Official Olympics Thread

[BrewCrewForever]

I hope they actually have the USA vs Cuba semifinal baseball game on tomorrow morning. It starts at 5am our time. I hope I can catch an hour or so before I go to work. Would be sweet to see them win and get to go for gold on Saturday.

[Mike Felder]

This is a stupid question, but if someone sets a new WR in a speed event and they later test positive for a steroid, is that WR still recognized by any orginizations or does everyone pretend it never happened.

They are stripped of the world record. Probably the most famous example is Ben Johnson of Canada at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It's happened in recent years with American sprinters Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin. An entire US 4x4 relay team was just stripped of a world record from several years back because one of the members admitted to PED use.

 

I have always wondered what the record book would look like if testing was as stringent and methods were as sophisticated back in the day. The East German "women" still have several world records in track and I think a few in swimming (although I could be wrong about the last one).

[JoeHova]

The East German "women" still have several world records in track and I think a few in swimming (although I could be wrong about the last one).

So do the American "women" from that era. That's why I don't like to speculate about that kind of thing. Sure, there are reasons to believe many of the eastern bloc competitors were doping. There are also reasons to believe that the best American track athletes of that era (Carl Lewis and FloJo, in particular) were doing it.

[Jimbo]

If Vince Lombardi was coach of the USA track team, he'd be going "What the **** is going on out there? Grab, grab, grab, nobody knows how to grasp anymore." Strong words from the NBC crew.

 

Walter Dix must be the luckiest man in China now. Fifth man to cross the line and leaves the stadium with another medallion, a bronze to go along with his highly unexpected one in the 100m.

 

What's up with non-winners taking victory laps? When did that start?

 

Surprised NBC didn't hype the Merritt-Warner race more than it did. It's a headline rivalry in the publications us junkies read.

 

Beach volleyball doesn't have enough rallies. I prefer the indoor game.

 

The Russian women gymnastics team had plenty of face time in Athens. This year, non-existent.

[JoeHova]

As an aside, the East Germans were all women, at least at the time, as were the Americans. The IAAF and IOC introduced "gender verification" in 1966, partially because of persistent rumors involving Irina and Tamara Press, who had combined to win 5 golds for the USSR during the previous 2 Olympics. The sisters immediately retired upon the implementation of the testing. Gender verification continued through the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. There are still remnants of it today, but it's not mandatory for all competitors. Additionally, post-operative transsexuals are now allowed to compete in the Olympics if they've undergone at least two years of hormone therapy.

[bjkrautk]

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/08/20/1259253.shtml

 

Our hackers have Nastia Liukin's back. I have to at least applaud the IOC for allowing an investigation on these documents, rather than burying their head in the sand completely to the benefit of the host country (like they had been doing).

[fondybrewfan]

I don't know how the IOC or any other body will actually prove that the girl is only 14. Heck the Chinese Athletic Association and the Chinese Government were the ones who most likely forged all the documents. There investigation will go no where because in all likelihood all the documents they will look at aren't even real. The Chinese government will never let anyone find out because they would be a disgrace. Cheating in the biggest athletic competition in their history. Its not like a single athlete made a decision to dope, this would actually be the government forging documents, its like a million times worse. Can you imagine if the US did this?

[homer]

Surprised NBC didn't hype the Merritt-Warner race more than it did. It's a headline rivalry in the publications us junkies read.

As a former 400m runner I love that race. I'm also surprised it didn't get more hype.

[JoeHova]

I don't know how the IOC or any other body will actually prove that the girl is only 14. Heck the Chinese Athletic Association and the Chinese Government were the ones who most likely forged all the documents. There investigation will go no where because in all likelihood all the documents they will look at aren't even real. The Chinese government will never let anyone find out because they would be a disgrace. Cheating in the biggest athletic competition in their history. Its not like a single athlete made a decision to dope, this would actually be the government forging documents, its like a million times worse. Can you imagine if the US did this?

 

 

 

China has been falsifying ages in international competitions for awhile, the twist is that instead of making people look younger (to facilitate the winning of age-group championships), they've done it to fit their athletes into the idiotic gymnastics age requirement. The age-group cheating strikes me as worse, the cheating they're accused of now just seems like skirting an arbitrary rule, so I don't care at all about it. That said, looks like "good old-fashioned American complaining" (to quote The Simpsons, iirc) will carry the day again.

[fondybrewfan]

USA is kicking the crap out of Argentina right now 34-16 midway through the 2nd quarter

 

http://www.nbcolympics.co.../rsc=BKM400202/index.html

[jason21nl]

They were kicking the crap outta them. Until they stopped playing d, and making shots. They went to a zone, get Redd in the game!

 

ok, after Redd had no clue what to do with the ball, get Redd outta the game!

 

The Americans are getting out hustled, and stopped moving the ball, and keep firing up 3s.

[Patrick425]

The age-group cheating strikes me as worse, the cheating they're accused of now just seems like skirting an arbitrary rule, so I don't care at all about it.

I don't know the whole history of how the age limit for gymnastics came about, but I would hope that it has something to do with looking out for the welfare of younger children.I don't view it as being "arbitrary" at all.

 

Regardless if it's "arbitrary" or not, it's still a rule. I might view a speed limit in a certain location to be "arbitrary" and decide I'm going to go faster. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to be penalized if I get caught. I don't know how fair the Olympics or any sport would be if you allowed various competitors deciding for themselves what rules they deemed "important" enough to follow.

[Glennron]

Did Manu Ginoboli get hurt? He played 6 minutes...

[JoeHova]

Regardless if it's "arbitrary" or not, it's still a rule. I might view a speed limit in a certain location to be "arbitrary" and decide I'm going to go faster. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to be penalized if I get caught.

