Olympics

The Chinese are winning Golds at events that the U.S. barely competes in. I took a look at the 2004 Olympics metal count for the events that Chinese have won golds in and I found that the U.S. didn't win any golds (silve, or bronze) in those events then either.

This gold metal fervor is really useless for comparisons.

110m hurdles won by Liu Xiang. I believe there were two Americans in that final. I'm pretty sure the US considers themselves a track and field powerhouse.
 
Interesting that no one invited Mark Spitz to the olympics...not even a network to use him as a swimming commentator.

Not only does the performance of the swimmer matter a lot, but the technology of the pools themselves has changed a lot.
-Depth: The deeper the better until you go beyond 10 feet, at which time it's mentally taxing to the swimmer, as you lose sensation of speed, and they tend to wear themselves out sooner. The Chinese pools are 10ft.
-Width: The Chinese pools are 2 lanes wider, with no one swimming in the outer lanes, giving the outside swimmers more confidence in their motions, not having to worry about slapping their wrist on the pool wall.
-Lane dividers, or "Wave Killers" have also improved, killing the wake that one swimmer might leave, leaving the water for the swimmer in the next lane in very smooth, compared to previous designs.
- There have even been talks for the future about changing the water, itself. Adding solvents to "thin" the water. To me, this is like them putting the baseballs in a humidifier in the Colorado Rockies stadium, so there are fewer home runs. To me, this crosses the line and goes into manufacturing records.

I've heard interviews with swimming experts who believe the Chinese pool is one of the fastest pools ever built.
 
US tied the Netherlands, 2-2.

It was surprising considering how little the Americans care about soccer football in general. I honestly expected a slaughter, and to go home saying "well, at least we still have basketball!" (And we did, steamrolling the Chinese men's team 101-70 and the women's team 108-63.) So I wasn't surprised when they got a goal in within the first 5 minutes...but I was pretty happy after we tied it right into the 2nd half, then got another goal in and held the lead almost for the entire half.


https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03711.JPG

An American lady and her kid sat behind me, so I decided to make conversation. "Where're you from?"
"Err...United States?"
No shit, I can see USA written on your fuckin' forehead.

"We're from Pennsylvania!" the kid piped up.
They were pretty annoying and ugly, though, so I was glad when they left.

There weren't many American fans, but the ones that were there were naturally the loudest. :cool:


https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03735.JPG

And then BAM OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE the Pakistani delegation showed up waving a Union Jack around. Wait, what? :blink:


https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03721.JPG

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03746.JPG

The poor Dutch goalie got kicked in the head, twice. Both times he got right back up and did a good job tending the goal (unfortunately).


https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03744.JPG

After we scored our 2nd goal.


https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/11/DSC03747.JPG

And then, with 3 minutes to go...the ref called a penalty on #7, and the US team lined up for the kick...


And the bastards made it in! :? Complete last-minute goal to tie the game frustratingly enough. Which reminded me why I hated football in the first place: the damn ties. But the American team did way better than I thought, so it was cool.
 
holy shit the bed, did anyone see Phelps' 200m freestyle?

that was just epic.... right from the start, his under water work puts him half a body infront and its all downhill for the rest of them from there. even his last turn, he does 5 massive fly kicks and puts everyone in the shade....

who would of thought that thorpe's 1.44 would ever be beaten, here we are now and its been smashed to smithereens... 1.42.96.... fucking magic!
 
Interesting that no one invited Mark Spitz to the olympics...not even a network to use him as a swimming commentator.

Not only does the performance of the swimmer matter a lot, but the technology of the pools themselves has changed a lot.
-Depth: The deeper the better until you go beyond 10 feet, at which time it's mentally taxing to the swimmer, as you lose sensation of speed, and they tend to wear themselves out sooner. The Chinese pools are 10ft.
-Width: The Chinese pools are 2 lanes wider, with no one swimming in the outer lanes, giving the outside swimmers more confidence in their motions, not having to worry about slapping their wrist on the pool wall.
-Lane dividers, or "Wave Killers" have also improved, killing the wake that one swimmer might leave, leaving the water for the swimmer in the next lane in very smooth, compared to previous designs.
- There have even been talks for the future about changing the water, itself. Adding solvents to "thin" the water. To me, this is like them putting the baseballs in a humidifier in the Colorado Rockies stadium, so there are fewer home runs. To me, this crosses the line and goes into manufacturing records.

