[Mentalist]

Tiste Simeon, on 02 August 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

Yeah but UKR owned at one of the rowing ones I think...
I continue to be impressed with the BBC in this, I'm loving all the "What you might have missed on Day X" on the website. I also continue to be amused at the stories coming from across the pond about NBC...

Edit: also can anyone tell me how can they disqualify people for "not trying hard enough to win"? Can anyone explain that?

we got 2 gold medals right now, and I have some hope for boxing. Also, the men's individual Archery current title holder is a Ukie.

Still, on a general trend, since Atlanta we've been fielding more and more athletes, but winning progressively less.

[polishgenius]

Tiste Simeon, on 02 August 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

I continue to be impressed with the BBC in this, I'm loving all the "What you might have missed on Day X" on the website. I also continue to be amused at the stories coming from across the pond about NBC...

The BBC's coverage continues to be amazing but their post-event interviews get more and more irritating. After Jill Scott virtually accusing the Kazakh who won the road race of bad sportsmanship for not letting Cavendish win, and another interviewer making a Judo bloke cry by asking 'well you've just failed completely, are there any positives to take at all' then following up with 'is it all over for you, then?', they've effectively buried Phillip Hindes' admission of cheating in the cycling heats today (he admitted to falling off his bike on purpose to get another go on his start as he messed it up). You know if he'd not been riding for Britain that comment would be all over the sports media.

[Tiste Simeon]

amphibian, on 02 August 2012 - 04:35 PM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 02 August 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

Edit: also can anyone tell me how can they disqualify people for "not trying hard enough to win"? Can anyone explain that?

There was a round robin tourney in badminton. The #2 Chinese team unexpectedly lost and would have not been #2 going to the next round, so the #1 Chinese team tried to throw a game. However, the Koreans the #1 Chinese team were playing were also trying to throw a game and it kind of became a battle of "Who can lose the fastest". I think an Indonesian team was trying to lose as well. By all this "trying to lose", I mean they were being lethargic, not chasing anything down and flubbing as much as possible.

It was so bad that people were booing and yelling for ejecting all the competitors IN A BADMINTON MATCH!

Aha. That makes more sense, I wasn't sure where that came from. I didn't think the Chinese could do anything but win or do their darndest to win!

In other news, I will take a gold and silver in the same event and a bunch of other medals today! Good day for Team GB! Indeed!

[Tsundoku]

http://www.news.com....v-1226442226016

Too late, Tiste.

I was watching it with Mrs Sombra at the time in the wee hours of the morning, and I turned to her and said "Hang on, did he just crash deliberately?" when we watched the first replay of the incident. Because earlier there was some incident with the Polish team (I think) where the whole bit about 'if you go further than a half lap there is no restart' came up. We then saw the footage again and I said to her "Yep, he deliberately reefs the handlebars over even after he recovers his balance because he knows he's fucked it and the team can't recover from there".

That's "tanking", and that SHOULD have meant an automatic disqualification. If it's good enough for badminton ...

In other news I'm absolutely HATING the Channel 9 coverage here. Really, really poor.

Well done to China's chemists! Although the proof of their brilliance will be if the "B" samples still pass 8 years from now.

Er, I meant China's Turtle Soup chefs. Yeah, that's right.

Actually, on that topic why don't they just admit defeat and let all the doping nations (hell, ours included) just have at it? If people want to destroy their developing bodies in the name of getting a gold medal then why don't we just let them and enjoy watching the obscenely over-the-top results? They already do it to female gymnasts - even without drugs - because those poor little things will never grow up properly due to the horrific diet restrictions and the sheer physical and mental punishment they put themselves through.

Yay for Australia! So far we're third best at being second best. Although it has been nice to see some of the more arrogant athletes and media (hello James "The Misfire" Magnusson) having to eat their own pre-games hype. Actually, for me that's been the most entertaining part of these Olympics, because due to the shitty coverage I mentioned earlier it's difficult to enjoy it for the usual reasons.

I've been thinking of making a drinking game called "Team GB" where you have a shot every time some twat says "Team GB". Should get me wasted in about 15 minutes. Although having said that it would make it about 10 minutes slower than that cringe-inducing "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi" At Sydney 2000. And every-fucking-where since ...

