2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Thread

[lostfan]

Manu has been out with an injury since early on, which is why I am so concerned. This is probably a very close game if he didn't get injured, team U.S.A. has just struggled big time. They've taken 30 three pointers, they had only taken about 60 if you combine all the previous games.

You know standards are high when you get a 20 point blowout against your toughest competitor and they looked bad while doing it.

[fathom]

Men's VB last night, I enjoyed watching several guys I played against back in the day, especially Sean Rooney who went on a jump serving tear to really turn the tide on the Russians.

 

That match was so much more entertaining that beach volleyball. Considering the circumstances with the coach, it's too bad they're not getting more attention.

[whitesoxfan101]

You know standards are high when you get a 20 point blowout against your toughest competitor and they looked bad while doing it.

 

The standards are high and your point is well taken, but Argentina was without Ginobili for basically the entire game. He is by far their best player, and had he played, this game is much closer and perhaps even a single digit final. We should have beat them by 30+ when you consider we jumped out 21-4 and by the time the lead was that large, Ginobili was gone and never coming back in today's game. Perhaps the combination of that lead and no Ginobili happening and happening that fast took away some of our focus though, one thing is for sure and that is the United States took way too many 3's.

Edited August 22, 2008 by whitesoxfan101

[Brian]

I'm sure Manu would of helped, but he wasn't exactly playing great before he went down. Had a couple of fouls on him and wasn't finishing or scoring.

[whitesoxfan101]

I'm sure Manu would of helped, but he wasn't exactly playing great before he went down. Had a couple of fouls on him and wasn't finishing or scoring.

 

True, but he only played 6 minutes and Manu is a 2nd half player anyways. I think it's fair to say we win by about 10 instead of about 20 if he plays though, and we're better than that. However that does point to how high the standards are I guess, and all that matters is one more win means a gold medal. Hopefully they do what they did last week and crush Spain to get it done. Spain's point guard is questionable for the game apparently, so that certainly won't help their cause.

Edited August 22, 2008 by whitesoxfan101

[SpringfieldFan]

True, but he only played 6 minutes and Manu is a 2nd half player anyways. I think it's fair to say we win by about 10 instead of about 20 if he plays though, and we're better than that.

Makes sense, and I didn't see the game, but I would suggest that had he not gone out, the Americans might have raised their level of play to meet the challenge, perhaps getting them on a run that would have resulted in a bigger win.

 

SFF

[JuiceCruz16]

In the 40 he would probably be over 4. A time of 3.5 is superhuman. It takes him a while to accelerate to full speed, and that doesn't come until about 30-40 meters into it. So I'd have to imagine he'd be around 4.1 if he was actually a NFL prospect.

Not a chance he would be in the 4.0. He easily would be sub 4.0. 3.75 max. Other guys have run sub 4.0 and Bolt is the best ever trained for just that type of thing. He would be closer to your superhuman 3.5 then your 4.1 prediction.

Edited August 22, 2008 by JuiceCruz16

[whitesoxfan99]

Not a chance he would be in the 4.0. He easily would be sub 4.0. 3.75 max. Other guys have run sub 4.0 and Bolt is the best ever trained for just that type of thing. He would be closer to your superhuman 3.5 then your 4.1 prediction.

 

Who has ever ran sub 4.0? Nobody has ever come remotely close to that at the combine.

[JuiceCruz16]

Who has ever ran sub 4.0? Nobody has ever come remotely close to that at the combine.

You are right I had a brain fart with my times. I think Greene was 4.09 for the fastest NFL time (not at the combine though). Deion had a 4.18 and some scrub had a 4.12 at the combines for the top times ever there. Bolt possibly could get the 4.0, but I am WAY OFF and I apologize for the stupidity of my first comments Edited August 22, 2008 by JuiceCruz16

[lostfan]

Not a chance he would be in the 4.0. He easily would be sub 4.0. 3.75 max. Other guys have run sub 4.0 and Bolt is the best ever trained for just that type of thing. He would be closer to your superhuman 3.5 then your 4.1 prediction.

Like I said for the first 40-ish meters he is accelerating. He is not running at that speed for the entire race and especially not the first 40 yards. The only way he runs a 3.75, or 3.5 or whatever crazy number is if he is already running at top speed when they sound the gun. Mathematically that works but in reality, no.

 

Here is a conversion chart at http://minnesotapreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=393870 and I've gone ahead and extrapolated down to the world record times and really I wasn't that far off on my estimation which actually was just a random guess (btw nobody has ever run a sub 4.0 to my knowledge, I don't know where you heard that). All I did was continue subtracting .05 and .06 alternately from the 40 times for each tenth... I was generous too, because the gaps actually start to shrink because of acceleration which would make the 40 time higher and I didn't account for that. That would make the 40 times actually higher than what I have here.

 

9.6 4.01

9.7 4.07

9.8 4.13

9.9 4.18

10.0 4.23

10.1 4.29

10.2 --- 4.34

10.3 --- 4.38

10.4 --- 4.43

10.5 --- 4.49

10.6 --- 4.54

10.7 --- 4.58

10.8 --- 4.63

10.9 --- 4.75

11.0 --- 4.85

 

Bottom line... No. Not even close.

