2008 Olympic Games

[The_Missing_Link]

So the Olympics started earlier on the 8th (since technically today is the 9th) and I just finished watching the opening ceremony. It just keeps on getting bigger and better each time and Beijing outdid themselves. I was particularly keen on the lighting of the flame. It was very impressive

As for how the US will do, I think they'll do great but I think China will outscore them in medals. A big blow to us to lose the Hamm brothers so our chances of winning in gymnastics has plummeted but I'm hopeful about the women's squad, basketball, and swimming

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

The opening ceremony was quite good. I liked the idea of writing the contries' names in Chinese characters.

But I hated it when the Finnish commentators talked about politics in the middle of the ceremony.

[The_Missing_Link]

Don't worry, the US did it too. I'm sure every country did, perhaps except China

[Drusilla]

Wheeee, the opening ceremonies were on at work. Bagpipes make me happy! ^^

I didn't really get to watch anything, since I WAS at work, but what I did see what so cool... I love the Olympics, and only wish that I had time to keep up with them. I don't think I have since 1996...

[firepokemon]

I love Olympics. Looking forward to how our Rowers do in the heats. So far our single women's sculler won her heat and is in the Final.

Also interested in the Equestrian with two-time gold medalist Mark Todd currently in 9th. I think they have to be really careful with the equestrian particularly in the cross country with the heat and humidity. I really don't want to see any horses dying in the heat out there.

Also will hopefully watch the swimming later, its on after midnight here so may unfortunately have to miss that. I know gymnastics are today and tomorrow but I don't know if I'll get to see that. My bf and I are warring over who gets to watch the television. He doesn't like the Olympics.

[Magmar]

Holy shit, those Asian guys know their gymnastics. If I had biceps the size of basketballs, I'd land like that on poles and live to tell about it, too.

[Roy Karrde]

HA! Who's talking shit now you Eurotrash French?!

My God what a amazing end to the race, that last push that pushed the Americans past the heavily favored French and just shattered a World Record! Maybe next time the French shouldn't start talking crap before the race happens.

[firepokemon]

HA! Who's talking shit now you Eurotrash French?!

My God what a amazing end to the race, that last push that pushed the Americans past the heavily favored French and just shattered a World Record! Maybe next time the French shouldn't start talking crap before the race happens.

o_O Americans should never have been in that position to start off with. Whoever that Black guy was, perhaps needed something else besides the Relay to swim in. Just lucky that your next guy swam so well and the French tired quicker than he should have. Great race though and I think five of those teams broke the old world record. I think the Australian ladies have been spectacular in regards to the swimming events. The 400 Metres Individual Medley between the Australian Rice and Kristy Coventry from Zimbabwae was a sensation.

America seems to be weaker in regards to the female swimmers while the male swimmers are winning medals and breaking records. Australia, though appears way stronger with their female swimmers and the male swimmers are lucky to medal it would appear.

Equestrian has been largely disappointing for us. Mark Todd's horse probably hasn't had enough time to train to its fullest and our world champion and multiple badminton winner (its called badminton not sure why) was doing really well with his time in the cross country and looked set to not get a single time penalty and then on the last jump had a huge disaster. A shame but he was pushing the horse hard.

Our rowers certainly are looking good and our boardsailors are starting their events today. Ones the world champion and the other is a world champion, former gold medalist, former silver medalist and bronze medalist. So I look forward to see what she can do out there. I'm not sure if light winds are her favourite. But I'm sure she can come up with something.

Its always interesting seeing sports I rarely see such as Fencing and stuff. But not exactly my type of thing. I have been enjoying the Gymnastics, always a favourite of mine.

I do wish the games would have a come at a different time. Really should be focusing on my university work. But oh well.

[mistysakura]

Being an ex-(non-elite)-gymnast I follow gymnastics closely throughout the year. So yay to having TV coverage for a change! I'm very disappointed that Australia's top female gymnast, Dasha Joura, has bowed out with injury, but otherwise everything's going swimmingly. Speaking of swimming, I'm happy that we're doing well there. Yay.

