Olympics have started!

[PeteEU]

Woooooot Danish gold in the 2 man rowing, just beating the UK on the line... damn what a race. The UK team's boat broke at the first attempt.

 

[Andalublue]

Woooooot Danish gold in the 2 man rowing, just beating the UK on the line... damn what a race. The UK team's boat broke at the first attempt.

Great race! So dramatic and I don't think anyone could begrudge the Danish pair their gold; they certainly had to struggle for it. Good for them!

Another great morning for Team GB; 2 gold and a silver, pushing the overall tally up to 10 golds and third place behind China and the US. Not bad.

 

[Redress]

Cool story: 'Blade runner' makes unprecedented Olympic debut - CNN.com

Oscar Pistorius, a South African double-amputee nicknamed the "Blade Runner," made an unprecedented Olympic debut Saturday, finishing second in his 400-meter qualifying heat. With a time of 45.44 seconds, Pistorius qualified for Sunday's semifinals.
The runner's legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old because of a bone defect. He runs on special carbon fiber blades, hence the nickname.

 

[Your Star]

Can't believe a 15 year old won a gold medal, just damn.

 

[American]

Cool story: 'Blade runner' makes unprecedented Olympic debut - CNN.com



View attachment 67132082

45-1/2 seconds is hauling ass!

 

[Higgins86]

Lets rip the Brits to bits in London 2012 - YouTube



lol lets all laugh at the Aussies

 

[American]

What an amazing record Phelps has, we knighted and titled a couple of ours who won 4 or 5 Gold medals - what honour can a republic give such an Olympian?
Actually - why didn't the IOC give him an Olympic pin for this feat? Juan Antonio Samaranch came out personally to award Redgrave on the medals pedestal and Jaques Rogge should have done the same for Phelps.

Highly fitting for our republic since we don't cherish such titles.

 

[PeteEU]

Great race! So dramatic and I don't think anyone could begrudge the Danish pair their gold; they certainly had to struggle for it. Good for them!

Another great morning for Team GB; 2 gold and a silver, pushing the overall tally up to 10 golds and third place behind China and the US. Not bad.

Seems the British pair are now persona non grata in the sport after their first attempt. The Danes and French and all other coaches were up in arms over what they saw as a faking of an equipment malfunction so that they could get a restart. Coming after the scandal in the cycling with the UK sprint team faking a crash..... not good for British sports imo.

 

[Higgins86]

Seems the British pair are now persona non grata in the sport after their first attempt. The Danes and French and all other coaches were up in arms over what they saw as a faking of an equipment malfunction so that they could get a restart. Coming after the scandal in the cycling with the UK sprint team faking a crash..... not good for British sports imo.

Well your allowed to "fake crash" in team cycling its called using the rules to your advantage and given the fact the French team didnt even put in a complaint about it I fail to see how it's a scandal? Also from what I saw and read the Danes were not mad at the British rowing team they were mad at the offiicals for allowing a re-start, no talk of faking an equipment break

p.s 3rd in the medal table, British sports is doing just fine.

 

[Wiggen]

Riiiiiiiight.

So, were the '84 Los Angeles Olympics any less of a 'terrific honor' since they apparently cost taxpayers nothing?

How were those 'existing facilities' that hosted the '84 Olympics actually paid for? I'm willing to bet that they were all initially built and maintained with taxpayer money. So unless your position is that old taxpayer money is fine, it's just new taxpayer money that is not, your position is silly.

 

[Andalublue]

Seems the British pair are now persona non grata in the sport after their first attempt. The Danes and French and all other coaches were up in arms over what they saw as a faking of an equipment malfunction so that they could get a restart. Coming after the scandal in the cycling with the UK sprint team faking a crash..... not good for British sports imo.

Nonesense. Why would they want a restart? They got away best of all six boats. They stopped because they had an equipment malfunction within the first 100m. I just did a Google search to find out what the Danes and French had been saying. Nothing. Not even in Le Monde or L'Équipe. Any links?

 

[Higgins86]

Nonesense. Why would they want a restart? They got away best of all six boats. They stopped because they had an equipment malfunction within the first 100m. I just did a Google search to find out what the Danes and French had been saying. Nothing. Not even in Le Monde or L'Équipe. Any links?

no its a non issue!

 

[Andalublue]

Lets rip the Brits to bits in London 2012 - YouTube



lol lets all laugh at the Aussies

That was the worst faux cockney accent since Dick Van Dyke. Sad.

 

[johnny_rebson]

What an amazing record Phelps has, we knighted and titled a couple of ours who won 4 or 5 Gold medals - what honour can a republic give such an Olympian?

We can give him the presidency, he can't be any worse than Obama or Romney.

 

[PeteEU]

Well your allowed to "fake crash" in team cycling its called using the rules to your advantage and given the fact the French team didnt even put in a complaint about it I fail to see how it's a scandal? Also from what I saw and read the Danes were not mad at the British rowing team they were mad at the offiicals for allowing a re-start, no talk of faking an equipment break

p.s 3rd in the medal table, British sports is doing just fine.

The French did complain. And the 4 badminton players that were kicked out did not break any rules either, but they certainly broke unwritten moral rules on what is acceptable conduct.... I just find it odd that there is such a big difference.

 

[Andalublue]

The French did complain. And the 4 badminton players that were kicked out did not break any rules either, but they certainly broke unwritten moral rules on what is acceptable conduct.... I just find it odd that there is such a big difference.

