London Olympics Thread

50 days to go today I believe? Who are our top gold medal prospects? Valerie Adams in the shotput of course, Sarah Walker in BMX maybe? Rowing has a few right up there and our track cycling team should definitely bring home a couple.

Hoping Richie Patterson makes it in for weightlifting, although I think the qualifying rules are odd.

Andrea Hewitt in women's triathlon, one of our female kayakers is pretty good too ain't she?

This is pretty neat for folks w/out Sky or an iSky account

http://www.isky.co.nz/support/help_and_support/london_2012/default.aspx

I suspect it's part of the broadcast deal with the IOC rather than any sort of gesture from Rupert Murdoch.

I'm finding it hard to shake the feeling that there's no way this Olympics could be as good as Beijing.

It's just that Beijing was soooooooooo awesome with Usain Bolt making us all go WTF, Michael Phelps 8 gold medals, Lionel Messi dominating the football and signalling he was the world's best player, the sheer shock of that superstar Chinese hurdler falling, on an NZ note: the Evers-Swindell photo finish for gold, Valerie Vili winning gold later that day, Drydale's bronze with the flu (although the disappointment that fully fit he surely would've won gold), Nick Willis' silver medal in the 1500.

A lot to live up to.

NZ - Belarus tomorrow morning at 6:30am.

Hahah, just so optimistic bro

I reckon I'll stick with other options. Ever tried to watch something random via iSky like a 5am football game? Jittery as fuck with reload/reconnect times minutes long when you're bumped every ten minutes. Ever tried to watch a game with good interest like SoE?? Utter lose, constant failure to load. Ever tried to watch something everyone in New Zealand is watching??? Neither have I, but I can't imagine it being anything other than a proper cluster

It used to be total shite when it first started, but the only problem I've had with iSky this year is watching the June All Black games

SoE wouldn't load a few weeks back for me and bartos, had to radio it coz might get in teh trubs for my standard solution at work...

Also guts re men's football, heads up lads, Brazil and Egypt shouldn't be too hard to blag a couple of points off <:

Disappointing 1-0 loss for the womens football team this morning. Managed to foot it with Brazil for a large part of the match, but then conceded a goal with 5 minutes to go. At least they still have a chance of making it through to the next round if they can win well against Cameroon (who lost to Brazil 5-0).

LOL @ British whinging about the road race, oh boohoo no one wanted to help put the team with a massive advantage already into a position were they couldn't lose.

Gutted Steph Rice had a bad swim last night, hopefully she can make something of the 200m freestyle.

SA looking good for a few golds this year, hopefully their best games on record. (10 medals all up)

the chinese girl who won the 400 IM (Rice's event) had an amazing last 100m...58secs! many men would be very happy with that...

Favourites eliminated from the football (Spain), Brazil's medal to lose now.

Also anyone see the epic dummy spit from Mark 'The only medalless cyclist' Cavendish. What a tool...

I support Hockey and i Hope this time Australia win Gold medal.

biiiiig penalty call then for the girls, she got ran into by two players with both 'behind' and one running into he legs; definitely seen them given

gg girls, well done

Oh definite stonewall penalty, robbed basically, an equaliser + red card then changes the game completely.

Tabloid sensationalism:

Welsh Rare Bit
Sticking with the Olympics and the Daily Mirror's take on Craig Bellamy's quotes in which he basically said that English people get a bit carried away in major tournaments (they do) and being Welsh gave him a different perspective (it does).

When asked whether Team GB could win a medal, Bellamy laughed and said: "That's you English! That is what you lot do! I'm Welsh! I'm just grateful to be involved...being Welsh it has taught me that, with two minutes to go, anthing can happen. I've come into this with a completely wider outlook."

So what's the Daily Mirror's opening paragraph? A chip butty and a kiss on the cheek if you can guess...

'CRAIG BELLAMY last night claimed Team GB has Wales to thank for their march into the Olympic quarter-finals - and then took a swipe at England.'

Mediawatch is truly baffled. And in the very odd position of siding with Craig Bellamy.

So guys let's get some more talk happening!

We have 3 fucking gold medals. Topping the rowing table with Taylor and Uru to come tonight. I must admit I don't know a lot about our teams and remaining medals chances, other than hearsay and supposition.

Emma Twigg - is she a legit medal hope?
Taylor & Uru - These guys are top 3 but not favoured to win right? But that's what Sulllivan and Cohen were...
Willis - surely will have some skinny black men breeze past him at the end? 4th place?
Andrea Hewitt - standard triathlon lottery? Could finish anywhere between 1 & 15 I'm assuming
Val Adams - Obviously our golden girl, but as I understand it the Belarussian bird is likely to rain on our parade?

As an aside - I think this U23 soccer biz is fucken bullshit at the Olympics. Either have the elite athletes, or fuck off. If the basketball can do it, then so can the soccer. I know I am no huge fan of the game but I would be way more interested in it if all the big names were fronting up.



gc.

Just. So. Glorious.







gc.

Awesome sporting moments last night but nothing beats hearing the cries and dissapointment from the Australian media so fucken funny, according to them everyone is cheating!

