Is there a thread for the 2008 Summer Olympics yet?

A preview of what the athletes will have to look forward to:

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When I was in Guangzhou, I thought the smog was pretty awful. Perhaps Beijing is worse.

there's rumour of a denial-of-service attack on the BBC this weekend by Chinese hackers upset with the coverage

There is a great television advertisement that reminds me the Olympics and all its benefits is coming.

Here is the scene: a young girl, dressed up in the Australian flag like her parents are right wing extremists, bounces into McDonalds after Australia has presumably won a gold medal (in bloody Swimming, of course).

Because when I think Australia...when I think sporting endeavor...when I think of athletic bodies...when I think of a healthy lifestyle...I think BIG MAC!

Oh, by the way, Australia is the only country that actually takes the Olympics seriously. And that means they show fucking swimming on fucking television all the time because they win a shitload of gold medal and therefore, we have to be convinced it's actually interesting. It fucking isn't.

ALSO: has everyone conveniently forgotten Atlanta '96 yet so we can have another great games of crass commercialism? I hope so and the Visa commercial with Jackie Chan and Yao Ming that I saw at the cinemas is a great sign of things to come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EY7lYRneHc

PSYCHED UP ABOUT THE DEBUT OF BMX AT THE OLYMPICS HERE

HODAPP THEY DO MONDO BUNNY HOPS OVER THE JUMPS ON THE MONGOOSE

Wow @ those smog pictures, pity the poor marathon runners.

At least the cyclists could attach some small oxygen tanks to the bike.

michael phelps is insanely good

it's true.

anyone here care about basketball? and know more than i do about the international game?

Chambers loses Olympic ban case

Good. Twat.

That's brilliant news. Fuck you, cheat.

http://news.imagethief.com/blogs/china/archive/2008/07/30/ez-steps-for-making-your-own-beijing-air-at-home.aspx

Here is what you will need:

* A serving plate.
* Large bowl that can be used to cover the serving plate.
* A bucket of water.
* A Yorkshire terrier, Pekingese or similar small dog (at a pinch, a dog pelt can be used, but a whole dog is more reliable). Important: If the dog is wearing a metallic collar or tags, remove them.
* A packet of bad cigarettes. Ideally, Chinese Red Pagodas. But at a pinch, Gitanes or Parliaments will do.
* A non-metallic ashtray.
* A turd.
* A microwave oven.

Steps:

1. Soak the dog in the bucket until wet to the skin.
2. Place the wet dog on the serving plate with the turd and the ashtray.
3. Place three lit cigarettes in the ashtray.
4. Cover the serving plate and all ingredients with the bowl.
5. Microwave on "high" for sixty seconds.

Congratulations. What's under the bowl is a close recreation of typical August Beijing air. Use a fork or butter knife to carefully lift the edge of the bowl (it's hot!) and have a sniff. Now you'll have something to visualize (or "olfactorize") when you read the inevitable thousands of stories still to come on Beijing's Olympic air quality. If you're daring, you may want to get a garden hose, have a few of the frat brothers over and challenge each other to do "hits" of Beijing. You may need more than one dog**.

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games website is operational on the IPv6 Internet at http://ipv6.beijing2008.cn/en (IP address: 2001:252:0:1::2008:6 and 2001:252:0:1::2008:8) and all network operations of the Games will be conducted using IPv6. This event is expected to be the largest showcase of IPv6 technology since the inception of IPv6.[26][27]

Lighting and thermostats at the Olympic venues will also be taken care of by the network, and even the taxis in Beijing will be monitored by CNGI via IPv6 sensors so that traffic congestion can be quickly and effectively relieved.[citation needed]

hodapp u dont have elipesys wiv flasin lightz

Those drummers are FREAKY DUDES.

And why are they wearing Casual Spaceship Uniforms from the year 2170?

Hahaha - spot on description!

According to Rach that's a sheer LED curtain

I'd like her to wear one of those

Now that's a Chinese B1ndi Irwin

The drumming bit was awesome. This bit is not.

Well.

Oh look, here's the traditional little girl who sings. Maybe she'll grow up to be a "gay icon" like our Nikki Webster?

HURRY UP AND GET TO SHOOTING TIBETAN DUDES IN THE HEAD

Oh, the national anthem then.

"Hymn For My Country, sung by one typical Chinese schoolchild." Who, like all typical Chinese schoolchildren, does not have a name.

It started off brilliantly didn't it William? But now it's all gone a bit Pete Wong.

Moley, did you see OUR NICOLE KIDMAN earlier wishing our BRONZED AUSSIE HEROES all the best? You could HEAR THE *BABY*!!

Now, if I know my Eurovision, this is going to be introducing Montenegro.

DAMN I did not. I like Nicole Kidman. She is proof that there is life after death.

Well this is pretty cool, this unrolling scroll thing.

Yves Klein should be seeing this.

How's your commentary in the UK? Ours is a bit naff.

When the rings went up it was wonderful. What was in the boxes they were all banging?

(x-post) eg: 'One of the most exciting things about this performance is that they've used contemporary dance.... this is the dance of the lost contact lense... they look like they're searching... for something...' Insightful stuff.

Ours is a bit naff.

A *BIT*?? I already want to bash Ric Birch's head in.

I'm worried that this is going to be a 2-hour interpretive dance about the history of paper.

magic

Oh, and printing.

Mate there is no end to the list of things the Chinese invented. This could go on a long time.

This is something else, this human digital 3D robot mindfuck thing

You couldn't get entertainment like this in a free country.

HEY WE HAD HILLS HOISTS OK

Hope they do something for the invention of sweet and sour sauce.

Ha! Our commentator is coming over a bit Wogan - 'For people who's watched a three hour Chinese opera, I'm sure you'll appreciate the Reader's Digest version we've just seen'.

I'm feeling a touch of the old grandiosity overdose. I'm craving something slightly smaller, more intimate, and less well organised - a BBQ with friends or something.

This just in: Chairman Mao is spinning very rapidly in his tomb right now.

Still hoping for some dudes dressed up as Red Guards to run on the field and wreck some shit up, through. As part of the act.

You couldn't get entertainment like this in a free country

That's quite clever, I'm going to steal it. I'm already cringing at what the London ceremony is going to be like

"Ladies and gentlemen, MR ELTON JOHN!"

THE HISTORY OF HOODIES

"Ladies and gentlemen, MR ELTON JOHN!"

Well, I hear Jackie Chan might be singing tonight...

This still hasn't finished, has it?

Tai Chi? Oh, come on. If I wanted to see that, I'd visit my local nursing home.

King Boy, the commentators stole your line about Nikki Webster, did you hear that?

So it's not finishing til they paint this whole thing? Cos that's not happening before, like, Christmas.

beijing 2008 ceremony directed by zhang Zhimou. London 2012 ceremony directed by Ken Loach.

You know what will ultimately kill the planet? Madonna and the Chinese government using the last of the earth's resources staging spectacular events about the need to save the planet.

I'm hoping for Brian May lighting the Olympic torch, Hendrix-style

And so ends Act Two. Radio 3 will now be crossing back to London, where Sean Rafferty and guests will be discussing the challenges presented in staging Turandot on a submarine.

"That's not a moon..."

OK, this bit is insane and kinda amazing. Still no near an actual ending, though, and here's a man singing and he's looking distinctly not like a man lighting any kind of Olympic flame.

Oh fuck, it's Sarah Brightman.

Goddammit, this is one of the times I wish I had more than one tv station. And that one tv station wasn't Fox.

That's the best they could get? Even Turin managed to get Peter Gabriel and Bjork on board. And this is before the threatened Jackie Chan performance.

More bloody children. More fireworks. This has been going for over an hour.

Peter Gabriel

Please do not let this ceremony have been an elaborate retelling of "Don't Give Up".

wake me up for the swimming

Maybe they'll have Phil Collins come on later to perform the international smash hit, "In The Air Tonight"!

TIME FOR THE ATHLETES AT LAST

Prediction: the Bermuda team will be wearing shorts.

They are coming out, by the way, in alphabetical order in Mandarian. But first, our friends from Greece! AUSTRALIA IS THIRD-LAST BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SCREW THE AUSSIE HEROES!!

