2012 Olympics: Who are you following?
I'm watching for
Troy Nickerson who wrestled for my SiL's brother in high school. He was an awesome high school wrestler, but injuries cost him at Cornell. He has a great shot of making team USA in April.
I will also be following USA fencing pretty close.
Mariel Zagunis will be getting a lot of face time as a returning champion in sabre. This will be interesting because she's always been successful being the underdog. Now we'll see how she handles top billing.
Seth Kelsey fences my weapon, epee. I really don't like his style very much. It is ugly and effective. :)
Is anyone any better than this on the still rings ?
John Orozco in the 2012 Olympic trials yesterday
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and here he is on the floor exercise
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I've forgotten his name already, but some young whippersnapper just beat Usain Bolt in the 100 metre sprint in Jamaica. IIRC Bolt ran 9.83 and the challenger 9.75.
The gauntlet has been thrown down!
Yohan Blake ... and he beat him in the 200 yesterday. Bolt may be done.
You sayin' he's shot his bolt?
:D
Or just biding his time, to peak at the right moment?
Maybe but Bolt was always a little slow out of the blocks relying on running down the smaller guys. Blake doesn't look like someone who gives up a lead. It will be damn interesting to watch. The US sprinters will have a nice view of the action in front of them. :)
The swimmers. It's kind of weird knowing some of the people at the trials.
Of course, that will happen when you're a 323-pound woman in perfect physical shape...
Maybe the definition of 'perfect physical shape' are slightly different for Olympic weightlifting contenders, but unless that's a collar of incredibly well-built trapezius muscles around behind her head or maybe a trick of the camera/unfortunate pose, all that can be said about that girl's shape is that it's definitely physical... hardly perfect.
That would depend of your personal standard of perfect. ;)
Exactly. Whose 'perfect' are they using here? Olympic weightlifting contender perfect, which she apparently is? She's not my perfect. Heck, I'm not even my perfect :)
The best thing about the Olympics so far is this - a life size Stonehenge bouncy castle.
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Britain, I salute you.
Just in case you are following Romney's wife's horse ;)
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The best thing about the Olympics so far is this - a life size Stonehenge bouncy castle.
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Britain, I salute you.
Coolest thing evah.
Bruce, don't use the word "shots". They're very jumpy already.
OK, I may know the first thing about fencing
- stab your opponent before he stabs you.
But, I don't know the (second) thing about fencing
Still..., I got a big kick out of the Women's Foil event this morning,
and the 18yr old, Lee Keifer, who is representing the US.
Each time she scored a point, she squealed an exuberant "YES !" and even
behind the mask and all the paraphernalia you could see her disgust when she lost one.
She won the very close match in Overtime by scoring 15 points.
Kentucky can be proud...
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The rest of NBC's stations with Olympics were tennis, cycling, and soccer.
At this point my reactions were: Ho-Hum.
OK, I may know the first thing about fencing
- stab your opponent before he stabs you.
But, I don't know the (second) thing about fencing
Still..., I got a big kick out of the Women's Foil event this morning,
and the 18yr old, Lee Keifer, who is representing the US.
Each time she scored a point, she squealed an exuberant "YES !" and even
behind the mask and all the paraphernalia you could see her disgust when she lost one.
She won the very close match in Overtime by scoring 15 points.
Kentucky can be proud...
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The rest of NBC's stations with Olympics were tennis, cycling, and soccer.
At this point my reactions were: Ho-Hum.
She is a brilliant fencer. Lil Pete was in an event with her once. She didn't get to fence her but watching her was a bucket of cold water for any nascent Olympic dreams. The battle cry stuff isn't joy. It's gamesmanship. You'll notice a pattern of admitting through lack of cry that touches were not made early but late in the bout they try to influence the director with a confident shout. It used to be considered poor sportsmanship. If a fencer yells toward their opponent instead of the director or into space they can be carded. Her little sister is supposed to be better, if that can be believed!
Late to the party (again!) but Holley Mangold went to my high school! And so did her brother Nick.
