Official 2008 Summer Olympic's Thread

[Terpripken]

Originally Posted by jazzrack

and here we have the reason why i hated english class.

The US basketball looks good & Labron said we would win.

I gotta admit...at first I felt stupid for titling the thread wrong. Then I was annoyed that nobody was talking about the Games...but grammar instead. Now...at 3 in the morning, with the wife and baby sawing logs...I can sip a cold one and get some good old fashioned internet entertainment.

[mrskippy]

Hey August 6 (that is when Soccer and Hoops begin) we can start talking Games.

Or, we can talk about why a hotel room for 15 days in Beijing is $11,000. And, sold out. Ouch!!!

[Terpripken]

Originally Posted by mrskippy

Hey August 6 (that is when Soccer and Hoops begin) we can start talking Games.

Or, we can talk about why a hotel room for 15 days in Beijing is $11,000. And, sold out. Ouch!!!

LOL...I guess I should be thanking you for championing my grammar. I am going to have to get my wife in on this debate. She is a copy editor. I'll have to convince her to read this thread first, which may not happen as she abhors "gaming forums".

[jazzrack]

Originally Posted by Terpripken

I gotta admit...at first I felt stupid for titling the thread wrong. Then I was annoyed that nobody was talking about the Games...but grammar instead. Now...at 3 in the morning, with the wife and baby sawing logs...I can sip a cold one and get some good old fashioned internet entertainment.

lol, i don't follow the olymipcs much, i hate the way it gets covered, but i hat the grammar/spelling police on forums even more.

and this version of USA basketball looks good for the international style of play. The last few versions were just a collection of players, these guys look more like a team and i like the attitude, they expect to win

[Terpripken]

American Jessica Hardy&squo;s drug scandal a blow | Herald Sun

Jessica Hardy appears to be a doper. I know this story isn't new...but I am just getting up to speed on our athletes. Too bad.

I used to be saddened when I read stuff like this. Granted I have no vested interest in Hardy as an athlete, I don't follow swimming until Olympic time. (grammar? LOL) But now...I am happy to read stuff like this. It is good to know that sport governing bodies are doing their jobs.

The two sports I love the most (baseball and cycling) have been rich with scandal in recent years. In both cases , it seemed like everyone knew what was going on, but it took several high profile athletes getting busted for the two sports to begin to transform their testing policies and even attitude towards performance enhancing.

I feel strangely vindicated when other sports have problems with cheaters. Perhaps that is sick, but at least it gives me a platform with which to defend the sports I love. It seems like it is going on everywhere.

The Tour de France expelled another doper today, several years ago I would have been upset...now I am happy...because the optimist in me believes that it is really a small percentage of athletes that are cheating. AND NOW...they can't get away with it.

[Terpripken]

Tough break for the US Mens Gymnastics Team, as Paul Hamm is not going to compete at the Games.

Injured gymnast Paul Hamm not going to Beijing - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

I gotta think this severely hampers any shot we had at getting a podium in the team competition.

[mrskippy]

Originally Posted by Terpripken

Tough break for the US Mens Gymnastics Team, as Paul Hamm is not going to compete at the Games.

Injured gymnast Paul Hamm not going to Beijing - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

I gotta think this severely hampers any shot we had at getting a podium in the team competition.

I think China is going to be the team to beat in gymnastics this year. They have been a threat in the past and they should do well in front of their home crowd. Of course, I will root for the USA.

There is a program on Discovery Channel On Demand about China. They highlight the gymnastics program, where the "only child" is taken from a young age and groomed into a potential Olympic hopeful. It's amazing how nations like China, East Germany, USSR, and Romania built up their teams. In a Communist society everyone has their role, so in this case the role of talented youngsters is to win Olympic gold and bring glory not to themselves, but to their nation. One wonders how the United States even has a chance, given the lack of governmental support for the Olympic athletes.

[<Pion>]

Originally Posted by Terpripken

American Jessica Hardy&squo;s drug scandal a blow | Herald Sun

Any argument whether this should be Hardy&squo;s or Hardys&squo; ?

[Terpripken]

Originally Posted by <Pion>

Any argument whether this should be Hardy&squo;s or Hardys&squo; ?

Well...if there is...I can at least claim no responsibility for any errors, as I merely copied and pasted the link.

[Terpripken]

Looks like the other Hamm is out now too...any shot we had of medaling in the team competition just when by the wayside I fear.

Morgan Hamm out of Olympics with ankle injury - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

[Terpripken]

USA with a weak W over Japan in soccer.

[piperclap]

I've gotta say, I already hate the way the games are being covered on TV.
its 9 am, I ain't got a job, why am I not able to see any crazy olympic sports?

Tape delay is so...1990.

[piperclap]

Also, NBCs olympic website does not list individual events. It just says "multiple sports" or "mens soccer".

They are making almost impossible for people to tivo interesting events.

