Whether this belongs in Chat or whatever, please move accordingly.

So what do you guys think of it so far? Catch all of the opening ceremony the other day?

Although I'm somewhat against the Olympics being held in China due to.......well....their pretty awful human right policies, I was really impressed by the visuals of the opening ceremonies. I dare say some parts of it even went into gaudy and tacky, but it was still very cool to watch and look at. (Tis a shame that Bjork couldn't perform like she did in Athens. I mean, it would be bland to repeat performers, but I am a dirty slut for Bjork.) I was most impressed with the torch lighting, which was very visually appealing and creative. I mean, it should have. I'm sure PRC would've shot him if he effed up lols.

I spent a lot of my day watching the actual sports as well. Got to catch the USA vs. Japan volleyball game which was pretty intense, the sabre fighting that the US pretty dominated, and am now digging more into the Gymnastics.

At the opening ceremony, I kinda fell asleep while waiting for the Singapore flag to come out at the end xD but according to what we observe, there is one camera man that specifically pick out good looking people to put on TV and we were like : Aww that one is cute xD.

I watched the USA vs Japan volleyball game too and we noticed the coach of USA was from china xD she was the former captain of the china volleyball team D: and the USA team had an obvious advantage over the Japanese with that height >.< The Russia vs Italy was very intense too, the Russians were very tall O.O;;; Overall, it was nice xD.

We caught the Men gymnastic prelimary too, saw some of them fall from the high bar D: felt really dangerous.

I'm not really into this, but the only opinion I have on Olympic Games is that they should always be held in Athens.

I look forward to the Olympics every year and it's awesome so far and the opening ceremony was incredible. I'm really pleased that South Wales cyclist Nicole Cooke grabbed Britain's first gold medal.

Enjoy watching most of it but my favourite events in no particular order are:-
100 and 200 metre sprints
Weight Lifting
Boxing
Judo
Gymnastics

I think there's going to be Basketball match betweeb China and USA in a few hours. I think I'm going to watch that game. Picked up some snacks at the store earlier today, so I'm all set and hope it'll be an entertaining game. I haven't watched basketball in years. But I know that China has some star player who plays in the NBA.

Without starting a whole debate about human rights and the so called "humans" that tried to boycott a world wide event for their own sake, I can say I only watched the opening ceremony.
I was actually wondering if someone was stupid enough x'D.
I am also curious if Jackie Chan beated someone up. In an interview he said, if someone tried to steal the torch, he'd beat them up =D.

Anyway, the opening looked good, but that is all I have seen. I heard that the Netherlands drew 2-2 against the USA with football, so I guess we suck.

I should watch more really, as there are some interesting events taking place. I guess things just slipped my mind. =(

Lols everyone and their mama's are boycotting the Olympics, and for good reasons I'd like to think. Joey Cheek (ex gold medalist speedskater) got his visa revoked and wasn't allowed into China because he wanted to promote peace in Darfur.

The torch-stealing is bad way to protest though. :\ Although seeing clips of people trying to steal the torch from the runners were slightly humorous, I thought it was in bad taste when they tried to take it from a runner in a wheelchair. (Or, I believe she was in a wheelchair?)

There are a lot of interesting things going on! US vs. China basketball was interesting I heard, although I was asleep at the time. The swimming is interesting to watch, as is the gymnastics if you're into that. Over here all we get is the coverage of the US vs. China gymnastics and the US Swim team. (Michael Phelps of course, who is really kicking ass this year.)

About those human rights, USA hasn't signed them either. Trying to set a good example by not following it isn't the best approach, even if they have a different human rights system.

Anyway, I only managed to catch about 15 minutes of the basketball game. But my mom told me it was boring and that USA dominated.

Ok, since this is the olympic thread.... BOW DOWN TO JASON LEZAK!! GOD OF SPRINTING!!!!




Now, for those who didn't watch because you're not very smart people... France thought they'd just walk over us with their "world record holder" and stuff and said, "We're going to crush the Americans. That's what we came for". BUT OH WAIT!!! You forgot about the now GOD of all sprinting Jason Lezak and his fastest 100 freestyle relay split OF ALL TIME mowing down your precious "world record holder" and out-touching him by less than a tenth when he had a HALF A BODY LENGTH LEAD!!!!!! Jigga what??? Jigga who??? France just got flushed!!!! BOOOOYEA!!!!!!!!

