2008 Summer Olympics

[auxlepli 17]

The lighting of the cauldron was unbelievable. Costas raved about it, but I have yet to see any thing as spectacular as Barcelona's.

[Doggy 130]

The lighting of the cauldron was unbelievable. Costas raved about it, but I have yet to see any thing as spectacular as Barcelona's.

Wasn't a bad shot, ey?

[evilmrt 636]

NBC owns the olympic rights and is going to show a lot of their coverage on primetime under a tape delay. CBC shows more live coverage...traditionally always has.

Sucks is people with Directv like me, don't get cbc. I am stuck watching NBC.

Yeah, but we get the NBC Olympic Basketball and Soccer/Football channels (for free...channel 755 is the football channel I think), and those are showing live coverage. Womens football is on right now. I also saw that CNBC and USA were carrying live events. So, while normal NBC sucks, we do have some live coverage.

[timothy1997 0]

Yeah, but we get the NBC Olympic Basketball and Soccer/Football channels (for free...channel 755 is the football channel I think), and those are showing live coverage. Womens football is on right now. I also saw that CNBC and USA were carrying live events. So, while normal NBC sucks, we do have some live coverage.

thanks for the info man. Lot easier than remembering all the channel numbers that have coverage.

I loved the opening ceremonies last night. From the drums to the footprint fireworks to the thai chi...it was all amazing. Lightning of the calderon was amazing as well as the LCD mat that they had that athletes added to it whenever they stepped on it. Very cool show. A+

[timothy1997 0]

because of the 12 hr time delay, NBC is reporting that they will be showing a lot of live coverage in their primetime coverage. Works for me.

[auxlepli 17]

I love the Olympic theme. John Williams wrote that too.

Another of many memorable themes he's written, where Danny Elfman has one.

[betterREDthandead 58]

So the swimming is pretty much just as awesome as always. Some thoughts:

- Michael Phelps is a freak of nature. It's like he's not even tired after the race. Meanwhile they pan over to Ryan Lochte and he looks like he ran a marathon.

- How much would it suck to swim a race faster than anyone else in the history of the world has ever swam it, except for the guy who finished .3 seconds before you? I mean, I guess not that much cause you get a silver medal out of it, but still.

- Dara Torres is also a freak of nature. And yes, I do believe her that she isn't doping. Too bad she and her teammates couldn't quite pull off the gold, but at least they beat the Aussies

- Relays are the s***. The best will be the medley relays. Always the biggest lead changes, it's back and forth the whole time with some swimmers being stronger than others in the various strokes.

- Local boy Peter Vanderkaay juuuuuuust got touched out. Bummer. I was pulling for him. Never actually swam against him but a couple of my teammates did, in the state meet, and I've seen him swim there. Anybody who's ever been involved in swimming in Michigan has heard the name Vanderkaay, there are several brothers in that clan.

[Doggy 130]

Equestrian sucks. I think it's the only event where I don't sit there and at least once say, "Wow, that was impressive." I just can't relate to it at all. You just couldn't find it enjoyable unless you ride horses frequently as a hobby.

[Cern 0]

Not really too interested in the summer games - yet more podium domination by China and the US dosen't make for very interesting viewing for me, honestly. What's the point/fun in watching Olympic basketball when its almost inevitably little more than a coronation for the 'Dream Team'? Am I seriously the only person who considers a competition with virtually no genuine...competition to be mind-numbingly boring? Anyway, I'll be surprised if Canada's medal count gets into double digits this year. The winter olympics have more events that interest me enough to want to watch, plus we tend to do a fair bit better.

Edited August 10, 2008 by Cern

[Aussie_Wing 354]

The Aussies also went 1-4 in the 2004 summer olympics, missing the medal rounds completely. I believe the Aussie's did well in the 2000 summer games, but got upset in the medal rounds but you got a better chance of looking/remembering that.

I think the woman's team will medal, finishing behind the US team and men's team will finish out of the medal placement tho. I think its USA, Argentina, Spain in the medal placement.

Aussies i think have the easiest road to get in the basketball region based on their oceanica regional. What do they have to beat Guam to get in???

And not to mention that this squad is 1000x better than the 2004 Olympic squad.........

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

I woke up to be able to see most of the U.S. soccer's match against the Netherlands (not sure if it was a re-broadcast or not). They actually had them on the ropes after being down 1-0 at half, scoring two goals within 10 minutes in the 2nd half against a country with traditionally much better results and history in the sport. Ugh, they couldn't hold on though as they fouled in extra time in the 2nd half right before the penalty box, and the Netherlands striker just hit a perfect kick to tie it right at the end. Nevertheless, they are in good shape to the next round of play being 1-0-1, but with a challenging match from Nigeria next. I'll be tuning into the U.S.-China men's basketball game shortly.

