Olympic games thread - General

[Texas Longhorns]

You band wagon hoppers start to come in here now after we won a great gold medal.

[canoner]

I thought Phelps was gonna pump his chest like King Kong but he didn't.

[GQStylin]

French achor is (Please Use More Appropriate Word) .... he let Jason Lezack draft him the whole last 50meters
being THAT close to the lane marker

If he moved over to the next side, French would have won

Just watched that relay again and yeah Lezak did get abit of help by drafting off the Frenchman. Don't know why he drifted over towards Lezak to allow him to draft off him. Dumb dumb DUMB! And very smart for Lezak.

[kno]

Holy SHTTTT! WHat a relay.

edit: Yes, I just saw it.

Fkkk NBC.

[Texas Longhorns]

Man Kno, a little late there buddy, but yeah it was incredible.

Anyways, the Women's USA Volleyball team lost their game. Hopefully they can bounce back.

[TheGlyde]

Yeah it was a great finish, reminded me of the Thorpe/Hall finish from 2000 except this time us Aussies were back in a distant 3rd, 'only' smashing the old WR by 2.32 seconds.

Have to say the whole, 5 teams under the WR and WR's going in almost every final is cheapening some great performances for me, yes they are the best in the world but I am almost ignoring the times now.

If you lined up the last 10 WR holders in each event in a 1980s swim suit/speedo I have no idea who would win, but I don't think it would be the current WR holder every time, not by a long shot.

WR should be about the best athlete ever, not the best technology ever, JMO.

[Texas Longhorns]

Yeah. The Aussies are doing a good job in Women's basketball right now. It looks like a set match for the gold medal game for the U.S. and Australia.

[GQStylin]

WR should be about the best athlete ever, not the best technology ever, JMO.

I don't think its the best techonology that's doing all the record breaking. I think its that athletes keep getting stronger and bigger as well as finding better ways to train and optimize their performances. The way swimmers train now, its nothing like it was years ago.

[GQStylin]

Another diving gold for China. They're beating the competition by large margins in every dive finals so far.

[TheGlyde]

WR should be about the best athlete ever, not the best technology ever, JMO.

I don't think its the best techonology that's doing all the record breaking. I think its that athletes keep getting stronger and bigger as well as finding better ways to train and optimize their performances. The way swimmers train now, its nothing like it was years ago.

I'm sure there are plenty of athletes who are training harder, better and continuing to improve etc, but no way are all of them, and not by this much, some of this is almost overnight improvement of huge chunks of time, determining whats down to the athlete and whats down to the suit is clouding alot of the great performances for me.

There are some athletes who have been swimming similar times for years and now are dropping over a second off their PB's...

I'm just trying to ignore the WR's and times and giving props based on placings, as it should be whats more important in the Olympics anyway, its about racing, not times.

[GQStylin]

I'm sure there are plenty of athletes who are training harder, better and continuing to improve etc, but no way are all of them, and not by this much, some of this is almost overnight improvement of huge chunks of time, determining whats down to the athlete and whats down to the suit is clouding alot of the great performances for me.

There are some athletes who have been swimming similar times for years and now are dropping over a second off their PB's...

I'm just trying to ignore the WR's and times and giving props based on placings, as it should be whats more important in the Olympics anyway, its about racing, not times.

I think it has to do with the pool as well at least in some part. Sometimes the conditions and the pool are just right that it aids in breaking records, which is why alot of swimming commentors refer to pools as fast or slow.

Also, I'm not sure why its such a surprise that many swimmers are clocking in better times. I mean at the olympics its the best of the best from each country. If all the major swimming powers sends in its best 2-4 swimmers, that's a heck of alot of good swimmers in the field. So if you combine cutting edge training of top swimmers with a good swimsuit, records are bound to fall.

[GQStylin]

And another women's weightlifting gold for China. The Chinese weightlifters have been winning nearly everything so far.

[Slava]

India win an olympic gold medal!

Abhinav Bindra wins the 10m air rifle title!

[Texas Longhorns]

Haha finally India won. Good job for them.

[The Duke]

Yea honeslty WR's dont mean much any more. Imagine the entire top 8 in the 4x100m relay beat the old world record entering to these games. Thats UNHEARD of.

1st - The biggest different has been the training but its the technology of training that it pushing it. Where your training is does by lasers and underwater cameras, that tracks your every move, allwoing coachs to better train you on exact what you need to do. The computer and the camera doesn't lie, but the ability to track and see what you should be doing is the difference... that can come in the form of, the angel of dive on entry, positioning of the hands, positioning of arms/hands/head/legs during the strokes, entry on the flips and exits on the flips.

2nd - These LZR suits are fast, no doubt about it. They basically are made for each individual swimmer, to streamline that individual swimmer uniquely. Basically it helps all your individual imperfections. Is not the sole reason the best have improved their times, but its a reason why the masses have improved their times. Phelphs is a great swimmer, best in his distances, and the LZR has even more so allowed him to "become" better, cuz the new suits can help a swimmer with excellent technique become even better. The suit does not change your techinque obviously.

3rd - Its the conditions... The pools now are designed to be "fast" pools aiding even more worlds records. Swimming Venus want to be known as the fast pools, so more competition come to that place. To make a pool "fast" its based on the humidity in the area, the materials used in the making of the pool, the technology associated with the pool "keeping" it fast, the pH and other chemical levels in the pool, making it ideal each swim every time.

[Texas Longhorns]

U.S. women's basketball team is totally dominating China right now. It's not even a contest.

[Texas Longhorns]

Well, U.S. women easily beat the Chinese women in basketball. Only team 2-0 now in the standings.

[Da Schwab]

I watched the 4x100m final last night before I went to sleep, and it kept me up two hours later than I wanted because I was so pumped we beat those damn Frenchies after Bernard's comments. I know next to nothing about swimming, but I was really excited to see that race, especially since it was supposed to be one of the few chinks in Phelps' 8-gold armor.

[Posey H8er]

China is really racking up medals right now with events like weightlifting. There are still a lot of swimming and T&F events for the United States to catch up. And we are only in day 4.

[Texas Longhorns]

Goddamn China is just getting Gold out of no where. If we don't be careful, they might even take the total medals achievement too. We need to get at least one of the two. Both would be nice, but I don't want to be picky.