Some countries take the Olympics too far..

[Wobble 1]

I was reading and watching about the training and preparations.. and some countries sure take the olympic games way too far IMO.. for example.. in China its not uncommin for a child who happens to like to sake when they are 4 yeard olt to be TOLD that they are going to be in the olympics... 12 years later.. and from hence forth wheather the kid wants to or not they are forced to train for the olympics.. Korea is the same way..

a more extreme example is Russia in the lates 70s early 80 and their hocky team.. it was crazy.. the entire hocky team was made to be *military* and from then forth they enver had to work or do anything other than practice for the olympic games.. 4 years from then.. they were sponsored by the goverment and forced to practice when they were told or it was *treason* and they would be jailed..

I know thats not the only example.. but good god.. its not a fucking war.. its games.. sheesh.

its a wonder the US ever wins anything.. almost all the US folks that compete are just regular people.. they dont have their goverment paying for them , giving them a house, taking for every facet of their life so all they have to do is train.. hell they have kids, go to school, work.. love a normal life for the most part..

shit.. after all they are GAMES.. this isne rome under Nero where if you do poorly yer gonna be fed to a lion.. (well.. maby in china )

it just seems wierd that people can be raised more or less from birth and forced become more or less property of the state and made to be its little show toy tool.. seems kinda wrong.

[foxer 0]

Olympic sucks.

Theres only one sport,or maybe 2 that are anygood.Thats basketball and ? hockey i guess.

[theavonlady 2]

I agree, Wobble, especially when you can win a gold medal after falling off your feet while skating. I can do that, too, with no training at all!

[loopy 0]

G`day people

Well I saw a documentary on the russian ballet and it was quite sad making these kids train train and have no childhood no wonder half of them used to go walkabout when they went to perform in the west.

I thought sport was meant to be fun!!!

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Yep.

Olympics suck.

Btw.. Its sad that some countries goes that far to show a "pretty face" to the world.

[Hilandor 1]

yeah loopy i remember that documentary on the russian ballet, making 6 year old kids stretch untill there crying with the pain, and hitting the kids when they dont get things right.

absolutely totally wrong imo.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

The worst from which I know is gymnasium (is that the word?).

In this sport the children realy started at an early stage. They were given medications not to grow fast and were punished terribly for undisciplined behaviour. This practices kept on going untill the IOC changed the minimum age for participation at competitions.

On the other hand, maybe it was sports events like the olympics that kept the cold war as it was, cold!!. Hwo knew what would have happened if the East and the West wouldnt have had the chance to fight against each other peacefully.

(Please forgive me Avalon Lady, but what I am gonna say is meant more serious than it sounds: maybe in the middle East a bit more of sports-competitions between the countires would help the people to loose of some of their steam´)

[jaxx 0]

Albert, I totally disagree about the losing steam thing. Sports, especially the olympics is not and was not used for that during the cold war. The east beating the west was almost as serious as a real war to both sides.

As far as the ice skating thing - that's totally weak of canada to be making a stink aboot it. For crying out loud, if they had won, would they have made a stink about how the judging isn't fair, etc? So, they lose and then they make a stink about it. What about the poor Russians? They placed second in the past and NEVER complained. It's subjective judging and everyone knew that before they competed. It would not be an issue if Canada had won, so why is it an issue? The only reason: Canada lost. If it works for them, it's fair, if it doesn't it's not fair. That is stupid.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

There has never been a more symbolic competition of East against West than the Winter-olympic Ice-hockey competition. I think it was in the late 70ies or early 80ies when an american college team (at this time only amateurs were allowed) beat the national team of the USSR.

This was considered as a total desaster in Russia and the Kreml was furious. No wonder the US got this old team together again this year to light up the Olympic fire in Salt Lake City, probably the greatest honour for a Sportsman (greater than the gold-medal).

Somehow this was of course a little provocation to the new Russia (tearing open old wounds), and therefore they reacted angrily yesterday when people complained about them having won the Ice-scating gold.

