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London 2012 Summer Olympics |OT2|

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datruth29 said:
Ugh, I feel like I would be doing a major injustice trying to summerize everything he wrote, especially since I didn't read through it all and just skimmed it. But from what I gather, it can be sorta boiled down to this:

The US is big, and when it comes to sports and culture we're very decentralized relative to the rest of the world. As such, while we have many athletes that are tremendously talented, they usually stick to either major US sports, or sports that are very culturally relevant to their surrounding and environment. The point kinda gets some what fuzzy, but ultimately what he means is that it's INCREDIBLY hard for the US to just focus on particular sports; it doesn't work like that for us. We have no control over where our athletes should go, and the best just don't go into weightlifting. While that by itself is a problem, it has the unfortunate side effect of the sport not being able to gather resources for proper training facilities, competitive national competition, recognition, etc, in order for it to be culturally relevant, whether that be to the nation as a whole or a dedicated subset. And even THEN there's still the issue of perception. There's no shortage of strong men in the US who can push all kinds of weight and such. Weightlifting is not just about being strong. Technique and proper training is specific and incredibly important in order to perform well in Olympic weightlifting, and we seem to just not value that from a cultural point of view.

With those powers combined, I give you Why The US is ASS at Olympic Weightlifting. Summarized anyway.

At least I think that's what the article said... I'm about 99% sure I missed or/and got something wrong. Really, skim through the article, its pretty good.
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I thought it was a pretty horrible article personally. It was so long winded, constantly repeated itself, went into unnecessarily long tangents that could have been said in much fewer words, and often times were completely unnecessary. Seemed like the guy liked to watch himself think and was pretty full of himself.

He did sum it up though at one point (unintentionally), and really what the whole article says in one sentence is, "In the US, olympic lifting is niche." Pretty much says it all. From a training, personnel, money, dedication, cultural etc point of view, we don't have it.
 
Korey said:
failure to employ "one's best efforts to win a match"

"conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport"

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetorch/2...etrimental-conduct-rule-and-losing-on-purpose
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Gamer @ Heart said:
Unsportsmanlike. Goes against the spirit of the games / competition etc. They were repeatedly warned so they had a chance to change, but nope. There was a minor debate a couple pages back about it being strategy and such, but the Olympics will have none of that shit here. It dishonors the sport
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Alright, gotcha. Thanks guys!
 
Korey said:
in the olympics?
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It happens all the time, even in the Olympics. The distinction here is that both teams wanted to throw it, which is harder to fake.

Usually what happens is you've qualified for the later round, but you're facing an opponent that won't qualify for your last match. (Say you are 3-0 and your opponent is 0-3). You let the crappy team win, you get more favorable seeding, nobody blinks an eye.

Even Phelps admits he doesn't try his hardest before the finals--he "loses" the heats, only swimming well enough to not have to be in the outside lanes for the final.
 
Posted? lol

DqQia.jpg
 
elty said:
That's how their system works: throw in thousands of children at a young age, give them years of training with the hope to grind out a gold medalist. Many of those athlete comes from rural area, yet you won't really find any sporting facility there. China doesn't really care about sport, they care about winning.
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I wonder if there is ever a point where the IOC looks at this as a human rights issue, and realizes that it's their games that are negatively impacting human rights in certain parts of the world and takes action. Probably not though.
 
numble said:
It happens all the time, even in the Olympics. The distinction here is that both teams wanted to throw it, which is harder to fake.

Usually what happens is you've qualified for the later round, but you're facing an opponent that won't qualify for your last match. (Say you are 3-0 and your opponent is 0-3). You let the crappy team win, you get more favorable seeding, nobody blinks an eye.

Even Phelps admits he doesn't try his hardest before the finals--he "loses" the heats, only swimming well enough to not have to be in the outside lanes for the final.
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"Losing" heats to conserve energy for the races that matter is different from losing to manipulate the brackets.

Do you have an example of your first example?

