Beijing Olympics Thread

[GirlySports]

Jamaica should put Bolt in the 4X400m relay. Can't hurt.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I don't agree. People have been talking about Mark Spitz for decades, Phelps will be remembered the same way. How many of the previous 100/200 sprint winner/record holders can you recall, let alone from 1972?

I think more people in world talked more about Ben Johnson more then Spitz
in the past 20 years.

How many people really care about swimming if not at the olympics? They have world championships every year and it never gets covered. Does anyone watch them? The 100 metres was on every major sports site and newspaper when it is broken. Bolt, Powell,Gay.

[kdogg]

I love how Michael Johnson said a day before that Bolt would never beat his record.

Take that you cocky American!!!!
________
Hairy live

[Eagle Eye]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Actually only 2 styles, blown up into 6 different events. Phelps is only world dominate in freestyle and butterfly. The only reason why he won the medley's is because he can build up such a big lead to compensate for his backstroke and breast stroke.

Phelps isn't the fastest swimmer in the world and he he doesn't have the most endurance.

You do know that Phelps is pretty good at backstroke too right? He would have finished second to Peirsol in the 100m backstroke with his best time, and second in the 200m backstroke as well.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

You do know that Phelps is pretty good at backstroke too right? He would have finished second to Peirsol in the 100m backstroke with his best time, and second in the 200m backstroke as well.

Well why didn't he enter into those races and become the real story of Beijing? hehe I think 10 sounds better then 8.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by kdogg

I love how Michael Johnson said a day before that Bolt would never beat his record.

Take that you cocky American!!!!

What? he said that? What a jerk. Almost as bad as when Maurice Green stuck his tongue out at Donovan Bailey after he won 100 metres at the World championship. One of the highlights for me in sports is when Bailey smoked his ass at 150 metres in skydome.

Look at the head wind Bolt ran into and the tail wind Johnson had in Atlanta. -0.9 to +0.4


1. 19.30 −0.9 Usain Bolt Jamaica 20 August 2008 Beijing 2. 19.32 +0.4 Michael Johnson United States 1 August 1996 Atlanta

[bigtmac19]

Originally Posted by troutman

CAN girl got jobbed in Tae-Kwon-Do - she clearly seemed to beat the Swedish girl, scoring as many as eight times, but the judges gave the Swede a 2-0 victory, The commentators, and other athletes and coaches could not believe it. I think the CAN coach was planning an appeal to force a re-match.

I agree. The judging is getting a little bit suspicious.

I think Burnett should have won the gold in trampoline, his difficulty level was higher and the guy who won, travelled more in his routine. Actually I thought the guy who got bronze, should have beat the last Chinese athlete.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

I think more people in world talked more about Ben Johnson more then Spitz
in the past 20 years.

How many people really care about swimming if not at the olympics? They have world championships every year and it never gets covered. Does anyone watch them? The 100 metres was on every major sports site and newspaper when it is broken. Bolt, Powell,Gay.

Ben Johnson wasn't in the media for the past 20 years for athletic reasons.

Talking about which event is covered more is irrelevant. 100m is THE big glamour event, no question.

But every Olympics when they talk about individual medal totals, Spitz was always the name that came up, and he was alone in that category. The Olympic sprint event winners are largely a footnote as soon as a new winner is crowned, at least compared to how Spitz was remembered.

So i disagree with your assertion that people will remember that 5 years down the road Bolt set 2 world records and Phelps will be forgotten. I think the opposite will occur. Unless someone else gets 8+ gold medals, Phelps will be remembered every Olympics. As soon as someone breaks Bolt's record, he will only be mentioned occasionally. And I think that is largely just because of how often the 100m/200m records have been broken, while 8 Olympic golds can only be attempted every 4 years, and thus that record will probably last (and be talked about) much longer.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by fotze

I think we need a poll. Phelps or Bolt?

Is that for best athlete or biggest story?

