2008 Olympic Games discussion thread
 

I'm guessing that up until the Games begin on August 8, 2008, half of the posts in this thread (including this one) could belong in the Political Palace.

The debate about China being a good host was obviously short for the bidding committee, which wasted no time saying "yes" to an Olympics based in Beijing. Obviously their concerns weren't with the air quality or general sanitation, let alone the continued oppression of the Tibetan people and of free speech in general. While I'm certainly inclined to believe that any country would be a fitting host for an international athletic competition, considering the IOC accepted Beijing's bid practically out of hand (over Paris?) the country's longstanding political issues related to the incumbent Communist regime must certainly have not been an issue.

The issue here, of course, is that the Olympics were never a political event, nor were they meant to be. It's just that political events have a way of occurring during the Olympics (1972), happening around the Olympics (1980, 1984) or just using the Olympics as a political fulcrum or for propaganda (1936). The issue here is that the Olympics are supposed to be free from politics and simply to promote freedom and peace in general, which is of course how the "Free Tibet" crowd is spinning it. I can't say I blame them for trying, but there aren't enough boos, hisses, whistles and jeers in the world for the blatantly obvious timing of these protests. Where were you guys in 2000, before Beijing was even picked to host?

So, of course, now a few countries (France, in particular) are kicking around the idea of protesting part or all of the Olympics, which will never happen. Look, you guys shot yourselves in the foot by ALLOWING China to host the Olympics, now suck it up and play along. Boycotting the Olympics is the saddest mistake any country would make, because you are politicizing something that doesn't deserve it.

As for the athletics, I'm always excited to catch the Olympics if it's on, but considering that the Red Sox and Athletics are playing two baseball games in Japan that start at 6:05AM EDT, I would be doubtful to catch anything live. Though my understanding is that, as usual, these Olympics will be the most widely covered yet, including some pretty widespread Internet coverage. I'm most excited about Michael Phelps trying to destroy some Olympic records for number of gold medals won.

Yeah, yeah, we all hate the Olmypics. Crass corporatism, done deals, statefaggotry, all that.

But what bit do we invariably end up watching at the expense of the other: the tastelessly high-budget TV event, or the otherwise low-key sporting-excellence-olympic-ideals stuff that (for our information!) goes on for whole fortnight after opening night?

Apart from the problem of us, the other problem is flags. The games can bever be politics-free because the modern movement's centred around nations. In order to make it politics-free you'd have to inject a new level of corporate participation that would make NFL look as grassroots and organic as a school fete.

Can't wait for the boxing part, interested in seeing how Cuba and Russia are gonna box. Russia has been working on a much more active style and the Cubans are well... Cubans. Other countries have also developed and I dont think Cuba wil ltake as many medals as they used to. Also interested too see how China perform overall.

My eyes will be on Michael Phelps. He's only, what, 24? And he's only 4 gold medals away from having the most of any athlete ever. (He needs 11 medals overall to break that record, which I guarantee he'll do in London.)

Incredibly, I have never heard of Michael Phelps until about a week ago. I didn't even realize Ian Thorpe had retired.

Anyone know what the deal is with the new Speedo swimsuits? Everyone who used it beat their old record. Multiple times. Now the swimmers are trying to figure out if they want to drop their sponsors or win. That fine line of cheating is getting blurred.

It's not cheating if it ain't biological :tpg:

I plan to watch the opening ceremony. Since the Philippines has no chance of winning any gold medals, I don't intend to tune in on any events. I wonder if this is the year China will beat the USA in gold medals...

I recall there was a very similar controversy during the 1988 Winter Olympics, held in Calgary. A breakthrough had been made in speed-skating technology; rather than use the curved "traditional" style of blade, developers tested a thinner, longer, straighter blade.

http://www.backstreetinline.com/page37/img2.gif

This breakthrough allowed for several records to be smashed during trials, with more expected to be broken during actual medal competition. There was a lot of uproar, as I remember, since some camps felt the blades made the sport reliant more upon technology and less upon human accomplishment.

In the end, however, the blades became universally accepted as the optimal choice for competition. Once they were accessible by all athletes, the "advantage" was gone and all mutterings of cheating ceased.

This is most likely what will happen with the Speedo suit. Unless the IOC intervenes to deem the suit unsportsmanlike (doubtful), then the rest of the sport will simply have to adapt to the new technology and embrace it as yet another tool. Innovations are made in sports science all the time. As long as the enhancements aren't biological, it's all good progress and keeps the sport dynamic.

Planning on watching men's basketball, swimming, and some track and field. Maybe some triathlons here and there and whatever pops up that I didn't even know the summer games did.

True, but it does mean different starting blocks for different competitors, which is almost as sour. The more public money that goes into national sports institutes the better the position available.

I always like to check out some of the sports where the R&D's largely irrelevant. So often you can get sensational competition when the Fijian and the Kazakh have as good a chance of medals as the German and the Brit.

So are the crotches of the athletes who wear those new Speedos, if you look around.

So how about that opening ceremony, huh? Absolutely amazing spectacle, but I guess that's what enough money and people (15,000?!) can get you. Was particularly impressed by the giant footstep fireworks, though I suppose the effect was probably lost on anyone not watching on TV.

Looks like an exciting two weeks of competition lay ahead. I'm especially pleased by that everything's broadcasting in HD, which looks brilliant. When you can see the individual pores on athletes... yeah, that's crazy.

