London 2012 Summer Olympics

[anitram]

Saw one of the Russian girls today with really hideously ugly, sparkly hair clips that were shaped like hearts.

 

[trojanchick99]

Matt Grevers. he is 6'8".

That man was born for backstroke. I remember in my swimming days going to a camp at Stanford and being mesmerized watching Jeff Rouse practice. That was when they let the backstrokers spend nearly the entire race under water.

I however was not born for backstroke as I topped out at 5'4".

i think this is my new motto in life:
i have no doubts that Lochte is dumb as a rock. i think Ricky Berens said something like, "the thing with Phelps is that he thinks too much, the thing with Ryan is that he doesn't think at all." he makes Phelps look professorial, which, um, is hard to do.

I do not doubt that. He's got a fun personality though, there's that.

Spoiler

Everyone in my office was watching the Women's Gymnastics final. Balance beam always gives me a heart attack. I felt bad for the Russians, but I honestly think the Americans would have won even without the Russian disaster on Floor. The US was flawless today. Lastly, Jordyn Weiber could teach some much older athletes about how to deal with a little disappointment. SHe was great today.

 

[Purplereign]

with the time zone whackery I haven't been able to catch the gymnastics - and stupid free to air here is so focused on the aussie contigent that if they ain't in it they won't show it . . . hoping to use this weekend to catch up as the gymnastics, daggy eyeshadow, glittery clips and all has always been a favourite

 

[Purplereign]

Spoiler

is there even anyone else in the water with the USA in this relay - wow!

 

[DRay9911]

Some American gymnasts had artistry. Shannon Miller comes to mind, though her music was irritating (she used one piece for about three years, and in Atlanta, she had violin music that sounded like it was dying an agonizing death).

dominique moceanu used devil went down to georgia for so long that can post which song she used on a discussion board

katherine mcphee and her somewhere over the rainbow thinks dominique used devil went down to georgia too much.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

Good support by the English fans for the GB Women's Soccer/Football team with over 70,000 fans today against Brazil. Quarterfinal time, If GB beats Canada and USA beats New Zealand it will be USA vs. Great Britain in the Semi-finals, in Old Trafford. Would be fun to watch USA having to beat the creators of the sport on their home soil if they want a shot at a 4th gold medal.

 

[speedracer]

ITA. So glad somebody else feels the same way.

I have to admit (at the risk of being flogged) that I historically haven't liked watching the US women's gymnastics team and this is part of the reason why. Oftentimes they are by far the best athletes in the arena - they tumble like it's nobody's business, all power on the vault, for example, but just no artistry, no creativity in presentation. Since the new scoring system was brought in, the other teams have essentially followed their lead and now all we have is athleticism without anything extra. I liked the extra. Oh well, what can you do.

Can't wait for athletics to kick off on Friday!

Some American gymnasts had artistry. Shannon Miller comes to mind, though her music was irritating (she used one piece for about three years, and in Atlanta, she had violin music that sounded like it was dying an agonizing death).

At the risk of being flogged myself, I always prefered the Russian gymnasts on the floor. I always found them to be so graceful and their music pleasant to listen to. The Romanians had OK music, but poor dancing.

I will not stand idly by while Nastia Liukin and Sandra Izbasa are slandered in this manner.

 

[Pearl]

I will not stand idly by while Nastia Liukin and Sandra Izbasa are slandered in this manner.

Yes, they actually dance on the floor. But its minimal compared to say, Svetlana Boginskaya, Svetlana Khorkina and Lilia Podkapayeva. Gymnastics today requires a lot more tumbling than in the 1990s.

 

[Axver]

Pissed off I haven't been able to see any gymnastics yet. Rather enjoy most of it, except the floor routine.

It was exciting to see Great Britain win the silver in men's team gymnastics. Of course the only reason NBC showed it is because the American team fell apart. We also had endless shots of William and Harry cheering them on-not opposed to that really (especially Harry because he's just so cute) but it's as if they think that's the only way to keep us interested in a non US team.

