Gaming World Forums
General Category => General Talk => Topic started by: Mateui on August 09, 2008, 01:38:09 am
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(http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/788/230pxbeijing2008logo1zp3.gif)
I'm surprised that no one started a topic where we could discuss all the Olympic-relevant events in yet (unless everyone decided not to talk about the Olympics this time around due to the controversies surrounding them...)
So anyway, today (or pretty much yesterday, Chinese time) the opening ceremony took place. Pretty awesome. Probably the best opening I can remember. A great performance and synchronization of tai chi, a giant globe with screens on its surface, and Sarah Brightman <3. What's not to like? The music was good too.
I'm excited, but too bad I'm working mostly days so I'll probably end up watching re-runs of events at night (but I hate how they always seem to spoil them on tv.. stupid CBC). At least I don't have to watch on NBC... man, they're even worse. :blarg:
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i saw this on tv just now on nbv and i really fucking hate the commentators. like as parade of nations goes on they're like "OH YEAH THIS COUNTRY PROBABLY WON'T WIN ANY MEDALS AT ALL" and i'm thinking "fuck you man i'm rooting for the underdog Benin will win ALL THE MEDALS EVER you assfucks"
so yeah i'm rooting for non-mainstream countries. if that makes sense. fuck commentator opinions.
actually i don't care that much about olympics but my parents make a big deal about it because they're chinese and the olympics are in china this year
edit: i don't actually hate the commentators that much. i just hate how nobody roots for the underdogs
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"fuck you man i'm rooting for the underdog Benin will win ALL THE MEDALS EVER you assfucks"
:fogetlaugh:
I don't care about the olympics and I never did. I never will either. Fuck olympics.
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The opening was so spectacular, all that money spent on an opening ceremony its so ridiculous haha.
I actually really like the Olympics: basketball, running, hurdles etc
GO GO GO NEW ZEALAND.
I hate how the massive countries have like 300 people teams, it should be done by the ratio :(
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The opening was so spectacular, all that money spent on an opening ceremony its so ridiculous haha.
It's China man. Nothing's ridiculous in China.
Also, I'm NOT SURPRISED about GW's negligence. It is to be expected, and that's just such a poor quality to me.
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I just watched the opening. Fricking awesome. Holy hell.
I think this is really cool, how so many nations can congregate on one spot and do something as epic and as awesome as this is.
Controversies, Mateui?
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oh man when the dude ran suspended from a wire along the inside wall of the stadium and lit the bottom of that thirty foot high torch it was pretty astounding
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i must be the only person in the world who couldn't care less about the olympics
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i must be the only person in the world who couldn't care less about the olympics
not quite! the olympics has taken a back seat because THE FOOTBALL SEASON HAS BEGUN YESSS
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I don't know what came over me, but I sort of woke up at 6am and have finally stopped watching (3:37pm).
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Summer Olympics are way better than Winter Olympics imo. Track and Field!
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I was working when this was happening, but when I got home (after stopping at the local Marti Gras festival for some live Blues) there was some China guy in a suit talking about how the olympics are great, thanks for being here--blahblahblah for so long. Eventually just watched some cartoons.
Personally, I love following the olympics, but only for the games. I don't give a shout about how much money a country will spend to impress the world. I just want to watch the athletes at their finest doing what they've trained so long to do.
Also, I heard some co-workers talking about the athletes entering the stadium. He was saying China had like 200 contestants, and then after that some small country had like 2. Is that accurate?
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i must be the only person in the world who couldn't care less about the olympics
i'm not interested either. i'm sure the opening ceremonies would be pretty impressive, but i'm not going to go out to my way to watch it and i don't care about countries competing against each other. i don't like that they are being held in china either, so watching the whole thing would taste sour and false to me.
so try this on for size chumps:
fuck the olympics!
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I'm pissed because Wushu is not being televised...
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I just watched the men's and women's -60/-48 kg judo matches, and they were absolutely brilliant. There was a major upset in the women's semi-final (Dumitru, the European champion, beating Tani and then going on to claim the gold) and the Dutch champion (Houkes) got the bronze medal in style. The men's final was also brilliant, with Choi Minho winning by an ippon.
Best opening day ever, with such great judo matches.
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Just watched the women's cycling road race. What a finish and a gold for GBR! (also holy shit the Chinese women's quad rowers were fucking phenomenal in last heat. NO ROWING IS A BRITISH DOMINION STOP IT)
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Ive just been watching the Swimming an shit.. That guy Phelps beat the world record in his first swim(He said he'd win 8 gold medals!?)also the Aussie chick beat the world record as well. Also the gymnastic guys man. Fuck you have to be ripped as for that shit.. They were like break dancing in mid air haha.
Also New Zealand have done pretty well in the rowing which is cool. Sucks were getting our ass handed to us by Brazil right now.. In Soccer that is.
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Yeah I was watching that soccer match too. We were getting raped pretty badly. Then again, I was surprised that Brazil only got two goals in the first half. I guess our team isn't half bad at defending.
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The men's final was also brilliant, with Choi Minho winning by an ippon.
Yeah, that was a pretty epic ending. It just came from nowhere.