[Jeff]

U.S. is doing pretty good in men's swimming, of course that's because we have Michael freakin' Phelps. He must be part fish or something. It's just cool seeing a local boy do this good...
That is what Maryland does![/Wedding Crashers reference]

Anyway, U.S. beat China in Basketball yesterday 101-70. China was doing OK until Yao Ming got injured, then they fell apart. You could tell they were frustrated, plenty of fouls and other questionable moments. Someone should tell them that Basketball is not a full-contact sport.

[Houndoom_Lover]

The Openings made me cry they were so beautiful! The Chinese sure do know how to put on a show. That coloured rainbow walk way, the placing people according to their alphabet- and as always, I love seeing the different contries walk, with smiles on their faces. And-oh, the end. It was just beautiful- when he took off and lit the toarch! Squue! ^w^ I'm so excited to see who wins what. I look forward to next years opening...in two years, ja! (:P This is the 777 post I've had!)

[Heald]

the placing people according to their alphabet
I wonder, how would have 'placing people according to the colour of their skin' would have turned out?

This is meaningless conjecture anyway. I doubt I'll show any interest in the games at all. Apparently us Brits won a medal in some meaningless event and we'll probably win a couple more in events we don't even care about. And hopefully Paula Radcliffe will piss herself and lose the Marathon again, because I hate that bitch.

[Roy Karrde]

Well Phelps just got another Gold, as well as two others for a pretty nice rake in. Its almost sad though that this Olympics will be marked by not only suspected Chinese Cheating. But also the possibility that the Judges are giving China some favortism. The Favortism thing has been so evident that it was mentioned over and over again on NBC, ranging from Chinese Favortism, to Anti America Scoring. If it were say Fox News or another network I would dismiss it, but NBC isn't usually a network that would such a thing unless it was pretty evident.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Its not just Anti america.
I was watching the Mens Archery yesterday and GBR vs China, China were awarded an extra point. They didnt explain why or what for they just said 'oh looks like theyve given China an extra point' (Apparently their arrow touched enough of a score boundary to warrant a higher score)

To be fair though as Hosts China have entered everything they can. They have over 600 competitors who didnt need to qualify for the games.

I havent spotted much Anti-Americanism myself though all that tires me is the Pro-American 'we have a god given right to win everything and everyone else sucks attitude' and general over reaction (Did you see Phelps after the mens relay? I know hes happy but come on he looked like he was having a seizure, or auditioning for a Dragonball movie) But i guess it depends on who's pictures you are seeing. Katie Hoff for example was the only Silver Medalist ive seen sulking and pouting in the pool instead of congratulating the winner and you could see on the lap of honour it was 'ooh a Camera :D, Camera gone :('.
Since she went trying to emulate Phelps though saying 'I have 6 races, im getting 6 Gold' i guess shes kinda annoyed to see all that backfire in her face.

[Roy Karrde]

I havent spotted much Anti-Americanism myself though

It was in the Woman's Gymnastics I believe that all the problems are at. Then again I don't know, I remember when it aired on NBC the biggest word by the commentators to describe it was "Robbed".

[Ultimate Charizard]

Ah, i havent seen any of the Gymnastics though to be fair if its only in one event id look more at Bias from the commentator as a possibility also.

Its like anything else. You always want to see your family, friends, compatriots come out on top etc so commentators can never really be impartial. It may have been a close decision that the Commentators saw in their favour. Since the Judges are all from different countries you cant reasonably accuse multiple nations of wanting to gift wins to China. USA, and GBR arent very popular internationally (look how UK did at Eurovision through Politics lol) though so perhaps rather than gifting China you could argue it was to deny the USA....
...its all speculation.

[Roy Karrde]

Well mind you the source is what makes me trust it more. If it were say Fox News or even CNN I possibly wouldn't trust it. But NBC does try to be objective to the point of nearly being too objective. If they pointed it out then it had to be pretty obvious.

Anyway I believe we can both agree though that China is getting a bit of favortism.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Far too much Politics in everything these days.
Btw, when did you Yanks start gene splicing people with Fish? Phelps cannot seriously be taken as human. Or does he have a small motorboat engine in his ass?

