Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: AWMac on August 23, 2004, 08:04:32 PM
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Am I the only one that gets choked up when a Gold is won and National Anthem is played?
God Bless America!
:aok
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american gold medals are a dime a dozen...i fail to see how it could still give you any feelings other than oh, look anotherone how nice
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Vortican I'm sure you feel the same way about ticks and spider bites....
Have you no heart Man??? Wait yer Canadian right?
:D
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The Olympics are boring now that the Cold War is over. Most Extreme Elimination Challenge is the new international sports competition.
RIGHT YOU ARE KEN!
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Originally posted by ra
The Olympics are boring now that the Cold War is over. Most Extreme Elimination Challenge is the new international sports competition.
RIGHT YOU ARE KEN!
"Time for Kenny Blankenship's Most Painful Eliminations of the Day!" Love that show.
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I love the Olympics, but I can't shake the sense that these particular games in Athens lack some of the great stories or... (what am I trying to say here?)... magic, to use a ghey word, of the previous ones. Maybe it's all the empty seats? I dunno what it is. They're not over yet, so who knows...
MT - you seem to be a big fan of the games... What's your take?
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Magic is a fantastic word, why would you associate it with gayness? unless you mean happiness, which I doubt:D
But you're right, the games are lacking in interest. Not because of medals won or lost, just something missing, like no rivaleries or something like that.
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could be a time-zone thing...probably just timing, to much other stuff happening for anyone to really feel anything.
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Originally posted by vorticon
could be a time-zone thing...probably just timing...
That could be it...
I had the entire last week off and got to watch during the day, but still... it was as confusing as hell.
They oughta restrict these to North America.
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Originally posted by Nash
I love the Olympics, but I can't shake the sense that these particular games in Athens lack some of the great stories or... (what am I trying to say here?)... magic, to use a ghey word, of the previous ones. Maybe it's all the empty seats? I dunno what it is. They're not over yet, so who knows...
MT - you seem to be a big fan of the games... What's your take?
Big fan? Understatement.
The stories are there, the coverage is what is lacking. Here are a couple.
1. The American Women's basketball team. These ladies are on a mission, and are spurred on by the poor showing of the men. Great teamwork.. great story. They are kicking ass.
2. Softball.. USA has the best team in the world. You need to catch a game.
3. Watched trhe 50 meter rifle competition last night. The American had a solid lead with one shot to go. His closest opponent couldn't come up with the big shot... then the American (name forgotten) shot. He shot at the wrong target. Scored a ZERO.. finished 8th. amazing.
4. 18 year old Allyson Felix is a future star. Watch her in the 200 meters.
5. Michael Phelps giving his spot in the medly relay up to his teammate. In doing this they both received a gold in the event (phelps swam the prelims).
6. Paula Radcliffe may be the greatest female marathoner in history. The Athens heat did her in. was she overhyped by the British press?
7. Women's beach volleyball has garnered more primetime coverage than almost any other sport. Is this good for the games? I'm thinking not.
Hard to screw up an Olympics.
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"I love the Olympics, but I can't shake the sense that these particular games in Athens lack some of the great stories or... (what am I trying to say here?)... magic, to use a ghey word, of the previous ones. Maybe it's all the empty seats? I dunno what it is. They're not over yet, so who knows... "
For me, I view it as "too much" ever since they started holding it every other year--alternating between summer and winter. There are also arguably too many different events.
J_A_B
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The Athens Games are by default completely successful due to
(http://www.athens2004.com/Images/Sport%20Gallery/Rowing/22%20August%202004/51086763PO008_ROWm_8med.jpg)
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Originally posted by midnight Target
7. Women's beach volleyball has garnered more primetime coverage than almost any other sport. Is this good for the games? I'm thinking not.
WTF are you talking about? Did you even follow the sport before now?
