I was out earlier in the evening, so I only got to watch the end of the parade of nations and then the actual opening. Wow! That was amazing. They seemed to be alternating music. I kept hearing Mexican music in the background in between the bagpipes. Rather cool idea to mix it up. The torch lighting was breathtaking.
I’ve been ambivalent about these games until now…they might win me over yet.
But, yeah, no commentators (maybe just captions telling you who or what you’re looking at) would be a big improvement.
The commentary is just the worst. I hate how they assume American viewers are idiots. They kept going over the non-alphabetical order as if it were the craziest thing. People, if you can’t understand why the Chinese order isn’t the same as American alphabetical oder, you SHOULD feel dumb.
But I loved the ceremony. I liked how the pageant part was at a slower pace than what we usually see at the Olympics.
And, as always, I complained about the sob stories and claimed I was above those cheap shots. Then, I got totally emotional over the little boy who survived the earthquake walking with Yao Ming (although I thought it would have been a strange turn of events if Yao had lost an eye when he was carrying the little boy – that little guy was a determined flag-waver).
Watching the team entrances, I remembered a comedian many years back joking about the casualness of the American athletes compared to the military stoicism of the Soviets. It was really nice to see that nowadays all the athletes come in looking like they’re having the time of the lives.
And I thought the final lap of the torch relay, way above the crowds, was beautiful.
Anyway, I just watched the women’s 48kg weightlifting. Hiromi Miyake was being billed as a contender for Japan’s first medal of the games, but she just got blown out of the water.
Tani just won her first round match in judo against Matsumoto (US) pretty easily, though not with an ippon. I’m still amused at how hard it is for my wife to wrap her head around someone with a Japanese name being on the American team. Although the Japanese commentators seemed a bit confused by it as well.
Those Opening Ceremonies were stunning-- I expected the best from China, and they delivered.
(I was also lucky enough to watch it live here in Thailand, on NBT, the national public broadcast channel. The narration was in Thai-- but they showed the whole thing start-to-finish without any commercials. Bravo.)
Knowing the SDMB’s affinity for the underdog sports, I may be taking my life in my hands saying this, but this Badminton match has got to be the most boring thing I’ve ever seen.
Almost everything is available on NBC’s online coverage, live or on demand. Hopefully, this will quiet those who always complain in Olympic threads that they can’t see their favorite event.
THe road race was awesome (is there any other olympic event that has 150 participants in the 1 race? Kind of tough to win a medal). Closing stages saw some heroic breaks - Cancellara was way back with 3k to go and straight buried himself to bridge up, first to 2 chasing guys who he then towed up to the leading 3. Didn’t quite have enough at the end and got the bronze. Sanchez took the gold, yet another cycling victory for Spain.
And yet… every four years the Olympics hold swimming meets… and nobody has EVER done it. But, to accomplish something nobody has ever done on the sports biggest stage is pretty meaningless.
I know I’m going to pretty much just repeat what Edward the Head said, but as a former swimmer this actually made me chuckle. Especially since I was a backstroke specialist.
Each stroke is completely different from the others. Each with specific rules that must be followed. Each stroke requires different body motions and manipulation to propel you through the water. It is extremely rare for anybody to be able to perform all strokes individually at such a high level so as to be able to compete in each event on its own. Phelps is truely a freak at the sport… and an amazing athlete. I highlight individually- because I mean to indicate backstroke on it’s own, butterfly on its own as opposed to a medley. Those in medley’s, are obviously good in all disciplines, but note that they don’t enter themselves in all individual events because they are simply not good enough in each individual stroke to be able to do so. Every swimmer has their favorite stroke/specialty- and they spend most of their time honing that skill.
Swimming is the only reason I’m paying the slightest bit of attention to these games. RickJay, stick with baseball, where you are legend. Like The Tof, I chuckled at your misunderstanding of the sport.
Poland has some good looking women on their team. They also have the apparent love child of Andre the Giant and Janet Reno.
The Jordanian flag-bearer, a Ping Ponger, is hot, hot, hot! I wouldn’t be the least surprised if she was a model.
I caught the very end of the womens volleyball game and there was a mention of a tragedy for the team. Can anyone fill me in what they were talking about?
Got my coverage sorted and it’s great with DishNetwork – NBC interactive programming and six devoted channels. Though two are strictly devoted to the US team.
Must say, I also enjoyed the heck out of the road race.
I’m usually one who is always ranting about the broadcast media being so US-centric (at least, the US networks are) and never showing obscure sports.
But I just watched women’s team handball, and fencing (since it was an all-US final, they just had to show it)…
In team handball, why do they even bother with a goalie? I swear 90% of shots went in.
And fencing just does not show up well on TV. A lunge, somebody screams, and lights go on. What the hell just happened?
And can I digress into cultural phenomena for a moment: from watching the Japanese women’s volleyball, team…do Japanese women have something against their natural hair color? The whole damn team were redheads.
I know what you mean. I used to fence on a varsity team in college, and it drives me crazy how stupid the announcers are. One guy is all right, but the other has NO idea what he is talking about - and they both miss the subtle stuff. If you have the right announcer, who can explain the really intelligent and hard to catch moves, a fencing bout becomes the most exciting thing EVAR. With a dumbass announcer, it just looks like thwacking and yelling. Arrgh!
I watched the US v Japan volleyball and I have to say this: the Japanese team puts on one hell of a show, but they cannot close the deal. Games three and four followed the same formula: middle-set push by the Japanses women, based on a series of amazing efforts, digs, etc., followed by late-set domination by the Americans as they blow past on the way to the convincing win.
I seem to remember from years ago a piece ABC did on the Japanese volleyball training methods, which had the women diving all over the place over and over and over, bloody knees and all. Seems like that spirit still exists for their team…
