Topic: 2012 Summer Olympic Thread

Oh man, that US gymnast from the Nintendo Video music video wound up on his butt twice today. When they zoomed in on him after, it looked like he couldn't even breathe to keep from crying — felt so bad for him.

I dont know maybe its me but the gymnast this year just dont look as polished as other years. All of them it seems keep making unusual mistakes. I say that about every country to and both mens and womens.

I was casually watching some of the water polo yesterday, and I couldn't help thinking that it must be one of the more exhausting sports out there. Obviously these are world-class athletes we're talking about, and admittedly it's not a sport I'm terribly familiar with, but it seems to me that players must possess an immense amount of stamina to both stay afloat and continually swim back and forth across the field (err, pool) of play over the course of a match.

And yeah, it definitely feels like there have been an unusual amount of mistakes in gymnastics this year. Watching the Chinese and Japanese men's teams screw up in qualifying the other day was surreal, and it was just brutal watching the US men's make error after error yesterday. Good job by the British men's team to earn a medal though, I was happy to see them do well in front their home crowd.

Also, I have no idea why handball isn't much more popular here in the States, that sport looks (and is) fun as heck.

@RevolverLink: I know the announcers were talking about how fit the players have to be for water polo. They were saying that a baseball player can get away with being a bit out of shape to play in the MLB but not a water polo player.

And I agree with you on handball. If you ask me it looked alot like soccer only using your hands instead of your feet.

@Tasuki - I like to think of handball as the beautiful lovechild of basketball, lacrosse and hockey. I especially love that three-second pass rule, something I wish basketball would try to incorporate (but won't), if only to limit the slow and ugly "hero ball" that can become so prevalent at times.

And I forgot to mention this earlier, but there was someone drawing my attention away from the men's gymnastic drama, to a certain extent: the well-groomed man sitting near the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. For the lack of better descriptive powers, he looked like an Asian Don Draper. I wish I could find a screen-grab of him somewhere, because he was simply out-classing everyone in the building yesterday. He looked like he should've been holding an Old Fashioned or a Stinger or something.

An odd thought, I know, but I felt compelled to mention it.

Also, I have no idea why handball isn't much more popular here in the States, that sport looks (and is) fun as heck.

It's barely played in Australia, too, but I agree. It's an awesome sport. So fast and fluid.

I'm surprised there's been no discussion on those two seperate occasions where the Japanese team (Taekwondo and Mens Gymnastics) got a decision overturned; in the latter event, dropping GB from Silver to Bronze and Ukraine (I think) from Bronze to fourth place. And in Taekwondo, the Japanese delegation forced the officials to overturn the decision which awarded the opponent the match.

In both cases, the Japanese probably deserved to win (I'm not going to claim they cheated anyone out of a medal), but in any case, the officials have made some pretty big mistakes.

Or how that South Korean fencer was cheated out of a victory (basically, she was winning, and when the clock hit zero, a technical error occured and it was actually put back a second and the opponent was able to get a winning strike. The South Korean staged a sit in, but her appeal was rejected.

Mistakes happen in sport. A genuine champion wins anyway. Frankly, if it only took one more second to go from winning, to losing, then you didn't deserve the win.

Too much blaming the judges/ bad decisions when people lose these days.

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I know someone who is in the Australian womens team (or something along those lines) but it's just not as popular here.

I'll take this one.
Honestly, you've listed the two easiest things about the sport. An eggbeater kick isn't difficult, and is easy to be done even when you're exhausted. Also if you watch players swim after a turnover, you'll notice (unless it's a counter attack) they don't swim that fast (a lot of them don't use their legs). You're mostly gonna get tired from defending/attacking. You use your legs, and your entire upper body to try and prevent from getting pushed under the water by the player you're marking/being marked by. I love it!

Also, our womens team is playing the GB team tonight, who got into the sport due to the, 'you're hosting, have a spot in every sport' thing.

Gonna be a bloodbath! >:]
_{on the scoreboard}

But by all rights, the South Korean should have won.

If a football team were winning 4-3 in a penalty shootout, but the referee decided to give the opposing team two extra kicks because he suddenly went mental, and they scored both of them, the team who then went on to lose would rightly feel a bit cheated.

If the South Korean was winning, but threw the game away at the last second, it wouldn't have been a problem.

Is it un-American to enjoy listening to some of the other national anthems? I'd, uh, rather not get deported or something just because I may or not think that "Kimigayo" sounds lovely or that "O Canada" is made of pure awesome.

@Aviator - Like I said before, it's not a sport I know much about, so corrections on my complete n00b leaps in judgement are more than welcome.

Where are you even hearing the other anthems? From what I've seen on NBC thus far, there only showing the ceremony when America wins the gold.

I'm just speaking generally I guess - I'm positive I haven't actually caught Japan's this year and I don't think Canada's even won a gold yet at these games - although NBC's definitely aired the anthems for Australia, South Africa, China, France and of course the UK so far. Just not anywhere near as much as the "Star-Spangled Banner", since NBC (especially the mother network) tends to focus more on sports Team USA is expected to contend in, for obvious reasons.

I have seen them show the ceremony when US only wins silver or bronze. Than you can here the other countries anthems.

Anyone see the USA Men's Basketball team trash Nigeria yesterday 156-73? They just made them look bad at basketball. Also, they set a record for the most points scored in an Olympic basketball game.

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I saw the highlights of it but I was at work when it was live.

To quote a tweet from last night - "We totally taught Nigeria a lesson. That's the last time they'll think they can just waltz into a game and lose by 45."

Really good race for the Men's Track Team Pursuit, Great Britain won Gold and made a new world record. Great Britain also got gold in the Women's Keirin. Today was a good day for Great Britain in track cycling. United States have been winning gold in swimming today.

What a great finish to Michael Phelps career. Kinda sad to see him go after watching him these last few Olympics but its nice to see that he finished on his terms.

The Internet has gone beserk with NASA's feat of science... and I'm still more concerned with Australia's sudden lack of athleticism.

Seriously. This is embarrassing. One lousy gold medal? For a country that (rightfully) takes serious pride in its sports?

The idiot long jumper went on and on in an interview about how proud we should be in our athlete's performance, and how silver medals are great and how the media are all being big old' meanies.

Guess what bucko. This is Australia's worst games showing in decades. You guys failed. Deal with it.