London 2012 Olympics Thread

[argentarius]

USA looking more or less uncatchable for the golds.

[Platypus]

World record in the 4x100, as the Jamaican women purposefully photobomb the yanks taking their picture with the timeboard.

Unfortunate scenes at the hammer, with the German throwing what would've been a silver medal, but confusion meaning it doesn't count.

[Platypus]

Turkey 1-2 in the women's 1500m, after a crazily slow start. Basically, expect them to be the face of Istanbul's bid. Double handedly, they've giving Turkey a real shot at winning the bid.

[patrick1]

Excellent job by US Mens 4x400 for silver, nearly held on against the Bahamas after so many injuries and a depleted squad.  Nice depth.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I note that the British men's 100 metres relay team did what they always do. lol.

[Hash]

OK, Canada qualified nicely in the relay, but apparently my guy didn't run? What's up with this travesty?

[Andrea]

Montenegro is fifth new Olympic medalist country (making together 81 medalist countries). Israel had some good athletes in gymnastics too.  Bahama has a good chance to win medal in some relay, but in general additional medalist countries are very unlikely.

Bahamas won a relay medal as expected. "Bahrain" got their first medal of this edition too.
Given the qualification results in Rhytmic, I don't think Israel is going to win a medal there.

[Hatman 🍁]

Another bronze medal.

[Platypus]

Another bronze medal.

As a point of interest, I wonder what the Commonwealth Realms medal count would be. With Britain's Golds, our Silvers, your bronzes, and a nice bag from Jamaica and New Zealand...

[Hash]

Another bronze medal.

Canada, the third greatest country in the world.

I can feel the Conservative ads already.

[Platypus]

Coincidentally, in her jubilee year, the Queen's realms would be atop the medal tally, at least at the minute:

Commonwealth Realms
42/41/46 (129)

USA
41/26/27 (94)

China
37/25/19 (81)

---------------------

[MaxQue]

Montenegro is fifth new Olympic medalist country (making together 81 medalist countries). Israel had some good athletes in gymnastics too.  Bahama has a good chance to win medal in some relay, but in general additional medalist countries are very unlikely.

Bahamas won a relay medal as expected. "Bahrain" got their first medal of this edition too.
Given the qualification results in Rhytmic, I don't think Israel is going to win a medal there.

Too bad, Canada finished next-to-last in Rythmics, at their first Olympic participation. The federation hoped a good result and TV exposure to help to make the sport more known, to improve junior recruiting.

[patrick1]

Coincidentally, in her jubilee year, the Queen's realms would be atop the medal tally, at least at the minute:

Commonwealth Realms
42/41/46 (129)

USA
41/26/27 (94)

China
37/25/19 (81)

---------------------

Ha of course in a united commonwealth team you'd end up with substantially less medals because of limitations on how many entrants per nation etc.  The qualifiers would be damned fun and competitive.

[Hatman 🍁]

Another bronze medal.

Canada, the third greatest country in the world.

I can feel the Conservative ads already.

Well, it's better than all the non medallic 4th place finishes we got in 2010 and 2008. I dont even think we got any 4th place finishes this time.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Another bronze medal.

Canada, the third greatest country in the world.

I can feel the Conservative ads already.

Well, it's better than all the non medallic 4th place finishes we got in 2010 and 2008. I dont even think we got any 4th place finishes this time.

Thanks to the DQs in badminton women's doubles, Canada managed to get a fourth place in that event.  (Without the DQs, they wouldn't have advanced to the quarter finals.)

Canada also has a true 4ths in the women's omnium cycling, the 4 x 200 m women's freestyle swimming, and both the duet and team synchronized swimming.

So that's five fourths, and Canada has the opportunity to win some more of the fourths it deserves.

[Hatman 🍁]

Another bronze medal.

Canada, the third greatest country in the world.

I can feel the Conservative ads already.

Well, it's better than all the non medallic 4th place finishes we got in 2010 and 2008. I dont even think we got any 4th place finishes this time.

Thanks to the DQs in badminton women's doubles, Canada managed to get a fourth place in that event.  (Without the DQs, they wouldn't have advanced to the quarter finals.)

Canada also has a true 4ths in the women's omnium cycling, the 4 x 200 m women's freestyle swimming, and both the duet and team synchronized swimming.

So that's five fourths, and Canada has the opportunity to win some more of the fourths it deserves.

Ah yes. I heard about the synchro team finishing 4th. Thanks for checking. As long as we have more bronze medals than 4th places, it's okay.

[BaldEagle1991]

Has anyone seen those BMX Racing events? It made me wonder if what I am watching was either the X Games or Olympics.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Isn't that whole thing full of terrible crashes?

[BaldEagle1991]

Isn't that whole thing full of terrible crashes?

Yeah. It was like watching NASCAR, but surprisingly less boring and short.

[dead0man]

Short was my problem with it.  Basically, if you're winning after the second corner, you win....as far as i could tell.  Make them do a couple hundred laps and the sport would be more interesting.....or much more boring.  Not sure.  Racing needs passing or it's just a freaking parade.  Like F1.

[Јas]

@hugh
I don't think the Turks will be able to make too much hay from last night's 1-2; Alptekin's prior doping ban makes her an unlikely face for Istanbul 2020.

[BaldEagle1991]

@hugh
I don't think the Turks will be able to make too much hay from last night's 1-2; Alptekin's prior doping ban makes her an unlikely face for Istanbul 2020.

They haven't gotten the 2020 games yet.

[Lief 🗽]

Can someone explain to me why this race walking thing isn't as dumb as it looks.

[minionofmidas]

Has anyone seen those BMX Racing events? It made me wonder if what I am watching was either the X Games or Olympics.

A minute of it on the outside screen of a bar in Sachsenhausen while I was waiting for my Merguez sandwich at the takeaway next door.

Can someone explain to me why this race walking thing isn't as dumb as it looks.

It is exactly as dumb as it looks, and if they followed their rules to a T and surveyed everything with slow-motion cameras, every single competitor would be disqualified (until they developed a new "walking" style that would be much slower). I am not making this up.

[minionofmidas]

Unfortunate scenes at the hammer, with the German throwing what would've been a silver medal, but confusion meaning it doesn't count.

They did count it in the end (though it ended up as bronze). The computer for unexplained reasons thought it was out of range even though it clearly, self-evidently wasn't. Betty Heidler is Frankfurt's face at the olympics, of course.

EDIT: Scratch that, it was way more complicated and I listened to the radio in the morning and they're morons.