You know, I for one cannot be cynical while the Olympics are on. In spite of all the horrible stuff happening in the world today, and all the money-soaked sketchiness of the IOC itself, the spectacle of the opening ceremonies as usual have got me fired up with internationalist sentiment. So let me say, to all my brothers and sisters from other lands...
I hope my countrymen win everything, but I hope yours - each and every one of yours - come in a very close second.
Let the games begin!
...
Seriously, though, I'm interested to hear about everybody's experiences and interests with the Olympics, especially non-Americans. Here in the States, it's basically going to be wall-to-wall swimming and gymnastics on our broadcast network, and internationalist sentiment or no internationalist sentiment, a dude can only take so much of that. What are your country's strengths and its hopes? What awesome stories might be missed outside of your home media market? And what are your own interests? Personally, I'm probably going to stream some of the archery competitions since I shot a little in college myself, even though it's really not a good spectator sport, and the South Koreans are almost as dominant in it as they are in Starcraft.
WTF James Bond is real?
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
I started watching at the march of the countries, and though I enjoyed that part, was a little disappointed by most of the countries' outfits. A few countries (the UK, many of the African nations) impressed, but most seemed a bit routine. A fairly minor complaint however. And I really did like the rest of it: The bicyclists-as-doves looked beautiful, and I was happy to see Paul McCartney at it (though I suspect he only picked Hey Jude because it was a part where everybody can sing along too).
My own country played host to the previous Olympics, and as you'll no doubt recall broke the Gold Medal record for Winter Olympics then, so ideally a repeat performance would happen here. Though probably more famous for our winter sports (hockey especially), we tend to be pretty good at track and rowing. I myself enjoy a lot of the swimming competitions, and, being as I'm currently staying with American relatives, it would be churlish not to throw your countrymen some support, since that's your big hope this time around. It's like a Presidential election. I always want the candidate to win their own state, even if I don't support him.
That said, nothing beats the sheer thrill of boxing or judo. I'll try and fit those in.
something i heard last night during the march of nations was the fact that Great Britain hasn't had a soccer (football) Olympic team since the 1960 games. I never knew that.
I'm guessing it's because the soccer season is in full swing this time of year over there? and most of it's players opt out of the Olympics? anyone from England here care to help me figure this out? lol
I love opening ceremonies... And the thing that always gets me is the athletes are always carrying little digital cameras! It just let's you realize just how special it must be for most of them... Like they need to take their own pics... As if they were on this vacation cruise or soemthing! Or summer camp! Like so many of the athletes are kids. Imagine yourself walking in that stadium with your country's flag, you can just throw yourself into the participants' shoes during the opening parade...
You're super lucky if your event is early and you can get it out of the way and enjoy the Olympic village and take it all in! But if your event is late, you have to stay focused and on diet and training regimen, what a drag...
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I love track and field... Swimming... Decathlon... Gymnastics... Diving... I do like archery... Korean dude is legally blind and competes without glasses (aims at the middle of the BLUR, I **** you not) and just broke the world record in preliminaries.
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Oh, first controversy of the games. The Canadian judge screwed the pooch and DQ'd korea's Park Tae Hwan (gold medal favorite) in a preliminary of the 400 meter free. 400 meter! Park won his heat by a country mile, and video shows no foul. Everybody's looking at video and nobody can figure oh what the Canadian judge DQ'd him for. If anything lane 3 is moving before the start, and Judge might have mixed up lanes. I would like to know what the ruling actually is, but of course we don't even get that. Park took it graciously afterward saying he has to talk to his coach to figure out what happened.
Of course no video allowed on the appeal. Unbelievable. Well that sure makes my day for the Olympics... So much for a feel-good start to the games.
Yay! Reinstated!!! They corrected the mistake. It's one thing to lose a race. The 400m will be very competitive. All the swimming will be competitive this year, with Phelps and his huge story of going for the all time medal total, Park, Bochte, Cheh... swimming will be dramatic this year. It would have bummed me out to have to watch it all with a bad taste in my mouth.
It's another thing to not even participate because the Canadian judge screws up, and the Chinese judge decides to reflexively second him without even having seen a violation.
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
Also, the opening was terrible.
Watched some archery and soccer so far. Hopefully US can pull ahead of China...