Summer Olympics? They play ice hockey? No. Oh, but there's football? Oh, but none of the pros bother showing up. So... I'm watching high jump?

Yeah, I skipped track day in high school, too.

Try some real hockey, milkbagger.

Yeah! Because when real men play hockey they do it wearing skirts! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...-australia.gif

Nah, real mean tuck their shirts in.

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/629...eb430x3ao4.jpg

So, the opening ceremony.

It was interesting for me (I just came back from China after living there for three years. Yes, I came back BEFORE the Olympics. No, it wasn't due to visa issues.) on several different levels. I'm going to start off by saying this, they waited for this day for a long, long time. On their 200<b>6</b> new years show, they had so many references to the Olympics that you would have thought it <b>was</b> 2008. I mean, they had references about it <b>everywhere</b> including signs, buildings, and products like McDonalds, Coca-Cola, etc. And my students were more than ready to tell me how this was China's "chance to show the world how it has evolved and grown". I even got that speech once to a time I <i>didn't</i> mention anything about the Olympics so I know they have been excited for a very long time and have worked hard for it. If there was one subject my students had interest it, it was the Olympics. Whether it be giving a interary with regards to how they'd get to the Olympics, where they would stay, etc, or whether they would join the Olympics and what they would do, or something else like it, they'd talk non-stop.

Even moreso, they saw the Olympics as the big one. I mean, the commentators couldn't do it justice how important they saw the Olympics. Given all that happened the last six months (the blizzard, Sichuan Earthquake, etc), students and others were giving the talk more or less as troops who kept on going, who didn't give up despite the circumstanes. They would talk about all those things as China had to overcome, all of those setbacks or such, and how they perservierd (SP?) to make it. I mean, they <b><i>really</i></b> saw this as THE biggest moment in modern if not straight-out Chinese history.

It was creative that they used the fact that they had so many people for so many things in the show. There really are a lot of people. I don't mean that as a statement, but as a way of life. While here in the States, I could go some place any not see anyone while walking there until I get into the store, there, you can't usually go one block over with seeing five people. Even when the students were gone, on the campus I lived on, I would wager I'd see at least five or six people going from my house just to the outside. Another big differences is there are so many people that there is much less space in that you don't have situations where you walk for twenty minutes before you get to a store. Stores are everywhere because people are everywhere and they need those stores. So I thought it was clever they embranced in that for the show.

To me though, it felt like it didn't have nearly the Chinese feel to it in some ways. Yes, it showed Chinese history, had Chinese actors and actresses, used Chinese characters such as peace/harmony, the counting system, etc, and SOME traditional Chinese garb, but it really wasn't how they have shows in China. Granted, I guess having some sort of Chinese play would have made little to no sense for most foreigners. They also didn't really have too many Chinese songs. Generally on their shows there are a lot of Chinese songs both current and past. I would love for Shlyph's thoughts on this and just everything overall to compare notes.

The show itself in an interesting twist though, was kinda CHinese in that it ultimately had a Western feel to it (speaking of western feel, I dunno what they were talking about with McDonalds over there. They hand it to you and smile, just like over in the States. Nothing elaborate). What I mean is, when I was in China there, there <i>are</i> times and places you can feel and see traditional aspects of China but a lot of it is slowly disappearing into a Western-ish style of things.

The fireworks were nice although I have seen so many fireworks while in China (they use them for anything and everything and 100X of that for Spring Festival) that it just didn't have the impact. That's not China's fault though. Interestingly enough, the colors were red (if you noticed red as a common theme, good for you. It's their lucky color/color used for stamps that they use for just about any document to show it's official among other things), or yellow and orange which I think together make red too.

Overall a nice show, and it was fun to kinda look at some of the cultural things, and even just look at a few characters and say "Hey, I know that one!".

The opening ceremony wasn't quite as propaganda-ridden as I had feared, and in retrospect that was quite a wise choice by the Chinese, but the part where the children representing China's ethnic minorities symbolically gathered in unison under the Chinese flag was truly stomach-turning stuff.

Why do you hate children :(

Fuck yes, Micheal Phelps strikes again! Holy shit, he literally raped everyone in the pool.

1 down, 7 more to go.



You did good too Park Tae Hwan.

That didn't happen.

Why would you make up such an outrageous lie?

Now I probably have to wait 5 hours to see that race. :(

Obviously it happened, did you even watch the damn thing?

He broke his own record and plus there was difference of 3 seconds between himself and 2nd place.

*goes back to watch Chinese doing gymnastic*

I have good feeling about Chinese dominating gymnastic this year. I hope don't fuck up like back in '04.

G'night y'all, day 3 awaits us!

No, I didn't watch it.

Because rape is an obscene and monstrous crime and is not broadcast on television.

If your story is true, I certainly hope this sexual predator is banned from the Games henceforth. The very idea sickens me.

I know that some swimmers will do anything to get the gold, but rape everyone else in the pool? Isn't that a little extreme and, oh I don't know, "out there"? :gonk:

Edit: Pang beat me to it, but this works as a double-post to emphasise the apparent stupidity~

All of them! Simultaneously! WHILE UNDERWATER.

Michael Phelps is in fact an Octopus Demon, Confirm/Deny

Raping someone in the pool is disgusting. If you do it underwater, nobody can witness it. I hope they will punish Phelps for such a strong misbehavior!

