London 2012 Megathread [Part 1]

keith16

Mysteriouschic wrote: »

Just curious why is pretty much every sport on in the olympics but rugby?
Ireland would have a good chance of getting a medal in the rugby if that was included even though there good at other sports.
It's just strange how every sport but rugby is included.

One reason that it is not included is due to the extended recovery time needed between the matches which would make any potential 15s tournament too long for the Olympics.

Tox56

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

buyer95 wrote: »

Plus the whole who will McIlroy compete for thing

McIlroy confirmed in an interview at the time of golf being accepted that'd he'd compete for GB.

He's not so clear about it now though, he will probably go for GB but it's by no means certain

flyswatter

The real question is who will McDowell play for. Ireland/GB or even.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzf3RXhNZ40

:P

Jimoslimos

Tox56 wrote: »

He's not so clear about it now though, he will probably go for GB but it's by no means certain

Is the event limited to two per nation? It's quite possible that Lee Westwood and Luke Donald could be ranked above McIllroy and hence get the GB selection.

statesaver

Cannot understand why golf will be in the olympics in 2016.
It already is a very, very high profile sport.
It nearly has blanket tv coverage from a thursday to a sunday when it's on.
No need for it IMHO.

statesaver

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

Forging of the Mandarin mermaid: How Chinese children are taken away from their families and brutalised into future Olympians

Tis a bit disturbing. The poor little feckers.

shruikan2553

statesaver wrote: »

Cannot understand why golf will be in the olympics in 2016.
It already is a very, very high profile sport.
It nearly has blanket tv coverage from a thursday to a sunday when it's on.
No need for it IMHO.

I agree. They had room for 2 sports, choose rugby and then reduced the second choice down to softball, karate and golf. So we get something we can see a few times a year already. It's the new tennis where people competing have bigger competitions to aim for.
Rugby at least is different to the likes of world cup and 6 nations. Im guessing softball was the least played and they didnt want a martial art.

steelcityblues

statesaver wrote: »

Cannot understand why golf will be in the olympics in 2016.
It already is a very, very high profile sport.
It nearly has blanket tv coverage from a thursday to a sunday when it's on.
No need for it IMHO.

And it will be behind in prestige to at least 4 other tournaments, just like tennis. Stupid stuff, but it shows the absolute greed of the IOC.

Sparks43

RUCKING FETARD wrote: »

Forging of the Mandarin mermaid: How Chinese children are taken away from their families and brutalised into future Olympians

Talk about a Chinese Take Away:D

DEFTLEFTHAND

I'm looking forward to golf being included anyway. The format of a 4 day tournament will work well and should make for an exciting final day when the medals are decided.
Alternatively they could use a matchplay format which would be equally as exciting for golf fans.

statesaver

Ye're right about tennis too. Should not be there.

Pudsy33

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I'm looking forward to golf being included anyway. The format of a 4 day tournament will work well and should make for an exciting final day when the medals are decided.
Alternatively they could use a matchplay format which would be equally as exciting for golf fans.

Think it will be a full 72 hole strokeplay event. Although matchplay would be much better. An olympic golf final

H2UMrsRobinson

statesaver wrote: »

Cannot understand why golf will be in the olympics in 2016.
It already is a very, very high profile sport.
It nearly has blanket tv coverage from a thursday to a sunday when it's on.
No need for it IMHO.

I agree. The same could also be said for Olympic football. World cup, euros, about a million other leagues. On the telly all fecking year !!!

M cebee

makes me sick
listening to michael johnson
MD waffling on about chinese swimmers

Pudsy33

H2UMrsRobinson wrote: »

I agree. The same could also be said for Olympic football. World cup, euros, about a million other leagues. On the telly all fecking year !!!

Well at least in the football there is an age restriction. Maybe tennis, golf and the like should follow suit.

K-9

Digitalism wrote: »

shes 23.

Yeah Cloe is 23 and hopefully she will qualify for the last 16 in Brazil, which would be an huge achievement for an Irish badminton player.

statesaver

Ah no, please keep womens football. Kinda infatuated with Alex Morgan since the beijing olympics.

garv123

K-9 wrote: »

Yeah Cloe is 23 and hopefully she will qualify for the last 16 in Brazil, which would be an huge achievement for an Irish badminton player.

RTE might even get a commentator who knew what they were talking about to commentate on the games if she did.

statesaver

garv123 wrote: »

RTE might even get a commentator who knew what they were talking about to commentate on the games if she did.

