What a ridiculous statement. Think about it: the whole of the Olympics, with the possible exception of men’s basketball and soccer, falls into this category, using your definition of “obscurity.” The most popular sport in the world is played at the Olympics, but they reduce it to an under-23 tournament; why bother playing it then? The second most popular sport in the world, if you will (American Football), isn’t even PLAYED in the Olympics. Baseball’s been dumped, cricket never was. There’s no auto racing. But there is lots and lots of track and field (really, now, who the hell ever bothers with that stuff except in Olympics years??).
See how silly this all is? And, as others have pointed out, there are oodles and oodles of very important competitions all year long, including world championships, in swimming, gymnastics, etc.
Yes, it is true: the fact that you can earn 8 golds in swimming has something to do with the highly compartmentalized nature of the events. But track and field is much the same way: suppose that someone were to win 6 or 7 of the events which make up the decathlon?? Not the decathlon competitions in those events: the real things. Such a person would be pretty much a track and field God. Whose to say it’s any less doable than what Phelps is doing? :dubious:
Lithuania beats Argentina in basketball! Man I always loved Lithuania’s basketball team after they wore the tie dye T-shirts when they won the bronze medal way back when. “We’re a small country and all we have is basketball”, the guy who sunk the winning 3-pointer said. (OK, I was making a sandwich, so I don’t know what role he had in the victory). Well that, and a love of Frank Zappa and super hot women!
Well, she blocks the other 10% of the shots, of course
Seriously, I don’t think it’s nearly that high on average, though it might have been in that match if both teams happened to have relatively weak keepers. It’s certainly true that more shots on goal will result in a goal in handball than in, say, soccer - shots are taken from much closer in, and throwing gives you more control over the ball than kicking. But the keeper does block shots and a good keeper can definitely make the difference between winning and losing.
I think this is a highly dubitable assessment. Is there any country other than the US were American Football is big? Other than that, I agree with you. One thing about the swimming, though: what’s with the free style discipline. Doesn’t this just end up being a replication of the front crawl or whatever it’s called?
I can imagine. Now Holland gets to play Japan, which is already defeated, while the US needs to play Nigeria, which is a tough opponent. To make matters worse, one or two of your better players are suspended because they got yellow cards when they thought the next game didn’t matter. I think the US is a good candidate for not making it to the quarter finals.
Taiwan marched under the name “Chinese Taipei” but did not carry their own flag. Instead, they carried a specially-designed Olympic flag; I couldn’t get a good look at it but it appeared to be white with the Olympic rings and some Chinese writing on it.
Despite CCTV (China’s national TV network) being a straight mouthpiece of Chinese government propaganda, I must say that I appreciate their Olympic coverage much more than America’s. Yes, they go nuts covering events where Chinese athletes are going to medal (I must have seen clips of that Chinese 48 kg female weightlifter about 20 times), but they don’t try to make every athlete into a tragic story; in fact, aside from medal counting, all they do is show the sports.
Watching China vs. US basketball now… Tie ball game with 5:30 left to go in the 2nd quarter! China’s playing amazingly well; my neighbors are screaming with every play and I suspect they will explode if Yao Ming & co. actually manage to pull off a win. I suspect that the US will get their act together (they’re not playing horribly, just a bit sloppy) and coast to a 10-15 point victory. Although I would like to take both the US AND China down a peg, I’m kinda rooting for the homeboys here.
Man, I think I jinxed Team China. Tied with 5:30 to go before the half, to losing by 12 at the half! At the end of 3, it’s now 74-48. It was expected, but the first quarter gave us some promise of a different game. But I guess the mad skillz of Team USA are now kicking in, forcing a bunch of turnovers and getting loads of fast break points. And for some reason, China keeps trying 3-pointers while USA is driving into the paint, getting to the FT line a lot more. Oh well. Here’s hoping for a respectable 4th quarter.
All I’ll say is that you have to be in some kind of shape to watch these games live. As in watching Spain throttle Greece in BB at 3 A.M. with coffee as your only major ally. Feel like I’m living the life of a bat.
In addition to what others have mentioned, I want to make the point that is often forgotten in discussions like this: The Olympics is a global event. It includes many sports that any one individual could consider minor and/or obscure, because they are not competed much in the local area. But somewhere else in the world, that same sport may be hugely popular.
Im watching the replay of the last minutes of the first half now. And up till the point you were talking about, it showed the biggest problem with the U.S. team. Kobe Fucking Bryant. He is probably the most al round talented guy in the world, but The ass has a congential inability to understand that A. he is having a bad game, and B. Someone else might be a better option. He has disgusting habit of playing badly, which leaves the other team ahead, or closer than they should be, and his only thought is “gee we’re not doing as well as we should, I guess I’ll throw up even more crap” which makes things work.
I find it funny as hell that at the time you mentioned (about 5:30 to go second half) they just stopped giving the ball to Kobe, and went on a dominating run. If the U.S. does lose a game, it’ll be because Kobe misses 15-20 shots.
