I enjoyed the Taekwondo. It's not very often that you can shout "Kick her in the head!" at the TV.
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Beijing 2008 Olympic Games - Caution, may contain results!
- Thread starter scotthayes
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I enjoyed the Taekwondo. It's not very often that you can shout "Kick her in the head!" at the TV.
Well, they're over now.
I'm actually kind of glad they're over. The last few days seemed to drag on and I was just well and truly over it.
And I think the poll is a little bit limited, I can think of several others who could quite easily be added to the list! Not that it matters all that much as Phelps is the obvious winner.
Well, they're over now.
You can always watch the recordings on www.nbcolympics.com. Not sure how long they are staying there however.
I'm actually kind of glad they're over. The last few days seemed to drag on and I was just well and truly over it.
And I think the poll is a little bit limited, I can think of several others who could quite easily be added to the list! Not that it matters all that much as Phelps is the obvious winner.
Nastia Liukin! She's hawt!
Why didn't the mayor of London button his coat during the closing ceremony? Instead of friendly, it just made him look sloppy. But maybe that's just in contrast to the Chinese style of planning everything down to the last detail.
Thanks for the Olympics, China. I enjoyed the show.
Thanks for the Olympics, China. I enjoyed the show.
I didn't put the Chinese gymnasts in because of the possible age issue.
I'm actually kind of glad they're over. The last few days seemed to drag on and I was just well and truly over it.
And I think the poll is a little bit limited, I can think of several others who could quite easily be added to the list! Not that it matters all that much as Phelps is the obvious winner.
It could have been huge but I decided to keep a few outstanding performances.
Yeah, the worst part though...is the London performance sadly.
What did you expect us to do in a small corner of the stadium in 8 minutes.
I hope you are not expecting the 2012 games to be on the grand scale that these games have been. We will be spending nowhere near the £20 billion that China have spent.
You've not seen Boris before??? Well the simple answer is, that's just Boris!!!
A few closing thoughts, unless something else drives me to post:
nbcolympics.com had an interesting statistic: If you count each member of a team that won a medal as an individual medalist, the USA had 315 medalist to China's 186. I say this is interesting because I think that it highlights an American commitment to team sports in the Olympics. This probably hurts us in the individual sports. Of course, this does not mean that the USA is better than other countries who put more into their individual athletes.
It's also interesting to me that China has one of the most sedentary populations, yet it also has a highly systematized system for its elite athletes. For all of its excellence at the top tiers of sport, there is almost nothing available for the average man on the street. I recall reading an article (I can't remember where I saw it) in which a teenager said that he needed to ride a train for forty-five minutes and pay a sizable sum of money in order to play at a basketball court.
I was extremely impressed that there were only six cases of athletes doping. This is encouraging, given that the trend was twelve cases in 2000 and twenty-six in 2004. Jacques Rogge had predicted forty cases for this edition of the Olympics.
Michael Phelps is my new dad. Also, did anybody see him in London during the NBC broadcast of the closing ceremonies? With that black shirt and jeans? Rawr!
It was interesting to me that I got wrapped up in the performances of a lot of countries with which I have no affinity outside of the Olympics. I'm from the USA, my late grandfather is from England, my grandmother is from Canada, and I speak good French, so I always root for those teams. But when Mr. Bolt was running in his races, I "was" Jamaican and when Benjamin Boukpeti won the first ever medal for Togo, I "was" Togolese.
On the whole, I was extremely impressed with the sense of sportsmanship that I saw from all of the athletes. I was especially pleased to see that the sprinters of the world seem to have given up on their trademark trash-talking. That used to make me very mad when I was younger, and fortunately it doesn't seem to be a part of the sport anymore.
Finally, I really enjoy that the athletes enter under their own nations' flags during the opening ceremonies, but that they all enter together at the closing ceremonies. The athletes arrive as competitors, but leave as brothers.
nbcolympics.com had an interesting statistic: If you count each member of a team that won a medal as an individual medalist, the USA had 315 medalist to China's 186. I say this is interesting because I think that it highlights an American commitment to team sports in the Olympics. This probably hurts us in the individual sports. Of course, this does not mean that the USA is better than other countries who put more into their individual athletes.
It's also interesting to me that China has one of the most sedentary populations, yet it also has a highly systematized system for its elite athletes. For all of its excellence at the top tiers of sport, there is almost nothing available for the average man on the street. I recall reading an article (I can't remember where I saw it) in which a teenager said that he needed to ride a train for forty-five minutes and pay a sizable sum of money in order to play at a basketball court.