I was amused that the BBC feed I watched online barely mentioned Zara Phillips and focused mainly on the stories behind the other riders, while whenever the Aussie TV coverage crossed to the equestrian, they were all "zomg ZARAAAA royuulll famuhlliieeee fapfapfap".

it's not like Lochte coasted the free in the IM, he swam it well, and it was a typical, expected split in line with his other competitors. Ye's split was out of this world, and i believe i've seen that the fastest previous final 100 split was Stephanie Rice in 2008 who came back in 1:00.9, which was considered insanely good at the time (and was suit-assisted).

Ah right, thanks for that explanation, it's good to hear from somebody who actually has an idea of what they're talking about.

Are we likely to have any solid information from a drug test soon, or are we going to have to put up with aimless speculation and innuendo for the time being?

Glad to see the good ol' PRK kicking ass.

I'm very, very amused by North Korea and Kazakhstan being ahead of Australia on the medal tally right now. Much more interesting than watching the US and China fight it out for who can return with the biggest bag of medals. Sorry to the American contingent on this forum, but it's kind of boring watching medal after medal just go to the US or China (even if their medals per capita isn't that impressive). Love watching some of the underdogs and little countries succeed.

 

[cobl04]

Sorry to the American contingent on this forum, but it's kind of boring watching medal after medal just go to the US or China (even if their medals per capita isn't that impressive). Love watching some of the underdogs and little countries succeed.

YOU WlLL BOW TO OUR OVERLORDS

 

[Axver]

YOU WlLL BOW TO OUR OVERLORDS

I thought our overlords were the Right Holy GREEN 'N' GOLD COME ON AUSSIE COME ON Swimming Deities?

 

[anitram]

Are we likely to have any solid information from a drug test soon, or are we going to have to put up with aimless speculation and innuendo for the time being?

It's my understanding that the IOC has already cleared her (saying her tests were clean).

 

[corianderstem]

That's what Brian Williams told me on NBC Nightly News a little while ago. I left it on during their spoiler-warning-filled update, because that's how I roll.

 

[Hewson]

Svetlana Boginskaya, Svetlana Khorkina and Lilia Podkapayeva. .

Say that 5 times fast.

 

[maycocksean]

The theme for this year's Olympics seems to be underwhelming performances by the favorites.

 

[DRay9911]

Svetlana Boginskaya, Svetlana Khorkina and Lilia Podkapayeva.

da!

 

[deep]

doping?

give this guy a piss test

 

[Axver]

It's my understanding that the IOC has already cleared her (saying her tests were clean).

Huh, if The Age and Stuff reported that, I managed to miss it amidst all the "she's clean!"/"she's doping!" opinion pieces.

 

[Irvine511]

No GDR female swimmer ever failed a doping test. And they were all doped. And their handicapped children and premature health problems will last as long as te medals they won in the 70s and 80s.

Phucking Phelps. Way to pick a time to fuck up your walls an get out touched in your best event. No man has ever threepeated. He has two more chances. Fantastic swim by Le Clos, though. Huge swim for him.

Phelps had a great split on the relay and even with the relay start advantage would have medaled in the individual 200.

Loved Allison Schmitt, even if she does sound like Julia Child.

That vault was SICK. I kind of enjoyed the camp value of watching Russian gymnasts cry. But I'm a heartless bastard.

That's all.

 

[Irvine511]

. Sorry to the American contingent on this forum, but it's kind of boring watching medal after medal just go to the US or China (even if their medals per capita isn't that impressive). Love watching some of the underdogs and little countries succeed.

That's why they have the two-entrants per country rule.

Otherwise China would go 1-10 in diving.

 

[Axver]

That's why they have the two-entrants per country rule.

Otherwise China would go 1-10 in diving.

And about 1-100 in the table tennis!

Wouldn't mind more entries per country being permitted in the sailing events just to boost New Zealand's otherwise meagre medal prospects.

