The Australian commentators were really funny - they had expected the Chinese diver to win, and so were treating it like a foregone conclusion. 'Til Mitcham scored 112.10.
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How angry was Cuban Taekwondo competitor Angel Matos? Angry enough to kick the ref in the face with the foot with a broken toe. Hrmmm.
[edit:
quote:"This is an insult to the Olympic vision, an insult to the spirit of taekwondo and, in my opinion, an insult to mankind," Yang said.
His behavior was unsportsmanlike, but wow, what hyperbole. Yang takes his martial arts very seriously. ]
Did any channel cover Taekwondo? I only get basic cable, and most of the coverage I've managed to catch has been running/swimming/gymnastic stuff. And youtube doesn't have any of it either. Posts: 80 | Registered: Jun 2007
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quote:Anyone else think it is an awesome sport or do most people agree that it isn't Olympic worthy?
I don't see why it can't be both. I think it's difficult to do, and has an entertainment value to it, but I don't think it should be an Olympic sport. If you read the article that I read, they were also talking about rhythmic gymnastics, which I also don't think should be an Olympic sport, along with a half dozen other sports that shouldn't count. And for that matter, I think half the categories, races, rounds etc within each sport should be eliminated as well. I don't think there needs to be 300 different kinds of swimming and track races. I don't think table tennis or badmitton should be in there at all either.
How long before Rugby and Lacrosse get added? I know Rugby is really more of an English imperialist sport, like cricket, but baseball isn't really something that goes beyond the Americas and Japan. I mean are we just adding EVERYTHING into the mix? Olympic Tag? I suppose that'll have two different medals though, because there will have to be one for Olympic freeze tag. Olympic marching band?
I don't think the sanctity of the games would be harmed one bit by cutting back a bit.
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posted
South Korea is also pretty crazy about baseball. Baseball teams are named after the companies that sponsor them: LG vs SamsungPosts: 80 | Registered: Jun 2007
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1. Thunder sticks: The quintessential American export.
2. Like 80% of the stadium is empty.
3. They have to bring those people dancing on the dugouts between innings to a baseball game here. And the Korean music too. It's catchy.
Edit to add: I stand corrected, I just looked it up and Thundersticks are actually Korean, and later gained popularity here. You'd think cheap, really loud annoying pieces of plastic filled with hot air would be more easily associated with Americans, but I guess not.
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quote:They don't even bother to learn Mandarin first so people might know what they're doing.
To be fair, it's not like that's just something you can check off the list. Do we have the banners? Yep. Flyers? Yep. Did someone remember to learn Mandarin? Yeah - Charlie picked it up last Tuesday.
Well, duh.
But they could at the very least, if they're not able to go in-depth in their study of the Chinese language and culture, hire someone to teach them a few key phrases in Mandarin. At least. As it is they're pretty obviously doing it just for the American media. As much as I sympathise with their cause I really don't with their methods.
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posted
I agree that they should cut the fat for the events, I'm just putting it out there. And I'm pretty sure that attendance rate is average for most baseball games, no matter what nationality.
...
FYI S. Korea [edit: men's] baseball team won gold yesterday.
[edit also: K-POP! So insidious.]
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quote:You'd think cheap, really loud annoying pieces of plastic filled with hot air would be more easily associated with Americans, but I guess not.
I take it you've never been to a Korean New Year party.
(I grew up in an area with lots of Koreans and as such have had a chance to partake of many Korean cultural experiences. Many of them are not at all what you'd expect...)
I got a kick out of watching the end of the baseball game this morning when the catcher got thrown out for arguing with the ump. We had the sound down and subtitles on so I could just look at him instead of listening to the commentators and it was funny how polite his angry gestures were.
I also got annoyed at the commentators. I am one of the people who actually needs commentary to follow a baseball game, and I didn't like missing half the action while they talked about yesterday's US game and how well the team did considering and blah blah blah. You're paid to talk about the game, talk about it already!!!
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posted
The US team sports had a HUGE night, and I'm very glad I stayed up to watch as much of it as possible. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh: Mucus, do you mean this literally, or are you being pithy?
Erm, maybe both? Anyways, I think that if someone associated with the Chinese gymnasts is cheating at some level or another than thats a shame. I also think that the type of protests I described are silly and ultimately probably counter-productive to the cause of bringing more freedom to Tibet (and possibly to China as a whole).
This is not to say that there is any connection or moral equivalence between to the two scenarios, or even to make a larger point about whether one should follow a just law. It just was the first example that crossed my mind associated with the Olympics where people would probably be better off just following the rules.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
This may not be the appropriate place to post this - but hey, I'm a proud mama.
