# Everything Beijing '08 Olympics Games **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 5, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960 "2008-08-05T20:57:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/221 "2008-08-16T02:21:49Z")
Holy shit! Phelps wins gold medal number 7 by .01 seconds! Phelps is as lucky as he is good. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/222 "2008-08-16T02:28:29Z")
[QUOTE=vibrotronica] Holy shit! Phelps wins gold medal number 7 by .01 seconds! Phelps is as lucky as he is good. [/QUOTE] I was afraid to post this; I didn’t know if the race was live in all time zones. Wow. I don’t even know swimming, and… wow. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/223 "2008-08-16T02:32:56Z")
I don’t think it happens for another 30 minutes here. Right now men’s beach volleyball is on. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/224 "2008-08-16T02:38:50Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I don’t think it happens for another 30 minutes here. Right now men’s beach volleyball is on. [/QUOTE] Oops. I’ve PMed a mod for a spoiler fix. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/225 "2008-08-16T02:41:51Z")
Sorry! Forgot about the tape delay! ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/226 "2008-08-16T03:04:05Z")
[QUOTE=vibrotronica] Holy shit! Phelps wins gold medal number 7 by .01 seconds! Phelps is as lucky as he is good. [/QUOTE] As good of a swimmer as Phelps is, it’s becoming apparent to me that the US team does the little things better than any other team. The Serbian swimmer made a slight mistake at the wall and suddenly he has silver. Phelps went in perfectly. Next race, watch an American both start and turn. Eight times out of ten they make up ground. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/227 "2008-08-16T03:19:36Z")
Wow, I just saw it. It’s a good thing they replayed it about twenty times because I couldn’t believe it the first four or five times they showed it. **drm** , you’re right. It’s the tiny little things. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/228 "2008-08-16T03:25:04Z")
Jeebus. Phelps has been dominant in every race so far, but definately not that one. In every other circumstance, that half-stroke of his at the end would have been the wrong choice… except when you’re up against someone who wasn’t _quite_ close enough for a lunge-touch. That was a miracle touch-out. [QUOTE=Usram] So consolidate the plethora of swimming medals into fewer medals. Have a 50m race, a 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and one or two relays. That’s 14 or so medals in total for swim racing, still well above average. Or if you insist on awarding medals for swimming in different styles, then have medals for sprinters, middle distance and long distance. Or whatever. Just don’t spin it out to an absurd, Games-dominating 34 medals. Re relative popularity of swimming vs. other sports, I would bet hard cash that if I went out into the streets two years from now and asked people to list all the Olympic track athletes they can think of vs. all the Olympic swimmers , the first list would be a lot longer than the second. I don’t mean to slam swimming, nothing against it except how it suddenly becomes a major sport when the Olympics come round, because of the excessive number of medals on offer. [/QUOTE] Christ. Now you’re suggesting that the Olympics should award medals based on how many athletes random people can think of? All you are doing here is displaying your utter ignorance of swimming. Again, swimming awards that many medals _because that is how many skill sets there are in the sport_. Each sport awards medals based on their skill sets. Suggesting that swimming should cut down on their events because _you_ don’t like the way they’ve organized things? Stupid. And, again, _you_ are the one thinking that swimming “suddenly becomes a major sport” during the Olympics. All of these swimmers are swimming the rest of the time there is no Olympics. This isn’t like water polo, or other sports where the athletes find something else to do in between Olympiads (although, IIRC, there is professional water polo in Europe, too). The simple fact that you are refusing to face is, you are seeing so much swimming during the Olympics _because that is what gets the ratings_. Gymnastics awards fewer medals, yet gets just as much coverage (if not more) in the US. Football/soccer awards _two_ medals, yet worldwide probably gets massively more coverage than swimming and gymnastics and track & field, combined. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/229 "2008-08-16T03:54:16Z")
