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[Ozle]

You may have seen my posts here and there about the Olympics. I am super excited as I am normally every 4 years (Its this and World Cups and Christmas for me!) but this time its in the UK and its awesome!

I have been to 7 events in the last 5 days, at 6 different venues. And while its been exhausting it has also been great. The crowds in London are excellent, so many different nations, and even the odd athlete all over the place.

Highlight so far, was watching the boxing on Saturday night and had a bet with my friend on the matches (I had the red corner and he had the blue corner) So I was cheering loudly for the Armenian and booing the American in blue on one match. After about 10 seconds I remembered I was actually sitting next to a member of the US olympic boxing squad, a proper redneck style boxer who looked incredibly pissed. Now I have some morals and pride, but I am rather attached to not having my teeth knocked out, so it wasn't long before I was chanting 'U.S.A, U.S.A'!

Anyways, its been fun, I got two weeks off work and its wall to wall sports, some of them minor ones that I never normally get to watch!

If anybody else enjoying them?

[Young Nick]

What other events did you see?

[Ozle]

So far: badminton, tennis, boxing, archery, rowing, beach volleyball, table tennis.

[Morgrim7]

I have seen Soccer, Table Tennis, Fencing, some Field Hockey, some Volleyball.
Want(ed) to see: Fencing, Soccer, Archery, Boxing.

[theory]

I freakin' love the Olympics, everything about it.

[Captain_Frisk]

I freakin' love the Olympics, everything about it.

Do you love intentionally throwing badmitten matches?

[Ozle]

I freakin' love the Olympics, everything about it.

Do you love intentionally throwing badmitten matches?

Whatna stupid system that even saw that a possibility!

[theory]

Shoulda been like in soccer, where the matches are played simultaneously.

No, but what I really love, is the stories, and watching the greatest athletes in the world. 

US NBC Men's Gymnastics spoilers: Like Kohei Uchimura.  My god that man is an incredible gymnast.

[Kirian]

I freakin' love the Olympics, everything about it.

Do you love intentionally throwing badmitten matches?

I hate bad mittens.  In fact, mittens in general are bad; I prefer gloves.

[Morgrim7]

I freakin' love the Olympics, everything about it.

Do you love intentionally throwing badmitten matches?

I hate bad mittens.  In fact, mittens in general are bad; I prefer gloves.

Mittens preserve more body heat.

[Kirian]

Also, Olympic trivia:  An American woman recently became the first American to be a medalist in five consecutive Olympics, in the same individual sport.  What sport?

[Graystripe77]

So apparently, a gymnast (American I believe) flashed the Nerdfighter gang symbol after her performance!! How awesome is that?

[Tdog]

Also, Olympic trivia:  An American woman recently became the first American to be a medalist in five consecutive Olympics, in the same individual sport.  What sport?

Shooting or Archery

[Davio]

Not only do I love the Olympics, I'm suddenly a self proclaimed expert on all sports they have there.

I follow mostly the Dutch Olympians with some other interesting ones, like the American basketball team or just about anything they will show on TV.

That being said, there are a lot of sports that I don't think are "Olympic", like shooting. I know it's very hard, but to me a sport requires real physical exercise that makes you sweat. I would put shooting in the same league as chess. And archery is something you can do on a weekend with your company.

Equestrian sports are horrible, poor horses. And the one who happens to sit on the horse gets a medal while the horse gets some straw? I would abolish all sports involving animals immediately if I could.

Sailing and cycling are borderline for me, because material plays a big part, but at least the human aspect is very big in those.

Sports that have their own major tournaments shouldn't feature on the Olympics, like (real) football. It's cute that Ryan Giggs gets to play a major tournament this way, but let it be, we already have the world championships.

Okay, that's it for the sports for now, I don't like the way some sports organize their systems. You could train 4 years for something like fencing, lose the first game, and be out. Why not a Swiss system? Knockout stages are nice to watch, but to me it seems harsh to train 4 years and lose in 5 minutes.

[Ozle]

I agree on the Horses, thats more about which horse you have that wins you it.

But the cyclists, rowers, sailers etc...they all have the same equipment, so its the personhandles it that makes a difference, same with shooting.

Im  torn on football. We never usually enter it, so its never on UK's radar. And for european teams its not really important. But for the rest of the world, especially the africans and south americans its incredibly important for the age group.

Tennis is a joke though, same when golf is added next time.

I went to wimbledon on sat and it was a great venue and event, but its no way near being a pinnacle of that sport.

[Captain_Frisk]

I wish the olympics were held more often.  Every 4 years is pretty unfair to people who don't happen to hit their physical peak at the right time.  Think about a girl who is 15 in these olympics.  She has 1 shot, relative to someone who is 13 and might be able to compete again @ 17.

I also wish the announcing was better.  Instead of showing me people crying on the sidelines waiting for their scores, why not show me some slow motion replays highlighting excellent and / or poor technique?