This post has been edited by Sombra: 03 August 2012 - 04:54 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

Oh wow, totally missed PG's comment above my last one, so your post was the first I'd heard about it. Real shame he felt like he had to stoop to that level. I have not seen anything about it on the BBC. Also, PG I completely agree with you about the post-event interviews. I saw one where the mens 8-man rowing team came 3rd and got bronze, despite being ahead at one point. The interviewer pulled one guy - clearly upset - over and said "Well, you looked like you would have got gold at one point but then you didn't. You only got bronze. How does that make you feel?"

Erm... great I'm guessing??

EDIT: OK, found an article about the chap Hindes, and apparently cos British isn't his first language, they are letting him off, as well as the fact that a full on race was able to go ahead. Would the IOC be more lenient to a host country? Not sure if there are any precedents or anything... Link to BBC article

This post has been edited by Tiste Simeon: 03 August 2012 - 12:47 PM

[D'rek]

Sombra, on 03 August 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

Well done to China's chemists! Although the proof of their brilliance will be if the "B" samples still pass 8 years from now.

Er, I meant China's Turtle Soup chefs. Yeah, that's right.

Actually, on that topic why don't they just admit defeat and let all the doping nations (hell, ours included) just have at it? If people want to destroy their developing bodies in the name of getting a gold medal then why don't we just let them and enjoy watching the obscenely over-the-top results? They already do it to female gymnasts - even without drugs - because those poor little things will never grow up properly due to the horrific diet restrictions and the sheer physical and mental punishment they put themselves through.

China's not winning because they dope. China is just a really good super-athlete-finding/creating machine. When China decides it's going to compete at something on the world level, it throws a ton of resources into finding the best naturally adept athletes (or kids who will become athletes) for it, and gives them all the best coaches, facilities and equipment they can buy.

Look at curling (oh god I'm so Canadian ) - in the last decade, China at some point decided "We want to compete at curling," found some talent, threw lots of resources at it, and now they have teams that are often in the top 10, worldwide. And no amount of doping can achieve that

This post has been edited by D'rek: 03 August 2012 - 02:16 PM

[amphibian]

D, on 03 August 2012 - 02:11 PM, said:

China's not winning because they dope. China is just a really good super-athlete-finding/creating machine. When China decides it's going to compete at something on the world level, it throws a ton of resources into finding the best naturally adept athletes (or kids who will become athletes) for it, and gives them all the best coaches, facilities and equipment they can buy.

Look at curling (oh god I'm so Canadian ) - in the last decade, China at some point decided "We want to compete at curling," found some talent, threw lots of resources at it, and now they have teams that are often in the top 10, worldwide. And no amount of doping can achieve that

And yet a ton of China's top athletes test positive (look at Tong Wen with the "clenbuterol in the street kebab" kerfluffle) or skirt the boundaries of legality (underage gymnasts).

Their academies for specific sports are well funded, but they winnow through a TON of athletes to get the three or four genetic freaks that can and will sustain the rigors of extremely hard work. Their weightlifters are all ridiculous - and all probably on something undetectable as of yet.

The basketball team isn't going so well though. They still can't get the really good coaches or the good athletes that are suited for the sport in there yet.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 03 August 2012 - 11:18 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

re - the doping.

saw a documentary about Ben Johnson a while back (the guy who broke world record in Seoul for gold, then got stripped of it for doping)

There was a scientist shown in the documentary who said he went back to the samples of the finalists 6/7 years later.

And using the latest techniques (that were available in the mid 90's) he rechecked them all.

And who was doped up?

Every. Single. One.

As ever, the doping technology is a few years ahead of the testing technology, and it most likely always will be. So while there are a number of sports that doping is unlikely to have an effect on (curling, target shooting, etc), and there are a few genetic freaks about, I guarantee there are a buttload of athletes at the games who are on the jab.

[amphibian]

Cocoreturns, on 03 August 2012 - 08:19 PM, said:

As ever, the doping technology is a few years ahead of the testing technology, and it most likely always will be. So while there are a number of sports that doping is unlikely to have an effect on (curling, target shooting, etc), and there are a few genetic freaks about, I guarantee there are a buttload of athletes at the games who are on the jab.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely not disputing that. However, there are kind of "pockets" of doping/cheating within most national teams - cycling, weightlifting, track and field, swimming, wrestling and so on. For China, I honestly believe that they go way beyond the normal pockets into something akin to the East German "everybody on our team MUST be on these drugs or you're just not gonna go to the Olympics" ethos.

