London 2012 Summer Olympics

[intedomine]

Kazakhstan are a strong sporting nation, not all that surprising.

 

[Axver]

Chuffed the New Zealand women's rowing pair of Haigh and Scown got bronze. They'd not been fancied too much and were struggling with form but put in a damn good race. Almost snuck in for silver, but by the looks of the interview they were pleased to make it home with a medal at all rather than collapsing from pain just before the finish line. Barely beat the fast-finishing Yanks too.

Looks like we might soon be in on the gold. The pair of Bond and Murray look incredible, pornstaches aside (friggin' Cobbler, I can't un-see that now), and I really, really hope Mahé Drysdale can get the single sculls gold this year. He was favourite in 2008 before he was struck down with a severe stomach bug on the day of the final ... he still rowed, limped home for bronze, and was immediately loaded into a waiting ambulance. Guy's a champion.

 

[Axver]

Oh, and best TV of the Olympics? Gruen Sweat. Even if I had to miss part of it tonight to watch Haigh and Scown. The ads in The Pitch tonight were to try to convince the world to add Aussie Rules to the Olympics - fucking hilarious, especially the second one.

 

[cobl04]

Bugger, had to go pick my sister so I missed the end. I will iView it tomorrow.

How good is the canoe slalom?!

 

[intedomine]

Love the slalom, one of my favourite sports in the Olympics. Hoping to stay up for the final tonight, will just record it watch it in the morn probably cause I'm well fucked

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I was able to have a complete blackout on the results again, so it was exciting to see the gymnastics unfold. I agree about the artistry, it's gone the same way as figure skating. The Russian women have always been so artistic, but they were making so many mistakes that you couldn't even see that. We only got to see the Russians and the US. I'm no gymnastics expert by any means but how was McKayla's vault not perfect? They used to give out perfect scores in the Olympics, no more I guess.

I think it's obvious from the interviews with Michael Phelps, especially last night, that he just wanted a break from the grueling training. And how can he motivate himself to that extent again after all he has accomplished? Even though he has seemed to be a machine he's only human.

And I haven't seen any equestrian, it must be on during the day or not at all. Unless the royals are there.

 

[anitram]

Looks like we might soon be in on the gold. The pair of Bond and Murray look incredible, pornstaches aside

Those guys look amazing - like they have a propeller, haha.

 

[deep]

interesting that the medal count totals have been tied everyday, China - USA


with two Chinese badmitten teams tossed and track and field starting soon, this will surely change

 

[Purplereign]

0.01 of a second is all that separated gold and silver - WOW!

 

[mama cass]

big well done to Bradley Wiggins!! what a star!! Tour de France and now this!!

 

[intedomine]

Not a bad couple of weeks for Wiggo, good to know he's a big fan of Smiths and Stone Roses.

Bit disappointed Cancellara didn't medal.

 

[Popmartijn]

0.01 of a second is all that separated gold and silver - WOW!

Yes, that was an exciting race!
The Dutchie also did quite well. He finished fifth with a personal best (which is always good, no matter which position you finish) and only the second Dutchman to swim under 48 seconds (Pieter van den Hoogenband being the first one). After the race he was interviewed and it was funny to see how his mood was constantly switching between satisfaction and disappointment. Satisfaction for having swam such a good race (personally). Disappointment as he missed the bronze medal by 0.08 of a second, which is also almost nothing.

 

[yolland]

interesting that the medal count totals have been tied everyday, China - USA


with two Chinese badmitten teams tossed and track and field starting soon, this will surely change

They've built up their walking and throwing events quite a bit, actually, but they've never regained the strength in middle- to long-distance running they had 20 years ago, so, yeah, no contest in depth. They do have one big star, Liu Xiang (110m hurdles)--he lost to Aries Merritt (US) by just a few hundredths of a second at the World Championships last spring (in the 60m), and now they're facing off against each other in London, so, that should definitely be one to watch.

The badminton match throws were bizarre. Lamest thing I've seen at the Olympics in a while.

 

[speedracer]

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.

Where the bloody hell have you been?

 

[anitram]

They've built up their walking and throwing events quite a bit, actually, but they've never regained the strength in middle- to long-distance running they had 20 years ago, so, yeah, no contest in depth. They do have one big star, Liu Xiang (110m hurdles)--he lost to Aries Merritt (US) by just a few hundredths of a second at the World Championships last spring (in the 60m), and now they're facing off against each other in London, so, that should definitely be one to watch.

The badminton match throws were bizarre. Lamest thing I've seen at the Olympics in a while.

It's really only a question of when, not if, China takes the #1 position in the summer Olympics. They clearly aim for sports with a lot of medals - swimming is a great example, track would be another one, but they haven't done well there yet. I think the US will be at the top of the podium this time (number of medals-wise, not gold), but to me it's probably likely to be the last. Once the Chinese take over swimming, or at least increase their competitiveness in that discipline, it will be over, regardless of what happens in athletics.

With 1.2 billion people and their training regimen, is it that surprising?

I have a family friend who won 4 gold and 2 silver medals and is the most successful female skier at the Olympics of all time. Her father was her coach for her whole life and she came from a country which basically has no winter except in a very small pocket. He has always said that he wanted to show the world that you didn't need to be the richest country, you didn't have to have the best resources and you didn't even have to have an established culture in a particular sport - all you needed was a naturally-born athlete (ie. somebody with a strong predisposition for a particular sport), a competitive spirit, and a will to train three times as much as the next person until you were the best.