Ice-skating is somehow very popular where I live and I think I have a good amateurish eye for what is a good performance and what is bad. And I have to say that the russian couple did perform well but fell. Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, the two canadians were less syncron but did showed a great performance without a single mistake. So the high marks for Russia were undeserved.

Unfortunately Ice-skating is somehow conservative, and especially the old judges dont understand that russia is no longer the best nation, so russia always start with a tiny extra bonus (cause russia always won every Ice-scating medal during decades).

[Damage Inc 0]

Lake Placid 1980.

Finland is kicking Germany's ass in women's hockey on TV

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Two days ago the US beat them 10 to 0. They are just starting, but dont put them down, they can be proud that they already got that far....  

Any hey, you there in Finland, how do I know if I got a P4 socket 423 or 478? Thats Bonus question for today. (cant find any information)

[jaxx 0]

I'm not from Finland, but I think you count the number of pin sockets on the motherboard.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

aha, you try to take the piss out of me? You seriously want me to take of my processor and crawl into my mini-tower to count that little pins?

I need to know, cause if I wanna upgrade my P4 I dont want to pay once again for a new socket. The P4 is already expensive enough (I should have known before!)!

[Damage Inc 0]

It probably depends on your motherboard.

[ralphwiggum 6]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Wobble @ Feb. 14 2002,09:30)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I was reading and watching about the training and preparations.. and some countries sure take the olympic games way too far IMO.. for example.. in China its not uncommin for a child who happens to like to sake when they are 4 yeard olt to be TOLD that they are going to be in the olympics... 12 years later.. and from hence forth wheather the kid wants to or not they are forced to train for the olympics..   Korea is the same way..

<snip>

its a wonder the US ever wins anything.. almost all the US folks that compete are just regular people.. they dont have their goverment paying for them , giving them a house, taking for every facet of their life so all they have to do is train.. hell they have kids, go to school, work.. love a normal life for the most part..<span id='postcolor'>

correction....N Korea, not S. Korea...S. Korea doesn't do to that extent.

The reason why sports is used as a tool to create nationalism(or whatever) is because people love them. And if you could solidify your citizens through using it, wouldn't you?

The reason why most US atheletes don't have to worry about financial matters is because once they are on certain level, they get support through market system, unlike some communist countries where market sys does not exist to the point where it can support an athelete through marketing. Also, their training infrastructure is not well-enough to have a great start like US, so gov't support is used.

[Die Alive 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Damage Inc @ Feb. 14 2002,12:12)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Finland is kicking Germany's ass in women's hockey on TV <span id='postcolor'>

Too bad it going to be either US or Canada in the Gold medal finals for women's hockey. There's really no competition in women's hockey, in the first 2 games that team canada played, the opposition had only 13 shots on goal. Why they made this an olympic event is beyond me, it's nowhere as competitive as men's hockey. It should've been left out until more contries can dress better teams.

-=Die Alive=-

[Damage Inc 0]

It's good enough if Finland can get a bronze medal in women's hockey. Of course Finland will win the gold in men's hockey

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Die Alive you are right, but on the other hand the olympics may help to exactly have this desired effect. A lot of women gonna watch those matches and there might not be a better marketing effect than those games (even if we loose them).

I have to admit that those US-girls play terribly professional. It does not appear as if it is a young sport in the US. And BTW, it is funny but in the US field-hockey is rather a girls sport, here in europe it is a mens sport. Maybe this could be a reason as well ? ?

[Damage Inc 0]

Field hockey is a girls sport in here as well

[Thehamster 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Damage Inc @ Feb. 14 2002,20:18)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Field hockey is a girls sport in here as well <span id='postcolor'>

Yep watching field hockey is like watching a mini war they play to main and cripple the other team. I used to think ice hockey was a aggressive sport when I played it then I watched some girls playing field hockey I would be scared to be on the same pitch as them Jesus they are vicious.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

When I was younger (8-16) I used to play a lot field-hockey. In fact I was elected as second goaly of my county (State). This period Didnt last long because I went to Ireland. But when my brother went to boarding school in Maine he was kind of anoyed that he no longer could play hockey, so he did the only right thing and became trainer of the girls-team of his school. Not only from a sports perspective the right thing to do