Athens Olympics 2004

[Grizzlie 0]

I'm watching Olympiad from time to time, but i have to aggree that there is some strange, hard-to-explain situations.

Seems rules r rules and life is life

Albert, not only u can complain. During "Finn" class races, our best sailor was disqualified for falstart in one race - 4 judges said there were no falstart, one said it was, and it happened... So i'm wandering what for there r 5 judges, if only one vote counts...

Other thing i do not like is dopping - still money is more important that "fair play" (i cant see other explanation than willilng to get better deals with sponsors) even on Olympiad

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Everyone knows that the olympics 2004 belongs to Doping, therefore I only watch those sports where it doesnt seem to be an important factor.

I actually watch the olympics 2 hours a day! I love it!

[ran 0]

Everyone knows that the olympics 2004 belongs to Doping, therefore I only watch those sports where it doesnt seem to be an important factor.

I actually watch the olympics 2 hours a day! I love it!

Dominos and chess ?

well, those aren't olympic disciplines ... yet

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Everyone knows that the olympics 2004 belongs to Doping, therefore I only watch those sports where it doesnt seem to be an important factor.

I actually watch the olympics 2 hours a day! I love it!

Dominos and chess ?

well, those aren't olympic disciplines ... yet

Wrong ran

... to be continued

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Or this way

... oh there is many

[ran 0]

Everyone knows that the olympics 2004 belongs to Doping, therefore I only watch those sports where it doesnt seem to be an important factor.

I actually watch the olympics 2 hours a day! I love it!

Dominos and chess ?

well, those aren't olympic disciplines ... yet

Wrong ran

... to be continued

hmmm well, if you say so ....

Absolutelty ANY sport is prone to doping.

Horses can be doped.

So can the fencers and the shooters.

Natation ? well, it's plaguered by doping, I even have doubts about our new Champion Laure Manaudou, not only her own performance but have you seen her trainer? he looks like a pimp.

Summer Hockey .... is that even a sport that desserves being in the olympics ?

Doping happens in all teamsports too, it's not reserved to athletism and strenght events.

[theavonlady 2]

http://www.olympia.de/de/images/features/200435/thumb_420_39346.jpg

Can't horses be doped?

edit: as Ran so quickly pointed out already.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

No Ran, you are absolutely right about the horses. They can be doped and probably are, but in jumping competition this probably wont help too much since the mentallity of the horse is most important. However there are cruel training methods to train horses to jump higher. e.g. lift the fence while they jump so they hurt themselves and learn (forbidden practice)

Summer hockey? Ahhh you like to hit my weak spots dont you . I used to play that for many many many years and actually was quite good in it. In europe and USA it might not appear too popular (a bit poshy) but in asia and the rest of the world it is one of the most important disciplines. Besides, it has a long tradition and is a lot more hurtful than soccer so dont call it a women's sport!

[aj_addons 0]

ive enver liked hockey since high school as they never had any left handed sticks i could play right handed but i was better left just felt more natural so i just used a right handed stick and played with the rounded edge just to piss them off

[Frisbee 0]

Ah, field hockey has such sucky sticks! I played street hockey for about three years, I hate only being able to "push" the ball forward with a wrist shot. Where's my slapshot gone damnit?

And yeah, Belgium has one gold medal now, the honor is saved, but we used to do a lot better. (but we can't complain with our size)

[4 IN 1 0]

yeah fencing, china got screwup by a Hungarian referee in men's team foil, now that the judge have been expelled and suspended for 2 years, yet it is too late, and those Italians still got the balls to say the referees are harsh on them, Bastards!

[Winters 1]

The US womens football team is going for the gold after defeating Germany 2-1 in OT

here is an updated medals count. The US still has the overall lead 61-49 over China but China has the most Gold medals 23-22 with Japan and Australia in 3rd and 4th with 15 and 13 each.

[ran 0]

The US womens football team is going for the gold after defeating Germany 2-1 in OT

here is an updated medals count. The US still has the overall lead 61-49 over China but China has the most Gold medals 23-22 with Japan and Australia in 3rd and 4th with 15 and 13 each.

More complete official table

[Winters 1]

Cool, thats way nicer than mine with all those pretty flags, and it seems that now US and China are tied in golds.

Thanks Ran

[ran 0]

the medal winners are also listed (along with a short "bio" for individuals along with their past awards and medals) if you click on the nations initials

[theavonlady 2]

Quote[/b] ]Underneath the competition, sportsmanship ethic prevails

Many athletes exude ideals of Games, from embraces in the pool to a fencing timeout.

By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

ATHENS – By the measure of modern sports, Michael Phelps might as well be Mahatma Gandhi. In a world weaned on the headlong pursuit of home-run records and the precise choreography of touchdown dances, his gesture was almost unheard of.

Yes, he swam in the heats of the 4x100 individual medley relay, so he received a medal. But by bowing out of swimming the final round this weekend, giving his well-earned slot to a teammate, he gave up his place on the podium, a final prime-time lap in the pool, and - as it turned out - a share of a new world record.

It is the seeming miracle of the Olympiad - a two-week window when the idealistic underpinnings of the Games offer a more hopeful view of sport and humanity. In truth, the Olympics simply give the world an opportunity to turn its eyes toward what is always there.