I've heard interviews with swimming experts who believe the Chinese pool is one of the fastest pools ever built.

if u thin the water tho... everyone will sink! you'd lose bouyancey lol. could be rather dangerous experiement. everyone could just plummet to the pool bottom without the hope of coming back to the surface.

also yeah this pool seems well quick, however i think the best pools are those astral pools, the ones that they can errect on site. they have a bounce to them since the walls arent quite as rigid as concrete.

my word the 100 free is gonna be fast, its looking like if you cant do a 47 you might as well go home
 
the dutch soccerteam was really playing badly against the US, but we won a few medals with Judo and swimming.

I don't know if it has been broadcasted in the US, but has anybody seen the footage of the dutch reporter asking the swimming coach of the US woman relay team about how he sees the worldrecordholder in terms of competition? The dutch team is the worldrecordholder for that discipline, but he answered "i think the australians are very good, and are our main rivals". Luckily the Netherlands won the gold medal ^_^
 
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if u thin the water tho... everyone will sink! you'd lose bouyancey lol. could be rather dangerous experiement. everyone could just plummet to the pool bottom without the hope of coming back to the surface.

Think you might be confusing density and viscosity there... ;)
 
Another cool moment in women's weightlifting.
albania.jpg
 
Arrrg the Hungarian swimmer Cseh could have won two gold medals already. But Phelps... :(
 
There is a blatant amount of China-hate in the United States here. It's really pathetic.

What do you mean? I think NBC's coverage is quite pro-China (minus Bela Karolyi constantly bitching about the underage gymnasts).
 
What do you mean? I think NBC's coverage is quite pro-China (minus Bela Karolyi constantly bitching about the underage gymnasts).

I'm not talking about the coverage. There a few message boards online that I go to and a lot of users are doing whatever it take to mar China, from all the controversies, to rigging the scoring, to bribing the judges, etc
 
What do you mean? I think NBC's coverage is quite pro-China (minus Bela Karolyi constantly bitching about the underage gymnasts).

My mom was watching back in the States and mentioned how in almost every newscast Brian Williams would mention how foggy it was, how it was attributed to pollution, and how they could barely see what was behind the Bird's Nest.

This went on for a few days, apparently. Then, he interviewed some boffins who dropped this bombshell: "the air in Beijing is NOT DETRIMENTAL to athletes' performance."

He didn't mention anything about the weather after that. :lol:

P.S.: when I left Beijing on the 12th (yesterday) it was pouring rain at 5 in the morning, but weather reports indicated a spectacular blue sky for the rest of the day. Beijing is quite pretty after it rains.
 
I'm not talking about the coverage. There a few message boards online that I go to and a lot of users are doing whatever it take to mar China, from all the controversies, to rigging the scoring, to bribing the judges, etc

That's because for the first time since the Soviet Union's dominance, the US may take second in the medal standings to China, and I'm sure a lot of Americans aren't ready to accept that.
 
There is a blatant amount of China-hate in the United States here. It's really pathetic.
How is it pathetic? Or do you consider CGI, dubbing, pollution, etc. a good thing?
 
Hehehe, I'm watching diving (again). I keep getting confused, because I'm just thinking "oh hey, that was a pretty good dive" and then the commentator lady goes "ooooh, that was a huge miss, that just sucked, terrible" :dunno:
 
How is it pathetic? Or do you consider CGI, dubbing, pollution, etc. a good thing?

It isn't as black and white as many make it out to be and the insults go far beyond these details in which you have mentioned. People fail to analyze the situation thoroughly and, as an attempt to indignify another country, skew the context of said situation in order to verbally attack and/or promote negative publicity.
 
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