WHITE SUITS = A++++

GW and Laura are having the time of their lives!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t214/ZachRScott/bushInChina.jpg

"I knew I shouldn't have had so much of that there dang rice wine, Laura!"

WHITE SUITS WITH RED TIES = A+++++++++++

http://voice.anfieldroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/white-suits-mcmanaman.jpg
"Cheers, la'."

What a nightmare of Big Showmanship the opening spectacular was, though hats off to the technicians who pulled it off. I think though that it proves art cannot survive technical virtuosity on a grand scale.

BELGIUM BRINGS BACK THE SAFARI SUIT!!

Israel does smart casual.

lol "mixed reaction" to our friends from Japan.

OH SHIT IT'S TAIWAN

THEY LOVE TAIWAN

OH WAIT THEY LOVE HONG KONG EVEN MORE

I'm hoping that the Mandarin alphabet brings Georgia and Russia out together in a moment.

geez, the Bushes look worse than Steinbrenner did at the All-Star Game

Where's the country with one athlete all on their own?

Uruguay field team handsome.

Robert Shite!

They like Pakistan and Cuba!

Hazel Irvine says Canada have never won an olympic gold?

saint vincent and the grenadines? band name?

No, I think it was just that they never won it when they were hosting? xpost

Am liking this pipe band.

ah right, i see.

Sarah Jessica Parker appears to be in the Spanish Olympic team.

just shows you cant take the City out of these Olympic Games. What are the smog levels today?

Andorra's shiny suits are a bit nasty.

scotland the brave!!!!!

Aye, they've been at that a couple of times. Apparently it was a Scottish firm who designed the stadium, not sure if that's got anything to do with it though. Fair brings a tear to the old eye.

Herzog & De Meuron designed it and are swiss. don't know of any scottish connection with them.

Oh, hang on, it was the press centre that the Scottish firm did. It was on Reporting Scotland last night.

Hazel Irvine is quoting the lyrics of Kokomo as the reason why people might have heard of Aruba. All bets for most inane bit of commentary are now off.

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Capital-firm39s-Beijing-centre-set.4325489.jp

I thought that was Peter Crouch with the flag

cheers ailsa.

Jamie & Andy Murray look like they've just grabbed lab coats and shoved them on over their clothes.

This is still going on, y'know. Here's a man in a blazer holding the corner of a flag. Hazel Irvine is explaining something.

Oh God, are these the opening chords of "Angels"?

And here, nearly four hours later, is the torch.

they're really dragon this out...

this is fucking amazing!!!

he's running in midair!!!!!111!!

that was remarkably elegant. very impressed.

The BBC flash player's volume goes to 11!

according to the BBC this ceremony was watched by 4 billion people even though there are only like 6.6 billion people in the word only around half of whom have access to a TV. of those i'm guessing maybe half of china and around 1/10th-1/5th of the population of the earth with TV access watched the ceremony.

year upon year these ridiculous claims rile me up beyond all reason.

I think it means that 4 billion people in the world could watch it if they fancied it.

they should do the ratings for corrie like that.

granted we're "only" 300 million, but it hasn't even aired in the US yet!

About 8 billion human eyes could have seen this!

xpost - in that case: SPOILER ALERT

Loads of dancing dressed up people, athletes entering stadium, torch being lit, fireworks. No protesters just off camera.

It's really amazing to have so much video access online!

That mid-air stuff was cool but still not as good as blind dude shooting a flaming bow.

WATCHING THE EXCITEMENT OF THE ROWING HERE

OH MY GOD THEY'RE PLAYING ROLF HARRIS AT THE BEACH VOLLEYBALL

I'm all about how the Georgia volleyball team is two Brazilian dudes.

with nbcolympics.com, can you only watch live, or can you watch past events as well?

Gosh, the cycling course looks spectacular. Two men have gone off the front with... actually, I've no idea how far they've got to go. But yeah, this is some scenery alright.

guys can we talk about guam's star judoka

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9808/r3650637524dg9.jpg
http://www.kaiju.net/junk/judomonster.jpg

Ricardo Blas, Jr.
6'2", 399 lbs

dang

fattest guy in all of the olympics

Many who saw the Chinese team enter the Olympics asked ‘who is that little boy next to Yao Ming?’ He was nine-year-old Lin Hao, a survivor of the earthquake in Sichuan. 20 of the 30 classmates in his school perished in the disaster, but after freeing himself he went back into the rubble to find his classmates.

Lin Hao, the ‘hall monitor’ in his school encouraged his fellow students to sing songs to help keep up their spirits while rescuers worked to free them.

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Still couple hours to go till cycling finishes.

Things looking forward to:

1) Return of Michael Johnson to athletics punditry. Quite possibly the ass-kicking-est, name-taking-est man employed by BBC Sport.
2) The synchro men's diving - not for our 14-year-old, but for his partner, who was in the year above me at primary school and I think still lives down the hill from my mum and dad back in Croydon. Guardian says he works part-time stacking shelves at B&Q.

Currently got the telly on in the office, watching the rowing. As ineffably dull as John Inverdale In Conversation With Sir Steve Redgrave is, I'd forgotten how peculiarly pleasurable it is listening to Gary Herbert commentate on everything as though it's basically the end of days, when it is in fact some people rowing.

Cycling looks terribly beautiful. Plus Aussie TV always gets Phil Liggett as cycling commentator!

Ukranian and Belarussian dudes up at the front. So far haven't seen this guy in the peleton:

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Ah, what I'd not do for having Liggett and Sherwen on the mic for the Beeb. As it is, we have Hugh Porter, who specialises in identifying people five seconds after their name's come up on screen. Still, he's mainly a track cycling commentator, and given that Britain's team is going to sweep all before it to the extent that everyone else might as well not bother turning up (I read it in the Observer, so it must be true), I'd imagine he'll be a more compelling companion once things head to the velodrome.

KBP - don't suppose you've read Blazing Saddles?

Plus also I can't remember if Hugh was on commentary duties for third-favourite Olympic moment ever, namely Chris Boardman's ride to glory in 1992. Then again, the commentary I can remember is my dad yelling "He's gonna lap 'im! HE'S GONNA LAP 'IM!" Boardman is still probably my favourite cyclist ever. Also explains my sentimental attachment to the Credit Agricole lads who helped drag him through the mountains on the Tours where he managed to make it to the mountains.

(Second-favourite Olympic moment = Aussie Steve Bradbury)

(Favourite Olympic moment = Andrey Chemerkin, uber-heavyweight weightlifting, Atlanta 1996)

No, I haven't got around to finding a copy of that book yet.

COMING UP: 27 HOURS OF SWIMMING BECAUSE AUSTRALIA WINS LOTS OF GOLD MEDALS IN THAT "SPORT"

It's alright - the editing's fairly atrocious, though. Repeats anecdotes a fair bit, drops stuff in with no introduction a lot, and has trouble sustaining narratives. Other than that, it's a decent enough read, and makes Henri Desgrange out to be a really, really evil bastard. The early tales of skulduggery are pretty eye-popping in any case.

We've still got rowing. That's some bloody dense fog there. Inverdale is increasingly resembling a sodden terrier.

Checked back on the cycling - the two lads that went off the front have been caught, Pidgornyy is now on the verge of being dropped by the leading pack. Nicki Sorensen - arguably the least indomitable member of the indomitable CSC squad - has just made a solo attack though, and has a small advantage on the bunch.

I did read his book on Marco Pantani, through, which wasn't bad.

Yes, you can barely see anything at the rowing thanks to the smog fog.

Well, they caught Nicki, now Christian Pfannberger of Austria's gone off the front. Manoeuvering has begun. 30-odd km to go. Contador's done his job for the team and has been dropped by the bunch.

I should read his Pantani book - the bits on him in Blazing Saddles are fucking heartbreaking, you remember just what an incredible rider he was to watch, and you wish you could still believe in the guy, but... man, makes me upset just thinking about it.

You can hear the wind whistling through the tunnels and passages as the fog descends, it's like they're riding into purgatory. Pretty incredible scenes. Commentary is still a bit crap. On the telly, men putting arms around each other's waists and putting each other on the ground with judo.

I'd also be quite interested to hear the views of Ugandan gold mine owner Paul Sherwen on the political situation...

