Olympics!

[rain_gryphon]

The 400 metre relay teams all wear a placard with their country abbreviation on it. The American men's and women's teams both just have 'USA' written on them in magic marker. Everyone else's is professionally printed.

After the performance both teams put in (dropping the baton), they probably don't deserve proper placards.

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If having a cool name counted for something, Uzbekistan would rule the Olympics. I love saying 'Uzbekistan'.

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Usain Bolt has gold shoes :)

Bolt was pretty obviously goofing around when he crossed the finish line for the 100 metre race. He still set the world's record.

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Our 400 metre guy David Neville had to get carried off on a stretcher. I'm not sure if he was diving for the line, or just tripped, but he flattened himself at the finish. His two teammates seem remarkably unconcerned about him - the Swedish runner went over to see if he was hurt. Apparently he's okay - he got interviewed afterwards.

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The BMX racing turned into a bit of a bloodbath. I believe they ought to rethink having paved corners on the track in future.

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What a remarkable first set in men's beach volleyball! The second set was well contested. The third was a rout, unfortunately. Our guys won the gold :)

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Misty Mae Trainor has one of the best souvenir hats I've ever seen, a huge coolie hat with a dragon painted on it. My perception of China as being a culture that produces uber-cool hats is reinforced.

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All of the Chinese athletes seem to favour this blue sports drink. They drink gallons of that stuff.

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And now the IOC is investigating the Chinese gymnasts. This will be a mess.

Comments

[magnusdiridian.livejournal.com]

Blue Drinks, made from the blood of smurfs! Another retro item!

[xolo.livejournal.com]

They should use Smurfs in field hockey!

[bluedeer.livejournal.com]

After watching the Chinese Gymnastics, I was blown away. They were -superhuman- good. If there was doping done, I would not be surprised if it was done there...they were entirely too good when compared to everybody else. If they genuinely did it, then I am afraid for the future...those guys were doing stuff that ninjas would consider difficult. :)

[maxgoof.livejournal.com]

I suspect he is referring to the obviously underage women's team.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

That's it, yeah.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's about the age of the gymnasts. The IOC implemented a really stupid rule that gymnasts have to be 16. A fair number of the Chinese are obviously younger than that - it's really blatant. Someone turned up online records of the Chinese gymnastics authority proving that two of the girls in question were 14. People were pointing this out during the runup to the Olympics, but the IOC waited until the Chinese had won to start investigating. No matter which way it turns out now, it's going to be a mess.

And an Olympic Ninja competition would be cool :)

[haystack.livejournal.com]

Regarding the 4x100 relays: I was wondering what was up with the US runners' placards the moment I saw them. They reinforced my opinion of the performance that ensued -- some of the relay runners just didn't seem ready for the race.

BMX was very scary in the turns. I hope the London track will have better run-off areas for errant riders, and a dirt track to soften hard landings a bit, but... there was one moment when I was sure one rider had rolled over a fallen competitor's arm after a spill. :( There'll be pileups as long as all the riders are on the track at once. I'm not sure whether it was done this year, but I'd like to see BMX time trials, solo runs, as an addition to the schedule.

The men's beach volleyball match was fun, indeed. USA vs. Russia in the regular men's volleyball semis went beyond good... it was the best match I've seen in these Olympics. Both teams played their tails off, but only one could advance to the gold-medal match. Either would've been a worthy entry.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

The one woman got her arm broken, I'm sure. They had too many racers on the track at once for a one-lap trophy dash. You're going to have mayhem in the corners when eight people go in together, and there's no time to wait and pass later.

The USA/Russia volleyball was excellent, yes. They replayed that later.

[cathouse-blues.livejournal.com]

According to all of my Brazilian co-workers, the women's soccer final was either "a pity win", "we forgot to score", "an accident", or "we look better in silver".

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Do you have a lot of Brazilian co-workers?

[cathouse-blues.livejournal.com]

Three, which is a big percentage of the export side of the office. We do a lot of business with Brazil.