London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics - General discussion

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Lets go DPRK! Already 2 Golds!
 
A great day for team GB today..getting our first medals, mens football team winning comfortably and good results in the tennis, sailing, boxing and hockey...

..and Lewis Hamilton winning the GP earlier...proud to be british right now!! 👍
 
This American thinks Spoiler Text is indeed daft. If I don't want to be "spoiled", I won't visit the thread when I know an event that I want to watch will take place live during the day but not shown here until the evening. It's really not that hard, and spoiler text strangles the ability of posters to discuss the topics as they happen. Two cents.


The Women's Road race this morning was fun... Watched a bit here and there trough breakfast.

A gymnast was out and about tumbling to Shine On You Crazy Diamond!! Wow... I'd like to see that. Any links?

Spain out of the football... Good for Honduras I guess. What was with the Spanish acting like fools at fulmtime? I never get it... Arguing about a penalty not given - 10 minutes after it wasn't given and the match has been lost.

Childish! Argue right when it happened, take your yellow card and move on please.


A big tip of the cap to the Chinese Women. They have apparently purchased every Beatle wig for sale in London and as a tribute to the Fab Four, are COMPETING with the wigs on! Well done!!!! Cheers to the Chinese Women, Lovely Rita, Sexy Sadie, and the one who came in through the bathroom window.
 
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That gymnastics all-around rule seems like BS: only 2 gymnasts per country. Is that like affirmative action for less talented countries?


Once again today, an athlete or two failed to win a swimming event in 3 different Olympic games.
 
What?
 
Omnis
What?
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The 2nd one?

A couple of athletes have had the chance to win a particular event for the 3rd time during an Olympics game but failed.
 
ROAD_DOGG33J
That gymnastics all-around rule seems like BS: only 2 gymnasts per country. Is that like affirmative action for less talented countries?


Once again today, an athlete or two failed to win a swimming event in 3 different Olympic games.
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It is designed so that as many different countries can be represented as possible. If you just included the top 20, regardless of nationality, the gymnastics would feature 95% Chinese and former-Soviet country athletes. I dont have a problem with it, the best athlete should still win, it just makes the national trials more competitive in some cases(see Kenya, Ethiopia etc in distance running).
 
What are all your favorite events?
Im looking forward to the Gymnast and Tennis.
 
I'm loving soccer, women's more than men's because America kicks rear at it, swimming, table tennis, archery, diving, and basketball. I remember liking handball, but haven't seen any.
 
Blaze_409
What are all your favorite events?
Im looking forward to the Gymnast and Tennis.
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Swimming.

And I'd like to see arena cycling since I've not seen it before. :D
 
ROAD_DOGG33J
The 2nd one?

A couple of athletes have had the chance to win a particular event for the 3rd time during an Olympics game but failed.
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Stating the obvious much? Everyone that didn't win had the chance to win and failed.
 
I think he's talking about athletes who won gold in Athens and Beijing but didn't in London. Phelps and a Chinese swimmer have done that already.
 
Omnis
Stating the obvious much? Everyone that didn't win had the chance to win and failed.
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Sorry, NBC has been drilling that into my head. I'm not sure if that guy was Chinese, but I think he finished 5th where he won gold in Beijing. It's pretty interesting. Phelps will have another chance or two.

Barra333
It is designed so that as many different countries can be represented as possible. If you just included the top 20, regardless of nationality, the gymnastics would feature 95% Chinese and former-Soviet country athletes. I dont have a problem with it, the best athlete should still win, it just makes the national trials more competitive in some cases(see Kenya, Ethiopia etc in distance running).
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The gymnasts qualify for the all-around competition during the team qualifier in the Olympics. The best athletes don't always win and there's a big element of luck in gymnastics.

Blaze_409
What are all your favorite events?
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Gymnastics, swimming, weightlifting(not much coverage), and track, especially the team events for three of those.
 
