preference for the hometown athletes, but so often I find the "Olympic spirit" missing, gone.
E.g. in an event the medals go to China/France/India; maybe it was a great competition up front, but all I hear about is the brilliant performance of US athlete at the 12th position. I was watching one event once where the winner was literally neglected, barely mentioned because they were from somewhere else.

That's always pissed me off. If an American athlete is not a favorite in the competition - most likely we won't see that competition. I'm surprised we saw the Aussie women's medal ceremony after the relay. We hear very little about the medal winners if they aren't American.......its been like this for years. Listening to Rowdy Gaines go on and on about the US athletes while some Chinese is breaking a world record is annoying.
And as for the opening ceremony - it was all but slashed ....we see only bits and pieces and it seemed very disjointed and lacking in context until....
I'm wondering if we'll get to see the Chinese or Soviet men or women's first round in gymnastics....

Forget about the Soviet men: they're almost dead and buried. As for the Olympics: it's bullshit: too commercial and too nationalistic. Especially in a country that I won't mention for some good reasons, but that thinks it's not only the best country in the world, but actually The Only Country In The World.

Sport and politics meet most at the Olympics. The richest countries and those who spend most money on the sports they pick always win the medals, and the message is: oh, isn't our country GREAT, because some 'fool' can swim or walk 100 meters just 0,0001 sec. faster than another. And no, no, no, no, no dope involved. Of course not, it's the Olympics, where men become brothers and participating is MUCH more important than winning, not to speak about fairness.

Of course politics is in play.....but I think the joy of watching the Olympics is the two-week drama: to see if this guy is going to finally get a medal, to see if that person can redeem himself from the last Olympics. Those of us who watch the Olympics will always see familiar faces from the previous games and watch as they either succeed or not, or we see younger newer faces - the changing of the guard etc...and then the controversies, like the North Korean fencer who refused a consolation medal after the judges @#$%& up...or its fascinating to read about suspicions of certain athletes and country's 'doping'.
And all those personal stories - sure they're 'corny' in the sense that they pull at the heart strings, but they're also human and the spirit behind most of the athletes is real and genuine. You can be cynical but I think that says more about you than the games.
I mean, what else can inspire a bunch of typically snarky rock and roll fans to discuss the the aesthetics of female gymnastics, or bemoan the lack of it....
Its great. It makes all of us fans of human striving and achievement for two weeks.
What else is there? The Bachelor?

I really love you and your post, except the sentence "You can be cynical but I think that says more about you than the games." That's below your (normally high) standard. So take it as a little reproach and a compliment in one.

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stupidguy2
Interest take on Ye Shiwen.

[www.latimes.com]

Americans seem to be a bit jealous that Chinese athletes managed to copy Armstrong's training secrets.

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Mathijs
Nothing more shocking than a tit of course.

If it was your tit I would have shot my own television.

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Mathijs
hahaha, NBC in the US will air live matches with a 10 minute delay, as yesterday apparently half a tit could be seen during a female waterpolo game and millions of people in the US where OUTRAGED!

If she would have carried an assault weapon there would have been no problem of course. Nothing more shocking than a tit of course.

Mathijs

Source please... Oh wait... who needs a source to make unrelated comments when bashing the USA. Keep up the good bashing there Mathis. Damn I wish my country was as good as yours.

Peace,
Mr DJA

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mr_dja

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Mathijs
hahaha, NBC in the US will air live matches with a 10 minute delay, as yesterday apparently half a tit could be seen during a female waterpolo game and millions of people in the US where OUTRAGED!

If she would have carried an assault weapon there would have been no problem of course. Nothing more shocking than a tit of course.

Mathijs

Source please... Oh wait... who needs a source to make unrelated comments when bashing the USA. Keep up the good bashing there Mathis. Damn I wish my country was as good as yours.

Peace,
Mr DJA

And we have a winner! Second reaction: USA bashing!

Man your fast!

Mathijs

And here it is the now famous tit...absolutely NSFW and NSFtUSA:



Mathijs

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Mathijs

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mr_dja

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Mathijs
hahaha, NBC in the US will air live matches with a 10 minute delay, as yesterday apparently half a tit could be seen during a female waterpolo game and millions of people in the US where OUTRAGED!

If she would have carried an assault weapon there would have been no problem of course. Nothing more shocking than a tit of course.

Mathijs

Source please... Oh wait... who needs a source to make unrelated comments when bashing the USA. Keep up the good bashing there Mathis. Damn I wish my country was as good as yours.

Peace,
Mr DJA

And we have a winner! Second reaction: USA bashing!

Man your fast!

Mathijs

So do I get a prize or just the satisfaction that I made a European happy?

Peace,
Mr DJA

Quote
Mathijs
hahaha, NBC in the US will air live matches with a 10 minute delay, as yesterday apparently half a tit could be seen during a female waterpolo game and millions of people in the US where OUTRAGED!

