You gotta love the Olympics - Page 2

janusz · 14 Aug 2012, 04:50 AM

Two gymnastics judges banned over errors.

As usual with judges' cock-ups , the story is hush-hush, with no names being named.

Tsunami · 14 Aug 2012, 06:48 PM

"errors" or "choices"?

The problem with gymnastics, artistic diving, dancing, etc ... is that not every judge has the same prefrence. If things were as easy as "one salto equals 10 points, one pirouette equals 5" you could maybe assure things are done fair. But as things are now, I wonder if the table showing the medals per country would look the same if the judges in those disciplines were different. I am by that not saying the judges were corrupt, but judges will not all give the same scores for the same movement or same excercise. It is not like a 200 meters sprint where everyone runs the same distance and the one doing it fastest wins the gold medal. The latter is easy to measure.

PS: Usain Bolt is off to my native Belgium soon for the Van Damme Memorial and he promised to try to again go for the records. That should assure a sold out stadium probably. He's gonna do a DJ set after the competition.
Shame Phelps is putting an end to it now, but I hope Bolt goes on until Rio 2014. By then he will be 30 and Blake will be 25 or 26 and more experienced. Should be a fantastic contest.

**Gankaku** · 15 Aug 2012, 05:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

Have to partially swallow back my words: one athlete from Belarus' athletics team had to return her gold medal as she tested positive on doping control.

I read about this today. OK So the new gold and silver medalists did get to be on the stand (they were the previous silver and bronze medalist) but that poor bronze medalist who now has silver got no stand recognition. That's pretty sad.

Tsunami · 16 Aug 2012, 12:16 AM

And the guy finishing 4th who in fact now has bronze, has not even been on the stand!

Sad. But well, one doping case on several thousands athletes is a success in days when doping rumours are so omnipresent.

I saw the final medal table in the paper yesterday. That US and China would be the dominating nations was no surprise (high population numbers and countries with a lot of emphasis on sports) but I am quite surprised to see how nations like Kazachstan and South Korea ended with a lot of medals. My native Belgium had only 3 (one silver and two bronze) while our neighbours The Netherlands (also a country smaller than the average US state and with only 17 million people) were in the top-15 in the medal standings! How can we score so badly while our neighbours, hardly any bigger country than ours, score so well? Even Cuba had 5 gold medals and was in the top 15 list while Belgium has a budget a lot higher for guiding athletes and providing them with good coaching and training facilities...

Some nations even ended up with 0. For example Israel, one of the best baskball nations in the European zone. Not a single medal. Spain, dominating soccer and basketball in Europe, had to wait until the last days of the Games to finally get their first gold medal and avoid ending up without any gold. Portugal, a sports-mad nation, had no medal at all I believe.
Meanwhile some countries with less than a million citizens collected several golds (Trinidad and Tobago for example had several medals including gold, while their total population is lower than the number of people in the Belgian capital district alone)

We must be doing something wrong... Is it wrong coaching or lack of staff to coach the athletes? Lack of funds for athletes to go professional and train sufficient time to have medal chances? Lack of scouting in youth sports games to trace talented players? The press anyway has been very negative about Belgium at the Games, and seeing how tiny and sparsely populated countries like Grenada ended up above us in the final medal table didn't actually help to calm down the press.

Of course there are some nuances. Why for example is rugby not yet recognised as an Olympic discipline? This could help some very tiny but rugby-mad nations like Fiji or Samoa to avoid ending up without any medals. And the soccer tournament where only 3 players older than 23 are allowed per team is also not exactly a good reflection of which nation is the true king of the sport.

janusz · 19 Aug 2012, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

I prefer the sports where you can really measure who is the best.

What about underwater hockey, wife carrying and gravy wrestling? They are staged at The World Alternative Games.

DrStrabismus · 24 Aug 2012, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

I saw the final medal table in the paper yesterday. That US and China would be the dominating nations was no surprise

Actually if you do the arithmetic the European Union got more gold medals than the US and China put together.

Tsunami · 29 Aug 2012, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janusz

What about underwater hockey, wife carrying and gravy wrestling? They are staged at The World Alternative Games.

The latter two sound hilarious

however I once saw an underwater hockey game on TV and it's actually quite serious as a sport and very demanding. More than other variants of hockey since the puck is constantly on the bottom of the pool and it requires a lot of strength and technique to pass it around on bottom of a pool. Spectators would sit next to the bottom of the pool and see the game through glass.

Yes; it is debatable whether a sport is Olympic or not. I mean, soccer is now an olympic sport and in the women's tournament the players can be any age; in the men's tournament only 3 players above 23 years old are allowed per team to avoid competition with the UEFA world cup. Rugby and cricket are played all over the world and are not yet an olympic sport. Imagine those were olympic sports and some small pacific atolls (eg Tonga, Fiji, Samoa -- all rugby focussed nations) would have a chance to win a medal. With cricket on the menu nations such as Pakistan and India would see their chances of winning gold medals increase a lot. Snooker is another one, it may not be "physical" but it demands a lot of focus and concentration and is played all over the world, so why is it not yet on the Olympics' list?

Anyways, Paralympics are going on now. As an autist and thus having a "disability", I am sad to see the media here pays zero attention to the paralympics. I hope to see a few neurodifferent athletes take a medal. I mean, somehow I'd feel proud if an autist would win a medal and prove what we're capable of.

