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The Olympics!

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Posts

  • SheepSheep Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2012
    Bogart wrote:
    The Olympics! The greatest corporate-tax free, publicly funded marketing event on the planet

    Sheep on
  • TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    One of the big olympic news blurbs is that Nadal (2008 winner) withdrew from this year's Tennis citing muscle problems. So there goes a gold medal for Spain, and probably an easy pickup for the Swiss and Federer to finally get a golden slam.

    I just hope this year NBC doesn't make stupid volleyball the big prime time event.

    TexiKen on
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Sheep wrote: »
    Bogart wrote:
    The Olympics! The greatest corporate-tax free, publicly funded marketing event on the planet

    Well, it's that as well.

  • lonelyahavalonelyahava Call me Ahava ~~She/Her~~ Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    olympics weeee!!!

    ahhh Gos. I knew that we had something in common bob costas

    although i won't be getting much of him since I don't think i can watch the nbc coverage down here online. stupid region locking bastards.


    I will be attempting to watch the swimming, diving, and gymnastics. and track & field.
    And loving every single minute of it.

    our cable network has 5 channels for the olympics.

    my gym has 5 different tvs. Coincidence? I think not. (i'm going to be spending a LOT of time at the gym....)

  • OatsOats Registered User regular
    Yay judo.

    Whooo judo.

  • tinwhiskerstinwhiskers Registered User regular
    Hopefully Olympic Judo prove more fun to watch than Olympic boxing. I know there's really no way to have 12 round beat your face in matches work as an Olympic sport, but something about it just doesn't engage me. You just get little jabs and pokes, no big flurries or combo's going for the KO. It's like fencing sans the sword.

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  • CarpyCarpy Registered User regular
    Jubal77 wrote: »
    I havent been paying attention... when is the opening ceremony?

    Next Friday the 27th I do believe.

  • either,oreither,or Registered User regular
    No mention of this man in the OP?
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    "Hi, I'm Boris Johnson, head boy of London, and I'd like to welcome you to the biggest sports day we've ever had!"

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  • LolkenLolken Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    WHAT THE HELL IS THAT POLICE WENLOCK FIGURE

  • VeritasVRVeritasVR Registered User regular
    I'm so glad there's so much interest in watching Olympic fencing.

    It's one of the least spectator-friendly sports in existence.

    I love it, but like holy shit.

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    Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    edited July 2012
    VeritasVR wrote: »
    I'm so glad there's so much interest in watching Olympic fencing.

    It's one of the least spectator-friendly sports in existence.

    I love it, but like holy shit.

    My grandfather was big into fencing, was on a team when he was in the Navy I believe.

    I'm a big fan of it, even if it is weird to watch.

    AManFromEarth on
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  • GoslingGosling Looking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, Probably Watertown, WIRegistered User regular
    What? You don't like people diving at each other all HAAAAAAAAAA! YES! I GOT THE POINT JUDGES GIVE ME THE POINT!

    I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
  • KageraKagera Imitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered User regular
    I can't wait for the doctor who cameo.

    My neck, my back, my FUPA and my crack.
  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    edited July 2012
    I would love them, whoever them is (Danny Boyle I guess), forever if Tennant had a cameo with the flame.

    AManFromEarth on
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  • devCharlesdevCharles Gainesville, FLRegistered User regular
    Hopefully Olympic Judo prove more fun to watch than Olympic boxing. I know there's really no way to have 12 round beat your face in matches work as an Olympic sport, but something about it just doesn't engage me. You just get little jabs and pokes, no big flurries or combo's going for the KO. It's like fencing sans the sword.

    Olympic Judo tends to be a super mixed bag. There's a serious timidity once you start getting into the medal rounds, and you get a boring match. If an underdog comes out of nowhere though, you can see them attempt some craziness usually.

