2004 Olympic Games - Athens

[Fat middle]

So... even Norway and NZ are before us in the medal ranking

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

I also feel more connected to the USA team athletes more than say, the Yankees or any popular pro sports team here. Call me crazy, but I think of it as being more like supporting your School's team - Supporting your Nation's team

Yes, I think I feel the same. But for the Spanish team, of course

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

i'm not sure if basketball has any world championships - if not, then maybe it does belong. But certainly Tennis does not! They have their own world chamionships and it is just the same people, right? If this applies to other sports, then I am just not ( and probably many people) really made aware of them.

But an Olimpic Medal is something very important and special. Many tennis/basket players would like to have that special medal that is a bit over the money it reports

[HOBBIT]

yes, i suppose that there is that allure of the olympic gold. however, then why arent other sports such as golf there?

its just my humble opinion that the olympics shouuld be about all these sports that we almost never see in the states. way way way over saturated with baseball, basketball, and football.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

A lot of the athelets are or are around my age. I also feel more connected to the USA team athletes more than say, the Yankees or any popular pro sports team here.

Don't most people feel this way?

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

I personally don't think that Basketball, Baseball (is that in it, I don't remember seeing it) and boxing, tennis should be in the olympics because they are way too common here and they both have their competitions and finals - tennis having many world championships that all get great coverage.

I think it's a matter of course that popular sports like those you mentioned should be in the Olympics. You want to gather as many sports as possible at the same place and therefore it would just be ridiculous to leave out the most appreciated sports.
Besides, not all sports are equally popular in other countries - here we never get to see any baseball for instance, except during the Olympics.

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

i'm not sure if basketball has any world championships - if not, then maybe it does belong. But certainly Tennis does not! They have their own world chamionships and it is just the same people, right? If this applies to other sports, then I am just not ( and probably many people) really made aware of them.

Oh, basketball has its own world championships. Of course it does. Last time, in 2002, the US got to arrange the championships in Indianapolis. How could you miss that, Hobbit?
Though it didn't go too well for the Dream Team I'm afraid

When it comes to tennis, there are no official world championships.

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

its just my humble opinion that the olympics shouuld be about all these sports that we almost never see in the states. way way way over saturated with baseball, basketball, and football.

Then just don't watch those sports

Originally Posted by Elvengirl

Jon, I missed the football game. Did Sweden win?
I know the US team won today against Japan. yay!

Yeah, Sweden beat Australia. The Swedes were very good in the first half but in the second, the Aussies started to become scary... But we won and now we'll face Brazil in the semi finals while the US plays against Germany. I would really love if Sweden and Germany made it to the final. In both the women's world cup and in the european cup, the Germans beat the Swedes in the finals so this time we want revenge

And Lin - it's Klüft, Klüft! And she's currently in the lead, it's hard to see how anyone could stop her from winning the gold now

South African Jacques Freitag didn't make it to the finals in the men's high jump. That means Swedish Stefan Holm is even more likely to win the gold, since Freitag was his worst rival.

[Artanis]

Originally Posted by Fat middle

So... even Norway and NZ are before us in the medal ranking

Yeah! Olaf Tufte won the gold medal in singlesculler! Hooray!!

Yes Jon, Carolina Klüft is bound to win.

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Artanis

Yay! Which team? There are 3, one women's team and two men's. One of the men is a real hotspur. He almost got himself expelled from the court in one of his matches. Did you see that?

I only saw the women's match. Missed the men's matches (darn real life! ) Missed all the stuff last night - we went to a Dodger game (baseball).

[Rían]

Originally Posted by BeardofPants

Yay! We finally pulled something! A gold in the woman's double sculls (2000m) by the Swindell twins. (current world champions, and unbeaten since 2001.)

Congrats kiwis! That rowing is exciting!

Apparently the S. Koreans are protesting Paul Hamm's gold medal in gymnastics. They said the bronze medal winner's (a S. Korean) vault was incorrectly judged - the starting value was a tenth lower than it should have been, and if it had been correct, the S. Korean would have won gold.

What do you do in a situation like that? So far, they've said "sorry, but it's over".

Frankly, I think the real trajedy in men's gymnastics was when Blaine Wilson and another US guy were informed, TWO DAYS before it started, that a skill they've been doing on the highbar was now mysteriously somehow going to be scored lower, so they had to change their routine TWO DAYS before the competition started (and they typically practice their Olympic routines for a full YEAR) if they wanted to have a chance at all-around. And they both blew their routines (not a big surprise! you just can't change a routine in two days that you've practiced for a year!)

