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Post by mich64 on Jul 29, 2012 3:36:26 GMT
How exciting nycgirl! Her performance will certainly inspire those she swims with back home and very exciting if she brings her medal for all to see when she returns after the Games.
I am watching the men's artistic gymnastic team qualifying competition tonight. I watched the men's road race (cycling) this morning and a couple of games in the Federer match this afternoon before I forced myself to go down to the lake for a swim and enjoy this beautiful weather we are having.
Thank goodness for the Canadian and USA TV channels covering the Games as they recap the highlights at night.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2012 11:02:56 GMT
In the little bits of interesting trivia, I saw that there are 4 athletes participating as 'stateless' under the Olympic banner -- one person from South Sudan and 3 from the Netherlands Antilles. The person from South Sudan is because a country and its corresponding Olympic committee must have a minimum of 2 years of existence in order to be represented, and the others from the Antilles is because their Olympic committee was disbanded.
Apparently there are a few athletes in this case every time.
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Post by htmb on Jul 29, 2012 12:35:45 GMT
Last night we watched men's gymnastics and the men's 400 medley swimming event. We already knew that Ryan Lochte had won and that Michael Phelps had done poorly in swimming, but it was still exciting to see the race. Lochte swam for the University of Florida, for which my family has close ties. If you look closely he has a UF gator tattoo on the back of one shoulder.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2012 16:42:59 GMT
17-year-old Lia Neal of Brooklyn, a girl I have ran into at the local swimming pool for the past 8 years, is swimming the 100m relay today. She swims with the girls I babysit and she always struck me as a quiet, modest child, even though it was clear to everyone that she was something special. I'm going to be sure to watch her today. I am so glad I saw this post yesterday and was able to cheer Lia on for you and the rest of the gang back in Brooklyn!!! What a thrill. Thanks for telling us NYC girl!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2012 17:34:49 GMT
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Post by mich64 on Jul 31, 2012 19:35:57 GMT
Congratulations to all competitors thus far! It has been excellent viewing.
Very proud of our Canadian Ladies Artistic Gymnastic team today, best placing ever! 5Th Place! They had a clean meet (=no falls). Could not have dreamed of a better performance, there goal was hopefully an 8Th place finish.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2012 19:38:48 GMT
I hope that the UK gets more medals.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 1, 2012 12:08:55 GMT
I was sad to watch the news on SKY this morning - all hyped up about Phelps (quickly mentioning he got Silver) but stressing over and over that he is the ultimate winner in medals in the Olympic history. Would it really have choked them to mention ( in passing even) that Chad Le Close got the biggest scalp in swimming history, and he took the GOLD? Shame on you SKY, shame.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2012 19:55:09 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Aug 3, 2012 20:56:04 GMT
I watched the cycling this evening. I am not into sport at all but OH has had the Olympics on tv all evening (apart from the half an hour when my Gardening programme was on) so I can't really avoid it. I think that all the sportsmen and women are amazing.
It's the reporting that I dislike, all the UK channels really are pretty bad really, comments like 'only managed fourth place' or 'a disappointing performance' when an athlete gets a silver or bronze medal make me quite cross, their obsession with gold medals and the home team is embarrassing.
Although I am not a 'fan' I do think that this attitude by the British press is unsporting and terribly unprofessional. To qualify to participate in the Olympics in the first place the athletes deserve a huge pat on the back and a lot of respect.
I still don't like sport tho.... ;D
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2012 22:03:39 GMT
Yes, ethnocentric reporting can be abominable. Even though the French are doing quite well this time, it was not always the case, so they seem to have learned to pay attention to the other countries. The closest that I saw the reporting get to 'disgraceful' the other day was a ceremony where the French got a bronze medal, and the commentator said something along the lines of "we're going to show you the complete awards ceremony anyway" (i.e. even though the rest of the ceremony is of no interest).
Countries that win little or nothing at the Olympics but which are still grateful to have all of this spectacular programming would be so horrified if they could hear what the 'proud' winning countries say about each other.
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Post by bjd on Aug 4, 2012 17:22:43 GMT
I pretty much waited for the athletics to start to watch anything and even so, have to sit through interminable bouts of judo or fencing or something the French are participating in to see a few moments of athletics. And with friends we were talking about the Olympics -- there are some sports that should not be here: football for one, tennis, ping pong and badminton and the horse-riding stuff. All that stuff either has its own World/Euro Cup, or else is so limited nationally, or else it's the horse who is doing the work. And all those tennis competitions every year, and now the same people are playing in the Olympics. Bah, humbug.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2012 18:01:25 GMT
And baseball? Thank god, that only lasted from 1992 to 2008.
