You gotta love the Olympics

Tsunami · 9 Aug 2012, 01:42 AM

When the opening ceremony was aired, I was preparing for the worst. Damn, what a terribly boring ceremony with acts and artists that had NOTHING to do with sports at all. The only part of the ceremony that was somewhat interesting was when the athletes came in country per country, waving the flag.

Now, 1.5 week later I must say that other than the opening ceremony, I am enjoying the OG a lot. I am even discovering new sports that I am beginning to like

Before the Olympics I never saw a hockey game (regular hockey, not ice hockey) as it was never that popular and rarely in the media in the countries I have lived in. Now I accidently saw a game and found myself immediately liking it. I even programmed to tape the latest games to watch them entirely and am beginning to look up info on hockey clubs playing near where I live, hoping to attend a game in real soon.

Similarly with hand ball. I only saw occasional very short summaries on TV, but now that I see a full game or more lengthy summaries, I must say I like it!

I still don't think I would attend an athletics or swimming competition live in a stadium or pool. But must admit that when Phelps swum his last finals and when Usain Bolt was running, I was in front of the TV with a certain excitement. You suddenly discover sports, athletes you never saw live before, and the sympathising for certain countries you like makes you want to see their athletes with medal winning chances, even if you never really paid attention to their sport before.

Yes, I am enjoying the Olympics and plan for sure to attend a hockey game soon near my home city

I'll miss it when the Games will be over...

Best moments so far:
- Phelps beating every record that existed, winning an impressive number of medals. And saying this guy is very down to earth and overcame severe ADHD to achieve all of this. Big respect.
- Bolt shutting up the criticisers with an impressive 100 m run, even improving the Olympic Record underway.
- Andy Murray winning the men's singles in tennis. A Brit winning the gold medal at Wimbledon, and that just a month after he lost the Grand Slam at Wimbledon against the same opponent. He deserved that title so much and to win it so shortly after the disappointment of a month ago, to win that medal in his own country... He deserved that medal so much. The emotions spoke for themselves. (PS : it is nice to see the athletes cry during the receiving of the medal and the anthem -- nice to see sportsmen doing it for their country, for the love of their sports, rather than for the money)

Just a 5 or 6 more days and it's over

But must say, I enjoyed these Olympics a lot. I've always been an avid soccer and tennis fan but found myself discover some new sports I like, some athletes I never saw before but that immediately impressed me, and the emotions of the athletes is so nice to see.

Also, it may be a detail but still... When I see those athletes from countries like Central African Republic, Somalia, Ethiopia, ... Those people there live in poverty, but thanks to this event they get a few moments of pride, the athletes giving their nation and its people a day to celebrate. Can't help but saying that that makes me smile too, when something simple as a sports event can make an entire nation proud and make people happy even if just for a short while.

So here's some predictions for the final days... with the risk of making myself look like an idiot but
- Brazil wins gold in men's football, US in women's football
- Team USA wins gold in men's basketball
- Netherlands win gold in women's hockey, and I'd even bet on them in men's hockey too
- Bolt to also win the remaining races he'll run for the sake of becoming a true legend beyond anyone's doubt
- China to win the most golden medals overall

On to Rio but I'll for sure be in front of my TV for many more hours the remainder of this week

FredOnline · 9 Aug 2012, 02:08 AM

Only time I've (inadvertently) seen any of the Olympics is when I've tuned into a channel to watch a program, and because of the Olympics, the schedule is running late . . .

**Gankaku** · 9 Aug 2012, 09:02 AM

I love watching the Olympics too. What I hate (I have to hate something) is that NBC doesn't let you watch online unless you have cable. (We're one of the Cable-Cutter families!) We can get the Olympics on our tv via over-the-air antenna and they look awesome on our HDTV. We don't have a recorder though, and have missed a LOT of stuff.

I've gotten up as early as 3:30 a.m. here and have still missed stuff.