Whether it is the camaraderie of kayakers or medieval chivalry finding a 21st-century form in fencing, the Games bring to light a sporting world that is ordinarily far beyond the American focus. It is the world of the amateur, where contracts play no part in the calculus of competition, and athletes find themselves far more united in anonymity than divided by scoreboards or stopwatches.

To be sure, the foibles and frustrations of humankind find a forum here just as they do outside the Olympic rings - in everything from judging controversies to judo boycotts. The Games are not a separation from the world, but an amplification of it. Yet no other event holds athletes to such high standards of sportsmanship, and no other event so celebrates the noble and selfless in sport.

"Nobody on the US water polo team is going for the money. They're going for the camaraderie," says John Lucas, an Olympic historian who has been to every summer Games since 1960. "There are far more patriotic and high-minded athletes than there are robber barons and drug cheats."

Hugs and handshakes

This year, Phelps has given America a glimpse into the collegial world of swimming, where each race ends not with the last stroke, but with the shower of hugs and handshakes that inevitably follow. At times, swimming can seem a perpetual graduation party without the pointy hats.

The Olympic ideal only adds to that sportsmanship. "Healthy competition, that's what the Olympic Games are all about," says Gary Hall Jr., winner of the men's 50-meter freestyle. "After the race is finished, you shake your competitor's hand. You don't see that anywhere else like you do at the Olympics."

These Games have not been without controversy, whether it's South Korea protesting a scoring error that gave the men's all-around to American gymnast Paul Hamm, or whether it's Aaron Peirsol being temporarily disqualified in the 200-meter backstroke. Yet even when Austrian officials said they would appeal the final ruling on Peirsol, which gave him the gold, silver medalist Markus Rogan said he did not support his country's protest. Peirsol won by two seconds, and Peirsol deserved the gold, he said.

Not surprisingly, the two are good friends.

That's hardly unusual among the summer Games' more modest sports, where the pretensions of professional sports dissolve. Shooters often all take the same bus, no matter which country they're from. The top kayakers in the world even train together.

"It's very open between athletes," says kayaker Rami Zur. "If you beat me, it's because you're better than me, not because of some secret training."

Yet the sportsmanship of these Games is shown in a thousand things far more subtle - and less likely to make prime-time TV. In the animated world of fencing, where every touch is seemingly cause for an international inquiry, it is shown in the earnest embrace after bouts - perhaps not in friendship, but with clear respect. It is evident when a Swedish diver applauds a Canadian colleague after he hits a difficult dive in practice.

And it is obvious at a midnight gymnastics press conference, when the Romanian coach turns to 25-year-old American Mohini Bhardwaj, who has worked for 10 years to make her first Olympic team - and has redefined the accepted age for international gymnasts in the process. "I hope to work with someone like that someday," he says. "It is my dream."

It is as if the monastic life of the amateur Olympian breeds a respect above all for the competition - and the competitor - almost as much as the result.

A saber fencer's decision

Indeed, in many ways, the most telling moment of these Olympics for saber fencer Ivan Lee won't show up on any scorecard. It is the moment he did nothing.

In the midst of a bronze-medal match - and on the verge of claiming the first-ever medal in team fencing for the United States - Lee's Russian opponent raised his hand. He was asking for time.

In a split second, the lunging Lee had to make a gentleman's decision: either continue the attack and score the point or honor the request. Earlier in the day, one of Lee's teammates had similarly asked for time when his fencing mask fell in front of his eyes. His French opponent had responded by smacking the American over the head, winning the point - and eventually the semifinal match by that one point.

For Lee, though, there was no choice to be made. He stopped mid-swing. Minutes later, the American saber team lost the historic bronze - and a chance to bring the sport precious national recognition - again by that one point.

There was not a moment's regret.

"I suppose I could have won the point," says Lee. "But the most important thing to me is how I fence."

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

We're beating the Turks That's all I care about

[theavonlady 2]

We're beating the Turks

With gyros?

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

We're beating the Turks

With gyros?

With medals

[ran 0]

To all the Swedes on this board :

Ida-Theres KARLSSON is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute !

[Pathy 0]

To all the Swedes on this board :

Ida-Theres KARLSSON is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute !

I take it THIS is you getting to grips with her then?  

You probably wish it was.....

EDIT: Bah, picture doesnt work....

[ran 0]

To all the Swedes on this board :

Ida-Theres KARLSSON is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute !

I take it THIS is you getting to grips with her then?

You probably wish it was.....

EDIT: Bah, picture doesnt work....

lol ... nutcracker ... no way

but it's her hair (as seen in today's events)... i don't know, she has a little something of a teddybear

[Pathy 0]

Wouldnt you be scared of her.....i mean....

Ran sees her at a bar....employing all his Gallic charm he asks her if she'd like a drink.....he thinks....the worst she can do it turn me down....but before he knows it.....

Ran: "Arggggg!!! Let me go, i wont harass you ever again!!"

Pretty effective at dealing with any stalkers i'd say  

BTW if the picture refuses to work....go to http://hem.passagen.se/bksnar/ida/bilder and clikc on "landslag2.jpg"

[ran 0]

well, after her defeat against the french wrestler, I doubt she could take my gallic charm

[Pathy 0]

No she'd smell your French onion breath and whack you straight into a neck lock before you could say (going phonetically here) "ah-hohi-hohi-haw".....  

Only joking mate!