Beijing Olympics Thread

[iggypop]

Is it me or is NBC feed behind CBC? I just watched the Womens Beach Volleyball, Swimming and Gymnastics all on CBC which they called live, now its showing on NBC right now which they are calling live. Was CBC just a replay too?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by iggypop

Is it me or is NBC feed behind CBC? I just watched the Womens Beach Volleyball, Swimming and Gymnastics all on CBC which they called live, now its showing on NBC right now which they are calling live. Was CBC just a replay too?

NBC's coverage is live! 8pm Eastern and Pacific
They treat the olympics like a regular primetime show.

CBC is all live unless they say it's not.

[SteveToms]

Still without a medal, Women's 10M Sychro Dive, finished 7th after being 3rd after the first 4 rounds.

[Kidder]

"Hey Homie, I can see your doodle"

[alan21]

China vs Spain Men's basketball on right now!
I'm enjoying international basketball way more than the NBA right now.

[Devils'Advocate]

In China, a girl that shows gymnastic promise at 7 or 8 will be placed in a special school where they get 30 to 40 hours of practice per week. The child gets free schooling, room, and board.

In Canada, a co-worker has as 9 year old that is doing extremely well at provincial meets. He is paying $12,000 a year so that his daughter can get 20 hours of practice per week. Mostly, that is for facilities and a shared trainer. My co-worker would love to have a private trainer, but that would just be crazy money. He was saying that if you make Team Canada at 14 or 15, then you MIGHT get funding, but before then it is all on the parents. So it is extremely unlikely to see someone from a poor family winning a gold medal in gymnastics for Canada.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As for whether it is worth it for the Canadian government to put more money into the Olympics - Alex Bauman I think put it best. In a country where there is an epidemic in obesity, where youth obesity is a huge problem, where kids are spending more and more time watching TV and playing video games - there needs to be some kind of celebration of athletic excellence.

Bauman was asking for $1/year/Canadian. That would seem like a small price to pay for the national pride that we get when a Donovan Baily wins a gold medal, or when Silken Laumann wins a silver medal....

Of course the money could be spent elsewhere. Teachers, doctors, etc. But Bauman's argument that there is almost no other way to spend so little money for the benefits of making Canada a leading athletic country...

[North East Goon]

How much money did HBC spend on clothes alone for these athletes? They have a serious amount of clothes to choose from. I am happy with what HBC has done with the outfits, but much preffered Roots to them.

[North East Goon]

I think the funding should be allocated to those that win. Give them an incentive to medal and you will be handsomely rewarded. I am talking from the gov't standpoint on this one. I love that the private companies such as Visa are stepping up to help the athletes.

[North East Goon]

How much are sports like Gymnastics pre-determined before the games ever begin? I am certain China has been allocated the team gold in both men and women, no matter what they do. I also think the states are promised to medal as well.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

In China, a girl that shows gymnastic promise at 7 or 8 will be placed in a special school where they get 30 to 40 hours of practice per week. The child gets free schooling, room, and board.

Yes but do we really want our Canadian girls to be 4 feet 6?
And those chinese gymnasts who won the men's team event yesterday won't be able to lift their arms when they retire after the beating they've taken in the rings and parallel bars.

China sacrificed it's athletes for these Beijing games. Expect their results to fall in subsequent games. I very happy that our athletes are well-rounded and will have a career after the games are done. Results aren't everything.

[North East Goon]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yes but do we really want our Canadian girls to be 4 feet 6?
And those chinese gymnasts who won the men's team event yesterday won't be able to lift their arms when they retire after the beating they've taken in the rings and parallel bars.

China sacrificed it's athletes for these Beijing games. Expect their results to fall in subsequent games. I very happy that our athletes are well-rounded and will have a career after the games are done. Results aren't everything.

Actually, many are saying China will now become the leaders in the medal count for years to come, because of the infrastructure put in place for these games.

[Mccree]

Parts of the openning ceremony were faked.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...me=beijing2008

Girl not cute enough and due to the pollution the fireworks (some of them) were digitally enhanced.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

I think the funding should be allocated to those that win. Give them an incentive to medal and you will be handsomely rewarded. I am talking from the gov't standpoint on this one. I love that the private companies such as Visa are stepping up to help the athletes.

I don't think the monetary rewards make that big a difference; usually these people have advanced to the international level by having a fierce competitive desire. Let's say you offer $250,000 for winning a gold, and Van Koeverden wins two. He probably would have won those medals without the incentive, and you've just spent $500,000 that won't actually improve Canada's medal prospects.

