Beijing Olympics thread

[SunDeck]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4582421.ece

Here's an interesting scene about um "activities" in the Olympic Village.

They've got nothing on Alberto Tomba.

[15fan]

More inept in 2008: Cincinnati Reds or USA Track & Field?

[Highlifeman21]

More inept in 2008: Cincinnati Reds or USA Track & Field?

That's easy. USA Track & Field.

At least with the Reds, we knew the hype was smoke and mirrors, whereas with our Track & Field athletes, they had impressive resumes coming into the Beijing Games, but have laid nothing but eggs.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Race walking. I think ping pong was the best thing I'd seen so far, but that has certainly been replaced.

[OldRightHander]

More inept in 2008: Cincinnati Reds or USA Track & Field?

USA boxing

[improbus]

Bolt strikes again. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But setting World Records in track is much more difficult than in swimming. Sure, Phelps set seven records. But there isn't a single record on the books that was set before 2001, and over half of the WR's were set in this Olympics. But, there have been 5 WR's set in track so far in Beijing: Women's Pole Vault, Women's Steeplechase, and Bolt's three records, the 100, 200, and 4x100. Unreal.

[Danny Serafini]

Race walking. I think ping pong was the best thing I'd seen so far, but that has certainly been replaced.

Someone on CBC TV (wish I could remember who) described race walking as looking like a sport invented by Monty Python. That cracked me up.

[Chip R]

Someone on CBC TV (wish I could remember who) described race walking as looking like a sport invented by Monty Python. That cracked me up.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16iNk1hLJt4

[TheOnlyRedsFan]

<3 Nastia Liukin

[Chip R]

South Korea beats Cuba for the gold in baseball despite Fidel's cousin behind home plate trying to give the game to the Cubans.

[OldRightHander]

Water Polo with the early 3-2 lead against Serbia.

[OldRightHander]

8-5 lead with 4 minutes left. US Water Polo can be in the gold medal game with a win here. And I seem to be the only person who cares. :dunno:

[Chip R]

I'm watching. 9-5 now with 2.5 left.

[OldRightHander]

It looks like a win. 10-5 with a minute and a half left.

[improbus]

8-5 lead with 4 minutes left. US Water Polo can be in the gold medal game with a win here. And I seem to be the only person who cares. :dunno:

Correct. While I appreciate how hard it is, I have the same feeling about Water Polo, Lacrosse, and Team Handball. There is just something in the mechanics of the sport that do not seem right. The midfield play in both sports is nonexistent, and it often looks like a bad college basketball game where the teams just pass the ball around the three point line for a long time and are afraid to move inside.

[OldRightHander]

You had a US team that wasn't expected to do anything and they're going to play for the gold. That is a story that I would expect to hear more about, but it seems that nobody is talking much about it. There's so much talk about basketball, but they were expected to do well. This is a real underdog story happening right now but because it's not in one of the high profile sports it's taking a back seat.

[Hoosier Red]

The announcer was overplaying it just a bit though. My recap of the last 5 minutes.
(Apologies for the Caps)
"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"THE US HAS HAD 3 COACHES IN 4 YEARS"

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

"THE US HAS HAD 3 COACHES IN 4 YEARS"

"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

[nate]

wrong thread, nm!

[OldRightHander]

The announcer was overplaying it just a bit though. My recap of the last 5 minutes.
(Apologies for the Caps)
"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"THE US HAS HAD 3 COACHES IN 4 YEARS"

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

"THE US HAS HAD 3 COACHES IN 4 YEARS"

"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

Bad announcing aside, that announcer seems to be the only one playing it up at all. He was a bit over the top, but it's still been a heck of a run by this team.

[OnBaseMachine]

South Korea beats Cuba for the gold in baseball despite Fidel's cousin behind home plate trying to give the game to the Cubans.

That's pretty shocking. I expected either Cuba or Japan to win the Gold.

[RFS62]

My favorite olympic sport is on right now.

Here's a heart-wrenching story about two competitors.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/mens-synchronized-swimming/1980340333

[ochre]

My favorite olympic sport is on right now.

Here's a heart-wrenching story about two competitors.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/mens-synchronized-swimming/1980340333
RFS has never been the same since he took those pictures at the theater of that one movie he went to see...