Bruce, don't use the word "shots". They're very jumpy already.
Tcha. We have a (mostly) unarmed populace and we've seen off the Nazis, the IRA and Al Qaeda. Don't mess with us, we'll serve you up with Afternoon Tea.
We have a parachuting Queen, doncha know.
My man had a terrible night last night.
And he wasn't the only one on the US Men's Gymnastics team.
I don't think I've seen so much disappointment in a face as
John showed after the Floor Exercise, and that was after the
Pommel Horse, and that was after the Vault.
I felt so sorry for him, with all the TV cameras in his face.
I hope he gets another chance, either at the World's or next Olympics.
.
I'm totally glued to the women's team gymnastics. Loving it. There's one Brit lass in particular who is so much fun to watch. Can't recall her name but she is always smiling. Seems a really sweet girl.
Oh, didn't your girls do well!? Those floor routines were awesome.
The Brit girls looked genuinely thrilled for them too.
It might be Rebecca Tunney.
Youngest and smallest of the team. She had to have her costume made for her, as the standard size was too large. 4ft 9ins and 5st 7lb - I could lose her in my cleavage!
I didn't get to watch the routines, just listened to them on the radio. Keeps you up to date but misses the point somewhat for this discipline. I assume the BBC will have them up on their website at some point - the Americans were blowing the commentators' minds.
NBC has heroine-ically scheduled TV coverage of the
US Women's Beach Ball almost every morning, noon and night.
Today, Sunday afternoon, it's the US vs Czech Republic quarter finals.
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Perhaps more noteworthy, NBC also reports Francisco Franco is still dead.
.
I'm rooting Czechs to get this nonsense off my screen, but it doesn't look good. What's worse is we (USA) have an obnoxious whiner in this pair. Please world, just beat these people.
Hey look! Beach volleyball. Now Italy is failing to help.
BOLT!!!!
Yes indeed!
I think I remember when someone in the US broke the 10 sec time for the 100
yard dash.
Now this... but in meters
Usain Bolt sets Olympic record, wins men's 100 gold medal in 9.63
.
ETA: Oooooops. I must have been having a Ronald Regan moment. :blush:
The 100 yard dash 10-second record was broken by J. Owen, Jr. in 1890 at 9.8
Yes indeed!
I think I remember when someone in the US broke the 10 sec time for the 100 yard dash.
Now this... but in meters
Usain Bolt sets Olympic record, wins men's 100 gold medal in 9.63
.
ETA: Oooooops. I must have been having a Ronald Regan moment. :blush:
The 100 yard dash 10-second record was broken by J. Owen, Jr. in 1890 at 9.8
AWESOME! He set that record 4 years before the games began. That is the stuff of winners.
;):D
Sorry FT3, I didn't copy/paste enough from
Wikipedia
... 1890 was a "world record" from 1870's, not the Olympics.
Hey, I'm more amused by the badminton.
In the last round of the pools, four teams in two games each wanted to lose to avoid playing their countrymen (or some formidable opponent) in the semi finals.
Tourney organisers decided if they wanted to avoid a certain game that much, fine, they can avoid all games from now on. :redcard: for throwing matches, bugger off. 8 players sent home.
Although it is poor sportsmanship on part of the players, it suggests poor design of the tournament structure that you can ever benefit by losing a game.
Shoot, I would've liked to have seen that, but I had to turn off the omnipresent beach volleyball.
I've been glued to the gymnastics and swimming, mainly.
Aren't your women gymnastics team a joy to watch? Thoroughly engaging bunch of girls.
I can't believe GB are riding third in the overall medals table at the moment. After such a slow start too. I expect we'll slip down a little by the end of play, but hopefully not by much. Given the size of our nation, even with the 'hometeam advantage' that's pretty impressive, I think.
Turning into such a slog between US and China for first place. Come on USA, you can do it!
In the gold medal tally, Australia is presently behind New Zealand.
There are questions being asked in parliament about this. The media are in lather. Angry mobs are forming.