My husband wanted to catch the women's soccer games and hasn't been able to see the recent ones because we can't watch the old games freely. They're done! Let everyone see them. Why do you have to pay for cable just to see these games online? If you do have cable, it's likely you may have a DVR from your cable company as well and can tape what you want to see. Doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway you're right about Phelps being one of the greatest highlights of these games. These swimming competitions are about the only thing that sticks out for me this year. Gymnastics Gabby is cute and did great for team and all around, but she blew it last night (wobbly and whoopsie there was a little fall on the beam there). I loved seeing a bit of the martial arts and loved the kayak races. I hate the volleyball and have seen way too much of that recently and not enough of the other stuff.

robert@fm · 9 Aug 2012, 09:32 AM

Living as I do in London, I'll be glad when it's all over. Five rings to rule them all...

robert@fm · 9 Aug 2012, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gankaku

I love watching the Olympics too.

Did you get to see the tribute to 7/7 (our equivalent of 9/11) that was part of the Opening Ceremony? I've heard that at least some US TV companies edited that bit out of their broadcasts -- a disgustingly disrespectful idea (7/7 was the day after we won the right to stage the 2012 Olympics, and to my mind it's almost as if terrorism "doesn't count" unless it's against US targets).

**Gankaku** · 10 Aug 2012, 12:52 PM

Hi robert No I didn't see that. I honestly hated most of what I saw of the opening ceremonies. Sorry to all who loved it but it just wasn't my style, and I turned it off for a lengthy time (first time I've ever done that). I like really classy or cool ceremonies, and this one was not IMO. I did like Mr. Bean (funny!) and Paul McCartney, and seeing the Queen.

drew · 10 Aug 2012, 06:05 PM

Haha is this same take as joining Facebook.
The recruiter at companies that hear that
one don't look at the Olympics may think
that one is socially lacking skills to fit in.

that one are a misfit and loser or a sociopath something?

I don't look at them. Don't know why. I did look when
they have European something in Helsinki Finland.

DrStrabismus · 10 Aug 2012, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsunami

When the opening ceremony was aired, I was preparing for the worst. Damn, what a terribly boring ceremony with acts and artists that had NOTHING to do with sports at all.

They don't usually have all that much to do with sport, they mostly reflect the culture of the host city, and no-one is more East London than Dizzee Rascal.

I really enjoyed it, I expected to be embarrassed or bored, I'm not a big fan of mindless spectacle, but I thought it was witty, imaginative and the first opening ceremony that I actually found entertaining.

I loved the bit where they sneaked in the Anna Friel kiss - the first gay television kiss in many of the worlds more oppressive countries.

bramhall · 11 Aug 2012, 10:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrStrabismus

I expected to be embarrassed

Here is your chance, though not related to the opening ceremony:

Olympic officials completely missed the fifth throw of Germany's Betty Heidler and with no idea where it had landed, were unable to measure it.

SusanUKF · 11 Aug 2012, 10:51 PM

Here on the news there has been a lot of criticism of the judges, especially ones from a certain country. I have always thought some things are fixed, the pessimistic part of me I guess......

DrStrabismus · 12 Aug 2012, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bramhall

Here is your chance, though not related to the opening ceremony:

Olympic officials completely missed the fifth throw of Germany's Betty Heidler and with no idea where it had landed, were unable to measure it.

Not really. The officials are organized by the IOC. The responsibility of the local organisers ends with putting them in a 5 star hotel and giving them their own empty road lanes to the stadium. (And of course the IOC demanded a hotel on the opposite side of central London.)

Tsunami · 13 Aug 2012, 01:20 AM

As for officials: I find it hard to see sports like artistic gymnastics, artistic diving, etc being an Olympic sport. Not because they're not beautiful to look at, but because the judges base their scores on personal preference. What if one judge prefers a salto more than a screw-esque type of dive? The points are given based on preferences and that can decide whether one gets a medal or not.

I prefer the sports where you can really measure who is the best. Take running. Bolt outran them all, he ran the same distances as all others and crossed the finish first. Easy. Phelps had to swim the same distance in the same pool, and he arrived first. Clear winner. Cycling or canoeing idem dito: they all do the same distance in the same decor, and the one finishing first is beyond any doubt the gold medal winner.

