Olympic games thread - General

[5DOM]

yeah, it was clear the chinese "child" landed on her knees. she definitely didnt deserve 15.5

o wait, thats the other one. this one is actually 20 years old, and maybe that's why she landed on her knees.

[canoner]

Two things are involved:

1) when your exercise has high difficulty, judges are inclined to be a bit forgiving on small details. Cheng landed on her knees and got the .8 pt deduction. Along the way, there were places she missed, and she did get some more deduction. You can argue that more deduction can be made, but judges are not gonna scrutinize that vault the same way as they do to an easy vault. If you flip twice even before you touch the vault, of course you are less likely to push the vault dead center. It is same as in NBA the more aggressive team get the benefit of calls.

2) star power. Even Olympic has super-star treatment. That is just the way it is. It always has been that way. Cheng has dominated the vault in the past 3 years and that is on the mind of every judge. Hamm got the benefit of it last time. You know, everybody get a share of it from time to time.

[Blame Rasho]

Two things are involved:

1) when your exercise has high difficulty, judges are inclined to be a bit forgiving on small details. Cheng landed on her knees and got the .8 pt deduction. Along the way, there were places she missed, and she did get some more deduction. You can argue that more deduction can be made, but judges are not gonna scrutinize that vault the same way as they do to an easy vault. If you flip twice even before you touch the vault, of course you are less likely to push the vault dead center. It is same as in NBA the more aggressive team get the benefit of calls.

2) star power. Even Olympic has super-star treatment. That is just the way it is. It always has been that way. Cheng has dominated the vault in the past 3 years and that is on the mind of every judge. Hamm got the benefit of it last time. You know, everybody get a share of it from time to time.

In other words the judges don't do their jobs... and open Pandora's box to criticism.

[GQStylin]

Its funny how the NBC gymnasts commentators after Shawn Johnson's routine on the beam seemed to be getting ready bitch again about the judging, but then the score comes up and Shawn is first and immediately the 'suspect' judging talk goes out the door and its nothing but praise for Shawn.

[canoner]

Two things are involved:

1) when your exercise has high difficulty, judges are inclined to be a bit forgiving on small details. Cheng landed on her knees and got the .8 pt deduction. Along the way, there were places she missed, and she did get some more deduction. You can argue that more deduction can be made, but judges are not gonna scrutinize that vault the same way as they do to an easy vault. If you flip twice even before you touch the vault, of course you are less likely to push the vault dead center. It is same as in NBA the more aggressive team get the benefit of calls.

2) star power. Even Olympic has super-star treatment. That is just the way it is. It always has been that way. Cheng has dominated the vault in the past 3 years and that is on the mind of every judge. Hamm got the benefit of it last time. You know, everybody get a share of it from time to time.

In other words the judges don't do their jobs... and open Pandora's box to criticism.

The thing is they are ALWAYS criticized, no matter what they do. It is like in NBA, refs are always criticized. But everyone here knows, the officiating sometimes benefit your team and sometimes hurt your team. When your team get benefited, you know you are not gonna complain. Same in Olympic games. I would expect NBC to be above it, instead they whine just like every homerish fan.

[Blame Rasho]

Two things are involved:

1) when your exercise has high difficulty, judges are inclined to be a bit forgiving on small details. Cheng landed on her knees and got the .8 pt deduction. Along the way, there were places she missed, and she did get some more deduction. You can argue that more deduction can be made, but judges are not gonna scrutinize that vault the same way as they do to an easy vault. If you flip twice even before you touch the vault, of course you are less likely to push the vault dead center. It is same as in NBA the more aggressive team get the benefit of calls.

2) star power. Even Olympic has super-star treatment. That is just the way it is. It always has been that way. Cheng has dominated the vault in the past 3 years and that is on the mind of every judge. Hamm got the benefit of it last time. You know, everybody get a share of it from time to time.

In other words the judges don't do their jobs... and open Pandora's box to criticism.

The thing is they are ALWAYS criticized, no matter what they do. It is like in NBA, refs are always criticized. But everyone here knows, the officiating sometimes benefit your team and sometimes hurt your team. When your team get benefited, you know you are not gonna complain. Same in Olympic games. I would expect NBC to be above it, instead they whine just like every homerish fan.

They(NBC) have been critical gymnastics since forever. I remember they went **** with Alexei Nemov(a Russian from the cold war) who got robbed of a gold medal. I showed a youtube link of it last Olympics, who did a high difficulty routine and was the MAN in the high bar. The arena was booing the judges and didn't allow for other gymnasts to compete their events. Yeah they(NBC) are biased at times, but they are reporting what could actually be something that is utterly wrong. The judges leave alot to be desired.

[canoner]

They(NBC) have been critical gymnastics since forever. I remember they went **** with Alexei Nemov(a Russian from the cold war) who got robbed of a gold medal. I showed a youtube link of it last Olympics, who did a high difficulty routine and was the MAN in the high bar. The arena was booing the judges and didn't allow for other gymnasts to compete their events. Yeah they(NBC) are biased at times, but they are reporting what could actually be something that is utterly wrong. The judges leave alot to be desired.

