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!

Oh my god, GB is 3rd in the Medals table.

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.

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.

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.

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.

they said that the Chinese runner ran a marathon every morning or something, imagine doing that shit EVERY DAY for four years...

Woohoo more medals for Canada!
We're at 7 now!

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.

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.

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.

exactly

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.

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.

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.

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.

heh, more than beating the world record she is just overcoming herself

That's like that freakin' huge Korean chick that lifed like 406 lbs in a squat the other day. That was ridiculous.

Damn I really wanted Gonzales to win the tennis gold medal, we were so close ;_;
Anyway he did a great job there =)

dude he was playing against Nadal, what do you expect.