In some sports, the difference between gold, silver or bronze could be the personal preference of a jury member.

PS Gankaku: here I also missed some stuff I really wanted to see. Whenever a local guy entered the competition, the TV switched to that, even if it interrupted the final of another discipline going on. I wanted to see the hockey games and suddenly, in the middle of the game, they switched to athletics because a compatriot had to run. When they switched back to hockey, I had missed 2 goals. I wonder why they don't use the different channels (only one channel here shows sports, the others show sitcoms etc) to show different Olympics events at the same time. The Games last just 2 weeks every 4 years so it's not like overthrowing the TV habits of a nation for a long time...

janusz · 13 Aug 2012, 02:35 AM

More stories about dodgy refereeing at the London Olympics, this time in boxing.

Tsunami · 13 Aug 2012, 04:10 AM

In the ladies' hockey final the game was partially decided by a referee error too. The Dutch ladies won 2-0 but the first goal came after a penalty corner that in its turn followed a foul on the midfield that was not noticed by the referee. If she had stopped the game there the Dutch could not have continued playing to get the penalty corner from which they scored. Video images are used in hockey but only for play in the goal area, not on midfield. I am not saying this made the Dutch ladies win, they were the better team, but it clearly broke the moral of the Argentinian team.

In the gymnastic swimming there's been some referee confusion too, one diver made a bad jump but was allowed to re-do it as the referee judged that the athlete was distracted by flashes from photo cameras.

I guess eventually all sports at serious (professional) level will switch to having video images helping the referees, but sometimes it requires a big referee mistake at a big tournament before the sports federation changes the rules to give the referee more help to make the right decisions.

Overall though, if we manage to sum up a 5-some dodgy refereeing cases ... knowing how many games have been done in the last two weeks, I'd say we cannot complain too much about the refs.

Still nice to see the emotions of the athletes. Some people would say they just do it for the money and all, but then if you see them cry out of joy when receiving their medal and hear their country's anthem... Apparently some of it still really do it for the love of the sport and their country.

And, a relief, so far no or very few cases or rumours of doping. Seems the Games have been very clean and honest with only very few scandals (and those scandals did so far not include doping, only 1 game in the entire Games has been sanctioned as a fixed result. A badminthon game I belief, with the athletes involved all suspended. Other than that 1 event, haven't heard of any match fixing or doping)

Tsunami · 14 Aug 2012, 03:34 AM

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.

Well, I guess one fixed game and 1 positive doping case is quite positive if you know the number of athletes involved. We talk about less than 0.01 percent caught on bribing or doping so far.

Well, the OG are over. Must say I miss turning on the TV and seeing live sports immediately.