And it isnt just him. The GBR relay team swam to the WR time and came last. The US/French battle was 4 seconds ahead of them....wtf! lol

[Roy Karrde]

Heh we already have a Olympics comercial over here talking about how Phelps is part Fish.

Also one thing that has popped up on the news, is apparently a Spain Basketball team picture, of them making fun of Chinese Eyes.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2008/08/10/spanishbasketballteam.jpg

With any luck the Chinese team will show them up a bit if they ever meet.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Well thanks the US team thats not gonna happen. You already knocked China out lol.

But yeah, alot of the South European countries are known for Borderline arrogance. Theyre commentators/newscasters are completely bias in every way and openly insult foreign teams. They just dont care *and apologies to anyone from these countries i offend but ive seen it with my own eyes. Its just as bad as the Brits being labelled as Hooligans*

Btw, is it an offence to fly the US flag backwards? I was watching the first day of the swimming with Bush in the crowd happily holding up his Flag before looking at it, cocking his head as if something was wrong and then turning it around so it was the right way..... as he was looking at it.
A girl (i presume his Daughter) hit him on the arm and pointed at it quite urgently.

[Mew2-formally known as Evee67-]

This is probably the best moment of the Olympics so far and will only be surpassed if Phelps wins his 8th gold.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j23/swendro88/2a5b4lf.gif

[Ultimate Charizard]

Yeah see, any second i expect him to start glowing yellow and fly away...

[firepokemon]

Eh every host country always has certain advantages due to them hosting. Sure it would be fair to say their judging is a bit friendlier and they certainly do better when events are held at home. But its not like this hasn't just happened at these Olympics. It happened in Athens, Sydney and of course Atlanta. So yes there is favouritism but its not like that is new or anything.

[Blademaster]

Yeah see, any second i expect him to start glowing yellow and fly away...

Nah, he ain't got enough hair to go Super Saiyan. d:

[Heald]

Nah, he ain't got enough hair to go Super Saiyan. d:
Wanna bet? :P

http://www.b3tards.com/u/f94979c65cdf16050eb2/phelps_saiyan.gif

[Blademaster]

I now have an avatar AND a signature made by Heald.

Is there anything this man can't do?

[Jeff]

And now he's got 4. And the U.S. has pulled ahead of China, those Chinese sons of a bitches are going deewn. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJPUfJ1D5ok) (linked for those few who didn't get the reference)

[Roy Karrde]

Well the Lolis won the Female Gymnastics final. Now that it's pretty much certain that they are underage, how long will it take before China gets their win taken away?

[Ultimate Charizard]

Wanna bet? :P

http://www.b3tards.com/u/f94979c65cdf16050eb2/phelps_saiyan.gif

OMG i havent laughed that much in years lol. Thats brilliant.

Heald, your a legend ;)

[firepokemon]

Well the Lolis won the Female Gymnastics final. Now that it's pretty much certain that they are underage, how long will it take before China gets their win taken away?

Bah who cares they smashed the Americans who all looked sour. Honestly, its great you're patriotic but my God oh dear the Americans were beaten.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Is there an age limit in the Olympics? The GBR had a 14yr old in the Diving after all so i dont think its that much of an issue.

[firepokemon]

Is there an age limit in the Olympics? The GBR had a 14yr old in the Diving after all so i dont think its that much of an issue.

Depends on the sport. Diving you can be 12 I believe. In regards to Gymnastics it says they're meant to be 16. Thus what Karrde was pointing to was evidence by I think the New York Times which found documents suggesting that two girls were only 14.

[Andrew]

So... pervewise what do you enjoy?

Me... Gymnastics... diving...

But for the actual sport:
BMX, Archery, Shooting, Synchronised Swimming, Wrestling/Judo

[Ultimate Charizard]

And now theres suspicion over the whole opening cermony.

The young girl that was singing during the opening ceremony was lip synching because the girl that could actually sing had bad teeth and on many of the outdoor shots they digitally imposed the Fireworks from previous displays.

This is ontop of the whole media blackout dubbed 'The Great Firewall of China' since at the min the foreign press is only being shown what China wants them to see.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Is there an age limit in the Olympics? The GBR had a 14yr old in the Diving after all so i dont think its that much of an issue.