Also with Phelps I was pretty confused since he has 6 gold medals already, I thought he was just trying to get to 8. But apparantly he wants to get 8 in this games alone? I'm not sure if he can do it, but we'll see.
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I hope Australia will win in a sport that we usually don't instead of getting a large part of our medals from swimming (although winning anything is pretty cool).
I'm going to watch Australia vs Croatia in the basketball tonight as that's the olympic sport I'm most interested in but no doubt we'll get knocked out first round. At least I've got NZ for a back up!
We only have one channel broadcasting the Olympics here but it's pretty much 24/7. How is it done where you are?
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Also, I heard some co-workers talking about the athletes entering the stadium. He was saying China had like 200 contestants, and then after that some small country had like 2. Is that accurate?
I believe it was something like 700 I remember the comentator saying? Also Canada had 200-something and the US had a lot, too. And no, there were no countries after China. They were last.
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Yeah like 5 of our 6 people who were in rowing won all their heats so I think NZ will do pretty well in that unless we get nervous in the finals and fuck it up (which always happens in every sport, rugby world cup anyone? america's cup anyone? f*ckin new zealand).
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I've not been paying much attention (never do), but I did catch one funny thing: in some swimming earlier today (no idea what stroke/length), America got 1st and 3rd. The national anthem was played and everything was fine and moving, until the anthem cut out before its end.
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I've not been paying much attention (never do), but I did catch one funny thing: in some swimming earlier today (no idea what stroke/length), America got 1st and 3rd. The national anthem was played and everything was fine and moving, until the anthem cut out before its end.
the recording equipment was probably american (couldn't remember the words to the song)
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Just watched the women's cycling road race. What a finish and a gold for GBR! (also holy shit the Chinese women's quad rowers were fucking phenomenal in last heat. NO ROWING IS A BRITISH DOMINION STOP IT)
i am not convinced that cook is an actual woman.
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I just watched the men's and women's -60/-48 kg judo matches, and they were absolutely brilliant. There was a major upset in the women's semi-final (Dumitru, the European champion, beating Tani and then going on to claim the gold) and the Dutch champion (Houkes) got the bronze medal in style. The men's final was also brilliant, with Choi Minho winning by an ippon.
Best opening day ever, with such great judo matches.
I was watching some judo moments ago and I seriously don't see the appeal in it but I suppose that's because I'm not too familiar with judo and its rules.
Also with Phelps I was pretty confused since he has 6 gold medals already, I thought he was just trying to get to 8. But apparantly he wants to get 8 in this games alone? I'm not sure if he can do it, but we'll see.
I think some swimmer holds a record of having won 7 gold metals in one games so Phelps probably wants to beat that record.
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I think some swimmer holds a record of having won 7 gold metals in one games so Phelps probably wants to beat that record.
Yeah, Mark Spitz holds that record.
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I like Judo. I was forced to do it as a kid, so I guess I sort of had a background in it.
But watching are British guy yesterday trying to get to the Bronze medal, I was having flashbacks of Karate Kid.
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(which always happens in every sport, rugby world cup anyone? america's cup anyone? f*ckin new zealand).
I KNOW!! and to France who hadn't beaten us in 10 years!!! Man I was pissed that day. We got wasted by Brazil in the Soccer 4 - 0.. But they are like the best team in the world. Oh yeah that Phelps guy came second to some guy in one of the heats.
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USA vs China men's basketball on right now is pretty awesome! 20-19 to the USA at the moment and China are putting up a really good fight.
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But they are like the best team in the world.
*Spain, or Argentina at the Olympics specifically (both nations use the same team in all competitions)
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USA vs China men's basketball on right now is pretty awesome! 20-19 to the USA at the moment and China are putting up a really good fight.
USA sucks at basketball in the Olympics though. Remember their performance four years ago? :fogetlaugh:
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Basketball sux guys... :blarg:
I KNOW!! and to France who hadn't beaten us in 10 years!!! Man I was pissed that day. We got wasted by Brazil in the Soccer 4 - 0.. But they are like the best team in the world. Oh yeah that Phelps guy came second to some guy in one of the heats.
It's very unlikely that he was even trying his hardest. Since he's participating in so many events, he's probably trying to save his strength.
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Haha, yeah, but they're still the super dominant team in general (overall they've won over four times more gold medals in basketball than the second placed country) and the atmosphere is just really good!
It'd be pretty awesome if they lost.
go away ds GO AWAY
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Man I cant wait to see what the Brits come up with in 2012 to try to top that opening ceremony. That was probably the most epic thing I have ever seen on television (especially the air-walk guy)
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Man I cant wait to see what the Brits come up with in 2012 to try to top that opening ceremony. That was probably the most epic thing I have ever seen on television (especially the air-walk guy)
I hope we don't do anything spectacular. I hope we do something really disappointingly shit like have some arrogantly bad stand up comedian (ricky g) come out, insult the other countries and then make them perform in a half built olympic standium to crowds of drunk, unenthusiastic rabble and aristocrats who are only here for the equestrian sports.
EDIT:
Also patriotism is such a shit thing, if we get all patriotic around 2012 I will probably go mad and start setting fire to flags. I'm supporting Japan in 2012. (My home country at heart.)
