Events and Athletes Discussion 2012 London Olympics


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
China's back in the lead by one! I swear this back and forth between China and America isn't going to stop until the Olympics is over. I should stop checking in because its really giving me heart problems. :p
 
I really hate the posturing and the arrogance of Bolt and his 100m opponents. A great achievement by Bolt without question, but the 100m has become such a circus.

I think the 100m have always been a circus, even before Bolt. Carl Lewis, Ben Johnson, Florence Griffith-Joyner ... all of them were entertainers of their time. Sprinters are showmen, have always been.

Cool, cooler, Bolt

Usain Bolt wins 100m final at London 2012 Olympics | Mail Online

I even think that Bolt losing to Blake in the built-up was kind of calculated to build up some tension or get even more attention or to make the betting market more interesting.
 
Last edited:
Usain Bolt is a great athlete, who has not yet reached his limits. It will be interesting to see him at 200 meters. It is amazing to watch Usain's and Yohan Blake's preparation for the race, the joy and relaxed friendship, which they show is good to see. The sport doesn't have to be so serious.
I love to watch Bolt, everything what he does. He is a great showman, and sport needs more them.
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
Team GB won it's first Olympic gold in men's team show jumping since 1952.
Good job, guys! :flowers:
 
And good job to the Dutch guys. Did a fantastic job. Honorable mention ofcourse to Saodi-Arabia. Who would've guessed?
 
Jason Kenny won Men's Cycling sprint against France's Gregory Bauge, bringing 18th gold to Team GB.
Meanwhile, Beth Tweddle won bronze on the uneven bars, becoming the oldest British gymnast to win Olympic medal in gymnastics in 48 years (Beth is 27).

Current Team Standings:
1. China: 31 Gold - 19 Silver - 14 Bronze = 64 Total
2. USA: 28 Gold - 14 Silver - 19 Bronze = 61 Total
3. United Kingdom: 18 Gold - 11 Silver - 11 Bronze = 40 Total
4. South Korea: 11 Gold - 5 Silver - 6 Bronze = 22 Total
5. France: 8 Gold - 9 Silver - 9 Bronze = 26 Total
6. Italy: 7 Gold - 6 Silver - 4 Bronze = 17 Total
7. Kazakhstan: 6 Gold - 0 Silver - 0 Bronze = 6 Total
8. Russia: 5 Gold - 17 Silver - 15 Bronze = 37 Total
9. Germany: 5 Gold - 10 Silver - 7 Bronze = 22 Total
10. Hungary: 4 Gold - 1 Silver - 3 Bronze = 8 Total
11. North Korea: 4 Gold - 0 Silver - 1 Bronze = 5 Total
12 The Netherlands: 3 Gold - 3 Silver - 4 Bronze = 10 Total
44. Armenia: 0 Gold - 1 Silver - 1 Bronze = 2 Total

The Top 3 teams occupy the corresponding spots both by gold medal and total medal counts. Russia is 4th by total medal count. Kazakhstan is amazing. Armenia is included simply because I couldn't resist - and because I hope we'll improve the standings in coming days. Right now, the results are a bit shabby, but we're still proud of our athletes, those who won medals, and those who didn't manage to, but still did their best. :)

And good job to the Dutch guys. Did a fantastic job. Honorable mention ofcourse to Saodi-Arabia. Who would've guessed?
The Netherlands fought really well and wow to Saudi Arabia.
A beautiful picture of the Greenwich Park, the venue for Equestrian. Really quite stunning.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
A special word for Nick Skelton, part of the GB show jumping team who won gold today. Nick broke his neck in 2000 and his doctors told him not to ride horses again, certainly not competitively. He didn't listen to them and he gets his ultimate reward today, at the age of 54. Well done him.
 
Wow that is a stunning picture. There are some fantastic venues for this Olympics
 
The Netherlands fought really well and wow to Saudi Arabia.
A beautiful picture of the Greenwich Park, the venue for Equestrian. Really quite stunning.

I agree, Artemisia, the newly 'Royal' borough of Greenwich is a wonderful stage for the equestrian events. The residents in Greenwich were massively opposed to having the equestrian events there, not sure why. Any locals know what the problem was?

The equestrian events in 2008 were actually held in Hong Kong, over 1,000 miles from Beijing, where everything else was happening. The competitors said they felt kind of cut off from the rest of the Games, so London 2012 wanted to rectify that, which I think they have.

Thanks for this picture too, it's now my desktop picture ;).
 
I believe the locals were concerned about damage being done to the park but secured guarantees from the organizers that everything will be put back as it was before the Games. 50,000 people each day and a lot of horses could do a fair bit of damage to the parkland. For eventing the organizers had wanted to cut or trim a couple of trees but that was not allowed. Greenwich is London's oldest royal park so people are very protective of it.
 
EIIR said:
I agree, Artemisia, the newly 'Royal' borough of Greenwich is a wonderful stage for the equestrian events. The residents in Greenwich were massively opposed to having the equestrian events there, not sure why. Any locals know what the problem was?

The equestrian events in 2008 were actually held in Hong Kong, over 1,000 miles from Beijing, where everything else was happening. The competitors said they felt kind of cut off from the rest of the Games, so London 2012 wanted to rectify that, which I think they have.

Thanks for this picture too, it's now my desktop picture ;).

This might help, http://www.nogoe2012.com/ :) I was so confused when the commentators this afternoon kept saying they won gold or silver at Hong Kong and I was like when was that Olympics? I had to look it up.
 
Fair enough, I suppose. Thanks for the insight. I hope it doesn't have a long-term detrimental impact on the park. I have to say, as a non-Londoner, the equestrian events have been a real boon for Greenwich, as some of the pictures and backdrops have been really stunning. It makes me want to visit the next time I'm in London, which hadn't really interested me before this.
 