Team Finland has a swimmer 15 years and 6 months old. The youngest Finnish sportswoman in the Olympics ever.

[Roy Karrde]

Bah who cares they smashed the Americans who all looked sour. Honestly, its great you're patriotic but my God oh dear the Americans were beaten.

Hey I wouldn't care if they beat Japan, its that China felt that they could brazenly cheat infront of everyone on the world stage and get away with it. We are supposed to hold the Olympics to a higher standard...

[Ultimate Charizard]

Hey I wouldn't care if they beat Japan, its that China felt that they could brazenly cheat infront of everyone on the world stage and get away with it. We are supposed to hold the Olympics to a higher standard...

China are getting away with alot of things on the world stage at the moment. Lets just wait till the games are over to see if anyone cares.

[Bulbasaur4]

holy crap guys... if I had a dollar for everytime I heard someone whine about favoritism during the Olympics... I'd be so rich, I'd BUY China. Anyway, since when haven't people whined with favoritism? It's in every sports competition World-wise or nation-wise.
I'm just laughing everytime I read some whiney ass column about "China is getting bias results here.." or "China is the favorite here.." blah blah blah. WHINE WHINE WHIIINE.

I mean, look at the diving contests! XD When Russia was going up against China, every single score the Russians gave the Chinese was so far below everyone elses it was hilarious. XD That happens in every event with different countries!

All I can say, is kudos to China. They've been trying to be recognized by the world for a long time and they're struggling to show they're on equal grounds. (I'm talking about the Chinese people now, I'm not touching the government with a ten-foot pole.) It's good that they'll get some recognition, I just hope the pansey World can get over their whine-fest. :P

(I'm a Chinese major, I'm used to this stuff. ^_~ )

[Roy Karrde]

Well Kalah you must be eating up all this Chinese culture stuff they keep showing ^_^

[mr_pikachu]

According to ESPN.com, the U.S. currently has the top three individual medal winners in Beijing: Phelps (6 gold), Natalie Coughlin (1 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze), and Ryan Lochte (2 gold, 2 bronze). No other athlete has yet earned more than three at Beijing.

On a related note, Phelps is responsible for almost half of America's overall gold medal count (6 out of 14). The IOC is debating adding propellers to their list of banned substances.

[firepokemon]

Kristy Coventry will get her 4th medal in the 200m Backstroke, I'm quite comfortable that she will win that race and likely get the world record as well. And Phelps looks good in the 100m Butterfly but I don't think its a certainty that he is going to win that one. Yeah he most likely will, but I think it will be very close.

The Australian female swimmers have been interesting. Three women with three world records, one in the 100m Freestyle, one in 200m Butterfly and the other in 200m Breastroke all beaten, with two of those being beaten with world records attached. They looked strong at the start but some of them have been struggling. And yet on the other hand, the female swimmers were impressive in the 4X 200m Freestyle relay and of course Stephanie Rice very impressive in her two medley events.

I see Canada is still without a medal like New Zealand is.

Our medal chances should look better on Saturday with five rowers/rowing teams I think we have a chance to medal in all. But to be honest we should have had two more teams in the finals and a few of those teams really should have gotten golds. I suspect we'll get one Gold, but our rowers aren't looking as strong as they have in world cups and world championships.

[Jeff]

I was just watching ESPN, and it looks like Phelps' biggest competition won't come from another country, but from another American swimmer. This guy (forgot the name already), is intent on snatching away Phelps' 7th gold. He said that "sports is all about derailing someone else's dream". I guess that's somewhat true, just ask the New York Giants:P

[MToolen]

Tennis has been quite the roller coaster; first Federer, then Blake and now Djokovic are all out. In the good news, though, I'm glad to be a Rafa fan.

[mr_pikachu]

I watched the U.S.-Canada match in women's football this morning. (Funny; I didn't expect American star-turned-announcer Brandi Chastain to call it "soccer," but hey!) Really fun match to watch, especially when Canada threatened multiple times in the final minutes of the extra session.