 

[Axver]

Damn, what a shame that Kiwi cyclist Linda Villumsen came within less than two seconds of the bronze in the women's time trial. Sounds like she put in a mighty effort to even be within contention though. Maybe we'll score some medals at the velodrome; the events there have been good to us in the past.

As for the badminton thing, surely some blame lies with the people who drew up the schedule? If you design a schedule where teams will end up in a position where losing actually improves their prospects, what do you think they're going to do, try to win emphatically?

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I have successfully managed to avoid spoilers all day, and will now be settling in to view NBC's primetime coverage as if all of these events are happening live. I have no idea who wins the men's gymnastics all-around, or what happens in any of the swimming swumming. Let's go.

Bob Costas, take me away.

 

[anitram]

As for the badminton thing, surely some blame lies with the people who drew up the schedule? If you design a schedule where teams will end up in a position where losing actually improves their prospects, what do you think they're going to do, try to win emphatically?

That's what I was thinking. They could have done what FIFA (eventually) did to combat match fixing by having the last games of the round robin played at the same time.

 

[Liesje]

I'm no gymnastics expert by any means but how was McKayla's vault not perfect? They used to give out perfect scores in the Olympics, no more I guess.

A little form going onto the table, beyond that not much. Anyone who aspires to be anything on vault needs to sit down and study the physics of her vaulting.

But no, you won't see perfect scores any more. We have not seen one at the Olympics since Lavinia Milosovici's 10.0 in the floor final in 1992.
Lavinia Milosovici 1992 Olympics EF FX Last Perfect 10 - YouTube

As for the artistry on floor, the problem is not just the increasing amount of tumbling passes (and the length requirements never changing) but also IMO the entire sport has suffered since compulsories were scratched after 1996. So they were boring for anyone unlike myself (who eats, sleeps, breaths gymnastics) but they forced technique and versatility, not just sets of tricks. That goes for every event.

 

[Hewson]

Kazakhstan are a strong sporting nation, not all that surprising.

 

[Pearl]

As for the artistry on floor, the problem is not just the increasing amount of tumbling passes (and the length requirements never changing) but also IMO the entire sport has suffered since compulsories were scratched after 1996. So they were boring for anyone unlike myself (who eats, sleeps, breaths gymnastics) but they forced technique and versatility, not just sets of tricks. That goes for every event.

I noticed that myself. It seems all the routines started to look alike with the same moves after 1996. Even the Chinese stopped being so creative and doing mindblowing moves, and became as nearly compulsory as everyone else.

BTW, thanks for the Milo video. Brings back good memories of when I first discovered gymnastics

 

[Liesje]

I actually like contemporary bars and beam (I love the combinations people are doing these days, rather than just seeing who can fit as many layouts in a row on the beam). Vault has come a long way but with the difficulty comes the mistakes. I'd almost rather watch people do easier vaults that look effortless (like all the layout Yurchenkos we saw in the 1992 Olympics) than throwing vaults and getting hurdled sideways our on their face. Floor....I don't know, I never did floor myself (I've never taken dance, other than some required PE college credits I did after I quit gymnastics) and since I hurt my back early on I was a beam and bars specialist before it was cool to be a specialist. So I can't really say I miss the artistry because I'm not real dance-y myself and really, some of the older routines look rather silly with all the arm flailing and jazz hand stuff...but I definitely miss compulsories (and the old team format with seven members, and the 40/60 where the prelim scores *did* carry over....).

 

[cobl04]

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Wow, the 100-meter free. Doesn't get much closer than that. Nathan Adrian. What up.

 

[corianderstem]

My first reaction was "Wow, what a gorgeous shot!"

My second reaction was "What kind of doping are they doing where that poor gymnast now has a foot where her head should be?????"

 

[Thora]

Dannell Leyva's stepdad was cracking me up - dude was PSYCHED!


I can't watch while the events are airing live, so I have to wait for the highlight shows in the evenings. It's frustrating how choppily they've been edited. I understand they have limited time in which to do this, but the amount of events that are cut off at really weird points (mid-sentence, even) to go to a commercial break or something is annoying. At least the Canadian channels are good about showing the entire events, even when there aren't Canadians competing.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

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

Hahaha, I saw a video of her on NBC on a regular day and she didn't sound like that, she just sounds like that after races. I notice in her post-swim interviews she seems more out of breath than anyone else. But hey, it works.

 

[Irvine511]

Wow, the 100-meter free. Doesn't get much closer than that. Nathan Adrian. What up.

I know, right? And the fact that he's adorable and smart makes things all that much better.

I'm picking Lochte to pull off the double gold tomorrow. Phelps looks exhausted. It's too bad.

But then again, the way these Olympics are going, some unknown could upset. What a great meet on the whole -- live seeing some of the shiny-suit records being taken down. And from the drunken blind nationalist perspective, Team USA is having a great meet.

 

[bono_212]

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.

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.

Stop it guys. You're going to break California!

LA workers asked to stop watching Olympics online | Fox News

 

[Axver]

Oh my god, Channel Nine is showing gymnastics highlights! I can barely believe my luck. Every time I'd switched on their highlights packages before, it was all swimming, replays of swimming, interviews with swimmers crying over the oh-so-terrible disgrace of winning a medal not coloured gold, and perhaps occasionally some token footage of an Aussie sports team or rower.

What the hell is Mark Nicholas doing, though? He sounds so bored and confused by the gymnastics. Does he even know sports other than cricket exist?