London Olympics 2012

[diamondd]

Whilst I'm loathe to read New Ltd. sometimes, this article is interesting in that Chinese team pay big money to be trained by Australian-based coaches. Do our bleats of drug use start quietening down now?

http://www.news.com.au/sport/london-oly ... 6443207625

I read a couple of years ago of Australian coaches warning that Australia needed to increase it's spending on our sporting programs/institutions, otherwise our success would start disappearing over subsequent Olympics. Looks like it's coming true?

I also agree about the dismal coverage from Channel 9. The constant switching between sports is really annoying. I can't remember exactly how Channel 7 did it in 2008, but I'm sure it wasn't this bad.

yeah, well of course in many ways its no real surprise. People seem to take Aussie Olympic success for granted and don't realise that to actually win at the Olympics takes a huge amount of work and I don't just mean swimmers getting out of bed at 4am every morning to go to training every day.

ultimately for countries like China and the US, flaunting their superiority in the sporting arena is no different to why the US put men on the moon, and probably costs a comparable amount of money. Great Britain also would have spent a fortune on development as soon as they'd secured the games to ensure that they would have the strong showing at home that we're seeing now. Olympic medals are no longer won on inspiration and determination alone, and that's the difference we've been seeing more and more in the modern era (in any sport I might add).

[Ralph Wiggum]

Interesting. If Australia was ever in the top 2 medal tally would you still refer to it as 'flaunting our superiority' in the sporting arena? Or would you take a more subdued approach?

If I recall correctly, a good portion of lottery revenue in Great Britain was diverted into their sporting institutions in preparation for the London Olympics. I agree inspiration and determination is no longer enough; as technology advances so does the ability to analyse and improve your performance. And quite simply, money buys the best coaches and support staff.

Anyone watch the gymnastics. Notice the use of matrix-style camera shots?

[diamondd]

Interesting. If Australia was ever in the top 2 medal tally would you still refer to it as 'flaunting our superiority' in the sporting arena? Or would you take a more subdued approach?

If I recall correctly, a good portion of lottery revenue in Great Britain was diverted into their sporting institutions in preparation for the London Olympics. I agree inspiration and determination is no longer enough; as technology advances so does the ability to analyse and improve your performance. And quite simply, money buys the best coaches and support staff.

Anyone watch the gymnastics. Notice the use of matrix-style camera shots?

Yeah, I would. I've seen documentaries on Chinese athlete development and they basically take 4 year old kids and stick them in a gymnastics school and that's your life son. At the moment both China and the US have nearly double the amount of golds that Great Britain have in third place. Its pretty clear that they're pouring a tonne of resources into achieving results like that and you have to question if its actually worth whatever they're spending.

It would be nice to see Australia sitting 1st or 2nd, but it would be a pretty clear indication that we're taking something that ultimately isn't that important, waaay too seriously. The Olympics are a time to bring countries together and celebrate the endeavour of our athletes, not prop up the egos of the world super powers.

And yes, those matrix shots were awesome. Would be cool if they didn't freeze the image while spinning though.

[Chucky]

Bolt is a force to be reckoned with! So happy he took out the 100m again, just wish he got a better start and took out the world record.

[diamondd]

Bolt is a force to be reckoned with! So happy he took out the 100m again, just wish he got a better start and took out the world record.

absolute superstar! I got up to watch him win it, didn't let me down



roll on 200m and the relay

[brimlad]

was indeed a great race and I'm glad I watched it, the expression on Gaitlin's face as he crossed the line summed up the effort that went into that run; Bolt ran a perfect race and never looked like losing.

cheers

[Ralph Wiggum]

3 point shot with something like 2 seconds left on the clock which ends up winning the game?

**** brilliant.

[Yurtles]

I reckon the basketball and volleyball venues have picked up the camera crews that normally cover the cricket. Heaps of shots of ladies in the crowd.

[JonDogg]

Good to see sailing in the news for once. Good to see Tom Slingsby win gold, and at least one more sailing gold to come.

If I remember correctly in 2008, channel 7 showed the Olympics but also did SBS. And SBS showed more sports in whole and the ones that channel 7 didn't show which was quite good, and with less ads.

[Nekosan]

[Nightstaar]

So maybe I'm just blind, or my Google-fu sucks, but I'm having trouble finding where to watch replays... Can anyone help me out?

[Ralph Wiggum]

Good to see sailing in the news for once. Good to see Tom Slingsby win gold, and at least one more sailing gold to come.

If I remember correctly in 2008, channel 7 showed the Olympics but also did SBS. And SBS showed more sports in whole and the ones that channel 7 didn't show which was quite good, and with less ads.

You're right, Channel 7 showed the opening and closing ceremonies along with the mainstream events. SBS covered the less popular sports/other countries playing. It appears people still complained about 7's coverage with the usual issues (ads, only following Australia) though at least SBS makes up for it.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics_on_Seven

Channel 9 on the other hand is doing an absolute **** job. Just then showed 2 minutes of Tae Kwon Do then cut straight to an ad break. Seriously? 2 minutes of Olympics then back to another **** commercial?

[Nekosan]

3 point shot with something like 2 seconds left on the clock which ends up winning the game?

**** brilliant.

I wasn't really impressed, the only reason they needed it was because one of the Aussies was a retard and blatantly fouled someone with like 4 seconds to go, by all rights we should have lost that game.

[Yurtles]

Better than Kazakhstan, aw yeah.

[PalZer0]

Did anyone see Stephan Feck's epic diving fail? I'm trying to find a youtube video but not having much luck (screw you IOC).