London 2012 Summer Olympics

[Purplereign]

mens 4 x 100m relay; let's just hand it over to jamaica now yeah? that heat was nuts!

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

USA & Canada might have a Toronto and Buffalo joint bid for 2024. Might actually be smart, splitting the cost. My money would be on the 2024 games going to Africa or a USA/CAN joint bid, which would both be new ground, which we know the IOC loves.

 

[Irvine511]

i'm thinking it's going to be Istanbul in 2020. it's up against Madrid and Tokyo (admittedly stiff competition).

 

[deep]

the only place it can go in Africa is South Africa



Canada had a hard time in 1976

The Olympics were a financial disaster for Montreal, as the city faced debts for 30 years after the Games had finished. The Quebec provincial government took over construction when it became evident in 1975 that work had fallen far behind schedule; work was still under way just weeks before the opening date, and the tower was not built. Mayor Jean Drapeau had confidently predicted in 1970 that "the Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby", but the debt racked up to a billion dollars that the Quebec government mandated the city pay in full. This would prompt cartoonist Aislin to draw a pregnant Drapeau on the telephone saying, "Allo, Morgentaler?" in reference to a Montreal abortion provider.

 

[Pearl]

I think Istanbul will get 2020. Madrid is in financially strapped Spain, and Tokyo had the Olympics in the 60s. Plus, its an opportunity for the Olympics to be in a Muslim county, albeit a more relaxed one. However, I wonder how they'll deal with the female athletes, particularly the beach volleyball players.

 

[anitram]

I think Istanbul is almost guaranteed. No way does Tokyo get it after the winter games in South Korea and that soon after Beijing. Madrid is from a country that might need 3 bailouts before now and then so unless the Germans want to pay for those Olympics, don't see it happening.

God forbid a joint Toronto/Buffalo bid in 2024. As it is you can't get anywhere with the traffic in Toronto and there is no foresight at all when it comes to urban planning. I won't even comment on Buffalo, which is legit one of the ugliest "cities" I have ever had the misfortune of seeing.

 

[anitram]

However, I wonder how they'll deal with the female athletes, particularly the beach volleyball players.

Given that Turkey is one of the prime beach vacation spots in that part of the world, I don't think it's going to be much of an issue.

 

[Pearl]

Given that Turkey is one of the prime beach vacation spots in that part of the world, I don't think it's going to be much of an issue.

Oh, I didn't know about that.

You learn something new each day!

 

[anitram]

Yeah, it's quite beautiful, used to be cheap too...not so sure it is anymore, though.

 

[financeguy]

The Olympics would be so much better if rhythmic gymnastics, sychronised swimming, and dressage were just cut from the programme.

Frankly I'd cut everything that isn't track and field and get rid of all team sports including relays.

I might let boxing stay on the basis that it's a competitive amateur discipline with a long historic record that was included in the original Olympics (and I'm not just saying that because Ireland tends to be competitive in boxing, I'd definitely cut out show-jumping, another discipline in which we're somewhat competitive.)

 

[deep]

we need to expand and reflect the times we live in

gaming should be added next, it takes real endurance and skill to prevail at that


and just like the original games were a way of nation states to come together and compete in friendly war games,

wars these days are being fought with technology like gaming,
not with bows, spears (javelins) and hand to hand combat.

 

[Salome]

Let's ponder the Dutch women hockey team instead. True champions!

 

[financeguy]

Gold to New Zealand in the women's 470 class sailing!

That's four golds - apart from when we scored eight in 1984, we've never passed three golds before. So this is our most successful non-boycotted Olympics ever!

It looks as though Ireland will finish with our best medals tally since 1956, and possibly best ever. Which sounds great except when we discover that our total medals tally of 5 isn't so hot when compared to New Zealand's 12 medals - plus there was some element of home advantage for us, I assume. In the eight Olympic games since 1984, New Zealand have averaged almost 9 medals per games, compared to an average of just 2 for Ireland.

I think NZ is the best model for Ireland if seeking to building on our 2012 tally and set those 5 medals as the new minimum threshold benchmark, with a target of, say, 12 - we have very similar population, similar stage of economic development, are island nations somewhat in the shadow of larger (and, obnoxious and arrogant to go with it ) neighbouring island nations, culturally relatively similar, and minority sports face huge challenges in competing with massively popular field team codes - rugby for you, GAA games + soccer, and rugby in recent years also, for us.

 

[deep]

Let's ponder the Dutch women hockey team instead. True champions!

[PHOTOS] The Hottest Women of the Netherlands Olympic Field Hockey Team

forget volleyball

 

[Jive Turkey]

I might let boxing stay on the basis that it's a competitive amateur discipline with a long historic record that was included in the original Olympics

Boxing, even on the olympic level, is the most corrupt shit in town. I'd cut that before anything else on that basis alone

 

[deep]

they should call it tapping or tagging

 

[intedomine]

I'd happily trade in all these boring sailing medals for one bronze in the Mountain Biking over the next few days.

I'd hope Istanbul win the right to host 2020. Will reflect well on the IOC (particularly in contrast to FIFA atm) and Madrid would be hosting it too soon after Barcelona in my opinion. Tokyo would host a good games, but Istanbul breaks new territory and Turkey at least has a sporting pedigree (unlike Qatar). It's time for Turkey.

Sydney
Athens
Beijing
London
Rio
Istanbul

That spread of locations reads pretty nicely, particularly after the corruption scandals of the 1990s. Now it's FIFA who are corrupted and the IOC more sporting and respectable.