DON'T STEAL MY PAUL SHERWEN JOKES, SWYGART

Pfannberger doesn't have any drink bottles...

Pfannberger is all but caught. Cadel and Denny looking strong.

Sweet Cheezus, that feed-station section is insane. The hill-fort it's next to is not exactly unimpressive either.

Pfannberger's bitten it, and CADEL EVANS IS ATTACKING!

Break!

"That might be the Russian sprinter... YES, THAT'S THE MAN WITH THE CALVES..."

Mick Rodgers is lurking...

According to Phil, this climb is the equivalent to a TdF Cat. 2 climb.

I thought Liggett might mention Mick Rodgers, he tends to. If I ever form a band, we will have a song entitled "Will This Finally Be Michael Boogerd's Year? (No)"

That's because Mick Rodgers is number one and the best and would have won TdF in '07 if he didn't have that crash or '08 if he didn't have that virus and...

And Andy Schleck attacks!

Oho, Andy Schleck is starting to be Andy Schleck...

Cadel stuck in the second group. Oh, he'll never hear the end of that.

Five go breaking away! Schleck, Sanch, Aussie Mick, Rebellin and (I think) VDV...

No, it's Kolodnev (aka THE MAN WITH THE CALVES), not VDV.

Ah, Group Two is starting to close up on them, though.

This is a great race, right now.

Mick got dropped a bit :(

OK, Mick is done. AND HERE IS SOME SORT OF WALL.

Schleck is gonna keep attacking and attacking and Sanch will take him on the line. Not the most adventurous prediction, but that's probably how it'll go.

"At the end of the day, whoever survives will win the gold medal." Thank you, non-named Australian co-commentator man.

"Rebellion is taking on a bit of food, Sanchez there giving instructions, one finger in the air, not sure what that means..."

"This is one of the races where you're never out of sight, because if you're out of sight you're out of mind, but on this road you can always be seen..."

Huh.

AUSSIE MICK IS COMING BACK AT THEM!

CANCELLARA IS GOING OFF THE FRONT OF THE PELOTON!

MICK BLOODY RODGERS YOU LEGEND

CANCELLARA! CANCELLARA! CANCELLARA!

WHERE THE FUCK DID CANCELLARA COME FROM??

FABIAN FUCKING CANCELLARA!!! HE WILL SHOW YOU HOW IT IS DONE!

Holy crap!

SANCHEZ!

Brilliant!

I think everyone but Sanchez had run out of steam by that sprint. Still, great race there.

Ah, that was an awesome finish, wish they'd done a better job filming/laying out the sprint, but for all the times he tried to get shit going in the tour but kept getting pipped, I'm pretty damn made up for Sanchez. Rebs gets the silver, and to hell with Federer, Fabian Cancellara is the greatest living Swiss sportsman and gets the bronze because he fucking rocks.

And they've still got the time trial to come! Glee!

And in the midst of all that I didn't even have time to feel sorry for poor old Andy Schleck. Still, the kid's time will come - that old Sid Waddell quote about Alexander the Great and Eric Bristow springs to mind.

And now back to the cut-throat excitement...at the rowing.

They're onto recaps on BBC ahead of SWIM-WAR, so we're getting to see the tiny female weightlifters. Who are, it must be said, pretty damned awesome.

Am also becoming more and more enamoured of the BBC's opening credit sequence, which I think is a sentiment that others have expressed elsewhere on this thread.

That was a magnificent finale! The pounding of his bike by poor Andy Schleck and Sanchez groping his own face in disbelieve in one shot was brilliant. And WBS OTM: Cancellara is a hero.

Oh good heavens, they're going to show the UK version of The Apprentice on Australian TV. This means that Alan Sugar is going to appear in every commercial break during this Olympics. Help.

My favorite part of any Olympics are the event logos, with stick-figure athletes.
Here are the ones for this year:
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/beijing-games/events.html
The judo logo is quite violent. You have been warned.

I'll continue trying to find any from previous years.

http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/408/bushlolympicsla8.jpg

http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/OLY_Bush.sff_CHGH111_20080809013006.jpg

http://i.usatoday.net/sports/_photos/2008/08/09/Bush-veachvolleyballx-large.jpg

she will be mine. oh yes. she will be mine.

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.nationalpost.com/sports/beijing-games/images/icons/64/gymnastics_trampoline.gif
The gymnastics (trampoline) logo seems all wrong

No thread on the Puppy Games?

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/puppy-games/index.html

how about you start one instead of shitting all over the real olympics with your puppy ass fagshit

okeli dokeli!

4th fastest time ever.

You know, it's amazing to watch Phelps swim. Just to realize that you're watching the greatest athlete in a particular sport ever compete.

What is ILX's take on the China/NBC/Olympic's boycotts? C/D? Honest, sensitive protesters concerned about human rights, or anti-athlete, effete, assholes who probably wouldn't watch the Olympics no matter what country it was held in?

The Phelps hype on NBC is pretty amazing: it's like if he doesn't win eight golds, it'll be a letdown. I can't think that's a good thing. But that first race was pretty great.

He's so amazing to watch. I can totally understand the hype. It's exciting.

yeah I don't want to give a shit, and yet I'm sitting here totally gripped by the whole thing.

Moorhouse: "Do you think Phelps was saying 'Yo, Bush!' there?"

Lumme, that women's 400 medley was incredible.

Hannah Miley appears to have nicked Hazel Irvine's voice.

that was an awesome im! my dad tells me a dolphin kick is now allowed after pushoff in breaststroke. this makes me angry. seems like cheating.

Only one butterfly stroke is allowed tho. Two is still cheating.

"Stephanie Rice took a break from her relationship with her boyfriend, also a swimmer, so they could concentrate on the Olympics. I think there's a message for all of us there." - what exactly is Rishi Persad trying to say here?

getting laid distracts you from dominating in sporting events?

xpost yeah i know. that's why i said 'a' dophin kick. i don't think a butterfly stroke is allowed at all - that'd be weird.

anyway funniness is that my dad used to have to dq people all the time for that. he says they made it legal so they wouldn't have to be dqing ppl in olympics for stroke violations. i think that olympic swimmers should not have to rely on a dolphin kick and just swim the breast stroke.

I should clarify - Rishi Persad is anchoring the whole Olympic coverage for the Beeb this morning, and he was looking straight into camera as he was saying it, which makes it all seem a bit... personal.

So what do you guys think about Olympic protesters?

Fran Halsall appears to be channelling Guy of Gisborne from Maid Marian & Her Merry Men.

Olympic protestors haven't been such an issue in the UK, really. Our news coverage is focusing pretty heavily on the Russian situation ahead of the politics surrounding the Olympics, which I suppose is quite nice for the Chinese. What's the boycotts of NBC you were talking aboot?

A bunch of people throwing a fit that a) the Olympics are being held in China and that b) NBC has the gall to broadcast it and not boycott it as well.

I haven't seen any protestor coverage at all since the torch runners back in the spring. I'm sure they're still out there, but the media is shutting them out.

Yes, the torch runs have been getting much play in the UK. It'll be very interesting to see what happens when our basketball coverage kicks off, though, cos John Amaechi is commentating on that, and it's fair to say dude has some opinions.

Oh wow, World's Most Enthusiastic Man Matt Baker is a commentator on gymnastics! No idea why, but still, he's usually good value.

Good grief, that fog is insane today.

Ah, it's the British sailing team that named their boat after a Kooks song, but somehow people objected to it being called Jackie Big Tits. So now it's named after a Wombats song. I might not be out of my seat cheering this lot, tbh.

How much coverage has the story about the murder of the father-in-law of the US volleyball coach got in the states? I've only just spotted it on The Observer's site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/10/china.internationalcrime

Also reports of unrest in Xinjiang - these are both getting covered on the BBC's site, but they're fairly separate from the coverage of the Games itself.

How much coverage has the story about the murder of the father-in-law of the US volleyball coach got in the states?

They mention it on occasion, mostly during volley ball coverage, and there was a piece about it on the nightly news, but it's not overshadowing actual events.

Badminton is way more exciting to watch than I ever thought it would be.

They mentioned something about it during the beach volleyball, and while I'm watching men's volleyball at 12:30am they are obviously talking about it as well. It's really terrible.

