2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Thread

[Jimbo's Drinker]

Holy s***, flying german

[SoxFan1]

Ha, Steve's man-crush Horton won't medal. Maybe he should have focused less on the camera and more on his routines?

[Jimbo's Drinker]

China to win medal count, even after Track and Field??

[whitesoxfan101]

China to win medal count, even after Track and Field??

 

I'd be surprised if they win the medal count, they seem poised to finish considerably ahead of us in gold medals though.

[Jimbo's Drinker]

Why do I feel like every Chinese athlete is on steroids?

[SoxFan1]

China to win medal count, even after Track and Field??

 

 

I'd be surprised if they win the medal count, they seem poised to finish considerably ahead of us in gold medals though.

Golds > Overall medal counts.

 

[SoxFan1]

Why do I feel like every Chinese athlete is on steroids?

Ugh.

[whitesoxfan101]

Golds > Overall medal counts.

 

Well yeah of course, but I think Jimbo was referring to the overall medal count and not the golds.

[Flash Tizzle]

Ugh.

You know they are, Slobodan.

[SoxFan1]

You know they are, Slobodan.

Funny.

[Flash Tizzle]

Ptac, time to change your avatar picture.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10...lbow-front.html

 

WAAAHH, my arm socket has snapped backwards. WAAAHH, the unbearable pain. OMG, My olympic aspirations are forever crushed. f***ing baby. Man up!

Edited August 14, 2008 by Flash Tizzle

[LosMediasBlancas]

Why do I feel like every Chinese athlete is on steroids?

 

It seems like the host country always does well, no?

[ChiSox_Sonix]

I think the WBC is part of the reason it has no spot in the Olympics. In pretty much every other sport, the Olympics is the whole shebang. Thats what its all about, thats the ultimate challenge.

 

Haha, this Japanese guy was forced to wait to do his pommel horse routine. If he loses, the Karolyi's should blame the officials.

 

You cant use the WBC as a reason without mentioning soccer then. Comapred to the World Cup, the Olympics isnt nearly as big of a deal. I'd aruge the same with Tennis.

 

I dont agree with baseball being dropped and the reason is b/c there are a lot of countries that play. I dont know how qualification is done so I dont know why there are 8 teams. Maybe that is how it was set up, but between Asia and the western hemisphere there are many more than 8 teams that play the game.

 

[Steve9347]

"Spanish Basketball Team Photo: The Olympics' Blow-Up Doll Incident"

 

"Bela Karolyi's wife: the Ozzie Guillen of the Beijing Olympics"

Tell me what either of those titles has to do with Americans at the Olympics?

[Steve9347]

Is there a reason english is so prominent worldwide? I have to plead ignorance on this one and ask somebody who might know better than I would. That does explain most of what I was wondering though, except for the fact you hear the American music and sounds of the game in so many events during these olympics. That's still kind of weird to me too.

Well, the reason you hear it at the Olympics is because French and English are the designated languages of the Games. You also hear things in Chinese just because it's in China.

[Steve9347]

Ha, Steve's man-crush Horton won't medal. Maybe he should have focused less on the camera and more on his routines?

Still have the individual events...

[Steve9347]

So, is it just me, or shouldn't China be stripped of their gold medal? This is blatant cheating.

 

link

 

State-media story fuels questions on gymnast's age

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer John Leicester, Associated Press Writer 53 mins ago

 

BEIJING – Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

 

In its report Nov. 3, Xinhua identified He as one of "10 big new stars" who made a splash at China's Cities Games. It gave her age as 13 and reported that she beat Yang Yilin on the uneven bars at those games. In the final, "this little girl" pulled off a difficult release move on the bars known as the Li Na, named for another Chinese gymnast, Xinhua said in the report, which appeared on one of its Web sites, http://www.hb.xinhuanet.com

 

The Associated Press found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page. Later that afternoon, the Web site was still working but the page was no longer accessible. Sports editors at the state-run news agency would not comment for publication.

 

If the age reported by Xinhua was correct, that would have meant He was too young to be on the Chinese team that beat the United States on Wednesday and clinched China's first women's team Olympic gold in gymnastics. He is also a favorite for gold in Monday's uneven bars final.

 

Yang was also on Wednesday's winning team. Questions have also been raised about her age and that of a third team member, Jiang Yuyuan.