Well, the badminton players could hardly deny that they hadn't been playing to win, in fact they admitted it. No one has produced any evidence that the GB scullers didn't have an equipment malfunction. Perhaps you know different. Link me to the article where you read that the French have put in a complaint.

 

[Manc Skipper]

Highly fitting for our republic since we don't cherish such titles.

Maybe one or two of your elite do...


"Knighthood and honours
What Americans have been honoured by Britain recently?

Recent American recipients of Honours include former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and film director Steven Spielberg (honorary Knights Commanders of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), former Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan (honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath), Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell (honorary Knights Commanders of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath), Caspar Weinberger (honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), and New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and New York Fire Department Commissioner Thomas Von Essen (honorary Commanders of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire)... "

 

[PeteEU]

Nonesense. Why would they want a restart? They got away best of all six boats. They stopped because they had an equipment malfunction within the first 100m. I just did a Google search to find out what the Danes and French had been saying. Nothing. Not even in Le Monde or L'Équipe. Any links?

I have a link but it is in Danish.

Ny britisk OL-skandale - OL 2012

The Danish rowing teamboss says loosely translated that he followed what was going on "over there" (guessing the area where the rowers were getting repairs) and other than holding a screwdriver nothing happened and that is what I saw too on TV. In fact only "repair" I saw was on one of the paddles /shrug. If the Danes had not won, then they would have protested over it and he hoped that the other countries do protest over it.

Even the gold medal winner says that the whole thing stinks a bit.

Now I doubt there will be anything out of it, because it was the UK pair that is accused (home team advantage in a rowing mad country), and the fact that the Danes and Brits beat the rest of the teams by miles and the fact that they do have rules saying within 100 meters if there is an equipment failure then there is a restart, and proving equipment failure is not real is a tad hard when the seats are removable in the first place.. "hey look it came loose.. equipment failure".

My point is we have had at least 3 situations where Olympians have been accused of cheating... but not breaking the rules per say and the end results have been not exactly the same.

1. Badminton where it was bloody obvious. They however did not break any rules, but were kicked out any ways and frankly rightfully so.
2. British gold medal winner admitting he took a dive to get a restart. Some say it was bad English .. what ever I understood him just fine. No rules against it either, but morally wrong imo. No action taken.

and now this. This time it did not work as well as they had hoped if true, but the point is we are seeing a bad pattern here among some sportsmen and women if you ask me. It is not a dig against the UK team as a whole, just certain individuals.

Add to that the scandals in boxing that go unreported (An Iranian boxer disqualified for minor offences, and yet his opponent not getting warnings for the same thing.. the BBC boxing expert and crowds were pissed off to say the least) and some of the football ref mistakes ... just saw a whooper in the Brazil vs Honduras game and a big whooper by a British ref in the Mexico - Sengal game.. the Sengal player did a karate kick to the face of a Mexico player and only got a bloody yellow... disgraceful. Plus there were several calls of offside that were not given.. a blind man could see they were off side. Then there was the fencing scandal that people only hear about because the South Korean woman refused to leave and cried.. the fencing organisation wants to give the woman a medal (not Olympic) as a band-aid ... in other words they admit they were wrong.

Seems quite a few sports are either relaxing or ignoring rules where as others clamp down hard. I dont like this inconsistency to be honest.

 

[PeteEU]

Well, the badminton players could hardly deny that they hadn't been playing to win, in fact they admitted it. No one has produced any evidence that the GB scullers didn't have an equipment malfunction. Perhaps you know different. Link me to the article where you read that the French have put in a complaint.

As I said it is in Danish

Ekstra Bladet - Guld-trner: De burde have vret disket

Last paragraph.

Oh and the Badminton players only admitted it after they had run out of protest room.

 

[Andalublue]

As I said it is in Danish

Ekstra Bladet - Guld-trner: De burde have vret disket

Last paragraph.

Oh and the Badminton players only admitted it after they had run out of protest room.

Yes, I see the French said they would protest but the Danes decided against joining them. What I don't see anywhere in that article is any evidence that the damage to the British boat was not genuine. We had one coach saying he thought it might be and, er... that's it.

The segue into discussing the cycling was interesting and I think there's more of an issue there. While Hindes stuck strictly to the rules (which the Badminton players did not - they breached 2 of the specific laws of Badminton 16.6.3 and 16.6.4) you could easily argue that it wasn't in the spirit of the rules. And I'd agree with you.

BTW, I'm just watching the walking and these guys are jogging. There have been many, many camera shots showing that serveral walkers have both feet off the ground at the same time. It really isn't a proper sport, is it?

 

[Manc Skipper]

Woot! Women's team pursuit Gold to TeamGB breaking the world record in their last six races on the way! USA Silver, Canada Bronze. (Australia nearly got medal....) Cycling is unstoppable again.

 

[gunner]

Another Gold for GB in cycling, and they actually had the Americans in sight....

Paul

 

[TheDemSocialist]

Stupid Russians aint got **** on the US of A.

 

[gunner]

Woot! Women's team pursuit Gold to TeamGB breaking the world record in every round on the way! USA Silver, Canada Bronze. (Australia nearly got medal....) Cycling is unstoppable again.

Manc you beat me by a split second ( i blame my having to type on my phone)

Paul

 

[gunner]

Stupid Russians aint got **** on the US of A.

You will feel the wrath of the Party speaking like that...:lol:

Paul