Beijing Olympics Thread

[JayP]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

Yep. He pulled up a lot at the end there, almost showboating.

He has two more gold opportunities. I'm sure that had to a lot to do with pulling up. In the end he ended up winning gold while only having to use 75% of his energy.

[octothorp]

Current Canadian Total
1-1-1-3

Current Canadian Prediction
4-2-7-13


medal favorites:

Karine Sergerie - Taekwando
Karen Cockburn - Trampoline - fourth going into finals
Adam van Koeverden - 500 kayak
Adam van Koeverden - 1000 Kayak
Marie Helen Premont - Mountain Biking
Men's Eights - rowing - qualified for final with fastest time
Alexandre Despatie - 3m platform
Frandsen and Calder - rowing - silver

medal hopefuls:

Sebastien Michaud -Taekwondo
Gary Reed -800m
Mark Oldershaw -canoing
Women's softball team - 4-1
Samantha Cools - BMX
Cameron and Kok - rowing - qualified for final
Women's eights - rowing - qualified for final
Chris Cook - sailing - 5th heading into finals (rescheduled)
Synchro swim team
Simon Whitfield - triathalon
Blythe Hartley - diving - 10th going into finals
Cochrane - 1500m swimming - qualified for final with 2nd fastest time
Rosannagh Mclennan* - 3rd going into finals
Tonya Verbeek - wrestling - bronze
Hyunh - wrestling 48k - gold
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


On the bubble:
Degenier - wrestling*
Christopher - 400m
Sullivan - 1500m - qualified for semifinals with 7th best time Men's fours -rowing - qualified for finals with 5th best time
baseball - 2-3
Men's double sculls - rowing - no medal
women's soccer -1-2-1 - no medal
*newly added
** promoted from bubble
red - newly added result


Thoughts on last night's competition:

And who was telling y'all not to panic? Great results, Hyunh having a career best performance, Verbeek repeating as a medalist, and the pairs rowing in a great race to get a silver. And it looks like Cook's race is rescheduled, so that's another medal still out there.

With McLennan and Cockburn in 3rd and 4th going into the trampoline finals, a medal there looks likely, and two isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Softball stays on track.

The baseball team is in tough to make the medal round.

Zelinka put in a valiant effort in the heptathlon.


I'm upping my medal prediction from 12 to 13.

Competing for medals tonight:

Wow, where to start?

Rowing - Men's eights, women's eights, Women's scull pairs, and men's fours all race tonight. I think the first three of those have a great shot at a medal.

Chris Cook - sailing - this race is rescheduled. He's in fifth heading into the final race tonight, and well within striking distance of third spot.

Blythe Hartley slipped to 10th in the diving semifinals, so she probably won't medal, but she goes tonight anyway.

Cochrane has the last shot at a medal for Canada in swimming as he goes in the 1500m.

Degrenier goes in the women's 67kg wrestling. She's medaled in the world championships before, so a third canadian wrestling medal isn't out of the question.

James Steacy - hammer - he'll need to surpass his personal best by quite a bit to factor.


Other Favorites and hopefuls in action tonight:

Softball - Canada needs to keep their foot on the gas to finish 2nd and avoid playing the US until the finals.

Lopez-Schliep runs in the hurdles, hoping to fill the void of Perdita Felicien's absence.

Brannen and Sullivan both run in the 1500m semis.


Most likely to disappoint tonight:

Hartley in diving, who exceeded my expectations by qualifying 3rd, but then slipped back to 10th in the semis.

Most likely to surprise tonight:

Well I think we'll get at least three medals in rowing, none of which would be a surprise. So for the surprise, I think it's going to be Cochrane getting some measure of redemption for Canada in the 1500m swim.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

Yep. He pulled up a lot at the end there, almost showboating.

And still got an amazing time!

What an awesome guy. Great interview on the CBC. He said he couldn't even believe the time. He just wanted the gold.