I'd rather see a reward system for the program that produces the medal: If Koeverden wins two golds, the national kayaking / canoe program gets $500,000, in addition to their regular funding. This is money better spent, because it's will go back into training and development programs. It also forces national programs to focus on medal results as opposed to personal bests or canadian records. Of course, there's the implicit unfairness that a sport like swimming or rowing could theoretically get millions from a program like this, while one like softball maxes out at $250,000.

I agree with DA about funding athletes at an earlier age. Of course, you need to be extremely selective, you can't fund any girl who does well at provincials (assume that you take the top 2 in each province in each age group and spend $25,000 per year on them, and that comes to $4 million for the ages of 8 and 16). You need to identify the top four or so nationally in each age group. The rest need to continue to work on their own until they get to a level where they draw the attention of the national program. Again, there's something implicitly unfair there, but these are the sorts of things we need to do to produce medals.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Mccree

Parts of the openning ceremony were faked.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...me=beijing2008

Girl not cute enough and due to the pollution the fireworks (some of them) were digitally enhanced.

If they were going to that route that could have picked a cuter girl.
Not surprised that some things were fake. It was a movie production made by a movie director.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

How much are sports like Gymnastics pre-determined before the games ever begin? I am certain China has been allocated the team gold in both men and women, no matter what they do. I also think the states are promised to medal as well.

Not at all. Did you even watch the men's all-around last night? China blew everyone else out of the water. Their routines had the highest difficulty and they performed them better than the rest. It was amazing.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

Not at all. Did you even watch the men's all-around last night? China blew everyone else out of the water. Their routines had the highest difficulty and they performed them better than the rest. It was amazing.

Yeah, that was great, one of my favorite performances in the Olympics so far this year... You could tell how much pressure was on these guys, and it was amazing the way they just calmed things down after a bit of trouble on the floor routine, while the Japanese collapsed on the vault and the Americans collapsed on the floor and pommelhorse.

[octothorp]

In other news, the Canadian women's football team has drawn #1 ranked US in the quarterfinals. Probably on paper the worst possible draw, but the US looked pretty average in losing to 5th ranked Norway and beating 10th ranked Japan 1-0, before whipping #23rd New Zealand 4-0. So it's a winnable game, but the girls will need to put in a better effort than any of their three round-robin games.

If they win, they'll have a great shot in the semis against China or Japan, while other powerhouses Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Brazil are all on the other side of the bracket.

[Antithesis]

Throw me in the camp that is disappointed with this Olympics on one hand, it seems to be a lot of - "well, so-and-so was a medal hopeful, and they finished 5th" rather than "wow, where did so-and-so come from to win that bronze?!" In the swimming it's neat to see the Canadian records falling but is that a symptom of the swimmers improving or just the better equipment?

The idea of rewarding a program for an athlete's performance is interesting, perhaps it could be split because I do think these athletes need to be rewarded for their efforts. What did Australia do to become such a power in swimming and other events? Their population is nearly the same as ours and yet their performance is so far above ours. What gives?

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yes but do we really want our Canadian girls to be 4 feet 6?
And those chinese gymnasts who won the men's team event yesterday won't be able to lift their arms when they retire after the beating they've taken in the rings and parallel bars.

China sacrificed it's athletes for these Beijing games. Expect their results to fall in subsequent games. I very happy that our athletes are well-rounded and will have a career after the games are done. Results aren't everything.

You might question China's methods in training their athletes, but their government is willing to pour a ton of money into the sports programs to ensure they are able to groom competitive athletes, something that Canada sadly does not do.

The whole "oh well, they tried their best, we're still proud of them, even though they came in 9th" attitude is pretty much why Canada's stuck in mediocrity. I for one, wouldn't mind seeing more tax dollars diverted to more sports programs in hopes of medalling in international events. For some reason, it seems to me the average Canadian tax payer is opposed to this however. I always see the "well, these should go towards more teachers and health care" whenever the topic comes up. Can't they go to both?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

You might question China's methods in training their athletes, but their government is willing to pour a ton of money into the sports programs to ensure they are able to groom competitive athletes, something that Canada sadly does not do.

The whole "oh well, they tried their best, we're still proud of them, even though they came in 9th" attitude is pretty much why Canada's stuck in mediocrity. I for one, wouldn't mind seeing more tax dollars diverted to more sports programs in hopes of medalling in international events. For some reason, it seems to me the average Canadian tax payer is opposed to this however. I always see the "well, these should go towards more teachers and health care" whenever the topic comes up. Can't they go to both?

Being 9th is better than being 20th in Athens. The swimmers have to gain experience at the Olympic level. You can't just jump from 20th to 2nd. Even the Chinese have gradually improved from Sydney to Athens to Beijing.

Forget about these olympics. You'll see Canada's funding and sacrifice at work in Vancouver where Canada will be in contention for the overall medal count.

The government only has so much resources. Can't have one of the best social systems in the world and be good at BOTH winter and summer games.