London 2012 Olympics Thread

[Hatman 🍁]

I love the Olympics, but they decided to have the games during the Civic Holiday week when I'm normally at the cottage, so I'll be missing half of it. (Same thing happened in 1996- I missed Donovan Bailey winning gold!)

[Hatman 🍁]

I feel sorry for London.  Any mayor that supports his city making a bid to host the Olympics deserves to be voted out of office.  They simply are not worth the cost and hassle.

  Every summer games since L.A. '84 (except the notoriously mismanaged Athens '04) has turned a healthy profit.

This is correct, of course. Plus, it's great for future tourism. And, you get to host future world class events at your new facilities. Of course people who claim to be fiscal conservatives run and hide when they see large price tags...

And by the way, to those who suggest the Olympics are a bad thing for the city they are hosted in, do you support abolishing the Olympics all together? I mean, they have to go some where.

[Hatman 🍁]

I gotta say, whoever said the Olympics aren't worth hosting is just dead wrong.

Some things actually supercede finances. I don't know what the figures were for the Vancouver games, but the patriotistm those games inspired in Canada was beyond anything I've ever seen. It was the proudest I've ever been to be Canadian--not because I learned anything new, but because, finally, Canadians were coming together to show that we are a proud a strong people. We don't do enough of that in Canada, and it was about time we did.

For once, I think we can agree on something. I was there in Whistler, it was a great time to be a Canadian. I've always loved the Olympics, and have embraced it as a symbol of peace and athleticism.

[Hatman 🍁]

The two people most likely to have carried our flag (hurdlers Perdita Felicien and Pricilla Lopes-Schleip) were both eliminated from the Canadian Olympic Trials despite being two of the best hurdlers in the world. So, neither will carry our flag.

[Hatman 🍁]

ooh, good choice from the Canadians.

Ha, considering he was the first gold medalist at the Sydney games...

^^ This was my post, I didn't realize I was logged into my gf's account. Anyways, Im disappointed at Canada's 2-1 loss to Japan.

[Hatman 🍁]

Three things:

1. Simon Whitfield didn't win the first medal at Sydney, or even the first Triathlon medal, which went to a Swiss woman, Brigitte McMahon. The first gold went to an American woman, not sure of which sport.

2. Really over the corporate sponsorship of the games, it seems to be more infectious than most years.

3. Melbourne really should be the permanent Olympic city.

1) My bad.  I forgot about the ladies.

3) lol

[Hatman 🍁]

CTV basically skipped France, which was annoying. Of course, giving the rights to CTV is a retarded idea.

CTV is a lot better than NBC.

NBC has horrible commentators.

I see that the two Brian Williams' are back again. (Well, I assume Williams is doing the NBC coverage). The one good thing about the CTV coverage was poaching our Williams from CBC. It wouldn't be the Olympics without him. Aaaaaalright *shuffles papers* it's 9:00 local time...

But yeah, it's still weird having to watch the Olympics on CTV. A network which I don't normally watch much of (but is the most popular network in Canada).

[Hatman 🍁]

Oh well. It was fun when they were both in Vancouver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzTtKbXQSUs

[Hatman 🍁]

Great job to the US and French women's football today! I catched the US-Colombia for half an hour before heading out this afternoon, and saw their two last goals, both of which were pretty sweat. And France trounced the North Koreans 5-0.

And Canada wins 3-0 over South Africa.

[Hatman 🍁]

Before I opened this thread, I had never seen or heard anybody not working in the media claim that he has ever watched an Olympic opening ceremony. I swear that this is true. (And I know that quite a lot of people do, though less than the actual competitions. It's just that I would have idly wondered who these people are, would I actually care.)

Really? I know their claims of "2 billion people watched this" are grossly inflated, but it's still a lot of people that do.

[Hatman 🍁]

acrobatic skiing

Freestyle skiing.

[Hatman 🍁]

So many swimming upsets. BBC commentators wondering how Missy Franklin was going in this race, and she wins it.

Apparently she is 100% ethnically Canadian. That is, both of her parents were born here.

[Hatman 🍁]

Come on, Earl, there's no way that CTV can be worse than NBC.