9 Aug 2012, 01:42 AM	#1
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	You gotta love the Olympics When the opening ceremony was aired, I was preparing for the worst. Damn, what a terribly boring ceremony with acts and artists that had NOTHING to do with sports at all. The only part of the ceremony that was somewhat interesting was when the athletes came in country per country, waving the flag. Now, 1.5 week later I must say that other than the opening ceremony, I am enjoying the OG a lot. I am even discovering new sports that I am beginning to like Before the Olympics I never saw a hockey game (regular hockey, not ice hockey) as it was never that popular and rarely in the media in the countries I have lived in. Now I accidently saw a game and found myself immediately liking it. I even programmed to tape the latest games to watch them entirely and am beginning to look up info on hockey clubs playing near where I live, hoping to attend a game in real soon. Similarly with hand ball. I only saw occasional very short summaries on TV, but now that I see a full game or more lengthy summaries, I must say I like it! I still don't think I would attend an athletics or swimming competition live in a stadium or pool. But must admit that when Phelps swum his last finals and when Usain Bolt was running, I was in front of the TV with a certain excitement. You suddenly discover sports, athletes you never saw live before, and the sympathising for certain countries you like makes you want to see their athletes with medal winning chances, even if you never really paid attention to their sport before. Yes, I am enjoying the Olympics and plan for sure to attend a hockey game soon near my home city I'll miss it when the Games will be over... Best moments so far: - Phelps beating every record that existed, winning an impressive number of medals. And saying this guy is very down to earth and overcame severe ADHD to achieve all of this. Big respect. - Bolt shutting up the criticisers with an impressive 100 m run, even improving the Olympic Record underway. - Andy Murray winning the men's singles in tennis. A Brit winning the gold medal at Wimbledon, and that just a month after he lost the Grand Slam at Wimbledon against the same opponent. He deserved that title so much and to win it so shortly after the disappointment of a month ago, to win that medal in his own country... He deserved that medal so much. The emotions spoke for themselves. (PS : it is nice to see the athletes cry during the receiving of the medal and the anthem -- nice to see sportsmen doing it for their country, for the love of their sports, rather than for the money) Just a 5 or 6 more days and it's over But must say, I enjoyed these Olympics a lot. I've always been an avid soccer and tennis fan but found myself discover some new sports I like, some athletes I never saw before but that immediately impressed me, and the emotions of the athletes is so nice to see. Also, it may be a detail but still... When I see those athletes from countries like Central African Republic, Somalia, Ethiopia, ... Those people there live in poverty, but thanks to this event they get a few moments of pride, the athletes giving their nation and its people a day to celebrate. Can't help but saying that that makes me smile too, when something simple as a sports event can make an entire nation proud and make people happy even if just for a short while. So here's some predictions for the final days... with the risk of making myself look like an idiot but - Brazil wins gold in men's football, US in women's football - Team USA wins gold in men's basketball - Netherlands win gold in women's hockey, and I'd even bet on them in men's hockey too - Bolt to also win the remaining races he'll run for the sake of becoming a true legend beyond anyone's doubt - China to win the most golden medals overall On to Rio but I'll for sure be in front of my TV for many more hours the remainder of this week

13 Aug 2012, 04:10 AM	#14
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	In the ladies' hockey final the game was partially decided by a referee error too. The Dutch ladies won 2-0 but the first goal came after a penalty corner that in its turn followed a foul on the midfield that was not noticed by the referee. If she had stopped the game there the Dutch could not have continued playing to get the penalty corner from which they scored. Video images are used in hockey but only for play in the goal area, not on midfield. I am not saying this made the Dutch ladies win, they were the better team, but it clearly broke the moral of the Argentinian team. In the gymnastic swimming there's been some referee confusion too, one diver made a bad jump but was allowed to re-do it as the referee judged that the athlete was distracted by flashes from photo cameras. I guess eventually all sports at serious (professional) level will switch to having video images helping the referees, but sometimes it requires a big referee mistake at a big tournament before the sports federation changes the rules to give the referee more help to make the right decisions. Overall though, if we manage to sum up a 5-some dodgy refereeing cases ... knowing how many games have been done in the last two weeks, I'd say we cannot complain too much about the refs. Still nice to see the emotions of the athletes. Some people would say they just do it for the money and all, but then if you see them cry out of joy when receiving their medal and hear their country's anthem... Apparently some of it still really do it for the love of the sport and their country. And, a relief, so far no or very few cases or rumours of doping. Seems the Games have been very clean and honest with only very few scandals (and those scandals did so far not include doping, only 1 game in the entire Games has been sanctioned as a fixed result. A badminthon game I belief, with the athletes involved all suspended. Other than that 1 event, haven't heard of any match fixing or doping) Last edited by Tsunami : 13 Aug 2012 at 04:16 AM.

9 Aug 2012, 02:08 AM	#2
FredOnline The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Manchester UK Posts: 2,616	Only time I've (inadvertently) seen any of the Olympics is when I've tuned into a channel to watch a program, and because of the Olympics, the schedule is running late . . .

