2012 Summer Olympics Thread

[ProfParanoia]

I feel worse for the Ukraine than for Britain.

[Stopwatch]

Nah, Britain's the host country, expected to do really well in these games, but instead it's getting 4th/5th place in loads of things (just missing out on medals) and doing pretty badly overall (Team GB fail D:). Plus, the games are s'posed to be boosting the economy, but (at least according to BBC World News :x) everyone's been scared off by predicted overcrowding which never happened because of the warnings about it. So, I'm biased, but I'm feeling much more sorry for Britain then Ukraine atm.

[ProfParanoia]

I was saying they still got a medal, the fact they've been sucking the whole time doesn't change that for me.

[Jd-]

Swimming is proving yet again to be the to-watch sport, as it always is.

[ProfParanoia]

[Wakarimashita]

Top 10 after day 4 :

1. (=) China (13) (6) (4) Total : (23)
2. (=) USA (9) (8) (6) Total : (23)
3. (=) France (4) (3) (4) Total : (11)
4. (+2) South Korea (3) (2) (3) Total : (8)
5. (-1) North Korea (3) (0) (1) Total : (4)
6. (+2) Kazakhstan (3) (0) (0) Total : (3)
7. (-2) Italy (2) (4) (2) Total : (8)
8. (NE) Germany (2) (3) (1) Total : (6)
9. (-2) Russia (2) (2) (4) Total : (8)
10. (RE) South Africa (2) (0) (0) Total : (2)

Host country :

21. (-1) Great Britain (0) (2) (2) Total : (4)

Unchanged top 3. China stays on top for the 4th consecutive day keeping the same lead it had yesterday on the US in terms of gold medals (both countries got gold medals in swimming, USA got a gold medal in gymnastics and shooting, China in fencing, diving and weightlifting) . France adds one gold medal thanks to canoeing and 2 silver medal thanks to swimming. South Korea regains the top 4 thank to an extra gold medal in judo. Her neighbour who added another gold medal  follows. Kazakhstan also wins an additional gold medal in weightlifting, the country has won only gold medals for now.  0 medal day for Italy, the country loses 2 spots yet again. Germany gets an excellent day with medals in horsebackriding allowing the country to enter the top 8. Russia adds bronze and silver medals but still declines. South Africa enters the Top 10 thanks to Le Clot's surprise win against Phelps in the 200m butterfly. Australia leaves the top 10 which is something to be noted.

The hostcountry Britain still fails to capture her first gold medal after the 4th day causing the country to lose one additional spot. A small consolation however with Zara Phillips's silver medal in horsebackriding.

[mangaluva]

If we'd gotten nothing in the horseback, that would have been terrible.

[Kamite]

You know I thought since North Korea is a closed communist country I thought they wouldn't participate on the Olympics.

[ProfParanoia]

You know I thought since North Korea is a closed communist country I thought they wouldn't participate on the Olympics.

Well, they're closed off but still do stuff, in fact one time going to a film festival allowed a kidnapped director of their's to escape.

[Jd-]

You know I thought since North Korea is a closed communist country I thought they wouldn't participate on the Olympics.

Communist countries love the Olympics, because they can showcase their enslaved athletes and use it as a means of further controlling their citizens back home. When they win gold at any event, it allows the state media to portray them as a perfect utopia to its lesser-informed citizens, sending the message they should be fortunate to be associated with such a "great country", even if it's all still just a smokescreen.

As for North Korea, it competes in weightlifting and soccer routinely, but not too much else.

[Kaito Lady]

You know I thought since North Korea is a closed communist country I thought they wouldn't participate on the Olympics.

Communist countries love the Olympics, because they can showcase their enslaved athletes and use it as a means of further controlling their citizens back home. When they win gold at any event, it allows the state media to portray them as a perfect utopia to its lesser-informed citizens, sending the message they should be fortunate to be associated with such a "great country", even if it's all still just a smokescreen.

^

[Akonyl]

all hail Olympic Overlord Phelps

he's swimmin in your olympics
he's snatchin yo medals up
tryna win em all

so y'all need to hide your golds, hide your silvers, and hide your bronzes 'cause he's winnin everything out there

[Wakarimashita]

You know I thought since North Korea is a closed communist country I thought they wouldn't participate on the Olympics.

Communist countries love the Olympics, because they can showcase their enslaved athletes and use it as a means of further controlling their citizens back home. When they win gold at any event, it allows the state media to portray them as a perfect utopia to its lesser-informed citizens, sending the message they should be fortunate to be associated with such a "great country", even if it's all still just a smokescreen.

As for North Korea, it competes in weightlifting and soccer routinely, but not too much else.

Yep, nothing new. It was the exact same thing with other dictatorships : in Berlin with Nazi Germany, with the Soviet Union for decades or with East Germany starting in the 60s...

De Coubertin's dream is unfortunately going to remain a dream. Politics and sports (especially major events like the Olympics) always end up getting mixed up with countries, including democratic ones (even if China and North Korea take it to the extreme level), using sports as some kind of political tool to convey whatever message on a national or international level.

As a fan of the Olympics, I think it much more enjoyable to just ignore whatever political issues you might have with one country or the other at least during the duration of the games. There is a time for everything. Many countries not respecting the original spirit of the Olympics (for example a lot of countries in Europe have multiple naturalizations of chinese atheletes who weren't kept by their home country just to have them compete in sports such as badminton or ping-pong in the hope of winning an extra medal...) doesn't mean the viewers should follow the same path.

[Jd-]

I'm looking forward to the women's team 200m in swimming tomorrow. It should be quite interesting. The U.S. has some other pretty certain medals coming up (basketball, tennis, etc), but there should be some surprises here and there.

[Wakarimashita]

I'm always impressed by the US having at least one athlete (if not 2) in every single swimming final, no matter the distance, no matter the strokes involved. This country's finally started to find some good swimmers in the past 8-10 years after decades of nothing but it still has a very very long way to go before it can even imagine having swimmers in all the finals. ^^