Summer Olympics: Beijing, China

[Bearcata]

Originally Posted by CrossingGuard

I'm finally back from vacation in Canada. While I was there, I would always be out during the live primetime airings. But NBC always replays them late at night, and I stayed up very long nights watching these events. I just love watching them. Here are my thoughts on the last few days of the Olympics...

If you haven't noticed, I just made a new avatar. I love Nastia! Overjoyed doesn't even come close to describing how I felt when I found out that she won. Her routines were wonderful to watch. And congrats to Shawn also! Her routines were great, too, but Nastia edged her out by a close margin. USA getting 1-2 is fantastic. But I do agree with a couple of posts that were posted a few pages back. NBC did air a lot of coverage on the American & Chinese girls and left out most of the others. Though to be fair, I think they aired all what they could have. They wanted to air the frontrunners of the competition, and they were obviously the Americans and Chinese. And they also aired a few routines from Romania and Russia, so at least NBC included a few other girls from other countries.

I was in Chicago airport for a connecting flight today, and while I was there, I stepped into a souvenir store that also sold magazines and newspapers. Everywhere I went, Phelps was on the cover. He was on all of the newspapers and quite a number of magazines. But this time, I'm not complaining. I've complained quite a few times in the past that the guy has been getting so much coverage, and it was getting annoying. But Phelps really deserves this. No one else can say that they won 8 gold medals in a single olympiad. Congrats to him for reaching his goal! And congrats to the other men in the 4x100 medley relay winning also!

Speaking of Michael, I can't get enough of his mom Debbie and his two sisters. The camera kind of cut off on his two sisters when NBC aired their reactions, but you still saw that they were ecstatic after their brother had won each of his events. As for Debbie, her reactions are hilarious! She always seems to have this face -> :O every time she sees her son win. She's great.

Dara is amazing. Seeing her just miss out on that gold by .01 seconds was disappointing, but considering that she's 41 yo and still beat out 6 other people, that's amazing. Hopefully she'll come back in London and get her first individual gold.

Did anyone else catch the 1000m run for the women? I don't remember which day NBC aired it, but it was on during the late night airing. Shaylene Flanagan (I think that's how you spell it) of the US won the bronze. It was great to see her win. She's only the second American woman to win a medal in that event. Great for her! Fountain (I forget her first name) of the US also found herself in the same position as Flanagan. She won the bronze in the heptathlon, becoming only the second American to win a medal in that event. Congrats ladies!

I watched the 10,000m run and it was terrific. I don't think they expected Shalane (sp?) to even medal and it was lots of fun to watch her mom while she raced. The entire moment seemed to be what the Olympics were all about, simply joyous.

[Google]

 

[daddyzgirl]

Originally Posted by CCL

So the New York Times suggested the reason Canada hasn't won a lot of medals in these Olympics is because we don't really have a summer. Way to go with the cliches, paper of record. Think I should write them a letter from my igloo before I go moose-hunting?

You definitely should, CCL! I would but my fingers are too cold due to frostbite from the extreme cold we're getting in Southwestern Ontario this August. I can barely type this post...

[Critical]

One of my favorite celebrations was the man who came in second to Bolt in the 100 M. He's from Trinidad and Tobago and he was so happy, he was just rolling around on the ground (pic here: Trinidad's Richard Thompson reacts after winning the silver medal in the men's 100-meter final ). His joy is exactly what the Olympics is about for me: it didn't matter to him what color his medal was. He was just thrilled to win any medal.

[Bearcata]

I finally found a good schedule for the Olympics that show what events are playing, at what times (including replays) and on what stations. Like this would have been difficult for NBC to do. I must say I have been very disappointed with their website. I do feel sorry for whoever is their webmaster or webauthor with all the postings that need constant updating. Anyway here is the link: Olympics - Schedule - Yahoo! Sports

Thank you, Yahoo Sports.

Oh, other posters on other sites are also complaining about spending 2 hours watching the women's marathon yesterday in prime time. While I am a fan of the marathon and do not mind watching I can see why other posters might be. Still this event is normally run at 8am in the morning. We viewers on the other side of the world have to suffer the 12 hour time difference and that's just the way it is. Considering how many options are available as far as viewing it is still messed up. I would love to watch all the gymnastics but it is being shown on Oxygen which is not in my cable package. That totally sucks to. Also Comcast says that is will show all the track and field in comcast on demand but I already pay those pirates too much in monthly fees for crappy service that I draw the line at paying them to see any more Olympics.

[Critical]

All of the OnDemand Olympics coverage on Comcast here is free, Bearcata. Is the track and field different? Mine has a ton of different events and then has daily recaps as well. I just looked under Sports and they're all listed under the Olympics menu.

[CrossingGuard]

Originally Posted by Bearcata

I watched the 10,000m run and it was terrific. I don't think they expected Shalane (sp?) to even medal and it was lots of fun to watch her mom while she raced. The entire moment seemed to be what the Olympics were all about, simply joyous.

Yes, it was very terrific. I got chills after Shalane (you were right, that's how you spell her name ) realized that she had gotten third. And it was great to see her mother cry tears of joy seeing her daughter's success.

[Newfherder]

Originally Posted by CCL

So the New York Times suggested the reason Canada hasn't won a lot of medals in these Olympics is because we don't really have a summer. Way to go with the cliches, paper of record. Think I should write them a letter from my igloo before I go moose-hunting?

I remember watching the Montreal Olympics. The gymnasts wore parkas while they competed; the runners wore snow shoes. The winning time in the men's 100m dash was just under 3 minutes, and the marathon had to be called off because of polar bears on the course. Swimming was out of the question, so the officials came up with an alternative water sport--the swimmers would line up on the ice, and push off of the wall as hard as they could. Whoever slid the farthest got the gold.

[Bearcata]

OK, they say turnabout is fairplay, I don't need to see an hour interview of Phleps and his mom all the races have been replayed ad nausem.

[dberk]

Originally Posted by lildago

I just saw Usain Bolt set the WR. Not to take away from what he did because he was amazingly fast and a thrill to watch, but...if he hadn't been hotdogging across the finish line, he may have been a second or two quicker. There's plenty of time for showboating when the race is over, IMO.

For some reason the way he finished this race really offended me. I can't explain exactly why it bothered me to the degree that it did, but even now the feeling is as strong. Acting like that is not going to endear him to the majority of fans no matter how good he is. Afterall when you really look at it, all he can do is run fast.

[prhoshay]

Faster than the fastest, I'd say. His fellow-competitors understand this.