Does anyone pay attention to the Olympic Games anymore?

[Soulstation1]

Phelps thought he lost the race

[JSngry]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080816/ap_on_...elps_did_he_win

[RDK]

As to the thread title, this is the highest-rated Olympics since the Atlanta games (1996), and with all of the secondary cable channels and on-line resources most likely have been watched by more people than ever. So I guess the answer is "yes."

[7/4]

Why am I not digging men's beach volleyball as much as I am women's beach volleyball? I mean, it's the same game and everything...

same here.

.

[Aggie87]

SI.com explains it frame by frame. Phelps chose to take one more stroke before getting to the wall, while Cavic was trying to glide into the finish wall. Amazing win, by .01 second!

[Soulstation1]

What a WR by Usain Bolt!!! 9.69 sec in 100m!!!

And he coasted it for the last 10m. Astonishing !

WOW

i just saw the replay

Bolt is 6'5"

[B. Goren.]

Not only Bolt and Phelps: also Dara Torres is an amazing phenomenon. At 41 she is faster than 19 years old swimmers.

[Shrdlu]

Olympics total bore for me.

You will have realized the parallel between the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the latest show.

Well it gets worse. The 1936 structure was designed by Albert Speer, and his son, Albert Speer Jr., was the architect for the setup in China. Kind of a two fingers to the world on China's part, right?

[Soulstation1]

phelps called out chad johnson for a race

[vajerzy]

Chad's an idiot- and he's got some ugly teeth- you figure with all the money he's making he'd have better choppers.

Phelps is awesome- if we raced a 200 meter freestyle and he gave me a 100 meter head start- he'd still kick my butt.

[Jazzmoose]

I'd give every one of those divers a 10.0 just because I couldn't do that!!!

Hey, I figure if I hit the water...

[Jazzmoose]

homeboy eats all that food and has a 32" waist

The bastard!

[7/4]

Chad's an idiot- and he's got some ugly teeth- you figure with all the money he's making he'd have better choppers.

[Christiern]

The media has again done what they do so well—they have made me (and many others, I suspect) sick of hearing about or seeing Phelps.

[Christiern]

Chad's an idiot- and he's got some ugly teeth- you figure with all the money he's making he'd have better choppers..

How far behind the times is Powhatan, VA?

[Soulstation1]

i watched the ladies' discus last night!!!!!!!!!!!!

those dudes are H O T!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hot Ptah]

I never knew before these games how really great badminton players play the game.

It turns out that my daughter and I, playing in the back yard, have not been too far off the mark in terms of our shots and strategies, except that our shots are exponentially slower, and we have a huge amount less mobility and range of motion for getting to and returning shots. It's humbling to watch those Indonesians.

With regard to those Indonesians--a nation of over 200 million people, and badminton is the sport that they are most passionate about. That is the kind of thing that I like about the Olympics--when the quirky differences between peoples and nations leak out.

[RDK]

i watched the ladies' discus last night!!!!!!!!!!!!

those dudes are H O T!!!!!!!!!!!

On the other extreme, I watched more women's gymnastics last night. Some of those Chinese kids? Sixteen my ass!

[papsrus]

i watched the ladies' discus last night!!!!!!!!!!!!

those dudes are H O T!!!!!!!!!!!

On the other extreme, I watched more women's gymnastics last night. Some of those Chinese kids? Sixteen my ass!

What's the deal with the ages? Does it matter? Is there some kind of age restriction?

And I read about a bean-ball game between the Chinese and American baseball teams. The U.S. was blowing them out and one of our guys plowed over their catcher at the plate and ... it was ON! ... Chinese pitchers started head-hunting. Sent one American to the hospital. This was all according to HuffPost, mind you. Didn't see a thing on CBS Sportsline about it, so the whole story could be bullshit. But if true, there's the old Olympic spirit for ya!

Lets just hope we see those bastards in the medal round!

(kidding ................ a little)

Edited August 19, 2008 by papsrus

[ejp626]

What's the deal with the ages? Does it matter? Is there some kind of age restriction?

Whether you agree or not, the age limit for women's gymnastics is 16, so under 16 y.o. girls are ineligible. It's very clear that many (most?) of the Chinese gymnasts are 14 and 15.

[papsrus]

What's the deal with the ages? Does it matter? Is there some kind of age restriction?

Whether you agree or not, the age limit for women's gymnastics is 16, so under 16 y.o. girls are ineligible. It's very clear that many (most?) of the Chinese gymnasts are 14 and 15.

Huh. I didn't know that.

[BruceW]

I wish I had a good foreign channel so I could just watch sports and skip the saccharine profiles.

From what I've seen, foreign coverage of the Games is no better.

One of the advantages of cable is that NBC now covers the Games on many channels. Primetime NBC coverage is usually full of athlete profiles and travelogues, but if you just want the sports there are now several options, MSNBC among them. I believe Universal HD channel is covering the games nearly round-the-clock in HD.

Yes, but UHD does not cover a lot of the prime time sports events. MSNBC seems to cover a lot of soccer (great for soccer fans). USA covers a lot of events also.

The only sports I ever really watched a lot in the Olympics was luge and bobsled. I guess because they look so damned fun! However, in the best of times, these sports seem to be impossible to catch, at least for me. Apparently I'm the only one watching, so they always show up at 3:30 AM or something...

Well of course, you can't see luge and bobsled in the summer olympics, duh!!

For whatever reason, humans racing each other just isn't a spectator sport the way humans racing horses or humans racing cars is.

I'm no doubt in the minority, but the track events are by far and away my most favorite Olympic events. Always have been.

Track and field has always been the crux of the Olympics.

I'm getting tired of all the Michael Phelps coverage. They chatter on about him endlessly. The Olympics consists of many events involving many athletes. It's more than just one athlete.

Looking forward to women's gymnastics this evening.

Won't anybody say it?? Bob Costas and NBC fail to realize the Olympics is not about Bob and his interviews (the most boring part of the telecasts). It is really great that Phelps won that many medals (along with the team) BUT do we have to see his life story every damn night?? AND Bob needs a decent haircut or a new rug.

ain't no brothers in the 50 m free style

That's because we cannot swim that fast, we run. Incidentally (seriously) there was a study done a few decades ago on how our ankle structure allowed us more sprint speed running rather than swimming. (that could be a whole thread in itself).

However, there was a brother who swam a 100 meter freestyle segment in one of the medlay relays won by the Phelps led men's team.

My final word is GET BOB COSTAS OFF THE TUBE and show us more events, even the ones that show more of the losers. Weren't they all included in the March of Nations?????

AND the Olympics is great. Is good for the soul, and is good for you. It only happens every four years so two weeks of TV watching (even with that damn Bob Costas) is not so bad.

Edited August 19, 2008 by BruceW

[RDK]

Nah, I dig Costas. But I'm glad Phelps is over and done with.

[Noj]

I'm most aggravated about not being able to see highlights of the events on ESPN. NBC doesn't show the highlights frequent enough that I've been able to catch them, they just squirrel the footage away from everyone else. I want to see the men's basketball highlights, dammit!

[kh1958]

What's the deal with the ages? Does it matter? Is there some kind of age restriction?

Whether you agree or not, the age limit for women's gymnastics is 16, so under 16 y.o. girls are ineligible. It's very clear that many (most?) of the Chinese gymnasts are 14 and 15.

Huh. I didn't know that.

I believe that 15 is within the rules, as long as they turn 16 by the end of 2008.