How and why do they do that?

time correction, this occasionally happens in sports where achievements are measured in time (like track, swimming etc)
so it's not like they alter a time to make it look better or something :)
 
time correction, this occasionally happens in sports where achievements are measured in time (like track, swimming etc)
so it's not like they alter a time to make it look better or something :)
But it sure looks that way :p

Just to understand: The clock starts, they run - reach goal, the clock stops.
What can go wrong? That some officials starts the clocks different or?
 
FasterB said:
But it sure looks that way :p

Just to understand: The clock starts, they run - reach goal, the clock stops.
What can go wrong? That some officials starts the clocks different or?

If you watch the race, the clock stops at 9:64 but there's a notice about +1.5 something that I don't understand. The race finished at 9:64.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18907995
 
But it sure looks that way :p

Just to understand: The clock starts, they run - reach goal, the clock stops.
What can go wrong? That some officials starts the clocks different or?

because clocks are never 100% accurate (neither are most other measuring devices for that matter), so often a correction of 0.01 second happens, sometimes even 0.02, more is not very common in todays sports.
i once watched an ice speed skating competition were they very proudly announced a better timing system, which resulted in skaters crossing the line and the clock stopping until 2 entire seconds later :) And they insisted it was actually better that way :) Never saw that since, so I guess there was room for improvement after all :)

maybe an interesting link: "Time measurement in sports not reliable" ~ Sportitch
 
So if clocks aren't accurate (which somehow I doubt), why isn't every time altered? Just Bolts.

Alex Schwazer (Italian) who won gold in Beijing for 50km walk tested positive for drugs and admitted the entire thing claiming it was the end of his career.
 
Last edited:
So if clocks aren't accurate (which somehow I doubt), why isn't every time altered? Just Bolts.

Alex Schwazer (Italian) who won gold in Beijing for 50km walk tested positive for drugs and admitted the entire thing claiming it was the end of his career.

it wasn't just Bolt, on the past days there have been more times corrected
 
Fair enough, I suppose. Thanks for the insight. I hope it doesn't have a long-term detrimental impact on the park. I have to say, as a non-Londoner, the equestrian events have been a real boon for Greenwich, as some of the pictures and backdrops have been really stunning. It makes me want to visit the next time I'm in London, which hadn't really interested me before this.
They really put London' must-see's on the map these Games. The Beachvolleyball stadium has a stunning location aswell.

And the Dutch hockey ladies beat the British girls. It was a good win for us, but they can do loads better.
 
The beach volleyball is being held at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall, which is, of course, where the Queen's Birthday Parade is held every year (good old Trooping the Colour).

The weather's actually pretty stormy across the UK at the moment, we've seen some really interesting skies.

This has to be my favourite image from the Games so far, though. The moon becomes a sixth Olympic ring, joining the rings hanging under Tower Bridge in London.
 
The Netherlands fought really well and wow to Saudi Arabia.
A beautiful picture of the Greenwich Park, the venue for Equestrian. Really quite stunning.

Wow that's simply an amazing photo Artemisia!
 
Fantastic, dominican Felix Sanchez, 34 years, won just men's 400m hurdles. Another olympic gold for him, the first came from Athens.
 
LadyFinn said:
Fantastic, dominican Felix Sanchez, 34 years, won just men's 400m hurdles. Another olympic gold for him, the first came from Athens.

He's crying his eyes out on the podium. It was so moving!
 
I don't mind the attention given to any of the RF, but I have to admit I'm really sick of the coverage given to Michael Phelps! I know it sounds mean but ....why not give somebody else a chance?
 
If you watch the race, the clock stops at 9:64 but there's a notice about +1.5 something that I don't understand. The race finished at 9:64.
BBC Sport - Usain Bolt wins Olympics 100m final at London 2012
I just saw that today on the review in danish television and quite funny they said 9:63 and the time shows 9:64 :)

because clocks are never 100% accurate (neither are most other measuring devices for that matter), so often a correction of 0.01 second happens, sometimes even 0.02, more is not very common in todays sports.
i once watched an ice speed skating competition were they very proudly announced a better timing system, which resulted in skaters crossing the line and the clock stopping until 2 entire seconds later :) And they insisted it was actually better that way :) Never saw that since, so I guess there was room for improvement after all :)

maybe an interesting link: "Time measurement in sports not reliable" ~ Sportitch
Thank you for the explanation :flowers:
 
I don't mind the attention given to any of the RF, but I have to admit I'm really sick of the coverage given to Michael Phelps! I know it sounds mean but ....why not give somebody else a chance?

I have to agree. Every USA swimmer I see interviewed gets asked about MP, or he's mentioned at least 2 or 3 times. There are other people on the team you know!
 
Mirabel said:
I don't mind the attention given to any of the RF, but I have to admit I'm really sick of the coverage given to Michael Phelps! I know it sounds mean but ....why not give somebody else a chance?

RubyPrincess168 said:
I have to agree. Every USA swimmer I see interviewed gets asked about MP, or he's mentioned at least 2 or 3 times. There are other people on the team you know!

You know what most amuses me about MP he's currently appearing on an anti dandruff advert in the UK (not sure if you get it in the USA) and he talks about how he needs music and no dandruff to win a race. I just have to laugh!
 
Mirabel said:
I don't mind the attention given to any of the RF, but I have to admit I'm really sick of the coverage given to Michael Phelps! I know it sounds mean but ....why not give somebody else a chance?

He is one of the greatest athletes ever seen on the international stage, and has been for the past eight years. It's a big deal!

I understand that others don't get as much attention, but then again others haven't won 21 medals.
 
Back
Top Bottom