Official Olympics Thread

[Jimbo]

You could hear people in my neighborhood cheer when the US won that 4x100. Unbelievable and SO much fun to watch.

 

Hmmpf, watched 6 or 7 hours of Olympic coverage Sunday and went to bed moments before the most memorable event.

[fondybrewfan]

I also went to bed before watching it. I can't watch video here at work but I will be going to the olypics website to see the replay, sounds pretty crazy. I didn't know this race was last night otherwise I would have stayed up to watch it.

 

Also Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh might be the best beach volleyball team ever.

[RU Rah Rah]

Nice comments from Mark Spitz about not being invited to Beijing. (Sounds like it's from The Onion, almost.)

 

US swim legend Mark Spitz won't be on hand in Beijing if Michael Phelps breaks his record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics-because, he says, no one bothered to invite him . . .

"I never got invited. You don't go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am," Spitz told AFP in Hong Kong.

"I am going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record anonymously? That's almost demeaning to me. It is not almost-it is" . . .

 

"They voted me one of the top five Olympians in all time. Some of them are dead. But they invited the other ones to go to the Olympics, but not me," he said. "Yes, I am a bit upset about it."

Now a stockbroker and motivational speaker, Spitz also thinks he could have won eight golds himself in Munich if only he had had the chance.

"I won seven events. If they had the 50m freestyle back then, which they do now, I probably would have won that too," he said....

Spitz thinks Phelps will succeed-for one very good reason.

"He's almost identical to me. He's a world-record holder in all these events, so he is dominating the events just like I did," Spitz said. "He reminds me of myself."

[eanelson4]

Agreed with everyone, that 4 x 100M relay was amazing. That was as good as swimming can get right there. Lezak was down a full length coming into the last turn. Go America!

[Glennron]

I never really realized how edgy some swimmers are about Phelps possible record. Ian Thorpe said Phelps wouldn't break the record, Spitz is trying to downplay the possibility of Phelps doing it, and France was going to "smash" the U.S. relay team. It seems like no one gives credit to him.

 

If there is a more physically demanding sport than Water Polo I would like to see it.

[Patrick425]

Ok, I have been out of town the last couple of days, but wanted to post some comments, questions regarding things I have seen in the Olympics.

 

1) Yes, the opening ceremony was unbelievable

 

2) I'm short and never could jump very high, so volleyball has never been a sport that I played or followed very closely. However, I found myself watching the USA womens team playing Japan on Saturday morning. I could swear that when we played volleyball in gym class in school, that only the team that was serving could score. Is my memory way off? Are there different variations of volleyball scoring? Did scoring rules change since I was in school?

 

3) Ok, this is going to show my complete ignorance when it comes to global geography and international politics. However, I'm watching the opening ceremonies with my son and the Hong Kong atheletes parade out into the stadium. My 10 year old son looks at me quizically and states, "I thought Hong Kong was a city?". I don't have an answer for him, because I thought the same thing. I know Wikipedia can give me some answers on this. However, even after reading Wikipedia, I'm not sure I understand and not sure how I cold explain it to my son. Same thing with Taiwan. Sounds like China claim they control Taiwan and Taiwan claims they are independent. So...which is it? How could there be any confusion or dispute over this (without an actual military settlement of some sort)? Wouldn't there be certain things you could point to that would make it pretty clear one way or another? I'm sure many people on this site who are smarter than me can help me clear the confusion without getting too political.

[PeaveyFury]

I could swear that when we played volleyball in gym class in school, that only the team that was serving could score. Is my memory way off? Are there different variations of volleyball scoring? Did scoring rules change since I was in school?

 

I believe there was a huge rules change around 2001 throughout volleyball that implemented 'rally scoring' that gives points regardless of who is serving.

[Katuluu]

Volleyball scoring rules changed about a decade ago. Now every game is rally scoring and you play to 25, except the 5th set which is to 15. They also have added a "libero" who is a player that always plays defense.

 

Hong Kong is both a city and a sovereign and autonomous entity. Chine provides security protection for them and covers foreign afairs, but Hong Kong has their own police force, legal system, money and several other things that I can't think of. At some point in time (2050?) Hong Kong will become a fully integrated city into the People's Republic of China.