What I find most amusing is that despite there being a Canadian swimmer in the race and having a Canadian flag next to their name, Kimchi was going for Michael Phelps. Ocotpus Demon worshiper or what? I will admit the number of Octopus Demon worshipers has increased dramatically ever since

http://www.uffsite.net/ff6/images/ultros.jpg

...but Ultros never raped anyone, what the hell is wrong with you Kimchi. :(

Requesting octopus rape flag to put next to people's names~

Y'know, if they're going to have a composition court for tennis, shouldn't they have put the building indoors? Now it's in a rain delay.

:gonk: Never thought my comment will turn out this way.

Anyways, tennis should be very interesting.

I wish I could watch all events I want to watch. BAH, too bad we don't have official Olympic Broadcast station dedicated to each sport.

Oh lol, I may be Canadian, but I cheer for US/Korea/Australia/China/Spain/Swiss/Germany. Those countries has been always my favorites as long as I can remember.

Wow. South Korea's Park Tae-hwan getting a gold in 400 freestyle. Pretty amazing considering the fact that Asians are hardly ever favored to win in swimming.

Gold count:
Overall Medal Standings - The official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games

China: 6
South Korea: 3
US: 2

What's the US target gold medal?

I'd say no more than 30. They had 36 in Athens (a neutral site, really) but now that it's in Beijing I wouldn't be surprised if China broke 40.

1337 gold medals and 34987,30^6 platin medals

1337357. ("leetest", is that even a word?)

Anyways, the game just started. Those rankings doesn't mean shit right now.

Canada sucks balls, I always ended up cursing when ever Canadians pops out. CBC sucks balls too.

Thank god there's NBC.


These are the favorites for these events right?

Archery: Korea
Swimming: US/Austrilia
Judo: Japan(?)
Handball: Ukraine(?)
Gymnastic: US/China(?)

That was an AMAZING finish in the 4x100 freestyle relay. It wasn't looking good towards the end, and the French had a half-length lead at the 350 mark, but the Americans ended up winning by 0.08 seconds.

Holy shit, yes.

I was on the edge of my seat watching that. I'm shocked that they managed to pull that one off.

Please, don't let us stop you from getting the fuck out of the country whenever you like.

What channel do you guys watch the Olympics on? NBC doesn't seem to show "live" events. It's always delayed about an hour or two. Like I already know the results from the Internet when NBC is showing it.

Or am I being retarded and miscalculating the time conversion and missing the events.

NBC is showing live coverage right now.

The official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games

Well I already know the results of the backstroke. VYATCHANIN Arkady of Russia and STOECKEL Hayden of Australia.

I guess there is about a few hour delay? Because 11 PM Pacific here is 2 PM in China.

Because according to that website, NBC is suppose to show the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final at 11:27, but people have posted that US won about 3 hours ago.

Where the hell did you guys watch the event? Online?

EDIT:
Actually fuck NBC.

If you wait to watch NBC's prime time coverage (8 PM to midnight) then yeah, you aren't going to be catching stuff as soon as it happens. You could always try watching live streams online.

And how about that 4x100 freestyle relay, eh? I have a feeling we'll be seeing lots of images of Phelps' victorious WOOOOO as the Games go on.

Dude. Lezak is sooooooooooooo awesome. Clutch status.

Possibly the best way the US beats the fucking French and Bernard.

Too awesome.
NBCOlympics.com - 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games | Free Online Videos, Olympic Event | Athlete Interviews | NBC Olympics

I don't blame him, 4x100m freestyle was the one that made him get 1 less than Spitz.

2 down 6 more to go.
Mr. Jones kinda dragged the team down, but the ending was epic when Lezak caught up.

I can say shit about my country if I want to. Am I blaming Canada? Fuck no, I love the nation. Its just the broadcast station that sucks balls. Not to mention our athletes are half baked thanks to crappy support from government.

Why do we send half baked athletes and expect them to win? Jesus Christ, government should give them more support if they expect them to win.

EDT and China time is a 12 hour differential; 12AM here is 12PM there.

I believe Prime Time coverage on NBC should be live. A lot of events should be broadcast live between 8am and 12 PM, China time. Most of the events that are broadcast during the day acutally happened the night before, I believe, as it is the middle of the night in China when they are broadcast in the US.

Over here the BBC are showing pretty much all the events live either on mainstream channels or through the digital interactive thingy. Admittedly the time difference is less severe but it is nice to see things as they happen. The women's team archery final between Korea and China was pretty cool and not the sort of thing we ever would have got to see on the old days of pre-digital television.

Don't they get a cash incentive for a victory, like $20k for a gold medal?

Do people even play tennis indoors?

Mainly in America but it's not uncommon by any means.

I guess when I said that, I wasn't thinking about tennis being almost exclusively an outdoor thing. I guess I don't see the point in playing it outdoors, since it seems at least 50% of tennis courts (here in America, anyway) are hardcourt.

I'm not Canadian, but I've lived 30 minutes from the border at Niagara Falls my entire life, so I feel I'm able to speak here.

I've seen the CBC coverage. I've seen the NBC coverage. I receive both and it's absolutely wonderful. I get to watch the sports from the perspectives of two countries. Hearing the Canadians cheer for their own is just as thrilling as rallying behind the athletes from my own country. You may not be seeing the most exciting events the Olympics have to offer but you are seeing the events in which your fellow countrymen and women are competing. Is that not enough for you? Do you forsake your own people just because something better might be on television?

