London 2012

whatthedeuce wrote:Yeah, I had no idea what the hell those symbols meant when I was watching the men's qualifiers last night.

The Chinese are absolute monsters when it comes to diving. Just beyond incredible!

I like how excited the US commentators and the entire US diving team got for the US pair winning silver. Speaking of Kelci Bryant, why didn't they retake her athlete's pictures? Michael Phelps picture looks like a cleaner version of what I always imagined Sirius Black to look like.

Did they drag them out of bed and surprise them with the camera? Those photos are terrible.

Yeah but the good news for the US team is that if any of them get arrested during the games, their mug shots will look like glamour shots. Ryan Lochte can terrorize England at will and he'd still look better in comparison.

Ugh, the gymnastics coverage was annoying as usual. My mother is completely mystified by the yellow/green scoring thing, so I told her to just ignore it and look at the point totals listed at intervals.

I'm so glad the ladies toned down the makeup this year. Beijing looked like an E! retrospective on "Where are the toddlers with tiaras now?" What the hell happened to China? Couldn't they get any 13 year-olds into Britain?

Stay klassy, NBC. A 16-year-old girl just had her dream crushed and what do you do? Stick a camera in her face! I give Jordyn Wieber all the credit in the world for not punching the camera guy. Due to her upper body strength she'd probably have a great right hook.

That said, I'm super excited for Gabby Douglas. She was my favorite going in and I want her to medal in the AA so bad! I'm not expecting her to win (that'll probably be Russia's Komova) but silver would be awesome! I admit I was shocked when I saw Aly Raisman had the top score for all the US ladies as I'm not a fan of her style, but give her credit, she doesn't wobble. Here's hoping she'll get the bronze!

McKayla Maroney is a freak of nature and something truly crazy would have to happen for her not to win the vault final gold. I'm going to have her encased in bubble wrap after team final on Tuesday and forbid her from doing anything until whenever the vault finals competition is over.

Wow. Jordyn Wieber looked completely and utterly devastated and somehow managed to pull it together for that brief interview. Poor thing. She handled the situation about as gracefully as could be expected. I really don't get why only 2 members of any given team are allowed to compete for the all-around medal. That just blows. How and when did that rule come into being?

Looks like it used to be 3, but now it's 2. It's a dumb rule, and one I understand better now thanks to an an article I read earlier.

Wieber placed fourth in the all-around standings out of 60 gymnasts competing. Twenty-one gymnasts with scores lower than her made it to the finals. She proved herself better than all those other gymnasts, but yet she’s not going to be competing against them.

2003/2004 before that it was three people. It's meant to make it so nations with deep programs can't completely dominate the medals. Other sports have similiar rules.

And yes it sucks for Jordyn but she knew the parameters and failed. It is heartbreaking but the Olympics are just as much about the surprising heartbreaking lows as the are the out of nowhere thrilling highs.

Anybody know WHY NBC didn't include the opening video with Benedict Cumberbatch on the actual broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies? Because I'm a BC geek, a part of me was hoping the Danny Boyle would find a way to use him but I also just figured his busy schedule wouldn't accommodate anything. Was NBC worried their audience wouldn't know who he or the athletes were? Good gravy.

And yes, once again this year reminded me WHY I hate watching gymnastics. I really really hate Al Trauwig. Is there a reason NBC doesn't hire Nastia Liukin, Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, or some OTHER former gymnast so we can be spared all the faux drama? I actually watched some of the event on-line where there are different commentators and it was much more tolerable.

Anybody know WHY NBC didn't include the opening video with Benedict Cumberbatch on the actual broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies?

Because they suck. Also, so they could air more commercials and interviews by Ryan F'ing Seacrest.

I'm so glad the ladies toned down the makeup this year.

The very first thing I said when the competition started was, "Thank God, they don't have glitter all over their hair and faces any more."

The red-yellow-green thing is stupid and NBC should stop it. Listening to the gymnastics commentators reminds me why I like the daytime coverage so much better - the commentators tend to be much less annoying.

I don't understand why so many women were stepping out of bounds on the floor ex. Nerves? Super-bouncy floor? I know tumbling runs are getting more and more difficult, but that was ridiculous.

The commentators (those are what you get when you combine a commenter and a potato...) said that they thought the floor was super bouncy. Since absolutely everyone seemed to be having the same problem, I'm going with that theory, despite the spud-like nature of the source.

So, just seeing the start value and then the score and the amount of points deducted was too straightforward, so they decided to ALSO invent a system with red, yellow, and green shapes? Okey doke.

I could literally only understand about half of what Bela said. I liked how he went off on his long monologue and then Costas is like "So...you think it's an unfair rule, right?"

I do feel terrible for Jordyn. I'm sure you try not to expect anything even when you seem to be a shoo-in, but I'm equally sure that you do anyway, and it's devastating when it doesn't happen.

I am officially sick of swimming. Also volleyball. Synchronized diving, however? AWESOME.

Tabby wrote:

Anybody know WHY NBC didn't include the opening video with Benedict Cumberbatch on the actual broadcast of the Opening Ceremonies?

Because they suck. Also, so they could air more commercials and interviews by Ryan F'ing Seacrest.

Is there someplace to watch the full/uncut Opening Ceremony? Legally? In the US?