Depends on the sport. Opening ceremony on CTV was bearable, which is more than I can say about the NBC coverage. I've been watching most of the events online, so I don't know who's better. Most of what I've been watching is the live world feed, which has no commentators at all.

BTW, three bronze medals for Canada today. woohoo! Only 2 behind those pesky Aussies. (would be nice if the combined Winter and Summer medals were higher than them)

[Hatman 🍁]

Going into the games, we were supposed to win the gold in the 8s, but considering the last place finish in the heats, we'll take silver.

[Hatman 🍁]

I'd suspect Earl woyld know qyite a few winter Olympians, right?

Well, I've "met" quite a few athletes at the winter Olympics in Whistler. Mostly going through security.

[Hatman 🍁]

Hoping for a medal in shot put...

[Hatman 🍁]

Woohoo, Canada beats the Brits, Americans beat Kiwis, Frenchies beat the Swedes in women soccer. Perfect.

Really, France should just abolish the men's team. They're worthless, vulgar morons who can't play. It's really disgusting that there's such a big deal made about them when nobody notices that the more talented female team is 10x better.

Uh, the female team probably couldn't beat a random men's second league French team.

That's not what he meant.

But yes, quite exciting that Canada beat the UK. First time Canada has gone that far in women's soccer. But, England is ranked lower than us, so it's to be expected (err somewhat, they do have home field advantage, and aren't actually just England). I don't think we'll beat the US though, and France and Japan are both very strong teams.

[Hatman 🍁]

The French women's team is not "more talented" nor is it "10x better" than the men's team. That's just a fact.

What he is said is *literally* wrong, but he didn't mean it literally, obviously. He meant that the women's team is relatively stronger- that is they are ranked higher than the men's team. Of course, it doesn't match the discrepancy between the Canadian women's and men's teams.

[Hatman 🍁]

It is a travesty how terrible the Indian sub continent does in the Olympics.

[Hatman 🍁]

Man, that soccer game yesterday sure was a heartbreaking match Canada always brings their A game against the US in these major tournaments, but they've not won yet.

[Hatman 🍁]

Man, that soccer game yesterday sure was a heartbreaking match Canada always brings their A game against the US in these major tournaments, but they've not won yet.

Ironic that the winning US goal against "my country" was scored by the person who is, by far, my favourite player in modern women's soccer.

What is with your obsession with her?

I used to have a crush on Kara Lang, but her knee went wonky and now she's in the broadcast booth. If she was still playing, we probably would've beat the US. (Clearly, we need to diversify our goal scorers- too much reliance on Christine Sinclair)

[Hatman 🍁]

2 medals to start the day. However, Van Koeverden was supposed to win gold We still have just one gold so far.

[Hatman 🍁]

Australia take Gold, kiwis silver, Danes bronze in the sailing. Kiwis carrying the flag of NZ and the silver fern unity flag, nice. I'm really looking forward to them changing their flag, might convince us to do the same at last.

Which silver fern flag was it?

closest to the first, but more like this:

, but saying Aotearoa instead of New Zealand.

I wonder what kind of unofficial flags would be used for Canada had we not done away with the red ensign in 1965.

Almost 50 years later and our Commonwealth brothers are still holding on to their silly colonial flags. Quite surprising considering Australia is considerably more anti-monarchy than we are (especially outside of Quebec). ... if only Ontario could get rid of its red ensign.

[Hatman 🍁]

Man, that soccer game yesterday sure was a heartbreaking match Canada always brings their A game against the US in these major tournaments, but they've not won yet.

riiiiiiiiggggggeeeeeeeeeeedddd

You can't hold the ball for 11 seconds.  It's a rule*.  She broke it.

Good game by the ladies though, very little to no diving.  If only male soccer players were as tough as the women.


*link    Pg.33

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It's a rule that's seldomly called though. So, it seems suspicious that it would be used then.

Oh well, time to re-group. Canada vs France right now for bronze. Go Canada Go. (and go Japan!)

[Hatman 🍁]

0-0 at half time. France has a slight edge though in play so far.