hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Aug 16, 2008 11:12:47 GMT -5
In a very slight way, it kind of reminded me of the batter in baseball trying to beat the throw by sliding into first, even though we are always taught to run through the bag. Phelps kept swimming and Cuzek (sp?) tried to stretch. Oh well, all's well that ends well.
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Post by sleepyjackson21 on Aug 16, 2008 12:12:07 GMT -5
Anyone watch the US lose to Cuba in baseball? 3-3 game after 9 innings and then in the 11th they went to a tiebreaker scenario. You automatically start the inning with men on 1st and 2nd and start where ever you want in the batting order. Cuba put their 8th and 9th hitters on base and then went top of the batting order. They scored 2. We only came up with 1 in the bottom of the inning, resulting in a 5-4 loss.
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Aug 16, 2008 12:48:26 GMT -5
Yes, I watched that baseball game. They just put that rule into effect this year. I understand why they did it. They have a very narrow window to get all the games in. Eight teams make the Olympics and they play a round robin. So there are basically 4 games a day for 7 days, if they have no off days. The top four teams advance to the medal round. Additionally, since there are only 24 players on the roster and so many games in so few days, they don't want to tax the arms of one team, giving a later opponent an unfair advantage, that is none of their doing.
I certainly wasn't happy with the outcome though. In addition to the loss, Matt LaPorta wore the Platinum sombrero. He struck out 4 times in 4 at-bats. Ugh...
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hifigator
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Post by hifigator on Aug 16, 2008 12:54:24 GMT -5
By the way, I can't watch any of this Equestrian Bull-. This is absurd.
pomp and circumstance ...
If they are going to have events like this, then they should have guys like Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards compete -- not in a race, but in a post-race celebration contest. This is ridiculous.
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Aug 16, 2008 14:06:28 GMT -5
The way Michael Phelps won that 7th medal last night will expand his legend exponentially. I didn't think anything could top that first relay win when Lezak came back on the French swimmer. But holy smokes! There was no way Phelps was going to win last night.... right up until the final one hundredth of a second when he did! Amazing amazing performance. Agree completely, Saxa. I thought yesterday's evening coverage was otherwise lackluster. But, the effort that Phelps showed was incredible. I missed the relay that everyone has talked about, but it was great to see Phelps get tested last night just to see how he would respond. That he showed this ability when only a handful of people in history can likely keep up with him is impressive. It isn't every day that he faces that situation.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Aug 16, 2008 14:52:58 GMT -5
Shalene Flanagan got the bronze in the 10000m in an event which the Ethiopians own (whether they are running for Turkey or some other country). It was also an American record, besting her own mark by about 13 seconds. Not bad for the extreme conditions in China. Oh, and Shalene stayed up of the night two or three days ago with a bad case of food poisoning and almost did not run the race.
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Aug 16, 2008 22:46:45 GMT -5
1) Congrats to Michael Phelps! 2) Holy Bolt in the 100m is ridiculous. he destroyed the competition while celebrating the last few meters.
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RBHoya
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Post by RBHoya on Aug 16, 2008 22:52:51 GMT -5
Bolt is nasty as hell, he smoked everybody and showboated the final stretch which was great. All the stodgy "purists" are going to be saying that what he did was disrespectful and he could have had a much better time if he had hustled all the way through. But those people are silly. By showboating he had his great moment that Nike and the consumers of Nike products will love, AND he set himself up for a huge moment when he smashes his own record down the line. Dude is 4 years younger than Powell or Gay, I'll bet he gets to London and demolishes his own record. And between now and then, especially in the months leading up to London, he'll be hyped like crazy around the world, thereby making himself a ton more money. I think if he gets a good start and runs hard all the way he could run close to 9.5.
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Post by sleepyjackson21 on Aug 16, 2008 23:29:09 GMT -5
Bolt is crazy good. That was ridiculous. He absolutely smoked the field. How about the two asian guys who happened to be sitting next to Bolt's mom and then jumped in on the Bolt family hug. Those guys were going nuts and that was a very funny moment. Gotta love the Olympics.
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Post by strummer8526 on Aug 17, 2008 21:26:22 GMT -5
Alicia just got screwed on the vault. Bela Karolyi is going nuts about it. The Chinese girl FELL DOWN on one of hers, and she got the bronze. It was really crap. Alicia didn't stick her landings, but she was very sound.
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Aug 17, 2008 21:54:46 GMT -5
yeah she got screwed. Damn Chinese. I mean we don't have a chance in the judged events if the judges are going to be so biased.