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Haha, the opening ceremony was pretty awesome. It's a bit disappointing to see all those people say "screw the Olympics", when it's a really great time to see a wide variety of athletic accomplishments, regardless of the country that the competitors come from. Me, I have a little background in gymnastics, so the vaults, floor routines, bars, etc. are really interesting to me.
Poor American chicks who fell/missed the bar completely. I almost cringed in pain with them. That must suck. I also kind of liked the commentary at the opening ceremony. That's when I first heard about the Georgia/Russia conflict. It's kind of scary that the Russian/Georgia athletes are having a blast at the Olympics while their countries are at war, and without their knowledge, too!
Winter Olympics can be pretty awesome, too. Ski-jumping is crazy, and I love the figure-skating. It's not nearly as epic as the Summer Olympics, but I don't think I'll ever "HI! HO! NAGANO!" for a while. :)
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USA sucks at basketball in the Olympics though. Remember their performance four years ago? :fogetlaugh:
are you joking? besides '04 the USA has been pretty dominant in men's basketball for the past 30 years
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I hope we don't do anything spectacular. I hope we do something really disappointingly shit like have some arrogantly bad stand up comedian (ricky g) come out, insult the other countries and then make them perform in a half built olympic standium to crowds of drunk, unenthusiastic rabble and aristocrats who are only here for the equestrian sports.
Haha, no way. I thought they'd do this as well. It's like their answer to everything, just throw out Ricky Gervais, have him suck really badly and then call it his kind of comedy.
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Man I cant wait to see what the Brits come up with in 2012 to try to top that opening ceremony. That was probably the most epic thing I have ever seen on television (especially the air-walk guy)
BAD ART STUDENTS.
That's what I fear.
EDIT: hang on we have shit like the Red Arrows it could turn out awesome. rooting for David Tennant to carry the flame too. ;)
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i kind of understand you guys from huge countries being FUCK PATRIOTISM etc
but in a small country like Norway, with just over 4 million population, you always know someone who knows someone who knows this or that contestant and then it kind of makes more sense. like one of the olympic gold champions in curling back in 2002 was my best friends gym teacher.
so yeah, im rootin' for norway but unfortunately:
a) dont have working tv atm
b) this is exam week for me
so cant catch much :(
The oping ceremony was spectacular though, and I think everyone should watch it since it's pretty much the most epic shit ever and I'm going to torrent HD version and watch it again since it was so fucking good.
Anyone who doesn't watch the opening ceremony should realize it isn't that different than a really epic movie (LOTR) just without characters. The ceremony was just fantastic, especially the opening (the countdown and the footsteps really set the mood early on).
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are you joking? besides '04 the USA has been pretty dominant in men's basketball for the past 30 years
Do you mean past 70 years? USA hadn't even lost before the 70s, and have only lost like 4 times since then. It'd be more accurate to say USA was really dominant before the 70s and after that some other countries have been able to win but even so USA has been winning at least in every second olympics.
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Do you mean past 70 years? USA hadn't even lost before the 70s, and have only lost like 4 times since then. It'd be more accurate to say USA was really dominant before the 70s and after that some other countries have been able to win but even so USA has been winning at least in every second olympics.
haha i i read that last bit as "USA has been winning at least in every special olympics"
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Well, Daley / Aldridge were disappointing, but not as disappointing as Aldridge's reaction.
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Well, Daley / Aldridge were disappointing, but not as disappointing as Aldridge's reaction.
Did I miss something? What reaction?
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Aldridge blamed their poor performance entirely on Daley. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4505275.ece) So much for professionalism.
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That's pretty shit. Aldridge only got the attention from the media from Daley. I didn't really watch too much of their dives, but the ones I did see, I was pretty sure Adridge messed up with the splash more than Tom.
Meh, we'll wait to see how Tom does on his own. It didn't seem right that they were doing syncronized diving when the size difference was so big.
EDIT: Plus he's only 14. And he was competing well against the best in the world.
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USA. USA. U S A. U S A.
This has been a pretty awesome Olympics so far. It's always neat to watch the parade of nations, and how proud everyone is of their countries. It's really neat. And the opening ceremony was unforgettable. Unbelievable.
Also - GO AMERICA. That mens water relay race was EPIC. Me and my brothers woke up my mom with our shouts of YES and IN YOUR FACE and AMERICAAAA!
I love my country, I really do. I love the Olympic games.
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apparently there is something called TEN METER AIR PISTOL and i watched some videos of it on youtube and it looks ridiculous as hell. they are wearing these space age visors and suits and are shooting a target. it may sound cool but most of the time is just the shooters standing paralyzed to line up a shot for a minute and then they shoot.
basically i am wondering what the worst competition in the olympics is. this air pistol event seems pretty bad (they have 10m air RIFLE too, can never have enough gun's) but i am sure there is worse.
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apparently there is something called TEN METER AIR PISTOL and i watched some videos of it on youtube and it looks ridiculous as hell. they are wearing these space age visors and suits and are shooting a target. it may sound cool but most of the time is just the shooters standing paralyzed to line up a shot for a minute and then they shoot.
basically i am wondering what the worst competition in the olympics is. this air pistol event seems pretty bad (they have 10m air RIFLE too, can never have enough gun's) but i am sure there is worse.