I was extremely impressed that there were only six cases of athletes doping. This is encouraging, given that the trend was twelve cases in 2000 and twenty-six in 2004. Jacques Rogge had predicted forty cases for this edition of the Olympics.
Michael Phelps is my new dad. Also, did anybody see him in London during the NBC broadcast of the closing ceremonies? With that black shirt and jeans? Rawr!
It was interesting to me that I got wrapped up in the performances of a lot of countries with which I have no affinity outside of the Olympics. I'm from the USA, my late grandfather is from England, my grandmother is from Canada, and I speak good French, so I always root for those teams. But when Mr. Bolt was running in his races, I "was" Jamaican and when Benjamin Boukpeti won the first ever medal for Togo, I "was" Togolese.
On the whole, I was extremely impressed with the sense of sportsmanship that I saw from all of the athletes. I was especially pleased to see that the sprinters of the world seem to have given up on their trademark trash-talking. That used to make me very mad when I was younger, and fortunately it doesn't seem to be a part of the sport anymore.
Finally, I really enjoy that the athletes enter under their own nations' flags during the opening ceremonies, but that they all enter together at the closing ceremonies. The athletes arrive as competitors, but leave as brothers.
That is a fantastic statistic. But I'm not surprised at, watching American sports from the other side of the pond, I've always been stunned by the 'one team' ethos
When you don't have to pander to people to get their vote, pretty much anything is possible (just think back to the USSR)
Was really pleased to see such a small number of doping cases, but part of the reason is the IOC went after the cheats big time before the Olympics. Think it was around 40 were banned before the games began
He didn't look that impressed with the red arrows and why was he in London and not in Beijing for the closing ceremony?
There was some great moments of sportsmanship, the Russian and Georgian shooters on the podium was very special. As for the sprinters, they couldn't trash-talk, you can only do that when you have a chance of winning with Bolt in full flow they don't have a chance.
I love the way Greece are always first out, the host nation last, the handing over of the Olympic flag to the next city (but why did it have to be Boris) In fact I just love the opening and closing ceremonies as they show the world can come together and have fun...
Nastia Liukin! She's hawt!
But she rarely smiles and she looks like a witch when she's not smiling. For her, there's no 'normal' face. She's either smiling (rarely), or looks both angry and sad (often).
An intense and focused person, perhaps?
I think you're right. I've seen her smile plenty, and she's quite pretty. She just doesn't smile during competitions.
I was thinking the same thing. This guy looked like a dork.
I await to be amazed in 2012, but I have a feeling that the organizers had to go back to the drawing board after seeing Beijing's (assuming they already knew what they wanted to do). Beijing set the bar high, so should be interesting to see what London does.
Oh, and I voted for Usain Bolt, I have never seen someone do amazing things so "effortlessly!"
This may be one of the (many?) lasting positive legacies of these Games for everyday Chinese. There is a lot of thought that interest in sport among every day people is reaching an all time high, and that China's focus on sport at the elite level may begin to trickle down. This will probably start as growing interest in domestic sports competition (think, a Chinese NBA for example), and gradually work its way down to normal people. I also read the Water Cube, in addition to being used to stage events, will be turned into a public aquatic recreation center for the citizens of Beijing. Just another example of how sport participation may begin to increase in China thanks to the Games.
As for 45 minutes to play basketball.. that may be common in the rural areas, but I don't think that's the case in the cities, even now.
I agree. Phelps is awesome, but it always dumbfounds me why athletes compete then rush home as fast as they can. I mean, its the Olympics - enjoy the whole experience. And as an Athlete you basically have an all access pass to the whole show. If it were me, you can bet I'd have stayed in Beijing for the two weeks, seen the sites, done some TV shows, and gone to a bunch of other sporting events, and gone to the closing ceremony.
But, a lot of athletes do go home as soon as they finish their events. Maybe they are just burnt out? It seems like a waste of a golden (and fun) opportunity to me. I mean, what could be more fun that to be done with your events, be a gold medalist, have no pressure, and have an all-access pass to the Olympics and the host city?
He looked exceedingly uncomfortable and out of place next to the quiet elegance of Rogge and the precision of the mayor of Beijing.
Did you also notice that the PLA soldier seemed rather annoyed with how Boris handled the Olympic flag?