[Tournament] 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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Trigunnerz

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.

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

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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.

FELIPE NO

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

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Kimchi

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.

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

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Phelps is NASTY. That's all.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

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

Watching it online, they even said that.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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

How ya doing, buddy?

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

Quote:

They need to start giving platinum medals or something. Phelps has to be sick of all this gold by now.

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.

FELIPE NO

Props to the person who renamed the thread.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Zephyrin

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.

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.

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Eight for eight. Thread over.

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