The air rifle one is the worst I've seen. You don't even get to see the target, really, just the indicator.
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I thought the shooting events were pretty cool. You've got to have a pretty steady hand for that kind of thing.
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Yes that's pretty cool, and you should always aim correctly without and keep clam all the way. A little mistake can result in a failure.
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Australia has won 16 medals and a grand total of 1 of them has been away from the water.
fffff
Still we're doing pretty well!
EDIT: As far as bad competitions go I think handball is pretty silly but watching Denmark vs Russia tonight was actually great. Did anyone else see that penalty by the Danes?
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Did you see the Japanese guy eat it on the rings? :fogetbackflip:
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It's been pretty interesting so far. The Chinese are providing plenty of controversies and they don't have anything to do with human rights violations. The fake fireworks in the opening ceremony, the girl who was replaced for the opening ceremony after the government said she was too ugly, and the speculation over the age of the girls on the gymnastics team. Very interesting indeed.
BTW, did anyone else catch the footage of the medal ceremony for the wrestlers? That Swedish dude was such an asshat for throwing a temper tantrum over winning the bronze.
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It's been pretty interesting so far. The Chinese are providing plenty of controversies and they don't have anything to do with human rights violations. The fake fireworks in the opening ceremony, the girl who was replaced for the opening ceremony after the government said she was too ugly, and the speculation over the age of the girls on the gymnastics team. Very interesting indeed.
BTW, did anyone else catch the footage of the medal ceremony for the wrestlers? That Swedish dude was such an asshat for throwing a temper tantrum over winning the bronze.
you don't really know the whole story.
he's not throwing a tantrum because he "just" got a bronze but because it was a faulty referee call that disqualified him in the semi-final. like really faulty call, there was nothing to make a call about! and besides the wrestling world is known for its corrupted judges and such.
the sad thing is that the same thing happend to the same wrestler last Olympics apparently.
the Swedish wrestler also apparently dominated the Italian guy a few months earlier to make it worse.
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Australia has won 16 medals and a grand total of 1 of them has been away from the water.
fffff
Still we're doing pretty well!
EDIT: As far as bad competitions go I think handball is pretty silly but watching Denmark vs Russia tonight was actually great. Did anyone else see that penalty by the Danes?
Stephanie Rice is lovely
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:fogetgasp:
Painful weightlifting accident.... for those who didn't witness this yet.
*SHUDDERS* Ugh, that must have been excruciatingly painful.
BTW, did anyone else catch the footage of the medal ceremony for the wrestlers? That Swedish dude was such an asshat for throwing a temper tantrum over winning the bronze.
Youtube keeps deleting these videos due to copyright claims (I blame NBC), but this video still works (maybe because it's not American...)
According to the Ara Abrahamian, his coach, and his supporters, the judges made a miscall in one of his matches that ended up with him playing for bronze instead. There are allegations of judge bribery being made. I didn't watch the match myself, and I can't seem to find a video of it anywhere uploaded, so it'll be interesting to watch it and see what went down. Ara didn't even want to play for bronze after that match, but everyone urged him to do it for his country (he's playing for Sweden, but I think he's Armenian...) so he did win the bronze. I think he obviously was digusted with how everything took place so he made a big spectacle of it. Is it justified if bribery actually took place? I don't know.. that's a tough call.. I'd be really pissed too if I felt ulterior motives were at play.
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neither of them work now
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neither of them work now
Well, that was shortlived. Stupid youtube.
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Not sure why I love the Olympics so much. Usually, I'll watch the odd sport game, but I never follow any series. Then the olympics come around and I get obsessed. Perhaps it's cause this is a giant test of skill that people train years for, and it's against the whole world. Winter olympics garner more attention from me, but the summer games are pretty damn good too. Hell I even watched womans softball -barf-
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so canada still has zero medals apparently. i actually don't care about national medal counts at all, but something like 65 countries have at least one medal. considering how many canadian athletes were sent, they are not doing a very good job at all.
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so canada still has zero medals apparently. i actually don't care about national medal counts at all, but something like 65 countries have at least one medal. considering how many canadian athletes were sent, they are not doing a very good job at all.
yeah it's pretty pathetic. We had a HUGE turnout of athletes at the parade of nations and we still have nothing. It's hilarious always hearing on the radio how CLOSE Canada came...but still placed at a respectable...6th!
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Stephanie Rice is lovely
Yeah she is. (http://kaladan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/stephanie-rice-fhm-pic.jpg)
After being beyond terrible in our first few basketball matches we beat Iran by 30 or so and we're now leading Russia by 16. Our womens basketball team is pretty sweet as well so I'm happy at the moment!
Apparently that wrestler called the judges 'fatties' which is pretty awesome!
I don't like that neither Canada or NZ have won a medal yet :(.
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yeah it's pretty pathetic. We had a HUGE turnout of athletes at the parade of nations and we still have nothing. It's hilarious always hearing on the radio how CLOSE Canada came...but still placed at a respectable...6th!
GUYS
WE SET PERSONAL BESTS AND CANADIAN RECORDS.
THATS ALL YOU CAN ASK FOR.
