Olympic games thread - General

Dry_Fish · Post #441 » by **Dry_Fish** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:34 pm

The subjectiveness is in your pants

Blame Rasho · Post #442 » by **Blame Rasho** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:35 pm

Dry_Fish wrote:The subjectiveness is in your pants

5DOM · Post #443 » by **5DOM** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:22 pm

isn't He the underaged gymnast?

Al n' Perk No Layups! · Post #444 » by **Al n' Perk No Layups!** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:27 pm

kperk43 wrote:Another controversy?

U.S. Gymnast Liukin Gets Silver After Tie for First With He

By Erik Matuszewski

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. gymnast Nastia Liukin said she was disappointed after a judging decision gave China's He Kexin the gold medal in the women's uneven bars at the Beijing Olympics even though they finished with the same score.

The gymnasts and their coaches were at first confused by the ruling, in which the judges broke the tie by awarding the gold medal to 16-year-old He based on a new scoring system.

Liukin and He had posted scores of 16.725. Under the new scoring format, judges use a count-back system where the highest and lowest of the five officials' marks are removed one by one until a winner emerges. Scoring was revamped for this Olympics following judging controversies at the 2004 Games.

``I'm a little disappointed, just knowing that I tied,'' Liukin told reporters. ``It wasn't that I got second by three or five points. I had the same exact score and that makes it a little bit harder to take. Unfortunately you can't control the judges. It's all up to them.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

REMEMBER, WHEN QUOTING ARTICLES ONLY 3 PARAGRAPHS ARE ALLOWED, BlackMamba

That's garbage, if they tie they should both get the Gold. That's what every other event does, and what gymnastics used to do.

canoner · Post #445 » by **canoner** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:33 pm

I read the report on NBC. It doesn't sound like there is any subjectiveness involved in breaking the tie. There is a complicated tiebreaker system, but the rules are pre-specified. Breaking the tie only requires following the set of rules mechanically. One may question the logic of the rules, but that is a different story. The key point is that it is not the judges who broke the tie.

Al n' Perk No Layups! · Post #446 » by **Al n' Perk No Layups!** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:48 pm

Al n' Perk No Layups! wrote:Canada should get a medal in softball. They're in second place at 3-1 and their remaining games are against the hapless Venezuelan team, a pretty good Australian team and a good Japanese team. Barring an epic collapse they should finish at least 5-2 and get at least a bronze.

Just like that, Team Canada loses four straight games and ends up in fourth place at 3-4, they must beat a streaking Austrailan team (five straight wins) to medal.

Al n' Perk No Layups! · Post #447 » by **Al n' Perk No Layups!** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:11 pm

The US goes 1-2-3 in men's 400m Hurdles.

Al n' Perk No Layups! · Post #448 » by **Al n' Perk No Layups!** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:23 pm

Watching all those boats capsize in the sailing competition was absolutely hilarious! It was like a movie, with all the sailors scrambling onto the hull.

GQStylin · Post #449 » by **GQStylin** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:37 pm

AdamTheGreek wrote:

I watched her live when she broke the pole vault record last month at 5.04 and what she's doing is unbelievable dominance.

That was awesome to watch. And it doesn't hurt that she's pretty and has some really beautiful eyes. :love:

Plus she has an amazing six pack!

Tonight is beach volleyball semis. Here's to hoping my girl Xue Chen and her partner can make it to the finals. I REALLY want to see Xue/Zhang play May/Walsh. I think that might be a really good matchup. GO XUE GO! :love:

GQStylin · Post #450 » by **GQStylin** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:45 am

May/Walsh win as expected again. Too easy..just too easy for them. China vs. China up next!

High 5 · Post #451 » by **High 5** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:59 am

The trampoline is an Olympic event???? Jesus, all this time I could have been practicing!!!

hermes · Post #452 » by **hermes** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:44 am

i know i can't believe it, if my neighbor took better care of their's i could be in beijing right now

GQStylin · Post #453 » by **GQStylin** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:29 am

Awww nuts....Xue/Zhang....just too many damn errors! Hope Xue is ok for the bronze medal match. I'm sad now.

canoner · Post #454 » by **canoner** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:30 am

GQStylin wrote:Awww nuts....Xue/Zhang....just too many damn errors! Hope Xue is ok for the bronze medal match. I'm sad now.