Where the hell do you get off calling any of them half-baked anyhow? They've trained as best they can for this. It's all voluntary. They choose to represent Canada. They represent you. Your miserable, unappreciative ass, they're out there working themselves raw before dawn each day, training, studying and persevering for one of the last bastions of global community left in this world - and all you can do is mock them.

Fuck you.

It doesn't matter if their government is fully behind them. Do you think they lose sleep wondering if the prime minister of Canada respects their swim team? There are athletes from all over the planet whose governments cannot afford luxurious Olympic training programs. They get by and sometimes they even win. Those people are fucking heroes and should be carried on thrones for a year. I don't see you busting yourself to train as they do, for a chance - a chance mind you! It's not even a guarantee! - to compete. You just sit there and call your athletes half-assed wannabes, unable to appreciate the vast sacrifices each athlete has made just to experience the complete joy of having merely stood alongside the best athletes in the world.

You are a complete disgrace to your country.

Crash, we'll see what he says aboot Team Canada in 2 years.

This is a joke right? Canada will never pass 4th place at tops. We are the favorites @ hockey and we did pretty bad even with Wayne as our coach and Crosby as captain.

Why thank you for pointing the fact!

Well fuck you too. CBC just burns me up. During the qualification round for men's gymnastic, they were BASHING how Romania won't be moving to next round. "This high bar won't be enough for Romania to move on for next round." Right after the guy's routine is done, Romania took Canada's place and moved on to next round while Canada was eliminated.

For fuck's sake, NBC barely has any negative comments. CBC, you turn on the fucking tv, you hear them bashing. For instance,(Women's soccer) when China scored goal on Canada, the commentary peeps went berserk.

This is probably because I personally know one of men's gymnastic team. Can't stand those commentary peeps on CBC.

But than, maybe its just me since I always watched CBC and this is my first time watching NBC for Olympics.

Hockey's just one sport. Canada was 4th in 1998 and 2002.

NBC was making similarly disparaging remarks about the Romanian team, for what it's worth.

Phelps is NASTY. That's all.

3 down, 5 to go.

The rapist Micheal Phelps strikes again.

I was really surprised how Park Tae Hwan came in 2nd. Hwaiting mother fucker~ you just became national hero!.


Average ranking only using those 7 records: 6.875

Fuck. I guess I'll have to wait for my timezone's "prime time" to watch the swim match. I'll see it in about 3 hours. Damn you East coast people. And NBC.

WTF? What do you mean? You can't watch it? , this is blasphemy!



I really hope Phelps gets 8 medals this Olympic.

WEST coast. 3 hour difference. When it shows it at 10 PM EAST coast, NBC decided to show it at 10 PM WEST coast. So when NBC airs it here in the WEST coast at 10 PM, it's already 1 AM in the EAST coast.

What the fuck NBC.

But enough of my bitching.

NBC's tape delayed broadcasts (I'm on PST as well) are great, but only if you a) don't care much about being "spoilered" and/or b) manage to maintain total information blackout before you watch the broadcast.

I was on the road listening to the radio when the sports guy was like, "Phelps is 2 minutes from starting the 200m freestyle finals" and then a couple minutes later, "There's another gold for Phelps" and I was... "oh." Oh well.

What I really hate about tape delay is when local stations broadcast results before the events even air. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the 2002 Winter Olympics when Inside Edition held an interview with Tara Lipinski going "HEY YOU WON GREAT" before her showdown with Michelle Kwan even aired.

But hey, internet streams etc.

And in other news, the footstep firework footage seen on TV was faked. :tpg:

I wanted the Chinese team to beat those smug NBA dudes in hoops, but I suppose I'm asking too much :(

kimchi that was just the semi-final race, not the final race. The medal race will be tomorrow night. only has 3 so far.

Don't ruin Kimchi's ideas with logic, BZ. He/She clearly knows more than the rest of us, and is miles out in front of the pack in the dipshit heat.

Yeah actually, I do. I don't disagree that the effort involved in becoming an Olympian is incredible and people who do that should be rightly applauded but I've never really bought into the whole Team GB crap. For me, the Olympics is an opportunity to watch the greatest athletes in the world compete against each other and the fact that some of them live in the same country as me largely washes over me. I'd rather watch a mentally skilled table tennis match featuring a couple of slopes than watch a British guy run the marathon because watching a marathon is essentially really boring whereas a high paced table tennis match is incredible and because English people apparently suck at it, it's never shown here. That's why I'm such a fan of the BBCi coverage because now I don't have to just watch the stuff with Brits in, I can watch better contests featuring only foreigners.

I guess the main reason is that national pride is a big thing in America, it's part of your national psyche and as far as I can tell, drummed in to you from an early age. Over here on the other hand we're a nation of cynics and love nothing better than to see successful people fail and love supporting losers. Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, the ski-jumper who never managed more than about 20 yards was hugely popular here whereas Paula Radcliffe, an incredible athlete and hugely successful is most famous here for the time she was caught on camera having a piss in the street during a marathon once. Linford Christie, fastest man in the world for a bit and we only remember that he was accused of drug taking and all rather enjoyed that. Steve Backley, champion javelin thrower? Cheated on his wife. Colin Jackson, champion hurdler? Won the Dancing on Ice gameshow.