9 Aug 2012, 09:02 AM	#3
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,265	I love watching the Olympics too. What I hate (I have to hate something) is that NBC doesn't let you watch online unless you have cable. (We're one of the Cable-Cutter families!) We can get the Olympics on our tv via over-the-air antenna and they look awesome on our HDTV. We don't have a recorder though, and have missed a LOT of stuff. I've gotten up as early as 3:30 a.m. here and have still missed stuff. My husband wanted to catch the women's soccer games and hasn't been able to see the recent ones because we can't watch the old games freely. They're done! Let everyone see them. Why do you have to pay for cable just to see these games online? If you do have cable, it's likely you may have a DVR from your cable company as well and can tape what you want to see. Doesn't make sense to me. Anyway you're right about Phelps being one of the greatest highlights of these games. These swimming competitions are about the only thing that sticks out for me this year. Gymnastics Gabby is cute and did great for team and all around, but she blew it last night (wobbly and whoopsie there was a little fall on the beam there). I loved seeing a bit of the martial arts and loved the kayak races. I hate the volleyball and have seen way too much of that recently and not enough of the other stuff.

9 Aug 2012, 09:32 AM	#4
robert@fm The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: London, UK Posts: 4,681	Living as I do in London, I'll be glad when it's all over. Five rings to rule them all...

10 Aug 2012, 12:52 PM	#6
Gankaku Moderator Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Virginia, USA Posts: 3,265	Hi robert No I didn't see that. I honestly hated most of what I saw of the opening ceremonies. Sorry to all who loved it but it just wasn't my style, and I turned it off for a lengthy time (first time I've ever done that). I like really classy or cool ceremonies, and this one was not IMO. I did like Mr. Bean (funny!) and Paul McCartney, and seeing the Queen.

10 Aug 2012, 06:05 PM	#7
drew The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,626	Haha is this same take as joining Facebook. The recruiter at companies that hear that one don't look at the Olympics may think that one is socially lacking skills to fit in. that one are a misfit and loser or a sociopath something? I don't look at them. Don't know why. I did look when they have European something in Helsinki Finland.

11 Aug 2012, 10:51 PM	#10
SusanUKF Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 5,428	Here on the news there has been a lot of criticism of the judges, especially ones from a certain country. I have always thought some things are fixed, the pessimistic part of me I guess......

13 Aug 2012, 01:20 AM	#12
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	As for officials: I find it hard to see sports like artistic gymnastics, artistic diving, etc being an Olympic sport. Not because they're not beautiful to look at, but because the judges base their scores on personal preference. What if one judge prefers a salto more than a screw-esque type of dive? The points are given based on preferences and that can decide whether one gets a medal or not. I prefer the sports where you can really measure who is the best. Take running. Bolt outran them all, he ran the same distances as all others and crossed the finish first. Easy. Phelps had to swim the same distance in the same pool, and he arrived first. Clear winner. Cycling or canoeing idem dito: they all do the same distance in the same decor, and the one finishing first is beyond any doubt the gold medal winner. In some sports, the difference between gold, silver or bronze could be the personal preference of a jury member. PS Gankaku: here I also missed some stuff I really wanted to see. Whenever a local guy entered the competition, the TV switched to that, even if it interrupted the final of another discipline going on. I wanted to see the hockey games and suddenly, in the middle of the game, they switched to athletics because a compatriot had to run. When they switched back to hockey, I had missed 2 goals. I wonder why they don't use the different channels (only one channel here shows sports, the others show sitcoms etc) to show different Olympics events at the same time. The Games last just 2 weeks every 4 years so it's not like overthrowing the TV habits of a nation for a long time...

13 Aug 2012, 02:35 AM	#13
janusz The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: EU Posts: 4,944	More stories about dodgy refereeing at the London Olympics, this time in boxing.

14 Aug 2012, 03:34 AM	#15
Tsunami The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: in between the bright lights and the far unlit unknown Posts: 2,341	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. Well, I guess one fixed game and 1 positive doping case is quite positive if you know the number of athletes involved. We talk about less than 0.01 percent caught on bribing or doping so far. Well, the OG are over. Must say I miss turning on the TV and seeing live sports immediately.