Other Olympic Observations

I haven't had much time to watch, but am enjoying watching the running events especially as I wait for the mountain bike events next weekend :) I do generally like the track and field events.

Watching the men's long track race last night, I was really struck by the winner (for Great Britain, can't think of his name) running along with his training partner (USA team) and in the end his training partner was on the podium with him. That was how they trained, running together, so it must have helped with the tension of being in the Olympics.

Watching the women marathon race right now and they just highlighted two USA women who have been training the same way. Also in Portland, Oregon just like the two men. Hopefully they will win, though I will likely have to leave home before the end of the marathon :(

Watching the women's marathon. I do not follow marathons regularly on TV (if they are ever shown), but this is the first time I notice a "feed" station for every country.

I am an Olympic junkie. Love it all. Love all of the background stories. Fortunately our Canadian broadcasters often have a female sidekick, though not as polished as some of our veteran broadcasters- it's good to see. Our colour commentary usually comes from someone who had participated in some aspect of the sport- and that's a mix of male and female.

Other things I love:

I loved the spontanous singing of old Beatles songs by the crowd yesterday on"Super Saturday."
I love the background music from "Chariots of Fire" being played during the Olympic medal presentations.
(I LOVE that movie!)
I love the choice of anthems the Brits have chosen for each country. They are not tinny, or sound like they've been culled from a cheap rendition '33 found in someone's garage.
Love the small colourful posies being presented to the medal winners. Tasteful.

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Originally Posted by pll

And why is NBC showing gymnastics sob stories from 1996???!

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Because their coverage is hideous! I can't even watch it.

A compelling story.

http://1045theteam.com/american-tv-n...-the-olympics/

400m ... The NBC talking heads were upset about the absence of an American in the final. However, it was neat to see the countries represented in it: Grenada, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago... all Caribbean countries!

I thought it was cool to see several counties win medals in sports they hadn't won anything before. Brazil won a gold in still rings in gymnastics. I'm a bit confused as to rather it's their first ever medal for gymnastics or the first ever medal for men's gymnastics. My former neighbor, the husband is from Brazil. So they were very excited about that.

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Originally Posted by Koronin

I thought it was cool to see several counties win medals in sports they hadn't won anything before. Brazil won a gold in still rings in gymnastics. I'm a bit confused as to rather it's their first ever medal for gymnastics or the first ever medal for men's gymnastics. My former neighbor, the husband is from Brazil. So they were very excited about that.

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First medal ever in gymnastics for Brazil. That was great to see, as was the guy from the Dominican Republic, Félix Sánchez, who won the 400m hurdles. I teared up, what can I say...

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Originally Posted by pll

First medal ever in gymnastics for Brazil. That was great to see, as was the guy from the Dominican Republic, Félix Sánchez, who won the 400m hurdles. I teared up, what can I say...

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The medal ceremony on NBC was a little "let's watch this guy crumble, zoomed in, as close as we can" for my taste, but it was amazing nonetheless. Watching him unpin his bib and take out the picture of his grandmother was tearjerking enough, let alone when he finished first, stood on the podium, and tried so hard to keep it together but was overcome by emotion.

I have a feeling there are little more than two ways to be on the podium: in complete shock and awe, or overcome by emotion. ;)

pll, thanks for the clarification.
Both of those were so great to see.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spindizzy

I am an Olympic junkie. Love it all. Love all of the background stories. Fortunately our Canadian broadcasters often have a female sidekick, though not as polished as some of our veteran broadcasters- it's good to see. Our colour commentary usually comes from someone who had participated in some aspect of the sport- and that's a mix of male and female.

Other things I love:

I loved the spontanous singing of old Beatles songs by the crowd yesterday on"Super Saturday."
I love the background music from "Chariots of Fire" being played during the Olympic medal presentations.
(I LOVE that movie!)
I love the choice of anthems the Brits have chosen for each country. They are not tinny, or sound like they've been culled from a cheap rendition '33 found in someone's garage.
Love the small colourful posies being presented to the medal winners. Tasteful.

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I love the posies too, especially when they give them to guys.:D:D

Did anyone follow the story of the runner with the cheetah blades? he was amazing. Here are two good links of interest:

http://vimeo.com/31901027?action=share

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympi...6769--oly.html

I saw Murray win tennis gold for his country this past weekend. That was pretty awesome. Also saw Usain win again, nice. I saw some gymnastics, diving and swimming...all good.

Incredible Olympics, although it has had it's fail moments too. They all do.

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Originally Posted by Catrin

Watching the men's long track race last night, I was really struck by the winner (for Great Britain, can't think of his name) running along with his training partner (USA team) and in the end his training partner was on the podium with him. That was how they trained, running together, so it must have helped with the tension of being in the Olympics.

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during one of the "behind-the-scenes" stories, I was surprised to find that the silver medalist for the 2008 triathlon (Simon Whitfield) had a "helper". He had a training partner who would swim, ride, and run in front of him so that he can conserve his energy by drafting and sure enough, in the last few hundred meters Simon zoomed past the rest of the competitors and came in second. The partner's sole purpose was to sacrifice himself in any way to help Simon win. He was asked if he didn't feel somehow cheated that he couldn't go and compete for himself but he graciously said that he was happy to do it for the country.

Turns out the training partner retired after 2008 so I was curious to see if Simon had another partner but none was mentioned. Not that it really mattered, Simon crashed soon after he got on his bike and didn't finish.

It's sad when you only have one shot. No heats, preliminaries, or other events to compete in.

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Originally Posted by colby

The medal ceremony on NBC was a little "let's watch this guy crumble, zoomed in, as close as we can" for my taste, but it was amazing nonetheless. Watching him unpin his bib and take out the picture of his grandmother was tearjerking enough, let alone when he finished first, stood on the podium, and tried so hard to keep it together but was overcome by emotion.

I have a feeling there are little more than two ways to be on the podium: in complete shock and awe, or overcome by emotion. ;)

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I have to agree -- they zoomed on him forever and I kept wishing they would pan and show the rest of the podium. Medal ceremonies are moments when pent up emotions and years of stress just surface.

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Originally Posted by badger

during one of the "behind-the-scenes" stories, I was surprised to find that the silver medalist for the 2008 triathlon (Simon Whitfield) had a "helper". He had a training partner who would swim, ride, and run in front of him so that he can conserve his energy by drafting and sure enough, in the last few hundred meters Simon zoomed past the rest of the competitors and came in second. The partner's sole purpose was to sacrifice himself in any way to help Simon win. He was asked if he didn't feel somehow cheated that he couldn't go and compete for himself but he graciously said that he was happy to do it for the country.

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The Brits did the same thing in the womens triathlon this year, there was a lead swimmer/cyclist whose job was to get another athlete to the front so she could try to deliver the win (the equivalent of a domestique in cycling). Interestingly it didn't change the overall effect of the race, the women who were on the podium didn't have the benefit of the other person, just the benefit of drafting on the bike/swim.

I am not a huge beach volleyball fan but the womens semifinal games were actually pretty good to watch - lots of back and forth, tit for tat. The final is interesting, one team in their final match ever, the other the "new generation" taking over.

The other day I got sucked in by fencing, probably for the same reason. Close matches with people who are really good at what they are doing. I found the technology of the fencing matches fascinating, too, it would be interesting to see the evolution of that over time.

I very was happy that NBC showed the men's horizontal bar final in gymnastics, where "Flying Dutchman" Epke Zonderland won the gold with an amazing routine. His release moves were incredible! I think he's the first Dutch athlete to win any medal during an individual gymnastics event.

And here's the Lego version of his accomplishment:

http://youtu.be/jbPJmXCCY7k