London 2012 Megathread [Part 1]

cgpg5

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

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

Jamieson will not be far away in breaststroke tonight either!

Guy:Incognito

Just watching the rowing. Whats the deal with the A final and B final?

mike65

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Just watching the rowing. Whats the deal with the A final and B final?

Rowing races cover a distance of 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) in river, canal or lake-type competition venues in six lanes. The crews will qualify through predetermined rounds. There is the preliminary round (heats), the repeat round (repechages), the semi-finals and then the finals. The "A" final will determine the first six places and the "B" final will determine the 7th through 12th positions. The number of rounds per event will depend on the number of boats that are taking part.

So its just to give everyone who qualified from the semi finals a "final" final position it seems.

Mars Bar

The NBC commentator on my stream keeps calling Badminton, Bad-mitten. STFU!

BraziliaNZ

Boom. Gold medal no. 1 for Team Heebie-Jeebie!

mike65

Blitzed the field, fantastic performance. And a one two three for the Empire! :pac:

Beefy78

Yay!

bwatson

First gold medal of the games for Great Britain, well done to Helen and Heather!

Capt'n Midnight

LiamoSail wrote: »

Were they always referred to as Team GB or is this a new thing?

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

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

No thanks.

and how do NI feel about it ? :pac:

Beefy78

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

and how do NI feel about it ? :pac:

There was actually a bit on the Guardian blog about all this about an hour ago:

Team UK?
Earlier I mentioned Northern Ireland, to which David Cameron has been exiled like Napoleon to Elba for the duration of the Games.

Reader Simon Gates asks: “Can anyone explain why it is Team GB not Team UK? Great Britain seems to specifically exclude Northern Ireland, but there are Northern Irish athletes in the team – they don’t compete for Ireland (as they would in rugby for example).” Very true. Rower Alan Campbell – who is just setting off in the single sculls semi-final now – is Northern Irish for example.

I asked Team GB (not all of them) to explain.

A spokesman said the British Olympic Association – aka Team GB – covers Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and UK overseas territories such as the Falklands and Gibraltar. Not all of these are part of the UK. (Northern Ireland, of course, is part of the UK but not part of Great Britain.)

The International Olympic Committee has recognised the British team as “GBR” since 1896. The “Team GB” name is a “concise, functional marketing property … which has developed over three Olympic cycles”. The spokesman added:

We are very conscious that the brand is not representative of all the territories in the BOA’s jurisdiction; indeed, neither “UK” nor “GB” is an accurate description of the BOA’s remit.

All very reasonable. But surely Team UK, although still imperfect, would do a better job than Team GB as a name for the squad, and would be just as good as a "marketing property"?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/london-2012-olympics-blog/2012/aug/01/london-2012-olympics-day-five-live-blog

bwatson

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

and how do NI feel about it ? :pac:

Many Northern Irish athletes have competed, and won medals, for Great Britain. Many of us are British after all. We feel as much a part of the team as anyone else and the fact that its just Great Britain and not Great Britain and Northern Ireland is as a gesture of goodwill to the Irish team who were (I don't know why) offended at the British Olympic Association calling themseves GB and NI. I have absolutely no problem with that if it helps the Irish team feel appeased and keeps relations between the associations ok, which is what the olympics is about.

Anyone

The whole "Team GB" thing is nothing more than a marketing ploy. Actually finding the term annoying now and its been less than a week, lol!

Capt'n Midnight

Tox56 wrote: »

Of course being able to compete in all of those is a great achievement, but medal count alone shouldn't determine the "greatest olympian".

Back in the day Daley Thompson would have got Bronze in the Long Jump if he'd entered.

There is something to be said for allowing Decathlon Athletes and others to be rewarded elsewhere in non race events.

Also Lin Qinfeng (69Kg weightlifter) is ahead of everyone in 77Kg pool B so far. Just totally wiped everyone - Gold on his first lift in the second half.

Triyatno really earned his silver with that last lift

Capt'n Midnight

statesaver wrote: »

Cannot understand why golf will be in the olympics in 2016.

As long as it is amateur.


Of course if they want to rake in the cash they could have
Olympic Pro-Celeb Golf :rolleyes:


Tennis is a complete joke. Haven't watched it. How have the rankings compared with Wimbledon ?

opinion guy

I want to see Michael PHelps int he winter olympics next. Only when he wins some winter olympics medals will I be impressed :P :pac:

keano_afc

Is Northern Ireland the only place where athletes would be allowed to compete for 2 different teams? Seems a bit odd if its "team GB and NI" and yet Team Ireland has a good few members from the North.

mike65

The BBC "colour" commentator nearly expired there.

Germans very impressive, GB bronze.

bwatson

keano_afc wrote: »

Is Northern Ireland the only place where athletes would be allowed to compete for 2 different teams? Seems a bit odd if its "team GB and NI" and yet Team Ireland has a good few members from the North.

You must surely know why both Ireland and Great Britain have athletes from Northern Ireland. Where have you been living, under a rock?

Anyone

keano_afc wrote: »

Is Northern Ireland the only place where athletes would be allowed to compete for 2 different teams? Seems a bit odd if its "team GB and NI" and yet Team Ireland has a good few members from the North.

Happens a lot, I guess it comes down to passport? Was watching the archery earlier, and was a US woman in her 4th of 5th Olympics, she had respresented Russia and Georgia before, and now the US.

Brian017

Annalise out in front after a bad start for her

BraziliaNZ

Brian017 wrote: »

Annalise out in front after a bad start for her

Are you watching it? According to this she's in 9th

http://www.london2012.com/sailing/event/laser-radial-women/phase=saw103905/index.html?v=2012-08-01124725Z

Brian017

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Are you watching it? According to this she's in 9th

http://www.london2012.com/sailing/event/laser-radial-women/phase=saw103905/index.html?v=2012-08-01124725Z

No I'm not. I'm getting updates from whoever is manning her Facebook page. She's up to 8th now according to that.