What? They lost?

canoner · Post #455 » by **canoner** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:32 am

Just watched the uneven bar event, I actually thought the bronze medal winner, Yang, deserved highest score.

And the tie breaking rules are not really complicated, but not intuitive at all.

GQStylin · Post #456 » by **GQStylin** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:00 am

canoner wrote:
GQStylin wrote:Awww nuts....Xue/Zhang....just too many damn errors! Hope Xue is ok for the bronze medal match. I'm sad now.

What? They lost?

Yeah Xue/Zhang lost. Had like 4-5 match points in the 2nd set but couldn't close it out. The other Chinese team took the third set comfortably. And then Xue tweaks her back on the last play of the match.

Hope Xue/Zhang can still take the bronze.

Walsh/May winning gold is forgone conclusion. I think they've come close to dropping a set only once. Just too good.

GQStylin · Post #457 » by **GQStylin** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 4:03 am

Also Simon Whitfield SOOOOOOO SOOOOO SOOOOOOOOO CLOSE to a gold!

That German dude had one extra gear to overtake you at the end today. DAMN! :cry:

Awesome job by Whitfield still though. :clap:

Palmeirense · Post #458 » by **Palmeirense** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:22 am

What they did to Fabiana Muhrer was one of the most disgusting things i have ever seen in Summer Olympics history.

They lost her pole,which is something ridiculous...yes,she had other poles,but she didn't have a pole with the size of the pole that was lost.That is up there with what happened in athens 2004 when a nut job attacked Vanderlei Cordeiro,who was going for gold in the marathon.

And yes,i know she didn't stand a chance agains the gorgeous Isinbayeva,but she could be fighting for silver.

jourdy · Post #459 » by **jourdy** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:21 pm

What's with all the conspiracy theories in women's gymnastics?
Bela should STFU.

dacher · Post #460 » by **dacher** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:55 pm

jourdy wrote:What's with all the conspiracy theories in women's gymnastics?
Bela should STFU.

ITA> If US gymnastics has a problem with the scoring they need to take it up with IOC and FIG, which they are members and stop incessant whining and badmouthing the Chinese gymnast girls to the media and public.Makes me want to puke. Every JUDGED events has these problems, has always had these problems. Perhaps should always have these problems as the cost of human judging elements. Judgment calls where made -- and the "mistakes" and injustices where nowhere at the screwed up level as in 2004 Athens (gross unfair judging of a number of men's apparatus, incorrect height of the women vault apparatus, judging mistake with the Korean men's all-around gymnast.)

I feel privileged to watch He's (who Bella keeps bleating is underage) uneven bar performance. The main scoring injustice I saw was the judges rated her routine difficulty level far too low (but \US gymnast complainers ignore, or even explicitly say they aren't complaining about difficulty rating unfairness.) Whatever He's age, she had me thoroughly entertained the most amazing acrobatic release moves I've seen of any gymnast, man or woman performed. Both Luskin and the bronze medal Chinese girl had ho-hum, but well done, routines that I've seen before -- and the Bronze girl stuck her landing. It would have lessened my viewing experience to not have gotten see He perform. The olympics is not all about golds, it's about human physical achievement. And that small Chinese girl delivered an amazing achievement on the uneven bars.

I'm sick of hearing about scoring and age drama. It's hurting my enjoyment. If I cared so much about young looking girls and unfair scoring I wouldn't watch any women's gymnastics. Women's gymnastics is always about the beauty of cute blossoming girls of all nations performing amazing feats of artistry and acrobatics. As others have said, it's the Figure Skating of Summer Olympics. Judging is an always understood outside element, that is potentially unfair/unjust/error-prone. This added human element, that applies to all judged sports -- from cheerleading contests, dance contest, song contests, political elections, drum corp contests, jude, wrestling, olympic boxing, skate boarding, college applications, the court room, etc. Judges make their mistakes, but I accept the scoring mistakes and enjoy the artistry. If competitors have a problem they need to take it up with their sport organization or quit competing in judged sporting.