ROAD_DOGG33J
The gymnasts qualify for the all-around competition during the team qualifier in the Olympics. The best athletes don't always win and there's a big element of luck in gymnastics.
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OK, I misunderstood your first comment slightly, but I think the limit still serves to stop a few of dominant nations making up the whole field of what, 8,12 athletes?
What is the element of luck?* The conditions are fixed. Sometimes the judging may be a bit :boggled:, but other than that, isnt it down to performing on the day? The only way I can see a win being lucky is if the other competitors all land on their backside (it happens)

*Genuine question, not having a dig at you. Gymnastics isnt my finest field of expertise.
 
My favorite of the not-as-popular games are Weightlifting, Judo, Wrestling, and Sailing.

Only dinghies and keelboats this time around though. Rio 2016 should be awesome with the new kitesurfing and Nacra 17 cats.
 
Barra333
OK, I misunderstood your first comment slightly, but I think the limit still serves to stop a few of dominant nations making up the whole field of what, 8,12 athletes?
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24 athletes

Barra333
What is the element of luck?* The conditions are fixed. Sometimes the judging may be a bit :boggled:, but other than that, isnt it down to performing on the day?
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Athletes can wake up on the wrong side of the bed, get injured, and I think that it's impossible for gymnasts to perform a routine to the same standard consistently especially with multiple events. These are the top gymnasts but you see them falling off the balance beam or not catching a high bar release.
 
ROAD_DOGG33J
24 athletes
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Gotcha 👍

ROAD_DOGG33J
Athletes can wake up on the wrong side of the bed, get injured, and I think that it's impossible for gymnasts to perform a routine to the same standard consistently especially with multiple events. These are the top gymnasts but you see them falling off the balance beam or not catching a high bar release.
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I dont see those things as luck.

Luck is something unexpected that helps or hinders you through no real doing of your own like in my link above, or this or this
 
What if somebody released a fart that wafted over to the balance beam and broke the athlete's concentration?
 
Watching the first Star race in sailing. Man, that looks hard as hell. Racing upwind in 31knot winds, the chop is crazy, and there are boats weaving in and out, crossing paths regularly while beating in different directions. Finns look fun but are just as treacherous since they're even closer together. So much tacking. I'd have knocked myself off the boat in a race like that. Watching sailing is slow but it's cool and kind of relaxing. Kinda like baseball lol.
 
I'm still pissed baseball has been voted out of the Olympics.
 
Yeah, well, Europe has so many things wrong with it that no wonder it doesn't appreciate baseball. I think the UK just didn't want to have to build any baseball/softball fields. Lazy limes. ;)
 
Omnis
Yeah, well, Europe has so many things wrong with it that no wonder it doesn't appreciate baseball. I think the UK just didn't want to have to build any baseball/softball fields. Lazy limes. ;)
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We do play it here, its a sport for 11 year old girls called rounders :sly:

Watched quite a lot of different sports yesterday like Air Pistol, Women's Gymnastics, Swimming, Football. The Men's Kayaking was pretty cool.

In the Air Pistol cannot for the life of me understand why they can't shoot the targets with ammunition or at least with rubber pellets or something, using a laser gun takes so much out of it.
 
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No coriolis effect with a frickin laser. Anyway, pistol is indoors, right? That's probably why they don't use ballistics. Don't want the crowd going deaf.
 
NissanSkylineN1
Lets go DPRK! Already 2 Golds!
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What? In what? Torture and famine don't count as sports.
 
Here's something related to motorsport and the Olympics that I just found. 2011 Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah is currently competing in the Men's Skeet Shooting. Now there's an unexpected connection between motorsport and the Olympics :cool:
 
Crash
What? In what? Torture and famine don't count as sports.
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Womens 56kg judo and Men's 56kg weightlifting. Something tells me the 5th of June or May 6th will be a new national holiday.

But I think Om Yun Chol just won because he's so tiny that he never had to cut weight to qualify for that weight class. And the bar didn't have very far to go of course.

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Of course, Kim Jong Un is going to want to eat up Om (nom nom) when they meet.
 
So Kateryna Palenkha is pretty hot. Archer from Ukraine.
 
Wow Australia just dominated the rowing.
 
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