London 2012 Megathread [Part 1]

Mars Bar

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I was actually talking to my mate the other day about something similar. With the thousands of delinquent children in the country that are frequently in the courts, maybe we should create an Olympic programme to get these people to turn their lives around. If they break the law, they get shunted into the Olympic Programme and if they fail or show no real effort they get shunted off to prison for their crimes.

The kids will have no choice in what they are entered in and are divided by physical stature and genetics. The tall ones go off to the likes of rowing and swimming and the smaller/mid sized ones go to the likes of Cycling, Table Tennis, Archery, Badminton. Again if they are not interested, they go to prison. Plus we will never have to listen about how they had little opportunity in life.

Its cheaper than shunting them off to prison and a lifetime of social welfare.

I'd love to be in an Olympic programme but I'm not and never will be a criminal. Why do jackasses get the chance at something class and not law abiding citizens?

Chuck Stone

Watching them do their thing on the balance beam gives me the heebie jeebies.

keith16

garv123 wrote: »

Anyone see the british lad boxing? He got flaked around the place in the last round, barely keeping on his feet against the world no.1 and was then given the win on a second count. Rte commentators and the studio were talking about it there and they said it was a disgrace.

I actually flicked over thinking it was a foregone conclusion. I cannot believe that.

Mars Bar

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Watching them do their thing on the balance beam gives me the heebie jeebies.

I can't watch it as I feel they are gonna mess up. Gabby Douglas just nailed it though!

Richard Hillman

Mars Bar wrote: »

I'd love to be in an Olympic programme but I'm not and never will be a criminal. Why do jackasses get the chance at something class and not law abiding citizens?

The decent folk get the option of joining the programme in whatever genre they want. The "jackasses" have no option and if they show no interest in their selected genre or dont become supreme athletes they go to prison and therefore select their ****ty lives.

garv123

NegativeCreep wrote: »

The American synchronised swimmers have been practicing in the Aquatic Centre in Blanch for the past week. I thought the one in Blanch was the only olympic sized one in Ireland. I'm probably wrong though :L

UL have a 50meter Olympic pool, often have I been in it splashing like a drowning dog after the sauna. :pac:

Floor at the shallow end can drop from .4m to 2m

NegativeCreep

Mars Bar wrote: »

I can't watch it as I feel they are gonna mess up. Gabby Douglas just nailed it though!

Saw one girl fall straight onto her flange the other day. It looked so painful! don't know how they do it, it's brilliant :L

Colmustard

Originally Posted by garv123
Anyone see the british lad boxing? He got flaked around the place in the last round, barely keeping on his feet against the world no.1 and was then given the win on a second count. Rte commentators and the studio were talking about it there and they said it was a disgrace.

I was talking to my father and he follows boxing the way others follow football and he was saying the general standard of judging is the worse he has seen and about that particular fight he said the judgement was so dreadful that it was as if the judges were corrupt.

Lets hope they get it together for our fights.

Colmustard

Richard Hillman wrote: »

The decent folk get the option of joining the programme in whatever genre they want. The "jackasses" have no option and if they show no interest in their selected genre or dont become supreme athletes they go to prison and therefore select their ****ty lives.

They will all pick shooting:D

opinion guy

Does Ireland even have a velodrome ??

I'm assuming not. I've never heard of one.

Could be a laugh if you could drink beer and place bets like for the dogs

Richard Hillman

opinion guy wrote: »

Does Ireland even have a velodrome ??

I'm assuming not. I've never heard of one.

Could be a laugh if you could drink beer and place bets like for the dogs

Thats why the Keirin event was invented in Japan for :pac:

Colmustard

opinion guy wrote: »

Does Ireland even have a velodrome ??

I'm assuming not. I've never heard of one.

Could be a laugh if you could drink beer and place bets like for the dogs

Yeah convert one of the dog tracks, it could double up I don't think the dogs would mind running on it. The cyclists could chase pint instead of the hare.

Pherekydes

opinion guy wrote: »

Does Ireland even have a velodrome ??

I'm assuming not. I've never heard of one.

Could be a laugh if you could drink beer and place bets like for the dogs

Yes, we do, but it's an outdoor one and it's in Eamonn Ceannt Park off the Sundrive Road.

Mars Bar

Pherekydes wrote: »

Yes, we do, but it's an outdoor one and it's in Eamonn Ceannt Park off the Sundrive Road.

I was down that road for the first time today!

