London 2012 Summer Olympics

[Jive Turkey]

I must say, CTV's coverage in Canada was perfectly balanced between supporting our athletes and showing a nice variety of foreign athletes. Couldn't have asked for better

 

[cobl04]

Seriously. His Australian trip, plus the Jamaican colours, make him "our Bolt".

Sadly, Andrew got all excited because he thought people finally liked him.

 

[Hewson]

Aussie Usain?

 

[anitram]

Referring to it as 'accessible' is silly. It's exciting, visceral, and about as pure a sport as you can get. That's why people watch

It's also that pretty much every human on the planet has been in a foot race for 100m or some equivalent. Very few people will ever run a 10K race.

That's for me why I find Bolt to be the most amazing of the athletes - he is the best at the one thing that probably every one of the 6 billion of us have tried at some point - running fast, racing against another kid down the block, etc. He's really the only one who can say that he knows that he is the best ever. With other sports, you can never be 100% sure because there are many, many people who may have been naturally gifted but never tried. Most people will never try the pole vault or diving, many people will never learn to swim, etc.

 

[cobl04]

Plus, the 100m and 200m are over in 10 and 20 seconds respectively. No kid is sitting down to watch all two hours of the marathon.

 

[Jive Turkey]

It's also that pretty much every human on the planet has been in a foot race for 100m or some equivalent. Very few people will ever run a 10K race.

That's for me why I find Bolt to be the most amazing of the athletes - he is the best at the one thing that probably every one of the 6 billion of us have tried at some point - running fast, racing against another kid down the block, etc. He's really the only one who can say that he knows that he is the best ever. With other sports, you can never be 100% sure because there are many, many people who may have been naturally gifted but never tried. Most people will never try the pole vault or diving, many people will never learn to swim, etc.

well put

 

[Zootomic]

Everyone knows who Donovan Bailey is; A special event was even created when Michael Johnson arbitrarily declared himself the fastest man when he ran the 200m. That 150m race between Bailey and Johnson was a huge deal.

It's been a long time but I thought it was NBC that started the 'Johnson is faster' dispute and Johnson then took it from there. I seem to remember them showing a split screen of Bailey and Johnson side by side running over the same stretch of track and Johnson covered it faster so they declared him to be faster. Guaranteed that if Bailey had been American it would have never come up. Up until then it had been taken for granted that the 100m winner was the fastest man. If Michael Johnson wanted to prove he was fastest he should have run the 100m.

Edited to add that I just checked Wikipedia and it turns out it was NBC and Bob Costas in particular that started the 'Johnson is fastest' thing. From Wikipedia:

"In 1996, Bob Costas, the host of NBC's Olympics coverage, and others, pointed out that Johnson's gold-medal performance in the 200 m (19.32 seconds) was faster than Bailey's 100 m performance (9.84 seconds) in that 19.32 divided by two is 9.66. Bailey later dismissed Costas' comments as "a person who knew nothing about track talking about it with a lot of people listening", nonetheless, the sportscaster's remarks touched a nerve. The 200 metre time almost always yields a "faster" average speed than a 100 metre race time since the initial slow speed at the start is spread out over the longer distance. In other words, the second 100 metres is run with a "flying start", without the slow acceleration phase of the first 100 metres and without the greater than 0.10 s reaction time of the start. In fact, each 200 metre gold medalist from 1968, when fully electronic timing was introduced, to 1996 had a "faster" average speed at the Olympics, save one, yet there had been no controversy over the title of "world's fastest man" previously, until Bob Costas' remarks during the 1996 Olympics."

Ahh, Costas. Hating on foreign sprinters who are faster than ours for decades. And yes, I'm still annoyed about his snotty remark about Bolt the other night.

 

[DRay9911]

Everyone knows who Donovan Bailey is; A special event was even created when Michael Johnson arbitrarily declared himself the fastest man when he ran the 200m. That 150m race between Bailey and Johnson was a huge deal.

Michael Johnson vs. Donovan Bailey - YouTube

 

[yolland]

Like it or not, some events are vastly more popular than others and the athletes in the former will be getting most of the attention.

That's why I said it was a rhetorical question, dude. I get why the men's 100m is the most popular event with many audiences--I wasn't complaining about it! I love watching it too.

 

[cobl04]

Michael Johnson vs. Donovan Bailey - YouTube

Wow. That is the most anticlimactic thing I've ever seen

 

[DRay9911]

Yep. I remember watching it.

Johnson totally wussed out cause he knew he was beat.

 

[cobl04]

He could have at least clutched his hammy or something...

 

[Jive Turkey]

It's been a long time but I thought it was NBC that started the 'Johnson is faster' dispute and Johnson then took it from there. I seem to remember them showing a split screen of Bailey and Johnson side by side running over the same stretch of track and Johnson covered it faster so they declared him to be faster. Guaranteed that if Bailey had been American it would have never come up. Up until then it had been taken for granted that the 100m winner was the fastest man. If Michael Johnson wanted to prove he was fastest he should have run the 100m.