(Also we will win rowing medals for sure)
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Yeah I noticed that the other day. I was looking up the medal tallys and Canada wasn't even on the map! A little disconcerting. Currently watching : USA vs CAN men's baseball (5-4 USA so far)
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holy shit! did anyone see phelp's win last night by like .00001 seconds? oh my god. the other guy was literally about 5 inches from the end while phelps was about 2 feet but he tried to glide in and pehlps kept pushing and beat him at (literally) the last second. If you saw it you know what I am talking about! It was amazing!
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phelps is obviously an amazing swimmer, but i think it is stupid that they make it possible for one man to win so many medals. they have way too many swimming events, or at least, should limit one person to X amount of events (this limit should not be EIGHT!). in general it seems like they have too many variations and phelps, spitz, and the other people who won a BUNCH OF MEDALS in swimming are proving how it is kind of pointless to have so many of them.
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Yeah I don't like how sports like basketball have one gold and swimming has like ten. But I suppose there's a whole team in basketball rather than one person!
Still, even most track and field people only excel at one event (usually short distance or long distance or whatev).
Phelps really is something special though so if it takes seven medals for people to realise him as a legend then so be it.
EDIT: Shit, nice day for New Zealand! A gold in shotput, silver in cycling and bronze in rowing. Score!
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also i don't know if you guys saw the 100m medal race but usain bolt beat the world record at 9.69. it is pretty incredible because he kind of celebrated at the end because he was so far ahead and could have done even better.
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also i don't know if you guys saw the 100m medal race but usain bolt beat the world record at 9.69. it is pretty incredible because he kind of celebrated at the end because he was so far ahead and could have done even better.
Yeah, it was pretty incredible. He started celebrating at least 10m before the end of the race and he still beat the World Record. It was pretty amazing.
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Yeah Usain Bolt is crazy fast.
Also Canada finally won medals!!! YES!
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Hell yeah 5 medals last night and we would have won another gold at rowing if only he wasn't sick and on a IV drip the day before meaning he lost 4 kg.
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Drugges controversy! (http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2008/08/15/olympics-doping-two.html)
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phelps is obviously an amazing swimmer, but i think it is stupid that they make it possible for one man to win so many medals. they have way too many swimming events, or at least, should limit one person to X amount of events (this limit should not be EIGHT!). in general it seems like they have too many variations and phelps, spitz, and the other people who won a BUNCH OF MEDALS in swimming are proving how it is kind of pointless to have so many of them.
What? Why? That's ridiculous.
Each swimmer is better at certain styles and worse at others.
I disagree with you completely.
Besides Phelps isn't doing it against other swimmers, he is doing it against his own stamina/fatigue.
He would have made a faster race in his last race if said competition was done by Day 1 rather than Day 7.
P.S: jesus christ I'm checking out Stephanie Rice pics, hot as hell man.
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What? Why? That's ridiculous.
Each swimmer is better at certain styles and worse at others.
I disagree with you completely.
Besides Phelps isn't doing it against other swimmers, he is doing it against his own stamina/fatigue.
He would have made a faster race in his last race if said competition was done by Day 1 rather than Day 7.
P.S: jesus christ I'm checking out Stephanie Rice pics, hot as hell man.
this is because thorpe, spitz, and phelps all proved you can win an incredible amount of medals just by being generally good at swimming. no other field has had people win medals this much because they are doing it right. so it's not a coincidence, and is pointless to have 50 swimming events if ONE GUY will win all of them. if phelps was a TIME LORD and could stop time to recover he would win in even more events.
how would you feel if they had 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, and 50m air pistol? it is pretty obvious if you win 10m air pistol you have an extremely good shot at all the other events. this doesn't translate into any other fields other than swimming. the highet gold medal count any individual got before phelps was 9, and 4 people were tied for it i believe. most of them took 3 or 4 olympics to get that amount, yet phelps is on track to get 8 in ONE games. there is a problem when you allow this to happen, and i could care less if there are different styles because the last three games have suggested the styles are not so different given the domination by these people.
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Does anyone else besides me love watching the marathon? It's a good over 2 hour event but I just find it so exciting for some reason. You'd think it'd be boring watching some people run for so long, but the strategy and tactics that play out are just so intriguing. The women just had their marathon and this one woman just broke away from the lead pack and ran solo in front of them for over half the race course. She ended up having over a minute lead on this chase group, and then never closed that gap to her so she was able to win the gold. The chase group itself in the end ended up with 2 Nigerians(?) and 2 Chinese women, and the sprint between them at the end was amazing. Here you have these women running for over 2 hours and 20 minutes and they still find enough energy in themselves to just madly dash at the end. I liked how the two Chinese teammates actually shared their drinks throughout the race and worked together. Of course they also had the crowd to feed off of and give them motivation, and they placed 3rd and 4th, which is great for them and China as a nation because I don't believe they've ever placed that high up.
I have to say one of the highlights of the race was one women stopping to relieve herself on the side of the course (she was actually the favourite going into this), and another women giving up multiple times, but then making it back to the chase group each time. This happened three times until she just had no more juice left in her and was forced to give up entirely.