I wonder what will happen with the infrastructure after the paralympics? I believe the Aquatic Center will be broken down except for the actual pools; and the pools would become available to the public. Nice, but why break down the stands rather than let people swim in the decor of the Olympics?
I have heard a local English professional soccer club will move into the Olympic Stadium to play its home games there from next year onwards?

janusz · 30 Aug 2012, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

Anyways, Paralympics are going on now [...] I am sad to see the media here pays zero attention to the paralympics.

You posted this remark on the 28th and The Paralympic Games started only today (29 August). So the zero attention you complain about was totally justified.

Tsunami · 30 Aug 2012, 07:46 PM

Well, true, the actual games started just now. But the last week the news reported nothing about the athletes our country is sending. In the regular Olympics, the athletes dominated the news already for weeks before the opening ceremony. The Paralympics ceremony received 2 minutes attention in the news, the regular Olympics opening ceremony was broadcasted live from start to finish.

I hope the media will at least show us some of the actual games. I think the Paralympics are extremely important, showing that a disability does not mean you cannot achieve your dreams in life. I think seeing the athletes can be very inspiring for others with the same disorder.

Positively: from those 2 minutes footage in the news, it seems the opening ceremony was taken very seriously and the stadium nicely packed. So that shows that a lot of people do take it seriously, which is very nice to see.

14 Aug 2012, 04:50 AM	#16
janusz The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: EU Posts: 4,945	Two gymnastics judges banned over errors. As usual with judges' cock-ups , the story is hush-hush, with no names being named.

14 Aug 2012, 06:48 PM	#17
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	"errors" or "choices"? The problem with gymnastics, artistic diving, dancing, etc ... is that not every judge has the same prefrence. If things were as easy as "one salto equals 10 points, one pirouette equals 5" you could maybe assure things are done fair. But as things are now, I wonder if the table showing the medals per country would look the same if the judges in those disciplines were different. I am by that not saying the judges were corrupt, but judges will not all give the same scores for the same movement or same excercise. It is not like a 200 meters sprint where everyone runs the same distance and the one doing it fastest wins the gold medal. The latter is easy to measure. PS: Usain Bolt is off to my native Belgium soon for the Van Damme Memorial and he promised to try to again go for the records. That should assure a sold out stadium probably. He's gonna do a DJ set after the competition. Shame Phelps is putting an end to it now, but I hope Bolt goes on until Rio 2014. By then he will be 30 and Blake will be 25 or 26 and more experienced. Should be a fantastic contest.

16 Aug 2012, 12:16 AM	#19
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	And the guy finishing 4th who in fact now has bronze, has not even been on the stand! Sad. But well, one doping case on several thousands athletes is a success in days when doping rumours are so omnipresent. I saw the final medal table in the paper yesterday. That US and China would be the dominating nations was no surprise (high population numbers and countries with a lot of emphasis on sports) but I am quite surprised to see how nations like Kazachstan and South Korea ended with a lot of medals. My native Belgium had only 3 (one silver and two bronze) while our neighbours The Netherlands (also a country smaller than the average US state and with only 17 million people) were in the top-15 in the medal standings! How can we score so badly while our neighbours, hardly any bigger country than ours, score so well? Even Cuba had 5 gold medals and was in the top 15 list while Belgium has a budget a lot higher for guiding athletes and providing them with good coaching and training facilities... Some nations even ended up with 0. For example Israel, one of the best baskball nations in the European zone. Not a single medal. Spain, dominating soccer and basketball in Europe, had to wait until the last days of the Games to finally get their first gold medal and avoid ending up without any gold. Portugal, a sports-mad nation, had no medal at all I believe. Meanwhile some countries with less than a million citizens collected several golds (Trinidad and Tobago for example had several medals including gold, while their total population is lower than the number of people in the Belgian capital district alone) We must be doing something wrong... Is it wrong coaching or lack of staff to coach the athletes? Lack of funds for athletes to go professional and train sufficient time to have medal chances? Lack of scouting in youth sports games to trace talented players? The press anyway has been very negative about Belgium at the Games, and seeing how tiny and sparsely populated countries like Grenada ended up above us in the final medal table didn't actually help to calm down the press. Of course there are some nuances. Why for example is rugby not yet recognised as an Olympic discipline? This could help some very tiny but rugby-mad nations like Fiji or Samoa to avoid ending up without any medals. And the soccer tournament where only 3 players older than 23 are allowed per team is also not exactly a good reflection of which nation is the true king of the sport.

30 Aug 2012, 07:46 PM	#24
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	Well, true, the actual games started just now. But the last week the news reported nothing about the athletes our country is sending. In the regular Olympics, the athletes dominated the news already for weeks before the opening ceremony. The Paralympics ceremony received 2 minutes attention in the news, the regular Olympics opening ceremony was broadcasted live from start to finish. I hope the media will at least show us some of the actual games. I think the Paralympics are extremely important, showing that a disability does not mean you cannot achieve your dreams in life. I think seeing the athletes can be very inspiring for others with the same disorder. Positively: from those 2 minutes footage in the news, it seems the opening ceremony was taken very seriously and the stadium nicely packed. So that shows that a lot of people do take it seriously, which is very nice to see.