Whitfield is a better athlete then both these guys.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Ruttiger

Sure he could - add the 110m hurdles, the 400, the 400m hurdles, the 4x400m relay, and the long jump to the 100, 200, and 4x100 relay he's already doing and you've got 8 medals right there. Doesn't seem realistic to be that good in that many events? Welcome to the world of Michael Phelps.

Only four athletes have ever won gold in the 100 and 200 sprints, let alone the roster of events you're suggesting. But winning two golds in swimming isn't only easier, it's downright commonplace. 20 times in Olympic history, swimmers have won multiple golds at a single olympics. Since 1988, the average has been more than three multi-gold-medalist swimmers per games, and just under one 5-gold-medalist per games. And yet the swimming advocates argue that these are all unique disciplines. Yet here's a crazy fact: of all the gold medals won in swimming at these Olympics, only three were won by athletes who did not medal in at least one other sport (and one of those three is a record-holder in another discipline). Yeah, unique disciplines, right.

It's also no coincidence that the number of swimming events has expanded every couple Olympics, and the number of multiple-medalists keeps increasing. Would Spitz have won eight gold and eight world records if he had the benefit of a 50m freestyle? Hard to say, given that the 100m was his closest race; we'll never know, though.

Phelps' record is fairly meaningless when compared against any Olympics prior to 1968, at which time there were only 10 swimming races. If he was swimming 50 years earlier, he would not have had the advantage of the 400 medley, the 4*100 relay, the 200 freestyle, the 200 butterfly, the 100 butterfly, the 200 individual medley, or the 4*100 medley relay. His lone medal would have been the 4*200 freestyle relay. Phelps is one of the top two swimmers of the last 40 years. More than that we can't say about him yet; give it another 40 and see how it stands up. I would expect that it's at the very least a tie for the best, but I'd also predict that swimming continues to produce one 5-gold-medalist almost every games, and about once every 20 years, someone gets 7 or 8.

Compare all this to how difficult it is to be a multi-gold medalist in track. In 100 years of competition, only two athletes have ever won 4 golds at a single Olympics, despite the number of events being relatively unchanged. Only eight athletes have ever won both the 100 and 200, and only one has won the 200 and 400.

To me the best Olympic performance is Jesse Owens, but maybe I'm just anti-american!

[Bertuzzied]

Great article. Must be nice to be 22 and your country is thinking of giving you a national holiday.

http://winnipegsun.com/Sports/Beijin...0/6516121.html

Track is a more punishing sport than swimming. The number of countries involved with track dwarf the number of swimming nations.
But Bolt himself, after setting a world record over 200 metres, wasn’t about to enter the argument.
“I won’t compare myself to Michael Phelps,” said Bolt. “He’s a great athlete. He won eight gold medals, eight world records. You can’t compare that. I congratulate him on being the best at what he does.”

[looooob]

^^ here's the best quote of that article

“Little Jamaica is awesome,” she said. “We have music that has penetrated all corners of the world. We have the best coffee in the world. We have Bob Marley, who has given the world a new religion. And we have Usain Bolt. The country is in a state of euphoria. It’s black magic.”

[troutman]

Originally Posted by fotze

I was in the Phelps camp until octo's post.

It was an excellent post.

[octothorp]

Current Canadian Total
2-6-5-13

Current Canadian Prediction
4-7-7-18


medal favorites:

Karine Sergerie - Taekwando
Adam van Koeverden - 500 kayak - advanced to finals (world record time)
Adam van Koeverden - 1000 Kayak - advanced to finals
Marie Helen Premont - Mountain Biking
Men's Eights - rowing - gold
Karen Cockburn - Trampoline -silver
Frandsen and Calder - rowing - silver
Alexandre Despatie - 3m springboard - silver

medal hopefuls:

Sebastien Michaud -Taekwondo
Gary Reed -800m - qualified for semifinals
Mark Oldershaw -canoing -into semifinals
Samantha Cools - BMX - twelfth in qualifying
Lamaze - Equestian - tied for 1st following second qualifier
Synchro swim team -
Thomas Hall - C1000 - qualified for finals
Emilie Heymans - diving - third going into finals
Jason Burnett - trampoline - silver
Simon Whitfield - triathalon - silver
Cameron and Kok - rowing - bronze
Cochrane - 1500m swimming - bronze
Men's fours -rowing - bronze
Tonya Verbeek - wrestling - bronze
Hyunh - wrestling 48k - gold
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep - bronze
Women's softball team -4-4, no medal
Jessica Zelinka - heptathalon -no medal
Annamay Pierse- 200m breaststroke - no medal
Brent Hayden - no medal
Chris Brown - swimming - no medal
Men's synchro diving - no medal
Women's eights - rowing - no medal
Chris Cook - sailing - no medal
Blythe Hartley - diving - no medal
Rosannagh Mclennan- no medal

On the bubble:
Orlando - Rhythmic gymnasticsGonda - Taekwando - no medal Synchro pairs - no medal
Christopher - 400m - no medal
baseball - 2-4 - no medal
Sullivan - 1500m - no medal
Degenier - wrestling - no medal
Men's double sculls - rowing - no medal
women's soccer -1-2-1 - no medal

Completely off the radar (for me, anyway):
Equestrian team jumping - silver


Canadians going for medals Tonight

Heymans in diving
Lamaze in equestrian
Cools in BMX
Zilberman and Cross in wrestling

Other favorites and hopefuls in action tonight

Reed - 800m semifinals
Canoe/Kayak semifinals - Van Koeverden, Oldershaw, and four other Canadian boats
Orlando in rhythmic gymnastics

[browna]

Originally Posted by looooob

^^ here's the best quote of that article

“Little Jamaica is awesome,” she said. “We have music that has penetrated all corners of the world. We have the best coffee in the world. We have Bob Marley, who has given the world a new religion. And we have Usain Bolt. The country is in a state of euphoria. It’s black magic.”

Yeah, although its not all roses there at the best of times. A coworkers brother was killed in Jamaica earlier this year, which lead me to research and find out that in a country of 2.7m, there was 1340 murders in 2007 (at least the ones that were reported). My coworker says moderate poverty plays a role in it sure, but just far too many guns available. I guess the Haitians come over and trade guns like candy for anything that isn't on that repressed island. With a joke of a legal system and police force who are corrupt, most of these murders go unsolved.

That's like the population of Calgary and Edmonton each having 650 murders per year or almost 2 a day.

Jamaica should be proud and hopefully things brings the country together, although more likely in the short term it means a few nights of too much partying and bars and subsequent incidents resulting in loss of life.

Anyways, back on topic...the 4x100 relay should be interesting. Powell and Bolt..who runs the anchor?

All depends on the other 2 guys so who knows....although not too many people considered Robert Esmie or Glenroy Gilbert much of anything on the world stage, but they did what needed to do to get the baton to Surin and Bailey in the lead for each leg in 1996.

[Bertuzzied]

Another great article. Journalist tries to eat Phelp's 12500 calorie daily diet.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../lifeMain/home

What's missing from the meal? Fruit. Seriously, Mike, would it kill you to eat an orange wedge? Parading your bazillion gold medals around is no fun when you've got scurvy.
On the verge of nausea, I force myself to take one bite from a bowl of Cream of Wheat (my substitute for grits, because good luck finding grits north of the Mason-Dixon line).

[GirlySports]

He should enter the hot dog eating contest next year.

[Eagle Eye]

Only 1 event has been added to swimming since 1968 and that was 50m freestyle (1988)

[Eagle Eye]

haha, I wish I had a maroon badge!!

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by fotze

Just like the Sutter apologists we now have the swimming apologists. Don't worry, you won't lose your maroon swimming badge if you come over to the Bolt side.

Maroon! hahahha. Do they still use those crazy colors as levels?

I want a flutterboard! I can beat Phelps!