 

[Irvine511]

so i'm still a little irritated that phelps lost the race in which he has held the world record since 6 months before 9-11, but i think this article gave me some perspective, and hopefully it will others as we look ahead to track next week:

He is not his own best advocate on the subject of who is the greatest Olympian. There actually is an argument to be made that Phelps is not. In our contentious times, there is always a case to be made. The argument is one of honorable pedants and poets who are overthinking the issue. In parsing Phelps' fabulous Olympic career, they keep smacking into trees and ignoring the forest. The heft of numbers occasionally does not need footnotes. They eloquently state their own case. Phelps has won 19 medals, a record 15 of them gold, including this swim in the 4x200 free relay. Game, set and -- pretty much -- match. There is no "yes, but," capable of sustaining prolonged debate.
The obvious: the Phelps of London is not the Phelps of Beijing. In his Olympics dotage, Phelps has become a compiler of medals rather than a fulcrum of the Games, someone who is caught in the final 25 meters in one of his lock events and who, even in half jest, asks for a comfy cushion heading into the anchor leg. This, of course, is all wildly beside the point. In padding his total -- a silver medal in the 4x100 free on Sunday and the two medals on Tuesday -- he continues to heap on "toppings on the sundae" as he calls them. Phelps started his swim into posterity when he finished fifth in the 200 butterfly in Sydney as a 15-year-old. He will end competitive swimming in London a dozen years later with perhaps six more medals.

A tawdry silver medal?

Please, nothing short of drowning diminishes his legacy.

Sport transcends the gray smudges of life precisely because it is measurable. Black or white. Sometimes gold or silver. And among this subset of human experience, Phelps' handiwork is among the most tangible of achievements because it is beyond dispute. There are head-to-head races and timing devices, not opinions, in Olympic pools. Unlike Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, whom Phelps leapfrogged to the summit and who sat in the Aquatics Centre as an eyewitness to greatness, no judge ever flashed a "9.6" for Phelps. Pixie dust coats some of those gold medals, including Jason Lezak's Superman anchor-leg swim in the 4x100 freestyle relay in Beijing, but nine of Phelps' gold medals -- the same number of golds won by Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi in track and field -- came without an entourage.

The caviling about Phelps and his place in the Olympic pantheon generally revolves around swimming itself. True, swimming is not as global as track and field. (Neither Africa nor South America are major players in the pool, despite the revival South Africa is having in London.) And Lewis, a sprinter and long jumper, had to do more than one discipline to win his nine, one of which came not on the track but in the doping control room after Ben Johnson was disqualified in the 100 in Seoul. But Phelps won gold medals in butterfly, freestyle and the individual medley, an event in which he swims all the strokes. Phelps benefited by having a smorgasbord of medal possibilities, but the wrongheaded focus is on his opportunities rather than on what Phelps was able to do with them. He had raced in 21 Olympic finals through Tuesday; he had finished out of the medals in just two.

Given the competitive jumble in the London pool, the eight-for-eight in '08 looms even larger than it did when Phelps was mesmerizing the world in real time. When the 23-year-old Phelps strode into the Water Cube at the confluence of his physical, emotional and mental peaks, he wrapped the Olympics around his ring finger. Now he glides along, caught by the tides of time and occasionally a butterflyer who averred he has watched all of Phelps' races a million times.

The other arguments against Phelps are mostly semantic. Greatest Olympian? Define great. Maybe that list starts with Norwegian speedskater Johann Olav Koss, who won four gold medals and one silver and established the Right to Play foundation, or Canadian cyclist and speedskater Clara Hughes, the only Olympian to win multiple medals in Winter and Summer Games and a dedicated humanitarian. Then there is Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in track and field in Berlin 1936 and reduced the master-race theory to a steaming pile of manure right under Hitler's nose.

There is no moral relativism. None. There can be no comparison between the circumstances Owens faced in 1936 and anything in sports.

But no Olympian, including Usain Bolt, has been a slide under the global microscope as long as Phelps. For three quadrennials, Phelps has faced withering scrutiny as the diffident star of the reality TV show that NBC airs, sometimes on tape delay, for two weeks every four years. Phelps competes in the age of Instagrams and instant communications. All that twitters is not gold in a non-filtered 140-character universe, but Phelps has stood up rather well to the rheumy eye of the world's glare.
Phelps could have spent the past four years doing nothing but taking an extended victory lap, which, in a sense, he did. He disengaged. He wavered from his Spartan training regimen. In his post race news conference Tuesday, he said he had done the work -- and sometimes he had not. Phelps was not always prepared for the metronomic workload required to fend off competitors like Lochte, still perceived as the up-and-comer although he is 11 months older than Phelps.

