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! ( 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 , 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.



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.

[Ultimate Charizard]

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

[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?

[Ultimate Charizard]

Wanna bet?

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

Heald, your a legend

[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]

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. (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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

(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.