Me, I am pleased with our team - heaps of silver and bronze, only one gold, is still pretty darn good at this level.
Turning into such a slog between US and China for first place. Come on USA, you can do it!
If they have many more athletes like Guo Jingjing we don't stand a chance! Her diving is just amazing.
Griff - I got to watch some of the Fencing. Fascinating, even though I was struggling to keep up and the screaming after every point, not point was very distracting.
I did read an article about one woman who lost a match because of some error with the timer? Article
here
I'd like to read your take on it.
We were talking about this at the club the other night and I have yet to see a really good video but our coach made a couple interesting points that haven't been part of the conversation.
The director did almost everything correctly under the rules. There were two problems. The German appeared to jump the direction "Allez" on one of her touches. The timer, expecting a restart, did not allow the clock to run which left extra time on the clock. The Korean girl was fencing the clock more than the opponent. All double touches are little victories for the Korean because she only needed to burn time not score.
Where the director may have made a mistake is on not forcing the fencers to start at proper distance. The Korean girl was creeping forward from the back line because she wanted room to retreat during the attack. If both feet go over the line its a touch. The German was creeping forward to shorten the attack distance because she has almost no time to hit. They end up in extension distance which means they can hit without an advance and without the clock running down. They should start in a proper en garde, which would have no crossover of blades at full extension. That would have eaten up the time.
The funny thing is in many Stateside tournaments the director runs the clock so there isn't the lag time from the directors mouth to the timers ear through the brain and out to the thumb. A tech fix would be simple, voice controlled timing, but FIE is pretty dopey so we may end up with another Byzantine rule.
I'm sure that is completely clear ;) so ask a follow-up if I lost you.
Oh, and when they put a second back on, that was by rule the director had no choice, unfortunately that was a full second not whatever increment was left or whatever increment the machine could actually measure, which is something I don't know. I felt terrible for the girl. If she left the strip it would be a tacit acceptance of the outcome. Apparently her coach had to dig up like $80 American to challenge the ruling. Cluster Foxtrot all the way around.
Sorry FT3, I didn't copy/paste enough from Wikipedia
... 1890 was a "world record" from 1870's, not the Olympics.
Don't be sorry, my smartass opportunities have been few lately.
You Brits are getting a little greedy in the velodrome!:f205: woot!
How about these two finishing the Marathon...
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The concern of one for the other was very touching.
Oh, and when they put a second back on, that was by rule the director had no choice, unfortunately that was a full second not whatever increment was left or whatever increment the machine could actually measure, which is something I don't know. I felt terrible for the girl. If she left the strip it would be a tacit acceptance of the outcome. Apparently her coach had to dig up like $80 American to challenge the ruling. Cluster Foxtrot all the way around.
It was clearly FAR more than a second which transpired though.
What a messed up situation. How the judges ruled against her is beyond me. She got totally screwed.
Oh, and thanks. I must admit with the sound turned low it was a lot of fun to watch.
NBC coverage is gathering a perfect storm today ... just for me.
More Men's Beach Volleyball AND Synchronized Swimming
But a bit more seriously, I have watched the Synchronized Swimming
and was surprised and impressed... well, at least surprised. :rolleyes:
The routines have changed from the Busby Burkeley extravaganzas,
but the nose plugs/costumes with the facial makeup and
expressions are keeping it in the high-silly exhibition category.
Damn.
Wrote a post, lost it. Made me cry. More below.
I've been following the Olympics mostly via radio. Partly because I am unfit to be with, partly because I do enjoy the coverage - they paint word pictures to explain why as well as what. No good in the 100m sprint, but excellent in something like cycling.
Today I watched the men's triathlon. I like the events where you get to see London and I knew we had two favourites in the race, the Browlee brothers. I cried when Alister crossed the line in a Union flag*. I cried when Jonny collapsed and had to be taken off on a stretcher. I cried at the huge roar when they got on the podium. Does that count as a tear-athlon?