True. The guy today was a rubbish commentator. Maybe he's an next player and was put in there by RTE, i dunno. Glad i won't have to listen to him again for another 4 years !!

Richard Hillman

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Is the event limited to two per nation? It's quite possible that Lee Westwood and Luke Donald could be ranked above McIllroy and hence get the GB selection.

The top 15 in the world qualify and other countries have 2 entries

garv123

statesaver wrote: »

True. The guy today was a rubbish commentator. Maybe he's an next player and was put in there by RTE, i dunno. Glad i won't have to listen to him again for another 4 years !!

He definitely wasn't a player, he was doing the swimming commentary apparently.
He called the shuttle a ball, twice..

Scot evans hit a 3/4 court clear and lost the point and he said the minimum he should be doing is reaching the end line (anything past that is out)

He said magee was hitting the shuttle too high instead of too short at times.

He couldnt comment on what was going wrong, only said the score or that was in or out.

A shuttle has 16 feathers from the left side of a goose only.. straight off wiki

Bill o Herlihy said they were all playing a protestant sport.

RTE also took a break between sets and missed 8 points of one of the games. complete joke.

statesaver

Bill o Herlihy is a tw@t. What a silly, stupid thing to say.

.E_C_K_S.

Lads any good sites to watch the highlights of todays Olympics? Really struggling to find good clips online

Happyman42

garv123 wrote: »

Bill o Herlihy said they were all playing a protestant sport.

He didn't say that at all. :rolleyes:
He said, 'When he was growing up, babminton was seen as a Protestant sport', in an attempt to get his panelist to elaborate on how popular it had become. Which is an entirely legitimate thing to say if you had any idea of the history of sport in this country.

HazDanz

I watch the BBC coverage mostly unless there is an Irish person in an event, I would switch to RTE for that. At least BBC have a pretty decent depth to their commentary team whereas RTE leaves a lot to be desired.

Gary Lineker grates big time in the studio for the BBC though. Some of his comments are ridiculous!

steelcityblues

In fairness, they are the broadcaster of a country with a 60m pop, to our 4m, so it is always going to be easier for them to find better commentators, overall.

rodgered

Happyman42 wrote: »

He didn't say that at all. :rolleyes:
He said, 'When he was growing up, babminton was seen as a Protestant sport', in an attempt to get his panelist to elaborate on how popular it had become. Which is an entirely legitimate thing to say if you had any idea of the history of sport in this country.

Well said, Billo is a protestant himself I believe.

Happyman42

steelcityblues wrote: »

In fairness, they are the broadcaster of a country with a 60m pop, to our 4m, so it is always going to be easier for them to find better commentators, overall.

+ as Britian's national broadcaster they have invested huge resources into the home games. No way have they ever covered the Olympics in this way. RTE's coverage is on a par with previous games coverage from what I can see.

Does anyone know who is suppling the feeds? Is the BBC the main TV contractor for the games?

statesaver

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0731/1224321156033.html

statesaver

^ Sorry

Magee bats off O'Herlihy 'Protestant' comment

Richard Hillman

Happyman42 wrote: »

+ as Britian's national broadcaster they have invested huge resources into the home games. No way have they ever covered the Olympics in this way. RTE's coverage is on a par with previous games coverage from what I can see.

Does anyone know who is suppling the feeds? Is the BBC the main TV contractor for the games?

No, the IOC are doing the coverage themselves and feeding it to the broadcasters.

Happyman42

Richard Hillman wrote: »

No, the IOC are doing the coverage themselves and feeding it to the broadcasters.

Ok, just wondered. They have a huge studio in the park and they seem to be able to zoom into their athletes during the swimming, maybe their director has a choice of camera angles?

Richard Hillman

Happyman42 wrote: »

Ok, just wondered. They have a huge studio in the park and they seem to be able to zoom into their athletes during the swimming, maybe their director has a choice of camera angles?

The main feed comes from the IOC broadcasting. The BBC may have a couple of cameras in the arena and cut to them occasionally. Its fairly visible in the swimming when a British athlete is competing. The IOC cameras are in key positions and polished but occasionally you would see a cut off on the BBC of a british Athlete swimming from a strange angle.

Gyalist

Shauna Mullin, who with Zara Dampney is representing Great Britain in the women's beach volleyball, has Irish roots.