 

[cobl04]

I'm trying to find a clip of The Late Show's Istanbul Olympic bid but it's not on youtube

Yeah but leave speed walking and ping pong.

Table tennis is awesome to watch. "Walking" is a fucking joke. The judges are like the parking inspectors of the Olympics.

 

[speedracer]

we need to expand and reflect the times we live in

gaming should be added next, it takes real endurance and skill to prevail at that


and just like the original games were a way of nation states to come together and compete in friendly war games,

wars these days are being fought with technology like gaming,
not with bows, spears (javelins) and hand to hand combat.

Kobe could pull off a unique double.

Kobe Bryant & Jimmy Kimmel in Call of Duty - YouTube

 

[Pearl]

I can't help but wonder if the following is what athletes think on the medal podium:

Gold - I won!
Silver - Shit, I almost won
Bronze - Well, at least I got something

 

[yolland]

He is really built for the 400 and there have been many coaches and athletics commentators who have long held that the 400 would be his best discipline if he actually ran it. Would be interesting to see, in any event. He could probably also be spectacular in the long jump - in fact there was somebody who built a computerized model based on Bolt's running speed, size, length of legs, etc and maintained that he'd be easily be the world record holder if he tried.

He split 43.58 in the 4x400 in a Jamaican meet back in 2010. You'd probably want to add 1.2 seconds or so to that for estimating his (more or less untrained) time in an open 400, but even so it's certainly suggestive of potential for greatness. He famously loathes 400 training though (who doesn't!), so my guess is he'd put seriously working on it off until he and his coach figure he's past his peak for the shorter sprints. I had read that he's expressed interest in the long jump, and he would indeed seem to have the assets for it. He'd be in some very good company expanding into either or both events, too (Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens, Michael Johnson, FloJo).

 

[cobl04]

Here's a great photo of Bolt near the finish

Spoiler

 

[Irvine511]

i think they should have to play the soundtrack to "E.T." during the BMX.

 

[DRay9911]

just saw the women's 4x100. damn!

 

[Purplereign]

I'm trying to find a clip of The Late Show's Istanbul Olympic bid but it's not on youtube

Table tennis is awesome to watch. "Walking" is a fucking joke. The judges are like the parking inspectors of the Olympics.

all they're showing on 9 is the fecking walking it's not even good in a point and laugh way ~ just awful; my 'I'll watch anything remotely sports related' hublet is struggling with it tonight, just said he'd rather watch the diving !

 

[Axver]

Fifth gold to New Zealand, in the women's K1 200m sprint! Can't believe how sensationally good these games have been to us. We've now got 13 medals, equal with 1988 as our largest haul ever. Shame that I don't think we've got any more medal hopes left to take it to an outright first with 14. Marc Willers would've surely been on the podium for the men's BMX if he hadn't crashed out. Stoked that Sarah Walker got the women's BMX silver yesterday, especially since she nearly didn't even make it to the Olympics after a recent injury.

It looks as though Ireland will finish with our best medals tally since 1956, and possibly best ever. Which sounds great except when we discover that our total medals tally of 5 isn't so hot when compared to New Zealand's 12 medals - plus there was some element of home advantage for us, I assume. In the eight Olympic games since 1984, New Zealand have averaged almost 9 medals per games, compared to an average of just 2 for Ireland.

I think NZ is the best model for Ireland if seeking to building on our 2012 tally and set those 5 medals as the new minimum threshold benchmark, with a target of, say, 12 - we have very similar population, similar stage of economic development, are island nations somewhat in the shadow of larger (and, obnoxious and arrogant to go with it ) neighbouring island nations, culturally relatively similar, and minority sports face huge challenges in competing with massively popular field team codes - rugby for you, GAA games + soccer, and rugby in recent years also, for us.

I was just looking at Ireland's medal tallies and wow, I'm stunned to see the disparity between Ireland's results and New Zealand's - especially that Ireland got no medals at all in 2004. New Zealand's worst Olympics since our boycott of 1980 (hence zero medals, though about four or five Kiwi athletes did go and compete independently) is when we only got four in Sydney. Don't know what government investment in minority sports is like in Ireland, but we have been pouring a fair bit of money into our realistic medal chances. In fact the poor performance of our velodrome cyclists this year might prove controversial given the money invested in them.

I think Istanbul is almost guaranteed. No way does Tokyo get it after the winter games in South Korea and that soon after Beijing. Madrid is from a country that might need 3 bailouts before now and then so unless the Germans want to pay for those Olympics, don't see it happening.

Agree with this and I think it'd be great for the Olympics to be held in Istanbul. Though I'd like Tokyo just for my own timezone convenience.

"Walking" is a fucking joke. The judges are like the parking inspectors of the Olympics.

Here's a great photo of Bolt near the finish

Spoiler

... oh god!

 

[Axver]

all they're showing on 9 is the fecking walking it's not even good in a point and laugh way ~ just awful; my 'I'll watch anything remotely sports related' hublet is struggling with it tonight, just said he'd rather watch the diving !

Wish they'd stop chopping between the walking and diving - the diving's actually entertaining. Thank god Sydney vs Collingwood just began, so I could flee Channel 9.

 

[cobl04]

Jason Byrne put it best - "you know the Olympics are nearly over when they start showing the silly walk event"

 

[Purplereign]

Wish they'd stop chopping between the walking and diving - the diving's actually entertaining. Thank god Sydney vs Collingwood just began, so I could flee Channel 9.

true true! quietly devastated for Matthew Mitcham, he's just such a lovely guy. Le sigh

< time to hit the hay; opals vs rus at 2am and I want in!

 

[cobl04]

Man. Gutted for Mitcham