Fair enough. But would it be kosher for other drivers to call the cops and incessantly whine to them if you were going 5 over? If you think it would be, fine.

 

I think it's unseemly for the US (or anybody) to complain about getting beaten when they were clearly the #2 team. To me it would be like if the Lakers found out Rajon Rondo was actually 16 (making him ineligible to play in the NBA) and then whined and whined about how they should get to be NBA champions, even though the alleged cheating is really more of a bookkeeping thing than something that is giving an advantage. If anything, it's more impressive that those girls are supposedly 12 or whatever. If gymnastics has a problem with their best athletes being 12, they should change the rules (and not with an age limit) so that can't be the case. What other sport bans their best performers from competing? It makes no sense.

[statman0007]

I believe that the worry is that the body is not made for that kind of physical stress at that young of an age. Although, that claim has not been proven very strongly, so I do think that the age restriction will be taken away after this last fiasco.

[MJLiverock]

The age requirement does seem kind of arbitrary to me. Even if the they made it 16 because the governing body felt their young bodies weren't ready for the stress it hasn't done anything for the gymnasts. If you are going to be an Olympic gymnast at 16, you can bet that at age 12 these girls are still working just as hard as if they were going to compete at age 14. They still go to practice for hours a day, they just don't get to compete on the big stage just yet. They still risk injury, put in the long hours, abuse themselves, etc. almost all of these girls have been doing it since they were little kids.

 

I think they should just get rid of the age requriement if they can't enforce it or don't want to try very hard because I don't think it really protects anyone.

[craigharmann]

Did Manu Ginoboli get hurt? He played 6 minutes...

You mean you didn't hear the collective gasp of San Antonio Spurs fans earlier today? Yeah, he reinjured his ankle and down here in SA, people are very concerned.

[Jimbo]

What's up with the Brit taunting the Jamaicans at the end of the 4x4? Has he been holed up in a cave the last seven days? C'mon lad, it's just a semi-final! Who's with me and wants to see Bolt anchor the final Saturday, just to see him kick Rooney's bottom?

 

Thursday during the 4x1 warm ups right away I commented to my wife "Looks like the USA bibs were written in with a Sharpie. Bet one of the coaches screwed up." Kudos to NBC for following it up. Please refer to Coach Lombardi's quote at the top of this page.

 

We need more of Dwight Stones.

 

Saturday is Super Bowl Sunday (in China) for some of us. Who's up for a marathon? Pizza and pop and I'm all set. Brian Sell is my man.

 

Former UW great Matt Tegenkamp competing in the 5000 finals Saturday, broadcast (hopefully) Saturday night. Go Badgers!

[JoeHova]

I'd love to see Bolt anchor that 4x400 and I think that the Brit's taunting may have made that more likely, but I still don't think they'll do it. It's too risky, depending on how much Bolt has run that distance in practice. If he really hasn't done it much, they'd be risking him going out too fast and dying before the end of his leg. I know his coach said a couple days ago that he didn't want to burn him out at one meet.

[endaround]

Terrible umpiring in the bottom of the 9th in the Gold Medal game. Home plate ump looked like he refused to take any decision that might affect the game at the end leading to two walks that shouldn't have been and ejecting the Korean catcher with one out in the 9th.

[crewcrazy]

The age requirement does seem kind of arbitrary to me. Even if the they made it 16 because the governing body felt their young bodies weren't ready for the stress it hasn't done anything for the gymnasts. If you are going to be an Olympic gymnast at 16, you can bet that at age 12 these girls are still working just as hard as if they were going to compete at age 14. They still go to practice for hours a day, they just don't get to compete on the big stage just yet. They still risk injury, put in the long hours, abuse themselves, etc. almost all of these girls have been doing it since they were little kids.

 

I think they should just get rid of the age requriement if they can't enforce it or don't want to try very hard because I don't think it really protects anyone.

From what I've heard, the age requirement isn't to protect young girls from the rigors of gymnastics -- it has more to do with younger girls having more of a competitive advantage. Gymnastics has always been a sport in which it always benefits you to be younger than your competition...when you're younger, you're more flexible and you're lighter, allowing you to do the maneuvers more easily. When you're talking about young female gymnasts, you also add in the wildcard of puberty -- a 16 year old has to deal with wider hips than a 12 year old, among other things. When you hear the gymnastics experts talk about the subject, they also bring up the idea that when you're 12, you deal with the pressure of the Olympics a lot better, partially because you can't really comprehend how much pressure is there. That's not a theory that I personally buy, but I guess I could see how a 16 or 18 year old would second-guess themselves or would be more self-conscious of their performance.

[parkside21]

Did anyone see the Cuban Tae Kwon Do athlete kick the referee in the face after he disagreed with his decision? Yikes...I know nothing about the sport, but a lifetime ban is forthcoming I would assume? You can find not-so-great quality videos of it on YouTube, some with announcers and some without.

[TSack27]

Did anyone see the Cuban Tae Kwon Do athlete kick the referee in the face after he disagreed with his decision? Yikes...I know nothing about the sport, but a lifetime ban is forthcoming I would assume? You can find not-so-great quality videos of it on YouTube, some with announcers and some without.

Still photo on ESPN - http://sports.espn.go.com...3549913&story=3549903

[Mike Felder]

Yeah that was insane...although my (immaturely) favorite part of the story is that the governing body that's recommending his lifetime ban is referred to as the W. T. F. (World Taekwando Federation, of course).

[crewcrazy]

At the risk of SPOILERS...

 

 

...apparently a very good night for Team USA track tonight.