We just got our first gold! Oh my god, I'm still shaking. Lithuania's 15 year old girl Ruta Meilutyte just won 100 meters swimming. It was so absolutely amazing - I mean, two days ago nobody really knew who she was, her goals were to get to the semi-final, mayyybe the final, and now she's got a gold medal. It's really incredible. She's 15!

And getting a gold is such a big deal for our country. In Beijing I don't think we got any. And before that it was maybe 1 gold medal per olympics (usually discus throw). Even our beloved basketball managed to bring only the bronze in these past 20 years. And now we have a medal - a gold medal - barely a few days into the games. It's crazy and exciting and I think all the country couldn't be more proud of her.

That's awesome, Simbelmyne!@ Plus it seems she took it away from the favorite, so better yet.

Congrats! She lives and trains in England, so it's a half-yay for us too. I'm very impressed with our men's team winning bronze in the gymnastics. It was silver for a few minutes until Japan appealed, but considering they were pretty much nowhere for the last 50 years, this is an amazing achievement.

Simbelmyne wrote:We just got our first gold! Oh my god, I'm still shaking. Lithuania's 15 year old girl Ruta Meilutyte just won 100 meters swimming. It was so absolutely amazing - I mean, two days ago nobody really knew who she was, her goals were to get to the semi-final, mayyybe the final, and now she's got a gold medal. It's really incredible. She's 15!

And getting a gold is such a big deal for our country. In Beijing I don't think we got any. And before that it was maybe 1 gold medal per olympics (usually discus throw). Even our beloved basketball managed to bring only the bronze in these past 20 years. And now we have a medal - a gold medal - barely a few days into the games. It's crazy and exciting and I think all the country couldn't be more proud of her.

Congratulations! I saw her swim in the semi-final last night and she looked amazing. I love it when someone comes out of nowhere like that. It's part of the beauty of having so many events--no matter how dominant a few countries are, there's always room for a dark horse.

I hate when I'm on a computer where the default browser is MSN because they always have Olympics spoilers on their front page. I just got a glimpse of what happened in the men's gymnastics finals, and I totally didn't want to know anything until tonight!

Hey, diving commentary lady. The divers from Mexico are named Garcia and Sanchez. I'm pretty sure you have them on a paper or screen in front of you. So maybe try using their names (like you do for the British and American teams) and not just keep calling them "the Mexicans"? Also, maybe try to act a tiny bit less biased in your commentary, thanks!

I don't know how much attention this is getting in non-fencing circles, but holy shit, women's epee fencing shat the bed on the national stage - or, you know, the only time fencing is ever on the public stage. The ref (or rather the broken timer and the lack of rules to address this) fucked up so badly, converting 1 second into 3 seconds and stealing a medal from the poor Korean girl. The timing issue aside, my referee friends are saying she (the ref) also had them at improper distances during the match.

Epee is the easiest, most objective weapon to ref. The timing (and the distance, I guess), is virtually the only thing you have to control. I don't know how the IOC fencing works, but someone needs to get Shin a damn medal, even if means two bronzes are awarded. Hell, she deserves a medal for crying for an hour and a half instead of ramming her weapon up certain people's asses. (They are very lucky this error happened in epee and not sabre [though timing is never an issue in sabre], where I guarantee you sabrist personalities would not handle this as well as Shin did.)

Here is a cartoon explanation

I read about that, poor girl. And she didn't think she could leave the area because if she did it would essentially be acceptance of the judge's ruling and they were still fighting it so she just had to sit there and weep in frustration. And then she was physically removed!

For all the excitement and joy of sport there are some people who make it utterly miserable and difficult.

Men's synchro diving is somehow not as exciting for me as the women's final was. I'm rooting for Mexico. Something about the two young men really endears them to me. I love that they're aiming for such high difficulty dives! Also, do the Chinese teams (both men and women) even know what splashing is? They enter the water so quietly!

God, that fencing thing is horrible. During women's swimming the announcement mechanism was broken and one swimmer jumped at the beep. They ruled that it didn't count as an early start because the equipment was faulty. Sounds like the fencing judges could have used the same logic to rule in the South Korean's favor. Poor thing. =(

I think the British men's gymnastics team was robbed of that silver medal. I have no idea how that last Chinese pommel routine was ruled to have included the handstand element. I could probably do a better handstand. And watching the 'mericans was just painful. Sitting on the pommel, falling from the pommel, balance checks during floor exercises.. I think they were suffering from nerves.

And why don't we see rings anymore?

I wish women didn't have the artistic/music element in the floor event. I find the guy's floor much more fun to watch because they aren't randomly doing sexy-ish moves in the middle of the mat.

xyzzy wrote: I think the British men's gymnastics team was robbed of that silver medal. I have no idea how that last Chinese pommel routine was ruled to have included the handstand element. I could probably do a better handstand.

It was explained on the BBC commentary that they originally didn't credit Kohei Uchimura for dismounting since he wobbled all over the place, but apparently it does still count as a dismount because he did land on his feet, so they had to give him back 0.5. Which seems fair if that is the rule, even though it would have been great for the British team to get a silver.

I agree about the floor routines, I like the men's much better.

And why don't we see rings anymore?

This! I watched two nights of men's gymnastics competition and didn't see a single still-rings routine. Damn you, NBC, that's my favorite apparatus. The prime-time broadcasts really, really suck. The daytime broadcasts are much better, I got to watch horsies jumping over hurdles this morning before leaving for work.

That fencing thing sucks. Besides how awful it is for the athlete, there's nothing quite like a ref and sports officials destroying their sport's credibility on international tv.