Edited to add that I just checked Wikipedia and it turns out it was NBC and Bob Costas in particular that started the 'Johnson is fastest' thing. From Wikipedia:

"In 1996, Bob Costas, the host of NBC's Olympics coverage, and others, pointed out that Johnson's gold-medal performance in the 200 m (19.32 seconds) was faster than Bailey's 100 m performance (9.84 seconds) in that 19.32 divided by two is 9.66. Bailey later dismissed Costas' comments as "a person who knew nothing about track talking about it with a lot of people listening", nonetheless, the sportscaster's remarks touched a nerve. The 200 metre time almost always yields a "faster" average speed than a 100 metre race time since the initial slow speed at the start is spread out over the longer distance. In other words, the second 100 metres is run with a "flying start", without the slow acceleration phase of the first 100 metres and without the greater than 0.10 s reaction time of the start. In fact, each 200 metre gold medalist from 1968, when fully electronic timing was introduced, to 1996 had a "faster" average speed at the Olympics, save one, yet there had been no controversy over the title of "world's fastest man" previously, until Bob Costas' remarks during the 1996 Olympics."

Ahh, Costas. Hating on foreign sprinters who are faster than ours for decades. And yes, I'm still annoyed about his snotty remark about Bolt the other night.

Another reason to hate Costas. Thanks for pointing that out. By all accounts, Michael Johnson is actually a fairly nice guy

 

[Jive Turkey]

That's why I said it was a rhetorical question, dude. I get why the men's 100m is the most popular event with many audiences--I wasn't complaining about it! I love watching it too.

rhetorical questions like that are meant to stimulate conversation, so that's what you get

gawd, stop complaining that you don't like watching the 100m!

 

[Jive Turkey]

Wow. That is the most anticlimactic thing I've ever seen

Johnson was about to get his ass handed to him, so he went gimpy. I remember Bailey saying right afterward that Johnson pulled up because he was scared

 

[Liesje]

It's also that pretty much every human on the planet has been in a foot race for 100m or some equivalent. Very few people will ever run a 10K race.

That's for me why I find Bolt to be the most amazing of the athletes - he is the best at the one thing that probably every one of the 6 billion of us have tried at some point - running fast, racing against another kid down the block, etc. He's really the only one who can say that he knows that he is the best ever. With other sports, you can never be 100% sure because there are many, many people who may have been naturally gifted but never tried. Most people will never try the pole vault or diving, many people will never learn to swim, etc.

I believe I said to my family, "I don't think I could run half that fast if a pack of apprehension German Shepherds was sent to bite me."

There's also something to be said about a race. Gymnastics is and always will be not just my favorite sport but a big part of my life, but it's just plain fun to watch a race. No start values, line judges, expert panels or Codes of Points, just a start line and a finish line.

The only thing I don't like about the 100 is that it's so short. It's over in less than 10 seconds. Granted they replay it from every competitor's angle but I think I like watching the 400 or the relays more.

 

[cobl04]

 

[Axver]

Thanks to the efforts of Twitter, Facebook, and Republicans, fucking hell I hate people.

 

[Thora]

That shouldn't have made me laugh as much as it did. Oh, people are special special snowflakes!

 

[Jive Turkey]

It makes me mad how fucking stupid some people are. Pick up a book or something

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Oh dear, the Belarussian who beat Valerie Adams in the shotput has tested positive for drugs. So Val gets her gold after all and New Zealand goes to six golds. Love it.

And as for the Australian Bolt-centric coverage, well, I think as far as the Aussie media has been concerned this year, the only people at the Games are Bolt, Phelps, a bunch of under-performing Aussies, some shadowy Kiwis who've been doing OK, and some shadowy Brits who initially sucked but then dominated, especially at the velodrome. Anybody else? Naaahhh. I think it's a disgrace that I didn't see the Aussie media report at all on Mahé Drysdale's gold, surely one of the most inspirational of the Games.

Fuck. I knew you'd be gloating.

I'm pissed off anyway at the athlete.

 

[cobl04]

Not sure "Love it" constitutes as anything more than being happy that his country of origin now has one more gold medal than it did yesterday.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Good.

 

[cobl04]

Sounds like we're planning to bid for 2024 or 2028, which is great news. We are the sporting capital of the world as well as the world's most liveable city!

 

[cobl04]

 

[nielsgov]

Thanks for making me feel superior to at least 10 people.

 

[Axver]

Sounds like we're planning to bid for 2024 or 2028, which is great news. We are the sporting capital of the world as well as the world's most liveable city!

I was under the impression the Australian Olympic Committee wanted the next Aussie bid to host the Olympics to be Brisbane, rather than Melbourne or Sydney again. I hope that never happens.

And hahaha, Adelaide moves ahead of Sydney. Deserves it too. Awesome city.

 

[cobl04]

Oh it's really just a HS beat-up. They just called a bunch of important people and asked them about it, there was no announcement or anything.

Coates says Brisbane will be the next one because they have the best climate when the IOC wants to host in the future, in July.

 

[intedomine]

Interesting that we may bid for 2024. Probably a bit too soon after our neighbours in Sydney held it just half a dozen Olympiads previously. And my main opposition to Madrid 2020 is that it is too soon after Barcelona, so I would be a hypocrite to say that we were justified to host it.

Melbourne would host a perfect Olympics and I'm still dirty that we didn't get 96 and Atlanta were somehow considered a more worthy candidate.

Istanbul will hopefully have their patience rewarded and host 2020 after bidding for like 5 Summer Olympics in a row, but 2024 is anyone's guess? North America will probably put forward a strong candidate, Western Europe (Paris) and Asia (Japan, Delhi, oil cities) will probably throw in some strong bids and Africa will be the final frontier if the IOC wanna go where no
Olympics has gone before.

Should be interesting to see what happens, but the IOC have been admirable in their distribution of Summer Olympics from Sydney 2000. Better than FIFA!

 

[bono_man2002]

I hope we get 2024 even if we are bidding or not. It's not that far away. Holy shit I'll be 37.