I was refering to the IOC and China, in general. It was a disgrace that they got the Olympics in the first place.

(cue Chinese dragons playing the erhu and crying rainbow tears, as seen in The Simpsons go to China (episode 'Goo Goo Gai Pan'))

DT.. I think we just found proof that the girl is 14, and you want her to be stripped? I think there's a guy from Dateline NBC who wants you to sit in that chair over there....

(Grin, Duck, and RUN!)

haha

Well played Sir!

I'm waiting to see what happens AFTER everyone is safely outside the borders...

It's really not a valid comparison, and Phelps' events aren't as diverse as you're making them out to be.

If track and field added the 50m sprint, and also added the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m backwards sprint, and the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m sideways/crossover sprint, then you could probably have an apples to apples type of comparison as to who was the most dominant performer in their respective sport.

Or after all the checks have finally cleared

More what I meant were the number of races he swam in a relatively short time. Maybe if Bolt added, say, the 110m hurdles or something.

However, his performance in the 200m said a lot. Agreed that it's hard to compare them, but they've both done something pretty amazing.

Not a good night for the relay teams :(

SI

this just in from the IOC - they're investigating

ESPN - Report: IOC investigating whether He is old enough to compete - Olympics

Hopefully they will have this completed by the time the closing ceremonies are done.....in London....in 2012.

At least one of the Chinese gymnasts probably won't be old enough to compete in London either.

Where is Victor Conte when you need him?

What about hurdling? Thats just running and jumping a little. Steeplechase? I mean come on, sure there are probably too many medals available in swimming all things considered. But its ridiculous how some of us degrade the difficulty of excelling in the different strokes in swimming. The whole backwards/sideways running comparison is overdone and sophomoric.

Probably the one thing I can agree with the IOC on. They'll go on my shitlist when the declare that this Olympics was the greatest ever.

In Bolt's defense, once the other competitors were done running, he was already back in Jamaica. :)

Fun volleyball finals on now :)

SI

I disagree.

The freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke are different swimming motions, but they're still swimming. The distance then becomes the only delineator.

Jumping and hurdling incorporate running, but they require separate, non-running skills. The steeplechase is a distance running event which relies on slow twitch muscular development, compared to fast twitch for the sprinters. So, if you want to compare a track and field sprinter to a short distance swimmer, the backwards/sideways running comparison is certainly valid.

Except running backwards and sideways is not even close to an efficient manner of traveling on the ground. The example is just used to belittle athletic endeavors people have little respect for. We have different strokes because there are going to be different ways to swim from point A to point B. Likewise we have different track events because there are different ways to travel quickly on feet from point A to point B.

Hurdling and sprinting are different track motions but its still running on a track. Sounds pretty stupid and disrespectful either way if you ask me. But I guess people have an easier time disrespecting swimming than track and field events.

And swimming backwards, or butterfly, or breastsroke is an efficient, fast manner of traveling through water? :confused:

Hurdling incorporates running, but it requires a completely different skill set. I suppose if there was a swimming event where the competitors had to hurl themselves over buoys at regular intervals, you would have a valid comparison.

Running backwards is actually a very valid comparison in comparing the backstroke to the freestyle in swimming.

While freestyle is usually a faster competitive stroke than butterfly, its not by much. (Looking it up just now its only a difference of a second per 50m for record holders.) I've known swimmers that could butterfly faster than freestyle, although that seems pretty rare.

If I am swimming a very long distance, say across a lake, (as if that happens that often!) I usually breaststroke it. Easier to conserve energy with that stroke, IMO.

I'd think bolt would be good on the 110s due to his speed and height. But I can't really recall anyone doing both.

We'll see what happens for London. If he decides to add the 400 and wins that too along with the other sprints I'd think that would seal his legendary status.

+1

And I really hate tape delayed Olympics. At least England isn't more than 5 hours ahead. And they don't torture and kill political prisoners

In a way, that's worse, though. It actually hasn't been as bad this year because the time difference is so large that they've been able to carry a decent amount of stuff live in prime time by having major events take place in the morning in Beijing. In London, I don't see how anything could be carried live in prime time in the U.S.