I agree it's harder to fake, but that doesn't mean anything.
 
LizardKing said:
I wonder if there is ever a point where the IOC looks at this as a human rights issue, and realizes that it's their games that are negatively impacting human rights in certain parts of the world and takes action. Probably not though.
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It is about money for them. So no.
 
Korey said:
In the Olympics?
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I can't think of other Olympic sports where tanking may get you a better position. That's really the problem here. If they don't fix that rule then you'll still see it happen. The teams or players will just make sure that you can't prove that they're tanking the match.

Korey said:
It's not even the sport's fault, it's the format of the tournament, which is 99% chance that they'll change it for next time. They were banned because it goes against the spirit of the Olympics, it's not much more complicated than that.
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In general badminton seems to have bad rules. From the way the eliminations are structured to the fact that you have to accept a refs call even if it's clearly wrong. It's one reason why I stopped watching it after the first day.
 
Korey said:
"Losing" heats to conserve energy for the races that matter is different from losing to manipulate the brackets.

Do you have an example of your first example?

I agree it's harder to fake, but that doesn't mean anything.
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Should you try to win every match, or do well enough to make sure you are in contention?
Phelps specifically said he wanted to be in specific lanes for the final, and was aiming to only swim well enough for those lanes.

Japan vs South Africa, women's soccer, this Olympics.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/soccer/south-africa-holds-japan-to-draw.html
World champion Japan drew 0-0 with South Africa on Tuesday in Olympic women's soccer, a result the coach said he was playing for to avoid having to travel to Scotland for the quarterfinals.

The outcome left Japan second in Group F, meaning it will now play either Britain or Brazil in Cardiff on Friday. If it had won the match, it would have faced the top-ranked United States or France, another strong team, in Glasgow, also on Friday.
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Yaboosh said:
It is about money for them. So no.
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It's sad that a gold medal takes precedence over that person having any semblance of a life and family outside the sport. To the Olympics it is just 1 more gold medal, but to that person and her family that is a life altering consequence.
 
Perro said:
aw poor honduras and it seems that mexico is getting some medals
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That's what we said in 2002 more or less. :(

I rather we just focus on Senegal right now. We beat them at a friendly 2 to 0 a few months ago, but that was an incredibly cagey match. I'm not one to guarantee a win here even if I agree this is Mexico's best chance to get a footballing medal.
 
numble said:
Should you try to win every match, or do well enough to make sure you are in contention?
Phelps specifically said he wanted to be in specific lanes for the final, and was aiming to only swim well enough for those lanes.

Japan vs South Africa, women's soccer, this Olympics.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/soccer/south-africa-holds-japan-to-draw.html
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I think there's still a difference between not doing your best to win, and trying to lose on purpose. Both aren't elegant, but one is much closer to cheating than the other.
The football/soccer team would have been in the same troubles as the badminton players if they had started shooting at their own goal.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19090288

Wow at the lack of shame and shifting of all blame / responsibility from themselves to others.

Wang Xiaoli
''What you've cancelled is not just a game, but my dream!'' she said.
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Really? Here's an idea... maybe if you had such a passionate dream it would have been a good idea to actually try to play properly to win that game and every other, rather than try to avoid teams. Surely the dream is to be the best and beat everyone to prove this point and win gold; not to dodge teams, play badly, ignore several warnings during the game, and generally look disinterested.

Majine said:
One of the badminton players, Yu Yang from China, that was DQed yesterday has reportedly quit the sport alltogether.
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Yeah; good riddance.
 
pirateben said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-19090288

Wow at the lack of shame and shifting of all blame / responsibility from themselves to others.

Wang Xiaoli


Really? Here's an idea... maybe if you had such a passionate dream it would have been a good idea to actually try to play properly to win that game and every other, rather than try to avoid teams. Surely the dream is to be the best and beat everyone to prove this point and win gold; not to dodge teams, play badly, ignore several warnings during the game, and generally look disinterested.