Bro is in the velodrome today. I didn't cry when Victoria Pendleton was edged out by a sharp-elbowed Aussie. She was crying enough on her own. I did feel for her though.
Ste coined the term velodrama, although I've heard it since so he may have unknowingly cribbed it from elsewhere. Impressed me at the time though.
* for years I've been pedant enough to call it this. Historically it was only a Union Jack if flown by a ship. But that's anachronistically technical - popular useage has accepted Union Jack as a correct name for over a century. Imagine my chagrin to find the whole Olympics commentary team now calling it a Union flag! Boo, hiss. People will stop calling apes "monkeys" soon and I'll have no fun left whatsoever.
If you want more tears here is a full explanation of what happened to Shin A Lam in that epee bout.
http://shinalamandtheinfinitesadness.blogspot.com/Seems to be a well-reasoned presentation...
... are there dissenters to the sequence of events portrayed here ?
Fencers love a good argument. FIE has a statement
here. I'll have to read more but the thread attached will probably indicate what the consensus is.
Noah Zucker · Hoboken, New Jersey
BREAKING: The Iraqi Information Minister found employment with the FIE.
Shameful.
:haha:
Amusing rip and it does reflect how many American fencers feel about the FIE. USA Fencing is organization trying to recover from a lot of mismanagement, but it is at least transparent.
OK, this post is NOT meant to about wounded vets, handicapped kids, or killing puppies.
I am uninformed about how decisions are being made with regards
to the Olympics, maybe and other sporting events.
To wit:
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USA TODAY
By David Leon Moore,
8/9/12
Oscar Pistorius, South Africa back in the relay
LONDON —Oscar Pistorius, South Africa's double-amputee quarter-miler known as The Blade Runner,
is experiencing the full gamut of emotions at his first Olympics.<snip>
Disaster seemed to strike, however, Thursday morning when South Africa
failed to finish its opening heat because of a collision between one of its runners,
Oftense Mogawane, and a Kenyan runner during the second leg.
Mogawane was knocked down, and Pistorius, who was slated
to run the third leg, never got the baton.
OK, I'm ignoring the pun about running the third leg.
Now, consider this 2 minute video...
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My first thought:
Is Pistorius being given special entry and consideration to events ?
That is, if a different team had failed to complete the race, would they also have been advanced in the standing ?
My second thought:
Where is this Mechanically-Assisted Athelete (MAA) development going in sports ?
That is, will winners have an * in the record books ?
Will MAA spread to other events, such as floor-exercise
Will MAA spread to arms (still rings) and feet (swimming)
Will there be completely new events (MAA-marathon)
In previous posts, I've poked fun at Syncronized Swimming and Beach Volleyball,
as being exhibitions and not really athletic competitions.
So be it.
But right now, I am needing some education or else I'm having a real problem
with the idea of MAA in direct competition with non-MAA.
Without bothering to look it up, I believe Pistorius was required to qualify as per normal, and that his blade legs are not allowed to be longer than legs would normally be for a person of his height, and thus do not give him an "unfair" advantage.
... but I actually came here to post
this:
US sprinter Manteo Mitchell broke his leg during the 4x400m relay Olympic semi-final - but still managed to finish his lap.
The 25-year-old had slipped on a stairway in the Olympic Village earlier this week, and that misfortune reared its head after just 100 metres of his one-lap run.
"Three days ago I was going up the stairs and I kind of missed one and landed awkwardly," Mitchell said.
"I got treatment and I was fine. I did workouts, and when I warmed up today I felt really well. I felt I could go 44 (seconds)-low.
"I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100m mark it felt weird. I was thinking I just didn't feel right. As soon as I took the first step past the 200m mark, I felt it break."
Mitchell added: "I heard it. I even put out a little war cry, but the crowd was so loud you couldn't hear it."
"I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half," he said.
"I knew if I finished strong we could still get it (the baton) around. I saw Josh Mance motioning me in for me to hand it off to him, which lifted me. I didn't want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it.
"It hurt so bad. I'm pretty amazed that I still split 45 seconds on a broken leg."
