[Snail]

Yeah. Especially as you could bet they'd rank it the other way round if they were in China's position.

And if they were second either way, they'd do it alphabetically. With America, the United States of.

[Kie99]

They've knocked Great Britain down to 6th, we're doing extremely well at the minute though, 3rd in every other table.

Yeah. Especially as you could bet they'd rank it the other way round if they were in China's position.

And if they were second either way, they'd do it alphabetically. With America, the United States of.

And People's Democratic Republic of Algeria.

[Mars]

Looking at the invividual athletes, it seems that the US and the Austrians have far more athletes who take multiple metals.

Not sure what that means, just putting it out there.

[Daeron]

Looking at the invividual athletes, it seems that the US and the Austrians have far more athletes who take multiple metals.

Not sure what that means, just putting it out there.

It means that say someone like Michael Phelps is a swimmer, but can win a golden metal by swimming the:
Men's 100m Butterfly, the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay, the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay, the Men's 200m Freestyle, the Men's 200m Butterfly, the Men's 200m Individual Medley and the Men's 400m Individual Medley.

And those eight put aside, there are nine more disciplines for men alone that Phelps could have participated in.

It's a very subjective thing.. It really depends on the type of sport you play. Athletics and swimming in particular are types of sports where a good athlete can participate in several disciplines that are very similar, but each have their own medals.

[Nuclear1]

Have to disagree with you there. Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin/Shawn Johnson are really the only individually outstanding athletes. The other USA golds are going to be team sports--basketball, volleyball, etc etc

[Daeron]

Have to disagree with you there. Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin/Shawn Johnson are really the only individually outstanding athletes. The other USA golds are going to be team sports--basketball, volleyball, etc etc

I think we're saying the same thing. If you look at teamsports like basketball, you have the women's and men's discipline. Where they have to play a lot of long games where in the end there's only one gold medal to gain.

If say at the time of the Olympics a certain country produces a talent that can dominate swimming, the country will see a far greater return in gold medals, than when they have a whole team that can absolutely dominate basketball.

The Aussies got 18 medals of their total of 33 from swimming alone.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

One of China's athletes has dropped out in the heats for the 110m mens' hurdles.

[Nuclear1]

The women's gymnastic judges are on drugs if they thought the Chinese beat Nastia Liukin's routine.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

The women's gymnastic judges are on drugs if they thought the Chinese beat Nastia Liukin's routine.

The Chinese are good in gymnastics, but they're not the best.

[Nuclear1]

Well at least they ended the gymnastics part on a high note.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Well at least they ended the gymnastics part on a high note.

Yeah...as compared to the Hurdles.

[karajorma]

The women's gymnastic judges are on drugs if they thought the Chinese beat Nastia Liukin's routine.

I believe the appropriate phrase is Sore Loser.

The British commentators may have expressed surprise that Nastia didn't beat He Kexin but they expressed about the same amount of surprise that both of them weren't beaten by Yang Yilin. So either way the winner would have been Chinese.

[TrashMan]

Steroids? You're referring to some of the athletes who got disqualified because they took steroids?

No, I'm reffering to the fact that the list of allowed and disallowed substances is being re-written before each Olympics... some removed from the list, others added.

You know why? Because records need to be broken to keep things interesting. And as breaking them becomes harder and harder, more help in needed to do it.

[Jeff Vader]

Performance enhancing drugs are banned in the Olympics. Ok, we can swing with that. But performance debilitating drugs should not be banned. Smoke a joint and win the hundred meters on fair play to you. That's pretty damn good. Unless someone's dangling a Mars bar off in the distance.

[peterv]

I believe the appropriate phrase is Sore Loser.

The British commentators may have expressed surprise that Nastia didn't beat He Kexin but they expressed about the same amount of surprise that both of them weren't beaten by Yang Yilin. So either way the winner would have been Chinese.

[Colonol Dekker]

Just watched what i believe was teenage girl diving.

Now its GB in Tae Kwon Do..

COME ON %$£%^ AVE IT MY SON !!!


He's quite bad really

[highwayman]

The problem with gymnastics (and other like sports) is the absolutely subjective scoring. It's hard to take the medals seriously when athletes fall down or make big errors and still outplace others who performed less flawed routines because the starting difficulty was higher. Beyond the politics/personal preference involved in the judging (conscious or subconscious), you're giving people too much credit for their potential to outperform than for the actual performances themselves. I think the Olympic competition and perhaps the sport as a whole is incredibly flawed, in that the judges are constantly comparing apples to oranges - to make the competition more fair, athletes should have to perform the same routines, which can give you a direct side-by-side comparison. It might be more boring, but with the way things are now, it might as well just be a beauty pageant... And the tiebreaking system is also pretty lame - make them do a second routine if they are tied instead of arbitrarily eliminating scores and judges until you're down to different scores.

I find it entertaining to watch for the athletic ability showcased, but I just can't take it seriously as a competition when you have these shadowy judges who face very little scrutiny making questionable decisions that can absolutely crush someone who has trained their whole life for the chance to win.

Imagine if football or basketball was scored not by who scores the goals or gets the ball through the basket, but by how prettily the team moves the ball around, and it doesn't matter if the ball goes in the net or not... that's gymnastics.

[karajorma]

Imagine if football or basketball was scored not by who scores the goals or gets the ball through the basket, but by how prettily the team moves the ball around, and it doesn't matter if the ball goes in the net or not... that's gymnastics.

Yeah. That would be dreadful, Brazil and Italy would win almost every championship.

[BloodEagle]

Is there a video depository of '08 Olympic footage? I've done some minor searching, and can't seem to find anything that doesn't involve the atheletes talking about their childhoods, or the like.

[Nuclear1]

NBCOlympics.com should have a fair amount of the footage.