Oh, and Canada just scored another Bronze medal in the 1500m swimming freestyle. This event is intense and filled with tension as you have these swimmers swimming for a good 15 minutes. I'd love to see how Phelps could handle this (because he's obviously not an endurance swimmer from the looks of things).
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Poor American chicks who fell/missed the bar completely. I almost cringed in pain with them. That must suck. I also kind of liked the commentary at the opening ceremony. That's when I first heard about the Georgia/Russia conflict. It's kind of scary that the Russian/Georgia athletes are having a blast at the Olympics while their countries are at war, and without their knowledge, too!
Ugh the women's team gymnastics between America and China. God, that was horrible. And I really didn't like their (the american's) attitudes at the time...they didn't really stick as nicely as the chinese...they kind of just walked off. It was fun to contrast the different social backgrounds of the two teams, with the chinese just a bit more restrained and the Americans hellishly cocky. But they redeemed themselves in the individual events.
God, I can't imagine what the Russian/Georgian teams feel about the war right now. Have they actually competed against each other in any of the events so far?
EDIT:
Also PHELPS *spazzgasm*
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this is because thorpe, spitz, and phelps all proved you can win an incredible amount of medals just by being generally good at swimming. no other field has had people win medals this much because they are doing it right. so it's not a coincidence, and is pointless to have 50 swimming events if ONE GUY will win all of them. if phelps was a TIME LORD and could stop time to recover he would win in even more events.
how would you feel if they had 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, and 50m air pistol? it is pretty obvious if you win 10m air pistol you have an extremely good shot at all the other events. this doesn't translate into any other fields other than swimming. the highet gold medal count any individual got before phelps was 9, and 4 people were tied for it i believe. most of them took 3 or 4 olympics to get that amount, yet phelps is on track to get 8 in ONE games. there is a problem when you allow this to happen, and i could care less if there are different styles because the last three games have suggested the styles are not so different given the domination by these people.
I understand your reasoning, however there is no substance behind that logic so as to make it really a worrying thing. I think it is great as a swimmer you can win up to 8 medals. Dope. In other sports you get one chance because there arent variations to the game. Deal with it.
I think your rant is just pointless and proves nothing.
Gold Medals don't have the same importance in some disciplines. Take Football and Basketball.
The Olympics is not so important for football. However, for Basketball it has the same importance as a World Cup.
A swimmer knows he is going to compete in several different games within the same discipline. That increases its odds to get something. So?
The analogy with air pistol is just ridiculous.
A comparison with the different running games is more fitting. However, swimming is more versatile than swimming as it has more different styles than running.
BTW, Phelps won his 8 golds
It is incredible how Phelps saves his team's ass
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I thought the most was 8?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080817/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_swm_swimming
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I've never swam so I don't know for certain if this is true, but I have run track and the difference between the 100 and the 200 is huge. The 100 is a pure sprint. You run as fast as you can down a short stretch of track. The 200 is similar, but it's longer and unless you're a running machine, you can't run at 100% top speed the whole time. You have to find the balance between speed and endurance and that's why there are so many of these events, because not many people have that perfect mix like Michael Phelps. Phelps is amazing in that he is an overall great swimmer, but some people are just made to do the 200, just like how others are made to do the 3200. Phelps is such a big deal because a person has never before been able to take every single event.
But yeah, I'm not a swimmer so it could be totally different. Swimming probably takes a lot more endurance so I might be completely off the mark!
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Oh my god, GB is 3rd in the Medals table.
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God, I can't imagine what the Russian/Georgian teams feel about the war right now. Have they actually competed against each other in any of the events so far?
Yeah I think they played volleyball or something? I can't remember but there was apparently some animosity there, it was on the radio.
Bolt is amazing.
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things
it seems like i struck a nerve with you. do you swim or follow the sport? i couldn't imagine any other reason you would be so offended by the off-hand suggestion that there should be a cap on how many events you can compete in or limiting the variations. my point is pretty simple: by making it possible for someone to win 8 gold medals, and the fact that people previously similar success, you devalue other events. i don't think it's a coincidence this all happened in swimming. this is simply not possible in other fields as proven by history, so i don't agree at all with you saying it's more varied than other sports.
also, i don't know if you saw air pistol, but they could easily make more variations by altering the time to shoot and distance to target. i am not certain but i know rapid fire air pistol is done in world competitions, i am unsure if it's in the olympic games. they also have air rifle as noted in the thread. if we had an air pistol / rifle enthusiast here do you think they would agree with your line of thinking that there would be no difference by having variations of it? just look at your responses on swimming. i'm going to admit realistically none of this shit matters, but you are not doing a good job arguing the case that swimmers should be able to win 8 gold medals other than "deal with it". i really don't care about much of this at all, but as a spectator it makes very little sense why they allow so many variations / don't have an event cap for athletes.
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that woman's marathon last night was incredible. That one chick was way out in front by like a minute! the whole pub I was in was staring at the screen in awe.
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also i saw the end of that marathon. it was a very good end (especially for second) and i think they said the gold medal winner was something like 38 and the oldest to win a gold medal on that event. these people have amazing stamina, they were jogging at a really fast pace for such an incredibly long time. i would probably lose to these people if i only had to run the last 15 minutes of the race.
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they said that the Chinese runner ran a marathon every morning or something, imagine doing that shit EVERY DAY for four years...
