2008 Olympics!

[The Nth Doctor]

You got the order wrong, let me fix that for you:

1 USA 36 38 36 110
2 China 51 21 28 100
3 Russia 23 21 28 72
4 Great Britain 19 13 15 47

51 > 36

Or is this a general awesomeness thing?

I think the best way to compare nations is to awards 3 points for a gold, 2 points for a silver and 1 point for a bronze. If that is done the final scores are

China 223
USA 220
Russia 139
Great Britain 98
Australia 89
Germany 83
France 70
Korea 67
Italy 52
Japan 49

I think that's the best way of looking at it.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

You got the order wrong, let me fix that for you:

1 USA 36 38 36 110
2 China 51 21 28 100
3 Russia 23 21 28 72
4 Great Britain 19 13 15 47

51 > 36

Or is this a general awesomeness thing?

110 > 100

I still think that China had the best games, but here G, S, B gets used more than total medals.

 

[cultcross]

You got the order wrong, let me fix that for you:

1 USA 36 38 36 110
2 China 51 21 28 100
3 Russia 23 21 28 72
4 Great Britain 19 13 15 47

51 > 36

Or is this a general awesomeness thing?

I think the best way to compare nations is to awards 3 points for a gold, 2 points for a silver and 1 point for a bronze. If that is done the final scores are

China 223
USA 220
Russia 139
Great Britain 98
Australia 89
Germany 83
France 70
Korea 67
Italy 52
Japan 49

Completely agreed, and I don't understand why this isn't used. Under the current IOC system, silver and bronze medals are ignored. Under the US media system, a bronze = a gold. Both situations are stupid. A points system such as this would be perfect for solving the argument.

 

[Ariadne]

IIRC they give points for 1st to 8th place when ranking the delegations by sport/area.

 

[tomalak301]

I jumped to the end of this thread so I didn't see posts on the closing ceremony, but because I was on vacation, I have some final thoughts on these olympics.

-I really hate the radio talking heads. I mean I was listening to the local station one night and they were saying how we should boycott the olympics and sponsers because it's being held in china and you also have to deal with the human inequalities and what crimes the Chinese Government as done. Well, for one, why should I boycott these games. The Olympics have never, or should never be political and I know that it is but that's never the reason I watch it. Does anyone remember the 2002 games when there was even some debate to allow the flag that flew over the pentagon during 9/11 to show up at the opening ceremonies? Well, that debate was for reasons on how political it could be constrewed but it was still allowed.

Coming out of these olympics, I still don't like the chinese government or what they allow. Bejing, unfortunately, is going to be smogged up again, Tebit is still an issue, and there is the continuance of slave labor. However, I don't watch these games for the politics. None of these athletes had a say on where the games were, and I remember hearing about (on the radio during the olympic coverage) how bad it was for american athletes who couldn't go to the 1980 games because of the boycott. Boycotting doesn't do anything unless you really get everyone behind it. I think the last successful boycott to an extent might have been the bus boycott of the 1960s. Anyway, these athletes deserve our support and they worked hard to get to thier dreams. That is why I watch and love the olympics and that is why I hate having people tell me I should boycott them because of the Government.

-As for China and these games, I thought they did a good job. There were controversy's and complaints, but what olympics in the last 100 years were void of those. Other than that unfortunate accident with Coach McCutchen, I thought these games were great.

-As for the closing ceremonies, I loved them. I actually got teary eyed a little when the torch was extanguished. Then we had that festival thing on the memory tower and that was cool. I think the only thing I didn't like was Lana Lewis and the lead guitar player from Led Zepplin. I wanted to hear her sing, but there must have been something wrong with the audio because I couldn't understand any of it.

Looking forward to Vancouver, and hopefully NBC has better coverage. I doubt it, but I can always dream.

 

[Pegaritaville]

I jumped to the end of this thread so I didn't see posts on the closing ceremony, but because I was on vacation, I have some final thoughts on these olympics.

<Snip>

-As for China and these games, I thought they did a good job. There were controversy's and complaints, but what olympics in the last 100 years were void of those. Other than that unfortunate accident with Coach McCutchen, I thought these games were great.

China did a great job. Every year, the logistics of running the Olympics gets harder and harder, and China showed they were more than up to the task. That said, I can't help feeling there was something missing this year. Everything seemed too precise and organized. I'm not saying I wanted bombs going off (ala Atlanta), but a little more spontaneity would've been nice.

Looking forward to Vancouver, and hopefully NBC has better coverage. I doubt it, but I can always dream.

Knowing NBC, you'll probably get tape delayed coverage, even though you're in the same time zone.

 

[Neroon]

I've been reading through the SI webpage that lists various reporters most indelible memory of the Beijing Olympics. Here's one that'a particularly moving: Link[/ur]. I strongly encourage everybody to check out the other storeis as well, linked to in the box to the immediate right of that column. Most truly underscore for me what was a necessary thing: that there is still that idealistic image and spirit present. It may be on life support these days, but it's still there. I'd become rather jaded about the Games for quite some time. It was more than a little refreshing to read something that pushed that cynicism aside if only for a little while.

 

[Samurai8472]

my mom went to the wells fargo arena for the shawn johnson welcome home party
From about an hour ago

















you can just about make out shawn and chow. Also there was a poster i'll take a picture of later

 

[DWF]

Michael Phelps' diet was pretty awesome during the games.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/13/the-michael-phelps-diet-dont-try-it-at-home/#more-3142

Here’s Phelps’s typical menu. (No, he doesn’t choose among these options. He eats them all, according to the Post.)
Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.
Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.
Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.
Does a diet like this make sense even for a calorie-incinerating human swimming machine? We checked in with Mark Klion, a sports medicine doc and orthopedic surgeon at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He reminded us that the eating game all comes down to basic math.
If you eat fewer calories than you burn exercising, you lose weight. But an athlete like Phelps, who exercises up a storm, has to worry about eating enough to replenish the scads of calories he’s burned. If he doesn’t, Klion explains, his “body won’t recover, the muscles will not recover, there will not be adequate energy stored for him to compete in his next event.”
But what about the choice of foods? All those eggs and ham and cheese can’t possibly be good for him, can they? Says Klion, “I think for him, because of his caloric demands, he can probably eat whatever he wants to.” And besides, Klion says, if you’ve got to eat that much, it better be enjoyable, or you won’t be able to keep up. Phelps might not be so eager to shovel down a pound of tofu in a sitting, Klion points out.

I wish I could still eat like that of course NOT that much food.

 

[Samurai8472]

I feel sick already reading about eating a whole pizza

 

[Deckerd]

Well done team GB, best games ever

I just saw Chris Hoy
He's a very Big Boy.

 

[cultcross]

I feel sick already reading about eating a whole pizza

i often have a pizza to myself.

granted, not as part of the Phelps Diet.

 

[Timewalker]

The "Phelps" diet sounds like the amount of food that I might consume in three or four days, not one. Assuming of course that it was winter, when I tend to be hungrier. Often in summer I go several days at a time not eating much. The heat kills my appetite, although I make sure to stay well-hydrated.