Wow he almost wiped at the start of the race. He dragged his toe right off the blocks.

[edn88]

wow, I am sure glad Canada won some medals so I can go back to feeling proud and fortunate in being Canadian.

<< Green is the official color of sarcasm - right?>>

PS - does it bug anyone else that they are calling Michael Phelps the Tiger Woods of the pool? Perhaps they should call Tiger the Michael Phelps of the golf links?

[Bertuzzied]

This is great! they are showing Jamaica TV's call of the race. They are in this little trailer outside of the stadium about the size of a work cubicle calling the race on a 15inch lcd monitor.

I have to commend CBC on their olympic's coverage. They are the best in the world.

[Machiavelli]

Originally Posted by JayP

He has two more gold opportunities. I'm sure that had to a lot to do with pulling up. In the end he ended up winning gold while only having to use 75% of his energy.

Yes, I know. I wasn't blasting him for him; I was just pointing out that he was able to pull up and still win by a huge margin.

And did anyone see Jennifer Abel in diving? In her interview after (she finished 13th, just missing qualifying for the final), she was soooo cute; I felt so bad for her. But she's so young that she's got 2012 to look forward to!

[Machiavelli]

octothorp, I believe that the women are also going for a medal in the 4 x 100m medley relay final.

[SebC]

Is that a tie behind Hyuhn? Four flags going up... they don't have a tie-breaker?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by SebC

Is that a tie behind Hyuhn? Four flags going up... they don't have a tie-breaker?

They're 2 bronze medals. 1 for the winner of the semifinal-losers and one for the winner of the losers bracket. It's a double-elimination tournament.

[FFR]

Your predictions of diving are a little ridiculous and show your lack of knowledge in the sport. Blythe is ranked 4th in the world in 3m springboard. I'm not sure how placing 3rd in prelims exceeds your expectations. This year alone, Blythe has won two silver medals in World Cup Competitions. Yes, she fell back in the semi-finals, but those scores are irrelevant. She qualified for the final and that is all that matters because everyone starts again from 0. Scores mean nothing now. In the semi-finals, Blythe missed her third dive and it affected her score. But she still qualified. Blythe is one of the strongest and most powerful women divers in the world and her performance in the semi-finals has no bearing on her performance in the finals.

Also, there is no 3m platform event. Alex Despatie will be competing 3m springboard.

[FFR]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

Yes, I know. I wasn't blasting him for him; I was just pointing out that he was able to pull up and still win by a huge margin.

And did anyone see Jennifer Abel in diving? In her interview after (she finished 13th, just missing qualifying for the final), she was soooo cute; I felt so bad for her. But she's so young that she's got 2012 to look forward to!

I saw it too. Jennifer Abel did amazingly well. Most people expected her to come just for the experience for 2012 but she qualified for semi-finals and nearly made finals. A lot of people are worried about the future of Canadian diving, but I don't think we have a problem.

[bluejays]

WTF? The 100M race was done this early in the Olympics? I thought typically, the 100M finals are done on the last day of the Olympics as it's the bread and butter sport? This stinks!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by fleury

WTF? The 100M race was done this early in the Olympics? I thought typically, the 100M finals are done on the last day of the Olympics as it's the bread and butter sport? This stinks!

It's always this early. Remember Ben Johnson? We had to ensure that for the entire 2nd week

In 1996, Donovan Bailey won the gold the on the middle Saturday, the relay team won the following Saturday.

That's why "You gotta love Saturday nights in Georgia!"

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by fleury

WTF? The 100M race was done this early in the Olympics? I thought typically, the 100M finals are done on the last day of the Olympics as it's the bread and butter sport? This stinks!

The 4X100 is always on the last day of the olympics. The last event of the olympics i think is the men's marathon.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

They're 2 bronze medals. 1 for the winner of the semifinal-losers and one for the winner of the losers bracket. It's a double-elimination tournament.