Have to give a lot of credit to our back four for stopping several scary drives late in the match. There were numerous runs short-circuited by timely blocks. Solo deserves kudos as well for a couple of big saves, one to preserve the tie in regulation and another to hold that lead in the end.

We did miss some golden opportunities at various points... lots of near-misses on excellent chances. The rain delay also didn't help, especially since Canada's keeper was kind of reeling from a bad fall while failing to block our first goal. It could have easily been a blowout. Hopefully we can improve on our capitalization in the semis against Japan.

[Roy Karrde]

HOLY SHIT! PHILLPS DOES IT!

1/100th of a SECOND!

[mr_pikachu]

HOLY SHIT! PHILLPS DOES IT!

1/100th of a SECOND!

Ditto. Just... wow.

Phelps has seven. If the U.S. team claims victory in the 4x100 medley relay tomorrow, Michael Phelps will be the most dominant Olympian of all time.

[Roy Karrde]

So is there even a camera out there that would be able to capture the 1/100th of a second difference between the two? or would they have been running too slow

[mr_pikachu]

So is there even a camera out there that would be able to capture the 1/100th of a second difference between the two? or would they have been running too slow

I-Movix readies 8,000 fps slow-motion camera for Beijing Olympics (http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/07/07/i-movix-readies-8-000-fps-slow-motion-camera-for-beijing-olympic/)

[mr_pikachu]

Another "one one-hundredth of a second" finish that, this time, costs an American the gold. Nonetheless, Dana Torres' improbable run to the silver in the 50m freestyle is certainly worthy of applause.


EDIT: Hell of a race in the women's medley, too. Both the Aussies and the Americans utterly destroyed the world record... but the middle legs cost the U.S., so they'll take silver in that showdown. Barring a false start, at least. They're holding back the official results... this could be interesting.


EDIT2: The Swedes had the false start, but they fell short of the medal stand anyway. What a performance by Torres, the U.S., and the Australians!




U.S. WINS! THE U.S. WINS! WORLD RECORD! 8 GOLD MEDALS FOR PHELPS!

MICHAEL PHELPS IS NOW THE GREATEST OLYMPIAN OF ALL TIME!



GOLD MEDAL COUNT
28 - China
17 - United States of America
9 - Germany
8 - Michael Phelps
8 - Australia
8 - Great Britain
7 - South Korea
7 - Japan
6 - Italy
5 - Russia
5 - Ukraine
3 - France
3 - Romania
3 - Slovakia
2 - Switzerland
2 - New Zealand
2 - Czech Republic
2 - Spain
2 - Georgia
1 - Cuba
1 - Netherlands
1 - North Korea
1 - Brazil
1 - Azerbaijan
1 - Canada
1 - Norway
1 - Indonesia
1 - Zimbabwe
1 - Bulgaria
1 - Poland
1 - Finland
1 - Mongolia
1 - Thailand
1 - Tunisia
1 - Ethiopia
1 - India
1 - Jamaica

[Heald]

Team GB has just blitzed into 3rd place with 11 golds and 23 in total. Considering the absolute minuscule size of our population against the likes of the USA and China, when you normalise the stats, that shows that GB is doing incredibly well. So much for all that nay-saying that Britain can't win anything any more.

I just hope we beat Australia, since apparently that's our goal for the Olympics and there is some bet between the Aussie and Brit Sports Ministers.

[firepokemon]

Team GB has just blitzed into 3rd place with 11 golds and 23 in total. Considering the absolute minuscule size of our population against the likes of the USA and China, when you normalise the stats, that shows that GB is doing incredibly well. So much for all that nay-saying that Britain can't win anything any more.

I just hope we beat Australia, since apparently that's our goal for the Olympics and there is some bet between the Aussie and Brit Sports Ministers.

Hmm Great Britain should I think beat Australia. Since you have an absolutely awesome track cycling team that looks set to demolish and take pretty much most of the golds and pick up other medals as well. You guys are looking good in yaching as well so besides your shitty Marathon runner who is a bitch, you look good.

[mr_pikachu]

I've been wondering for awhile whether people will keep watching the Olympics now that Phelps has won his eight; that's undoubtedly the high point of the Games for the U.S., after all. Apparently others are wondering the same thing (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080816/ap_en_tv/oly_tv_nbc_s_olympics).


