The Olympics

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Andreth
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Post by Andreth »

ToshoftheWuffingas wrote:I find international standard sabre fencing less interesting to watch: two opponents dance in at the same time and one is just faster. There's little sword play. It's far more fun at club level. Far more fencing of blades occurs in foil (my favourite) and epee.
Hey, I fence too! Not competitively but once a week with my club. I am strictly a foil girl.

I was happy to see the women's 8 finally breakthrough and win the gold over Romania. Watched fencing and rowing Sunday morning.
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Tyrhael
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Re: The Olympics

Post by Tyrhael »

halplm wrote:US Men winning the Bronze in Team Gymnastics. If your not familiar with Raj Bhavsar, and I suppose you wouldn't if you don't follow Gymnastics, it was immensely satisfying to see him win an Olympic medal, not to mentnion the rest of the team :).

Anyone else have some highlights? Perhaps without such an obvious and unintentional US bias?
I didn't really watch the Olympics while they were on, but the TV happened to be on for the last couple miles of the womens' marathon, and it was nice to see Constantina Tomescu (a 38 year-old Romanian mother) win, despite never having heard of her before. I'm a sucker for what the commentary says - like when during the opening ceremony's flag-parade session they focused on Lin Hao. :help:

However, though I did also accidentally see Usain Bolt winning stuff, the only sport I was really watching was the Mens' Gymnastics, but I was annoyed with the media's obviously US-centric coverage as I specifically wanted to see every event for the US, Japan, and China. I ended up having to watch the hours-long sans-commentary uncut videos on the NBC Olympics website, and have finished the team prelims as well as finals for high bar and most of the floor exercise - I still need to see rings, pommel horse, vault, parallel bars, not to mention the individual all-around stuff ... :help:

I've mainly ignored the news of who's won what, but spoilers aren't really bothering me that much as I'm more interested in seeing the actual performances than hearing who won things. I mean, some of them made mistakes (sometimes big) in their routines and therefore weren't mentioned in reports, but their routines were awesome otherwise. Like Kohei Uchimura on the pommel horse, or Makoto on floor (for team - prelims? can't remember). I wasn't really impressed with what I saw from the Romanians and Germans for floor and high bar (esp. Flavius something on floor :scarey:), and therefore skipped over their bits in other events, though I did watch the Koreans in a few things.

Still have a lot to watch — I heard Hiroyuki Tomita messed up on rings, but I'm going to watch anyway ... it was sort of schadenfroh to watch Yang Wei accidentally sit down on the bars when doing parallel bars in the team prelims, though. =:)

Then again, I was sorta rooting for the Japanese but the three aforementioned countries' (US, Jap., China) routines kept literally inducing many many jawdropping moments, as I don't really follow gymnastics and was often like "Holy crap, they can do that?" :shock:

The womens' gymnastics was on TV one night and I watched for a bit - weirdly, I wasn't as impressed ... don't know why? Their routines didn't seem as good, maybe related to perhaps less 'powerful' from less arm strength? It just seemed different, and was never jaw-dropping ... any idea why? :scratch:
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Primula Baggins
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Post by Primula Baggins »

My husband just sent this link to me with the notation, "Why they keep Mary Carillo around. Best explanation of badminton ever."

My husband is always right.

http://www.wimp.com/epicbadminton/

(The setup: It's the 2004 Olympics in Athens, it's the middle of the night, she's on the air covering Olympic badminton, and suddenly appears to realize that there are probably about 18 people watching worldwide. And off she goes.)
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Frelga
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Post by Frelga »

That was hilarious, Prim! :rofl:

Speaking about the Olympics, can someone tell the people covering the Sochi games that the Cold War has been over for a while? Are they digging out all the stuff they couldn't use back in 1980? Sports Illustrated actually put a sickle and hammer into the Olympic logo. When was the last time sickle and hammer was used as an official symbol of anything Russian? 1991, that's when.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Primula Baggins
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Post by Primula Baggins »

It's reflex, I think. . . .

Though yesterday at the end of the afternoon coverage they did run an excellent mini-documentary on the history of the "space race" and the current close working relationship between the U.S. and Russian space programs. I am a history-of-space-flight junkie, and I saw clips and interviews I had never seen before—partly because most histories of space flight are histories of U.S. space flight. This was the first time I had ever seen a cosmonaut from that era talking about his reaction to the U.S. moon landing, for example, or learned that two of the men on the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous flight in 1975 became lifelong friends, close enough that their families consider themselves related. Yet when they first met in orbit in 1975, neither could speak the other's language.

Anyway. There is reflexive, mistaken jingoism, but there is also some wonderful coverage.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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yovargas
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Post by yovargas »

Primula Baggins wrote:My husband just sent this link to me with the notation, "Why they keep Mary Carillo around. Best explanation of badminton ever."

My husband is always right.

http://www.wimp.com/epicbadminton/
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Elentári
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Post by Elentári »

So, uhm....anyone feel sorry for Elise Christie? :?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... final.html
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Frelga
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Re: The Olympics

Post by Frelga »

Watching snow boarders is nerve wracking and awe inspiring. I hope in the next life I am someone who can fly like that.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

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Eldy
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Re: The Olympics

Post by Eldy »

Short track speed skating has been my favorite winter sport since watching Apollo Ohno at the 2002 Olympics and these games have been off to a really good start so far. The South Korean women's team came back from an early crash today to not only win their semifinal but break the Olympic record for the 3000m relay which was just amazing to watch.

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Frelga
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Re: The Olympics

Post by Frelga »

Oh, yes, and did you all see the Tonga guy in the opening ceremony?
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
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Eldy
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Re: The Olympics

Post by Eldy »

I missed the opening ceremony when NBC aired it due to a night class but I watched some highlights afterwards and was glad to see him make an appearance! I remembered him from Rio 2016 but had no idea he was a winter athlete too.
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Frelga
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Re: The Olympics

Post by Frelga »

There are now memes about him!

https://www.cnet.com/news/winter-olympi ... aufatofua/
@NickMurray91 wrote: Bermuda: Its not that cold. We can wear shorts.

Tonga guy: Hold my beer#OpeningCeremony
Also I just learned that people got kicked out for impersonating Trump and Kim Jong Un.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
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