The Official 2008 Olympics thread

[faithful_servant]

Well, since no one bothered to start one this weekend, I guess I'll do it.

MY personal favorite story so far:
The US sweep of the Women's Sabre. Any time any nation sweeps any event it's big story and these three deserve a whole lot more attention and endorsement contracts than they'll probably ever see. Sabre's a tough sport, it requires the absolute tightest level of physical control over your own body and your weapon (variations in control that would never even be noticed in gymanstics or diving can be catastrophic in fencing). A big "Well done ladies!!"

Beijing, China (Sports Network) - The U.S. swept the women's individual sabre fencing competition Saturday at the Olympics with Mariel Zagunis successfully defending her gold medal at the National Convention Center.

Zagunis defeated countrywoman Sada Jacobson by a 15-8 score in the gold medal match and Becca Ward made it a clean sweep for the Americans by besting Russia's Sofiya Velikaya, 15-14, in the bronze medal match.

The fencing trio picked up the first three medals for the U.S. at the Beijing Games and gave the Americans the overall medal lead after the first day of competition.

It marks the first time a country has swept the medals in an individual fencing event since Germany did it in women's foil at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Former U.S. president George H.W. Bush was in attendance to witness the historic fencing medal haul and afterward pulled a tissue out of his pocket to give to Zagunis, who was crying on the medal stand.

"It's absolutely amazing," said Zagunis. "We made history today. I'm proud of myself as well as Sada and Becca."

The Sports Network - Olympics

[marylouc]

I think the opening ceremonies were absolutely fantastic. and any other superlatives you can think of. I don't know how any other country will be able to top this.

[cnredd]

The lighting of the torch was impressive, but it doesn't beat the archer a few years back...

YouTube - Barcelona 1992 Olympic Flame

[cnredd]

Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints 'faked'

Parts of the spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on Friday were faked because of fears over live filming, it has emerged.

As the ceremony got under way with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird's Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square.

What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.

The fireworks were there for real, outside the stadium. But those responsible for filming the extravaganza decided in advance it would be impossible to capture all 29 footprints from the air.

As a result, only the last, visible from the camera stands inside the Bird's Nest was captured on film.

The trick was revealed in a local Chinese newspaper, the Beijing Times, at the weekend.

Gao Xiaolong, head of the visual effects team for the ceremony, said it had taken almost a year to create the 55-second sequence. Meticulous efforts were made to ensure the sequence was as unnoticeable as possible: they sought advice from the Beijing meteorological office as to how to recreate the hazy effects of Beijing's smog at night, and inserted a slight camera shake effect to simulate the idea that it was filmed from a helicopter.

"Seeing how it worked out, it was still a bit too bright compared to the actual fireworks," he said. "But most of the audience thought it was filmed live - so that was mission accomplished."

Guess that's why people liked it...It was too good to be true...

[faithful_servant]

Originally Posted by cnredd

Beijing Olympic 2008 opening ceremony giant firework footprints 'faked'

Guess that's why people liked it...It was too good to be true...

I don't get what all the noise is about this. They put on a great show and intergrated traditional fireworks with state of the art technology. I think that it's pretty stinkin' impressive. Of course, they threw a huge amount of national effort into pulling this off (something that we for some stupid reason pawn off primarily on the host city) so they can put a lot of resources behind it.

[faithful_servant]

BEIJING -- The records, the medals. They just keep piling up.

Michael Phelps? Yeah, him, too.

The most dominant force thus far at these Olympics is the Big Red Machine known as the Chinese delegation.

By adding three golds, a silver and two bronzes to their collection Monday, China leads the pack with 14 total medals. Nine of those are gold.


Day 3 of the Beijing Games went off under better weather -- hardly any rain, with the bonus of Sunday's rain rinsing away some of the pollution.

But another kind of dark cloud appeared. Drugs.