 

Gymnasts have to be 16 during the Olympic year to be eligible for the games. He's birthday is listed as Jan. 1, 1992.

 

Chinese authorities insist that all three are old enough to compete. He herself told reporters after Wednesday's final that "my real age is 16. I don't pay any attention to what everyone says."

 

Zhang Hongliang, an official with China's gymnastics delegation at the games, said Thursday the differing ages which have appeared in Chinese media reports had not been checked in advance with the gymnastics federation.

 

"It's definitely a mistake," Zhang said of the Xinhua report, speaking in a telephone interview. "Never has any media outlet called me to check the athletes' ages."

 

Asked whether the federation had changed their ages to make them eligible, Zhang said: "We are a sports department. How would we have the ability to do that?"

 

"We already explained this very clearly. There's no need to discuss this thing again."

 

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has said repeatedly that a passport is the "accepted proof of a gymnast's eligibility," and that He and China's other gymnasts have presented ones that show they are age eligible. The IOC also checked the girls' passports and deemed them valid.

 

A May 23 story in the China Daily newspaper, the official English-language paper of the Chinese government, said He was 14. The story was later corrected to list her as 16.

 

"This is not a USAG issue," said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. "The FIG and the IOC are the proper bodies to handle this."

Edited August 14, 2008 by Steve9347

[kapkomet]

Age shouldn't be an issue here... just my opinion.

[Steve9347]

Age shouldn't be an issue here... just my opinion.

Rules shouldn't exist then.

 

I mean, if you got beat by a 12-year old, you should really keep your mouth shut... but they do have rules for a reason. In this case, kid's are much more flexible and have an inherent advantage in gymnastics. It's like the only sport in the world where being 13 or whatever gives you an advantage over those who are older.

 

I just hate that China has to cheat to ensure they will win... or be deceptive with lip-syncing and digital fireworks. That is all.

[maggsmaggs]

Age shouldn't be an issue here... just my opinion.

I agree that there shouldn't be an issue with age in gymnastics, but since there is, this is blatant cheating, as much as using steroids, IMO. There are rules, China blatantly knew them and doctored passports to qualify some of their younger gymnasts and that is terrible.

[HuskyCaucasian]

"Fake" Play-By-Play:

 

New York-Based Crews Just Call It as They See It

On the temporarily vacated set of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” where John Belushi and Will Ferrell once roamed wild, the Summer Olympics are being called.

 

The announcers are at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, nearly 7,000 miles from Beijing, sitting inside 14-foot-wide booths that are equipped with 24-inch HD monitors and headsets that pipe in the ambient sounds from the game sites in China. Every bit of 13 sports, and some of basketball, is called in this fashion on MSNBC, USA and CNBC.

 

The announcers never see anything more than what the viewers see.

 

an agreement by NBC in 2003 with the International Olympic Committee to cut the size of its Olympic contingent, combined with the technology to send all high definition signals from Beijing, led to the Studio 8H operation.

 

So, live from New York, it’s archery, badminton, baseball, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, handball, shooting, soccer, softball, table tennis, tennis and weight lifting (none of which matters a whole lot to NBC’s prime-time strategy).

[southsider2k5]

"Fake" Play-By-Play:

 

New York-Based Crews Just Call It as They See It

 

Why not. It seems like everything else has been faked and cheated, why not the observations too?

[Buehrle>Wood]

"Fake" Play-By-Play:

 

New York-Based Crews Just Call It as They See It

Is this news to anyone? I thought it was pretty obvious if you watched pretty much anything.

[SoxFan1]

Gotta love the media.

 

Also, Milorad Cavic beat Michael Phelps in the 100m butterfly heats this morning, both obviously qualified for the semifinals. Doesn't really matter though...nothing does until the final.

[Steve9347]

Gotta love the media.

I'm sure you could have a friend back in Serbia hook up a slingbox or watch the Serbian channel that covers the Olympics through your satellite... since this American media is just so terrible. You know, the American media you digest 24 hours a day. Better shut that TV off right now, actually, because that American media is about to cover this White Sox game. That American Ken Harrelson is such a homer too.

 

Face it, you live in America, the media is going to be biased toward the home country. The only person who can stop the ingestion of the terrible American media is you, by turning off the tv, not logging into soxtalk, not going to American Website... not doing all the American things you like to do in this country.

 

This doesn't mean I love you any less, but I'm tired of you complaining about America in this thread with nothing to back it up.