Olympics

[Harbourboy]

I'm sure enjoying these Olympics. Especially watching New Zealand winning three gold medals over the last couple of days. I think that has us vying with Slovenia on the per capita medal chart table.

It's great having modern television coverage these days. Just bring up the mosaic of the 12 Olympic channels and choose whatever you want to watch. A vast improvement over previous years when we were at the mercy of whatever the TV producer wanted you to see.

Go New Zealand. Hope there are few more medals coming our way before the end.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

I don't know what I was more surprised by - that badmitton was an Olympic sport - or the system used to determine the winner of the event is set up in such a way that it may be to your benefit to lose matches.

I do like the Olympics, and I'll certainly watch them this weekend, when I can watch the events live. The most popular sports are re-broadcast at night, but it's really hard to not find out who won during the day while you're at work, which kind of takes the excitement out of watching if you already know the final result.

Not that there's anything new with that - the host country should obviously schedule the events at such a time that is convenient for those actually competing in the sport i.e., in GMT. I just think back to when I was a kid, and you got the broadcast 5, 6, or 7 hours after it happened, and it was really easy to go about your day without finding out who won. You'd actually have to go out of your way to find out who won in advance. It seems to get worse every year.

On the bright side, this won't be much of a problem in the 2016 Olympics (for me). They are in Rio, which is just one time zone ahead of the US. And I have no idea if they use daylight saving time. If not, Rio time is the same as east coast US time.

HB - are you actually watching the events live? Aren't they all on really late at night where you live? At least where I live they are taking part during the day - I'm just at work.

[Rotku]

Originally Posted by Harbourboy

I'm sure enjoying these Olympics. Especially watching New Zealand winning three gold medals over the last couple of days. I think that has us vying with Slovenia on the per capita medal chart table.

It's great having modern television coverage these days. Just bring up the mosaic of the 12 Olympic channels and choose whatever you want to watch. A vast improvement over previous years when we were at the mercy of whatever the TV producer wanted you to see.

Go New Zealand. Hope there are few more medals coming our way before the end.

What's more, last I checked, we were beating Australia on the gold medal count. They're still stuck at one. In 2008, we ended up with 3 and them with 14, so it's nice to gloat while it lasts.

http://www.medalspercapita.com/ paints us as just behind Slovenia as far as medals per capita go. First for Gold and Weighted (3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze), so that's something.

[Harbourboy]

Im not getting much sleep, but the NZ athletes seem to be competing around 11pm or 7am. I watched Tirunesh Dibaba from crush the field in the 10,000m ths morning and that was at 8:30am so perfect timing.

[Spellbound]

What's everybody's favorite sport to watch? I've been watching the swimming, gymnastics, some rowing and volleyball. Wish I could have seen the equestrian events.

[Harbourboy]

It's hard to go past the marathon, 10,000m, 5,000m and triathlon for me. But I've been enjoying everything.

[aaa27aaa]

I've enjoyed all I've seenbut really enjoyed seeing the men's and women's skeet finals, both won by Americans. I personally shoot trap (US not bunker) and look forward to seeing the finals of doubles and singles trap.

[reepnorp]

As a Canadian, I'm far more interested in the winter Olympics as we typically do much better there. Since I don't own a TV I'm only able to watch what I can find online, and I have to say I was very impressed with gymnastics. I've never actually paid much attention to it before but after watching this video I have mad respect for these guys, I mean it must take some serious training and upper body strength to be able to pull this off.

[Darion]

The Olympics this year are a disaster in terms of rulings and judges!

[Barmy Army]

Go team GB!

How the hell are we 3rd in the table! Our guys are doing us proud.

[Spellbound]

Reep - thanks very much for posting that video -- Kohei is just phenomenal to watch - I couldn't believe how many times he spinned in that jumping sequence in the floor exercise. It boggles the mind how he can do all that and then land on a dime and not twitch. lol

And did everyone see Murray beat Federer today for the gold medal? I'm a die hard Federer fan, but was SO happy that GB got this one! Go Andy!!!!

[Harbourboy]

Great Britain are having an absolute blinder at this Olympics. Mo Farrah was awesome in the 10,000m.

NZ somehow are doing better than Australia!

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

If you don't mind taking two weeks off from work, I have to say that TV does a great job of televising the stuff. Given the time differential (GB is +5 hours from east coast US, +8 hours from west coast), what they've been doing is televising the second tier of events during the day live, and then doing the re-broadcast of the most watched events during prime time. The only downside to this is you have to stop listening to the radio, TV, or internet starting around 3:00 PM (when the events are taking place live in England) unless you don't mind finding out who won before you watch that night.