[betterREDthandead 58]

Not really too interested in the summer games - yet more podium domination by China and the US dosen't make for very interesting viewing for me, honestly. What's the point/fun in watching Olympic basketball when its almost inevitably little more than a coronation for the 'Dream Team'? Am I seriously the only person who considers a competition with virtually no genuine...competition to be mind-numbingly boring? Anyway, I'll be surprised if Canada's medal count gets into double digits this year. The winter olympics have more events that interest me enough to want to watch, plus we tend to do a fair bit better.

The '04 basketball team clearly did not give a s***, and I think watching a disinterested bunch of whiners muddle their way to a bronze was far worse than this will be. And the only reason they won that bronze is because they realized they were on the brink of being the bunch of losers that couldn't even bring a lousy medal back home to the States. It would have been a label that stuck with them. Couldn't watch a game without looking at them and knowing most of them didn't want to be there. It sucked even though the "competition" was better. I like watching a team that's motivated. I don't care if that means the rest of the world is fighting for silver. I'm looking forward to turning on the TV in a few minutes and watching a seriously focused basketball team stick it to the Chinese on their home court.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Also, I didn't know such a sport existed until watching a match of it yesterday between S. Korea and France. Similar to hockey and soccer in terms of scoring and playing field per se, I liked watching handball for a short while. The match I saw yesterday had plenty of scoring in a 60-minute match., nearly 60 goals between the two teams, so I'm guessing a lot of scoring is standard in it.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/handball/index.shtml

[DaKineMaui 8]

Also, I didn't know such a sport existed until watching a match of it yesterday between S. Korea and France. Similar to hockey and soccer in terms of scoring and playing field per se, I liked watching handball for a short while. The match I saw yesterday had plenty of scoring in a 60-minute match., nearly 60 goals between the two teams, so I'm guessing a lot of scoring is standard in it.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/handball/index.shtml

I never knew there was such a thing as this 'handball'.

HOLY CRAP IS THAT BORING!

[betterREDthandead 58]

Also, I didn't know such a sport existed until watching a match of it yesterday between S. Korea and France. Similar to hockey and soccer in terms of scoring and playing field per se, I liked watching handball for a short while. The match I saw yesterday had plenty of scoring in a 60-minute match., nearly 60 goals between the two teams, so I'm guessing a lot of scoring is standard in it.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/handball/index.shtml

Apparently that is a pretty popular sport around the world. I had never heard of it until I met an officer from Uruguay at work and he showed me some pictures of it. Some places it's second only to soccer.

The world has some pretty crazy sports. It would be cool if sepak takraw became an Olympic sport. It's like a cross between volleyball and soccer, but it's really only popular in southeast Asia. It's really something to watch.

[DaKineMaui 8]

Apparently that is a pretty popular sport around the world. I had never heard of it until I met an officer from Uruguay at work and he showed me some pictures of it. Some places it's second only to soccer.

Do you know what? You know who would be really good at Handball?

Yes. Eddie Van Halen.

He has very large manly hands, one of which is draped over my shoulder as evidenced below.

He would score 930 goals in his first game......in the first period.

[Cern 0]

The '04 basketball team clearly did not give a s***, and I think watching a disinterested bunch of whiners muddle their way to a bronze was far worse than this will be. And the only reason they won that bronze is because they realized they were on the brink of being the bunch of losers that couldn't even bring a lousy medal back home to the States. It would have been a label that stuck with them. Couldn't watch a game without looking at them and knowing most of them didn't want to be there. It sucked even though the "competition" was better. I like watching a team that's motivated. I don't care if that means the rest of the world is fighting for silver. I'm looking forward to turning on the TV in a few minutes and watching a seriously focused basketball team stick it to the Chinese on their home court.

Then what's the point of watching? They might as well just give them the gold now and not bother with an event with zero competition. I'd much rather see ALL teams be motivated because of a more even playing field rather than have only ONE team be motivated and everyone else not even trying because they're the only one in the running. Breezing to the gold by playing against university-level-plus-one-token-NBAer teams isn't 'focus', it's ridiculously mismatched pairings. It's like saying you're fascinated in spending hours on end dropping stones because they're guaranteed to fall instead of rise. In any case it does little more than contribute to the US-topping-the-podium-yet-again situation that for me equates watching the summer games with watching grass grow in the first place. They might as well make american football an olympic sport while they're at it.