EDIT: In what may be the moment of the Olympics, Bob Costas just advocated drug use. ^_^;;

[Roy Karrde]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/The-REAL-Olympic-medal-count?urn=oly,101537

Its a interesting Yahoo Blog in which a person puts together "The Real Medal count" in other words taking out the judging events. After the blatent poor judging on the vault, and the stupidity of the tie breaker. I'm really starting to wonder if the IOC should start taking a long look at the Judging. Infact I would say with China under this age scandal, and the realisation back in 03 that Iraq was torturing their athletes that under performed at the Olympics. If it isn't time for the entire thing to be called off after this one, and completely restructured from the ground up as to which countries get in, and the monitoring and rules that are in place.

[mistysakura]

Sigh... prejudice against judged sports... (Not you, Roy, the blogger.) I don't know; on the one hand I support judging being more stringent, but at the same time judges should be able to judge as they see fit, without feeling the pressure to keep their scores in line with other judges. The tiebreaker stupidity wasn't due to the judges though, just stupid tiebreaking rules. Grr. With current technology, it's possible to judge routines 'objectively', with the judges reaching a consensus over video replays. It's an interesting concept, if a little... inhuman...

Re: age rules, they've been broken by various countries over the ages; I think the main problem isn't the countries that are allowed in the Olympics, but that an age rule is unenforcable. Drugs have drug tests, genders have gender tests, but if someone is suspected to be underage and the country pulls out official-looking proof, what can you do?

[Roy Karrde]

Thats true on the age rule, as for the judging, I don't think its a matter of objectivety, but more of inexperienced judges. The IOC is putting very inexperienced Judges on there who's country has no connection with the contestant's country. At that point, getting qualified judges is less important than finding judges that could be impartial.

Of course also being in China, with a home crowd, the energy in the stadium toward the Chinese Contestants, as well as favortism toward the "Stars" should also be calculated in. I mean I know most of us don't follow the Gymnastics world, but I would bet that some of these contestants are such stars in countries like China, like say Kobe or MJ is here, that you cant help but vote with the star power, even if they deserve a lesser score. Ala the Chinese Girl that f'ed up horribly on Vault and still won Bronze.

[ssj4supernerd]

Thanks a lot Nigeria, now we get to play against Brazil for Bronze, so if we lose no medal. Stupid Nigeria...=(

[firepokemon]

Gymnastics is no longer about perfection as it once was. It is judged on the difficulty a gymnast is able to acquire within a program. So while other gymnasts may appear to be better, more likely it is that they don't have as much difficultly. Thus gymnasts with high difficulty even with mistakes can still be judged higher than other gymnasts with arguably a cleaner program but less difficulty. I think personally you're biased against anyone non-US. Sorry but its true.

New Zealand now has three golds, one silver and six bronzes. I think we could have done better in several areas and we still have chances in canoeing/kyaking and BMX racing. But it looks to be our best performance since 1984 where we won eight golds. I must say been enjoying the BMX racing, I think it has a bright future in the sports and hopefully we can medal in it.

[mr_pikachu]

fp: I'll admit I'm a little biased toward U.S. athletes, and I'm aware of it. However, I don't think that a vaulter who falls to her knees should trump one who merely takes a small hop afterwards. (Yes, I'm also aware that two vaults are averaged together to get the total score, but I maintain my point.) These were both legitimate vaults. Even if Cheng (the Chinese athlete in question) attempted one a bit more difficult, she botched it. A 1.45-point deduction seems very insufficient for what was essentially a failed attempt.

Perhaps the judges scored it correctly according to the rules. I'm not an expert, so I don't know. If that was deemed appropriate, however, then the system needs to be re-examined. This is the Olympics. It's the ultimate stage of competition. An athlete who falls over during an artistic event should not medal. Regardless of any biases, I find that point difficult to question.

EDIT: This is particularly true in the vault. I could understand a deduction of this size in something like the parallel bars or the rings. Most of those events are spent doing the exercises, and there's just one landing at the end to accentuate the acrobatics. The vault, however, is incredibly brief; as such, the landing is pretty much half the battle. If you outright fail half the event, you ought to lose more than 8.5% of the maximum score.