At least the sports do evolve regularly, but I am often perplexed by things like archery, although apparently it was the most watched event so far in the United States due to the "Hunger Games" mania.
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 4, 2012 20:04:57 GMT
They all do - certainly the athletics: so there's an argument that none of them should be in the Olympics - or all of them! As for the nationally-limited, that's one of the arguments for demonstration sports, to see what might catch on and spread internationally.
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 5, 2012 10:15:37 GMT
They could always try this:
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2012 10:22:21 GMT
They'd have to make too many medals for the teams. ;D
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Post by lola on Aug 5, 2012 12:26:30 GMT
That video is a hoot. Now let's see them do that carrying trombones, piccolos, bass drums etc. and playing "On Wisconsin."
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 5, 2012 13:17:20 GMT
I'm surprised they weren't carrying briefcases and/or stopping to photograph each other.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2012 16:56:06 GMT
Women may disagree, but I think that synchronised swimming is perhaps the most unbearable "sport" on display, with the waterproof paint jobs on the faces and the death mask smiles. If this is a sport, why not tap dancing, juggling or trapeze?
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Post by lola on Aug 5, 2012 16:57:18 GMT
So glad for Murray in tennis!
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Post by htmb on Aug 5, 2012 17:53:47 GMT
That was good, Patrick. Any idea where it was recorded?
I'm always surprised when some events included as part of the Olympics that I've just never thought about, like today when I walked through the room and saw mixed doubles tennis was on the television.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2012 6:41:13 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2012 21:45:05 GMT
Since some people are always spoiling for a fight, I see in the French press that there is a controversy (?) about the British class system due to the Olympics. Apparently 20% of the medal winners come from elite private schools, which only 7% of British youth attend.
It must be admitted that certain Olympic sports have always been the domain of the monied classes, no matter what country -- rowing, sailing, equestrian events... and some are on the borderline like fencing or even tennis.
I don't think there's any solution for this sort of thing, though, unless certain sports are eliminated -- and that's always the wrong thing to do.
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 9, 2012 13:41:12 GMT
I'm not sure about the statistics, but this is part of a political controversy about government policy on financing schools. I have read somewhere that the figures claimed were being used by the government to argue that any problem in school sports is to do with a supposed egalitarian culture in state schools, encouraged by the previous government, which discouraged competition; whereas the opposition has been making hay with the sight of the government basking in the reflected glory of the Olympic results while cutting back on a number of programmes intended to encourage school sports. Private schools, for example, are extremely well-endowed with facilities, specialist teachers and coaches, and so on, to a level state schools could never expect. The current Olympic rowing course, for example, is owned by and was built for, Eton. On the other hand, rowing points out that a good 50% of its team, almost all of whom reached the Olympic finals, are from state schools, thanks to a talent-spotting/nurturing programme.
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Post by lola on Aug 9, 2012 20:40:58 GMT
The only gold I'd hoped for US: women's soccer. (10,000 empty seats)( but yay us!)
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Post by htmb on Aug 12, 2012 16:01:58 GMT
Celebrating USA Mens Basketball Gold!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2012 17:05:32 GMT
In that case, I will celebrate the French men's handball gold.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2012 17:21:49 GMT
Looking at the BBC medal chart, I think it is interesting that 5 countries won a gold medal as their only medal (Algeria, Bahamas, Grenada, Uganda, Venezuela), 6 countries won a silver medal as their only medal (Portugal, Montenegro, Guatemala, Gabon, Cyprus, Botswana) and 7 countries won a bronze medal as their only medal (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Hong Kong). But each of these countries will now be able to celebrate a national hero tomorrow (or a team of national heroes) while in some of the 'big' Olympic countries, a lot of the gold medal winners (not to mention the other ones) will be completely ignored, just because they did not compete in the most popular sports. Therefore, let me pick at random one gold medal winner, say the women's hammer throw, for a special tribute that nobody will give her. Tatyana Lynseko, Russia
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2012 19:59:30 GMT
As the closing ceremonies begin, they are saying that London is the 9th largest city of France with a French population of 300,000.
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Post by lugg on Aug 12, 2012 20:11:10 GMT
Yes I saw that reported in the press a few weeks ago-re special arrangements for voting for French - Londoners My celebration is for Charlotte Dujardin who certainly does not come from an elitist background. ..Off now to watch the closing ceremony, hoping it will be as madly good as the opening.
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