[Tiste Simeon]

Pfft. Everyone knows the Chinese Olympic team are all cyborgs in a government sponsored robotics experiment...

[masan's saddle]

Quote

"An Australian rower who was arrested after he allegedly damaged shops in a Surrey town while blind drunk is to make a personal apology to business owners and pay the repair bill for the damage he caused.

The Australian national Olympic committee will announce later today whether the 21-year-old athlete will be sent home in disgrace following the incident on Thursday when, still dressed in his team's distinctive gold tracksuit, he is claimed to have gone on the rampage in Egham.

Booth had made his Olympic debut on Wednesday, finishing last with his team mates in the men's eight at Eton Dorney in Surrey. He was arrested in the early hours of Thursday after windows were smashed at two businesses - an engineering firm and a restaurant. It is alleged that Booth, who was filmed by CCTV cameras buying a kebab shortly before the incident, broke the windows in the apparent belief that he was breaking into his own home.

He was released on bail by Surrey Police after being taken to hospital for treatment when he fell while being breathalysed.

Mike Tancred, spokesman for the Australian NOC, said: "We have been telling our athletes to be very respectful of their hosts so what happened is very disappointing. Josh is going to make a formal apology to the shop keepers and will be paying the £1,400 bill to cover the cost of the damage.

"He is also going to issue a general public apology. We are working with the police to reach an effective resolution to this matter."

Chris Fylder, deputy chef de mission for the Australian squad, added: "Josh is very apologetic and embarassed about what's happened and certainly wants to make good for any damage he caused. It's quite out of character for Josh and he really can't explain why he actually conducted himself in that particular way but accepts that is what happened and is prepared for any of the repercussions that result."

Surrey Police did not immediately respond to request for a comment on the incident"

What is happening to the Aussie team ? I'm loving reading the Aussie journos having meltdowns, back pedalling and generally shutting the fuck up.

This bloke is a national disgrace though.
Not only is he a loser, he can't handle his beer either.

[Tsundoku]

masan, on 03 August 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

Quote

"An Australian rower who was arrested after he allegedly damaged shops in a Surrey town while blind drunk is to make a personal apology to business owners and pay the repair bill for the damage he caused.

The Australian national Olympic committee will announce later today whether the 21-year-old athlete will be sent home in disgrace following the incident on Thursday when, still dressed in his team's distinctive gold tracksuit, he is claimed to have gone on the rampage in Egham.

Booth had made his Olympic debut on Wednesday, finishing last with his team mates in the men's eight at Eton Dorney in Surrey. He was arrested in the early hours of Thursday after windows were smashed at two businesses - an engineering firm and a restaurant. It is alleged that Booth, who was filmed by CCTV cameras buying a kebab shortly before the incident, broke the windows in the apparent belief that he was breaking into his own home.

He was released on bail by Surrey Police after being taken to hospital for treatment when he fell while being breathalysed.

Mike Tancred, spokesman for the Australian NOC, said: "We have been telling our athletes to be very respectful of their hosts so what happened is very disappointing. Josh is going to make a formal apology to the shop keepers and will be paying the £1,400 bill to cover the cost of the damage.

"He is also going to issue a general public apology. We are working with the police to reach an effective resolution to this matter."

Chris Fylder, deputy chef de mission for the Australian squad, added: "Josh is very apologetic and embarassed about what's happened and certainly wants to make good for any damage he caused. It's quite out of character for Josh and he really can't explain why he actually conducted himself in that particular way but accepts that is what happened and is prepared for any of the repercussions that result."

Surrey Police did not immediately respond to request for a comment on the incident"

What is happening to the Aussie team ? I'm loving reading the Aussie journos having meltdowns, back pedalling and generally shutting the fuck up.

This bloke is a national disgrace though.
Not only is he a loser, he can't handle his beer either.

Indeed. We're stripping him of his passport so he'll forever be stuck in an airport limbo a la Tom Hanks in "The Terminal".

[masan's saddle]

Sombra, on 03 August 2012 - 10:53 PM, said:

masan, on 03 August 2012 - 10:17 PM, said:

Quote

"An Australian rower who was arrested after he allegedly damaged shops in a Surrey town while blind drunk is to make a personal apology to business owners and pay the repair bill for the damage he caused.