[Jonathan]

Sweden got its first medals today! We won a bronze in women's sailing to begin with and not surprisingly, Carolina Klüft won BIG in the women's heptathlon. She had as many as 500 points more than the silver medallist and that's just super! Now she has won about everything there is to win; the Junior World Championships, the European Championships, the World Championships and today the Olympics. She's only 21
Klüft is the third Swede in 50 years to win an Olympic gold in athletics but tomorrow I hope to see a fourth and a fifth Swede as well

We didn't win a single medal in swimming though, which kind of sucked

[Janny]

Man! Is Lithuania bigger or smaller than Lichenstein?

[Janny]

Originally Posted by HOBBIT

however, then why arent other sports such as golf there?

Well *dons anorak* golf actually was an Olympic sport. It was made an Olympic for one games, but due to difficulties the competition wasn't held, and it later was removed from the list of Olympic sports. Indeed, it is the only Olympic sport not to ever have been played at the Olympics.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Janny

Man! Is Lithuania bigger or smaller than Lichenstein?

What? Are you asking because the Lithuanians beat the US Dream Team in basketball? . I had a feeling they would, the Lithuanians are good at that sport.
Btw, Lithuania is many times bigger than Liechtenstein

[Radagast The Brown]

Yeah, Lithuania is great in basketball. The US apparently isn't. They still have a good chance to continue if they win the next match. The player who was best to Lithuania, that has a big name (Saronas Jankivitius?) is playing in Israel, Tel Aviv. We took wit hhim the Euroleague. He's a great player...

Phelps got 6 gold and 2 bronze then. And Australia won the 4x100 meters women... I think both breaking the world record!

Congrats to Kluft, Jon! It seemed like it was obvious she's going to win.

[Elvengirl]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Yeah, Sweden beat Australia. The Swedes were very good in the first half but in the second, the Aussies started to become scary... But we won and now we'll face Brazil in the semi finals while the US plays against Germany. I would really love if Sweden and Germany made it to the final. In both the women's world cup and in the european cup, the Germans beat the Swedes in the finals so this time we want revenge

haha yes I can see why you want revenge , but then the US would have to lose to them and I'd hate to see the Germans win over the Americans ...but we'll have to see....may the best US...ahem..team win
and congrats on the Sweden win

Congrats to the NZ medal and to teh Aussie's women relay!

Rian, I heard about the Hamm contradiction. Can you believe it? I was shocked! Oooo I'd hate to see them take the medal away from him.
But I hadn't heard about the change in Blaine Wilson's routine. I was wondering why he didn't compete in the all around. But that's upsetting too. How can the judges make a change like that in the middle of the Olympics? That's unfair.

[Elvengirl]

Originally Posted by Radagast The Brown

Phelps got 6 gold and 2 bronze then.

Yay!

That was gracious of him for giving up his spot to the other American.

But why did he get a medal if he didn't race? I know he raced in the preliminaries, so they gave him one because of his part in it?

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Elvengirl

But I hadn't heard about the change in Blaine Wilson's routine. I was wondering why he didn't compete in the all around. But that's upsetting too. How can the judges make a change like that in the middle of the Olympics? That's unfair.

Yeah, that one blew me away, it seemed so unfair. This particular thing had a certain score for a long time, then 2 days before the Olympics started, it was lowered?!?!

Yes, Phelps gets a medal because he was in the prelims - anyone in the prelims for this race gets a medal, too.

Congrats to Sweden and Klüft!

[Linaewen]

Congratulations to the Iraqi soccer team for beating us 1-0. Next they're playing Paraguay in for a place in the quarter finals, best of luck to them!

[Janny]

Congrats to the British coxless fours! Mr Pinsent's fourth gold!

(And well done to the US 8s, that was the one you guys desperately wanted. )

[Rían]

That was nice, Lin

[Linaewen]

What was nice, RÃ*an, me wishing them luck? Well, it was on behalf of the Australian nation. We have plenty of medals and Iraqis deserve some, plain and simple. We're disappointed but can't begrudge them that.

[Mercutio]

In the Paul Hamm issue, by Olympic rules the S. Korean's had to dispute the score before the immediate competition was over. They had their chance and didn't take it, so most likely nothing will happen.

[HOBBIT]

Here is an article about the Hamm thing no msnbc.com

Hamm’s gold result of scoring error, federation rules - Judges suspended, but results won't be


The South Koreans claim that they did protest during the event but were told to write a protest letter. How can that be proven?

So far, it seems like the results won't be changed and that seems very unfair.

The Americans have given their sympathys but just compared it to a bad call at a football game!

Obviously the Americans don't want Paul Hamm's gold to be even more tainted - either having it taken away or have him share it.

Just imagination how outranged USA would be if we had been robbed of a gold!

Just remember the 2002 winter games where that Canadian pair was awarded gold in addition to the Russian team. Both Canada and the USA were pretty worked up over that scandal.

The S. Korean only got a starting value of 9.9 when he should have gotten a 10. Then he would have won.


Why shouldn't he at least get to share the gold with Hamm?