Gabrielle Douglas is tearing the gymnastics apart. Unbelievable! The floor is her weakest routine and she owned it today!

Lyaiera

Mars Bar wrote: »

I was down that road for the first time today!

Gabrielle Douglas is tearing the gymnastics apart. Unbelievable! The floor is her weakest routine and she owned it today!

Is she the young black girl? The BBC were saying she was unofficially entering competitions when she was too young for them. As in being allowed to do the routines but not getting scored or put in the rankings, and she was doing better than the people who were old enough to compete and would have won them if she was old enough to gotten rankings.

And yeah, she's great. Really, really confident.

westendgirlie

Komova is amazing to watch

Mars Bar

It's gonna be so tight between Douglas and Komova.
Komova was unreal on the floor!

Mars Bar

Wow, the tension waiting for that result! Well done Douglas, feel bad for Komova but a silver medal is nothing to be sniffed at.

westendgirlie

There's medals for individual aparatus isn't there?

DebDynamite

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I was actually talking to my mate the other day about something similar. With the thousands of delinquent children in the country that are frequently in the courts, maybe we should create an Olympic programme to get these people to turn their lives around. If they break the law, they get shunted into the Olympic Programme and if they fail or show no real effort they get shunted off to prison for their crimes.

The kids will have no choice in what they are entered in and are divided by physical stature and genetics. The tall ones go off to the likes of rowing and swimming and the smaller/mid sized ones go to the likes of Cycling, Table Tennis, Archery, Badminton. Again if they are not interested, they go to prison. Plus we will never have to listen about how they had little opportunity in life.

Its cheaper than shunting them off to prison and a lifetime of social welfare.

That could really be a good idea. We just need some kind of national programme going here for sports in young people.

When my boyfriend was young, Sharron Davies could be found on occassion in his local swimming pool, as he's from her part of England, working on behalf of the swimming council or something like that trying to promote swimming with kids.

Lizzie Armistead, Great Britain silver medal winner in the weekend women's road race only took up cycling when the British Cycling’s Olympic talent team came to her school on a recruitment drive.

As someone said earlier in this thread, it really is shame that after the boom, we're not left with a sporting legacy for our youngstes.

FatherTed

westendgirlie wrote: »

There's medals for individual aparatus isn't there?

There will be separate competitions for each over the next few nights.

Lyaiera

Mars Bar wrote: »

Wow, the tension waiting for that result! Well done Douglas, feel bad for Komova but a silver medal is nothing to be sniffed at.

Yeah, both floor routines were great, but... I really think Douglas won because not only was she everything the judges seem to look for (grace, precision, etc.) but she was also really confident. Just looking at her perform it looked like nothing would go wrong for her. She was owning everything she did and looked like she could have done five flips while queuing for a burger and texting her parents to say she just won a gold medal.

Colmustard

DebDynamite wrote: »

That could really be a good idea. We just need some kind of national programme going here for sports in young people.

When my boyfriend was young, Sharron Davies could be found on occassion in his local swimming pool, as he's from her part of England, working on behalf of the swimming council or something like that trying to promote swimming with kids.

.

Right I hear you, now please tell where that pool is:D

AllWasWell

Excellent performance by Gaby Douglas..the most consistent, she is absolutely fantastic and thoroughly deserved the gold! Poor Hannah Whelan, seems to harsh to disregard her vault

DebDynamite

Colmustard wrote: »

Right I hear you, now please tell where that pool is:D

This is around 15/20 years ago too, when she was younger and even hotter. Was bound to have the right effect on the young fellas

Thirdfox

China women's sprint team also relegated - after winning gold.

So who get's silver then?

Colmustard

DebDynamite wrote: »

This is around 15/20 years ago too, when she was younger and even hotter. Was bound to have the right effect on the young fellas

LOL to right
I have expressed my appreciation earlier in this thread as to how well Sharon has matured.

But I get your point I never heard of our athletes going around promoting their sport in schools and clubs.

bwatson

Can somebody please explain to me why the Chinese are simply demoted to a silver for their team's error in the sprint yet the British are totally blown out of the competition?

You hear a hell of a lot about the fact that the whole track cycling establishment have it in for the British after their dominance in Beijing, is this an example of that?

FatherTed

It's a bit unfair with the tie breaker for 3rd place, Mustafina & Reisman finished on the same points but the tie-breaker is to drop their lowest score which was Mustafina's beam. It's almost as if Reisman got punished for being more consistent.

