The 2008 Beijing Olympics
Popplegem — Sat, 08/09/2008 - 11:56
Dear Guild,
Since none of you have gone through an Olympics with me, let me be the first to tell you that I LOVE the Olympics. I get ridiculously excited about any sport (except that one with the broomsticks and the giant thing in the winter set.. whatever the hell it's called) and I love charting the Olympics. I'm nominating myself as the official 2008 Summer Games Commentator. I'll be bringing you all the great high-lights and links that you might not have seen.
For those that might have missed the opening ceremony, check it out here. It is truly an impressive fete. There were 15000 Chinese actors and dancers used, a NO ONE was used twice. When asked, the director of the ceremony said "Well, we have the people." It's only about 10 minutes long (they condensed it) and it's WELL worth watching.
At the current writing of this, the US is first for medals, and we swept Olympic Women's Sabre Fencing with all three medals, the winner being Mariel Zagunis, who is from Portland Oregon! She won gold in 2004 in Athens as well. An interesting fact, this is only the second Summer games where women's sabre fencing has been an Olympic sport. Up until 2004, only Men's Sabre Fencing was a sport at the Olympics. A lot of people thought that women's saber was too violent and women couldn't handle it. HA! I grew up fencing, and my mother is the SCARIEST saber fencer EVER. When you give a 6'0 woman a sword and tell her "attack"... oh god.
This is a link to the fencing competition. It's very well worth seeing. The link takes you to the page. Under Women's Individual Sabre, click "Rewind."
I'll keep you updated as things go on.
Love PG
Im burstin w/ maple leaf
jaibyrd — Sat, 08/16/2008 - 22:55Im burstin w/ maple leaf coloured pride ;-)
Yes, I like to heal. No, I've never been shadow.
Go Canada women's wrestling!
Shihli — Sat, 08/16/2008 - 14:03Go Canada women's wrestling!
I Agree Kognus, GO CANADA
Alexinaa — Sat, 08/16/2008 - 14:00I Agree Kognus, GO CANADA GO!!!!
We got our first 3 Medals today!!! One of each Colour
An interesting Olympics side
Olorien — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 15:22An interesting Olympics side note I just read. India has won their first individual Gold Medal. Abhinav Bindra won the 10M air rifle event, giving India it's first gold medal.
GO CANADA!
Kognus — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 14:35GO CANADA!
The French must learn this
Shihli — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 13:57The French must learn this message:
Know who you're talking shit to!
The French have not had a strong swimming team in ... well ... ever. Asides from the last year with their 4x100m relay team, they have no history as being a strong swimming country.
The USA swimming teams have some of the most developed and talented swimmers in history, and the US has a long tradition of talented swimmers.
Basically, the French talked shit to *the* best swimmers in the world, and why? Because they won one race last year?
lol.
Still, Michael Phelps classed up the whole deal, stepping off the podium during the medal ceremony to shake hands and congratulate the French on a good race.
yeah the mens 400m relay was
Vulk — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 13:48yeah the mens 400m relay was AMAZING. Before it the french were trash talking the U.S and guaranteed that they would smash the Americans in the 400m relay. Boy did they get a surprise! On the last leg of the race the French Alain Bernard (the world record holder at the time) had a .6 second lead to the U.S. Jason Lezak. Nobody thought it would have even been possible for the Americans to bridge that gap and win, but they did. Lezak swam the fastest relay leg of all time and caught up with Bernard. He ended up beating him by .08 seconds! The french got fried! YEAH!
"We cannot direct the winds, but we can adjust our sails."
Grasen: grrrr kids Aidin: omw don't kill them
men won the 400 freestyle
Sorreah — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 13:19men won the 400 freestyle relay it was an amazing thing to watch and made even better by everyone talking about the french being unbeatable in it. to give you an idea on the race the team who came in 5th was ahead of the previous world record
Radio is talking about it
Ewiges — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 09:47Radio is talking about it right now.
Read the full article,
Shihli — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 09:33Read the full article, Ewiges:
If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, "no way that's possible" at least once. It turns out you were right.
London's Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But -- hold on -- it's not necessarily as bad as you think.
The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure it's such a terrible thing.
The Opening Ceremony is, at its core, just one big performance. And isn't it accepted that some things might not be legit at a performance? The final torch bearer wasn't actually running around the top of the stadium, does the fact that everyone could figure that out make it any less impressive? It might have been unnecessarily deceptive, but the firework-faking isn't really that big of a deal. But, if I found out that the lighted-drum thing wasn't on the up and up, then we'll have problems, China.
Hmm, heres the article on
Ewiges — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 09:27Hmm, heres the article on yahoo, but its not coming up when I click on it. http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:y_featured:d3d95b04ab240df15c0d636cae6f3...
Newspaper this morning, let
Ewiges — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 09:26Newspaper this morning, let me try and find an online article.
Where'd you hear that
Shihli — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 09:12Where'd you hear that Ewiges?
China is now beating us for
Ewiges — Mon, 08/11/2008 - 09:01China is now beating us for medals, FYI, the firework show was CGI. There was a real one but the one showed on NBC was CGI.
A fast update to the
Popplegem — Sun, 08/10/2008 - 12:00A fast update to the Olympics.
US won against China in Men's Basketball 101 - 70.
US tied against the Netherlands in Men's Soccer 2-2. A last minute goal got through the US defense.
Both mens and women's gymnastics qualified for the team competition later in the week, but both teams need some improvement before anything goes further.
US Women's 400-m relay team took silver against the Dutch. The oldest Olympian, US Swimmer Dara Torres, held the last leg of the relay, and was impressive. She's 41 and looks better than a lot of 17 year old boys I know.
More later.
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Well, here's the nightly
Popplegem — Sat, 08/09/2008 - 20:15Well, here's the nightly Update:
So far, the women have taken 1 and 2 in the semi-finals for the 400 Meter swim. One of the women, Katie Hoff, collapsed at the 2004 Athens games, so this time around she's determined not to fail. It's going to be a great race. Katie Hoff holds the world record for fastest time, but she's in 2 going into the semifinals. Ms. Hoff did end up taking the Bronze in the Women's 400 M individual Medley.
For tomorrow, Swimmer Christine Magnuson placed 2nd in the Semifinal 100m butterfly. Good Luck! Elaine Breeden took 6th in the same heat.
The US women also take 1 in the second heat of the Women's 400 meter relay. China Women took 1 in the first heat of the Women's 400 meter relay.
Michael Phelps got the first men's swimming gold this morning in the 400 M swimming medley, and also set a new world record for fastest time. Laszlo Cseh from Hungary took silver, and the US rounded out the top three with Ryan Lochte taking Bronze. Larsen Jensen takes Bronze in the Men's 400 M Freestyle.
The US didn't win the Mens 60 kg Judo competition or the women's 40 kg Judo competition. Damn.
At the time of this writing, Archery has started, and results will be in tomorrow for the prelims, as has synchronized swimming and biking.
Goodluck to the atheletes!
Tune in tomorrow for the next 2008 Beijing Update!
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"(except that one with the
Jayel — Sat, 08/09/2008 - 14:57"(except that one with the broomsticks and the giant thing in the winter set.. whatever the hell it's called) "
that would be curling
Just so you can all keep
Popplegem — Sat, 08/09/2008 - 12:10Just so you can all keep counting with me:
www.nbcolympics.com - a great site for some content, downloads of the games... etc.
Here is the official site of the Beijing Olympics for medal counts and more!
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