BraziliaNZ

Anyway she's still a fair bit back but she should still be in the top 3 or thereabouts if she stayys in this position after today

cgpg5

Sky Sports News ‏@SkySportsNews
BREAKING NEWS: Eight women's double badminton players disqualified from Olympics following allegations of throwing matches #SSN

Drama

Capt'n Midnight

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Are you watching it? According to this she's in 9th

http://www.london2012.com/sailing/event/laser-radial-women/phase=saw103905/index.html?v=2012-08-01124725Z

it's updated again 7th - pulled back 13 seconds

Brian017

Up to 6th according to the BBC

Capt'n Midnight

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Anyway she's still a fair bit back but she should still be in the top 3 or thereabouts if she stayys in this position after today

She is twelve points in front of Evi Van

So she will still be in front if she finishes better than twelfth. If Evi stays in 4th then she only needs to finish 16th.

Brian017

Update on her FB page:

Annalise is making big gains on this leg only 14 seconds behind the leader now! #killingit

opinion guy

cgpg5 wrote: »

Sky Sports News ‏@SkySportsNews
BREAKING NEWS: Eight women's double badminton players disqualified from Olympics following allegations of throwing matches #SSN

Drama

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19072677

Surprised they banned them actually!

garv123

Glad they got banned. Disgraceful behaviour.

Someone said people dont try their best to win in the heats of running, If you lose in the heats you don't qualify, coming 4th and preserving some energy wont give you a better draw in the next round. There's a difference.

The badminton was a disgrace to watch. deliberately hitting serves into the net and hitting shots out..

kfallon

Did Annalise win again?

Brian017

kfallon wrote: »

Did Annalise win again?

She's 6th at the moment

Sitamoia

Free streams

http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html

program guide http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/londo...epg/index.html

Capt'n Midnight

Brian017 wrote: »

She's 6th at the moment

Gaining on 5th but the leading pack have slipped off in fresh breeze! Still a Herculean effort to keep away from that big chasing pack! #LetsgoIreland

one more split before the finish

Capt'n Midnight

Alison Young just about to win

Evi just passed her at the line

Annalise 8th

garv123

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Alison Young just about to win

Evi just passed her at the line

The commentators celebrating her great win and then they switch commentators and in the switch over she was picked off on the line :pac::pac:

Capt'n Midnight

http://london2012.bbc.co.uk/sailing/event/laser-radial-women/phase=saw103905/index.html

Annalise 8th in the race - still 1st overall

and they are allowed one discard.

opinion guy

lol at the thrones they have the cyclists sitting in whilst waiting for the others to finish.:rolleyes:

Sparks43

Eoin about to go in the kayak thingy

Thirdfox

garv123 wrote: »

Glad they got banned. Disgraceful behaviour.

Someone said people dont try their best to win in the heats of running, If you lose in the heats you don't qualify, coming 4th and preserving some energy wont give you a better draw in the next round. There's a difference.

The badminton was a disgrace to watch. deliberately hitting serves into the net and hitting shots out..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19072677

they were seemingly charged with "not using one's best efforts to win"... which applies in the running and swimming heats when Usuain Bolt/Lochte/Ye etc quite often don't give their best efforts to win.

The second charge of "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" has much more ground I think. Though they were clearly aiming to have the best chance to win the competition/future matches and not necessarily abusing the sport. They used a tactic that was permitted by the fact that the tournament changed from knockout to round robin for the first time in an Olympics.

The world championships apparently only use the knockout format too.

Look at the cycling - people don't go as fast as they can in the race because tactically they can shield themselves behind others to reduce their own drag until late on in the race, they certainly were not using their maximum muscle strength for the duration of the competition.

Anyway, this example has laid down a good marker for what is and isn't a good idea (both for the tournament organisers and competitors).

One can see that Lin Dan (Chinese/World no.1 men's singles) criticising the team and also the Chinese state newspaper stating that sportsmanship should be more important than medals.

I guess it's hard to resist using tactics when you know that losing gives you a competitive edge. And unfair that a player should be put in that position in the first place.

Sparks43

Balls he missed a gate

Game over :mad:

Aidric

For all fans of basketball commentator Timmy 'Downtown' McCarthy, this slice of brilliance from Off The Ball last night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0qBsQ34jSc

Capt'n Midnight

cgpg5 wrote: »

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

In the 69Kg weightlifting B there were a two medal contenders, within a Kg of the Bronze / Silver

Psychology and stuff. different rest time between lifts

[edit]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weightlifting_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_69_kg

HazDanz

Fencing is so quick. It's great viewing though!

Brussels Sprout

Seems that ESPN are tallying the medals differently between their american and british websites so as to keep them on top of the medals table in Yankeeland.

opinion guy

Nevin fight showing on bbc 1 now

HazDanz

Good man Nevin. Great opening round

Blisterman

5-2 to Nevin in the first round. Good stuff.

Capt'n Midnight

Thirdfox wrote: »

Look at the cycling - people don't go as fast as they can in the race because tactically they can shield themselves behind others to reduce their own drag until late on in the race, they certainly were not using their maximum muscle strength for the duration of the competition

It's an accepted part of that sport. The tatic may be a sprint finish or a long breakaway there is a bit of headology involved.

Time trials are different, there it is about total effort over the course.

Neither are like badminton where you have more control over the flow of points over the course of the event.

Blisterman

10-5 to Nevin after 2 rounds. Looking good so far.