The Thread of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad

[Alphabet Man]

We need a thread for the biggest two weeks in world sport.

Anyone got any predictions?

I have Australia going for gold in (many of the) swimming events, mottram an outside chance in 5000 or 10000 whatever his running these days, mountain biking, bmx and cycling time trial, road race and track cycling i believe we'll feature strongly, the shooting, lee troop will top 5 in the marathon, womens basketball, not sure about much more.

I love the Olympics, even better its in our time zone, unlike the tour de france i can get some sleep.

[capn89]

My favorite part about the Olympic games are all the crazy-ass stories you hear about athletes from lower-world (if you will) countries and how they made it to the games through some ridiculous circumstances. Like a track runner who trained on broken glass while being chased by a mountain lion or something. It makes you respect what these people go through just to compete once every four years.

[rams80]

My conservative over/under on suppressed civil disturbances is 80.

My over/under on the number we'll hear about is 3.

Yup....China's really opening up.

Oh...and the "Redeem Team" might actually win gold. Or they might not. They'll medal at least, though, and not lose to any of our colonial possessions this time around.

[TFoA]

Going in, I only care about one thing. Basketball. This is basically my summer fix of the NBA now, thanks to the fact that the NBA is now a worldwide game when it comes to the players.

That said, USA better take the gold this year, especially with the roster chemistry they've developed. I am really hoping that they really don't treat this like another glorified all-star game, and actually put their all into winning the gold. They SHOULD win it, IMO. They definitely aren't a lock, but they should still regain the gold medal.

Unless some amazing story pops up, basketball's gonna be the only thing I'll be following intently.

[Alphabet Man]

My favorite part about the Olympic games are all the crazy-ass stories you hear about athletes from lower-world (if you will) countries and how they made it to the games through some ridiculous circumstances. Like a track runner who trained on broken glass while being chased by a mountain lion or something. It makes you respect what these people go through just to compete once every four years.

Reminds me of this moment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zjCc_VyxM4

[Dilbert]

19 DAYS UNTIL THE END OF THE GAMES!

Not trying to sound negative, but I dont care for the games. Its too much hoopla.

[Viper]

We need a thread for the biggest two weeks in world sport.

I actually started this one a few weeks ago, but it kind of petered out. To recap my initial thoughts from the first thread:

• My younger sister's due date with my new nephew is 08-08-08 - also the date of the opening ceremony of the Games.
  
• One of my cousins had hoped to compete in Beijing as a boxer. Alas, someone pointed out that he had technically violated his amateur status, so he was ruled ineligible to compete in the Olympics and turned pro instead.
  
• As American swimmers go, even Michael Phelps has had to take a back seat to Team USA's most unlikely member and newest/oldest star: 41-year-old Dara Torres. In a sad but predictable sign of the times, her amazing comeback story has aroused suspicion of, you guessed it, doping. Me, I'm with Alan Abrahamson on this one.
  
• The venues are a mixed bag. The two centerpiece facilities, the "Bird's Nest" and the "Water Cube", are of course instantly recognizable. The basketball venue (from a distance it looks like little more than a big warehouse) and Beijing Worker's Stadium (from the outside it looks like the infamous old "cookie-cutter" multipurpose stadia of Cincinnati, Philly, Pittsburgh and St. Louis)... not so much.
  
• I know beach volleyball has grown like gangbusters since it joined the Olympics, but is it really one of the top five sports (alongside track & field, swimming, gymnastics and basketball)? That seems a bit of a stretch. Then again it is NBCOlympics.com that is making this claim. If they're just going by U.S. TV ratings, then I can see beach volleyball as a "big five" sport. Well, women's beach volleyball anyway.
  
• A few new events have been added, including team competition in table tennis. Alas, no athletes from Kazakhstan in this event. Borat must be heartbroken.
  
• Last but not least, the most anticipated matchup of the Games in any sport? It has to be Usain Bolt (new world-record holder) vs. Tyson Gay (fastest 100m time ever, albeit wind-aided, at the U.S. trials) in the 100m dash.
  

[LMU]

My conservative over/under on suppressed civil disturbances is 80.

My over/under on the number we'll hear about is 3.

Yup....China's really opening up.

Oh...and the "Redeem Team" might actually win gold. Or they might not. They'll medal at least, though, and not lose to any of our colonial possessions this time around.

How about the over/under on endurance runners passing out from smog inhalation?

[Alphabet Man]

I even replied in that thread. Ah never mind.

[Jigga]

We need a thread for the biggest two weeks in world sport.

I actually started this one a few weeks ago, but it kind of petered out. To recap my initial thoughts from the first thread:

• My younger sister's due date with my new nephew is 08-08-08 - also the date of the opening ceremony of the Games.
  
• One of my cousins had hoped to compete in Beijing as a boxer. Alas, someone pointed out that he had technically violated his amateur status, so he was ruled ineligible to compete in the Olympics and turned pro instead.
  
• As American swimmers go, even Michael Phelps has had to take a back seat to Team USA's most unlikely member and newest/oldest star: 41-year-old Dara Torres. In a sad but predictable sign of the times, her amazing comeback story has aroused suspicion of, you guessed it, doping. Me, I'm with Alan Abrahamson on this one.
  
• The venues are a mixed bag. The two centerpiece facilities, the "Bird's Nest" and the "Water Cube", are of course instantly recognizable. The basketball venue (from a distance it looks like little more than a big warehouse) and Beijing Worker's Stadium (from the outside it looks like the infamous old "cookie-cutter" multipurpose stadia of Cincinnati, Philly, Pittsburgh and St. Louis)... not so much.
  
