There are no sour grapes from me. It's actually good to see the old enemy performing well. Considering how bigger their population and budget they spend on the Olympics this year. We give them heaps, and now they are giving up heaps.
You know, I really don't care how old the Chinese are. They had a hell of a team, and no matter what their age is, they deserved those golds just based on performance alone. I was greatly entertained by the Gymnastics this year (Much more than any other year, probably because of what happened in Athens and I was reminded of that watching highlights on demand) and even though I wish the US got those golds (I do have a problem with the tie breaker thing though), it was a hell of a week and a half. I was actually surprised the Gala didn't last as long as I thought they usually do though.
Didn't bother getting up at 2am yesterday or today to watch. Saw the semifinals and finals yesterday, and they were better than the previous day. Having said that, the German bloke who got beat in the final should have been kicked out after his disreputable display in the semis - he kept backing into the yellow border (taking the penalty) in the last few seconds of each round to avoid fighting and protect his lead. Though even that wasn't quite as bad as the Turk who won, who did the same thing so much that the commentators actually started calling the margin "his Turkish bicycle", and who actually fucking ran away, off the floor and into the audience in the last few seconds rather than risk his lead by staying! And they fucking let him keep the lead and win!? He should have been disqualified! And the commentators tell us he's a showman who the fans love...
Might make the next Commonwealths interesting, but to be honest, until we enter that as GB, Australia will still win it. Still, we've probably got a better chance than Canada. They've had a pretty miserable games by the looks of it.
Today, we have a Brit, Aaron Cook, through the repechage, to fight for bronze in taekwondo. Fghting a Chinese, which means I hope he can tune out the home crowd's chanting for their bloke! ETA- and he's out. Again, the scoring system is ridiculous, both men making hits that didn't score, and the judges seemed... shall we say cautious to not offend the home crowd. Having said that, the headshot that Cook and his coach were protesting should have scored did prove, on the replay for another angle, to have *not* connected, and the Chinese fighter was playing fair all the way through. Zhu Guo deserved his win, as he was the better - and more experienced - fighter, but it should have been by a narrower margin. As for Cook, his career's just starting (he's only 17), so no doubt he'll be in the medals as part of the home team in 2012
No doubt we'll get the rub of the green in certain instances in 2012. I think it's just one of the natural consequences sadly.
More 4x100m chaos as our women's team decide to copy the men's with a screwed up changeover. One gold for us today, kayaking earlier on, currently Russia are just one gold from taking our 3rd place. Hopefully our boxer in the final can put it away for another British gold.
Hopefully Price can join him. He should be fighting fairly shortly shouldn't he? Still a few more opportunities for golds yet, but Russia are looking strong at the moment. We should at the very least hold of Germany and Australia though. Worst case scenario I think is fourth spot. Not bad, would certainly have settled for that coming into the games. Edit: Hmmm, maybe not re: Price!
It's BMX racing. People busting their asses is part of the attraction. Go to youtube, skateboarders and other people who like to do tricks to show off, like to put videos of themselves getting hurt. I think people who race BMX have similar attitudes.
I was greatly entertained by Andrea Raducan in 2000 when she won the all around, but the IOC took her medals away because her team doctor gave her one dose--only one--of the wrong cold medicine. They took the substance off the banned list immediately after stripping Andrea's medals but wouldn't budge. Rules were rules, they said. Andrea was heartbroken. She appealed and they refused to budge, even though they acknowledged that single dose of cold medicine didn't enhance her performance in any way and that it was her doctor's fault, not hers. Rules are rules. Except if you're China.
It was really sad what happened to Andrea. I remember her on the television with tears streaming down her face, and it was a total accident in her case. One dose of cold medicine and they took her medal away. That's a big part of why a lot of folks are so upset with the IOC now, because they selectively enforce the rules they want to enforce. It's just like the NCAA with the USC football program. USC has broken so many recruiting rules so blatantly (like China and its 16 year old with a missing baby tooth blatant ) and the NCAA refuses to do anything to them.
Seems like the best thing for people to do is to keep careful track of the current 8 year olds to make sure they're not competing in 2012. I hadn't expected the IOC to do anything - China is hosting the games - but I'm surprised they actually "looked into it" and announced that they thought there was nothing going wrong.