Her father is from Monaghan and until last year was the General Manager of the Westin Hotel in Dublin.

funnights74

fryup wrote: »

Phelps achievement is amazing but i still think Steve Redgrave's five gold in five separate olympics is the best[/QUOTE

Daley Thompson has to come into the equation, double Olympic champion in the decathlon, most people can just about manage 1 event but this guy is pretty decent at 10 under the most extreme pressure.
Broke his own world record a few times and was unbeaten in the Decathlon for 8 years. Fairly remarkable, and he whistled the UK national anthem at the 84 Olympics!!!

Cookie_Monster

Badminton players in trouble for attempting to lose...
http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/olympics-2012/other-news/london-2012-probe-launched-as-olympic-badminton-competitors-play-to-lose-3187160.html

anyone else think there's nothing actually wrong with that, all part of the game after all...

westendgirlie

god 99
diegomaradonna 88
nicevery 86
tadghSk 73
jesus shaves 71
irish stew 70
pherekydes 67
mynameisurl 64
samich 60
deftlefthand 53
mars bar 52
sparks 47
barney92 43
westendgirlie 42
kfallon 29

mike65

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Badminton players in trouble for attempting to lose...
http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/olympics-2012/other-news/london-2012-probe-launched-as-olympic-badminton-competitors-play-to-lose-3187160.html

anyone else think there's nothing actually wrong with that, all part of the game after all...

Every athlete takes a pledge to play the game to the best of their abilities. I'd say the 4 teams could get booted out today.

BraziliaNZ

What time is Wiggo racing at?

Mint Sauce

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

What time is Wiggo racing at?

Mens time trail starts at 2.15. Wiggo is 2nd last to go.

mike65

The Irish might want to latch onto to British Lightweight 4s three of whom are from Norn Iron they go tomorrow morning at 10 am.

Cosmo Kramer

mike65 wrote: »

The Irish might want to latch onto to British Lightweight 4s three of whom are from Norn Iron they go tomorrow morning at 10 am.

Irish people who choose to compete for 'Team GB'?

No thanks.

BraziliaNZ

John Joe fights at 1400 today too, and then can watch the road racing, glad I have a cushy job!

Pherekydes

mike65 wrote: »

Every athlete takes a pledge to play the game to the best of their abilities. I'd say the 4 teams could get booted out today.

They never make an issue of athletes taking it easy in running heats. Many runners have made no attempt to win their races.

Colmustard

Bradley Wiggins has 3 golds a silver and a bronze from the last 2 olympics, as well as a number of world championship golds and silvers.

He "should" win gold today as he is meant to be the best time trials specialist in the world so that is 4 golds in 3 olympics and he also has a Tour De France under his belt.

When you think about it, that makes him one of the greatest sportsmen in the world. And he is clean and always was.

Beefy78

Colmustard wrote: »

Bradley Wiggins has 3 golds a silver and a bronze from the last 2 olympics, as well as a number of world championship golds and silvers.

He "should" win gold today as he is meant to be the best time trials specialist in the world so that is 4 golds in 3 olympics and he also has a Tour De France under his belt.

When you think about it, that makes him one of the greatest sportsmen in the world. And he is clean and always was.

I'm not convinced he's a given for the gold. We shall see.

mike65

Pherekydes wrote: »

They never make an issue of athletes taking it easy in running heats. Many runners have made no attempt to win their races.

True but that's not the same as actively seeking to lose a one on one tie. if an athletic in a semi final race finishes in the top 8 times then they are in the final. Whereas in a "group" tie you can throw the game and benefit. That's what needs punishing.

Colmustard

Beefy78 wrote: »

I'm not convinced he's a given for the gold. We shall see.

Yes its why I put "should"

I hope so, I admire the guy. But is his heart in it, he has reached cycling's highest accolade.

I would like to see team GB do well and yes I am Irish.

BraziliaNZ

I think today is the day Team GB will see their first gold in rowing or cycling

cgpg5

Colmustard wrote: »

Yes its why I put "should"

I hope so, I admire the guy. But is his heart in it, he has reached cycling's highest accolade.

I would like to see team GB do well and yes I am Irish.

I'd be very surprised if he didn't. And same I like seeing team GB doing well.

Wrt that badminton fiasco what was the reasoning behind it? To avoid a tough next round opponent is it? I've heard of similar stories in football a few times. When they're both through already it wouldn't bother me personally but I can see how it is an issue