Maria Isabel Moreno, a three-time national cycling champion from Spain, became the first athlete kicked out of the Beijing Olympics for doping after testing positive for EPO, a blood-boosting hormone that enhances endurance and has been at the center of numerous cycling scandals in recent years.

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Swimming

If Phelps wins seven or eight gold medals and gets a $1 million bonus from Speedo, he'll need to spend a chunk on Lezak.

Lezak dove in second to 100 star Alain Bernard of France. He was still trailing with about 25 meters to go, but zoomed to the wall first -- 0.08 second ahead of Bernard.

Phelps threw his arms up and began hollering with the joy of a lottery winner. He sort of is, considering the odds the Americans faced, from Phelps finishing his leadoff lap in second place to Lezak trailing Bernard after the final turn, and considering the history -- and big bucks -- on the line.

The Americans finished in 3:08.24, a touch under 4 seconds faster than the world record set the night before by their qualifying crew.

"Unbelievable," Phelps said. "Jason's last 10 or 15 meters were incredible."

Lezak covered his lap in 46.06, the fastest relay leg in history though it doesn't count as an official record. Phelps' 47.51 does go into the record books as a U.S. best.

"A fingertip did the victory," said Amaury Leveaux, one of the French swimmers. "It is nothing."

Katie Hoff knows exactly how bummed the French are.

She built a big lead in the 400 freestyle, but touched 0.07 after Britain's Rebecca Adlington. After two of her five individual races, Hoff has a silver and a bronze -- the amount she expected, but not necessarily the right color.

"I got a bronze yesterday and a silver this morning. If I keep climbing at this pace, I'll be happy," said Hoff, who has three more individual events, plus a relay.

In other morning action, American Christine Magnuson finished second in the 100-meter butterfly; American Brendan Hansen had the agony of finishing fourth in the 100-meter backstroke and the added disappointment of losing his world record to winner Japan's Kosuke Kitajima; and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe set a world record in the 100-meter backstroke semifinals, taking down the mark set this summer by American Natalie Coughlin.

At night, Italy's Federica Pellegrini set a world record in the 200 freestyle preliminaries.

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Tennis

It sounds like the opening round of a major: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and the Williams sister all advanced.

Nadal won his Olympic singles debut, beating Italy's Potito Starace 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, and Federer beat Russia's Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2, then received congratulations from one of the spectators -- LeBron James.

Venus Williams, playing her first match since winning Wimbledon, beat Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2 and showed no sign of the knee injury that sidelined her in recent weeks.

Serena Williams finished out her weather-suspended match against Belarus' Olga Govortsova.

Her sister, seeded fourth, won all four games when her match resumed after an overnight rain interruption, and she beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1.

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Weightlifting

Don't mess with Chinese weightlifters. Chen Yanqing broke two Olympic records en route to her second straight gold medal in the women's 58-kilogram category, making the host country 3-for-3 thus far.

Later in the day, Zhang Xiangxiang won the men's 62-kilogram division, upping China to 4-for-4.

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Diving

Like Phelps, the Chinese divers are aiming for eight. And, like Phelps, they already have two.

Lin Yue and Huo Liang won the men's 10-meter synchronized title

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Women's basketball

A day after the U.S. men routed China, the women won by an even more lopsided score.

Tina Thompson powered a 23-0 run in the first quarter that sent the Americans well on their way to a 108-63 victory. By the time Kobe Bryant and the rest of the men's team settled into their seats at the end of the first quarter the U.S. was up 33-11.

In other games, Russia edged South Korea 77-72; Belarus topped Latvia 80-57; and Spain defeated New Zealand 85-62.

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Volleyball

The U.S. women's team lost to Cuba in three sets. The good news: Barbara Bachman, the mother of 2004 Olympian Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon and the mother-in-law of U.S. men's coach Hugh McCutcheon, has had her condition upgraded to stable after being stabbed by the attacker who also killed her husband and then himself.