[Erik W.]

Originally Posted by piperclap

I've gotta say, I already hate the way the games are being covered on TV.
its 9 am, I ain't got a job, why am I not able to see any crazy olympic sports?

Tape delay is so...1990.

You mostly can't see any sports right now because there are none.

Right now is the opening ceremony. Sports will resume this evening, which will be their morning.

[Craig Costello]

I'll lay claim to being the OOTP resident European hoops 'expert'.

The US have to be favourites for both the men's and women's events.

The women's only threat will come from Australia, who they should meet in the final. They met last week in the Diamond Ball final, which the US won. Australia didn't play all that well, so any improvement from them could lead to a tight game.

The men should have it tougher and I predict they will have at least two tight games in the tournament, most likely at the hands of Spain and Argentina, but also look out for Greece, Russia (if they are clicking) and Australia.

Overall the men's tournament should be a great event. It's just a shame we will only get sprinklings of coverage on the BBC and Eurosport.

[mrskippy]

Originally Posted by Erik W.

You mostly can't see any sports right now because there are none.

Right now is the opening ceremony. Sports will resume this evening, which will be their morning.

My understanding is that quite a bit of the primetime coverage of these Olympics will indeed be live. When it is 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. in NYC it is 7 or 8 a.m. in Beijing. So, they can show early morning (up until around noon Beijing time) events live.

They can show much of the overnight stuff (online, MSBNC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, Universal HD) live as well. In that case you get the afternoon events. Evening events can be shown on the daytime coverage across the NBC networks.

The tape delay apparently has hurt ratings in the past, but there is not always a way to avoid it, if NBC wants to showcase something like gymastics, swimming or track & field in primetime. Why? Because, the Chinese likely want to have these events held in their primetime/evening hours.

There is a huge benefit to having the games in the United States/North America. The 2010 Vancouver Games and the possible 2016 Chicago games allow for virtually all marquee events to be shown live (at least on the East Coast). In Vancouver, marquee events (for winter that means figure skating mostly) likely will start at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. in the evening. They are than shown live in the Eastern Time zone (and Central Time zone) than delayed for everyone else by 2-3 hours. In Chicago, they could start stuff at 7 or 8 p.m. and show track & field, swimming, gymnastics, etc. live.

The drawback to North American games comes with the overnight coverage. The stuff that will be shown tonight/early tomorrow morning (in overnight coverage) will all be live. When the games are in North America, all the overnight stuff is tape delayed. But, than all the daytime and evening events can be shown live. This is one reason why the networks push for North American Olympics.

Europe is the next most popular Olympics choice (at least until South America finally gets the Olympics, which ranks up there with the USA), because even though there is an increase in tape delay, the tape delay is often short. In 2012, in London, they can show marquee events on the East Coast with only a 2-3 hour delay. And, they'll still have the ability to show many events live during the day. Overnight once again becomes tape delayed, at least until later in the morning.

Asia and Australia are tough, because it means that the marquee events can face heavy tape delays. My guess is that you are looking at anywhere from 10-12 (or more) hours in tape delay for the gymnastics and swimming coverage in primetime.

[Terpripken]

Is coach to blame for Gary Russell Jr. missing the Olympics? - Fourth-Place... - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports


Looks like yet another US medal hopeful is out in China. Pretty interesting article about the US coach. Don't know if there are any TBCB guys around who could expound on this.

[Erik W.]

Originally Posted by mrskippy

My understanding is that quite a bit of the primetime coverage of these Olympics will indeed be live. When it is 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. in NYC it is 7 or 8 a.m. in Beijing. So, they can show early morning (up until around noon Beijing time) events live.

Indeed.

I'm not sure how the US coverage will be doing it, but I'll be able to watch mostly live events by going to a schedule of naps for a couple weeks. Wake up at 3 am, watch coverage until around noon, nap during the Chinese overnight hours, wake back up for primetime coverage, then another short nap between ~1-3 am. Rinse, repeat.

Yeah, doing that will probably f' me up for weeks, but totally worth it!

On another note, the opening ceremony was awesome. Make sure to catch the delayed broadcast tonight!

[Sdpm100]

Originally Posted by Terpripken

Is coach to blame for Gary Russell Jr. missing the Olympics? - Fourth-Place... - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

Not that I know anything about boxing, but one of our top guys also missed the weight limit this week too.

Originally Posted by Erik W.

On another note, the opening ceremony was awesome. Make sure to catch the delayed broadcast tonight!

Yeah, it was brilliant. I hope Seb Coe and the London Organising Committee weren't watching. The budget can't be stretched any further.

[piperclap]

I want sports, all day long. 24 hours a day of olympic sportiness.

I did notice, however, that Direct Tv has a nifty set of channels starting at 750 with all the cable broadcasts for easy flipping. Hopefully they do the same thing they are doing with the PGA championship and showing a "mix" channel.