That depends on what you’re into. Sometimes it is pure beauty in action.
Regards,
Shodan
I also saw most of the US mens soccer win this morning. They still looked like they had jet lag.
I was more impressed with the last minute tie by China against New Zealand on the internet streaming coverage.
If NBC continues to stream this many events, this will be an impressive Olympics.
Yep, watched that in the office last night. Man, the Japan team looked like a bunch of worn-out schoolkids. Even their coach was blasting them for not being able to go the full 90 minutes.
Time for me to give thanks to my cable system for carrying CBC, though with all the NBC system I’ll go through a set of batteries in the remote trying to catch up.
From what I’ve heard, the Dutch play against the Nigerians was pretty awful. You might yet pull it off … although I hope you won’t.
Feeling left out…no NBC live streaming outside the US. Have to check and see what I can get through regular cable and/or DishTV. The latter appears to be a pay-package for non-prime time coverage. Sucks.
Unless of course, someone knows of a site live streaming outside the US? 
I must say that the opening ceremony was really impressive!
First one I’ve actually enjoyed watching. Though I did just see the first half.
That’s the thing; swimming is subdivided into a preposterous number of events. I can understand the distinction between long events and sprints, and I guess I can sort of understand the distinction between disciplines, although that’s a bit silly - awarding a medal for the backstroke is like awarding a medal for running backwards.
But they go further, into “medleys” and relays, and medley relays. How many medals do they hand out - 32? It’s some huge number. The fact that it’s so often the case that the same person medals in a multitude of events is a very strong argument AGAINST having so many events, since it gives lie to the notion that they’re distinct skills. What other events do that? You might see a guy who’s good at the 200m and 400m dashes, and of course your 100m dash masters will be in your relay team, but you sure don’t see the same guys winning the 100m dash, the javelin throw, and 200m dash, the discus and the pole vault.
So you can have an Olympic medal for a four-by-100m medley relay, basically the least skill-specific event you can imagine - it’s like a track 4x100m relay with one guy running a dash, one running hurdles, one speed walking and one finishing with a triple jump. But they’re getting rid of baseball. Jesus.
I don’t mind the Olympics getting rid of baseball since we still have the World Baseball Classic. Olympic baseball is about the same level as AA baseball.
Softball should stay, though.
…boy am I ever glad I have HD for this opening ceremonies. Good grief.
I don’t normally watch the opening ceremonies, this one was worth it.
There are several programs out there (all for Windows, as far as I know) that reach a stream from a server in China to show all sorts of things. I used them a few times to try to watch NFL out-of-market games (never worked well) until they cracked down.
So some US bicyclists got off a plane with oxygen masks on, that they were given to them by USOC, because the air in Beijing is beyond horrid, and because as elite athletes who have trained their whole lives to be in the Olympics their lungs and their ability to process air efficiently is one of the most importan things to them. APparently it offended the Chinese, Og forbid, and the cyclists were brow beaten by the USOC into offering an apology? Ridiculous. This Olympics is going to be a farce.
Seconded. Watching the faces of some of the crowd, I noticed I wasn’t the only one with a tear rolling down my cheek. It must have been a very proud and wonderful moment for those Chinese citizens in the stadium, and watching on tv screens throughout the country.
Yep. Really quite stunning.
The London 2012 delegates must have been going “Oh shit, no!” at times. There were a couple of bits where I couldn’t immediately relate what I was seeing to the fact that it was being done by people in a stadium. The parade of athletes takes a bit too long though - perhaps London will give them all a moped or a Segway or something.
Anyway, I thought I was hearing things when I heard a pipe band playing “Scotland the Brave” when the first athletes came into the stadium, but apparently not. An amateur pipe band from Dundee were headhunted by a Chinese official who’d seen them play in France last year:
But all four strokes are different. Completely, it’s more like saying freestyle is a straight run while backstroke would be more like the hurdles. There are a multiple of running disciplines as well, besides the hurdles there’s the steeple chase, and I’m sure a couple of others that escape me at the moment.
The reason you hear so much about Phelps is because it’s damn near impossible to be so good in every stroke. Actually I can’t think of anyone who is so good in every stroke except breast. I believe he thought about trying the 200 back as well as everything else but didn’t because he didn’t want to swim so much.
For someone in the track world to be as hyped as Phelps they would have to do something like run the 800 meters, 800 hurdles*, the steeple chase and do that for 7-9 days two or three times a day. No one else does it in swimming because they can’t, for the most part they only concentrate on one style.
I do agree though that the number of metals that he can win shouldn’t really be compared to others though, it is easier to get more metals in swimming then anything else.
*I don’t remember all the different distances they do in track, I was just doing examples.
One of my favorite Olympic geeky thing is to pay attention to how many atheletes different countries send and what sport the flagbearer does. (Iran picked a female rower IIRC)
Brian
I was blown away. Very very well done. And the commentary wasn’t too awful.
I love to see the Parade of Nations where the country only has a handful of athletes. They probably won’t win, but by God, they’re there, and they’re going to compete.
I thought it was weird they were playing Scotland the Brave (a piece I absolutely adore, BTW.) What’s up with that?
And can I say that I find the mascots absolutely adorable?
I am having trouble figuring out the scheduling for the online streaming. I want to watch men’s gymnastics but either it’s not going to be available via online streaming, or I am too dumb to figure out where the schedule is. Can someone help me? PM if necessary.
For my edification, during the opening ceremonies parade of teams, which country had
A: the highest number of team officials, as opposed to athletes?
B: the highest ratio of team officials to athletes?
I am always amused by the number of bureaucrats who manage to finagle their way into a free trip to the Olympics.
I thought the NBC coverage was too full of “inspirational stories” and turned me off to watching anything other than the actual events this year. Guess what? We have ALL been through tough times. Everyone has a sad story or has overcome great obstacles in their lives. I don’t need to hear about each athletes personal hurdles.