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kchoya
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Post by kchoya on Aug 17, 2008 23:18:01 GMT -5
I love watching the replays showing Bela watching the competition and his reactions. He's truly one of the great characters of the olympics.
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SirSaxa
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Post by SirSaxa on Aug 18, 2008 10:12:45 GMT -5
yeah she got screwed. Damn Chinese. I mean we don't have a chance in the judged events if the judges are going to be so biased. The Olympics are in China. But they are not being run by the Chinese. THe judges are not Chinese. The judges already awarded Gold and Silver medals in the all around to Americans.
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SirSaxa
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Post by SirSaxa on Aug 18, 2008 10:16:11 GMT -5
Another perspective on these underage Chinese girls.
China went to great expense and effort to ensure a very successful Olympics. So far it seems things have gone very well.
The Chinese also spent a lot of time, money and effort building their athletics program... also successfully, though -- as TheBin pointed out -- in many cases they are winning in lesser known and less competitive sports.
So why... given all this success... did they choose to embarrass themselves in front of the entire world by using female gymnasts who are so obviously underage? To me, it undermines what might otherwise be seen as a very impressive performance.
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Post by HoyaSinceBirth on Aug 18, 2008 10:39:33 GMT -5
The judges don't have to be chinese. In gymnastics the judges are often influenced by the cheers of the crowd. It's human nature. They have the home court advantage. The commentators clearly pointed out what a crock that vault result was.
The judges are different every time. I'm not saying all the judges are biased but there have been some pretty obviously biased scores against the Americans and for the chinese.
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Post by sleepyjackson21 on Aug 18, 2008 10:46:25 GMT -5
It happens all the time when judges are required to score an event. Sometimes it happens in your favor sometimes it goes against you. Last Olympics we were fortunate when Hamm got the gold and the judges had the wrong start value for the Korean gymnast.
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kchoya
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Post by kchoya on Aug 18, 2008 10:58:28 GMT -5
Another perspective on these underage Chinese girls. China went to great expense and effort to ensure a very successful Olympics. So far it seems things have gone very well. The Chinese also spent a lot of time, money and effort building their athletics program... also successfully, though -- as TheBin pointed out -- in many cases they are winning in lesser known and less competitive sports. So why... given all this success... did they choose to embarrass themselves in front of the entire world by using female gymnasts who are so obviously underage? To me, it undermines what might otherwise be seen as a very impressive performance. Why would they choose to show "fake" fireworks instead of showing the real ones. Why would they show a little girl lip synching instead of the actual girl? They're pulling out all the stops and, given the lack of consequence on using blatantly underage girls, why wouldn't they? Do you think they feel embarrassed? I don't.
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Nevada Hoya
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Post by Nevada Hoya on Aug 18, 2008 11:04:32 GMT -5
If Phelps is from another planet, Bolt is from another solar system. He just toyed with the field, his stride is so long that it just looked as if he was jogging (which he did in the last part of the race). He reminds me of Bubka in the pole vault. He is going to milk the world record for what it is worth and have multiple entries into the record books. He is so dominant. The Jamaica women ran away from everybody too. The winner won by the same amount as Bolt. The fact that she had braces is a bit worrying though.
Another runner, who is dominant in his event, is Ken Bekele from Ethiopia. There is no way anybody can beat him, since he can sustain any pace and has a kick nobody can stay with.
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CO_Hoya
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Post by CO_Hoya on Aug 18, 2008 11:08:49 GMT -5
Hey Nevada,
What happened to Anthony Famiglietti in the 3000m steeplechase finals?
After his 8:17 opening round, I was thinking he might actually medal, but looks like he crapped out in the finals. I had heard a story about him on NPR; he sounds like quite the character.
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Post by atlasfrysmith on Aug 18, 2008 11:42:37 GMT -5
It seems with the new gymnastics scoring system that too much depends on the start value, or, rather, that not enough depends on the execution. My impression is that the maximum deduction for falling down on the landing is just too low, and you can make up for it with a really high start value. I don't know the first thing about gymnastics, I'll admit, but I would imagine you can do a whole lot more flips and turns and whatnot if you don't worry about landing on your feet at the end. If you're in the dunk contest, and you jump over a flaming schoolbus, but miss the dunk, you get 0 points, degree of difficulty be damned. I think a perfectly executed, appropriately challenging vault should score better than a botched but ridiculously hard one.
---you know there's a problem when the dunk contest is held up as an example of how to objectively assess athletic talent. Though it would be kinda cool if the gymnasts could pull people out of the stands and arrange them as extra obstacles.
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