Video:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.htm...hd_swb_hl_l0194

You know as well as I do, the Dutch are the best swimmers, bugger off Ferrell and your fake American swimmers!!

Dutch??? ummmmmmmmmm, right. Where were they in that finals??? Or where are they in most of the men's finals??? Oh wait... They had one top 8 finish in the women....

Pes, Don't be like the French and count your chickens before they hatch.

Ferrell, before you start trash talking, know your history. This isn't the first Olympics, you know.
Any decent swimmer knows about the effect Inge de Bruijn and van den Hoogenband had in swimming. Ignoring this shows how much you know =).

Besides, in general the Dutch are better swimmers. Maybe you now score better at swimming laps in swimming pools, but the Dutch are trained for extreme situations, in case our country becomes flooded again. Really, know your history, matey.

not really that interested in the olympics right now..

Voyou, there's football at least. I saw a bit of Germany - Turkey today. Only saw Germany scoring a goal. Not sure how it ended.

@pes: I know of those two afore-mentioned great Dutch swimmers. I'm talking about THESE olympics. If I was to talk about the past, I would have to say that Australia would have to be our other main source of competition. And also, the Dutch don't have the depth the United States has. If we were allowed to bring more than two people per event, we would have at least 3-4 people in the top 8 of every event. Amigo.

Sorry for double posting... but Shout out to Aaron Piersol, my Socal Homie who successfully defended his Gold Medal in the 100 backstroke by breaking his own World Record once again and Mat Grievers for getting Silver.

Also shout out to Phelps for now tying the most decorated olympians by SMASHING his 200 freestyle record by not one BUT TWO seconds and Natalie Coughlin for defending her Gold in the 100 backstroke.

Go USA!!!!

We(US - males) got screwed big time in the Gymnastics competition. I think they were being a little biased with scoring. No matter how perfect some of them were, they couldn't get over 16 points. Meanwhile the Chinese were getting near 17 points per player. Kinda bothered me.

Fair play to the US swimming team. I'm well pleased that Britain's Rebecca Adlington won gold in the women's 400m that was pretty great especially since she Brits were the heavy underdogs.



I thought the judges were of different nationalities? I got to be honest I personally thought the Chinese were better than the US in this event *shrugs*

very true but i dont have cable so i would have to go to someone's house to watch anything.

And I am talking about swimmers in general. As I said, Dutch are better swimmers for reason I said earlier. Besides, the amount of medals they earned are more impressive then yours, whether it is these Olympics, or 200 years ago.

Anyway, the Dutch are natural swimmers, just not many join in competitive swimming, as we considering swimming a pretty lame sport and only learn how to swim, because we have to, in case of said scenario.

I watched some swimming the other day and it was pretty much the same. Nothing extremely exciting. So far I haven't really seen much entertaining stuff so far. Hopefully I'll see some in the future, but who knows.

Go USA. *cough* drug abusers *cough*

If they're taking drugs, they sure are doing it sneakily cause all winners have to take a drug screening test after they get their medals. Or, so I believe. o___o

The US gymnastic guys weren't too bad themselves. I do agree that I was a bit puzzled as to why the Chinese were scoring so high, but then again they were usually doing different events at the same time so average scoring for each event could be different. The Chinese guys are pretty good though, they're graceful and their flips are pretty amazing. *o*

Men's synchronized diving was pretty cool to watch. Of course the Chinese obliterated the competition from what I saw. And I can see why, their hit into the water was always so perfect and well cut.



...and lols the 14 year old diver from the UK has ridiculous teeth.

The thing with athletes in America is in general they are trained to win. That is what it is all about.
When I was getting PA at school, there was this American teacher that had lived in the Netherlands for some time and explained that in America it is all about winning.
Hence there is so much competition in basically every sport they play.

I can see that. :\ Especially in men's swimming this year. Everyone is expecting Michael Phelps to have a clean gold sweep this year, and so far it looks like it. @___@;;; (IMO, his constant wins actually makes me a little bored to watch his races. They can be so drab sometimes because he wins almost every time. D: )

If you're saying "the judges were chinese so it's ok to give their own people higher points", thats what you call biased >_>.