Yeah, the great thing about the Olympics is that you really get into sports you otherwise couldn't care less about 3 years out of 4. And I enjoy the fact that women's competitions are many of the most compelling.

Also, maybe I've been living in a hole, but I didn't realize that Olympic handball was going to be different than stockbroker-lunchbreak-two-guys-in-a-room civilian handball. But it's actually one of the more amazing sports I've come across in recent memory...like a combination of soccer and basketball. I watched a whole match this afternoon on one of the direct Chinese feeds (and couldn't understand a single word), but was totally riveted.

Women's road race cycling is very interesting - about 15km to go, the field is still largely together, and the rain is bucketing it down...

The Latvian beach volleyball team are my new heroes

Oh wow, World's Most Enthusiastic Man Matt Baker is a commentator on gymnastics! No idea why, but still, he's usually good value.

Not usually one to leap to the defense of former Blue Peter presenters but I believe he was a junior gymnast of note. One therefore presumes he knows what he's talking about and his enthusiasm for a double backward pike to be genuine.

Anyone find it a leetle bit crepey that the Chinese appear to be competitive in EVERY event? I know there's a lot of them but four years ago they weren't dominating the rowing were they?

Highly recommend adding yr own soundtrack to the floor gymnastics. Just watched someone grooving away to "Being Boiled".

Project 119: http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/472864

Nicole Cooke takes Gold!

BBC feed cut out during the final sprint :(

Yeah, that was kind of a pisser, but great ride from her, totally ran things all the way.

I saw it live (thanks to the power of the red button): She disappeared off the back of the break of five as they went through the toll booths (!), fought her way back onto the group up the closing stretch (which was all uphill), then led out the sprint the whole way just about holding them off.

I think I know what happened - they dumped it from Interactive to switch to BBC One, so they cleared off the individual cycling feed and switched to the main one, hence the hang-up at the vital moment. Which was a bit stupid.

Bet that won't be the last cycling gold for Britain, either

She disappeared off the back of the break of five as they went through the toll booths

fumbling for the correct change?

Now, let's see a stonking bronze medal match-up in the archery.

Yeah, the great thing about the Olympics is that you really get into sports you otherwise couldn't care less about 3 years out of 4. And I enjoy the fact that women's competitions are many of the most compelling.

-- musically, Sunday, August 10, 2008 3:49 AM (Sunday, August 10, 2008 3:49 AM) Bookmark Link

yes. i think it's that everyone can relate to 1 sport because they had childhood experience or whatever (swimming, for me) and it allows you to relive that vicariously with way more glory than you'd ever experience. i gotta say, even though it was a blowout, i think i like olympic basketball better than nba!

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii204/gymnstands2/Bars/ub_mosalto.gif

(that's the "Mo Salto", by the way)

ya that men's road race was brilliant. Cancellara to hopefully pwn the TT!!

Maer gold, AMAZING 400m women's freestyle swim, Becky Adlington clawing back a whole second off America's Katie Hoff in the final straight to get gold on the line with Jo Jackson also getting bronze for Britain. I have work in the morning, but I think I can get away with watching this relay to see if Michael Phelps can get his second gold...

whoa

Jason Lazak has just won Michael Phelps a second gold medal!

incredible

that was the most incredible last 15 meters ever.

yeah that was amazing.

lol france.

3rd leg dude's gonna have a complex forever though after he watches the replay.

a race for freedom

srsly that was classic

boo why am I at work instead of watching this? fuck an afternoon swimming finals.

wau wau wau wau wau wau

they keep showing michael phelps hulking out when he realizes lezak's won it. it's sort of awesome.

also, did you guys see the US women's gymnastics team fucking up all over the place? it stressed me out.

i thought they were resilient

china team fucked up too, dont worry

yeah that was a total mess! i lolled a lot bc the commentators kept talking about how the early messups had not freaked them out too much and then they'd mess up again!

meaning the us, not china.

haha yeah phelps and that dude bugging out was fucking awesome

i wanted to see some gwb reaction >_<

also i gotta say after a summer of watching sytcyd the "choreography" for gymnastics floor routines is hilarious.

lol w left basketball after 3rd quarter - just like every nba fan evar.

btw, is there some type of electronic thing that calls the finish? if not, its crazy that those dudes in the blue suits called that right with the naked eye w/ all the splashing and the suspense and stuff

haha yeah, i was wondering today what the point of the music is. it seems so antiquated. they aren't even remotely dancing

uh yes, jordan, the lanes have an electronic touchpad. that's how you get the times.

or were you being facetious?

those french dudes must be so sad

i'm going to hell for this but giddy phelps is lookin a little 'rain man'

no i really didn't know

man after they did that little bit about the french girl who had the italian boyfriend i was all psyched for her to win and beat the italian swimmer who stole her bf but she lost by a lot

phelps sounds a little 'rain man'

yeah, dude who got beat by Lezak looked pretty crushed. i don't care, though, because i am a cold bitch.

xpost me, too, max! about manadou! and then she looked like she was going to win for 3/4 of the race! swimming is a very exciting sport.

ok, sorry jordan, just the way the question was phrased w/ the men in blue suits (prolly refs or some kind of officials), made me think you might have been joking.

No, those judges are awesome... that's why you say "what in BLUE BLAZERS?!?" when you're amazed.

i was always a little jealous my dad got to have a gun when he was judgin (for false starts).

haha yeah that girl w/ the stolen boyfriend got killed :(

i felt bad for the american girl too

one of the coolest things about that relay was watching the world record line with like 5 people a body length ahead of it the whole time.

oh yeah hoff - man she totally thought she had it. that was sad.

serious lols at the pic up on nytimes right now.

ahaha this is how i plan to remember you, michael phelps:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/11/sports/olympics/11relay_337.jpg

lol yeah when they were showing phelps and the other dude bugging out in slo mo close up it was really really intense

hahahaha

Clearly doing their best Soulja Boy impersonations.

YAAAAAAH

Is it normal for so many records to be broken or were swimmers of yore just not trying?

i feel that the design of the lines i the lower half of dude's suit are intended to highlight certain things and it is making me uncomfortable.

i was wondering whether that meant doping...

xpost to Kerm

ha tehresa that design seems foolhardy, yeah

i wonder if it has anything to do w/ the wonder suits.

there are also 'fast pools' but it probably has a lot to do with training and perhaps these high tech suits (though i always thought that was more of a psychological thing).

the commentators talk about the suits like they make a difference though... maybe they do.

i think generally it's just better diets and training and the fact that these athletes start so much younger now.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/06/fullj.84c8fef19d28ae3ef22757c76ab44aea/84c8fef19d28ae3ef22757c76ab44aea-getty-oly-2008-swimming-freestyle-relay-final.jpg

U mad doggie?
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/c1/fullj.1c2ddb5ab30f2e6410463842fa38a7e4/1c2ddb5ab30f2e6410463842fa38a7e4-getty-oly-2008-swimming-freestyle-relay-final.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/eb/fullj.97a8680d22cabe0d9ca2d3944614108b/97a8680d22cabe0d9ca2d3944614108b-getty-81972512mw124_olympics_day_.jpg

swimmers be hot

they're triangles!

Dude looks like Alan Ruck as Cameron hulking out (maybe after he fell in the pool)

lol @ one of the swimmers calling the french swimmers "frenchies" during the post-win interview.

it was like a 50s movie "those frenchies were talking stuff"

For the sake of balance, you understand.

http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200803/r234601_941965.jpg

John Inverdale's "Hi, I'm Ed Winchester" joke fell a bit flat there. I think he thought it was some kind of comedy genius, and, er, it wasn't.

xpost.

morelike http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/04/02/202231975.jpg

or maybe: http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/steph_rice_police_officer.jpg

yowza

i feel that the design of the lines i the lower half of dude's suit are intended to highlight certain things and it is making me uncomfortable.

-- tehresa, Monday, 11 August 2008 04:07 (5 hours ago) Link

doesn't look like there was much there to highlight, though!