I'm not saying you're wrong to support your country's athletes, far from it. I'll cheer on our no-hopers as much as deep down I'll hope that Phelps fucks up and drowns because frankly, nobody likes a show-off. All I'm saying is that not everyone will share your own jingoistic sense of national pride and the Olympics, for many people are not all about your own country doing well, they're about watching some decent athletics so don't be so hard on the kid just because he's not solely bothered about how his own country is performing.

Phelps is a fucking asshole. Something about the guy just bugs me. The screaming when he wins, the bloody arrogance... I don't know. I hope someone hamstrings him.

Thank you for clearing it up :cool: , I was wondering "WTF" when the profile clearly screamed with bolded white letters "9 gold medalist".

Don't worry, your contempt isn't completely baseless. After all, he is a malevolent-rapist-octopus-demon that just happens to DEFY GRAVITY!!! :gonk:



watch as he reaches under the water to catch his next, unsuspecting victim...

For some reason that photo reminds me of Goatse.

Watching it online, they even said that.

Kosuke screamed when he won the Men's 100m Breaststroke.

What's wrong with getting excited about winning? Fuck you, Deni. Don't be a killjoy, especially for somebody that just won an olympic medal...or three.

Anyways, the whole Phelps coverage is kinda silly, to me. That's all they show, besides gymnastics and volleyball. Since I don't have the special cable thingy, I have to catch everything else online.
But there are a lot of events to enter in swimming. People competing in other sports, other than regular athletics, don't have any chance at winning that many medals, simply based on the fact that there aren't that many events for them to compete in.

And in other news, it seems the little girl who sang during the ceremony wasn't really singing at all. According to the chap in charge of the music, the real singer didn't live up their demands of "perfect looks, feeling and expression". He goes on to make the absurd claims that they wanted to "give the right image" (?) and that he was "thinking of what was best for the nation".

link (in Swedish, with pics of the girls).

What's next, the Chinese soldiers presenting the flags were really programmed robots?

OH DEAR THE OPENING CEREMONY IS COMPLETELY RUINED

Geez, the responses of some people I've seen elsewhere. Shit is faked all the time, get over it. You wouldn't have suspected otherwise in the first place anyhow.

Although I am starting to wonder about robot soldiers...

And it's not like there were no fireworks. It's just that rather than film it live, they showed a pre-recorded version on tv and to the corwd in the stadium on the screens. The fireworks did go up and they did look like feet, it's just that flying a helicopter through that kind of shit would be ridiculous. Shaped fireworks like that are pretty commonplace these days although they're not cheap.

Oh, the faking doesn't change how grand the opening ceremony was. The fireworks thing wasn't faked too - there WERE real footprint fireworks. Just that what you saw on TV was partially CG, complete with shaky-cam and smog lighting effects.

As for the lip syncing, well... Par for the course. Western bands do it too.

Still, this serves to highlight the lengths the organizers are going to so they can stage a picture 'perfect' Olympics. Too bad they are inadvertently showing off China's ability to fake a lot of things :3:

I wonder if those medals are genuine gold/jade...!

Milli Vanilli not withstanding, they're still lip syncing to their own voice. In this case, China decided the singer wasn't pretty enough, so they got some perfect girl with pigtails to take her place. Granted, the singer wasn't much to look at , but with such a huge population, couldn't the Chinese have found a cute girl who could sing too?

They could, and after the opening ceremony nobody would give a second thought about her anyway.

Interesting article in the newspaper today:

So there you go. When Phelps is whooping over a dominating performance in a race, he's not being arrogant but normal. Dude's an amazing athlete anyway, he's earned his cheering.

Either that or one of his parents was a gorilla.

More gold for Phelps. He just won the 200m butterfly, and a little later he'll participate in the 4x200m IM.

Well, the WR for the 4x200 was completely destroyed by Michael Cthulhu Phelps and the Phelpettes. It's gonna be a long time before someone bests that time.

So I want to watch the weightlifting with commentary, but don't know what site to go to.

NBC online only has chat style commentary, which is really good, but I would rather just tap full screen and sit back.

Does anybody know a network that I can get this on?

Love watching USA baseball and never hearing of one guy on the team. lol

On msnbc now.

The Phelps media-rimjob's made me realise how much of a no-show our men's team is this Games. Who have we got? Sullivan? He's good at one thing. Hackett gives a toss about nothing but the 1500 gold, and I wouldn't put it past him to announce retirement right on getting out of the water. The rest of them are our B-team at any other Olympics, frankly.

The women, on the other hand...

...are great!

Yeah, I've really got no confidence in the Australian men swimming team. Good on Sullivan for getting silver though, that was a grade-A effort. But the women, they're all fantastic and have got the passion and firepower that the men seem to lack. I'm getting a bit sick of the media's overexposure of Stephanie Rice though, I mean I admire her and she's a phenomenal athlete, but the media are milking the situation for everything it's worth. I mean "Heart of a Lion. Face of an Angel." What the hell is that shit? =.="

The freestyle relay before was great, Australia held a comfortable lead the whole way through. Can't wait for the medley relay!

Here's a GOLDEN comment by someone in the ESPN article on Michael Phelps winning his 6th gold in these Olympics:

Someone needs to help him understand that while Phelps has been dominating his competition, this isn't Project Gotham Racing. Also, no matter what precious metal you use, as long as it's there to signify first, it could be gold, platinum, molybdenum,...that's more or less irrelevant.