Edited August 22, 2008 by lostfan

[lostfan]

You are right I had a brain fart with my times. I think Greene was 4.09 for the fastest NFL time (not at the combine though). Deion had a 4.18 and some scrub had a 4.12 at the combines for the top times ever there. Bolt possibly could get the 4.0, but I am WAY OFF and I apologize for the stupidity of my first comments

Bolt could probably get near 4.0. But if he ran a 3.75, god that is like a 9.4 100 meter time, or something (another guess).

[JuiceCruz16]

Bolt could probably get near 4.0. But if he ran a 3.75, god that is like a 9.4 100 meter time, or something (another guess).

I just saw a list of the unofficial top nfl times, and Ted Ginn is the top at 4.06. another guy Wright I think at 4.09 Bo Jackon 4.12 with Dante Stallworth 4.13. The most jaw droping though was Deion Sanders 4.45 backwards. There were also some claims of Willie Gault posting a 4.05 and a 3.98.

 

[lostfan]

I just saw a list of the unofficial top nfl times, and Ted Ginn is the top at 4.06. another guy Wright I think at 4.09 Bo Jackon 4.12 with Dante Stallworth 4.13. The most jaw droping though was Deion Sanders 4.45 backwards. There were also some claims of Willie Gault posting a 4.05 and a 3.98.

Gault actually was a world class sprinter so yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Ozzie Ball]

More medal possiblities for the Chinese, thats how.

Right, of course, except it's been in the Olympics since Sydney 2000 and until Beijing the Chinese only had the solitary bronze. Actually you know what, I think every country in the world is just conspiring to make sure the US doesn't finish atop the medals table and you know what else, they've done a pretty good job of it.

[SpringfieldFan]

Right, of course, except it's been in the Olympics since Sydney 2000 and until Beijing the Chinese only had the solitary bronze. Actually you know what, I think every country in the world is just conspiring to make sure the US doesn't finish atop the medals table and you know what else, they've done a pretty good job of it.

 

Dang, I think we need an olympic event in sarcasm. I didn't make the "more medals for the Chinese" comment, but I did raise the trampolining issue. To set the record straight, I didn't raise it because the USA sucks at trampolining. I don't even know if we do, and for that matter we aren't such great golfers these days anyway. I brought it up simply because IMO golf is more worthy of being included. If you have ever watched the British Open, you'd swear it was at Epcot with all the nations represented. And yet they have trampolining...

 

SFF

[whitesoxfan99]

I just saw a list of the unofficial top nfl times, and Ted Ginn is the top at 4.06. another guy Wright I think at 4.09 Bo Jackon 4.12 with Dante Stallworth 4.13. The most jaw droping though was Deion Sanders 4.45 backwards. There were also some claims of Willie Gault posting a 4.05 and a 3.98.

 

Honestly I would guarantee all those times are crap. All hand timed and thus much better times than they actually were.

[whitesoxfan101]

Honestly I would guarantee all those times are crap. All hand timed and thus much better times than they actually were.

 

Yeah, outside of a complete freak like Usain Bolt, it's just about impossible to run anything less than the low 4.2's in the 40.

[whitesoxbrian]

This Bolt dude is ridiculous.

 

Here's a question for you all- who were/are you more impressed by, Phelps or Bolt?

[pierard]

This Bolt dude is ridiculous.

 

Here's a question for you all- who were/are you more impressed by, Phelps or Bolt?

 

Bolts amazing no doubt, but he just sprints. Phelps dominated every swimming event in every style. To me, that would be like Bolt dominating sprints, hurdles, etc. I could be way off though. I never competed in either sport.

[danman31]

I'd be more impressed with Bolt than Phelps if Bolt was able to win the 400 as well.

[SleepyWhiteSox]

Phelps was impressive. Bolt left me in awe.

[jackie hayes]

Bolts amazing no doubt, but he just sprints. Phelps dominated every swimming event in every style. To me, that would be like Bolt dominating sprints, hurdles, etc. I could be way off though. I never competed in either sport.

I don't think that's a good comparison. You just don't see crossover between sprinters and hurdlers, but crossover between strokes is fairly common in swimming (maybe in part b/c the medley is a popular event, or maybe just because youth clubs need to fill out lanes with a fixed number of swimmers). Swimmers might specialize in particular strokes (as Phelps is strongest by far in free and fly), but many will be at least 'pretty good' in some or all of the rest.

 

Bolt, imo, looked like a hs varsity athlete at a junior high track meet. He looked like he needed a higher level of competition. And of course there isn't any, which is why it was such an awesome thing to watch.

[YASNY]

I don't think that's a good comparison. You just don't see crossover between sprinters and hurdlers, but crossover between strokes is fairly common in swimming (maybe in part b/c the medley is a popular event, or maybe just because youth clubs need to fill out lanes with a fixed number of swimmers). Swimmers might specialize in particular strokes (as Phelps is strongest by far in free and fly), but many will be at least 'pretty good' in some or all of the rest.

 

Bolt, imo, looked like a hs varsity athlete at a junior high track meet. He looked like he needed a higher level of competition. And of course there isn't any, which is why it was such an awesome thing to watch.

 

There were some races where Phelps looked like a man among boys. Some he won by the skin of his teeth. As impressive as Bolt has been, I have to give the nod to Phelps.

[knightni]

Bolt know how to celebrate:

 

[WilliamTell]

I'm probably more impressed with Phelps, but I was in awe of how easy it looked for Bolt.