[westofyou]

The announcer was overplaying it just a bit though. My recap of the last 5 minutes.
(Apologies for the Caps)
"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"THE US HAS HAD 3 COACHES IN 4 YEARS"

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"THE US HASN'T MEDALED IN WATER POLO IN 20 YEARS"

"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

"THE US HAS HAD 3 COACHES IN 4 YEARS"

"the US team came into this TOURNAMENT RANKED 9TH IN THE WORLD. THEY ARE ABOUT TO UPSET SERBIA WHO WAS RANKED 4TH."

http://newfrontiers.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/gary_cole_with_jason_bateman_in_dodgeball.jpg

[OldRightHander]

A Kenyan is leading the marathon toward the end, and since I'm married to a Kenyan, this is the next best thing to an American winning a medal. I'm really pulling for the guy right now.

[vaticanplum]

Ok, who else expected the American men's volleyball win to be the most emotional of the whole Olympics? Yeah, me neither. It's a good thing the Olympics are over. I cannot handle much more of this.

[15fan]

Good for the whole team. But really good for Tom Hoff & Lloy Ball. They've been fixtures in the game for so long. They were two of the pioneers who legitimized the game in the midwest (Ball from Indiana & Hoff from Wisconsin). I can't even begin to fathom the hours that they've put into national team training & competition.

[HeatherC1212]

Ok, who else expected the American men's volleyball win to be the most emotional of the whole Olympics? Yeah, me neither. It's a good thing the Olympics are over. I cannot handle much more of this.

I wanted them to win SO BAD and I definitely cried when they showed them winning the gold medal. :D I think the part that really got me was when the one announcer was talking about Hugh McCutchon needing to take a minute to be by himself after the win and the announcer's voice cracked as he said that. That about did me in hearing that announcer get choked up too! :)

[Chip R]

How did the water polo team do?

[OldRightHander]

How did the water polo team do?

They lost the gold medal game 14-10, ended up with the silver.

[Chip R]

They lost the gold medal game 14-10, ended up with the silver.


Silver's good. :thumbup:

[15fan]

So, uh, bump for the 2022 Winter Games?

[KronoRed]

Sad that nobody really wants these games anymore.

[Raisor]

Sad that nobody really wants these games anymore.

I lived through it in Atlanta. It's just too much money.

[Yachtzee]

Sad that nobody really wants these games anymore.

The IOC is reaping what they've sown. If the IOC wanted western democracies to bid, they should have never realistically chosen Sochi or Rio to host Olympic games. They should have learned from Athens and even Montreal before then that building a whole Olympic site from scratch is a recipe for financial ruin. They had bids in the past for the Winter Games from places like Salzburg, Austria, Munich, and Oslo, each of which could host a Winter Olympics that could use existing facilities and infrastructure with a lesser need to invest in building new facilities from the ground up. Instead they chose host that required an exorbitant amount of investment to pull off the games and no one in a city with a democratic form of government is going to want to be involved.

If the IOC wants western industrialized nations to get back in the game, they need to start analyzing bids on a level of fiscal and social responsibility. Maybe if they looked at bids from a perspective of minimizing cost overruns and environmental impact, bidding on games might be more palatable to the public in Europe and North America.

[Chip R]

The IOC is reaping what they've sown. If the IOC wanted western democracies to bid, they should have never realistically chosen Sochi or Rio to host Olympic games. They should have learned from Athens and even Montreal before then that building a whole Olympic site from scratch is a recipe for financial ruin. They had bids in the past for the Winter Games from places like Salzburg, Austria, Munich, and Oslo, each of which could host a Winter Olympics that could use existing facilities and infrastructure with a lesser need to invest in building new facilities from the ground up. Instead they chose host that required an exorbitant amount of investment to pull off the games and no one in a city with a democratic form of government is going to want to be involved.

If the IOC wants western industrialized nations to get back in the game, they need to start analyzing bids on a level of fiscal and social responsibility. Maybe if they looked at bids from a perspective of minimizing cost overruns and environmental impact, bidding on games might be more palatable to the public in Europe and North America.

Perhaps they need rotating sites. Places that already have arenas and infrastructure in place - especially for the Winter Olympics.

[JayBruceFan]

Good point^

I also think that it's time to get rid of the bid process and just select a small number of rotating sites for each games. Choosing cities that have to literally build the facilities needed for every aspect of the games from the ground up is just a ridiculous waste of time and resources for the one time economic influx and whatever impact the exposure of the games may have on their tourism.