Speaking of Phelps, did anyone catch that report about what his daily calorie intake is? I was absolutely staggered.

I have to wonder how much this guy spends on food in a week.

The other question is, how much training does he do on an average day?

Don't remember the source, but I believe his typical routine (at least during the Olympics thus far) has involved him swimming around 5 miles daily from the warm-up/practice/cool down.

Also read that, despite all his activity, he apparently seems to have trouble keeping weight on. If you can eat that much and still lose weight, you've gotta be moving around like a maniac.

I'd bet that most of his food needs are subsidized by some kind of federal Olympic program, or at least bankrolled by corporate sponsors. Paying his weekly grocery/restaurant bills is a bargain investment compared to the money earned by, for instance, having Phelps's face appear on a Wheaties box.

As for the quantity of calories Phelps consumes, most people who eat so much don't turn around and spend 42 hours swimming upwards of 3,000 laps per week. One can only imagine the number of doctors and therapists assigned to him; I'm certain they keep a close watch on his cholesterol, sodium, metabolic processes, etc. I sometimes wish I could pack away as much food as Phelps does each day. I could use the weight boost.

Dude's gotta give up competitive swimming at some point. I wonder if he will stick to his old eating habits then. (If so, I'd like to see Fat Phelps unfold :3:)

Yeah, you and me both. Damn the pasta sounds good right now too. I guess because it is lunchtime and I'm hungry as hell. I would be happy with more information on his 1000 calorie protein drinks though. Time for google I guess.

God damn the judges for this olympic pisses me off. I think I'm the only one who watches boxing but the shit that's going makes me go bananas. Not only in boxing but even in wrestling, what the fuck is going on. People getting points for nothing, getting warnings for wrong things gah.

Only sport worth watching is womens beach volleyboll, why lie.

Refereeing in the Olympics is always more or less a joke. In sports like boxing and wrestling in particular, where every decision can be vital, it's hard to understand why they can't hire proper people. The 'Ara' scandal is the only big scandal of the games so far this year though I think? Apart from perhaps some of the Chinese female gymnasts being under the age limit. Apparently it's impossible for the IOC to find out how old they really are (!)

But hey, at least things aren't as bad as back in '88...

Props to the person who renamed the thread.

Holy shit that was close! Phelps is a monster!

1/100th.

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

No new world record, though :eye:

Holy shit, I couldn't believe that happened watching that.

This is probably one of the most epic Olympic Games ever.

I wouldn't say the Olympics have been epic (hell, the majority of the track and field events haven't been performed), but Phelps' performance will go down in (at the very least, American) history as the greatest athletic performance ever.

You're... joking, right?

He's a fucking swimmer. Dominant, sure, but in swimming.

WATCH OUT DENI, PHELPS HAS RAGE!

http://g.photos.cx/OB-CA391_0811ph_2...1000328-9a.jpg



Purpose of this post: to remain strictly on-topic.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...lpsSupDeni.gif

FUCKING YEAH Best thread rename of the year.

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...is/phelps2.gif

I win, Tails.

You are mistaken sir, Phelps is the real winner here.

PHELPS DISCUSSION ONLY.

I lol'd though.

Anyone watching this 20K walk right now. I had no idea this was real. I remember seeing Hal on Malcolm in the Middle doing it hilariously, and thought it was a joke. It is pretty funny, but props to those Olympic guys. I wonder what the rules of walking are while watching it.

Participants must have at least one foot on the ground at all times.

That's pretty much it.

Dunno why people like knocking on Phelps. Swimming is a sport where it's "easy" to rack up a lot of medals compared to other sports, true. It also lacks the drama of team sports or more glamorous activities (gymnastics, T&F, etc), but anyone has to admit that watching Phelps being able to dominate the field is an incredible feat. Heck, just being able to maintain his schedule is intense.

It'd be much easier to hate on Phelps if he were a dick, but he's not even that. Very good-natured guy.

I will say this, though: Somewhere out there, there's an orthodontist who would really love to work on Phelps.

There's also something about the supporting leg having to be straight the entire time it's on the ground, hence the mad hip swaying. Or something.

I was 20 km walk (is that what it is?), holy shit that was intense. It would SUCK to be disqualified middle of the game.

Anyways, Phelps on his 7th medal... fuck, only 1 more.

Seriously, try to look beyond the hype here. Phelps has been, in every way, the best overall swimmer in the world for years. That he would win five individual golds here was expected. I think what he did in Athens was far more impressive (four individual golds and one bronze).


And the opening ceremony is just getting more and more embarrassing for every day that passes:

Ethnic children at opening ceremony 'were fake'


It also seems like the piano performance by Lang Lang might have been prerecorded: Epoch Times - Fake Piano Played at Opening Ceremony?

Heh, this bit of information is more inconsequential than the aforementioned voice dubbing, wouldn't you say?

On that note, I wonder how long will it take for the unpatriotic leaks intent on de-glorifying the opening ceremony to ... uh ... receive a re-education through hard work... :p

Bolt might as well have moonwalked the 100m Final. That was just insane celebrating with about 15m left and jogging through the line, the 100m semi final was unbelievable he literally walked it. He could of done a flat 9.6 if he even bothered or dare I say a 9.5.