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Woohoo more medals for Canada!
We're at 7 now!
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you would be so offended
whaaaaaaaaaaaat????
me, offended? You dont know me at all.
i'm going to admit realistically none of this shit matters, but you are not doing a good job arguing the case that swimmers should be able to win 8 gold medals other than "deal with it". i really don't care about much of this at all, but as a spectator it makes very little sense why they allow so many variations / don't have an event cap for athletes.
My argument is that your argument is pointless because there is nothing wrong in where you find there is to be a problem. The fact that swimmers get chances to get up to 8 medals seems distressing to you, and I simply find it ridiculous for you to feel that way. I can't really argument in other way than saying there isn't really any deal with the issue. Allow all the motherfucking variations they want man, quit being difficult.
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I get what GZ is saying though, whats the difference between Phelps's swims? the distance?
because I've seen like 4 or 5 I think and it all looks like SWIMMING A STRAIGHT LINE IN A POOL to me, so it is pretty dumb that they're all just doing basically the same thing over and over again and stockpiling medals for it.
not that Phelps didn't deserve any of the medals, because I think its pretty cool even though I feel sort of sorry for him what with the media being so far up his ass.
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This is a really pointless arguement. There are different ways of swimming, combinations of swimming and different lengths. Phelps has won all of these because he's conquered the different types of swimming.
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exactly
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Did anyone catch the womens 100m sprint? Clean sweep by Jamaica - they won gold, silver, and bronze, shutting out three Americans and the other two competitors. It was great.
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Did anyone catch the womens 100m sprint? Clean sweep by Jamaica - they won gold, silver, and bronze, shutting out three Americans and the other two competitors. It was great.
Actually they won gold, silver, and silver.
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Did anyone see the female vault finals?
Alicia Sacramono had two vaults with only like 5.8 difficultly, but only had a little hop on both vaults.
The Chinese girl had a great first vault, but then LANDED ON HER KNEES, and still beat Sacramono. Landing on your knees is apparently only a .8 deduction. She got bronze.
The next girl went before the judges gave the green light, so her second vault was worth 0.
The German girl-man (I called her Peter Pan), for all rights, probably did the best, landed OUTSIDE of the lines on her second jump. Only a .3 deduction though. Got silver
The North Korean girl then did two jumps of 6.5 difficultly, but landed outside on BOTH jumps, and got gold.
Then the next two girls fucked up and landed on their knees hands/outside of the lines/all sort of terrible stuff.
But still, Alicia got 4th, and she was the only girl not to step out of the lines/land on her knees. And she did nothing terribly bad, her difficultly was just that much lower I guess? Still ridiculous.
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Did anyone happen to watch the womens pole vault finales? Isinbaeva of Russia ended up winning the gold, but still kept on jumping, first beating the olympic record (on her third attempt) and then the world record, by jumping 5.05 metres (also on her final attempt). She's definetely in a class of her own.
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heh, more than beating the world record she is just overcoming herself
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That's like that freakin' huge Korean chick that lifed like 406 lbs in a squat the other day. That was ridiculous.
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Damn I really wanted Gonzales to win the tennis gold medal, we were so close ;_;
Anyway he did a great job there =)
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dude he was playing against Nadal, what do you expect.
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Usain Bolt or whatever is a fast motherfucker.
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Usain Bolt or whatever is a fast motherfucker.
Indeed he is. Both Gold medals in 100m and 200m sprint, plus he broke both world records. I loved his celebratory dance after winning the 200m.
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I've never swam so I don't know for certain if this is true, but I have run track and the difference between the 100 and the 200 is huge. The 100 is a pure sprint. You run as fast as you can down a short stretch of track. The 200 is similar, but it's longer and unless you're a running machine, you can't run at 100% top speed the whole time. You have to find the balance between speed and endurance and that's why there are so many of these events, because not many people have that perfect mix like Michael Phelps. Phelps is amazing in that he is an overall great swimmer, but some people are just made to do the 200, just like how others are made to do the 3200. Phelps is such a big deal because a person has never before been able to take every single event.
But yeah, I'm not a swimmer so it could be totally different. Swimming probably takes a lot more endurance so I might be completely off the mark!
heh... tell that to usain bolt.....
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Man it would suck to be that guy who got disqualified from the 200m.
EDIT:
I guess both of them now...
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For people who didn't see the weightlifting accident (from page 2, only 2 people talked about it), you can see it here:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=WL1H-BJ-SD17-081308-095505
or here:
http://daveandthomas.net/blog/?p=4837
I'm going to warn you and say that you don't want to see it. It is....very very painful and gruesome.
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My fellow countryman :(
yeah this was pretty horrible. Fortunately no bones were broken in his arm so he will be fine in few weeks and he can continue the weightlifting.
to be on topic: it seems we are going to face the united states in the water polo finals, I wonder who will be the winner(not really). Nice beating against the serbs btw
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Hey, Trinidad won 2 silver medals... lost to Usain Bolt twice. Fuckin' Bolt
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Apparently that Nadia chick that lost to the Chinese girl in gymnastics might end up getting the gold medal after all, they did a background check and found out that the Chinese gymnast was underage and thus not qualified to preform in the Olympics.
