London Olympics

[Roto Rooter]

That USA Canada soccer match was simply awesome

[B-Fly]

That USA Canada soccer match was simply awesome

Woohoo!!!

[JudeBaldo]

Did anyone see the bottle someone threw onto the track before the gun? Some drunken guy was apparently pacing around waiting to ruin the final, then got "beaten" by the Edith Bosch Judo bronze medalist

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19143628

My brother spotted that last night and we paused and rewound the DVR. Then Costas confirmed. Great news that the punk got his ass handed to him.

[Igor]

That USA Canada soccer match was simply awesome

Hell yes it was, that ref has done her last big match though.

[Judge Jude]

someone watching the replay today said you could hear Abby Wambach of U.S. chanting out a count for the slow-moving Canadian goalie. shrewd gamesmanship there. some dispute about whether the goalie had been warned before.

[B-Fly]

Bring back that jingoistic feeling, whoa that jingoistic feeling.
Bring back that jingoistic feeling, now it's gone, gone, gone.
And I can't go on, no oh oh.

[B-Fly]

Things were much better when the USA gymnasts' unis were red, their skin was white and their blood was blue.

[TranaGreg]

someone watching the replay today said you could hear Abby Wambach of U.S. chanting out a count for the slow-moving Canadian goalie. shrewd gamesmanship there. some dispute about whether the goalie had been warned before.

yeah, great game, lots of hard feelings about it up here; very tough to lose on a call that never gets made anywhere else.

[johnnya24]

The words "holy fking sh!t" will come out of your mouth when you see this routine (you'll need to "full screen" it):



If it gets taken down ... youtube "zonderberg olympics"

[johnnya24]

Anyone slightly worried about the all-round performance of Team USA?



If you take the swimming results out for all of those teams, the medals table looks like this:

[TABLE="width: 501"]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]1[/TD]
[TD] China[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]29[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]19[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]15[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]63[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]2[/TD]
[TD] Great Britain & N. Ireland[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]22[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]12[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]11[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]45[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]
[TD] United States[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]14[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]11[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]15[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]40[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[TD] South Korea[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]12[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]21[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]
[TD] Russian Federation[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]16[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]18[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]44[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[TD] Italy[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]17[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[TD] Germany[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]14[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]27[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]8[/TD]
[TD] Kazakhstan[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]6[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]0[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]1[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]9[/TD]
[TD] France[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]4[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]7[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]21[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[TD] Netherlands[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]3[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]2[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]5[/TD]
[TD="align: right"]10[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

There are only 6 days left. There is no gold rush happening in track and field so far. Is the enormous success in swimming team masking some serious decline in the performance of Team USA? Team GB have been absolutely crushing after the opening 3 days, across a wide range of sports. USA is just dripping the odd gold here and there. Is this something I just haven't noticed at other games? So far only 2 athletics golds, and USA used to dominate the main arena ... and I'm not sure where they are going to come from. The West Indies are owning all the sprints (men and women). The East African's are owning the middle and long distances. They have good chances in the relays as always, but will face stiff opposition in the sprint relays especially ... any real good field event prospects?

Is this a debate?

[onejayhawk]

Things were much better when the USA gymnasts' unis were red, their skin was white and their blood was blue.

You mean when they dreamed of the first American medal?

J

[frae]

The US only had 36 gold in 2008 and I imagine swimming carried us during that olympics as well. I have 7 team events I have been following that they could or should win gold in... Mens and Womens basketball, mens and womens volleyball, womens beach volleyball, womens soccer, womens water polo (ok i watched this today). If the win all of those they are at 37 gold for this olympics. I am guessing they don't win them all, but I would be surprised if they don't pass the 36 total from 08 at this point.

[Lucky]

Anyone slightly worried about the all-round performance of Team USA?


If you take the swimming results out for all of those teams, the medals table looks like this:

There are only 6 days left. There is no gold rush happening in track and field so far. Is the enormous success in swimming team masking some serious decline in the performance of Team USA? Team GB have been absolutely crushing after the opening 3 days, across a wide range of sports. USA is just dripping the odd gold here and there. Is this something I just haven't noticed at other games? So far only 2 athletics golds, and USA used to dominate the main arena ... and I'm not sure where they are going to come from. The West Indies are owning all the sprints (men and women). The East African's are owning the middle and long distances. They have good chances in the relays as always, but will face stiff opposition in the sprint relays especially ... any real good field event prospects?

Is this a debate?

If you take the swimming out, it's not the Summer Olympics.

Seriously, though, what is there to be worried about? Kids (for the most part) go to London, do their best, gain tons of life experience...it's a win-win deal. If they win a bunch of medals, that's great, too.

I'm not bent out of shape by medal count. To me, the two big stories are how great that Team GB is doing, and the continued increase in excellence of the Chinese team. Usually these things are somewhat cyclic, but China has come so far so fast that they may not be near their peak yet.

Another thing I look at...some races you'll see nine runners on the track, six of whom live and go to school in the U.S. and compete in the NCAA. Just because they wear the uniform of another country doesn't mean you can't feel some pride in what they have done.

One area where the U.S. was hurt this year was the sprints. There was at least one sprint where the US had nobody in the finals, which hardly ever happens. But, they had done well at the last world championship, just had a bad Olympics.

So, I guess I'm saying that the medal count doesn't really mean that much to me. I wish they didn't even put it up there, but I'm afraid it's a remnant of the days when every event came down to the US vs the USSR.

And, again, I've been so proud of Team GB. The home team often does well, but they have been superb.

[Lucky]

I was disappointed that the little girl who was supposed to win the vault had her terrible landing and got silver. I know she was disappointed, but a silver medal is still an amazing thing.

By the way, her uniform that night was a very plain white which just a little bit of sparkle. I guess it's only a big deal if the African-American girl doesn't dress like a flag.

[johnnya24]

If you take the swimming out, it's not the Summer Olympics.

I'm not saying you should of course ... I'm just wondering if Team USA is one bad swim meet away from a "disastrous" games (relatively speaking) ... and whether they can act on this before disaster strikes? Team GB was transformed not so much by getting the Olympics in London, but by the disaster of the Atlanta games in 1996, when they only won 1 gold. All the success you see now stems from that moment.

Sydney 2000 - 11 golds (28 total)
Athens 2004 - 9 golds (30 total)
Beijing 2008 - 19 golds (47 total)
London 2012 - 30+ golds? (70+medals)

Incidentally, the last time a non-super-power team got 30 golds in a single games was the unified German team of 1992, which was of course 75% full of East German drug cheats (the East German team had won 37 golds in Seoul 1988 ... maybe 1 or 2 were fair). IOW ... 30 golds from a non-super-power has never been achieved fairly before in the modern era ... even 25 golds has never been achieved, and 20 has only been achieved once or twice. It's pretty remarkable what they are doing.

Unlike other games, funding for GB elite sport is secured long term, and will probably be enhanced by the games ... so the question will be how to build on this. The news has been full of nothing else this last week ... grass roots funding, improving sports in schools, transitioning etc. The motto of the games is "inspiring a generation" ... so they have their motivations in the right area. Let's hope they follow through. 200K came out to watch a triathlon this morning!