My daughter had her first gymnastics meet of the competitive season and her team placed first. She herself won gold on the uneven bars and siler on beam. She came in 4th in the all-around, due to some lower scores on vault and floor (where I think she placed sixth and fifth, respectively.)
Regardless, winning gold on her favorite event has her really excited. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Congratulations - both to her and to a proud mother!
---
I can't wait to see the men's volleyball game tonight. My heart was in my throat just watching the scores last night; it must have been a crazy game. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:I also got annoyed at the commentators. I am one of the people who actually needs commentary to follow a baseball game, and I didn't like missing half the action while they talked about yesterday's US game and how well the team did considering and blah blah blah. You're paid to talk about the game, talk about it already!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I tell you one thing also, about announcing. I saw the synchronized swimming events, and they discussed how the Chinese hired a Russian coach, and that coach was shocked when a swimmer asked for "a weekend off" to go home and see her family whom she had not seen in 10 years.
Now, the announcer then went on to say something about what extraordinary dedication that showed. I'm sorry, that's not dedicated - that's sick and twisted. Girls leaving home and not allowed to see their families for a decade, and not getting one weekend off in that time - there's nothing admirable there. Nothing that should receive any type of positive comment from the announcers.
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
American news media appears to be claiming the US has won due to having more "total" medals but the Official Olympics website and for that matter historical precedent of every preceding Olympics games China has won due to having the most Gold medals.
The American propoganda machine at work.
Now if they had a score system of say a Gold worth 4, silver 2 and bronze 1 and totaled it up to USA having more points then fine, math doesn't lie but there doesn't appear to be the case.
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In my past experiences of watching the games - the overall medal count is usually what has been touted as the biggest achievement.
But, usually the person who wins the most medals is also the one who wins the most golds. In this case, it isn't.
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
No, its nearly always been which country has the most gold.
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I've been irritated with the news media here making a big deal of the fact that some of the gold medallists from other countries had Australian coaches (particularly in cycling and swimming).
'It's really a gold for Australia!' and so on. And of course no mention of the fact that a *lot* of the coaches for the Australian competitors are from different countries (diving, gymnastics, weightlifting and so on).
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: No, its nearly always been which country has the most gold.
I recall the total medal count as being the most important thing in the past, not the gold. Do you some some actual basis for making your claim?
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quote: The reason is due to a divide between the U.S. and the rest of the world. The U.S. -- actually its media, including The Wall Street Journal -- ranks countries by all the medals a team wins. ... The rest of the world ranks countries by golds. Silver and bronze are used only as tie-breakers. ...
The split has its roots in the early days of the Olympics and reflects the movement's evolution, from an organization that sought to eliminate nations' victories over one another to one that celebrates them. And while it's primarily a quirky point for most people, the difference in the medal tables arguably has its serious side too. Some see in the gold-first ranking -- which is unofficially endorsed by the International Olympic Committee -- one reason why countries have become increasingly ruthless in cutting funding for sports where they don't have a clear shot at a gold.
...
Raising the issue with the IOC does no good, Mr. Shvets says, because "they say it's not official. Everybody says it's not official." Yet despite that, the gold counts are sometimes prominently displayed. In Sydney in 2000, Mr. Shvets says, there was a tall tower in the Olympic area that showed the top medal-winning countries -- golds only. "They updated it every day," he says.
Beyond the frustration, a more serious issue is that the tables are taken seriously by sports officials around the world. Over the past few years, an array of countries, from Australia and Japan to France and Germany, have begun adopting policies aimed at gold. They have done so by cutting funding for sports that aren't likely to win gold. The German motto for this year's Games is "maintain 6th in Beijing and move to 5th in London" -- based on the gold-first tally. Funding is being tailored accordingly, according to German sports officials.
posted
Just to emphasize, this is not a new way of ranking the medals. From Mucus's link:
quote:As for the Associated Press in New York, it "has always aggregated it by total medals for as long as we can remember," said its sports-statistics editor Paul Montella. For non-U.S. customers, however, AP provides the gold-first table.
Blayne, perhaps you could cite some evidence that this is a new way of ranking within the United States?
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quote:Finally, I hope this kind of fudging the formality culture is lost in China. It really is bad for the development of the rule of law.
I mentioned it a few pages back, but age doesn't matter to the Chinese. The nearest correlation I can think of is how Americans don't care about gender. Chinese don't see the enforcement of age limits as a matter for the rule of law. Or, I think I may have compared it to highway speed limits before. In America, I know plenty of people who drive 7-9 miles over the limit who also say things like "it's too bad we don't enforce our laws more strictly."