Yeah; good riddance.
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Very good point, When interviewing US Beach Volleyball champs Treanor and Walsh, they were saying they hoped to play the best each time and be in the hardest group because that made them play better and improve each round.
 
BravesCountry said:
I knew before that the Chinese took the Olympics seriously but this is a whole other level...

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympi...m-chinese-diver-until-she-won-gold-medal.html
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This is so sad. One of the commentators during the men's gymnastics team competition the other night said that one of the Chinese gymnasts had only been home 17 days since he started training and talked about his "personal sacrifice".

I am going to choose to be happy for the Chinese when they win gold because it seems to be the ultimate reward for their forced? sacrifices.
 
Kohei Uchimura, Gold Medallist, Gymnastics, Men's All-Around

Nickname

Kohe (konami.co.jp, 12 May 2012)

Hobbies

Sleeping. (konami.co.jp, 12 May 201)

DIET
He is famous as a picky eater. He hates vegetable and his favourite food is chocolate. He doesn't eat vegetable so much and said "I am not going to change my eating habit. If I fall sick then I try to cure with my will. I believe diet is not important." (sportiva.shueisha.co.jp, 14 June 2010, nikkei.com, 30 Aug 2010)

Occupation

Athlete
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Hilarious.
 
Alx said:
I think there's still a difference between not doing your best to win, and trying to lose on purpose. Both aren't elegant, but one is much closer to cheating than the other.
The football/soccer team would have been in the same troubles as the badminton players if they had started shooting at their own goal.
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They were charged with not trying their best to win. Even then, half the teams won anyway.

I think it's a distinction without a difference. If either of the 4 teams was faced with a team that wasn't continuing as their last match of the round, their goal would be the same, it'd just be easier to fake.
 
It's funny how you guys blame them for not playing to win when this shit happens ALL THE TIME. NBA, NFL, MLB, etc. It's a strategy. Had they win, they would've had to face the #2 team and it was China too. I don't see anyone complaining in any of those sports when the top seed sits their best players right before the playoffs to rest them. Why play to win when you don't have to? How many complained when Shin went defensive instead of offensive because she knew she would've won the tiebreaker? How about banning Japan's soccer team too because they didn't bother to score?

It's not their fault the system is hugely flawed.
 
Ryan Lochte's (spelling?) mum was just on BBC 5 Live.

She said he was ranked in the US by the age of 9 or 10.

INSANE!
 
watching this on NBC is so frustrating
fucking at NBC's mercy on who they decide is worthy of being shown and how often
ppl and apparatus just disppeared off the map and new ppl just pop up from out of no where
 
demigod said:
It's not their fault the system is hugely flawed.
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No, it's their fault and the system's fault for being flawed. The system being flawed does not automatically or inherently make them blameless; they could have chosen not to act that way in spite of the rules and still come out on top... they made that decision. Now they are paying for it, as it should be.
 
Korey said:
Has this boxing controversy been talked about yet?

Boxing judges under fire amid "fix" claims

wtf??
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ElTopo said:
There's a fundamental difference between Olympic sports and professional sports. That said I think they would've gotten away with it if they hadn't played like 5 year olds. Have you watched the match ? It's utterly embarassing.



Because the current (amateur boxing) system is a piece of shit and therefore stupid results are not necessarily because of fixing.
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Well at least the ruling has been overturned, but what if the japanese guy wasn't so obviously the victor? They would have totally gotten away with it. I hope all the judges involved are out of a job refereeing forever.
 
Korey said:
Has this boxing controversy been talked about yet?

Boxing judges under fire amid "fix" claims

wtf??
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Wooooowwwww. I just watched that clip with the JPN-AZE bout. Holy shit, the ref needs to be fired.

Also reading this

In December last year, an AIBA-appointed investigation committee dismissed allegations that Azerbaijan was promised two boxing gold medals the London Olympics in exchange for a $10-million loan to the sport's ruling body.
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Makes it look even worse.
 
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