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Boxing

A fluke of a draw produced a rematch of last year's featherweight world championship finals. Speed and savvy produced a different outcome, with Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko beating Albert Selimov of Russia 14-7.

American Raynell Williams easily won his opener 9-1 over Italy's Alessio di Savino, improving the U.S. team to 3-1 before lightweight Sadam Ali's evening bout.

Alexey Tishchenko, Russia's gold-medal featherweight in Athens, opened his attempt to add a lightweight gold to his collection with a 10-2 win over Tunisia's Saifeddine Nejmaoui.

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Trap shooting

Corey Cogdell, a 21-year-old Alaskan, won a four-way shoot-off for bronze in women's trap shooting. Finland's Satu Makela-Nummela hit an Olympic-record 21 targets to take the gold.

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Rowing

The American women's eight crew is headed to the finals after winning its heat. The men's eight was second in its heat, dropping it into a second-chance race Tuesday in hopes of making the final; three guys are back from the crew that won the first U.S. gold medal in 40 years in that event at Athens.

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Canoe-Kayak

In whitewater slalom singles, 19-year-old Benn Fraker finished 10th and advanced to the semifinals, but 29-year-old Scott Parsons missed a gate at the end of a strong run and was 20th in the single kayak and is done. Parsons was America's best hope for a whitewater medal in the K-1, or one-man kayak class, which has historically been dominated by Europeans.

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Water polo

The U.S. women's team, with 10 first-time Olympians, overcame a shaky start to beat host China 12-11 in preliminary play.

In other preliminary action, Hungary beat the Netherlands 11-9, defending gold medalist Italy defeated reigning European champion Russia 9-8 and 2000 gold medalist Australia knocked off Greece 8-6.

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Sailing

In the Finn class, American newcomer Zach Railey and British veteran Ben Ainslie were locked in a tight race.


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Baseball

Two days before the tournament begins, the Americans won a tuneup game against China 7-3. Nate Schierholtz homered and doubled after the team received an on-field and dugout visit from President Bush, who stayed for about two innings. Fans and media weren't allowed in until after Bush left.

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Fencing

Italy's Maria Valentina Vezzali won the women's foil for her third straight Olympic gold in the event. Then came a terrific celebration that featured tears, getting carried off the podium by her coach and then riding off on his shoulders.

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Badminton

Defending Olympic champions Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen of China lost to an unseeded Japanese duo in women's doubles. The winners, Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna, bowed deeply in the center of the court as though they were praying.

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Judo

Italy's Giulia Quintavalle won the women's 57-kilogram division, and Azerbaijan's Elnur Mammadli stunned world champion Wang Ki-chun of South Korea to take the men's 73-kilogram title.

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Shooting

India's Abhinav Bindra won the 10-meter air rifle after entering the final in third place. China's Zhu Qinan was second, giving the Chinese three medals in the shooting competition.

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Beach volleyball

Americans Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs beat Germans Stephanie Pohl and Okka Rau 21-17, 21-16.

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Archery

Italy and South Korea were tied going into the final three arrows. Going first, the Italians could've made the South Koreans sweat. Instead, on their final shot, 20-year-old Mauro Nespoli landed well wide of the center of the target -- a seven. The South Koreans capitalized, winning with an Olympic-record score of 227. The South Korean women also won the team title.

China took bronze for its first ever men's archery medal.

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Equestrian

Germany was in first place and Australia close behind after two of the three phases of equestrian eventing on a rainy cross-country course and dressage ring

[marylouc]

Who cares what was real and what was fake. It was still impressive.

[cnredd]

Originally Posted by marylouc

Who cares what was real and what was fake. It was still impressive.

That's my feeling towards breasts...

[tristanrobin]

It was awesome - it was magical - it was breathtaking

and if it was ALL done with computer (with 15,000 people performing, I don't think that's true ... but) then it was an awesome, magical, breathtaking display of computer artistic technology!

[marylouc]

Originally Posted by cnredd

That's my feeling towards breasts...

you dirty rat