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  • L*2*G*XL*2*G*X Registered User regular
    Could there be a separate hate thread for the olympics? Where we can discuss how the bread and games spectacle distracts us from our real problems when we really should be paying attention. How the whole concept of an a-political getting together has resulted in all of the most nefatious dictatorships getting a solid platform for their agitprop. How it's sponsors use the appeal of seemingly no-brainer succes to sell overpriced products to people who can't afford it. How the organisation under pressure of it's sponsors pounds all sorts of rights into oblivion, aided by publicity hungry governments, with no democratic input. How those government willingly bankrupt their countries for the olympic shine. The corruption that rules the organisation. The pressure to enforce backwards principles to appease governments with defective human rights? The unbreakable ties between sports, nationalism and in may instances the army, despite a pretence to a message of peace? The bankrupt idea of mens sana in corpore sana at a point where only trough often illegal and dangerous technology any real improvements are possible? Or the random way in which that technology is allowed or forbidden?

    Because all that sort of warrants discussing and would just get in the way of Weee peeps that run teh fast!.

  • lu tzelu tze Sweeping the monestary steps.Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    Judo isn't that interesting to watch usually, especially for a layman, and especially in the Olympics where players are all top level. There'll be lots of tactical grip fighting and turtling, a shitload of mattes called, and then someone will win on points for a reason you won't understand.

    My mate managed to nab some tickets for the heavyweight matches though, and has a hotel room for free (he commutes to London once a week for work). So I'll be going down to watch those and sponge off his room service! (and maybe play tourist in "that London" for a bit).

    lu tze on
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  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    Sure, that's all part and parcel of the Olympics, so of course it can be discussed. And if you can do it without the condescension and tiresome wah wah sports that'd be even better!

    Most scurrilous example of the games appeasing repulsive countries is probably allowing Saudi Arabia to join in even though they don't allow women to compete. They should, quite obviously, be excluded from the games.

  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    Sure, that's all part and parcel of the Olympics, so of course it can be discussed. And if you can do it without the condescension and tiresome wah wah sports that'd be even better!

    Most scurrilous example of the games appeasing repulsive countries is probably allowing Saudi Arabia to join in even though they don't allow women to compete. They should, quite obviously, be excluded from the games.

    Wasn't there some traction where the Saudis are letting women come this year? I'm not saying that redeems them completely, but it seems a move in the right direction at the very least.

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  • AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    And yeah, the IOC is one of the most corrupt organization on earth.

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  • L*2*G*XL*2*G*X Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    Well if you can't discuss one of the most overhyped events on the planet without condescending on the poor fools who believe in sports then what's the point?

    If half the people in my country who've memorized every bloody soccer player's life history would have spent that effort on trying to understand politics, our various governments wouldn't get away with a tenth of stuff they do- to the benefit of all.

    I can understand it's in human nature- and culture back to the Illiad- to idolize he-men and attribute all sorts of lofty ideals to the effects of testosterone on physical ability. But that doesn't elevate it above ridicule any more than 70 porn does mustaches.

    It's a simple biological urge to motivate hunters to run faster by offering adoration, feel good when being bossed around by the hairiest sob to avoid being pummeled to death and maintain an admirable capability to put the good of the tribe- and presumably one's offspring- above the good of the self mainly when tossing rocks at other protohumans. Yay team!

    Sports are like a shortlist of things we have to fix in human nature if we want to make it to the twenty-second century.

    L*2*G*X on
  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    I sense someone was always picked last in school games.

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    And no, I don't think the Saudis are entering any women this year. There was a brief spasm of appearing to let a woman compete, but it turned out to be, I think, an exhibition sport and the woman in question lives in London and has done so for many years.

    Yeah, the IOC is probably still corrupt and self-serving, but it is actually less so than it used to be. It's not exactly bragging material, but FIFA is probably the world leader in corrupt sporting bodies these days.

  • CasualCasual Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle Flap Flap Flap Registered User regular
    Bogart wrote: »
    And no, I don't think the Saudis are entering any women this year. There was a brief spasm of appearing to let a woman compete, but it turned out to be, I think, an exhibition sport and the woman in question lives in London and has done so for many years.