:eek: :eek: :eek: :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy
Damn, that's gutsy.
My second thought:
Where is this Mechanically-Assisted Athelete (MAA) development going in sports ?
That is, will winners have an * in the record books ?
Will MAA spread to other events, such as floor-exercise
Will MAA spread to arms (still rings) and feet (swimming)
Will there be completely new events (MAA-marathon)
That was my thought when I first read they were going to allow them to be used here, rather than forcing the use into the Special Olympics.
One guy claims...
According to Gailey, a prosthetic leg returns only about 80 percent of the energy absorbed in each stride, while a natural leg returns up to 240 percent, providing much more spring.
Lamp, there has been a lot of controversy in allowing Pistorius to compete as an able-bodied man. He has had no special consideration - it had been tried and tested and accepted that his prothetics are intended to compensate for the fact that he is a double amputee, not to give him an advantage over those lucky enough to have legs made of flesh and blood.
The Olympics authorities wanted Pistorius to start the relay, as the first 400m is run in lanes and they felt this would be safer for other athletes because there is less chance of a collision (in which his madly flailing blades might cause harm). However the simple mechanics of movement mean Oscar is at a disadvantage racing from a standing start, and the South Africans stuck to their guns and put him in third. That suited his particular style better, but gave him no more of an advantage than any other runner chosen to start in that position. It's common sense - you put your best starter on the start line.
The irony being that it was a rogue able-bodied Kenyan that took out Mogawane, denied the SA team the chance of finishing the race and may in fact deny Mogawane the chance of competing in the final yet due to injury.
And yes, had any other team been knocked out of the competition by a runner wiping out a member of their team, they would have been allowed to compete again. The runner affected was not Oscar Pistorius, so neither he nor his legs have anything to do with the decision.
Then again, maybe they let have have another go because they're black. It's political cirrectness gone mad I tell you!
OMG!!! I just saw wrestling! Jordan Burroughs wins his way to the Gold medal bout by beating the Russian world champ.
...and then the ribbon twirlers
American female football team.
Greatness shirts. Tacky, much?
Did not like.
You won a gold medal - you wear a gold medal. That's greatness.
It is an annoying idea borrowed from American pro-football and baseball champions. The fun part is that the losers had shirts made up as well, which lead to a
meme.I do actually follow (real) Volleyball, both Men's and Women's.
This morning the semifinals were broadcast LIVE.... YEA !
Russia played Bulgaria... it was like a military battle... with tanks !
Just looking at the Bulgarian volleyball team, I don't think there is a better image of the ideal male athlete
... in terms of height, weight, stature, power, agility and teamwork.
You really don't want to get hit in the face by one of their spikes.
Just been talking to my brother.
He made me think again about my reaction to the American "winners" shirts.
He asked whether I would have had such a negative reaction had the Japanese team worn them. In Japanese of course, but with the same translation. Or the Brazilian team. Or the Latvian team. And if it had been explained that this was a common occurrence in their country.
He was right.
Although we share a same language with America I know perfectly well we have cultural differences.
It's not up to me to judge another country and their societal mores, especially not to assume they share mine.
So I am honestly apologising - I have been asked to review my opinion and have found it unjustified.
I don't have to like the wearing of the shirts, but I really shouldn't make judgements based on the country that wears them. As the lickle boy says: that's racist.
credits
tits and clits
she likes gasoline?
wow. I'd heard of pussy riot, but not these artists
I don't remember an Olympics, and there's been a lot of them, where I was happy with the TV coverage. Not one. I suppose they feel they have to tailor their coverage to the most popular stuff, and stuff the US teams are likely to do well in, but I'd like to see some of the lesser know competitions.
I too, loved the wrestling today.
BBC coverage has been excellent!
It turns out there is only one US quarter-finalist in the ten different classes of BOXING. One out of eighty!
We have almost given up the sport entirely in a period of years. Partly due to MMA I suppose and partly due to head trauma evidence...
