![]() |
Olympic Tracker - Coverage of the Games
So, it's Day 3. Here's a Day 2 Wrap up.
Some highlights: 1. Team USA swept the medals in Women's Sabre - Fencing for some serious swashbuckling. 2. The first African won a medal when Kirsty Coventry won a silver medal in the Women's 400m Medley for Zimbabwe. I wonder how she will be received back in Zimbabwe. Will Mugabe "honour" her? 3. China is choking already. The first medal to be lost by Du Li in Women's Rifle on the first day. She was the heavy favorite to win gold but choked and came in 5th instead. Seems like there is an awful lot of pressure on the Chinese athletes with so much riding on these games for them. I kind of feel sorry for them a bit. 4. Michael Phelps is just magnificent. 1 down, 7 to go. Apparently the Water Cube is a "fast pool" and records are being broken at a, well, record pace. Will Team France give Team USA its comeuppance? I like that the French called out the USA. Makes it more fun. 5. I like it when "smaller" or lesser known/popular countries win. It's always fun to root them on. Thailand won a gold - women's weightlifting Taiwan won a bronze Korea is powering through with 5 or so medals. 3rd in medal count Algeria got a bronze in Women's Judo Zimbabwe Uzbekistan North Korea 6. Touching moment - Russian and Georgian medalists hugging each other on the medal stand. Russia, Georgia medalists embrace despite conflict - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports What you? Anything catch your eye or touch your heart these past few days? Any events or teams that you are particularly interested in? |
Quote:
I really enjoyed the US vs. China basketball game. It was really fun to watch the highlight factory created by the Redeem Team. Also, this picture: http://deadspin.com/assets/images/de...wards_bush.jpg |
Quote:
|
To say that Du Li "choked" in women's air rifle is kind of a joke. She shot a 399 out of 400 going into the final. You needed a 397 just to make the final. She did drop an uncharacteristic 2 points in the final, but that was moot anyways. Katerina Emmons shot a perfect 400/400 and won the final with a 103.5. Nobody else stood a chance.
To even call Du Li a favorite going in is kind of a wash as well. There have been people at the collegiate level to shoot 400/400 air scores. Yes, it's a world class score, but many of the female competitors were capable of or have shot those scores, including Jamie Beyerle and Emily Caruso, both of whom I am friends with and have been teammates with in years past. I will agree that it was exceptionally difficult for her to have lost that event given the standards she was being held to. Women's Air Rifle is always the first event, so there is that prestige associated with winning the first medal of the games. |
Quote:
Oddly, Team USA, especially Men's Basketball has a distinct home court advantage as the Chinese seem to adore the Americans (which is really something considering it is a feeling that is not mutual. The Chinese are hated in the US) and cheer loudly and wildly for USA. I also enjoyed USA vs. China. What a charming game. Such a great crowd. The Chinese did well for about 2 quarters before the inevitable happened. It's touch to be Team China in basketball. They have improved immensely but still have a long way to go. -----Added 10/8/2008 at 11 : 24 : 29----- Quote:
|
So here comes my bi-annual rant against NBC and their Olympic coverage.
They scored a major coup in getting the Beijing organizers to re-schedule high profile events like swimming finals to be live for the East Coast, and thus in the AM for Asia. Which is great, I guess. Except that NBC has now screwed over the West Coast. Why, NBC, why?? The 4x100m men's freestyle relay has just happened, and it's probably not going to be on the TV here for another 2 hours. That's complete bullshit. Right now it's still the damn gymnastics preliminaries that are taking up the TV. The freestyle relay seemed exciting, as best I could tell from hitting 'refresh' on nbcolympics.com. Couldn't really get my attempts at proxy access to international TV feeds to work. Curse you, NBC. On the other hand, it was nice to discover that they have an all-basketball (as well as all-soccer) channel that shows everything live and without commercials. So I saw the US/China game at 7:15 in the morning, which was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday morning. Why can't NBC just show their primetime coverage live to everyone in the US? The Super Bowl ain't on tape delay for the West Coast. |
Aha... They seem to be showing a lot of womens beach volleyball here, which is (err) fascinating. It started raining on them also the other day, which made me wonder how the whole bikini + water thing was going to turn out.