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/3a/fullj.e9069654e472a74413906702d6aded19/e9069654e472a74413906702d6aded19-getty-81972190mw013_olympics_day_.jpg

Well, none of it was televised but Jujie Luan lost in the second round of women's foil yesterday. Luan is 50. Here's a photo of her saluting her vanquished opponent in the first round, Ines Boubakri of Tunisia, who is literally half her age.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/jujieluan.jpg

Dear God: Please, please, please don't let May/Walsh win volleyball gold again. I loathe them for reasons I have trouble putting into words, but rest assured that my hate is sincere, my disdain is true. So let it be so. That is all.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2008/medals/tracker/index.html

http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2477

In years past, swimming coaches have used computer modeling and simulation to hone the techniques of athletes. But Wei developed state-of-the-art water flow diagnostic technologies, modifying and combining force measurement tools developed for aerospace research with a video-based flow measurement technique known as Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV), in order to create a robust training tool that reports the performance of a swimmer in real-time.

“This project moved the swimming world beyond the observational into scientific fact,” said USA Swimming Coach Sean Hutchison. “The knowledge gained gave me the foundation for which every technical stroke change in preparation for the Beijing Olympics was based.”

just someone beat Phelps at least once.

wow i just saw that swimming relay. good god.

If only life had beaten the joie de vivre into Morbs instead of out of him.

Those one-piece uniforms the Australian women's basketball team are wearing seem so sensible -- much more so than shorts + shirt.

Rock, I just don't like to see the presold triumph of assholes.

I don't know anything about Phelps. Why is he an asshole?

yeah, i wasn't aware he was an asshole - i thought he was more goofy.

Are those swimmers even HUMAN? B/c of the water temp, no matter how fit they are they never lose that bit of subcutaneous fat that insulates, it makes them look slab-like and giant and superhero-ish compared to other athletes with no body fat.

Also they are just plain giants -- who's the guy with the 6'11" arm-span again?? Costas brilliantly (not really) compared him to "an albatross crossed with a condor" or something like that. Major lols.

I love that the Olympics gives bars something to put on the tv besides baseball, though. I wish they were on all the time.

yes, I heard yesterday that YOU HATE BASEBALL?

sorry morbs, i'll go to the game w/ u but baseball in bars is generally a snoozefest for me.

I don't know whether he's an asshole or not, but presold is undeniably OTM.

If he doesn't get the 8 golds, NBC will treat it like a national disaster.

that doesn't make HIM the asshole, just the stupid media hype people.

Best name of the games thus far: Ghanaian boxer Prince Octopus Dzanie. Eliminated in the first round by a Cuban, tho.

xp: I lol'd at anecdote that Phelps was boasting to his teammates at end of '04 Games that he was laying 7-8 chicks a night at the Olympic Village (and with THAT face). You KNOW it's true...

I hardly think he's the only one doing that. We're hypothetically talking about the best bodies on the planet, sumo wrestlers and snowboarders aside.

So he's an asshole because he's getting laid more than you, or what? (xp)

That's just one reason.

xp: No, the best bodies among people who are great at sports I don't care about.

I'm explaining why 7-8 chicks per night are getting on his lap, not you.

Olympic fillage

I'm sorry

i thought phelps was gay.

Sounds like it

Nice story on Lezak. Just sounds like some dude who chills in Irvine.

hah, I like that the partner of that annoying diving kid is blaming him for their poor performance.

Heh, it's quite unBritish of him really. I'm expecting to see him exposed as a puppy torturer in tomorrow's tabloids

I don't know anything about Phelps. Why is he an asshole?

-- Rock Hardy, Monday, August 11, 2008 10:54 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

There was also the story that I heard in Ann Arbor, that he was overheard saying "I'm majoring in pussy."

so gay, you guys

lol @ one of the swimmers calling the french swimmers "frenchies" during the post-win interview.

also lols @ bob costas talking about alain bernhard's "we're gonna smash the americans" comment by going "au contraire, mon ami" then chuckling about it

jason lezak is kinda sexy daddy, btw

wait are you guys telling me a 23 year old likes to get laid? that's crazy talk

also lols @ bob costas talking about alain bernhard's "we're gonna smash the americans" comment by going "au contraire, mon ami" then chuckling about it

lolol

Bela Karolyi's dead! Undead, undead, undead

i dont understand in gymnastics like how that tiny gymanstics girl fell off the bars and still in the top-8 to reach the event finals. and how nastia whatever the american landed on her ass on the dismount and still ended up 5th highest bar score! wtf?

the tiny chinese gymnastics girl, i meant

I haven't watched the Olys hardcore in a while and I feel like the gymnastics showing has changed here and there. Ex: some of the uneven bars routines barely used the lower bar at all -- like there'd only be one touch on it throughout the whole thing.

Plus so many of the gymnasts seemed to be faulting in some way: on the US floor exercises I saw, every single woman stepped out of bounds at some point; on the Chinese vaults and uneven, not one single woman stuck the landing without a step or a hop; only saw one or two beam routines but at least one of those had a fall. Maybe the routines have just gotten so challenging that athletes are expected to fault in certain ways?

Some dude's getting more sex than me, he's a dickhead. Just go out and get your knob slobbed

Nastia Liukin's routine had a difficulty rating of 7.7; so for instance she finished well ahead of Shawn Johnson, who didn't fall, but had a much easier routine (difficulty 6.3) Under the old system, there was a strong incentive to do a routine no harder than necessary.

Maybe the routines have just gotten so challenging that athletes are expected to fault in certain ways?

yeah i remember when someone would slightly bobble on the balance beam and Tim Daggett and Elfie Schlagel would go OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH THERE GOES HER MEDAL CHANCES, BACK TO THE RICE PADDIES FOR MING XIAWEI! but now, yeah, they're all bobbling and taking steps, though the routines look crazy difficult now.

quayaquil: ah, i see. so the difficulty and the execution are added to make the final score then? so if you're penalized .5 for falling, nastia could fall like twice and still have a higher score than shawn johnson?

so the difficulty and the execution are added to make the final score then?

yes

yep. gymnastics scoring system is weird - the big criticism of it is that basically it favours acing tricks much more than overall form and consistency.

a lot of the chinese gymnasts especially specialize in one or two moves that no other gymnast in the world does which is why they always have much higher difficulty ratings and thus score higher as well.

Did the scoring system used to be different? I suppose if so, the old scoring system cd be criticized for "stiffling innovation" and so on, by penalizing athletes for attempting a unique or especially difficult trick. Ie judges being old and staid and wanting the sport to stay the same as when they competed in it.

yeah and they all seem to be doing like 5 tumbling runs when didnt they used to just do 3? i think i liked it before better. now there are all these ooooooh ahhhhhh kind of tricks, but they kinda just look like theyre doing jazzercise on the floor. not so much graceful

also wtf happened to the russians and romanians?

Oh right, sorry, answered own question by re-reading above. Got it.

gymnastics scoring system changed in 2006, says wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Points_(artistic_gymnastics)

yeah the floor exercise really looked all manner of fucked-up - lots of tricks but no performance aspect to it at all, except for that one chinese girl.

Belated Whoot for Nicole Cook.

also wtf happened to the russians and romanians?

-- phil-two, Monday, August 11, 2008 1:23 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

it was sad when last night some romananian girl fell or whatever and then after her routine, her coach hugged her and the announcers were like "that would never have happened before, the coach probably wouldn't even talk to her after that mistake." good old days.

I don't see Phelps's name in this whiny blog post.

http://www.afterelton.com/node/19112

Nike whore = no homo

Just watched the swimming relay. Best part is the announcer getting excited: "Who's talkin' now!"

Clearly the photo of the Games so far:

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-08/41558835.jpg

Is he aiming at his opponets?

It's kinda agincourt

WWHOA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/11/olympicsbasketball.olympics20081
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/33828/original.jpg

II wonder how China will respond to this,pretty fucking blatant.

lol europeans.

synchronised diving is kinda weird.

UK diving commentator: "Now I know how difficult this dive is, I invented it in 1998"!

lol these synchronized divers look SO GAY

those chinese girls are 16 going on 8

its like a twink lovers wet dream

jailbait twerk

okay, lols at cris collinsworth lolling it up in the stands with Michael Phelps's mom, while she just unsmilingly shakes her head like she wants to hit him.

OK, Phelps is kind of eating this field alive.

