London 2012

I tend to be attracted to dorky-looking dudes, so yeah, Phelps reels me in. I think Lochte's pretty hot though. Sounds quite moronic whenever he opens his mouth, but that doesn't take away from his physical hotness.

bookworm wrote:10 Reasons Why Ryan Lochte Is America’s Sexiest Douchebag.

Yep.

Oh god that was funny. And so, so true. I do find him terribly not. But, the doucheiness. It is not to be denied.

Ha! Tim Daggett made reference to not wanting to sound "obnoxiously critical" during the bars rotation. Someone's been reading the internet!

Phelps is by pretty much all accounts an epic douche as well (rumor has he spread more than the love during his short stint in Ann Arbor). Call me shallow, if it's a choice between epic douchiness and epic douchiness? I'll take the hot one.

IDK the grill and his overall himbo faux surfer dude stuff amuses me. In the Phelps v. Lochte debate I will take Thoogie.

We can agree about water polo, no?

blixie wrote:IDK the grill and his overall himbo faux surfer dude stuff amuses me. In the Phelps v. Lochte debate I will take Thoogie.

Thoogie 4eva.

Lochte is pretty much hot like fire, but the douchiness is undeniable. I would still hit that like a ton of bricks given the chance. That said, my current Olympic crushes are Peter Varellas (who plays water polo) and David Lee (volleyball).

I think Phelps looks like Flipper, or some other sea creature. And Lochte looks douchey. But...I think Lochte still feels passion and excitement for his sport. Many, many people have commented that Phelps is done with swimming and I think it shows (and why he underperformed in some events). He did better tonight, but I feel like the switch that flipped in his head was "I am built like Flipper; I can do this." not "Yay swimming". Which is douchier than Lochte, when you think that Phelps is kind of going through the (world-class) motions.

Yay for Gabby! Hopefully no one will talk about her hair again. I have to admit, I was like "Uh, well she does have a lot of it, that seems inconvenient for the flips." Gymnastics and swimming seem like sports where (all, regardless of race) the women wish they could detach their hair because it's only going to be in the way.

Silver and bronze all-around medals are good enough to get Viktoria Komova and Alina Mustafina's families released, right? RIGHT?

(Then again, would you want to be the person responsible for killing everything Alina Mustafina loved? The last thing you would ever see would be flawless makeup over eyes AS MERCILESS AS HELL ITSELF.)

I followed this live earlier today so I knew the results but...

GABBYGABBYGABBYGABBYGABBYGABBYGABBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy for her! First African-American woman to win All Around Olympic gold (actually, she may be the first black woman to win AA, never mind being American) and first American woman to win both team gold and AA gold! You set those records, girl! Some people were speculating earlier that if she plays her cards right, she may become the most popular gymnast in this country since Mary Lou. She certainly has the bubbly personality to do it. And she's still got balance beam and bars finals so she may walk away with two more medals, although it's doubtful they'll be gold. But hey...one silver and one bronze and she'll have the full collector's edition set.

And on the opposite swing of the pendulum, I'm so sorry for Aly Raisman. To lose out on the bronze on a tiebreaker. I have so much respect for her being such a calm team leader and trying to not let all the Jordyn wuzrobbing diminish her happiness on making the AA. And she still has two event finals as well (beam and floor) so I want her to get an individual medal just to shut up the haters.

I want her to get an individual medal just to shut up the haters.

In my experience, haters rarely shut up. Take away one reason to hate, they'll find another one. Sorry to be a downer.

I'm so happy for Gabby! I was pulling for her and she really brought it!

It sucks for Aly Raisman to be that close and miss a medal but I too hope she gets one in the event finals. I just really want American gymnastic domination at least from the ladies!

Yay Gabby! I managed not to be spoiled for this, and waiting to see Victoria Komova's score on floor was so tense! Komova's floor routine was really excellent. The Russians are bit unsettling with their sobbing--they just seem so sad and desperate, Komova especially.