McPeak is the winningest woman in pro beach volleyball, overtaking the record held by the great Karolyn Kirby when she beat Atlanta 2000's Olympians Annette Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan at her home beach in front of her friends and family. She want(ed) a gold medal more than anything. She's gone medal-less in every Olympic competition she's played in and the only thing standing in her way was the only American team she will probably never be able to beat. If Holly McPeak doesn't win a medal this time around, she'll have to decide if she can medal in 2008 at the age of 39 (traditionally, the end of a volleyball player's career is mid-30's), and that's assuming we don't boycott the games in Beijing. This could be her last chance.
The men's game, on the other hand, was a bit too lopsided in pool play to be good drama. I've seen better skills in AA players in the states than I did out of the South African team, and they made it out of pool play! :eek: They were simply horrible. I watched them against Argentina and I could tell the ARG team was just toying with them.
But worse than that was Jeff Nygaard doing the Olympic brain fart, not once, not twice, but all three matches. Dax/Stein played above themselves trying to salvage the nation's honor but they got machined by the Austrians in Round 2.
So, really, our best medal hopes rest with THE best volleyball team in the world - Misty May and Kerri Walsh - and of those two I'd say Kerri Walsh is the best volleyball player in the world. She's won FIVB tournaments with Rachel Wacholder while May was recuperating from her ab strain.
Walsh/May taking gold and McPeak/EY taking bronze will be dynamite television and could quite possibly be one of the biggest Olympic moments of these games (other than the US men taking gold in rowing and whats-her-name taking gold in fencing). I'd say women's beach volleyball deserves all the coverage its getting.
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I'm sure they are fantasmagorical athletes gofaster, and I am not denegrating the sport. I just wonder if this unabashed pandering to T&A is good for the games. This sport would NOT be covered to this extent if they weren't in bikinis.
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Isn't it a regulation that they have to wear bikinis?
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You know what screws it up? Exclusive network contracts. The Olympics are too big for one network, IMHO.
I wish the IOC would contract individual sports rather than all of it to just one source.
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Originally posted by Monk
Isn't it a regulation that they have to wear bikinis?
They have the option to wear one-pieces, but really, bikinis are more practical. Sand tends to work its way down into the belly section and below in a one-piece. That and its 100+ degrees F in the beach stadium during the day. I believe the SUI v BRA men's match was played in 120 degree sand temps.
The regs state that the bikini hip band must be no more than 2" wide and then it goes on to dictate cut and fit.
The whole bikini thing is in response from German and Japan tournament promoters who complained that the loose t-shirts and baggy shorts some women were wearing made them look disshelved and heavy (which is true). Even the shorts the men are wearing in the Olympics have a shorter cut than the baggies the US and Aussies usually wear on their domestic tours.
The "cheeky" cut on the women's suits is courtesy of Brazil, a big-time FIVB supporter.
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Originally posted by Sandman
You know what screws it up? Exclusive network contracts. The Olympics are too big for one network, IMHO.
I wish the IOC would contract individual sports rather than all of it to just one source.
I'd do PPV for it. Boxing (non-Olympic) is done that way. I would imagine select sports would be lucrative ventures for the IOC and FIVB.
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I like watching the Olympics, and I think the coverage has been improved 100% over coverage at the last few Olympics. In many of the past Olympics here in the USA, all you could see were occasional matches the USA was playing in while ignoring any competition among other countries teams. Most of the time they were continually showing USA atheletes profiles, human interest types stories while ignoring the competitions.
This Olympics we are seeing a lot more of the games, and with multi-channel viewing, I am able to watch a lot more of the competitions between other countries and other sports not normally shown.
The coverage still could be better, but it has come a long way.
There has been plenty of the beack volleyball coverage, but hey, sexy sells. It is still TV, and run by dorks.
dago
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I agree. Thanks to Telemundo and Bravo, I've been able to catch some matches between countries other than the US. It gives a nice "international" feel to the NBC broadcast when I've seen a country's team play before and have a better idea of the bigger picture of the tournament.