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Thread: Beijing Olympics thread

  1. #166
    Joey Votto Fangirl HeatherC1212's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    I am SOOOO happy for Nastia and Shawn right now that I'm going to ignore how the judges were completely on crack for some of their scores tonight.

    I REALLY wanted Nastia to win and I don't think the fact that she's actually won has really set in yet! She was incredible and I'm SO happy for her! What an amazing night of gymnastics, much better than the men's mess last night! You go girls!!!! US goes 1-2 for the first time EVER!!!
    "I tried to play golf, but I found out I wasn't very good." -Joey Votto on his offseason hobby search

    An MLB.com reporter asked what one thing Votto couldn’t do. “I can’t skate or play hockey,” Votto said. “Well, I can skate ... but I can’t stop.”


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  3. #167
    Member improbus's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Is anyone else pumped for Track and Field?. I can only take so much swimming. The World Records are kind of a joke at this point because of the technological advances in their suits. This seems to be be the case less in track. There haven't been advances in shoe technology that have obliterated every record on the books. There are track records that have stood for a decade (and some long distance that have stood even longer). Swimming records last one race at this point.
    Variatio delectat - Cicero

  4. #168
    Making sense of it all Matt700wlw's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    I like our Russian
    Indeed.

  5. #169
    Mon chou Choo vaticanplum's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Quote Originally Posted by RBA View Post
    If that's your opinion, how do you explain them earning a silver? I guess they did not deserve that either.
    That's not an opinion; they choked big-time, with all of them falling apart progressively as the competition went on until all of them made major errors on the final apparatus (floor). For better or worse, they saved their best for the all-around competition.

    The reason pulled off the silver is because unfortunately the level of women's gymnastics isn't terribly high worldwide right now, and their poor showing still happened to be a lot better than all the other teams but one.

    They did great last night though. Their scores were fair. There was one routine by a Chinese girl that I thought was overmarked (on the beam), but the Americans were not undermarked. I called Nastia Liukin to win this a couple of years ago, because I am psychic when it comes to winners of any sport where the competitors wear blue eyeshadow.

    I'm ready for track and field too.
    There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.

  6. #170
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Quote Originally Posted by vaticanplum View Post
    That's not an opinion; they choked big-time, with all of them falling apart progressively as the competition went on until all of them made major errors on the final apparatus (floor). For better or worse, they saved their best for the all-around competition.

    The reason pulled off the silver is because unfortunately the level of women's gymnastics isn't terribly high worldwide right now, and their poor showing still happened to be a lot better than all the other teams but one.

    They did great last night though. Their scores were fair. There was one routine by a Chinese girl that I thought was overmarked (on the beam), but the Americans were not undermarked. I called Nastia Liukin to win this a couple of years ago, because I am psychic when it comes to winners of any sport where the competitors wear blue eyeshadow.

    I'm ready for track and field too.
    While I do agree the American women choked, I don't agree they all made major errors on floor. Only the first gymnast, Sacramone, fell (0.8 deduction). On the other hand, Johnson and Luikin only stepped with one foot out of bounds, which is an extremely minor deduction (0.1 deduction), at a point where the competition had already been decided based on start values.

    Nevertheless, if one fall coupled with several 0.1 deductions is used as the barometer for choking, then the Chinese also choked. The first Chinese gymnast on beam fell off, and the next two gymnasts had major balance checks throughout the routine (0.1 deductions each). The Chinese opened the door on balance beam and unfortunately the Americans couldn't come through, but the Chinese were not exactly the model of stability in the team competition. By the time they got to the floor exercise, their lead was enough so that the only thing they had to do was actually perform the floor exercise routine (even if they fell, it didn't matter).

    Also, I don't necessarily agree that the Chinese should keep the gold medal just because they had one less fall than the Americans. Based on my viewing, the difficulty score is the much more significant component of the overall score than the execution score, because the judges appear to be refusing to award anything above around a 9.5 in execution. This was very apparent on vault last night, when Luikin had absolutely no visible errors, yet received a very low total score because her vault wasn't particularly hard and a full half-point deduction was made in execution despite the fact that even Tim Daggett (gymnastic gold medalist) said that if he conferred with the judges he didn't think they could substantiate that deduction.

    So, if it's true that several members of the Chinese team are under 16, I think the key question is how much their start value would be affected. Conceivably, the Chinese are not putting allegedly underage children on their team for sport, but because they are the best gymnasts they have. If that's so, it would be interesting to compare how much the start value would be changed, and whether that would appreciably affect competition (and it's very possible it would - consider that one of the allegedly underage gymnasts has a 7.7 start value on bars).

    So, I'm not sure that I agree that the Chinese should not be stripped of their gold based on the fact that they had 1 fall rather than 2, and didn't step out bounds on floor (but again had numerous balance checks on beam), without considering start value at all, which appears to be the more important component of judging now.

    FWIW, I also think it's a tremendous advantage to be under 16 for several reasons. First, based on their extensive training, the girls likely haven't hit puberty yet, are shorter, and are more flexible. Second, and I think this is key, a young child of 12-14 years likely does not recognize the pressure to the same extent as someone who is 19-20, in my view.

  7. #171
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    That can swing both ways though. The 12 year old is facing pressure for the first time which can be good and bad.

    I think to let the Americans off the hook, they likely wouldn't have won even with excellent routines.
    Quote Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27 View Post
    Honest I can't say it any better than Hoosier Red did in his post, he sums it up basically perfectly.

  8. #172
    Member Jpup's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Natasia Liukin is my hero. She actually had me watching gymnastics and enjoying it. Amazing performance.
    "My mission is to be the ray of hope, the guy who stands out there on that beautiful field and owns up to his mistakes and lets people know it's never completely hopeless, no matter how bad it seems at the time. I have a platform and a message, and now I go to bed at night, sober and happy, praying I can be a good messenger." -Josh Hamilton

  9. #173
    Member Reds Fanatic's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Wow. Phelps wins again. It looked like he was going to possibly just finish 2nd and he wins by 1/100th of a second. Phelps swims 50.58 to just beat Cavic who swam in 50.59
    Last edited by Reds Fanatic; 08-15-2008 at 10:14 PM.

  10. #174
    The Future GoReds33's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    I can't believe my eyes. Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian ever, and it's not even close. That was the greatest race I have ever seen. As RF said, he looked like he was going to finish second, but a last second lunge pulled out the gold for him.

  11. #175
    Member SandyD's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    #7 USA women's foil team beat #2 Poland

  12. #176
    Member Reds Fanatic's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Interesting. The Serbian team is filing a protest about the end of the Phelps race. I am not sure what they can protest about the results from an electronic touch pad.

  13. #177
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Reds Fanatic View Post
    Interesting. The Serbian team is filing a protest about the end of the Phelps race. I am not sure what they can protest about the results from an electronic touch pad.
    I was just wondering the same thing. Any thoughts?

    FWIW, Cavic trash talked Phelps quite a bit before the race and said it would be good for swimming if he beat Phelps.

  14. #178
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Even as Phelps is getting his medal there are about 5 officials looking closely at a monitor to examine something about the race.

  15. #179
    The Future GoReds33's Avatar
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Reds Fanatic View Post
    Even as Phelps is getting his medal there are about 5 officials looking closely at a monitor to examine something about the race.
    Still, if it's a touchpad device, how can they overrule that?

  16. #180
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    Re: Beijing Olympics thread

    Forget the protest. The swimming officals are not even accepting the protest. The overhead cameras show Phelps touching first so it is official Phelps wins.


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