Er, wow. That was demolition and a half.

i don't understand how he was SO far ahead... it seems... inhuman?

well, guys, he eats 400 pancakes and 20 fried egg sandwiches every day!

and buffalo enchiladas?

I may have a skewed compass, but that's not gay. The synch divers, however, probably qualify.

synchronized sports kind of freak me out.

And now in the swimming, an actual contest.

Well, relatively speaking.

damn... cleaning up tonight

i love how the race was over precisely at the 0:01 mark....

i like it a lot when the swimmers are wet and then hug..

otm

I like it when Michael Phelps' mother is wet.

Lock thread

Phelps' next gold I think gives him the greatest individual gold medal total in Olympic history.

I like how the US swimmers come in out in space-age dressing gowns when everyone else has tracksuits.

I also love how when the Chinese gymnasts get off the apparatus they all have to give each other high-fives, and when the US lady gymnasts finish their teammates are more like get the fuck out my way ho im up next.

it's not called "Gym-Nice-Tics!"

Am I going to see anything else in the Olympics as awesome as what Chen Yibing just did on the rings? No. I am not.

yeah, that dude is insane.

gym-nice-tits

for some reason the little female chinese gymnasts seem incredibly evil and diabolical to me but the chinese men are just stoic ballers

That's sort of true across the entire board of nations.

uh

Whoa, that dismount! I know the commentators reactions aren't helping me remain neutral, but whoa!

high bar is fucking crazy

aw, look how happy Jonathan Horton is.

I'd like to see Jonathan Horton and Chen Yibing in a mismatched buddy-cop movie.

holy shit

wtf?!

O_O

can i admit i'm a little in love with Justin Spring?

Seriously, screw Phelps, this is some awesomeness right here.

hollllly shit

We still have the swimming on here. With the exception of snowboarders, has there ever been a more obvious stoner at the Olympics than Kirsty Coventry?

those scores looked lowwwwwwwwwww

oh but the pommel horse is up. that one looks hard...

Look at that crazy awesome panda.

Oh, they didn't show it dismount. Boo!

I just want to point out to all haters of the new scoring system that it's the reason we are seeing such gloriously insane moves from the US here -- much greater opportunities in the new system to gain big points for crazy difficulty.

i love how the one announcer is like "HANG ON TO SEE IF THE US CAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!" while the expert in gymnastics color guy is like "well the chinese team would have to conduct a mass suicide for the US to win but silver is still great!"

how come they scored not 16+?

Isn't women's beach volleyball supposed to be on now? Instead I'm getting synchro diving. Is the West Coast on a delay?

damn ok youre right, those chines vaults were crrrrrazzzzzzyyyyy

i love how the gymnastics commentators keep describing routines as "crazy" and "crazier" and "crazy craziness." they're freaking out.

I imagine these coaches often saying "That's so crazy it just might work!"

In Chinese, I mean.

west coast is on big delay. diving is cool, i guess, but i am sick of it after forty fucking minutes

b/w the gymnastics dudes tonight and the guys doing the relay last night having simultaneous heart attacks, the announcing is a close second to the sporting in awesomeness

hope the american dudes get a medal.

Costas: "Phelps says all he does at the Olympics is eat, sleep, swim -- but really it's more like eat, sleep, swim, and ..."

DISAPPOINTMENT ENSUES as Costas concludes "hang gold medal around his neck."

oh fuck, hot water polo mens!!!

(xpost) Yeah, but when Bob Costas said "eat" he meant "eat pussy."

I sort of want to see a Brian Meeker incident at this point.

dude lands on knees and out of bounds. commentator: "that was... not good."

the commentators totally want to kill this dude

"i'm not mad, i'm disappointed"

Why is the US always dominant in swimming? I mean, what's with that category? The US seems to always weep that one.

sweep

lol jordan

Jonathan Horton is a hero.

:(

oh noes

started watching last night and now i might be hooked.

i'm jealous that michael phelps gets to eat 8,000 - 10,000 calories a day, it's almost worth swimming laps for 5 or 6 hours. and i love that he basically eats garbage (fries, cheese, chocolate chip pancakes, deli, etc.).

I would like to congratulate France for winning a gold medal in number of silver medals won. 7 silver medals and not a single gold yet. Add to that 2 bronze and they have 9 medals, which is the fifth highest number of medals won... except that since they have no gold, they are ranked 20th.

i don't understand how he was SO far ahead... it seems... inhuman?

-- tehresa, Tuesday, 12 August 2008 02:19 (13 hours ago) Bookmark Link

well, guys, he eats 400 pancakes and 20 fried egg sandwiches every day!

-- horseshoe, Tuesday, 12 August 2008 02:20 (13 hours ago) Bookmark Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and buffalo enchiladas?

-- tehresa, Tuesday, 12 August 2008 02:20 (13 hours ago) Bookmark Link

is that a farting gag? if so ROFL.

is it just me or did the men's gymnastic team seem overly jocky & fratty?

How does one measure that scale?

wrt "jocky," they're jocks!

compared to all the other olympic athletes. i think they're insecure about maybe looking gay like the synchronized divers.

is that a farting gag? if so ROFL.

-- ken c, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 12:17 PM (Tuesday, August 12, 2008 12:17 PM) Bookmark Link

hahah not intentionally - i think they showed him eating enchiladas during the featurette

i mean, i haven't been watching a lot of olympics, but do the other teams bust out with as much "yeah, that's how we do it American-style, boy!" etc.?

uh, yeah. what do you expect others to sound like?

"jolly good swim, Mr Phelps, you are a credit to your country."

i thought they were humble and professional? guess not.

i don't see what is un-humble or unprofessional about cheering on your teammates and being excited.

I don't think the other teams shout about doing it American-style, to be fair.

I thought the same thing, Jordan, but that's the only event I've watched so far.

x-post -- Maybe it's exotic to them, that way.

lol someone didn't see the magic relay

someone didn't watch the 8 million dunks during the basketball game between USA and China

o i thought you meant other america teams (in different sports).
xp

someone didn't watch beach volleyball

mmmmmmm beach volleyball

i hate beach volleyball.

o_O

most events have a little more distance between the cameras and the athletes than the gymnastics. it was weird when the cameraman was like kneeling in the middle of the huddle.

that main dude seemed like he was a football star in jr high, then never grew and took up gymnastics. but he kept it positive, no f bombs

maybe it only seemed out of place because it was gymnastics and there's all this quiet time during and between routines (unlike basketball, where there's a lot more going on, loud crowds, direct competition, all that).

xp

^this is true. they really don't need to get that close. and then that sascha guy just started talking to the camera for a few minutes and the commentators had to stop for a sec.
xxp

Can we talk for a second about the hilarious/awesome disparity between the men's and women's beach vollyball uniforms?

worst thing so far is when they lingered on phelps' eyes on the podium for like 10 minutes just begging him to cry a little, and he's just thinking about the race starting in 12 minutes

haha that was hilarious bc no one was actually paying attention to him!
xpost

they have mens beach volleyball?

Can we talk for a second about the hilarious/awesome disparity between the men's and women's beach vollyball uniforms?

-- HI DERE, Tuesday, August 12, 2008 3:33 PM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

How about we talk about the disparity of excitement between regular volleyball and beach volleyball.

Best thing was when the American National Anthem ended on "O'er the land of the freeeeeee..." during Phelps' first medal ceremony!

xp: If the women in regular volleyball wore the beach volleyball outfits, I'd still be a regular volleyball fan.

Dan you just want all the athletes to compete in the original Greek style.

Ha, my wife and I were watching greco-roman wrestling this morning and the two major strands of conversation were:

- "lol so tiny!" (55 kg weight class)
- "Can you believe they used to do this naked??????

the athletes are not PROFESSIONAL, that would violate the (utterly fictional) AMATEUR IDEALS OF THE GREEKS.

Morbz, only you would take a blatant reference to male nudity and riff instead on the purity of sports and ethics.

Also lolz at making a "purity of the Olympics" joke about 20 years too late!

I wasn't direckly taking off from that post. Did they make the volleymen put shirts on, is that it?

btw, if "our" gymnasts were butching it up, maybe that's cuz the US 1984 gold-medal team all seemed so damn queeny (incl future B-movie star Mitch Gaylord).