Well that's a little bit ridiculous. I can see that being good for kids, but this the Olympics we're talking about. I understand the bronze for the semifinal-losers (need to produce a ranking), but a consolation tournament? Ugh.

[OzSome]

Originally Posted by SebC

Well that's a little bit ridiculous. I can see that being good for kids, but this the Olympics we're talking about. I understand the bronze for the semifinal-losers (need to produce a ranking), but a consolation tournament? Ugh.

I don't agree with that either. Why even bother to compete on that bronze medal competition if both of them will win the medal anyways. The loser shouldn't even get anything at all.

Looks like USA Men's Basketball Team just beat the Spaniards. What did I miss so far this morning? I've been doing some errands earlier. So far I heard we have 1 Gold (Huyhn), 1 Silver (Men's Rowing) and 1 Bronze (Verbeek). What happenned to 2 Women's Rowing(Cameron and Kok) or whatever they call. They won the qualifying round yesterday by a good margin.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by OzSome

I don't agree with that either. Why even bother to compete on that bronze medal competition if both of them will win the medal anyways. The loser shouldn't even get anything at all.

Looks like USA Men's Basketball Team just beat the Spaniards. What did I miss so far this morning? I've been doing some errands earlier. So far I heard we have 1 Gold (Huyhn), 1 Silver (Men's Rowing) and 1 Bronze (Verbeek). What happenned to 2 Women's Rowing(Cameron and Kok) or whatever they call. They won the qualifying round yesterday by a good margin.

It's not the loser of the bronze medal match that gets the bronze, it's the winner of the losers bracket.

So basically.

Gold: WWWW
Silver: WWWL
Bronze: WWLW
Bronze (repechage): LWWWW or WLWWW

And I heard that 4 Canadian boats are in the rowing finals Sunday morning.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

It's not the loser of the bronze medal match that gets the bronze, it's the winner of the losers side.

So basically.

Gold: WWWW
Silver: WWWL
Bronze: WWLW
Bronze: LWWW or WLWW

The difference is that Bronze 1's loss is to someone who's already won two matches, and that person's second win was also against someone who won their first match. Everyone in Bronze 2's side of the bracket either lost in the first round or the second round.

At the very least, instead of having two bronze medallists, you can have them fight another match to decide who gets it. I really don't like having some sports award four medals while other only award three.

Edit:

Opponents' record for Bronze 1 (WWLW):

First Round: 0-0
Quarterfinals: 1-0
Semifinals: 2-0
Bronze: 2-1
Total: 5-1

Opponents' record for Bronze 2, case 1 (LWWW):

First Round: 0-0
Consolation Quarterfinals: 0-1
Consolation Semis: 1-1
Consolation Finals: 2-1
Total: 3-3

Opponents' record for Bronze 2, case 2 (WLWW):

First Round: 0-0
Second Round: 1-0
Consolation Semis: 1-1
Consolation Finals: 2-1
Total: 4-2

[flip]

Not sure if anyone can answer this but what is up with soccer at the Olympics?

No one cares about it that I can tell and unlike basketball, tennis and hockey I don't recognize any big names being there (ie professionals instead of amateurs).

What is up with that? European soccer hasn't started yet has it? Why aren't the Ronaldo's of the world there?

[getbak]

Originally Posted by flip

Not sure if anyone can answer this but what is up with soccer at the Olympics?

No one cares about it that I can tell and unlike basketball, tennis and hockey I don't recognize any big names being there (ie professionals instead of amateurs).

What is up with that? European soccer hasn't started yet has it? Why aren't the Ronaldo's of the world there?

I believe there's an age limit for participation in the Olympic tournament (which some have suggested they adopt for hockey as well). Yup, here's what the Olympic website says...

"While professionals are allowed in the men’s tournament, rules restrict teams to players under 23 years old with the exception of three over-age players. ’No age restrictions apply for the women’s tournament. For the Beijing 2008 Games the number of women’s teams has been increased to 12. The men’s tournament is set at 16 teams."