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: American news media appears to be claiming the US has won due to having more "total" medals but the Official Olympics website and for that matter historical precedent of every preceding Olympics games China has won due to having the most Gold medals.
The American propoganda machine at work.
Now if they had a score system of say a Gold worth 4, silver 2 and bronze 1 and totaled it up to USA having more points then fine, math doesn't lie but there doesn't appear to be the case.
Blayne, I don't think you should even comment on anyone elses propaganda.
That being said, ALL of the American coverage I have seen has made a huge deal about the overall gold count as well as the overall medal count. Each time they mention the overall count, which is what most American's have always followed, they ALWAYS mention the overall gold count, with China in the lead.
Perhaps your problem is with your OWN preconceptions about the US. Just a thought.....
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
You can call us second place if you want, it doesn't bother me any. Considering the different approaches between the US and China when it comes to the Olympics, I'm totally satisfied with how we did (well, possibly excepting the implosion of US Track, but that's another fight for another day).
I don't have a problem losing to a country with four times our population who spends billions and billions on training and yanks kids from their homes to train seven or eight hours a day without seeing their families. If that's what it takes to win, I'll proudly take second place.
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With apologies for the quality, because I'm still learning about producing videos and uploading them to YouTube.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Random thoughts during the (annoying long) closing ceremonies (CBC broadcast) * Damn the preamble and associated retrospectives and stuff are boring, I should have checked the schedule to see when the actual ceremony starts * Well, I'm glad that Zhang Yimou is getting a chance to get ludicrous amounts of people doing random stuff out of his system. Maybe we won't have to see another Curse of the Golden Flower-esque CGI crowd spectacular * Mmmm, speech by in Mandarin with English and French tidbits * The end to the Olympic flame is somewhat bittersweet. It was fun to see the media focus on China in its flawed way in China and the associated blog tidbits and random documentaries. Still it will be nice to see Beijing/China go back to normal. * Ahhhh, finally some good and big fireworks to celebrate. If you're going to do fireworks you may as well use more explosives than probably exist in our military. Woo-eee * I feel kinda embarresed to say that I find that "Wo ai Beijing" song kinda catchy and fun (Wikipedia tells me that it involves Kelly Chen of Infernal Affairs, Breaking News (good) and Empress film (bad) fame) * Kinda too much singing but....
* Jackie Chan! Andy Lau! Karen Mok! Woooo! Hong Kong celebrity invasion!
Canada did decently, China topped the medal standings, and Hong Kong invaded the closing ceremonies at the last minute, screw medals. I'm satisfied Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
I love the Internet. A search for that song (mmm, erhu a-go-go) on Youtube gives as the top two results, Stephen Chow's very funny and subversive "From Beijing With Love" parody of James Band which is banned in China (heh) and the amusing "Sexy Beijing" series of webisodes.
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posted
I distinctly remember conversations I had in the '80s about why America kept track of the total medal count instead of the gold count, and specifically noted that it served to help promote smaller countries whose athletes might not win gold, but still deserved to be honored for their efforts. Reducing the medal count to the golds reduces the Olympics to a sporting event, which it most assuredly is not meant only to be.
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh:
quote:No, its nearly always been which country has the most gold.
Remember, guys. This is a question of history, and we all know who's right in those!
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: ... promote smaller countries whose athletes might not win gold, but still deserved to be honored for their efforts.
Technically, if you look at say the CBC medal table http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/ which is sorted by gold medals, the smaller countries that only won silver or bronze medals still show up in the rankings. After all, silver and bronze medals have to be used to break ties when two countries tie with the same number of golds, the smaller nations are just all "tied" with 0 golds.
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Good camera work, and I thought the music an excellent choice too. That beam routine was pretty neat, with the handstand at the end and the flip thing.
It's important to remember that the vast majority of girls who do gymnastics look like her - they are going to local meets, with only their parents there, and cheering on each other and having fun.
They won't ever be Shawn Johnson or Nastia Liukin, but they do it because it's fun and they love it.
For a first meet, Em did pretty good - a gold and a silver is not bad at all, but she told me on the way home she had lots of room for improvement. Which is what its about - pushing yourself to get better and go further and accepting disappointment and getting back on the beam when you fall.
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posted
Yeah, I saw that too. Frankly-and not just because I'm no fan of Cuba-I wonder if the penalties should not have spread beyond the athlete and the coach. I have to wonder if this sort of hot-headedness, poor sportsmanship, aggression, and childishness could have gone unnoticed by the rest of the Cuban Olympic group, or sprung up overnight.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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The more the merrier. One of the things the olympics has done in the past is helped spread regional sports around the globe. Just as an example: Beach volleyball used to be a south california, brazilian game. Its not anymore.