Yes there is a lot to be desired. But the scoring at this Olympic game is MUCH better than last one, so it is going the right direction. NBC also made a big deal about the Liukin and He not both getting the gold, while the reality is that the rules were set already and you couldn't change the rule in the middle of the game. NBC should know better but they let their emotion and bias get the better of them. And I just watched the video clip of He's and Liukin's exercise on the uneven bars. He's was clearly more difficult. She did 4 releases vs. Liukin's 2. He was also cleaner on the bars but took one side step on the landing. NBC didn't mention that they two got equal score on difficulty which was wrong. NBC leaves a lot to be desired as well.

[studcrackers]

so did anyone watch the volleyball game between russian and china's indoor women's teams? it happened like 12 hours ago but jesus christ did russia choke, they couldve won all 3 games but were swept. they were up either 24-22 or 21 in game 2 and 16-13 in the final set, in the 3rd set chinal closes the game on a 12-3 run. simply pathetic at how bad russia looked when the pressure was on

[dacher]

Russia seems to be having a disappointing olympics. But they are still 3rd in total medal count.

They have some of the hottest women (spesh their track women) --- hope they do better so we get to see more of them.

[XcalibuR]

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news;_ylt=AiW5jPWgYu6TjGBXhoah4E2PaJh4?slug=ap-gym-grandisgrade&prov=ap&type=lgns

Simply put, the system is not perfect right now. There's no bias, no advantages, Everyone plays under the same rules, the Chinese girls simply went the right path trying the most difficult routines over easier to accomplish ones.

[Michael Phelps]

Man, ever since I have been out of these Olympics, the firepower and the * what is that word, errr, I can't think of it * has not been there in the Olympics, at least for America.

[hermes]

that sucked for Lolo Jones( i think was her name, awesome name though) when she fell on the 9th hurdle, the gold was hers

[Michael Phelps]

It was sad to see her cry after wards, at least an American won though.

[hermes]

and the parallel bars, those guys landing on the upper arms/ biceps area after doing those flips and stuff, that must hurt like crazy

[dacher]

In defense of 20 year old legal female gymnasts screwing up and falling down (Sacramone and the senior Chinese chick), I heard that elite female gymnasts delay puberty until 18 or 19. When the growth spurt hits them, it hits them hard, and causes the "vets" to have falls like we saw them have, on hardest moves they've been training towards from the time they where toddlers, and hitting in their sleep for years.

That's why woman's gymnastics is a girl's sport, with a super short prime.

sad... but they know the deal. You can only "legally" cheat nature for so long.

[Blame Rasho]

Russia seems to be having a disappointing olympics. But they are still 3rd in total medal count.

They have some of the hottest women (spesh their track women) --- hope they do better so we get to see more of them.

They totally got screwed in boxing... The scoring has been a joke.

[LLJ]

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

Simple, the Americans aren't winning, must be the fault of something that's not their own athletes, because we know that they are perfect and any failing cannot possibly be their fault.

I love the double standards with NBC (although that bias exists for any country's network coverage of the Olympics). It's still entertaining nonetheless.

.

I thought going into this year watching CBC that they would be biased to Canadians and they still are, but they've gotten better over the years. The diving commentators are especially hard on Canadians--especially that nasally voiced woman whose name I can't recall right now--and she'll slam a fellow Canadian if she thinks he or she did poorly.

The CBC did raise their eyebrows over the trampoline judging (so did I), but didn't make a huge deal about it.

But Canadians are Canadians and Americans are Americans.

[canoner]

In defense of 20 year old legal female gymnasts screwing up and falling down (Sacramone and the senior Chinese chick), I heard that elite female gymnasts delay puberty until 18 or 19. When the growth spurt hits them, it hits them hard, and causes the "vets" to have falls like we saw them have, on hardest moves they've been training towards from the time they where toddlers, and hitting in their sleep for years.

That's why woman's gymnastics is a girl's sport, with a super short prime.

sad... but they know the deal. You can only "legally" cheat nature for so long.

In Torres's words: Don't put an age limit on your dream. Maybe IOC should do away with the age rule.

[BlackMamba]

i don't see why there should be an age limit.

[GQStylin]

I thought going into this year watching CBC that they would be biased to Canadians and they still are, but they've gotten better over the years. The diving commentators are especially hard on Canadians--especially that nasally voiced woman whose name I can't recall right now--and she'll slam a fellow Canadian if she thinks he or she did poorly.

The CBC did raise their eyebrows over the trampoline judging (so did I), but didn't make a huge deal about it.

But Canadians are Canadians and Americans are Americans.

Anne Montminy, silver and bronze at the 2000 olympics. She's alright on the commentating, but I agree can be abit annoying at times.