The Australian national Olympic committee will announce later today whether the 21-year-old athlete will be sent home in disgrace following the incident on Thursday when, still dressed in his team's distinctive gold tracksuit, he is claimed to have gone on the rampage in Egham.

Booth had made his Olympic debut on Wednesday, finishing last with his team mates in the men's eight at Eton Dorney in Surrey. He was arrested in the early hours of Thursday after windows were smashed at two businesses - an engineering firm and a restaurant. It is alleged that Booth, who was filmed by CCTV cameras buying a kebab shortly before the incident, broke the windows in the apparent belief that he was breaking into his own home.

He was released on bail by Surrey Police after being taken to hospital for treatment when he fell while being breathalysed.

Mike Tancred, spokesman for the Australian NOC, said: "We have been telling our athletes to be very respectful of their hosts so what happened is very disappointing. Josh is going to make a formal apology to the shop keepers and will be paying the £1,400 bill to cover the cost of the damage.

"He is also going to issue a general public apology. We are working with the police to reach an effective resolution to this matter."

Chris Fylder, deputy chef de mission for the Australian squad, added: "Josh is very apologetic and embarassed about what's happened and certainly wants to make good for any damage he caused. It's quite out of character for Josh and he really can't explain why he actually conducted himself in that particular way but accepts that is what happened and is prepared for any of the repercussions that result."

Surrey Police did not immediately respond to request for a comment on the incident"

What is happening to the Aussie team ? I'm loving reading the Aussie journos having meltdowns, back pedalling and generally shutting the fuck up.

This bloke is a national disgrace though.
Not only is he a loser, he can't handle his beer either.

Indeed. We're stripping him of his passport so he'll forever be stuck in an airport limbo a la Tom Hanks in "The Terminal".

That's a bit harsh Sombie, maybe you could use him in your cricket team ?

[Beezulbubba]

[Tiste Simeon]

Oh Jessica Ennis...

[Tapper]

Tiste Simeon, on 04 August 2012 - 08:18 PM, said:

Oh Jessica Ennis...

Yep. Exceptionally well done especially considering the fact that she had perhaps the most expectation of any athlete in the UK riding on her shoulders, even more than Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy. I don;t know if you've seen it, but the poor UK swimmer lady on the 800m who won bronze this year (and gold in Beijing) transformed into a puddle of misery for 'letting the country down', which for me, shows what a monster home Olympics and crowd expectation can be.

The one bit iffy part about Ellis' victory is that every single commentator apart from Michael Johnson refers to her as 'Jess' without even a surname, which is so fucking familiar that it is almost disrespectful. I will mainline wodka until my ears bleed if I hear it one more time.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah poor Rebecca Adlington. She appeared out of nowhere in Beijing to ownz at the swimming and now cos she isn't Jessica Ennis, people seem to think she is a failure... two bronzes out of 3 races is exceptional, but she will be very quickly forgotten in the media storm that tomorrow will bring. Ennis' face will be EVERYWHERE!! Then pages 2 - 9 will be more Ennis + the others who won gold today. No-one will care about 2 bronzes in swimming...

[masan's saddle]

That was amazing to watch, first Jessica Ennis, then Rutherford in the long jump and then Mo Farah in the 10,000 metres.

Absolutely fantastic viewing with the crowd going batshit, this is the first time I regret not having tickets because the stadium was jumping.


What would have capped it all was the British mens football team winning a penalty shootout against South Korea but it was not to be.


Jessica Ennis is lovely but i'm afraid she can't touch Denise Lewis in the hotness stakes, be still my beating heart

[Beezulbubba]

Well, I wouldn't want to be Daniel Sturridge right about now. I think even the Queen would gob on him.... poor guy. (I did get that right, correct? What we call "hocking a loogie" in the U.S. is called "gobbing" in England, right?).

[masan's saddle]

Gobbing is the correct phrase but the queen has people who do that for her.

Shocking penalty from Sturridge, why do players pause like that trying to psyche the goalie out ?

As is typical when a British (usually English) team is in a shootout they balls it up somehow, that said the Korean pens were all fantastic, did'nt give the keeper a sniff.



Sturridge is currently on his way to the Tower in shackles, the crowds are lining the street flinging Corgi poo at him. Tomorrow he will be transported to Australia to join their swimming team.