Beijing Olympics thread

[HeatherC1212]

Originally Posted by TeamSelig

Sportscenter says that US gymnastics team are blaming olympic officials for distracting my new girlfriend before she went on and made those mistakes.

Not the team...it's the coach is blaming the officials. Those girls haven't blamed anyone for their competition and have all pretty much said that mistakes happen and that China had a better day and deserved the gold. I really do not want to see anyone blaming the girls for the idiotic things the coach (aka, Martha) is saying to the media. :thumbdown

[Jack Burton]

If Sacramone wouldn't have flubbed so bad the U.S. would have taken home gold. That's obvious and the reason excuses are being thrown around. She fell off the beam on her mount and then fell on her butt and later stepped out of bounds on her floor routine.

[HeatherC1212]

Originally Posted by Jack Burton

If Sacramone wouldn't have flubbed so bad the U.S. would have taken home gold. That's obvious and the reason excuses are being thrown around. She fell off the beam on her mount and then fell on her butt and later stepped out of bounds on her floor routine.

That is NOT the case at all. :thumbdown China started off with nearly a two point lead in the difficulty amounts with their start values, so even if the US and China had both performed perfectly, the US may not have won due to their start values being lower than the Chinese team's. Even if you add back the points from the USA's mistakes on FX and beam, the US was still in silver medal position. The girls definitely had a great chance to win last night but it didn't happen for them and I wish people would stop acting like silver is some sort of disease. It's still an Olympic medal and I'm sure any of those other teams would love to have it. The girls (Alicia aside who still seemed pretty stunned by what had happened but was seen smiling in pictures later) were smiling and happy to receive their medals last night. They won a silver medal in the Olympics and should be very proud of themselves.

[RBA]

Originally Posted by HeatherC1212

Not the team...it's the coach is blaming the officials. Those girls haven't blamed anyone for their competition and have all pretty much said that mistakes happen and that China had a better day and deserved the gold. I really do not want to see anyone blaming the girls for the idiotic things the coach (aka, Martha) is saying to the media. :thumbdown

In my mind the US won the Gold. Even with their mistakes. There is plenty of evidence that some of the Chinese team were and are not of the required age. That's cheating and the Olympic officials should have a full investigation.

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...832312,00.html

[Reds Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Blimpie

Holy cow....

Sorry to change the subject, but has anybody seen the video of the Hungarian weightlifter who mangled his elbow lifting 115 kilos?

Let's just say it has 'Theismanesque' qualities.

If anyone wants to see it here it is but this is not for the squeamish.


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=33a_1218642189&p=1

[Reds Fanatic]

Originally Posted by RBA

In my mind the US won the Gold. Even with their mistakes. There is plenty of evidence that some of the Chinese team were and are not of the required age. That's cheating and the Olympic officials should have a full investigation.

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...832312,00.html

There is no way that team is all 16. At least a few of them look 14 or younger.

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by RBA

In my mind the US won the Gold. Even with their mistakes. There is plenty of evidence that some of the Chinese team were and are not of the required age. That's cheating and the Olympic officials should have a full investigation.

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...832312,00.html

I wouldn't doubt it. There's talk about how they had more difficult routines, but sometimes I wonder if the preference for young girls comes not from any inherent physical advantage that they have, but rather the sport's conventional preference for young girls. Kind of circular thinking, but it seems like ever since Olga Korbut and Nadia Comenici arrived on the scene, gymnastics organizations sought younger and younger girls to be the next Olga or Nadia. Yet, it seems there are still a number of women gymnast still able to compete into their 20s and this year they've got a woman in her 30s for the German team. And consider that female acrobats exhibit incredible flexibility well into their 50s and 60s, it makes me wonder if flexibility is really an issue. Could it be that women gymnasts lose a lot of their flexibility from the injuries they suffer as young girls trying to compete at a high level?

That being said, I don't think they'll solve the age problem in women's gymnastics until they make fundamental changes to the sport that favor women over girls. In watching these Olympics, I've noticed the emphasis is on bendy flips and tricks with little focus on strength or grace. In fact, the parallel bars seem to favor smaller girls because they're so close together. The balance beam seems to put women with larger feet at a disadvantage as well.

What's the solution? I'm no expert, but I have a few ideas. Well, for one, they could do things like move the parallel bars farther apart to favor taller women. They could also change events to include some of the apparatuses used by the men (rings or parallel bars) that require more upper body strength. I think such changes would probably be more effective than an age requirement.

[TeamSelig]

Originally Posted by HeatherC1212

Not the team...it's the coach is blaming the officials. Those girls haven't blamed anyone for their competition and have all pretty much said that mistakes happen and that China had a better day and deserved the gold. I really do not want to see anyone blaming the girls for the idiotic things the coach (aka, Martha) is saying to the media. :thumbdown

Yeah same thing basically, just caught a glimpse of it. I don't think it is idiotic to make that statement, if true.

[Yachtzee]

I was watching boxing today and I was wondering, how long until they add MMA as an olympic sport?

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

I was watching boxing today and I was wondering, how long until they add MMA as an olympic sport?

I thought it was supposed to happen, on a trial basis, in these games? It's only a matter of time -- if they're going to add BMX, they simply have to add MMA, which is more of a sport by any reasonable measurement.

Oh yeah, and BTW -- the Pommel Horse is probably the stupidest event ever.

[SunDeck]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Oh yeah, and BTW -- the Pommel Horse is probably the stupidest event ever.

What makes you say that? I always thought it was kind of an amazing event.
Especially after I learned that it's "Pommel" and not "Pummel".

[michst]

Do you think the new scoring is more confusing or do you care?

[improbus]

Originally Posted by michst

Do you think the new scoring is more confusing or do you care?

It makes more sense because the gymnasts do routines of different difficulty. The athletes should be rewarded for doing more challenging routines.

[Chip R]

OK, Someone's bitter.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/new...ters&type=lgns

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

I thought it was supposed to happen, on a trial basis, in these games? It's only a matter of time -- if they're going to add BMX, they simply have to add MMA, which is more of a sport by any reasonable measurement.

Oh yeah, and BTW -- the Pommel Horse is probably the stupidest event ever.

I am going to assume you have never truly ridden BMX then. Not that I think either of them is a sport, but BMX racing is much more of a sport than MMA.