    Yeah, the IOC is probably still corrupt and self-serving, but it is actually less so than it used to be. It's not exactly bragging material, but FIFA is probably the world leader in corrupt sporting bodies these days.

    In fairness, it would be difficult to do the 100m in a hijab.

  • Redcoat-13Redcoat-13 Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    Did anyone see BBC 3's top 50 Olympic moments the other night? There was obviously a heavy bias towards British athletes, but there were some great clips.

    They showed clips of Nadia Comaneci, the first female gymnast to get a perfect score

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y87BO6tnB08&feature=related

    Derek Redmond and his dad

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFKpZnok10s

    The Australians beating the Americans in the swimming relay

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQQt0eTknxY

    Bolt was obviously there

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-urnlaJpOA

    Really I could go on.

    And as a sidenote, Channel 4 are going all out in promoting the para Olympics as well

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuAPPeRg3Nw

    As a sporting event I'm pumped.

    Redcoat-13 on
    PSN Fleety2009
  • Jam WarriorJam Warrior Registered User regular
    We've got tickets! We're going to an olympic sport thing!

    It's equestrian eventing.

    This may have been more my wife and daughter's plan than mine.

    I'm sure, it'll be a nice day out, maybe, if the train gets us there in time and the sun shines.

    DOOOOOOOM.

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  • L*2*G*XL*2*G*X Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    Bogart wrote: »
    I sense someone was always picked last in school games.

    And there was the incident where my classmates pushed my friend (second last picked) in a ditch while running and, self having extracted him from said ditch and thus coming late, was penalized by the instructor for being slow.

    Seething hatred I tell you. Well, slowly percolating, at least.

    It's not so much that, being picked on for being unathletic, I naturally gravitated to hating sports. It's that sports evolved from and into the perfect vehicle for bullying people like me when there wasn't much opportunity for actual wholesale slaughter.

    L*2*G*X on
  • lonelyahavalonelyahava Call me Ahava ~~She/Her~~ Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    ohman.

    that relay in Sydney.

    ohmygod. rewatching that is just some serious goosebumps.

  • BogartBogart Streetwise Hercules Registered User, Moderator mod
    I wonder how many angry nerds try to get even with school bullies by playing EA sports games and then getting as many players as they can injured. How many Wayne Gretzky sprites were bloodily crashed to the ice in the classic Megadrive NHL games by jubilant members of the chess club intent on revenge over all the jocks that flipped their board over at lunch break?

    There's a lot to be critical about in sport. Saying it exemplifies all the things that are bad in humanity is very silly indeed.

  • 815165815165 Registered User regular
    That footage of Derek Redmond always destroys me. :(

  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    Anybody who points to jocks as the nadir of society should spend some time playing online games or trying to discuss which edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the best.

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • emp123emp123 Registered User regular
    SO stoked for the Olympics. Its basically going to be playing all day. Cant fucking wait.

    Shit I wont miss:
    Womens Gymnastics
    Swimming (basically all of it)
    Diving
    the sprints and the hurdles

    Shit I'll try to watch but will end up forgetting to:
    Kayaking
    Any of the field stuff
    soccer

    Shit I might watch:
    Power walking - their hips freak me the fuck out
    Cycling
    Archery
    basically everything else


    Seriously, why isnt it the 28th yet?

  • VeritasVRVeritasVR Registered User regular
    Gosling wrote: »
    What? You don't like people diving at each other all HAAAAAAAAAA! YES! I GOT THE POINT JUDGES GIVE ME THE POINT!

    Yeah, saber might be more exciting, but just watch epee fencing. Eliminating the judges from the scoring process helps understand what the fuck is going on.

    CoH_infantry.jpg
    Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
  • PantsBPantsB Fake Thomas Jefferson Registered User regular
    I'll watch the fuck out of this, its a nice thing every 2 (or 4 for summer/winter specifically) years. It helps that most of the sports are actually watchable even if we never ever watch them between Olympics, and as an American I pretty much always have a contender to root for.