Yea it's just my imagination. No one else feels that way, so I don't give a ##### now.

That's not what I said at all in any way shape or form. What I am saying is I don't understand your grounds for saying they are biased. Basically if they are different nationalities to keep scoring fair then I'm wondering why someone would deem them to be bias. The Chinese were just simply better to me.



I don't think they are on drugs but it is possible to cheat steroid tests. It's complicated stuff but there's fast actors slow actors etc that react and dissipate in the body at different rates. A lot of athletes have been known to hire doctors to cycle their steroid intake but every now and again there can be a slip up and the athlete gets caught.

There's also this whole controversy about how the little girl that was singing during the opening ceremony was actually lip syncing and another little girl was really singing but, wasn't cute enough to be on camera because she had buck teeth and a bad stage presence. Personally I have mixed feelings on the situation. It's bad for the original girls self esteem but really if you want to put on a big show everyone and everything has to be perfect. I probably would have done the same thing if I was in charge in this situation. Looks aren't everything but they do matter somewhat depending on what's going on. Plus that happens in the US all the time. We're more about looks and image than anyone else.

Article : http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/1...ref=mpstoryview

Phelps has eclipsed the title of God. He is now Ungodly. Definitely the greatest swimmer alive/ all time and debatable about the best athlete ever. I <3 phelps as a fellow swimmer.

Yeah Phelps is crazy. He's so humble too and just like a regular guy. He's not done yet either. I really feel bad for women's gymnast Alicia Sacramone though. =/

What happened to her?

I haven't really been keeping up with the olympics. Saw some of the USA vs. China water polo (US was in the lead at the time, 7-4 if I recall, don't know the final results) and some of the women's biking thing, but otherwise I've seen nothing. I'm more into the winter olympics anyway, personally, for snowboarding, etc.

Haven't paid much attention to the Olympics, there's too many swimming events at the start, nothing too exciting and I was watching the archery earlier which put me off the whole thing altogether.

The opening ceremony was something else though. Amazing! Shame about the whole thing with the girl being not pretty enough to sing, shocking really but not exactly surprising from China.

Phelps is probably the most outstanding part of the Olympics so far. I hope he gets his eight Golds.

Hey, just because a lot of track athletes got caught doping doesn't mean the rest of us do it.


It's a little different when you are a swimmer because you actually can comprehend the significance of what he is doing in the pool, not just seeing "hey, that guy has a lot of gold now" but how EXTREMELY GOD-LIKE his technique is while swimming.


No way, you were a swimmer too??? What were your strokes??? I did backstroke and distance free.

And being true to the HILARITY of Jim Rome, here's his take:



(Starting part of quote thanks to Shaq rest of the quote thanks to Jim Rome)

She fell on the balance beam. Here's the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiKDRj1qOyE

After that the in floor exercises her team started messing up by stepping out of bounds and then she fell again in floor exercises. They lost the chance at the gold because of all the mess ups. She blames herself and feels really bad for what happened and some in the media and a lot of people in the US will have a lot of negative things to say about her.

The video was taken down. =/.

But that's sad to hear though...It's a shame people will give her all that guff for it, too. Mistakes happen. But I guess that sort of goes into what Pes was saying earlier about how competitive the US is. I mean, really...The Olympics are just games too. Celebrate the winning team/person. >.>.

Basically confirms my point. It is all about winning and nothing else. The whole point of, enjoy the game you're playing is transformed into, you'll only enjoy if you're the best.
This is also why the USA have an insane amount of medals every Olympic Games.

Or maybe it does. It's always a maybe. But whose ass is China likely to kiss? This is politics. Sports is waging war peacefully.

Yeah it's a shame how US only cares about being the best. Hey 2nd place isn't bad. It means the the US women's gymnastics team is the 2nd best in the ENTIRE world. That's something to be really happy about. Yeah Alicia messed up but so did the others. They had a lot of stress because of the injures of teammates and the unexpected replacements and things like that. Considering all the problems a silver medal is wonderful.