[15fan]

If done right, the facilities can be a huge legacy. Centennial Park has become a great area of Atlanta. It became the front door for the Georgia Aquarium amd the College Football Hall of Fame, among other attractions. The Natatoriun became a phenomenal recreation center for Georgia Tech. Every summer thousands of kids swim there at the culmination of the summer swim team season and it's hosting the NCAA swimming and diving championships this spring. It's also used by one of the elite swim programs in the city for the kids who want to put in the work to be college level competitive swimmers. The athletes village became the first ever dorms for Georgia State University, which has helped propel it from a 24,000 commuter student school to a school of 34,000 students, almost 20% of whom are living in on campus housing downtown, to a soon to be 50,000+ student school when Georgia Perimeter College is merged into it over the next year.

Those are just a few examples around here of where investment 20 years ago continues to give back and spur more investment.

[marcshoe]

Oops--wrong thread. I was looking for the Montreal Olympics discussion.

[cumberlandreds]

Perhaps they need rotating sites. Places that already have arenas and infrastructure in place - especially for the Winter Olympics.

I think that's the way to go. That way cities are just updating sites and not totally building new stadiums,venues etc...

Also does it ever snow in Beijing? I saw something that they will have to make all of their snow.

[Reds Fanatic]

I think that's the way to go. That way cities are just updating sites and not totally building new stadiums,venues etc...

Also does it ever snow in Beijing? I saw something that they will have to make all of their snow.

Yes I saw the place that will host the skiing events gets maybe a half inch to a couple of inches a year so all the snow has to made

[bucksfan2]

Yes I saw the place that will host the skiing events gets maybe a half inch to a couple of inches a year so all the snow has to made

The Birds of Prey downhill course in Colorado usually hosts a World Cup event in early December. Most of the course is made via man made snow. Not only man made snow, but troughs of ice, the skiers tend to like it as icy as possible. They end up blowing a ton of snow to get a nice base and then make troughs of ice to make it slick. For the December race, very little of the actual course is natural snow, heck they don't really like natural snow for speed races.

Now I think it is laughable to host a Winter Olympics in a city like Beijing and even worse to host downhill events on a mountain that doesn't get snow.

[WrongVerb]

Perhaps they need rotating sites. Places that already have arenas and infrastructure in place - especially for the Winter Olympics.

This is what I've been thinking: five locations for the Summer Olympics, five for the Winter Olympics, five for the World Cup, and five for the Women's World Cup. The events would rotate through each location once every 20 years or so.

But that wouldn't line the IOC and FIFA members' pockets with bribe money, so doubtful they'll ever consider it.

[nmculbreth]

Perhaps they need rotating sites. Places that already have arenas and infrastructure in place - especially for the Winter Olympics.

Indeed. Hosting the games (particularly the Winter Olympics) just doesn't make sense financially for the host city (or country) so they've basically become vanity projects for dictators and third world countries that are trying to project themselves as players on the international stage... So you're left with Summer Olympics in places like Rio, where the water is poisoned and crime is rampant and Winter games in Beijing, where it never snows.

[Chip R]

This is what I've been thinking: five locations for the Summer Olympics, five for the Winter Olympics, five for the World Cup, and five for the Women's World Cup. The events would rotate through each location once every 20 years or so.

But that wouldn't line the IOC and FIFA members' pockets with bribe money, so doubtful they'll ever consider it.

You're right but for the Olympics, there seems to be fewer and fewer cities willing to "do what it takes" to get the Games. It appeared like Beijing and Kazakhstan were the only two candidates and I doubt that anyone was seriously thinking about Kazakhstan hosting the Winter Olympics. A place like Colorado Springs would be great since there are already a lot of the facilities in place. For the hockey and figure skating, they can always go to Denver. I would think the Nordic nations would be able to pull it off as well.

[marcshoe]

Looks like Colorado wanted the games, but the US committee decided not to bid and concentrate on getting the summer games again instead. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/05/olympics-2022-usoc-to-pass_n_1650833.html

For some weird reason I thought I remembered Vail as a past host, but I went over the list, and Colorado's never hosted. We've had Lake Placid twice, Squaw Valley, and Salt Lake City. That's it.

[KronoRed]

Denver was going to host but refused the games in 1976

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31291/no-thanks-why-denver-turned-down-1976-olympics