    I think the only events I don't think I'll make any effort to see at all are equestrian*, rhythmic gymnastics (so bad it passed so-bad-its-funny back into bad) and diving (which just doesn't do it for me). I've never seen canoeing, sailing can be meh, judo and tkd aren't as fun as they seem like they should be but all are watchable. In fact for informational purposes, I'll steal from wiki

    The 2012 Summer Olympic programme features 26 sports and a total of 39 disciplines:

    Aquatics
    Diving (8)
    Swimming (34)
    Synchronized swimming (2)
    Water polo (2)
    Archery (4)
    Athletics (47)
    Badminton (5)
    Basketball (2)
    Boxing (13)
    Canoeing
    Sprint (12)
    Slalom (4)
    Cycling
    BMX (2)
    Mountain biking (2)
    Road (4)
    Track (10)
    Equestrian
    Dressage (2)
    Eventing (2)
    Jumping (2)
    Fencing (10)
    Field hockey (2)
    Football (2)
    Gymnastics
    Artistic (14)
    Rhythmic (2)
    Trampoline (2)
    Handball (2)
    Judo (14)
    Modern pentathlon (2)
    Rowing (14)
    Sailing (10)
    Shooting (15)
    Table tennis (4)
    Taekwondo (8)
    Tennis (5)
    Triathlon (2)
    Volleyball
    Volleyball (2)
    Beach volleyball (2)
    Weightlifting (15)
    Wrestling
    Freestyle (11)
    Greco-Roman (7)

    Call me sexist but I will skip women's boxing (first time) also.

    I mean badminton isn't great to watch but its much better than it has any right to be. And I forgot about trampoline gymnastics, that's also not real.
    Bogart wrote: »
    Oh hey the USA is playing the UK at basketball right ow in a warm up game. We are, of course, getting absolutely fucking slaughtered.

    Have to stop drinking hot tea during timeouts.

    *My wife likes so I might have to watch some but I can just make Romney jokes the whole time

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  • schussschuss Registered User regular
    You know what I can't wait for? The endless human interest stories they try to jam down our throats while not televising events.

  • PantsBPantsB Fake Thomas Jefferson Registered User regular
    Well in theory they're streaming every event so we should hopefully have a Costas alternative

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  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    How else are they going to pull the don't-watch-sports-but-watch-reality-TV demographic?

    My favourite bits are the little informative clips where they tell you how the events are scored.

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • mere_immortalmere_immortal So tasty!Registered User regular
    edited July 2012
    That paralympics ad is pretty great.

    Also I know it's a hideously corporate and ad based environment now, but it still doesn't remove the basic excitement of watching competition between people who are the greatest at what they do.

    Hopefully we can steamroll the cycling events with the fantastic team we have.

    mere_immortal on
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  • mrt144mrt144 King of the Numbernames Registered User regular
    L*2*G*X wrote: »
    Bogart wrote: »
    I sense someone was always picked last in school games.

    And there was the incident where my classmates pushed my friend (second last picked) in a ditch while running and, self having extracted him from said ditch and thus coming late, was penalized by the instructor for being slow.

    Seething hatred I tell you. Well, slowly percolating, at least.

    It's not so much that, being picked on for being unathletic, I naturally gravitated to hating sports. It's that sports evolved from and into the perfect vehicle for bullying people like me when there wasn't much opportunity for actual wholesale slaughter.

    I played football and baseball in high school and I got bullied for being "a homo" because I was sensitive and shy and not a mouth breathing misogynist. I got my revenge though - I quit the baseball team halfway through the season and the catcher who I shared time with ruined his fucking knees.

  • GoslingGosling Looking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, Probably Watertown, WIRegistered User regular
    To me, the Olympics being a distraction from politics and everything is kind of the point. It's supposed to be proof that the world can just shut up and watch sports together for two weeks without being at each other's throats.

    I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
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