Anyway, Lithuania here. And considering that basketball is considered to be a second religion here, that's the sport that we'll get to see the most. However, that doesn't mean we're any less interested in other sports. Being a rather small nation, we fully support all of our athletes equally. Some are really experienced and already have proven themselves (like the basketball team or the 2 gold medals winner in discus throw Virgilijus Alekna), others are just at the beginning of their careers (swimmers Giedrius Titenis and Rūta Meilutytė). Rūta is especially promising, since she's just 15 years old and yet just showed the best time in 100m Breaststroke Swimming quarterfinals. No matter how she fares in further stages of the competition, she's already made us proud. And the same goes for any other Lithuanian athlete. Events like this unify our nation (as well as the world) and that's why I like the Olympics so much.
The only thing that saddens me a bit is that it's summer and I'm stuck in a place with no Internet or cable tv. Thus, I get to watch only what's on national tv. So far it's been swimming, rowing and basketball. As I said before, basketball's a second religion in here, swimming has a soft spot in my heart (and now I also get to see Lithuanians compete in it), but the rowing's a bit too dull for me. I'll still watch it if it's the only sport on tv, but I'd like to see something else too.
All in all, as I saw somewhere else - "Olympics is better than Christmas"
Good luck to all the countries and competitors. :))
Have really only caught the womens 400 IM (swimming) so far. Damn Shiwen was incredible! Her final 100 in freestyle was absolutely incredible to watch, especially as a swimmer. I know I should be bummed that the US didn't win, but props are definitely in order!
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"Proving god exists isn't hard. Proving god is God is the tricky part" - Roommate
Was watching some of the women's gymnastics. Apparently they made a new rule that only a maximum of two people from each team can advance to the all-around final, as opposed to the best 24 gymnasts, which to me is a very strange rule. It became an upset when Jordyn Wieber, who is the current World Champion, was eliminated due to having a lower score than her two teammates.
This is one of those rules that just smacks of stupidity to me, and hopefully gets changed. A person who has a higher score should advance regardless of what country she's from.
Also, I'm interested in seeing how Phelps does this time around.
Fantastic 4x100 freestyle relay from the French men, inching out the US (payback for 2008), and congrats to the Australians who were fantastic as well. French and Australians really producing some fantastic sprinters in an area the US dominated before 2004.
Am I the only one who suspects the Chinese swimmers has figured out an innovative way for doping? He Shiwen's final split on her medley was faster than Lochte's!!! So many Chinese swimmers are finishing races so strongly, it's just ridiculous. And their prior history of cheating does them no favors...
I wonder what percentage of first generation Americans support their motherland over the US. I don't think there is anything wrong with this, just wondering.
Maybe I'll support England, Germany, Lithuania, Czech Republic, and Russia. Nah, that sounds like too much work.
I love the Olympics! I am a fan of more of the individual events. The head to head battle for the medals is what the Olympics is all about to me.
This is one of those rules that just smacks of stupidity to me, and hopefully gets changed. A person who has a higher score should advance regardless of what country she's from.
The rule was changed to this because in the past all around came down to a battle between the girls of certain countries. In the past we had years we had 3 and 4 girls going for all-around, I believe the it was either Russia or Romania that had the whole team shooting for all-around one year.
It is a screwy rule. Its one of those situations they are damned if they do, they are damned if they dont.
Am I the only one who suspects the Chinese swimmers has figured out an innovative way for doping? He Shiwen's final split on her medley was faster than Lochte's!!! So many Chinese swimmers are finishing races so strongly, it's just ridiculous. And their prior history of cheating does them no favors...
Was watching some of the women's gymnastics. Apparently they made a new rule that only a maximum of two people from each team can advance to the all-around final, as opposed to the best 24 gymnasts, which to me is a very strange rule. It became an upset when Jordyn Wieber, who is the current World Champion, was eliminated due to having a lower score than her two teammates.
This is one of those rules that just smacks of stupidity to me, and hopefully gets changed. A person who has a higher score should advance regardless of what country she's from.
Also, I'm interested in seeing how Phelps does this time around.