As for which events I like the best, I'm kind of a purist. I'll watch all the swimming events, but I like the freestyle the best - who can go the fastest, swimming any way they like. Same thing with track and field. I like the sprints better than the marathons. (IMO marathons are pretty boring, watching a guy run for like three hours.)

Although that was amazing the other day in the women's triathlon - who would think in a race of that length, you'd have a photo finish?

Originally Posted by Spellbound

And did everyone see Murray beat Federer today for the gold medal? I'm a die hard Federer fan, but was SO happy that GB got this one! Go Andy!!!!

Nice to see you Spelly!

One thing I find odd about Olympic tennis that makes it differ so much from most of the other sports being contested - winning a gold medal, even on the courts at Wimbeldon - is not considered the pinnacle of acheivement in that sport. With things like swimming, gymnastics, track and field, etc., winning an Olympic gold medal is considered a crowning achievement - it is the highest honor you can acheive in that sport. I don't get that feeling with tennis. I don't think, for example, that Federer would even consider trading his Wimbeldon title in July for a gold medal in August. The tennis players seem to regard winning any of the grand slam titles as the bigger acheivement compared to the Olympics. I think the same is true for basketball - LeBron James wouldn't trade his champiionship for an Olympic gold medal, and I don't think the fact that he already has a gold medal from 2008 has anything to do with it.

[dmc]

Same thing applies to soccer, AFI. I think it's just the big money sports that tend to have that dynamic.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

I had forgotten that soccer is an Olympic sport. I've watched the Olympics pretty much every night since it came on. I have seen NO soccer. Then again, other than the WC, they never put soccer on TV here, so I guess it's normal.

[Gaear]

[Braces for incoming "it's not soccer, it's football!" attack from the Europeans. ]

Wouldn't that be funny if (American) football was an olympic sport?

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Originally Posted by Gaear

Wouldn't that be funny if (American) football was an olympic sport?

Not if you aren't American. Europeans wouldn't participate. That's one of the differences with the American culture. You can't tell us we can't do something. We suck at soccer, but that won't stop us from giving it the old college try. It doesn't matter if we get our asses kicked, we'll keep trying. That's not the way Europeans roll.

[T2Bruno]

We suck at soccer

I can think of a few women who would disagree with you....

[Darion]

Originally Posted by Gaear

[Braces for incoming "it's not soccer, it's football!" attack from the Europeans. ]

Wouldn't that be funny if (American) football was an olympic sport?

But you gotta understand that we (European Crowd) still don't get it, how Americans can look at an big egg and call it a Ball.
That's mind-bending like 'Inception'

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

So we should call our game "Prolate Spheroid"?

[Mesmero]

Originally Posted by Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

Not if you aren't American. Europeans wouldn't participate.

I guess it would be a bit like basketball: other countries would participate, but the US wins every time

And isn't there a European American Football league? (Ok, that sounded a bit stupid... I doubt it's called that ) Probably not at the level as it is played in the US tho, but still...

[Barmy Army]

Originally Posted by Harbourboy

Great Britain are having an absolute blinder at this Olympics. Mo Farrah was awesome in the 10,000m.

NZ somehow are doing better than Australia!

Yeah, I noticed the Aussies aren't doing very well in the Olympics,

But then if they could run, they wouldn't have been Australians in the first place.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

Originally Posted by Mesmero

I guess it would be a bit like basketball: other countries would participate, but the US wins every time

And isn't there a European American Football league? (Ok, that sounded a bit stupid... I doubt it's called that ) Probably not at the level as it is played in the US tho, but still...

There was an NFL Europe, but it folder a couple of years ago. However, most of the players in NFL Europe weren't European. They were Americans who weren't quite good enough to play in the US - either young players who hoped they could improve thier play, and older players, trying to hang on for a few more years. So it turned into a de facto developmental league. Players who finished college and were close, but not quite good enough for the NFL played in that league for a few years, with the hopes of improving their game enough to get a contract with a US team. Some did, and made it to the NFL, most didn't, and washed out.

It's actually not all that different to how in the US, a lot of players on our pro soccer teams are European, but aren't quite good enough to play in Europe. Identical principle working in reverse.

As for the game being a lot like basketball, with other nations participating, but the US typically winning, I think American football would demonstrate that to an extreme. Other nations play basketball - they play in high school and college and have professional basketball leagues. I'm not aware of any other nation with even a semi-pro American football league.

[dmc]

Errr, Canada? The rules are different, true, but not that different.

[Aldeth the Foppish Idiot]

IMO, the Canadian game is significantly different than the US game. Fewer downs, a wider and longer field, and an extended end zone allow for a much more open style of play. It gives the definition of "spread offense" (which more than half of the teams in the NFL currently run) a whole new meaning. And last I checked, Canada was not located in Europe.

Saying that they aren't that different is like saying the rules of badmitton and tennis aren't that different in that they both require you to hit something over a net.