I was a high school swimmer. In the high school meets, for both men and women, we had: 200yd Medley Relay 200yd Individual Medley 50yd Freestyle 100yd Freestyle 200yd Freestyle 500yd Freestyle 200yd Freestyle Relay 100yd Backstroke 100yd Breaststroke 100yd Butterfly 400yd Freestyle Relay That’s just a high school event lineup. In some of our summer leagues, we’d also swim the 200 yd distances of the individual strokes. I was a breaststroke specialist, and I usually swam the 100 breaststroke and either the 50 free or the 200 IM, plus at least one (usually two) relays. At the collegiate and international level, there are a greater variety of events because of the higher level of competition. The sport just has a lot of different types of races: four strokes, a variety of distances, and multiple relays (just like track). Nothing odd about it (to me, anyway). Oh, and this 100 fly and the men’s 400 free relay are perhaps the two best swim races I’ve ever seen. I’ve actually seen a closer final: in my senior year, at the state championships, the mens 100 freestyle finished in a tie for first. They didn’t share first place, but rather had a swimoff to determine the state champion. The SWIMOFF, held just 30 minutes after the final, was decided by 0.01 seconds. That was pretty incredible, though not quite the same since it wasn’t on the world stage. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/230 "2008-08-16T06:17:27Z")
Day 7. 1:19 AM I just witnessed my first ever racewalking yellow card. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/231 "2008-08-16T06:41:05Z")
Okay, spill the beans. What the heck gets you a yellow card in racewalking??? ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/232 "2008-08-16T06:54:59Z")
[QUOTE=Lightray] Okay, spill the beans. What the heck gets you a yellow card in racewalking??? [/QUOTE] Racewalking has very specific rules in terms of what the gait can consist of, essentially to keep racers from switching to a jog or a run. If a referee catches a racer making an illegal gait, he can be carded, and eventually DQ’d. Ed ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/233 "2008-08-16T07:01:29Z")
Ah. I was imagining some sort of mouthing off to someone, or a scuffle, or something. All done veeerrrry sloooowwwwly, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/234 "2008-08-16T07:29:16Z")
Just seen Phelps seventh gold. How the bloody fuck did he manage to win that race? Heh, the man’s a machine. And yay Rebecca Adlington, her second gold and breaking the world record that was set the year she was born. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/235 "2008-08-16T09:19:24Z")
Did anyone catch Usain Bolt in the 100m heats? The guy is otherwordly - looked like he was out for a jog. Michael Johnson does some commentary for the BBC (he’s very good), said he’d never seen anything like it. Barring major mental collapse, I’d say he’s got the gold in the bag. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/236 "2008-08-16T10:27:41Z")
It’s looking good for the British cycling team in the velodrome. I caught myself cheering for an Aussie ealier on, just to pull for the underdog. Wiggins, Hoy, Romero - they’re too good. Cavendish will ride the Madison later on. I did see one Aussie guy put in a scintillating heat in the Keirin, crushed the field in the final lap We’ll see how he gets on against big Chris Hoy in the final. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/237 "2008-08-16T12:20:20Z")
[QUOTE=Busy Scissors] Did anyone catch Usain Bolt in the 100m heats? The guy is otherwordly - looked like he was out for a jog. Michael Johnson does some commentary for the BBC (he’s very good), said he’d never seen anything like it. Barring major mental collapse, I’d say he’s got the gold in the bag. [/QUOTE] Yes, he was almost as effortless in the semi-final just now. He strolled across the line in 9.85 seconds, already slowing down. 9.85! :eek: The guy is in a class of his own. Looking forward to the final, when he might, you know, actually try to post a fast time. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/238 "2008-08-16T12:34:36Z")
[QUOTE=Busy Scissors] It’s looking good for the British cycling team in the velodrome. I caught myself cheering for an Aussie ealier on, just to pull for the underdog. Wiggins, Hoy, Romero - they’re too good. Cavendish will ride the Madison later on. I did see one Aussie guy put in a scintillating heat in the Keirin, crushed the field in the final lap We’ll see how he gets on against big Chris Hoy in the final. [/QUOTE] THe brave Aussie battler didn’t make the final ☹ It was a race for silver in any case, as the big man from Edinburgh walked it. Ross Edgar put in a storming ride to grab the silver for a UK 1-2. As good as Hoy is, and Hugh Porter was getting a bit giddy and saying he should be knighted (why not :)), Wiggins is the real strong man of the team. Just relentless winding up of the pace in the pursuit. Impossible to live with and the gold was never in doubt. I see Tyson Gay didn’t make it in the 100m. Obviously not in top form. Bolt is unreal but I’m hoping Powell can put him under pressure and take it. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/239 "2008-08-16T13:14:51Z")
One of the highlights of the Games is coming up. The Spain vs USA basketball. It will be great to see how Ricky Rubio goes against the Dream Team. He had the Chinese shitting themselves trying to get the ball out over half court. The Germans had the guy throwing the ball in run interference to keep him away from the guy with the ball. Pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960/240 "2008-08-16T14:32:34Z")
9.69, and he coasted the last part. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everything-beijing-08-olympics-games/458960.md?page=13)