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Did anyone see some Taekwondo athlete attack one of the referees when he was DQd for taking more than 1 minute of injury time? What a sore loser. Apparently he's now banned from all future international events along with his coach (that sucks for him.. even if he gets to coach another athlete he'd still be forbidden to show up).
Also, hooray for Polska! We got a silver medal in women's mountain bike yesterday! (I can't believe I spent 2 hours watching the race... but it sure paid off!)
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Did anyone see some Taekwondo athlete attack one of the referees when he was DQd for taking more than 1 minute of injury time? What a sore loser. Apparently he's now banned from all future international events along with his coach (that sucks for him.. even if he gets to coach another athlete he'd still be forbidden to show up).
It was a pretty shitty situation (getting DQ'd because you can't feel your foot right now/walk without being in hysterical pain) and the Cuban just took it to hilarious lengths. Gotta love the Cubans, one of their boxers bit Mr. Degale in the Middleweight final.
Anyway, looking forward to some epic outro with Jackie Chan singing
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I'm always so sad when the olympics end... ;_; I don't even like watching sports normally but I love the olympics because they're so special.
Just two more years... just two more years...
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Mateui just loves too much.
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Wow huge upset in the men's 10M diving final.
The Chinese diver bent his legs going into the water and ended up with sevens, setting the stage for the Australia to get a near perfect score (1.9 points off) and take the gold.
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lol 8 minute presentation for london olympics what do we do??
*drive bus into stadium* that is so lame
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Haha, oh London!
The closing ceremony is pretty fantastic though. That big spiral flower thing whatever was awesome
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but it was a transformer bus
seriously, it was all made better when jimmy page started working his ol' magic
and then of course jackie chan
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Man I missed jackie chan
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you missed the best part.
Leona Lewis never stood a chance.
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I'm always so sad when the olympics end... ;_; I don't even like watching sports normally but I love the olympics because they're so special.
Just two more years... just two more years...
I feel the same way, I'm a sucker for the theatrics of the whole thing.
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I always follow the summer olympics whenever they come around... this year I was just so busy all the time that I didn't get a chance to. I saw the 100 metre dash with Usain Bolt and the finals for Basketball with the US winning it.. I'd never miss those.
Wanted to catch the Martial arts and weight lifting as well though but just didn't get an opportunity to.. Comes once every 4 years.. I'll miss em
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Dude, USA basketball CANT PLAY AS A TEAM. It is incredible. They simply cant play like a team. They won just thanks to their superlative physique.
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This year (this olympics) they played as a team, hence their winning margin of over 30 points per game... The last world championships and Olympics they didn't play as a team, since they only won bronze in those and before that they came 6th.
They completely rehauled their team from previous Olympics... they had guys like Ben Wallace and shit on that team, and they were all selfish as hell. This time around guys like D Wade, Kobe, CP3, Bosh, Jason Kidd and even Lebron knew the importance of winning it all and they played together as a team very well this time around. Because if they didn't, they would've lost again.. Check their assists per game, its pretty good. Coach K did a hell of a job melding them together, unlike Larry Brown from last time.
I've watched a few highlights from other games, as well as the Final vs Spain.. And trust me, they played much more so as a team this time around as compared to the last Olympics in Athens and the previous world championships.
Also wanted to add that Michael Phelps is simply amazing. That is all.
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Revolutionist, with all respect you dont know what teamwork means. I saw the matches, they were playing by showing individual talent. Against Spain, specially when Spain was right on their backs USA as a team completely DESINTEGRATED and they were playing individually. Under pressure USA showed they cant keep themselves as a team and tried to win the game imposing their superior physique. They didn't win the game in a cool and intelligent manner, but their individual prowess was enough to win the game.
The FIBA game is much richer than the typical NBA game. That's why I root for FIBA esque NBA teams like the Spurs or the Celtics.
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I ended up just seeing the track events, diving, some gymnastics, and both US volleyball finals.
which kind of sucked because I didn't see any of the really cool stuff like martial arts, basketball, and weightlifting
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Its not like I don't agree with you... I do to an extent. The other countries like Argentina, Spain, Greece, etc. have much more team work than team USA (And that's understandable since their core group of players have been together for much longer than USA's roster) but all I am saying is that when team USA brought in guys like Chris Paul and Jason Kidd (among two of the most unselfish superstars in the NBA), then their team work would IMPROVE upon team USA's previous showings. Point guards are the focal points of a Basketball team and they will determine how much they'll play as a team. By bringing in those 2, their team work has improved compared to their previous showings.
That is all I'm saying - That team USA's team work has IMPROVED compared to their previous rosters from the past Olympics and world championships. I didn't say that their team work is better than Spain's or Argentina's and that their individual talent had a lot to do with it, but you have to admit that their team work has improved from their previous showing. That was the point I was trying to make. If you still don't agree with me though, then we just have different opinions on the matter..
P.S. Did you guys see Usain Bolt setting a new world record but not even trying in the 100 m dash? He basically said that he's gonna set another new world record in the 2012 Olympics... can't wait.
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That closing ceremony was pretty insane man. I wish I could get my hands on some of those fire works.. Lol Jackie Chan.