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Z07FC6BAL._SX320_SY240_.jpg

Didn't Mitch do the gymanstics stunts in "The Firm"?

there were gymnastics stunts in "The Firm"?

btw, I forgot; Phelps thinking Bush waving a little flag at him was "pretty cool" = ASSHOLE.

yeah he really should have taken that opportunity to politicize the event even further

http://www.poster.net/anonymous/anonymous-black-power-mexico-city-olympics-1968-9949975.jpg

Apparently I'm wrong, it was Keith Campbell.

that picture is awesome, but the fact that it's not 1968 anymore doesn't make Michael Phelps an asshole. (i don't really care if he is.)

No, Michael Phelps, as a white man in 2008, should have exactly the same mindset and political motivations as two black men in 1968.

(As an aside I wonder if he knows about Rev Phelps and crew and whether they piss him off.)

jeez Dan, way to read my mind!

"It was ... interesting" would've sufficed for his reaction.

WHOA Emms and Robertson WON!? I turned that off when it became apparent they were crumbling to inevitable defeat...

jeez Dan, way to read my mind!

This from the person who reads everyone else's so well!

i dont think that michael phelps thinks about anything besides swimming and eating

he eats a lot, guys

someone didn't watch the 8 million dunks during the basketball game between USA and China

????

i am not explaining myself to someone named "Granny Dainger"

no Ned, I have no idea what any of you are thinkin'. Tender mercies.

mostly "lol, u old"

fair enough, "Mr. Que". Perhaps I can have HI DERE, Dr. Morbius, horseshoe, or just got offed ask you to explain on my behalf.

i think he means that ppl cheered loads when each dunk went in, i actually watched some of that shit, basketball ain't so bad after all

it's really not worth it, trust me. i was mostly responding to the fact that the USA men's basketball team was showing off the other night with all their dunks and stuff and that's just as jocky (jock-esque? jock-like?) as the men's gymnastics team

ok my bad

but srsly i can see myself hanging w basketball, i used to diss that sport something nasty

should they have just done layups?

Basketball is all about FUNDAMENTALS

APPRECIATE THAT BOUNCE PASS

22 dunks is a lot for one game

I thought it was a bit much when they broke Earth's gravitational pull just to attempt EVERY SHOT.

all those "BOOMSHAKALAKA"s were totally unsporting

22 dunks is a lot for one game

uh waht

"Final score of the basketball gold medal game, 31 to 24."

waht? in a blowout, c'mon, that's ridiculous

"It was an awesome display of chest passes and free throws"

(Also I thought the thing about the Olympic games was to score as many points as you can to protect yourself from disappointment-via-point-differential.)

so then, they should've done layups? just dribble out the shot clock and give the ball back to their opponent?

usually there's gonna be more dunks in a blowout. hence, the blowing out.

it's like showing off and running up the score. obviously i don't think they should have done layups and or give the ball back to their opponent.

i'm glad they did it though--it was just a little much

lol that guy on the chinese team was tall

Did you hear what those tickets were going for? If the fans weren't going to get to see a good game you can bet your ass they wanted to see some dunking.

Why is whether or not Michael Phelps an asshole so important to Morbs? Did that get explained upthread?

Head Coach Que: DAMMIT, I TOLD YOU: ALL JUMP SHOTS, ALL THE TIME
Anthony: But the lane was open-
HCQ: WHO'S WEARING THE COACH PANTS? IS IT YOU? I DIDN'T THINK SO!

i was mostly responding to the fact that the USA men's basketball team was showing off the other night with all their dunks and stuff and that's just as jocky (jock-esque? jock-like?) as the men's gymnastics team

that's totally different to me, doesn't bother me at all. maybe if they had screamed "USA #1!" every time they dunked...

they did!

xp: bcz I like to tear down America's anointed, Alex.

http://deadspin.com/assets/images/deadspin/2008/08/kobeusadunk.jpg

kobe is clearly yelling USA here in this kobetaint.jpg

"in this kobetaint" is not a phrase I ever thought I would read

it's not like USA was busting out the full court press when they were already up by 30. they put in their bench players, and played as they should with a lead. this wasn't an exhibition game. plus there's a dimension of intimidating their future opponents to it. imo, them playing any differently would come across as if China was their 8 yr old nephew who they didn't want to make cry.

"xp: bcz I like to tear down America's anointed, Alex."

Were you concerned about Spitz being an asshole?

why do you "like to tear down America's anointed"?

"i'm going after that punk clara barton next."

Morbs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZb_6qDA78U

I can forgive Kerri Walsh her going to Stanfurd, but big upping W is too much: http://www.accesshollywood.com/article/10796/u-s-beach-volleyballs-kerri-walsh-i-just-developed-a-new-superstition/

she'll be crushed

US beach volleyball analyst just now, right after the US gets a point by hitting a ball in between the two Argentines: "he's aiming for that husband & wife area of no communication."

also woah at that 33-year-old (!) gymnast who defected from Russia to Germany after the Germans helped her son with chemotherapy. Pretty amazing that it's her 5th Olympics but it must be a bit awkward when all your contemporaries are 10 or more years younger than you.

OK, the men's 100m freestyle world record has just been broken twice in the past five minutes. One would suspect the final of this is going to be awesome.

How much do the experts think or not think there's massive undetected doping among the swimmers?

In Britain, they're basically too busy being completely amazed by how much their sport has moved on since the start of this games. World records have gone everywhere.

also woah at that 33-year-old (!) gymnast who defected from Russia to Germany after the Germans helped her son with chemotherapy. Pretty amazing that it's her 5th Olympics but it must be a bit awkward when all your contemporaries are 10 or more years younger than you.

also torres the 41(?) year old swimmer - woah!

also she didn't defect because it was after the fall of the ussr and she was living in uzbekistan. i think the term is emigrate?

And Michael Phelps has now become the greatest Olympian ever.

bela karoly is awesome

this gymnastics is a MESS

:( :( :(

SAD FACE BELA

xpost - Yeah, defected was probably the wrong word.

I feel pretty bad for this US gymnast Alicia Sacremone who just fell of the beam, and now on the floor exercise. She's from Winchester, Massachusetts, a town who's center square seems like it could be right out of Gilmore Girls. I have to smile every time I pass through it on the train.

I like that she's the only gymnast I've seen who's willing to look really pissed when she screws up.

She's the only gymnast on the floor who actually looks likes she's gone through puberty--always a bad sign for the professional woman's gymnast/figure skater.

Loved how Bela kept getting in his digs at the age of the Chinese gals.

I agree Bela Karolyi is awesome and insane.

And Cancellara gets gold and I miss it cos I was walking to work at the time. Bother.

"It's happened to me all my career that people would get on my lane line and suck off me," Lezak said

why do you "like to tear down America's anointed"?

Maybe cuz Barry Bonds is the best athlete of the last 40 years?

IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW

Maybe cuz Barry Bonds is the best athlete of the last 40 years?

Yay Michael Phelps!

enjoy yr received MSM wisdom!

It's interesting to contrast Morbs panning Phelps for saying "It's cool that the President was there!" with Leee panning Walsh for saying "BUSH IS A BIG SWEETIE AND A GREAT GREAT MAN PLZ COURT ME IN THE VAGINA"

Oh I get it. MSM hates Barry Bonds.

Really, there's being a gadfly and then there's just plain sheer rongness.

Singin' in the Rain, Milli Vanilli, etc. at the Olympics! (I searched this thread for MANY words relating to the story so be still with your snippiness if someone has already posted it.) From NYT:

In Grand Olympic Show, Some Sleight of Voice

Perched precariously between "awww..." and LOOOOOOOOOOL

Eric, if the Twins had signed Bonds last winter you might be working the World Series, and I don't want you overburdened.

I would be no more happy if the Twins signed Bonds than I would if they signed John Rocker.

see what I meant about the MSM up there

Maybe cuz Barry Bonds is the best athlete of the last 40 years?

daley thompson says your ignorance is showing.

OK, the best athlete the general American public knows or cares about.

Who is Barry Bonds?