 

The People's Republic of China (China) and The Republic of China (Taiwan) have been in a dispute over the island group known as Taiwan for about 50 years now. To add to the confusion the ROC used to also rule over mainland China up until the end of WWII, at which point the PRC came to power on mainland China while the ROC maintained power on Taiwan, which is what has led to the current conflict/confusion. Essentially when China became a Communist nation, the original government broke off from the mainland and declred sovereignty.

[Opey76]

Hong Kong, dating back to its time as a British colony, is what is called a city-state (at least as far as the olympics and some other things are concerned). They have relative political autonomy due to an agreement between China and the U.K. Edit: Katuluu beat me to it

[Jimbo]

I could swear that when we played volleyball in gym class in school, that only the team that was serving could score. Is my memory way off? Are there different variations of volleyball scoring? Did scoring rules change since I was in school?

Volleyball in the last ten years has undergone major fundamental changes in the way the game is played. No other sport comes close.

• A point is awarded on each play, including side-outs.
• Play to 30 vs. 15.
• Net serves are in play.
• 6-on-6 allows for an all-time defensive specialist that doesn't rotate out.

I'm sure hawing can come up with a couple I missed.

 

This started at the international level and has trickled down to the WIAA level, just to keep everything consistent.

 

 

 

[Katuluu]

Is it to 30 now? Man I can never keep pace with all their rule changes lately.

[statman0007]

Man, I wrote off the men's gymnastics team once the Hamms dropped out, but these guys are doing great. Hopefully they can give China a run for its money.

[owbc]

This was the first night that I got to sit down and watch the Olympics for more than 5 minutes. I was also very impressed by the men's gymnastic team--it was great that they managed to get bronze despite the losses. China was on another planet, though.

[NeedMoreFans]

For those who want to see it, NBC's website has video of the opening ceremony up, finally. It's divided into 3 parts, so you don't have to watch the whole thing...just parts of it.

 

I've loved watching these Olympics. Good stories, good events so far. I wish I had cable to watch them on the other stations, too.

[RU Rah Rah]

I'm totally impressed with the team bronze in gymnastics, given the injury situation.

 

Am I alone in finding beach volleyball really tedious?

[Barbs4339]

The reason for the change in scoring in volleyball is to keep the length of the games down. Without rally scoring, games were taking way to long that people stopped watching the sport altogether. So the scoring change was done to increase the fan base by having faster paced, higher scoring games.

[bjkrautk]

...am I the only one who thinks Synchronized Diving is lame?

[pitchleague]

what time are Phelps swimming finals tonight? How much Brewer game will we miss to watch? I can't seem to find the scheduled start times anywhere.

[logan82]

Are we there yet? I mean, are we done yet? The only thing I am really interested in seeing during the Olympics is the Canadian national baseball team play games.

[blatzlight]

what time are Phelps swimming finals tonight? How much Brewer game will we miss to watch? I can't seem to find the scheduled start times anywhere.

Bob just told us it would be on right after 9pm.

 

[pitchleague]

thanks blatz. I'm sure he'll give me an update on the other final, too. Much appreciated. (no, this is not sarcasm; I'm being genuinely thankful)

[RU Rah Rah]

...am I the only one who thinks Synchronized Diving is lame?

I am waiting for trampoline to appear one afternoon on MSNBC. (Although that might be pretty cool, actually.)

But, yeah, synch diving -- pretty low down on my list.

 

[valpocrewsader]

For those who want to see it, NBC's website has video of the opening ceremony up, finally.

...with more deception than you can shake a CGI stick at!

 

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/11/1541249&from=rss

 

...while an uglier stick Cyranos out of sight...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080812/ap_on_re_as/oly_china_lip_synched_song

 

...and NBC quietly alters realty and the fabric of time for good ol' Nielsen.

 

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/09/2231231&from=rss

[brewerjamie15]

Eat.

Swim.

Sleep.

 

Good luck dude. Your gold totals are amazing.

[craigharmann]

Yeah.....Phelps is amazing. Not much more to say.