2012 Olympics: Who are you following?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

OK, I may know the first thing about fencing
- stab your opponent before he stabs you.

But, I don't know the (second) thing about fencing
Still..., I got a big kick out of the Women's Foil event this morning,
and the 18yr old, Lee Keifer, who is representing the US.

Each time she scored a point, she squealed an exuberant "YES !" and even
behind the mask and all the paraphernalia you could see her disgust when she lost one.
She won the very close match in Overtime by scoring 15 points.

Kentucky can be proud...

Attachment 39862

The rest of NBC's stations with Olympics were tennis, cycling, and soccer.
At this point my reactions were: Ho-Hum.

She is a brilliant fencer. Lil Pete was in an event with her once. She didn't get to fence her but watching her was a bucket of cold water for any nascent Olympic dreams. The battle cry stuff isn't joy. It's gamesmanship. You'll notice a pattern of admitting through lack of cry that touches were not made early but late in the bout they try to influence the director with a confident shout. It used to be considered poor sportsmanship. If a fencer yells toward their opponent instead of the director or into space they can be carded. Her little sister is supposed to be better, if that can be believed!

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Bruce, don't use the word "shots". They're very jumpy already.

Tcha. We have a (mostly) unarmed populace and we've seen off the Nazis, the IRA and Al Qaeda. Don't mess with us, we'll serve you up with Afternoon Tea.

We have a parachuting Queen, doncha know.

[Trilby]

Late to the party (again!) but Holley Mangold went to my high school! And so did her brother Nick.

[DanaC]

I'm totally glued to the women's team gymnastics. Loving it. There's one Brit lass in particular who is so much fun to watch. Can't recall her name but she is always smiling. Seems a really sweet girl.

[DanaC]

Oh, didn't your girls do well!? Those floor routines were awesome.

The Brit girls looked genuinely thrilled for them too.

[Sundae]

It might be Rebecca Tunney.
Youngest and smallest of the team. She had to have her costume made for her, as the standard size was too large. 4ft 9ins and 5st 7lb - I could lose her in my cleavage!

I didn't get to watch the routines, just listened to them on the radio. Keeps you up to date but misses the point somewhat for this discipline. I assume the BBC will have them up on their website at some point - the Americans were blowing the commentators' minds.

[Lamplighter]

NBC has heroine-ically scheduled TV coverage of the
US Women's Beach Ball almost every morning, noon and night.
Today, Sunday afternoon, it's the US vs Czech Republic quarter finals.



Perhaps more noteworthy, NBC also reports Francisco Franco is still dead.
.

[Griff]

I'm rooting Czechs to get this nonsense off my screen, but it doesn't look good. What's worse is we (USA) have an obnoxious whiner in this pair. Please world, just beat these people.

[Griff]

Hey look! Beach volleyball. Now Italy is failing to help.

[ZenGum]

BOLT!!!!

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

BOLT!!!!

Yes indeed!
I think I remember when someone in the US broke the 10 sec time for the 100 yard dash.

Now this... but in meters
Usain Bolt sets Olympic record, wins men's 100 gold medal in 9.63
.

ETA: Oooooops. I must have been having a Ronald Regan moment.
The 100 yard dash 10-second record was broken by J. Owen, Jr. in 1890 at 9.8

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Yes indeed!
I think I remember when someone in the US broke the 10 sec time for the 100 yard dash.

Now this... but in meters
Usain Bolt sets Olympic record, wins men's 100 gold medal in 9.63
.

ETA: Oooooops. I must have been having a Ronald Regan moment.
The 100 yard dash 10-second record was broken by J. Owen, Jr. in 1890 at 9.8

AWESOME! He set that record 4 years before the games began. That is the stuff of winners.

[Lamplighter]

Sorry FT3, I didn't copy/paste enough from Wikipedia
... 1890 was a "world record" from 1870's, not the Olympics.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Sorry FT3, I didn't copy/paste enough from Wikipedia
... 1890 was a "world record" from 1870's, not the Olympics.

Don't be sorry, my smartass opportunities have been few lately.

[ZenGum]

Hey, I'm more amused by the badminton.

In the last round of the pools, four teams in two games each wanted to lose to avoid playing their countrymen (or some formidable opponent) in the semi finals.

Tourney organisers decided if they wanted to avoid a certain game that much, fine, they can avoid all games from now on. for throwing matches, bugger off. 8 players sent home.

Although it is poor sportsmanship on part of the players, it suggests poor design of the tournament structure that you can ever benefit by losing a game.