Ok, now I must shout out props to Ryan Lochte for creaming Aaron Piersol and FINALLY winning his first Gold Medal in the 200 backstroke. Congrats man!!

For those who aren't in the know... Ryan Lochte swims the same events as Michael Phelps and Aaron Piersol. Lochte is the only person to have ever beaten Piersol in the backstroke, and he has never won a gold medal because of aforementioned athletes. Great Job once again man!!! Rock on USA!!!!

Also, in response to other posts, it's soooo HARD to even make the olympic team in the United States that it implies dominance over a lot of people. I know a lot of people who would be great for other countries, but live here. There's a ton of trials work that is done here for the olympic teams. I really don't know what it is like for other countries to make the olympic team, but it's really REALLY hard here.

Hence there is no fun in playing for the American team in the Olympics. Winning is all that matters. Screw the fun, the moment, the experience. Unless you're competing for a gold medal, there is no place for you in the team.

Note to Pessy: There's no PLAYING in swimming. You don't play swimming, you just swim. It's not only grammatically correct, it's just plain right.

It's not that we're all competing JUST for the gold, we're just doing our best. It just happens that the best for our country beats the best for other countries.

I agree although the Olympic are games every single athlete in there is obviously serious about what they do they train year in year out to be the best, and that's not just the US athletes. They clearly love what they are doing but to be considered the elite in their sport (which you have to be to make the Olympics) there really isn't much fun involved anyway with all the intense training, dedication, time away from their families, etc etc.



If you're talking about all events then I think this man would disagree with you (amongst many other athletes).



The US have an amazing set of athletes but they aren't the best at everything especially with China in the lead this year so far and even swimming as far Rebecca Adlington in the 400m freestyle is concerned.

Haa, ya got me there Cloudycat. I didn't mean that our best ALWAYS beat everyone else. I mean, look at Ping pong, or shooting. I just am saying that we have a very rigorous selection process for things like swimming and track that our top people always are in the top places (I mean top 8 usually).

And yes, all I do care about is swimming. I also care about any event that is just fun to watch like beach voleyball.

You're just being pedantic now. You know exactly what I mean/



You do compete for gold. As my old PA teacher explained, it is all about winning. Whether it is for the Olympics, or simply a school thing. Winning is what you're trained for.

And as cloudy pointed out, there are enough sports where America isn't the best. They are strong in many fields, but there are more than enough where America gets beaten.

WOW! Phelps just won the 100M butterfly by the length of a fingernail pretty much! I thought he lost it because it was waaay too close to call and I thought that they just gave it to him or something at first, but then I remembered that they use electronic touch pads so he really did win. Man that was close. So he now is tied with Mark Spitz.

UPDATE: The guy who came in second and his coach are petitioning for a review for the decision so no one gets any gold medal yet. I don't know how you can argue with an electronic touch pad but whatever. We shall see what happens.

Yeah, nothing wrong with the way the US finds and trains it's athletes that's for sure, Michael Phelps is living breathing proof of that the guy is awesome.

Speaking of Rebecca Adlington and swimming I just watched her win another gold medal and brake the (19 year) world record.

Go phelps! He is crazy to watch ahah. The Fly was a sick race for sure.

Funny thing about the guy who came in second. My senior year of High School, Milorad (cough MICHAEL) Cavic and Aaron Piersol were the only two people in Southern California who were faster than me in the 100 backstroke. No joke

Also, Cavic lifted his head right at the finish. That's what cost him the gold. (Although Phelps did a BONEHEAD move by taking that noob half stroke at the finish.)

Looks like the other guy finished first.

Phelps beat him Athrun, the other guy glided to a finish and Phelps swam to it, thats the best way to say it. They use electronic touch pads too so I cant really see it becoming a huge controversial thing.

On the other side Phelps is 8 for 8. He is the greatest swimmer/ athlete alive!

What does it matter if someone glides or swims? Isn't the point who reaches the end first?


Yeah, that's why they're saying that the other guy touched it first. Just that Phelps touched it harder, so it registered his touch before the other one. Because the pictures show the other guy touching the goal first.

The fact who touched it hard enough first is pretty ridiculous and has nothing to do with swimming.