[Ozle]

I wish the olympics were held more often.  Every 4 years is pretty unfair to people who don't happen to hit their physical peak at the right time.  Think about a girl who is 15 in these olympics.  She has 1 shot, relative to someone who is 13 and might be able to compete again @ 17.

I also wish the announcing was better.  Instead of showing me people crying on the sidelines waiting for their scores, why not show me some slow motion replays highlighting excellent and / or poor technique?

I don't think the Olympics should be held more often, I just wish the world championships of these various sports reached a bigger audience and were worthwhile to be shown.

Unfortunately the coverage video is provided by an international IOC provider (Who bribed ICO the most then) rather than the BBC, who are excellent at providing coverage of sporting events in my view.

[Captain_Frisk]

I wish the olympics were held more often.  Every 4 years is pretty unfair to people who don't happen to hit their physical peak at the right time.  Think about a girl who is 15 in these olympics.  She has 1 shot, relative to someone who is 13 and might be able to compete again @ 17.

I also wish the announcing was better.  Instead of showing me people crying on the sidelines waiting for their scores, why not show me some slow motion replays highlighting excellent and / or poor technique?

I don't think the Olympics should be held more often, I just wish the world championships of these various sports reached a bigger audience and were worthwhile to be shown.

Unfortunately the coverage video is provided by an international IOC provider (Who bribed ICO the most then) rather than the BBC, who are excellent at providing coverage of sporting events in my view.

The problem with the holding the championships of the other sports more often is that they are boring.  Nobody is going to sit around and watch an archery tournament, but its interesting to see it once in a while covered by a real production crew.

[Ozle]

WOW!
Best performance by a British athlete so far arguably has to go to our British Judo athlete, Gibbons. Completely unseeded coming into the competition, has just got into the Final!!! Winning nearly all her matches in the dying seconds or in the semi's case, overtime!

She has just beaten the world champion in the semis and is in the final!

[theory]

I think Equestrian makes sense as an Olympic sport.

More generally, the whole point of the Olympics, for me, is to get me to care about and learn about sports I know nothing about.  Usually when I think that sport X is easy and stupid, it turns out it's actually quite complex.

Also, I disregarded the rest of your post, Davio, as soon as you implied that Cycling and Sailing are borderline not-real sports because "equipment plays such a big role". Even if you were on the most expensive bike of all time, I think Cavendish could still out-sprint you whilst on a tricycle.

[WanderingWinder]

Having been in a LOT of "what is a sport" discussions over the years, I eventually get to the point: Who cares? Being a sport or not is just a word - it does not detract or add to the enjoyment of participating in or of watching the activity in question.

[Ozle]

Wow, gold and Silver in the canoeing, again unexpected as the Slovak twins have been unbeaten for aaages!

Plus, another gold int he shooting! (Although that one was a favourite)

Good day for team GB so far!

[Lekkit]

For the first time in my life, I've actually followed some events. I'm not really into sports, but I do enjoy watching beach volleyball and fencing. Especially fencing. Haven't had time to watch all the fencing events, which is a pity. And I missed the women's épée (or was it foil?) with the controversial time extension. The men's foil final 4 games was really awesome though, and totally made up for it. I have watched some random sports where swedes were competing. Mostly when I was waiting for some fun event to start and I had nothing better to do.

[Ozle]

If you can get the BBC where you are you can watch all the events live, and then within the player you can skip back to previous events. Its really rather good

[Captain_Frisk]

And here's a counterpoint to getting excited about the olympics:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182127/How-China-trains-children-win-gold--standing-girls-legs-young-boys-hang-bars.html

[theory]

Holy crap, that women's semifinal between Canada/US was amazing.  Three times Canada took the lead, then three times the US equalized, and finally hit the winner in the 122th minute!

[shark_bait]

Just saw it.  WOW!

[cooperaa]

I'm not a huge soccer fan but was excited at the notion of Canada beating the USA. Too bad some questionable referee calls determined the outcome.

[O]

Both calls were tough luck for Canada but were probably the right calls. Its a yellow card for going over 6 seconds normally, but if it's in the keepers hand it IS supposed to be a free kick. Running the clock is not a legitimate strategy in soccer and that's why this rule exists...

The hand ball was a less contestable call. The ball was headed for her stomach, if it was going to hit her at all, and so it was certainly not a reaction hand ball.

[Ozle]

My last day of going to the Olympics today, Event 16 is Taekwondo.

Wow, what a couple of weeks and I am so impressed with literally EVERYTHING! From the games, the results, infrastructure, and the volunteer support network!

[Davio]

Dutch highlight of the Olympic Games: Epke Zonderland's personal best score of 16.533 in the high bar finals after his opponents had scored 16.400 and 16.366. He was the first to pull of three flight elements in a row.

Here's a clip, I promise you, it's spectacular: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm_mQXr6JL0

[msanders]

It is actually the first time that I was able to watch most of the games over the Olympics.  It did not really take my interest from before but the one that just passed, I could literally watch every single event without feeling bored or fed up with it.  Though the synchronized swimming really isn't taking my interest, so as some events of gymnastics.