Edited August 10, 2008 by Cern

[betterREDthandead 58]

Then what's the point of watching? They might as well just give them the gold now and not bother with an event with zero competition. I'd much rather see ALL teams be motivated because of a more even playing field rather than have only ONE team be motivated and everyone else not even trying because they're the only one in the running. Breezing to the gold by playing against university-level-plus-one-token-NBAer teams isn't 'focus', it's ridiculously mismatched pairings. It's like saying you're fascinated in spending hours on end dropping stones because they're guaranteed to fall instead of rise. In any case it does little more than contribute to the US-topping-the-podium-yet-again situation that for me equates watching the summer games with watching grass grow in the first place. They might as well make american football an olympic sport while they're at it.

All teams are motivated. If playing for your country in the Olympics doesn't motivate you, then you should go home. Which, incidentally, is what the US team ought to have done in 2004. If you think the Chinese didn't come to play today because it was practically a foregone conclusion, then I don't know what to say to you.

I would have thought 2004 and the US losing to Puerto Rico would make it pretty damn clear that all the talent in the world only takes you so far. Sorry it makes you so bitter that we're so damn good at basketball.

The point of watching is because it's my country on the world's biggest stage. Why shouldn't I enjoy seeing them do well?

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

I never knew there was such a thing as this 'handball'.

HOLY CRAP IS THAT BORING!

Not to me. I don't know what constitutes a foul or penalty in the game, and the objective seems pretty simple by just trying to throw the ball in the net, but I enjoyed watching it yesterday and was entertained.

[auxlepli 17]

I'm really digging the beach volleyball.

Earlier the NBC-owned networks were broadcasting basketball, football and water polo. All are basically the same game - just different surfaces and number of players.

[timothy1997 0]

I enjoyed the womens sabre in the fencing event yesterday. Amazing footwork they have to do in this sport. Nice to see team USA sweep the medals in that event.

Love the swimming so far. I cant wait for the track events to start.

[auxlepli 17]

The women's gymnastics is rockin. Lookin forward to the swimming too.

As much as I love watching the gymnastics, the judging of it is what I don't like.

[Cern 0]

All teams are motivated. If playing for your country in the Olympics doesn't motivate you, then you should go home. Which, incidentally, is what the US team ought to have done in 2004. If you think the Chinese didn't come to play today because it was practically a foregone conclusion, then I don't know what to say to you.

I would have thought 2004 and the US losing to Puerto Rico would make it pretty damn clear that all the talent in the world only takes you so far. Sorry it makes you so bitter that we're so damn good at basketball.

The point of watching is because it's my country on the world's biggest stage. Why shouldn't I enjoy seeing them do well?

If they do well on the basis of decent competition, fine. If they as you say clearly didn't give a s*** in 2004 and *still* manage to get an easy ride onto the podium, that to me doesn't suggest anything close to 'decent competition'. Other teams can 'come to play' as badly as they want, all the heart in the world isn't going to do much good when you have a team of all-stars play against people who might as well be at a high school level. That isn't a competition, that's a farce to the sport. I could do well arm-wrestling against five-year-olds, does that mean I should be practically wetting my pants with fake anticipation as though there's any remote chance of me not winning?

Golf is not a sport.

I see someone has yet to encounter the subtle art of SPEED GOLF.

Edited August 11, 2008 by Cern

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

The women's gymnastics is rockin. Lookin forward to the swimming too.

As much as I love watching the gymnastics, the judging of it is what I don't like.

My brother said the same thing while I was eating dinner at his place tonight.

I dunno, what can you do though. If there were no judges or referees though and you called your own score or fouls in basketball or penalties in hockey, there would be so much bias in that perspective.

Judges and referees are needed for better or worse to try to maintain neutrality of calls without bias, although we all know no match or game will be called perfectly. And I won't 100% completely dismiss that judges and referees might show bias or favoritism in certain instances (i.e. NBA betting scandal recently), I don't like reaching that far in the cookie jar looking for excuses like that and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, etc. etc.

[betterREDthandead 58]

If they do well on the basis of decent competition, fine. If they as you say clearly didn't give a s*** in 2004 and *still* manage to get an easy ride onto the podium, that to me doesn't suggest anything close to 'decent competition'. Other teams can 'come to play' as badly as they want, all the heart in the world isn't going to do much good when you have a team of all-stars play against people who might as well be at a high school level.

Once again: Such a talent level was not good enough for gold or even silver in 2004. So apparently, all the heart in the world did some good for them after all. At least, it worked out for Argentina and Italy. Tell me, if the talent level is so unstoppable, what happened in '04?

Speaking of unstoppable, congratulations to Alain Bernard and the French on their silver medal in the 4x100 relay. I speak some French, but I didn't know that "smash the Americans" was French for "choke on the last length of the relay." Simply awesome.