Blogging Article: Yeah, I read that one earlier. I don't think that's an accurate representation of the judging situation, however. As we've seen throughout the games, the Chinese specialize in judged sports like gymnastics and diving.

Saying that "Oh, they wouldn't have won many medals if judged events hadn't counted, so the judges must be biased" is like claiming that a star baseball player who can't win a boxing match must be cheating.

[mistysakura]

Well, I actually do follow gymnastics very closely, so... The judges were judging completely correctly in the vault. A fall is only an 0.8 deduction. So it's possible for someone to fall and still score higher in execution than someone who had really, really bad form, for example. When difficulty is taken into account, it's even easier to medal with a fall. The thing is, the situation just looks worse on vault because there's only two vaults to perform. Say, on beam, you have to do ten skills. So if you fall on one of them, take an 0.8 deduction and still medal, it doesn't look half as bad. On vault, when you've literally messed up half of what you're doing...

Yeah, difficulty is taken into account a lot now. I actually agree with this, because in the old 10.0 scoring system, there was no incentive for gymnasts to be more daring and go beyond what would get them a 10.0 starting value. Now we see people doing many more impressive skills. However, execution must remain an important part of gymnastics. The FIG is revising the Code of Points to reflect this. Starting next year, difficulty will be lowered (only eight skills counting in a routine), and a fall will be a 1.00 deduction. Hopefully things will change for the better.

Cheng has been the world champion for years. She has led the gymnastics world in innovation on vault. When she hits, she's way ahead of her field. It's not about reputation or favoritism; she's just so good that she can win bronze with a fall.

[Roy Karrde]

Well we all saw this coming.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4583174.ece

The IOC is now investigating He's age, I mean maybe the missing tooth was a bit of a tip off for them.

[Crystal Mew]

Can't say I'm surprised at all, everytime I turn into watch the olympics it always seems like they're cheating somehow.

I knew some of those gymnastic girls didn't look 16!

[mr_pikachu]

Oh, it's on.

IOC asks for investigation of China’s gymnasts (http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=ap-gym-underagechinese&prov=ap&type=lgns)

Dun-dun-dunnnn!

[Roy Karrde]

Only about 7 hours too late Mr. Pika!

Apparently a Brit was hacking Chinese Govt Computers and found a spreadsheet that showed that China had 2 kids under the age.

God Bless You Brits!

[Ultimate Charizard]

bout time we got some smegging gratitude :)

[mr_pikachu]

Only about 7 hours too late Mr. Pika!

Not quite. The update was that the IOC is pursuing it further than just a half-assed "investigation" to satiate the masses. They're asking the gymnastics federation, which is likely closer to He and would have more information (and perhaps jurisdiction), to take the case to the next level.

Apparently a Brit was hacking Chinese Govt Computers and found a spreadsheet that showed that China had 2 kids under the age.


God Bless You Brits!

Don't forget to thank the hackers!

[mistysakura]

Go Brits! Unfortunately, the International Gymnastics Federation launched an investigation into this months ago, and since the Chinese brought out passports with 'legitimate' ages, they couldn't do anything... I'd be surprised if they manage to prove anything this time round. Oh well, we can all hope (although it would be awesome if it were proved conclusively that she was of age).

You can't judge by the looks though; when I was seventeen people thought I was in primary school :P

[Heald]

Just saw them in half and count the rings. That's what my great uncle used to do at those internment camps anyway.

[ssj4supernerd]

YES BELGIUM FINALLY GOT A MEDAL SILVER YEAH WOOHOO YEAH WOOT AWESOME


Oh and I'm dissapointed in our soccer club, I had hoped we could buttkick Brazil and get a bronze medal but ohwell. =(

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Our medals have been just blind luck. I mean they have come from sports Finns aren't believed to be good at, we have failed in what Finns are believed to be good at. We should be happy with the current medal count, or not, because like I said, it was luck. But what many of us are proud about is that we are ahead Sweden which hasn't got a single gold medal! Wow.

Now we are looking forward to the javeling throw finals today. That's where we believe we're good at.