On a more serious note, the womens cycling was incredible. Coming down the mountain in that rain just looks tough. Cycling doesn't normally interest me - but I give a lot of credit to those women. Gutsy performances (because it looked risky) and sheer hard work there. And on the cycling, I think this showed the city+scenery rather well. |
Anyone else find it funny that most of us cant be bothered to watch these sports otherwise but when its the Olympics we suddenly find an interest in say badminton?
Ive been watching this non-stop since Friday night. |
Quote:
I, for one, am really, really looking forward to watching table tennis. |
The Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay was spectacular to watch. I got up and cheered. I'm usually not a swimming fan.
|
The Olympics are on?
Just kidding. I knew. I have been watching a little here and there. Never at home, but out at pubs and stuff I will watch it, or when I am eating a fast meal or something. The TV doesn't get turned on often at home for TV stuff. I still can't believe that its a rule how small the bathing suits have to be on the volleyball players, I think that is pretty rude to the women playing. |
Quote:
I hadn't realized it had gone on to the US winning. I was fully expecting the red&white to vanquish all comers! |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I understand that ice can be slow or fast depending on the viscosity and humidity and such, but what makes a pool fast? |
Quote:
Besides...as much as I enjoy watching the gymnasts in the summer games, and the figure skaters and skiers in the winter games...every four years is about all the focus that I can dedicate. Quote:
Of course, in Omaha the fervor is still fresh from the team trials a month and a half ago. Hell, some of us even remember some names besides Michael Phelps. :lol: |
Quote:
2008 Beijing Olympics Event Schedule - Olympics Tracker - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com |
Quote:
Although I have absolutely no doubt that other factors come into play as well. That's just one that I remember from the team trials last month. |
I was wondering how a pool could be "fast" too. Amazing that the 5th place finishers in the 4x100m freestyle broke the old world record and didn't even medal. That was one hell of a race to watch!
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Day 3 Update:
1. The French Surrender!! All that trash talking and Le French choked! It's all about Michael Phelps and the "Quest for 8" now. What an amazing race. France had it, but as usual, waved the white flag in surrender. Great race. The Americans showed so much heart and conviction to pull out the win. Give the French some credit though, they lost with some dignity and sportsmanship. 2. Team Redeem - USA Men's Basketball trounced host China to a crazed sold-out crowd. I love this game because it was so much fun. China actually held pace for about 2-quarters before USA took over completely. What struck me most about this game is how much the Chinese love the Americans. This is refreshing especially in the face of so much anti-Chinese sentiment in the world and China hate in the media. I think Team USA definitely has home-court advantage for these games. 3. India wins first gold medal - BBC SPORT | Olympics | Shooting | Bindra claims India's first gold About time. These giants are conspicuously absent from the international sporting stage. They usually dominate field hockey having won 8 gold medals in the past. However, they won their first individual gold medal in the Men's 10 Meter Air Rifle. Congratulations India! 4. Olympic moment - Iranian athlete and Israeli hug it out. ESPN - Sporting gesture: Iranian, Israeli share hug after basketball game - Olympics 5. Olympic Moment 2 - Russian and Georgian athletes hug it out. BBC SPORT | Olympics 2008 blog Very touching and hopeful. With all the controversies and negative feelings that can surround the Olympics, I really enjoy these moments and stories. 6. China continues to choke - Big upset in badminton. Chinese doubles favorites upset by unseeded Japan. The immense pressure and stress of the ultimate big stage is unraveling some Chinese athletes. Surely more to come. |
Quote:
But, that is, I think, the spirit of the Olympics. That's what it should be. |
the deeper the pool, the greater the gravitational pull. along with the whole drainage are some of the reasons for the fast pool.
having spent a long part of my life in or around the pool either swimming or coaching, i can tell you that even the temperature has a lot to do with the 'fastness' the warmer the water the 'thicker' it feels when you swim in it. cold water feels a lot easier to slice through. not sure why but maybe some scientists can help out here. also, the warmer the water, the warmer the athletes get, the more they perspire the more they dehydrate. remember that all swimmers warm up before hand, and its not just a 50m race! |
Thank you for the insight, dlish!
|
The NYTimes has an article up right now that discusses some of the technological improvements that have probably led to the spate of world records at the Games, including the Speedo LZR Racer suit and the design of the pool:
NY Times: As Swimming Records Fall, Value Is Questioned Quote:
|
heres a news article i just read on the water cube about the fastness of the pool.