• I know beach volleyball has grown like gangbusters since it joined the Olympics, but is it really one of the top five sports (alongside track & field, swimming, gymnastics and basketball)? That seems a bit of a stretch. Then again it is NBCOlympics.com that is making this claim. If they're just going by U.S. TV ratings, then I can see beach volleyball as a "big five" sport. Well, women's beach volleyball anyway.
  
• A few new events have been added, including team competition in table tennis. Alas, no athletes from Kazakhstan in this event. Borat must be heartbroken.
  
  
• Last but not least, the most anticipated matchup of the Games in any sport? It has to be Usain Bolt (new world-record holder) vs. Tyson Gay (fastest 100m time ever, albeit wind-aided, at the U.S. trials) in the 100m dash.
  

Other than the Men's Basketball, this is the only thing I care about in the Olympics. I just pray that the conditions are suitable for the athletes to not only approach, but surpass the times both men have proved capaple of running. Too bad Gay didn't qualify in the 200 or it could have been double the fun.

[lilgump]

Dont forget about Asafa Powell in the 100 aswell. At least I'm assuming he advanced along with Bolt.

Heres a site with all the Summer Olympic Logos from 1896 to 2012. Its kinda slow to load now, but I'm sure it will get better later in the night.

http://www.2008beijingolimpics.com/the-oly...m-1896-to-2012/

[NEW.ERA]

I don't expect Canada to walk away with a whole lot maybe 10-15 medals

But i bet on Adam van Koeverden to win Gold

[jkrdevil]

19 DAYS UNTIL THE END OF THE GAMES!

Not trying to sound negative, but I dont care for the games. Its too much hoopla.

I'm in the same boat. I basically forgot the Olympics were starting this week and this is after I just got back from a trip overseas the studied Global sports with extensive discussions on the Olympics (mostly 2012 in London because I was in London though).

I just don't care about the Olympics. I'll watch some basketball and soccer because those are going to be the only things that are on live but other than that I probably won't watch a bit (unless I can get the live BBC or CBC feed of the opening ceremonies over the Internet). There are a few reasons can't get into the games.

-It's not on TV live. This is NBC's fault but I'm not watching taped sports this day in age especially taped sports of sports I don't particularly care for in the first place. Don't try to sell me on drama when I already know the result. So unless somehting crazy happens, either sports wise or protest wise I won't tune in to see what happens.

-NBC's pre-package profile's on the athletes. Honestly I don't care about what trials and tribulation they have to go through, just show me the event. Most of the time it's nothing anyways. I don't even want to see what they have prepared for this 41-year-old swimmer. Great a heart warming story about a woman who is probably taking ever drug imaginable. I'm sorry she supposedly clean, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds needed them to extend their careers but this woman in swimming doesn't need them. If BALCO taught us anything it is that there are a bunch of drugs out there that are being made that the testers don't even know about. Which brings me to my next point.

-Drugs. I know they are rampant in all sports but to me it affects the individual sports more. As a viewer with the team sports there is still the strategy and rooting interest. Individual sports like track and swimming are really missing both. Let's face it there is little strategy to those sports it's whoever goes the fastest. Thus the drugs probably have a bigger effect on the outcome than with team sports. Thus it becomes a bigger turnoff.

-Events that are "judged." I've said this before in relation to College Football and say it again here, voting should not be involved in determining a winner or champions of a sporting event. There should be an objective standard. Voting involves natural human bias and thus it isn't fair. If two reasonable people can watch the exact same thing and have a different winner there is a fundamental problem.

There are others, such as the notion that the Olympics are not about winning but are about competing (really then why is everyone drugged up?) and how anti-sport is but you get he idea. I like the World event aspect of it but I'll for the most part skip the Olympics and wait for the World Cup (which have better crowds).

[Alphabet Man]

Two things:

- I would argue that drug use is in the minority at less than 10%. But I gotta go to work now so i wont argue apart from medal winners that are drugged up will be at less than 2%.

- Events that are judged, the best athlete will still win. 5 judges should be right around the mark in gymnastics so its not a big deal.

Also, I was at Sydney in 2000 and it was the best two weeks of my life, even though I was 10years old, you could get the sense of a hundred or so different cultures all mixing together. I remember one night back to Gosford on a train and these Chinese folk went the old 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie' chant. It was great. Thats something great about the olympics. I also remember at the athletics on the night of cathy freeman's famous victory, the ads on the scoreboard - celebrating humanity - that stuck in my head.

[Viper]

...and the Games have already begun, believe it or not, with group-stage play in women's football. Team USA's Olympics got off to a dubious start on that front, yielding an own-goal against Norway less than two minutes in, then another Norway goal again two minutes after that.

Whenever the camera shows the stands, you can clearly see a haze in the air. I hope that's just fog rolling through Qinhuangdao, but somehow I doubt it.

[DEAD!]

Yeah, I caught a bit of the Argentina-Canada match before I left for work.

early results:

Germany 0-0 Brazil

Japan 2-2 New Zealand

Argentina 1-2 Canada

[fiasco!]

Norway beats the US women 2-0.

USA looked rather sluggish.

[Mac the Knife]

Like a track runner who trained on broken glass while being chased by a mountain lion or something.

I won't watch much of the Olympics I admit, but that, I'd watch!

[DEAD!]

Like a track runner who trained on broken glass while being chased by a mountain lion or something.

I won't watch much of the Olympics I admit, but that, I'd watch!

In other words, 20 year old male runners being chased by cougars?

[Ez Street]

Like a track runner who trained on broken glass while being chased by a mountain lion or something.

I won't watch much of the Olympics I admit, but that, I'd watch!

In other words, 20 year old male runners being chased by cougars?

Cougars like...old women?