That was heartbreaking to watch. It had to be so awkward for the rest of the team, and you could tell -- they didn't know whether to console Wieber or congratulate Raisman. If you think about it, the rule is similar to the Olympic trials and only being able to send a certain number of athletes to the olympics in the first place...a country like the US or Australia could have 4-5 of the 12 fastest swimmers in a particular event, but only is able to send a few. I think it puts the focus a little more on the country rather than the individual athletes. In any event, it's a nice problem for the US women to have for the overall team competition. The US, minus the gaffes on the floor exercise, looked pretty strong.
I'm like the OP...I LOVE the Olympics (I prefer Winter to Summer), and find that I get fired up over sports that I otherwise don't even care about (go Dressage portion of Men's and Women's Equestrian! -- wait, why is that an Olympic sport?). In addition to swimming/gymnastics (which are the biggest), I do enjoy watching volleyball, diving, table tennis, and some of the track and field events. I'm not crazy about soccer (women are more exciting to watch in the US), and could care less about basketball, but I guess I'll watch the highlights.
Well, Brazil had their best Olympic day one ever last Saturday, winning one of each medal (gold/bronze in judo, silver in swimming), and finishing the day in 4th place. I have no illusions about making the top 10 this year, but it does make me confident about all the supposed effort being put towards a top 10 performance in Rio 2016.
It's too bad work won't let me watch most of the games. As always, I'm especially interested in swimming, volleyball, beach volleyball, judo, and athletics.
(I'm a big football/soccer fan, but the watered-down Olympic tournament usually fails to pique my interest too much.)
(I'm a big football/soccer fan, but the watered-down Olympic tournament usually fails to pique my interest too much.)
I know what you mean. When I heard about the existance of the Olympic football tournament (yeah, I didn't know that such existed until these Olympics ) I got really excited. Then I heard about the age(?) restrictions... I guess EURO2012 will have to be enough of football for me this summer.
I hope my countrymen win everything, but I hope yours - each and every one of yours - come in a very close second.
Let the games begin!
...
Seriously, though, I'm interested to hear about everybody's experiences and interests with the Olympics, especially non-Americans. Here in the States, it's basically going to be wall-to-wall swimming and gymnastics on our broadcast network, and internationalist sentiment or no internationalist sentiment, a dude can only take so much of that. What are your country's strengths and its hopes? What awesome stories might be missed outside of your home media market? And what are your own interests? Personally, I'm probably going to stream some of the archery competitions since I shot a little in college myself, even though it's really not a good spectator sport, and the South Koreans are almost as dominant in it as they are in Starcraft.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
My own country played host to the previous Olympics, and as you'll no doubt recall broke the Gold Medal record for Winter Olympics then, so ideally a repeat performance would happen here. Though probably more famous for our winter sports (hockey especially), we tend to be pretty good at track and rowing. I myself enjoy a lot of the swimming competitions, and, being as I'm currently staying with American relatives, it would be churlish not to throw your countrymen some support, since that's your big hope this time around. It's like a Presidential election. I always want the candidate to win their own state, even if I don't support him.
That said, nothing beats the sheer thrill of boxing or judo. I'll try and fit those in.
I'm guessing it's because the soccer season is in full swing this time of year over there? and most of it's players opt out of the Olympics? anyone from England here care to help me figure this out? lol
You're super lucky if your event is early and you can get it out of the way and enjoy the Olympic village and take it all in! But if your event is late, you have to stay focused and on diet and training regimen, what a drag...
-
I love track and field... Swimming... Decathlon... Gymnastics... Diving... I do like archery... Korean dude is legally blind and competes without glasses (aims at the middle of the BLUR, I **** you not) and just broke the world record in preliminaries.
------
Oh, first controversy of the games. The Canadian judge screwed the pooch and DQ'd korea's Park Tae Hwan (gold medal favorite) in a preliminary of the 400 meter free. 400 meter! Park won his heat by a country mile, and video shows no foul. Everybody's looking at video and nobody can figure oh what the Canadian judge DQ'd him for. If anything lane 3 is moving before the start, and Judge might have mixed up lanes. I would like to know what the ruling actually is, but of course we don't even get that. Park took it graciously afterward saying he has to talk to his coach to figure out what happened.
Of course no video allowed on the appeal. Unbelievable. Well that sure makes my day for the Olympics... So much for a feel-good start to the games.
Yay! Reinstated!!! They corrected the mistake. It's one thing to lose a race. The 400m will be very competitive. All the swimming will be competitive this year, with Phelps and his huge story of going for the all time medal total, Park, Bochte, Cheh... swimming will be dramatic this year. It would have bummed me out to have to watch it all with a bad taste in my mouth.