Good, then those swimmers can swim a butterfly in a swimming race and you can swim a breaststroke in a long distance swimming race.

Usain Bolt won gold medals and broke world records in the only two running events 200 meters and under (distance traveled by individual competitors). He has a shot at one more in the 4x100 relay. No other world records have been broken in running events at these Olympics.

Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals and broke 7 world records out of 13 swimming events 200 meters and under. 19 other world records were broken in swimming events at these Olympics. In several races, every medalist broke the previous world record.

It amazes me that people still want to piss on Phelps accomplishment. Who cares how many swimming events there are? It's not like Phelps travelled back in time and decreed that there be more swimming events than running events. All he did was come in and perform better than everyone else in the history of his sport.

To put this in some more perspective, Bolt won the 200m by the largest margin in Olympic history, and he is the first man to hold the 100m and 200m world records simultaneously since 1979.

USA wins a thriller in the Men's Volleyball semifinal. They won the first two matches. Russia was pushed to the brink in the 3rd set but won 27-25. Then they won the 4th set. The 5th set (playing to 15), was back and forth the whole way. It was tied 13-13. USA wins the last two points to go to the Gold Medal game.

Looks like an American will be the "Greatest Athlete in the World".

Bryan Clay of the US owns a 316 point lead with two events to go, and if he does fairly well in the last two events, he has a chance to set the decathalon world record.

Table Tennis on USA :D

SI

Word. Seems to me more evidence of the "Everything Sucks" era than anything else. It doesn't in any way diminish the accomplishment of either Phelps or Bolt to marvel at both of their achievements (or all eight of Phelps' and both of Bolt's).

[tongueincheek] Besides, Phelps is an American -- what happened to all the "We're number one!" chest-beaters in the face of the Jamaican invasion? [/tic]

Should be interesting to see how much the bitch Manu tries to flop vs team USA. I hope they pound the snot out of the Argentinians.

Is that game happening now? Can you update for those of us that can't follow?

USA up 17 with 8 mins to go in the 2nd.

awesome

Kryszqweiski let argentina back into the game, and it's likely to be USA up by 6 or 8 at the half. Scola has been a beast and they can't figure out how to counter the run.

I think Bron and Wade are both in foul trouble.

Manu is in the locker room with a strained vagina.

Bolt makes it a 3 fer and saves the olympics.

US up 9 at half.

usain bolt so fast, jamaica gonna just ride him down the bobsled track in 2 years. cool runnings 2

basketball update plz

USA wins by like 20. Not really a good game for either side.

That'd be sweet.

dat boy run good

Wah, wah, wah. Nobody is pissing on Phelps' accomplishments. I am pissing on the overblown media hype by others.

You are correct that he dominated his sport more than anyone else ever has.

Usain Bolt did the same thing.

I am not going to have any reason to bitch if ESPN and others continue to report accurately like in the Bolt story on the ESPN front page right now.

For whatever it is worth, I work from home so since the Olympics have started I've had MSNBC on all day with whatever they happen to be covering at the time. Earlier in the Olympics all of their promos were about Phelps and is attempt to set history. Since swimming has been mostly over, those haven't been on and instead they have been replaced with things such as Volleyball, and even today alot of Bolt hype (I guess they are planning on airing one of his races in prime time tonight).

I don't think NBC is overhyping Phelps because he is their relative or anything.. I think they are just overhyping any thing that they can to try to increase ratings, including now overhyping Bolt beyond all belief.

I originally had been leaning on the side of "What Phelps did was amazing, but I'm tired of all of the hype"... now I'm leaning to the side of "The only people I've heard talk about Phelps the past 2 days are the people complaining about Phelps being talked about" :)

Soccer final on CNBC now - Argentina/Nigeria 0-0 at halftime. They're actually having water breaks midway through the halves because it's so hot out, and the heat is killing the Argentinians.