Pherekydes

Thirdfox wrote: »

China women's sprint team also relegated - after winning gold.

So who get's silver then?

Robbed on the tiniest of technicalities! They get silver.

Pherekydes

bwatson wrote: »

Can somebody please explain to me why the Chinese are simply demoted to a silver for their team's error in the sprint yet the British are totally blown out of the competition?

You hear a hell of a lot about the fact that the whole track cycling establishment have it in for the British after their dominance in Beijing, is this an example of that?

When you are relegated in a cycling race it only affects that particular race. The Chinese were relegated in the final so they place 2nd.

The British were relegated in the first round, so they placed last in that particular round.

Thirdfox

What was the technicality? Same as the British one or?

Colmustard

bwatson wrote: »

Can somebody please explain to me why the Chinese are simply demoted to a silver for their team's error in the sprint yet the British are totally blown out of the competition?

You hear a hell of a lot about the fact that the whole track cycling establishment have it in for the British after their dominance in Beijing, is this an example of that?

Its like a relay it has rules, the second rider can-not be ahead of the first rider when they reach the line of the first lap. The British committed the same offence.

It the past they have let it go if it was marginal but for this competition they warned the riders they will be enforcing the rules.

Tox56

So Germany came 3rd and win the gold medal? Rules are rules I suppose

Colmustard

The German national Anthem is a great tune.

They really Jammied that medal some deity was smiling at them.

funnights74

yeah, it's like in the relay on the track. There's a fixed point on the track where the cyclist being overtaken has to be a certain distance behind the cyclist doing the overtaking.
At the speed they are going they have about half a second to get it right.

Guy:Incognito

Tox56 wrote: »

So Germany came 3rd and win the gold medal? Rules are rules I suppose

What? No. How could they come 3rd in a 2 horse race.

Thirdfox

The British broke the world record earlier on - posted a faster time than the Germans.

I assume the germans were third fastest today but got gold is what he meant.

Tox56

Yes, I meant both GB and China were faster

cgpg5

Gold and world record GB!

Beefy78

Gold & a World Record for Britain.

That Velodrome is FAST.

Guy:Incognito

Tox56 wrote: »

Yes, I meant both GB and China were faster

By stealing a bit of ground.

Tox56

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Tox56 wrote: »

Yes, I meant both GB and China were faster

By stealing a bit of ground.

They set a WR in the first round, mistake was in the second round

Colmustard

The velodrome is really living up to my expectation world records even in the heats and the crowd are great.

Chris Hoy 5 gold medals WOW.

Guy:Incognito

Tox56 wrote: »

They set a WR in the first round, mistake was in the second round

Fair enough, but the same could happen in lots of sports. A swimmer could set a WR in a heat then come last in the final.

Lyaiera

Anyone watching the GB vs USA water polo. It's really interesting, a huge amount of tactics and a discernable battle in getting the ball in the goal. (A comparison to basketball where I don't have any involvement in whether a shot is going to go in or not.) Also they're all scratched and bruiesed from getting beat about. ALSO! They're wearing speedos! And they're not old men or hairy bellied Greeks.

Gandhi

Lyaiera wrote: »

Anyone watching the GB vs USA water polo. It's really interesting, a huge amount of tactics and a discernable battle in getting the ball in the goal. (A comparison to basketball where I don't have any involvement in whether a shot is going to go in or not.) Also they're all scratched and bruiesed from getting beat about. ALSO! They're wearing speedos! And they're not old men or hairy bellied Greeks.

A friend of mine who plays it told me you actually have to wear leather speedos as it is such a rough sport that normal speedos would get ripped to shreds.

westendgirlie

Lyaiera wrote: »

Anyone watching the GB vs USA water polo. It's really interesting, a huge amount of tactics and a discernable battle in getting the ball in the goal. (A comparison to basketball where I don't have any involvement in whether a shot is going to go in or not.) Also they're all scratched and bruiesed from getting beat about. ALSO! They're wearing speedos! And they're not old men or hairy bellied Greeks.

Hello Boys :)

Colmustard

Gandhi wrote: »

A friend of mine who plays it told me you actually have to wear leather speedos as it is such a rough sport that normal speedos would get ripped to shreds.

Leather speedos F me imagine the pain of breaking them in.

fryup

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

Ian Thorpe is a great pundit and ridiculously camp to boot!

is he gay?

cause he seems to have a nancy boy air about him