Before London one of Phelps' teammates, Tyler Clary, suggested to the Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise that Phelps was the swimming equivalent of a kid behind the counter in a Kevin Smith movie. Clary was served en brochette for calling Phelps essentially a slacker, something Phelps has been willing to say about himself albeit in more polite terms. Clary was not wildly wrong about Phelps. Just myopic. He, too, had failed to notice the big picture. This was Michael Phelps, grandest of Olympians. Jordan Rules in the NBA. Michael Rules in the pool. If Phelps had been good enough to make Team USA by playing Marco Polo at the Y pool ... well, he had earned it.

Bob Bowman, Phelps' coach, bristled during a pre-Games press conference at Clary-inspired questions about Phelps' work ethic. Then when Phelps finished fourth in the 400 IM in his first swim, the first time he had missed the Olympic podium in 12 years, Bowman retraced his steps. When asked if Phelps' defeat was a fitness issue, he replied, "It's a fitness issue over what he hasn't done over the last four years. He didn't get by on talent this time, did he?"

Phelps had announced his retirement from the 400 IM after Beijing, but he found his way back because he is so damn good at the event -- even if he approaches it with the circumspection of a 10-year-old eyeing a plate of brussels sprouts. Phelps eked into the final, which left him out in Lane 8 -- the equivalent of seeing George Clooney in a middle seat, coach. A vexed Phelps later said he had a "crappy" race, an explanation that hardly mollified those who heard his 103-second interview in the mixed zone. Media overreaction was predictable. In a little more than the time its takes an Olympian to swim eight lengths of the pool, Phelps had gone from a towering sportsman who needs an agent and a publicist to a guy who needs water wings and a lifeguard. He was Johnny U with the Chargers or Joe Willie with the Rams. He was Shoeless Joe Hardy, the devil's bargain turning old before the eyes of the world.

The man who had taken too many days off since swimming in Beijing probably just had an off day. Lochte predicted Phelps would rally in the next event, the relay, which, of course, he did. Phelps swam the fastest split among the Americans, earning his first Olympic silver when Lochte was overtaken in the anchor swim. Phelps did not "redeem" himself that night. He did not "turn back the clock" because there is a best-before date imprinted on us all. He simply swam a superb second leg, one that was truly Olympian.
Phelps has three more events before London, and a career, ends. His medal count will swell into the 20s. Anyone who dissects his career and finds anything other than the pinnacle of Olympic achievement is trying too hard, even though Phelps one day might mildly regret that between Beijing and London he did not try hard enough.


Read more: Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time - Michael Farber - SI.com

 

[No spoken words]

Man, anyone that follows sports didn't need that article to put things into perspective, but, it was a decent read anyway. His medal haul/sustained excellence more than speaks for itself. I'm happy for him, but I look forward to his last race because that'll be the last time I have to watch his annoying Mom and sisters.

Martina, I'm with you. I am glad the USA women's gymnastics team won gold but I kind of miss the grace and artistry that used to be a little more important.....alas, times change.

Oh, and, the very first time I heard Lochte talk I could tell that he's a borderline moron, but, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to be an elite athlete. We all could cite countless examples of such.

I continue to enjoy watching things like Archery and Table Tennis and Rowing and Handball and Indoor Volleyball Live, at work......that being said, I'm pretty ready for Track & Field to get going soon.

I'm loving the Olympics, kids.

 

[deep]

I don't think Ye is doping
the accusations are shameful

Column: What's up with China's swimming success? - Olympics - ESPN

 

[Axver]

......that being said, I'm pretty ready for Track & Field to get going soon.

I'm so keen for the pole vault.

And quite a few other track and field events, but pole vault is always an Olympic highlight for me.

 

[cobl04]

I don't think Ye is doping
the accusations are shameful

Column: What's up with China's swimming success? - Olympics - ESPN

deep

has spoken.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

When the fuck does Phelps swim?

 

[No spoken words]

10:28, Dalton.

 

[cobl04]

This NZ men's pair is ridiculous. Especially considering the 70s porn star in the back of the boat.

 

[cobl04]

And seriously, this is what, day 4? And North Korea and Kazakhstan are still killing it.