[ssj4supernerd]

BELGIUM
HAS
OBTAINED
GGGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD



So happy right now.

[mr_pikachu]

Cuban taekwondo athlete banned after kicking ref (http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/taekwondo/news?slug=ap-tae-taekwondo-dispute&prov=ap&type=lgns)

This actually makes me wonder how the guy became a black belt. No self-respecting martial arts expert would ever attack a referee. If you can't control your emotions, you don't deserve that honorable title.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080823/capt.b2e4bc2711c0487b96e5b948ab07f164.beijing_olym pics_taekwondo_mens_80kg__oly559.jpg
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20080823/capt.e554af23d49849e1b23ee74d280807f3.aptopix_beij ing_olympics_taekwondo_mens_80kg__oly557.jpg

[Heald]

Heh, even if he didn't win a medal, that picture has win plastered all over it.

[mistysakura]

Mm, wtf? How did he get to this level with that lack of discipline? You'd think he would've gotten into trouble long before this.

Mitcham takes gold in 10m platform! And I was resigned to the Chinese sweeping all the diving medals. Nice work.

[mr_pikachu]

Mm, wtf? How did he get to this level with that lack of discipline? You'd think he would've gotten into trouble long before this.

I was wondering that, myself. It's astonishing that someone with so little self-control could actually make it to the Olympics, much less compete for a medal.

Not that it really matters, but this wasn't even a controversial call. Athletes get one minute to recover from an injury (if they take longer, it's assumed that they cannot continue). Matos took longer than a minute and was disqualified. Simple as that. But he decided to haul off and assault the referee.

I've been trying to locate information on Matos' past performances, but everything I've found so far has to do with the Olympics. (Lots of videos, let me tell you.) It'd be interesting if this was a trend with him; might prompt countries to take a closer look at their martial artists before putting them on the world stage.

Sad. Suffice to say, Angel Matos is a disgrace to martial artists everywhere.

[Ultimate Charizard]

There was controversy in the Womens event too.
The Judges completely failed to award the GBR competitor any points for a clean kick direct to the head. Her opponent went on to win by 1 point. Where was her opponent from.....China of course.

The decision was the 'reviewed' and overturned but apparently it left the British competitor without the proper time to prepare (she had already warmed down etc and lost the focus since she had 'lost') so she was pretty much owned in the Semi's and had to settle for Bronze.

[Blademaster]

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j89/Soul_of_the_Phoenix/Ownlympics.png


Fix'd.

[mr_pikachu]

What, you thought we were done with this topic? No, no, no. *wags finger* We haven't finished the discussion just yet.

Chinese gymnasts deemed of age, inquiry over (http://www.sportsline.com/olympics/story/11003786)

...But wait, there's more!


Documents confirm all six members of China's gold medal team at the Beijing Games were old enough to compete, the International Gymnastics Federation said on Wednesday. But it wants more answers from two members of China's 2000 squad - Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun - saying it "does not consider the explanations and evidence provided to date in regards to these athletes as satisfactory."

[...]

Dong's official birthdate is listed as Jan. 20, 1983. But her accreditation information for the Beijing Olympics, where she worked as a national technical official, lists her birthdate as Jan. 23, 1986, said Andre Gueisbuhler, the FIG's secretary general.

[...]

In addition to Dong's Beijing accreditation, her blog says she was born in the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac, which dated from Feb. 20, 1985, to Feb. 8, 1986. Dong has not denied that, but she refused last week to answer any questions about her age.

Yang, who also won a bronze medal on the uneven bars in 2000, said in a June 2007 interview that aired on state broadcaster China Central Television that she was 14 in Sydney. Yang, who is engaged to Beijing men's all-around champion Yang Wei, told the AP last week that she had misspoken, declining further comment.

Apparently this isn't the first time China's done shady things in regard to ages. Just adds to the skepticism. If Fangxiao and Yun were, in fact, under the minimum age limit, it could have huge ramifications for Chinese gymnastics.

The drama never ends!

[RedStarWarrior]

I don't put it past China, a very controlling government, to forge documentation and whatnot. It's a damn shame, but people will always find a way to cheat.