It's another thing to not even participate because the Canadian judge screws up, and the Chinese judge decides to reflexively second him without even having seen a violation.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/parks-dq-annulled-following-protest-145004832--oly.html
Also, the opening was terrible.
Watched some archery and soccer so far. Hopefully US can pull ahead of China...
Anyway, Lithuania here. And considering that basketball is considered to be a second religion here, that's the sport that we'll get to see the most. However, that doesn't mean we're any less interested in other sports. Being a rather small nation, we fully support all of our athletes equally. Some are really experienced and already have proven themselves (like the basketball team or the 2 gold medals winner in discus throw Virgilijus Alekna), others are just at the beginning of their careers (swimmers Giedrius Titenis and Rūta Meilutytė). Rūta is especially promising, since she's just 15 years old and yet just showed the best time in 100m Breaststroke Swimming quarterfinals. No matter how she fares in further stages of the competition, she's already made us proud. And the same goes for any other Lithuanian athlete. Events like this unify our nation (as well as the world) and that's why I like the Olympics so much.
The only thing that saddens me a bit is that it's summer and I'm stuck in a place with no Internet or cable tv. Thus, I get to watch only what's on national tv. So far it's been swimming, rowing and basketball. As I said before, basketball's a second religion in here, swimming has a soft spot in my heart (and now I also get to see Lithuanians compete in it), but the rowing's a bit too dull for me. I'll still watch it if it's the only sport on tv, but I'd like to see something else too.
All in all, as I saw somewhere else - "Olympics is better than Christmas"
Good luck to all the countries and competitors. :))
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Also, why pit them against each other instead of rooting for both?
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This is one of those rules that just smacks of stupidity to me, and hopefully gets changed. A person who has a higher score should advance regardless of what country she's from.
Also, I'm interested in seeing how Phelps does this time around.
Am I the only one who suspects the Chinese swimmers has figured out an innovative way for doping? He Shiwen's final split on her medley was faster than Lochte's!!! So many Chinese swimmers are finishing races so strongly, it's just ridiculous. And their prior history of cheating does them no favors...
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/30/world/asia/olympics-china-ye-shiwen-swimming/index.html
Maybe I'll support England, Germany, Lithuania, Czech Republic, and Russia. Nah, that sounds like too much work.
The rule was changed to this because in the past all around came down to a battle between the girls of certain countries. In the past we had years we had 3 and 4 girls going for all-around, I believe the it was either Russia or Romania that had the whole team shooting for all-around one year.
It is a screwy rule. Its one of those situations they are damned if they do, they are damned if they dont.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/30/world/asia/olympics-china-ye-shiwen-swimming/index.html[/QUOTE]
I was reading up about that. I'm REALLY hoping that these wins are legit though. They were so impressive to watch :3
That was heartbreaking to watch. It had to be so awkward for the rest of the team, and you could tell -- they didn't know whether to console Wieber or congratulate Raisman. If you think about it, the rule is similar to the Olympic trials and only being able to send a certain number of athletes to the olympics in the first place...a country like the US or Australia could have 4-5 of the 12 fastest swimmers in a particular event, but only is able to send a few. I think it puts the focus a little more on the country rather than the individual athletes. In any event, it's a nice problem for the US women to have for the overall team competition. The US, minus the gaffes on the floor exercise, looked pretty strong.
I'm like the OP...I LOVE the Olympics (I prefer Winter to Summer), and find that I get fired up over sports that I otherwise don't even care about (go Dressage portion of Men's and Women's Equestrian! -- wait, why is that an Olympic sport?). In addition to swimming/gymnastics (which are the biggest), I do enjoy watching volleyball, diving, table tennis, and some of the track and field events. I'm not crazy about soccer (women are more exciting to watch in the US), and could care less about basketball, but I guess I'll watch the highlights.
WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!
Rūta Meilutytė wins gold at 100m breaststroke swimming!! So excited and happy for her.
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It's too bad work won't let me watch most of the games. As always, I'm especially interested in swimming, volleyball, beach volleyball, judo, and athletics.
(I'm a big football/soccer fan, but the watered-down Olympic tournament usually fails to pique my interest too much.)
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