What on earth was Bob Costas trying to say with his commentary on race and "imaginary barriers" and...what?

The way Komova was crying, you'd think she lost out completely instead of doing an incredible job and earning a silver medal! Her floor routine absolutely blew me away, and honestly, I don't even usually care for floor exercises.

Gabby was so calm and collected tonight, and seeing that smile light up her adorable face at the end of her final routine was awesome!

I'd love to know why is it that in gymnastics if two people get the same score they do a tie-breaker in the first place. If NBC had announcers worth a damn, maybe they would actually explain that. I know I was really surprised because I figured that since Raisman and Mustafina tied that both would get the bronze medal. That's what most other sports do, and you'd think gymnastics would do the same. It just seems cruel to artificially put one woman above the other when they ended up with the same score.

It just got pointed out to me on Twitter that Gabby Douglas' last name is an anagram of "USA gold".

I'm officially annoyed with the Australian coverage. They had ADD tonight, covering five sports in about half an hour. Nothing on any of the events I really want to see. Anyone know where I can watch online?

If NBC had announcers worth a damn, maybe they would actually explain that.

They got on my nerves so much last night, and that was just the icing on the cake. They are useless when it comes to actual helpful information.

I'm so happy for Gabby and disappointed for Aly, but I'm hopeful for Aly to medal in the individual because she only had a couple of minor missteps and 1 major (balance beam) so she can do it. And Gabby is so great -- she stayed calm throughout and just NAILED her routines.

I'm anxious throughout competitions in general, but watching gymnastics is 10x worse because in between rotations those girls are running around, changing braces, re-wrapping bandages, packing and unpacking their bags. All I can think is WHY WON'T SOMEONE HELP THEM WITH THIS SHIT?!?! THEY NEED A MOMENT'S REST!! Ugh, so stressful. For some reason, I don't get that same sense of urgency with the men.

In the Phelphs vs. Lochte debate, my answer is yes.

My least favorite thing last night was this: Mustafina got off the beam (I think), and her coach sort of reached out for her and she kinda flapped her hand at him and brushed by him. The commentators had to show it again and they were like "WATCH HER LEFT HAND!" And they're all "She did NOT want to talk to him!" Fine. But then later, one of them goes "She LITERALLY shoved her coach out of the way!" No she didn't. Good lord.

I am so happy for Gabby though. GABBY GABBY GABBY GABBY!!! And sad for Aly. But hopefully she'll manage an individual medal. I hope Jordyn does too.

Crackie wrote:Phelps is by pretty much all accounts an epic douche as well (rumor has he spread more than the love during his short stint in Ann Arbor). Call me shallow, if it's a choice between epic douchiness and epic douchiness? I'll take the hot one.

I wonder how many STDs are transmitted during the Olympics. Condoms aren't foolproof, and there are still diseases that you can get even when using them. If most are the athletes are such ho dogs as the articles suggest then law of probability says that it would make an interesting epidemiological study.

I'm sure everyone has heard (or first hand knowledge) of STD outbreaks among sports teams in high school or college, so it would not be surprising.

(My mom worked at a family practice right near my brother's high school. She's still scandalized by the number of my brother's teammates that showed up with the same diagnoses.)

Ha. There was an outbreak of herpes on the boys' and girls' soccer teams in high school. I sat next to Patient Zero in film class.

I'm surprised you don't hear more about people getting pregnant at the games. Condoms aren't foolproof.

Oh, for the love of God. It's 25 minutes into the Friday primetime show, and all they've shown is a retrospective of the '96 women's gymnastics team winning the gold and an interview about that event with the f-ing Karolyis. I guess nothing happened today, in London, NBC? You can waste a sixth of your show on stuff that happened 16 years ago?

Jesus H. Christ. Good thing I was off from work today and got to see some actual athletic competion during the daytime broadcasts.

Tabby, that's exactly what I was thinking. Can't they show that stuff some other time? It happened YEARS ago! There's so much stuff we don't get to see and they are wasting the time on old things?