I like Andrea Hewitt.....read soemthign that said shes one of the best but this course doesnt suit her strengths. Not sure what that means tbh but Im hoping she nabs a silver

Nick Willis is sub-human. hes capable of anything. Looking forward to cheering on that dirty safa with blades for legs too

100m finals is 8.50am Monday morning, rush hour to be delayed

Echo the call on football, it really is stupid and pointless. Feel the same way about tennis tbh. I just ignore it

MMA should be an Olympic sport (Im not a fan of MMA but it seems a better fit than many)

FIFA won't let them have top teams play at the Olympics. So they are forced to do the age group thing. And the IOC won't leave at football cos they are greedy as and it's all about the money.

The women's football is alright. Except for NZ missing out on a good opportunity this morning. Useless ref didn't give them a clear penalty when they were only down 1-0 with 10 to go. That goal could have given the team a big lift, but they seemed to drop their heads a bit and conceded a second goal.

If only the could have drawn against GB or Brazil (lost narrowly 1-0) they might not have to had played the top ranked USA in the quarter final.

I think they should put restrictions in place with the swimming. It seems absurd that they give away so many medals in all these different strokes and medleys and relays. If the swimmers can have gold medals for backstroke etc, then they should have the 100 metres running backwards in the athletics ...maybe a two man sack race as well.

Especially annoying when they cut stuff like the individual pursuit in the cycling and we miss out on a gold when the women's world champ is a kiwi.

Twigg is a good chance for a bronze and an outsider for better. The Aussie girl smashed her in the semis, but she might have backed off and let her go as she was comfortably in second.

As for Adams, the Belarussian girl has thrown further than her in Belarus but never at a major competition, so Adams is still the favourite as she has a tack record of producing when it matters.

What makes the football more ridiculous is it's not solely U23 as they can have 3 overage players. I'd like to see the elite guys there too, but if it's going to be an u23 competition then make it just an u23 comp... One or the other.

Re: Triathlon it's a very easy course because London is flat, out triathletes excel at difficult hilly courses, but we're approaching it as a team to get Hewitt into contention.

And yet they have stupid events like Kieran. Let's spend the whole race behind a guy on a scooter then only race on the last lap, stupiest event of all time. In fact any of those cycling ones where they are not racing from the start are stupid and yet they all seem to stay instead of the flat oout races where they're going for it from start to finish. It's like walking the first lap of the 1500m?

I don't mind the tennis as it's a straight up individual tournament just like badminton, TT etc. Fact is most of the big names are there and they WANT to win a gold. It's a credible tournament on the tennis landscape.

Agreed on the swimming - obviously a great sport but so many medals and events seems OTT. Just like all the "ranking" finals for the rowing. There just isn't any need. If people bomb out in the sprints or swimming they don't have separate finals for them to feel good about themselves or get some arbitrary placing at the next world event.



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Decided I'm going to be part of the 2016 Olympics in Brasil representing NZ in the marathons.

urgh, this is fkn disgusting imo. especially after the orientals got sent packing for doing something similar.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10824520

there are heaps of cycling events...road race, time trial, bmx, mountain biking, all of the track events...13 individual events for swimming...how many for cycling?

how many events are there for track and field?

Some other medal discussions...

- Willis looked SHARP in the second heat... GOLD CHANCE!?????
- Valerie tonight W00t!
- Women's Blacksticks... Ok so correct me if I'm wrong but we're looking pretty good here?
- How is Ben Fouhy these days? He was #1 at some point right!?



gc.

Russians are (prob) at it too
http://www.theage.com.au/olympics/news-london-2012/russias-capitulation-raises-eyebrows-20120806-23oc2.html

Only option is to do live draws after each round finishes, and, were I running the IOC, I'd institute it right now. Extra travel and short rest periods? Bad luck, cunts are being cunts and this is the only way to stop it.

Actually, as an aside, I don't remember an Olympics this fraught with skeeze. Is that rosy glasses or has it genuinely been a shocker?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ktf7y

Watched that a couple of weeks ago. Really awesome insight into how far some athletes go to get better...

Just watching replay of Willis race on Prime now, and commentator said Kenyan who fell over in heats made the semi-final after a protest from Kenyan officials.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Surely falling over is an accepted risk associated with running in groups

Most likely through to the semi finals after the game that just finished. Really needed to win against Germany to definitely go through, but now have to wait for the result of Argentina/Australia. Aussie need to win by lots to deny NZ, which is unlikely as Argentina are ranked 2 in the world.

Fouhy through to the semis. Second in his heat. Nobody seemed to be going too hard as apparently the top 5 go through, which seems a bit silly.

Adams predictably through also after a nervous first throw.

Still worried about Belarus though! Final on around 6am tomorrow.



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Gutted for Adams.
Fouhy might do okay with no pressure, he's choked in the past when expected to win gold lower expectations ,ight help.

Fouhy is out. Didn't do well enough in his semi final.

fouhy is a frigging whinger.

Spain accused of throwing their match against Brazil in the bball, if they're punished it really will make Britain's let off in the cycling even more ridiculous.

Yeah I have no time for Fouhy, he has been a moaning cunt for years.