I forsee a 9.5 in the future however.

Johnson's 200m record is gone only question remains is by how much.

As good as Phelps has been that truly was the performance of the games. He squashed Powell and Gay.

About 19.32, I'm not as sure as you, but for sure we've never seen as good a 200 m runner as Bolt since Johnson, and I'm sure he has the potential to beat it.

And I'd say that Powell "squashed" himself, as usual when it comes to a big race. Not sure what happened to Gay? I was surprised not to see him in the finals.

MEMO: GLOBAL NEWSAGENCIES, PRESS
FROM: ANONYMOUS BENEFICIARY

THEY'RE CALLED THE 'REDEEM TEAM' THIS OLYMPICS OKAY. BECUASE THEY'RE GOING TO WIN.

RIGHT? RIGHT.

Why the fuck can't they record events and leave them online for people to watch?

They fucking expect everybody to just catch everything at any given moment. I can't go back and watch anything I missed, and none of the stations have full event replays, and only offer highlight reels from select events.

This is the 21st century. Get with the fucking times, people.

If you know how to use proxies (Firefox has a great plugin) find one in the Uk and goto BBC - Homepage, it has video clips and highlights of everything.

NBC didn't poor millions of dollars into covering the Olympics just so you could watch it for free ALL the time.

As for my Phelps love, maybe I appreciate what he's doing more because I couldn't swim to save my life, which is kinda the point of swimming. I understand the mechanics of swimming, but my buoyancy is sadly low.

Phelps is said to be the best and most complete swimmer ever. True, very true on short 'racing' distances (< 400m). I dont know anything about his racing performance on long distances (> 1500m). I really marvel at Hackett's mastery - for me personally he's the greatest pool swimmer (I *love* pool swimming! 3.0-5.0km per workout session) on the Olympic tournament.
For 'each' of the 100m's (15 x 100m = 1500m) he needs less than 1min. So crazy. :tpg:

I can swim 3.0km's without a break in a steady tempo in 45-50mins (sorry for bragging *g*), thinking of myself that i am quick (since i outswim *any* other in that same pool during that long time)...but Hackett...done in < 30mins., for him not a problem at all. He's my personal swimming hero and idol. Not da Phelps.

Swimming superfast on short distances is not an art. :rolleyes:
Swimming superfast in a young fresh body is no art, either. :rolleyes: (Usain Bolt is 21!!)
Yet, swimming superfast on long distances (>1.5km) is a piece of art, the supreme! And here, nobody could ever beat Hackett. A guy for eternity.

[...]

Ah, btw, does NE1 know details on the (average) daily swimming pensum of the U.S. or Australian boys, e.g. Phelps? I heard that some of them train 15km's :o every single day.

:twitch: Crazeeeeeeeeee...

Hackett lost, and he was far from his own world record! :( (Bye Hackett, farewell, time to retire.)

i am severely disappointed, lost a hero, and am now looking for a new idol. And found one: Not Phelps, not Hackett, but

Rebecca Soni :D

:D :D :D

Come again?

Eight for eight. Thread over.

Bah, oh well. The Aussies did ok. Our butterflier (who I've never heard of) stayed with Phelps for a good while. Well done, team!

And well done to the Australian women swimmers! They won their medley relay in a pretty awesome race. Shame Grant Hackett lost, but Tunisia got the gold so no biggie~

Man, I adore our top swimmers. Phelps sucks at giving interviews, but he's such just such a happy guy you can't help but feel good anyway. It's a shame Coughlin and Torres couldn't grab gold in the final relay, but they're such great sportsmans. I especially like how Torres keeps chatting it up with the opponents (who are all like half her age) both pre- and post-race. What was it she said? "In the pool we're opponents but outside the pool we're all friends." Great stuff.

Bolt in the 100m was insane. Never seen anyone run a world record time so easily. I wonder what he'll be like in 2012 if he has someone who can push him hard.

Also caught the end of the women's marathon. Completely staggering how they can maintain that kind of pace for two hours, but it must be a positively awesome experience to enter the stadium on the final stretch.

Really despising NBC's broadcast delay and constant commercial breaks. I stay up past midnight quite often, but sometimes I just want to catch the most anticipated events a bit earlier, thanks. Also getting really tired of seeing the Exxon Mobil commericals, though I'm totally impressed by the United Airlines ones every time.

[11:04] <+Casein> Jamaican Usain Bolt has won the Men's 100m Final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in a world record time of 9.69 seconds. Silver medalist Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago ran a time of 9.89 seconds, leaving American Walter Dix at 9.91 seconds to take the bronze.
[11:04] <+zip> he ran like he saw some food
[11:05] <+zip> it's the new shoes
[11:05] <+Ultima> he ran like the cops were on his ass
[11:05] <+Tails|Away> he ran like he saw some cops


Were the any cops present at the event? I wasn't watching. :(

Also Phelps eight for eight AMERICA FUCK YEAH

Phelps got 8 on 8, what a beast. (Yea, I am late as fuck since the TV broke down on me friday. FUCK, I missed 3 days worth of live shit!)

I could have driven an elephant parade between 1st and 2nd place in the 200m final it was that ridiculous.

Bolt ran a 19.30 into a HEAD WIND.