If she would have carried an assault weapon there would have been no problem of course. Nothing more shocking than a tit of course.

Mathijs

That's really something I've never understood with you Americans... the country that invented the MTV culture, the all-out pornography on everything (music, movie, ads, sport...), the country of Playboy... and if someone says the word "penis" or shows half a tit on TV you all pretend to be shocked.

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beepee2
you all pretend to be shocked.

You're generalizing here, BP.

I think the vast majority of Americans are not "shocked" by this at all, but rather the pussified media we have over here is so paranoid of litigation that would be brought on by the FCC or certain religous groups, that they overreact to the slightest transgression.

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beepee

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stupidguy2
Interest take on Ye Shiwen.

[www.latimes.com]

Americans seem to be a bit jealous that Chinese athletes managed to copy Armstrong's training secrets.

That's a copout.
And it was actually a British commentator who first raised the question and others, including swimmers, trying to figure out how she did something so unbelievable, 'unbelievable.'
If its seems unfathomable, it most likely is. But hey, according to her, 'the Chinese have very strict rules about doping..'
SO there....

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mr_dja

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Mathijs

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mr_dja

Quote
Mathijs
hahaha, NBC in the US will air live matches with a 10 minute delay, as yesterday apparently half a tit could be seen during a female waterpolo game and millions of people in the US where OUTRAGED!

If she would have carried an assault weapon there would have been no problem of course. Nothing more shocking than a tit of course.

Mathijs

Source please... Oh wait... who needs a source to make unrelated comments when bashing the USA. Keep up the good bashing there Mathis. Damn I wish my country was as good as yours.

Peace,
Mr DJA

And we have a winner! Second reaction: USA bashing!

Man your fast!

Mathijs

So do I get a prize or just the satisfaction that I made a European happy?

Peace,
Mr DJA

Sure there's a price...we keep the Olympic Spirit high:



Mathijs

Nice! I have always admired people who can "Sign". Lovely, actually, when one gets a minute to admire it.Wouldntza'say so?

For those who doesn't talk about sport in this thread I'm almost ashamed that I born in Holland

__________________________

Don't you just love that true Olympic spirit on this thread about the 2012 London Summer Olympics

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

Quote
kleermaker

Quote
Rolling Hansie

Quote
NICOS
Watch this girl: Ranomi Kromowidjojo from Holland

With pleasure

She sure looks sweet and doesn't need to swim.
She's obviously from Indonesia Nicos.

And she won................great job Ranomi

(She's half Dutch/Suriname probably their family roots is Indonesia)

__________________________

Golden girl Ranomi Kromowidjojo



Ain't She Sweet

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

Quote
Rolling Hansie
Golden girl Ranomi Kromowidjojo



Ain't She Sweet

Yes she is....

...and how about that golden flying squirrel!!
I couldnt be happier for her and her great smile!!

[abclocal.go.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-08-03 00:07 by Max'sKansasCity.

updated medal count




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-08-03 00:23 by Max'sKansasCity.

I was at the judo today and really enjoyed it, despite having no idea what was going on.

Still enjoying the beach volleyball despite trying so hard not to have a closeup on a bottom!

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Braincapers
I was at the judo today and really enjoyed it, despite having no idea what was going on.

Still enjoying the beach volleyball despite trying so hard not to have a closeup on a bottom!

It is really cool that you are able to go to the events...
I wonder.... did you buy tickets early or late? how did that go?

I agree with you on the Judo, I have no idea what they are trying
to do. It reminds me of 2 drunks in bar who might wanna fight, but
not really.... so they are just grabbing at each other.... now with
that said, I would not want any part of going against some Judo expert...
as I said earlier in the thread I think the only reason it looks so odd it is
that both people are doing expert Judo..... I bet if some regular schmo went
against one of those Judo girls they would have them on their back faster than they could say JuD'oOOHHH!!!

"the fat americans on their couches" _ i guess that statement is not stereotypical... thanks for exemplifying "tolerance and open-mindedess",bro..
.... just another 'fat american "weighing in" on your stupidity, ignorance, and insensitivity. "Have a nice day" as we say here in the US-- please note in the context of this post--"Have a nice day"-- means "GFY". Have a nice day.

i did my post just off the top of my head and may not have remembered correctly,was i right? did a guy in oslo mow down 91 people last year? if i got that wrong please correct me and i apoligize.

All in all I think the Olympics is a good advocate for sports in general. It's a perfect opportunity to watch a broad variety of sports and athlethes from all around the world. Here the Olympics is broadcasted pretty much around the clock on two different channels and two more on the internet. So if you think one event is boring you can just switch over to another. It's a pitty though that Sweden doesn't have an Olympic troop this year. I think our neoliberal goverment pulled it in and sent all the money to venture capitalists on the Cayman Islands instead. But hey - that's life!