Yeah, either I'm seeing double or you have memory problems! ;)
You really should look at this small collection of pictures!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-19222190That's funny, Rhianne. :)
OK, so the first hour tonight they do a thing about Britain in WW II. It was a great show, but they could have shown that anytime. Instead they're taking up time they could have been showing coverage of the games. Damnit, that's what they're there for.:mad:
Important story told completely at the wrong moment. Shows America how she came to be in a permanent state of war... oops wrong lesson. Seriously, all the background and puff pieces could be run before the competition begins. I wonder if the Brits Brokaw interviewed understood a word he said?
I caught a little wrestling between projects yesterday so that was a plus. I enjoyed the track and field coverage (Mo Farah was brilliant) but had seen enough diving so I had to knock off early before the 4x.
Did the coverage you got show any of the city shots? One of the things I've really loved about these games is getting to see London looking gorgeous at night.
Definitely! London put her best foot forward.
Excellent:)
I really love London. I take any opportunity to go to the National Archives and British Library partly because they have the best records for my subject, but also because I get to stay in the centre of the city for a few days.
the last couple of times I've stayed in the travelodge just by King's Cross Station. Just the most amazing buzz about the place, even in a wet December!
I was surprised during the sculling coverage as well, I didn't expect so much green space along the Thames.
Yeah, it's surprising how much green space there is in London.
Watching the closing ceremony.
I might be back on my meds but I cried when the first man crossed the line in the marathon and the commentator said, "And it's Uganda's first medal of the Olympics!" and it hit me that it was in fact nearly the last.
It's all over and I will be so lonely.
Is that Russell Brand riding around on a multicoloured bus?
This closing ceremony has been tres bizarre. Albeit good fun.
Not sure about the whole George Michael 'Freedom' set though.
And have a few doubts about the whole world coming together in the Union flag. Ahem. Yeah.
[eta]Oh yeah! Fatboy Slim! Hoowah. Give it some welly lad!
oooh. Giant Octopus. Cool. Trippy.
Yeah Russell Brand, he's a trip. :haha:
I'd say "tres bizarre" is a very good description. I felt I was lost... as in what the fuck is going on... several times, but entertained none the less. Good show, and all that.
Oh Dana, did the Queen send her grandson to take her place... and is that significant?
It's a bit of a late and noisy night for the Queen.
She had to make a speech at the Opening Ceremony, the Closing it wasn't necessary. I imagine she stuck it all on Sky-Plus and fast forwarded through most of it this morning, only pausing to see Harry and Kate.
I thought it was a wonderful way to end. Not as much fun as the Opening, but then it's a different animal. In all the quotes on the floor I spotted A Martian Sends A Postcard Home which cheered me no end.
I was also pleased to see the Pet Shop Boys. Or nearly see them. The simplicity of their "turn" and Neil Tennant's vocals compared favourably to One Direction imo. I had to double check that there weren't in fact 20 of them on the back of the lorry.
I had a good laugh at myself. Well you know I'm terrible with faces. And names. And I'm not very up on the hip music scene either. Well. There's a group up on stage singing a Pink Floyd song. Didn't know that at the time either :o The commentator (who says very little during the ceremony, and only to good effect - bless) tells us who the line-up is, although not who is doing what. Well I hear Mike Rutherford, and think GREG Rutherford, who I know is a ginger. So I quite happily watch musician Ed Sheeran thinking he is a gold-medal-winning-long-jumper who happens to be a bit handy on the guitar as well. Never mind.
I didn't find the ceremony bizarre. I thought it was all just wonderfully staged. My jaw dropped when Annie's ship came in. I admit I'm not a huge fan of her music, so I wasn't really looking forward to seeing her, but she blew me away.
Poor Gary Barlow (ETA he and his wife had a still-born daughter last week).
He must be in bits. I respect his professionalism.
The other band I wasn't sure about was the one at the end, singing CSI theme tunes, but they weren't on for long ;)
I think it's probably a good thing that the drug-testing team went home before the closing ceremony began. Russell Brand, George Michael, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Liam Gallagher...