Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - Caution, may contain results!

[ohforfckssake!]

someone suggested that the girls are taking puberty delaying drugs: http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2008/08/are-chinese-gym.html . and those chinese girls looked way younger than 16.

LOL! The speculation is getting ridiculous. While anything is possible, the continual griping from Americans smacks of being sore losers. Phelps sets multiple WRs on the way to a record haul of medals, yet no one questions if he is on any dope. And that is the way it should be -- innocent until proven guilty. If you haven't noticed, Asians sometimes do look younger than on average. If you want a truly suspicious case that raised even my eyebrows, look at Liu Zige. She won gold for China today on a time 10 seconds (!!!!) faster than her previous fastest time -- set only this year.

Now THAT would be something to talk about.

 

[wonderbread57]

Gymnastics women announcer is so bad it's suspicious. It's like she is on lsd and has never seen gymnastics before. Just making up crap and spitting out cliches

 

[rasmasyean]

someone suggested that the girls are taking puberty delaying drugs: http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2008/08/are-chinese-gym.html . and those chinese girls looked way younger than 16.

btw, did phelps just win again, i may have missed the last swimming event on nbc.

talking about nbc, they suck. they act like we're watching sex and the city instead of sports. i don't want to hear sob stories, i want to see the sport and less talking.

You can watch it at nbcolympics.com and it's just the video with optional "text commentary". I think they have all of them like that. And some recordings of the actually NBC coverage as well.

It might take a bit of getting used to figuring out what's what because now they have like hundreds of videos for each sport it seems, but I imagine if you know the terminology it's better. Some even have marker "jump points" where you can go to the match or score event. The Silverlight player is pretty cool. This is definitely a good start and introduction to the world for them. I'm sure they are making profit from this and it will put them on the spotlight as a potential replacement of the Flash player. This is only in beta too. But I imagine most of the really cool features will be Vista only.

 

[sushi]

Mark Spitz and his seven medals. His Wikipedia page already has a section on the snub.

http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=85011&rendTypeId=4​

What he did was pretty darn awesome.

And, I bet if they had the 50m freestyle race he would have won that as well, moustache and all.

Seems like they should have invited him. Wonder why they didn't.

I suspect Spitz would have won even more medals, were it not for the considerable drag factor of his moustache...

Heh! You can only get away with a mustache like that these days if you're a motorcycle cop or an airline pilot.

Actually modern swimmers do have that extra advantage on that note. They have a suit where some scientists reverse engineer the skin of dolphins and replicated it on the molecular level. The suit that they are wearing is a nanotech device actually, so one can wonder whether Phelps can actually beat his record on even grounds...with a moustache too...

The advances in sports technology are incredible.

 

[MyDesktopBroke]

I'm watching the Men's All-Around gymnastics, and the scoring for the Americans seems way to harsh. I mean, the Russian, Korean, and Japanese men fell on more than one move, yet they scored consistantly higher than John Hortan & Axel Artimov, who's only mistakes were steps on landings & one missed revolution on a tumbling pass. They said the scoring system was supposed to make the judging more fair, but it seems it only rewards those athletes who say "we're going to do the hardest moves," then mess them up.

I'm sure I'm biased, but can some one explain?

 

[swiftaw]

I'm watching the Men's All-Around gymnastics, and the scoring for the Americans seems way to harsh. I mean, the Russian, Korean, and Japanese men fell on more than one move, yet they scored consistantly higher than John Hortan & Axel Artimov, who's only mistakes were steps on landings & one missed revolution on a tumbling pass. They said the scoring system was supposed to make the judging more fair, but it seems it only rewards those athletes who say "we're going to do the hardest moves," then mess them up.

I'm sure I'm biased, but can some one explain?

Yeah, I have issues with 'sports' where the average person cannot watch two competitors and determine who won on their own. Anything where subjective judgement decides the winner doesn't sit right with me.

 

[sushi]

Yeah, I have issues with 'sports' where the average person cannot watch two competitors and determine who one on their own.

I agree.

Anything where subjective judgement decides the winner doesn't sit right with me.

Hypothetically, if person A tries a difficulty 10 move and scores a 7 he gets more points than person B who tries a difficulty 5 move and scores a 10. I hope that makes sense.

The first time I saw this type of scoring was in men's diving a few years ago. It makes sense, but as a spectator it makes it hard to follow the details unless you know the sport well.

 

[swiftaw]

I agree.


Hypothetically, if person A tries a difficulty 10 move and scores a 7 he gets more points than person B who tries a difficulty 5 move and scores a 10. I hope that makes sense.

The first time I saw this type of scoring was in men's diving a few years ago. It makes sense, but as a spectator it makes it hard to follow the details unless you know the sport well.

But when even the 'experts' are saying the judging is messed up, you have a real big problem.

Would it make somewhat more sense if all the athletes have to do the same routine, and then you could do direct comparison. Even armchair fans would be able to tell who did it better, and you wouldn't have to know about difficulty factors and things like that.

 

[gikku]

The only thing that counts is the gold. That's the one that will get the athlete the endorsements. And hence that's also the only one that gets attention.

you got that right. GOLD GOLD GOLD.
Not one athlete is there hoping to take silver home, (ok, excepting those in the pool with Phelps).

 

[furcalchick]

Yeah, I have issues with 'sports' where the average person cannot watch two competitors and determine who won on their own. Anything where subjective judgement decides the winner doesn't sit right with me.

agreed. and notice that two of the biggest olympic events, figure skating and gymnastics are scored in this fashion. that's probably part of why nbc shows so much of it because it's more drama than actual sport, and they are looking for more drama.