The games are one of the only times that many of these athletes have what is essentially their life's work recognized. I understand that most people NEVER do, but why take the opportunity away from some people who are getting seen? Its not like having Trampoline at the olympics actually reduces the amount of gymnastics or track you can watch, given the proliferation of olympic-carrying channels. hell, OXYGEN carried olympics this year.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
Belle- I think it is good for your daughter to not be Shawn or Nastia. Much more fun. My sister was not Olympic level, but she was dang good. She quit because it just got too much. She was expected to basically starve herself. She could barely keep up with school and they wanted even more hours at the gym. To pay for all the training she "needed" was putting my parents pretty deeply in debt. Lots of quit being so tall comments (cause she could control that and I think she is pretty short). And lots of injuries- mostly minor, but almost constantly one thing or another. At the higher levels, most of the fun is gone.
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posted
Great video Belle. Congrats on the gold and silver.
I miss the Olympics already. Hopefully I'll be able to see some of the Paralympics. I'm really looking forward to the Qual Rugby.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
scholarette, I agree. Our gym won't train elite level. Our coach it's just too hard and it becomes, as you said, no fun. His gym is only open three nights a week, and he won't train anyone on a tougher schedule than that. We also have no weigh-ins, or recommended diets, or any of that stuff. While it's certainly not cheap, it's comparable to other sports and activities - in other words, not outrageous.
It is supposed to be fun, and I've always told her the day it seems like a chore and not something fun, is the day we quit.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Beijing starts enacting the post-Olympic plans for venues:
quote: The NBA and private developers have been signed up to run stadiums and arenas. The Water Cube swimming centre, due to become a public pool, raised money by licensing its name for a bottled water brand. The Bird's Nest is taking bids from companies for naming rights.
...
The Bird's Nest will be the highest-profile test case for the city's ability to make them financially viable.
It has the advantage that it is the first big, modern stadium in a city where the main venue for rock concerts and sports has been the drab Workers Stadium, a 58,000-seat hulk built in 1959. But the new facility's huge size and potentially high user fees could put it beyond the reach of many events.
...
The Water Cube raised money by licensing its name for use on swimsuits and on bottled water made from Canadian icebergs.
Beijing began charting the venues' future almost as soon as it was awarded the games in 2001.
Athlete housing was designed from the start as luxury apartments, with swimming pools, tennis courts, coffee shops and shopping. Chinese media say units sold out ahead of the games for prices of $2,900-$4,400 per square metre, high even for Beijing's booming real estate market.
In an odd piece of timing Sydney is retrospectively caught doing "lip-syncing" with an *entire orchestra*:
quote: Eight years after Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics, officials with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra acknowledged their stirring performance at the opening ceremony was entirely prerecorded. And perhaps even more cringe-inducing for Sydney residents: some of the music was recorded by the symphony of rival city Melbourne.
And finally, an opinion poll on the results of the games as conducted in Hong Kong
quote: * (809 persons age 18 or over interviewed by telephone August 24-28, 2008 at response rate of 48.2%)
Q6. The Beijing Olympics are now over. Overall, do you think that the Beijing Olympics was successful? 1.6%: Very unsuccessful 2.1%: Somewhat unsuccessful 25.8%: Somewhat successful 68.7%: Very successful 1.7%: Don't know/hard to say
Q7. Which of the following is the most important standard by which you judge the success of the Beijing Olympics 4.9%: The number of gold medals won by China 57.1%: Beijing was able to complete the Olympics safely and smoothly 2.0%: The number of foreign VIP's attending the Beijing Olympics 31.1%: The media were able to report the Olympics and the situation in China 2.7%: Other 3.5%: Don't know/hard to say
Q8. Are you proud of China hosting the Olympics? 41.2%: Very proud 43.4%: Somewhat proud 12.9%: Not proud 1.6%: Not proud at all 1.0%: Don't know/hard to say
Q9. Do you feel that the Beijing Olympics has changed the image of China? 1.2%: Became worse 7.9%: No change 89.5%: Became better 1.4%: Don't know/hard to say
The highlighted bit is interesting since the gold medal winners will be sent to Hong Kong pretty soon in an alleged effort to influence the upcoming Hong Kong elections toward the pro-Beijing candidates.
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Congratulations - both to her and to a proud mother! ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Which is what its about - pushing yourself to get better and go further and accepting disappointment and getting back on the beam when you fall.