The record which the Pundits thought nobody would beat has final been disposed off in such merciless and effortless fashion. That was simply jaw dropping back in 1996 but now in 2008 its just unbelievable. Johnson said he thought Bolt would perhaps beat it but on the day he thought Bolt would run a 19.5 because of his need for endurance running. But its so nice to see Johnson heap praise and be proud of another athlete who has taken his record from him. He's a true gentleman among men.

As far as this goes, this was simply the best performance of the games; far better than the 100m final he won and I don't see it being topped. Phelps may have won 8 golds but the 200m is the probably the most prized record in the olympics and World athletics since 1996.

Bolt is only 21 its his birthday tomorrow. He's nowhere even near his peak; Johnson was 29 when he ran that earth shattering time so I suspect Bolt to shave a few more hundreths off the record in the years to come.


Just wow.

What's more amazing is that they were commented as running at a particularly slow pace given the prime weather conditions ("they're running a 92 degree pace rather than a 72 degree pace"). Full expectation was that the second half of the race would prove to be extremely fast given the conservation shown in the first half, but no one even bothered to try and match the runaway (who wasn't an errant threat either; she'd tried this in the past with multiple successes. The others ought to have known better.)


Ha, there was a SimCity 4 song being played in the background during one of the men's individual finals in gymnastics.

It's official: Bolt is an insane sprinter. I hope he's got some seriously tough competition in 2012, since he can break world records without even looking like he's being pushed too much. Also, 2 DQs in the same race by the 2nd and 3rd place winners? Crazy stuff, but a nice break for the 4th and 5th place finishers.

Watched a bit of diving, and those Chinese divers are crazy. Every single time they jump off the platform it's amazing to watch how much more refined they seem to be above all the other divers. Hope the American and Canadian divers can push them.

Anybody see Angel Matos kick the referee in the face in taekwondo??? He landed it straight in the middle a real shiner.

He got disqualified for taking too long to get up after an injury and proceeded to bitch culminating in him kicking the referee in the face and punching another official. He has now been given a lifetime ban and probably will face criminal charges.

See here for the article + Video (only works for UK viewers) http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...do/7578743.stm

The judges have been dodgy or what not counting a Sarah Stevenson's straight kick to the face which resulted in the Olympic offical overuling the referee and judges.

Myst 3 music at the Syncro Swimming? Amazing performances there.

Yeah, four years ago, it was Final Fantasy VIII (I think Liberi Fatali), and this year Myst 3. Good job, guys!

Anyone seen that taekwondo guy from Cuba attacking the referee? That was kinda hilarious.

Nice to see VGM getting recognition, but what a crap choice. Uematsu + Hamaguchi awesomeness to Wall + Ghost Orchestrator derivation is quite a come down. Even One Winged Angel would have been better.

Since the referee was Swedish there was a bit about it on the tv earlier. Apparently he was able to somewhat dodge the kick and came away with only a broken lip. Prior both the trainer and the Cuban guy had threatened the referee, saying that they would kill him, basically. It's nice, at least, to see that proper judgment was handed down, and that both were given a lifetime ban.

There was also a serious boxing scandal today with a Romanian official bringing forth accusations of rigged matches and the like during a press conference. I'm sure sure what it was really about, but the Chinese officials were VERY eager to put a lid on things. There are, I believe, three Chinese boxers in the five remaining finals to be decided tomorrow...

Last baseball in olympics? I couldn't believe it when I heard this on NBC ;_;

Not like anyone watches since no real players are in it.

In goes BMX, out goes Baseball, I guess.

Did anyone see Matthew Mitchum [the Aussie guy] when he won the 10m platform dive? That was fucking epic. What an emotional moment.

[It was funny too, one of the girls that hugged him was like "YOU JUST WON THE OLYMPICS", :tpg:]

=O Cool, I guess SimCity 4 music would fit in that sort of scene. :)

Yeah, good on him for getting the gold and all, but the best reaction of the Olympics was by far Sally McLellan winning silver in the 100m hurdles. (Seriously, best interview ever :tpg:)

It's a pretty funny picture, I'd say :)

Heck yeah I saw that. My jaw literally dropped when he did his dive. Absolutely fantastic work from that guy, though he did get lucky the Chinese diver botched his last dive. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, though (he was even a bit... flamboyant).

This probably sounds sadistic, but I like seeing athletes shed a tear or two if they manage to pull off a win. To me, it really shows how much they've invested in their competition if they show a bit of emotion like that. Wildly enthusiastic gesturing suffices most of the time, but it doesn't pack as much a punch.

Awesome. What a sweet interview! Never seen someone so totally overwhelmed by what they've just accomplished. It's nice that they let her ramble on there; NBC would've cut her off at least halfway through.

The ending was epic. Those flying flashing men in tights. Jackie Chan singing along with other people I have no clue who they are except the dude that's right of him in white shirts.. (sorry for my lacking knowledge.)

So it seems in 2012 what we have to look forward to are double decker buses, umbrellas, and future dominatrices. Good show, London!

Yes, though the lack of gigantic walking crumpets greatly disturbed me. =/

London's performance was wack. Who the fuck wants to see David Beckham (?)

Boris Johnson is pretty awesome, though. I think he rocks.

Don't be deceived by his blonde hair and general wackiness. He's still a Tory at the end of the day... with a history of incompetence, 'light-hearted' racism, and, worst of all, calls to ban video games to boot. I see overprivileged ignorant twats like him everyday at university and just want to slap them. I'm missing Ken already.