Gender test the Bellarussian IMO

She does not look remotely female!

Did anyone see that Stambolova chick in the hurdles? lol

Looking forward to the 1500m tomorrow.. go Willis!

Being credible isnt enough imo. Of course its "credible" if its the Olympics. I think the Olympics needs to be the pinncacle of the sport or it basically shouldnt be there. Perhaps sports like badminton is in that category as well not too sure tbh. Perhaps my pinnacle_logic is flawed as well but atm I dont see how

LOVE her synscronised swimming, and not just for obv reasons. I think theyre amazing

Go the PARKS

The Olympics is only the pinnacle in a 'global' sense, but it's not really the pinnacle in terms of athlete depth in ANY of the events. It's a world event, not an inherently elite event. That's not to say it is NOT elite obviously. Kind of hard to explain what I mean. The tennis is a million times more credible than the soccer.

On a different note - don't we have a gun BMX chick????



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Oh yeah Sarah Walker, anything less than gold will be disappointing for her.

thats a big call to say "dissapointment" isnt it..I mean... Shes not that far ahead of the rest of the bunch is she?

Yep smf agree football shoudlnt be there, in fact I take a razor through all the other sports m unaware of that dont fit my rigid definitions. Theres probably plenty but wouldnt aything that has a "World Champs" ie like swimming and track n field consider the Olympics 1st and WChamps 2nd?

btw Golf is at the 2016 Oylmpics....and I think its terrible

I think she's got a chance of bringing home gold.
I'm hoping RSA can bring home gold in the mens. But you never know what can happen. Sifiso Nhlapo was riding really well in 2008 (both in the games and coming 3rd in the world champs), but then he crashed out in the a massive pile up in the gold medal race and didn't finish.

She did very well in the seeding run, but the commentators were saying that she's just coming back from a fractured collar bone that happened something like 8 weeks ago.... so hopefully that does affect her too much.

Oh wow. That sucks for her.

Still - we have an additional silver in the sailing, and another pair racing for a gold tonight!!



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She's world champion so I imagine she'd be disappointed if she didn't win, especially after Beijing.

This has been our most successful Olympics in a while right?

Perhaps it's the expanded TV coverage but I've had a good sense of our general involvement across the daily activities and felt like we were 'in it' a bit more, even though most stuff has been on at awkward times and more often than not we have been out of medal contention.



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Yeah it's been awesome. It seems most mornings I wake up and have to check to see if NZ binked a medal overnight

um, I don't think she's current world champ. Has been in the past though

It's the best since 1988 I think, so that's pretty good, but it's only 1 Bronze medal better than last time, so it's not exceptional given NZ's recent history at Olympics (of course there's still more medal chances, so it could still end up being exceptional). The main reason it seems so exceptional is because Australia was slow to start winning golds, and NZ tends to compare itself to Australia a lot.

I hate the Aussie comparison and have avoided all discussion of that. I certainly don't think it has been more enjoyable because of anything to do with Australia - at least not from my perspective. I've been happy for the few Aussies I have seen do well - in particular I was very happy to see Sally Pearson win her hurdles.

I just think having so many channels of coverage here, along with a regular flow of information AND us doing well has made for a very enjoyable experience.



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And it feels a little bit gross to say, but HOCKEY is quite an enjoyable game to watch these days. The huge changes to the rules over the past 5-10 years have made it way more free flowing, faster, more physical and just a lot better to watch than it ever has been. Of course it helps in this instance that the women are doing well (and are pretty good to look at to boot!).



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Insane Bolt...... he fucking slowed up too

What about david rudisha? He dominated the 800m! Looking forward to Caster Semenya dominating the womens 800m tomorrow.

Break world records you prick!

What pisses me off is how stupid it is to mock them. People clearly forget what happened the last time they performed dismally at the Olympics:

Heh yeah true. I just wish people here weren't so fucking obsessed with Aussie.



gc.

Brighter Future in the Land of Milk and Honey.

When they're meaningfully our only neighbour and each of us is $200 away from a 20+% pay rise it's hard to avoid comparing in all things, and be sure they compare themselves to us. I haven't seen a news piece regarding medals that didn't mention us at first VERY condescendingly ("... though poor old NZ on NO medals *smirk/grin*" was used to qualify their own performance in at least one piece) and then in increasing horror before getting back to smug superiority.

Happily they're all still wailing and gnashing atm because other countries have gotten their own little sports institutes. I've enjoyed these Olympics most in the spirit of schadenfreude which I'm not sure the games are meant to engender <:

Why would he? Pretty sure it's because there is a Fuck tonne of cash/gold bars to be made breaking World Records at Grand Prix's..

SIlver for Sarah Walker in the end. I'm sure she won't be as disappointed with that as Jono is

lol huge dissapointment Im sure

Haha!

And.............. GOOOOOOOOOOOLD!

Sailing is boring as shit, but I'll take it. Great Olympics for us continues.

Lisa Carrington should medal as well. Will be a dog fight for gold, but fingers crossed.



gc.

Gold for Lisa Carrington!

yeah, now this is Olympics is certainly exceptional for NZ. Tied with the most medals won, and second highest for number of gold medals won.