2012 Summer Olympics Thread

[ProfParanoia]

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.

Also jd, could we be a bit nicer to the athletes themselves? I don't think Sergey Bubka, Zhang Shan, or Nadia Comăneci wants to be called a "robot".

[ranger]

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.

yer mean

also, implying USA bball gonna medal eh? Spain, Argentina and France got somethin to say bout that..its just ooone game. One game for lechoke and westbrick to screw things up

[mangaluva]

Big congrats to Helen Glover and Heather Stanning for Britain's first Olympic Gold in the women's pair rowing! That's brilliant for them, because until two years ago they were always last picked for rowing teams until some genius coach decided to try the pair of them out together as a double and found out they worked brilliantly together. Well done!

[Wakarimashita]

The 2 young men did very well in the semi-final of the men's rowing as well. They came first in front of the French. The final promises to be thrilling.

French fencing is a disaster this year. Not one individual medal for the first time since 1960.  :-X

[Wakarimashita]

Bradley Wiggins, the recent Tour de France winner, should bring Great Britain its second gold medal of the day in about 10 minutes. Great Britain is climbing up the rankings today.

edit : It's done. 2nd gold medal for Great Britain, this time in the cycling time trial.

[mangaluva]

No golds for a while and now two golds in one day! Wiggins earned it, he's a fantastic cyclist. You should see all the guys who are sticking paper sideburns to their cheeks in his honour XD WIGGO!

[Wakarimashita]

Lucie Decosse gets gold in judo ! Finally judo brings something else other than bronze medals. ^^

[ProfParanoia]

Japan needs to get more golds in there.

Also, the rankings should be more like nickelodeon guts .

[dilbertschalter]

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.

Also jd, could we be a bit nicer to the athletes themselves? I don't think Sergey Bubka, Zhang Shan, or Nadia Comăneci wants to be called a "robot".

I doubt Nadia Comaneci would mind much.

[ProfParanoia]

I doubt Nadia Comaneci would mind much.

By jd she might, or at least be really confused. Though tbf, Bubka might actually be a [Terminator].

[Wakarimashita]

Ouch for Magnussen. Impressive swim by Adrian though.

[Wakarimashita]

(I removed yesterday's medal count to avoid 3 posts in a row)

Medal count after Day 6 :



The top 4 stays the same. China stays on top for the 6th consecutive day thanks to additional silver medals despite the US's great day (gold medals in swimming, gymnastics and even judo for the first time in history) which allows the country to become first in the totals. Depending on the two countries' performances tomorrow, the US could take the first place from China for the first time in these Olympics. France and South-Korea both add one gold medal : archery for South-Korea, kayaking for France. Great Britain scores a 2nd great day and enters the top 5 thanks to 3 extra gold medals . Germany and Italy follow in this european 'Big 4'. North Korea loses a few spots as it was not able to secure an extra gold medal. Russia adds a gold medal in judo and wins a few spots. Kazakhstan and South Africa close this top 10/11 with 3 gold medals each.

[Jd-]

Nigeria got set back thirty years after that game.

[Wakarimashita]

A few significant records were beaten during that match :
-83 points between the 2 teams (the previous record of 72 was established by the US team in 1956 against Thailand with 101-29)
-Number of points : 156 beats the 1988 previous record (138) established by Brasil against Egypt in 1988
-78 points in the first half of the match beating the 1988 previous record of 72 established by Brasil against China.
-Carmelo Anthony beats the record of points in a match for an american player with 37 points (Stephon Marbury had the previous record with 31).

[Stopwatch]

Up to 4th . With our population being barely anything compared to the top two of China and America that's pretty good imo . And getting a gold in shooting of all things was kinda hilarious.
Anyway, Jd, you may not like how China and several other countries obtain their medals (I dislike the abuse of human rights too, believe me ...), but the athletes involved still worked hard for those medals and still deserve them. Just because you have a lot of problems with communism doesn't mean you should drag it into this and try to influence people's opinions on this here of all places. At the very least, if you can't leave it here, give it its own thread where you look at it from a neutral POV which takes into account things like the original ideas behind communism, where it 'went wrong' and so on.
Also, about your other post, I don't think there's such thing as a 'natural athlete' at all. All the athletes at Olympic level train hard and devote a lot of time for their particular sport. I know several people who aren't at that level who still have to balance various hours between school, sleep and their sport, and considering they're nowhere near that and still give it at least two hours on average on weekdays, I think that says something about athletes who are the best of their country. Namely, a lot of time goes into it. 'Naturals' who can be that good at sport without all that effort simply don't exist. So, again, the Chinese athletes are not just 'robots', I think any medals they get, they earned them, no matter what pressure was behind them at the time.
Well, I realise what'll happen if you reply to my post so I probably won't respond at all, sorry, but I'm not getting into an argument over this, I've said my piece and hope you'll tone it down a bit. Yeah, just gonna ignore any communism related based posts from now on and focus on Olympics news only \o/.
Go Team GB \o/
*killed*