Beijing Olympics thread

[RFS62]

My favorite olympic sport is on right now.

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

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/me...ing/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/me...ing/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."

[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. 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.

[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.