So Morbs, I'm to trust then you have absolutely no itch to call this year the Speedo-Suit-Olympics or something to that effect?

the general American public knows or cares about.

yeah, these people are always the best arbiters.

http://ninesisters.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/get_a_brain_morans.jpg

Barry Bonds vs Michael Jordan

I have no itch to call the Olympics anything, but the NY Times had an article suggesting the suits and the Beijing pool are key to the tumbling records. But then, records tend to be broken in favorable environments.

Barry Bonds vs Michael Jordan

Has Barry Bonds tried basketball?

ouch, was this already posted?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/08/13/article-1044235-02426BAB00000578-429_468x327.jpg

ow

wtf is that

(pls don't say "an elbow", I know that thx)

video
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=33a_1218642189&p=1

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1044258/Pictured-The-horrific-moment-Olympic-weightlifter-turns-elbow-front.html

"Maybe cuz Barry Bonds is the best athlete of the last 40 years?"

No way. I mean if you pretend basketball, golf, swimming and tennis aren't sports you might have a case, but if you count stuff other than baseball that claim is ludicrous.

So that guy didn't break any bones, tho, right?

that video is aaaaaagh lol aaaaaaagh lol aaaaaaghh

"ah we don't wanna see it again, noy, ah noy, that's terrible"

i want the job of holding up blockers so people don't freak out over disgusting injuries.

I mean if you pretend basketball, golf, swimming and tennis aren't sports you might have a case

lol who are you talking to here???? Morbs is the King of Baseball!

No no no it's just a MSM thing.

funny i've been totally ignoring this, but the gymnastics/phelps one-two was on in the bar last night and i completely got the oLyMpIc fEvEr. the whole place was suddenly and completely into the vault, ha

Has this been discussed somewhere?
http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2008/0813/oly_a_spain_600.jpg
Spanish b-ball team stretching their eyes to look Chinese.

lol 'Pekin'

how do you say 'stay classy' in spanish?

At least they didn't call them "little monkeys".

lol elmo that's exactly what Racialicious said.

Sorry the quote was "shitty black(s)". It's hard to keep track of racist spanish nonsense.

"Maybe cuz Barry Bonds is the best athlete of the last 40 years?"

http://www.thehoopnews.com/img/lebron-james.jpg

Calderon denies any racist tinge in the gesture and expressed his “great respect for the East and its people.”

Calderon forgot which country he was making fun of.

lol goole, I was at a bar w a bunch of y'know manly guys the other night and suddenly men's gymnastics came on and I was surrounded by riveted spectators going "AHHHH I can't believe he didn't stick the landing" "Yeah, that's gonna cost him!" "Too bad about the under-rotation."

I was like wtf I don't know but I love it.

pinches chinos

"Maybe cuz Barry Bonds is the best athlete of the last 40 years?"

don't be roidiculous

best athlete of the last roidy years amirite?

aright you guys are boring

this guy i know is at the olympics here is his blog entry about trying to sneak in a political sign at a basketball game. great read http://marksiano.blogspot.com/

love the sign

US OUT OF IRAQ
AND INTO THE MEDAL ROUND

imma try to sneak a Chris Paul for MVP sign into the next session of congress.

haha that rules

'Let the Spanish act racist in the privacy of their own little country.'

Just watched David Price's stoppage win in the boxing - best inadvertent pre-watershed swearing I've seen in some time.

Has anyone yet pointed out that the Russian firebird jackets are kick-ass?

The whitewater events are way cool to watch for the first couple of runs and dull as fuck afterwards. Still, we spent ages waiting for a) a British person and b) a fuckup and got both in one!

Nice story on Benjamin Boukpeti who won the first Olympic medal for Togo ever. Glad I got to see the TV coverage on this - the whitewater course in Bejing looks amazing.

Dan, Alex has been to baseball games with me. It's the only surefire way to keep him from slamming me on the boards.

Anyway, thank God no one in the Olympics is taking anything undetectable, lololol.

Really? Chellsie Memmel?

Chris, he was the guy who broke his pedal in two right? That was pure delight to watch!

Paddle, doh.

watching stuff on nbc.com without any commentary is pretty rad.

Hey am I right to think that NBC has total total total rights to Olympic footage in the states? Like forbidding other networks' news reports and (say) sportscenter from showing highlights when talking about the results? What does sportscenter do? Still photos? Courtroom-style sketches?

The Olympic Opening Ceremonies in 60 Secs:

http://laist.com/2008/08/13/video_of_the_day_the_olympic_openin.php

"THERE IS YOUR LEADER!"

They're playing Sabres of Paradise at the gymnastics. Given that the archers had to suffer through bloody Shania Twain the other night, you wonder who does the picking...

Haha.

I've been having fun gearing my folks' computer up to watch more coverage properly. I have a feeling my dad will appreciate it come next week and the track and field.

The random music choices are my favourite incidental thing about these Olympics.

wtf wtf wtf

Blake just beat Federer

wtf wtf wtf

o_O

Predictable, really. Fed should just retire at this stage

wauza

Growing up in Illinois, the town of Pekin, IL's High Schools athletic teams were the "Pekin Chinks". I doubt they are still called that.

wow, i thought the "red raiders" was an offensive nickname.

Yeah, they're not called the Chinks anymore (my mom grew up in Peoria). But it was only changed sometime in the '80s, I think.

(Now they're the Dragons, lol.)

i have still seen nary a moment of these olympic due to stoopid time zones/work, but omg the tennis today! federer and both williams sisters - all out!

and such a wasted opportunity for "pekin ducks"

when is the next major tournament? are the "big" players all just saving themselves for those?

why do you "like to tear down America's anointed"?

Maybe cuz Barry Bonds is the best athlete of the last 40 years?

-- Dr Morbius, Wednesday, August 13, 2008 1:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

wow how rong can a brother be?

You should see him on the politics threads!

wow, i thought the "red raiders" was an offensive nickname.

-- chicago kevin, Thursday, August 14, 2008 3:49 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

ha, this was my school's mascot.

watching events where the olympics is the most prestigious competition >>> events where it's no big deal (tennis, basketball, whatever)

US Open's the week after the Olympics, I think (xp). The Olympics seems to be the least important event in the entire tennis calendar

I'm hoping for Olympics Formula One in 2012

basketball is a lil bit different than tennis and baseball (what a a joke. how can you have a "best in the world" tournament when the best in the world are 5000+ miles away at the time?) because it is the biggest, most prestigious tournament of national teams and has a stellar history.

Baseball has been voted out, if it makes you feel any better.

Also, considering that almost every major active tennis player is playing the Olympics this year, you "lol no big names" argument is a gigantic load of nonsense.

The Olympics seems to be the least important event in the entire tennis calendar

I think you would be referring to that other international competition, Davis Cup.

Calendar Year Golden Slam

"Golden Slam" is a term created in 1988 when Steffi Graf won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments and the singles gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics in the same calendar year.

Career Golden Slam

A player who wins all four Grand Slam tournaments and the Olympic gold medal during the player's career has achieved a Career Golden Slam.

* Singles players who won a Career Golden Slam:
o Steffi Graf (1988)
o Andre Agassi (1992-94-95-96-99)

* Doubles teams that won a Career Golden Slam:
o Todd Woodbridge & Mark Woodforde (1992-93-95-96-2000)
o Serena Williams & Venus Williams (1999-2000-01)

Chris, he was the guy who broke his pedal in two right? That was pure delight to watch!

Yah that was him.

During his first year living alone, he had to make some adjustments and learn a few quick lessons. Phelps once filled up his dishwasher with hand soap and came home to find his floor covered in suds. He also had trouble eating his first bowl of cereal after he realized he hadn't purchased any bowls, so he ate the cereal with milk out of a Gatorade bottle.

oh, phelpsypaws...

when does he swim again?

and... again. anyone watching tonight? gymnastics coming up!

Obama/Misty May 08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5gR0g8lHIs

^^ peep the dismount on the uneven bars

woah

what's up w/ the paint (or is it tape?) thats been showing up on some athletes' shoulders?

wow, i've watched that dismount like 10 times now and i still have no idea how she did that

like even remotely

they were talking about some kinesthzlkzdjg tape during volleyball. maybe same thing?

yeah it looks edited!

so psyched for the track cycling. even tho britsihs might crush everyone.

Yeah, it must be kinesio taping

oooh gymnastics scoring conspiracy!