China's Olympic Swimming Pool: Redefining Fast : NPR Quote:
|
That's awesome! Thanks D!
|
Very interesting read, thank you!
|
snowy's article is close to complete in naming all of the different factors that go into the recent barrage of new world records. As I see it, we've entered a new era of swimming, where it cannot be compared to the years before it.
|
Quote:
"The US got lucky", and for me, the icing on the cake, "Experience prevailed over talent today, and I regret that," added France's Frederick Bousquet. And as for only paying attention to sports when they're on at the Olympics... where the hell can I watch televised badminton any other time of year? |
Day 4:
Wow, the Games have really been exciting so far and have exceeded my expectations. With all the hype and the controversies leading up to the Olympics, I almost didn't want to watch. 1. USA Swimming continues its dominance as Michael Phelps gets closer to completing his "Quest for 8". USA Swimmers grab another 3 golds, 2 silvers, and 2 bronze as they surpass the Chinese in medal count. 2. The Aussies are showing up in swimming now taking a gold and bronze. I was expecting more from them as they are annual swimming powerhouses. 3. Chinese Mens Gymnastics - Wow! Just wow! They are just incredible and mesmerizing to watch. I caught some action out of curiosity and am glad I did. US is hanging in there and exceeding expectations. China takes gold and US in a gutsy performance takes the bronze. 4. Damn, the South Koreans are fierce - screaming up the medal count in third place with a gold in shooting. Fun fact: There are 205 out of 203 countries represented at these Olympics. The lone hold out is Brunei which did not send any athletes. |
Quote:
huh? 205 out of 203? thats a diffrence of two, meaning there must be 2 countries not competing! *scratches head as for those damn aussies its their worst start to an olympics since atlanta. i was expecting a lot more gold by now. but credit to team USA. they've performed exceptionally well in the pool. and although i like phelps, ive always been an underdog man. 8 gold is a little greedy. do i want to see him make history? yeah you could say so... but my love of the underdog almost wills me to not want him win 8. so im gonna sit on the sideline and hope for another killer race like the 4 x 100m mens relay. |
Quote:
Australia is hardly an underdog though. Just a little quiet this year. Besides, USA was the underdog in the 4 X 100m relay as the French were heavily favored to win. |
I've never really watched swimming, but the past couple of nights, I jumped off the couch cheering. Especially after the 4 x 100...that was amazing.
I've only been able to watch swimming & volleyball so far. Oh, and the last bit of men's gymnastics. Considering how down everyone was on the US men after the Hamms were injured, the bronze was pretty cool. Women's gymnastics are tonight, yes? I haven't been able to catch any events, and that's usually my favorite. |
Update:
1. Talk about underdogs, little Togo (West Africa) won its first medal ever taking a bronze medal in Kayaking. Way to go Togo! 2. French Surrender, Part Deux Manaudou considering quitting - International Herald Tribune Quote:
3. Team Redeem continues its dominance by steamrolling Angola. Give Angola for playing it 'close" and only losing by 20 or so points. Team Redeem faces first real competition against Greece next. Let's see if USA will overcome its woeful outside shooting. 4. Team China almost pulls off upset of Spain only to lose it in overtime. China meets Angola next in a match of the no-wins. Angola upset China earlier this year by going small and using overwhelming speed and swarming defense. We'll see if China has learned any lessons and made adjustments. |
can i just take a second and say how much i hate nbc's coverage of the games?
it seems like it's always been this way, though: the ridiculously selective event coverage--the cheesy human interest stories--the cult of personality constructed around certain athletes---i would much rather see footage of international badminton, for example, than sit through tedious little biographies of x or y which seems to work under the assumption that unless the stupid biographies were there, i'd wander away from the tv and miss vital advertising. that said, i have to say i enjoyed costa's interview of george w bush. and io found the chinese men's gymnastics team to be astonishing. and i'll probably watch more of the coverage tonight. but jesus christ. |
And today, Iceland beat Germany in a men's handball game! Germany is the reigning world champion, so that's pretty impressive. This is the one sport in which Icelanders are good :).
Who knows, they might end up with a medal out of this... |
just out of curiosity is anyone taking advantage of the online viewing or the other channels besides nbc to watch anything?
I like the online viewing because you can rewind it and watch stuff that happened when you werent able to watch it the first time around |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I thought Croatia was the champs? Or maybe the best player in the world is Croatian? What other sports is Iceland participating in this year? I know they are pretty active for the Winter Games. Incidentally, the World Spa Championships are happening, in Finland I think. I bet Icelanders would be good at that eh? |
All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:10 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project