 

[gikku]

Yeah, I have issues with 'sports' where the average person cannot watch two competitors and determine who won on their own. Anything where subjective judgement decides the winner doesn't sit right with me.

yep, they're not sports, they're just events to fill the calendar.
Sports are determined by the fastest, strongest, highest,... not the most technically correct.

 

[swiftaw]

agreed. and notice that two of the biggest olympic events, figure skating and gymnastics are scored in this fashion. that's probably part of why nbc shows so much of it because it's more drama than actual sport, and they are looking for more drama.

NBC decides which sports to show based on only 1 thing, can an American win, especially one who is attractive with a tragic background for a good human interest story.

 

[sushi]

But when even the 'experts' are saying the judging is messed up, you have a real big problem.

I agree with you. It is too complicated.

Would it make somewhat more sense if all the athletes have to do the same routine, and then you could do direct comparison. Even armchair fans would be able to tell who did it better, and you wouldn't have to know about difficulty factors and things like that.

Agree.

 

[rasmasyean]

yep, they're not sports, they're just events to fill the calendar.
Sports are determined by the fastest, strongest, highest,... not the most technically correct.

Yeah, I agree totally. I mean those gymnasts are really wearing padded suits that make them look they have muscles. They are actually scrawny people and I bet you can knock em down by just sneezing.

 

[rasmasyean]

Yeah, I have issues with 'sports' where the average person cannot watch two competitors and determine who won on their own. Anything where subjective judgement decides the winner doesn't sit right with me.

Actually, if you watch it enough you can. There aren't that many "rules" as in other sports but it's just that you're not accustomed to watching that kind of speed and techniques. It's much simpler than even like "The Super Bowl", except that it's easy to determine whats who gets a touchdown, etc., but most people don't REALLY know the details of what is going on in the plays to make one team beat the other. Even the commentators mostly follow the ball versus everything else that goes on in between the hike and the catch.

 

[Doctor Q]

Swimming

In the Women's 4x200m relay, the Italian team broke the world record and didn't even get a medal! They were 4th. Australia was magnificent in a win.

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

They said the scoring system was supposed to make the judging more fair, but it seems it only rewards those athletes who say "we're going to do the hardest moves," then mess them up.

I'm sure I'm biased, but can some one explain?

It's actually not based on whether an athlete SAYS that he will do the specified moves. It's entirely up to whether he actually DOES those moves. If he screws up a move badly enough that it can't even be considered to be completed, he gets no points on his start value for that move. I do think that the new scoring system is an improvement, but I don't think that it's right that the judges can look at slow-motion replays of the routines. If a mistake goes by so quickly that it cannot be seen in real-time, it ought to be considered as though it never happened.

My favourite sports to watch so far? Trap/skeet shooting, fencing, swimming, gymnastics, rowing, and weightlifting. I look forward to watching the knockout round in the football and softball events as well.

 

[rasmasyean]

I do think that the new scoring system is an improvement, but I don't think that it's right that the judges can look at slow-motion replays of the routines. If a mistake goes by so quickly that it cannot be seen in real-time, it ought to be considered as though it never happened.

Ha! I wouldn't be surprised it they use computer vision image analysis for the next Olympics. You won't need judges anymore in the fuiture.

 

[dejo]

Seems like they should have invited him. Wonder why they didn't.

Seems to me he's a little too full of himself. "If they had the 50m freestyle back then..." Um, well they didn't. So get over it. He sounds jealous. As for "you don't go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go", why not? Sounds like the humble thing to do. Go to watch Phelps win rather than make it about you watching Phelps win. Seems the biggest drag factor on his swimming was his oversized ego. And I'm not even happy with all the Phelps over-hyping...

 

[sushi]

In the Women's 4x200m relay, the Italian team broke the world record and didn't even get a medal! They were 4th. Australia was magnificent in a win.

Amazing.

Friend: So how did your relay team do?
Team Member: Well, we broke the World Record!
F: Really? That's fantastic!
TM: Yes, we sure did by x.x seconds.
F: Wow. You won the gold medal then?!
TM: Oh, we didn't qualify for a medal. We were too slow.
F: Mouth open wide trying to comprehend what was just said to them.

This Olympics is full of surprises.

 

[rasmasyean]

Seems to me he's a little too full of himself. "If they had the 50m freestyle back then..." Um, well they didn't. So get over it. He sounds jealous. As for "you don't go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go", why not? Sounds like the humble thing to do. Go to watch Phelps win rather than make it about you watching Phelps win. Seems the biggest drag factor on his swimming was his oversized ego. And I'm not even happy with all the Phelps over-hyping...

Why didn't he just buy a ticket if he wanted to go?

 

[rasmasyean]

NBC decides which sports to show based on only 1 thing, can an American win, especially one who is attractive with a tragic background for a good human interest story.

Phht... half of that they make up or over-dramatize it to "capture the audience" so they watch stupid GE commercials.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Heh! You can only get away with a mustache like that these days if you're a motorcycle cop or an airline pilot.

Or something else...

Am I the only one who looks at that picture and, taking away the medals, hears porn music? Boom-chakka-boom-chakka.....

 

[arkitect]

Mark Foster finishes sixth in his 50m freestyle heat and in the space of 22.35 seconds, the 36-year-old's Olympics are over.
From BBC…

 

[rasmasyean]

you got that right. GOLD GOLD GOLD.
Not one athlete is there hoping to take silver home, (ok, excepting those in the pool with Phelps).

Yeah, even those woman gymnasts were pretty upset with the Silver. I mean, I think China would have beaten them even if that USA girl didn't fall anyway but...oh well, no gold there.

Hopefully that Johnson chick can get an individual gold or so and can share a Weaties box with Phelps or something. LOL Does anyone still eat that?