London 2012 Summer Olympics |OT3|

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bkfount said:
What did NK win gold medals in?
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KmIQ5.png
 
perfectchaos007 said:
I don't think they have the weaponry to yield a casualty count like that. Maybe if their army marches over the border without any resistance...but the US and other countries would respond way before that starts to happen.
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They don't need to march across the border. Seoul is just 30 miles from the DMZ, well within reach of all their artillery.
 
ElectricBlue187 said:
...which would be obliterated in seconds
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If the North Korea were starting the conflict, they just need enough time to launch.

The claims that North Korea would be defeated in seconds is ridiculous anyway--why maintain such a long armistice if they can be defeated in seconds? Just finish the war if it is just a couple of seconds. They should've taken out the artillery the last time they shelled South Korean islands.
 
Napoleonthechimp said:
What's that, British people too happy? We better shit on their parade.

We're well aware of our problems and don't need the French to tell us our business solely for the purpose of making us a bit more miserable.
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Those newspapers are printed for the French public not the British public, they're not made to shit on your parade or tell you about your problems.
 
(Artistic Diving Archery)

Oh wow, that was an amazing jump for the Korean! Even though he slipped on the jumping board, he still managed a 9!

;_;
 
numble said:
If the North Korea were starting the conflict, they just need enough time to launch.

The claims that North Korea would be defeated in seconds is ridiculous anyway--why maintain such a long armistice if they can be defeated in seconds? Just finish the war if it is just a couple of seconds. They should've taken out the artillery the last time they shelled South Korean islands.
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artillery is most effective over a long period. NK would not be defeated in seconds but its a mortal certainty that SK and US have planned to destroy NK's artillery after first shot
 
D4Danger said:
I bet he was all like "65 medals?! welll donnne"

but no, that's cool. Is there a reason he didn't come to an event? Michelle was over here.
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We also sent Mitt Romney over as part of the envoy. Hopefully he represented our country well.
 
I encourage UK GAF or Europe-GAF or have-a-whack-of-cash-GAF to check out the para-olympics. The GF and I went and saw a few events in 2010 here in Vancouver and it was outstanding! Sledge hockey was fucking nuts and the players seemed a bit taken aback a bunch of Canadians were all screaming like maniacs watching Italy and Croatia battle it out on the ice.
 
sikkinixx said:
I encourage UK GAF or Europe-GAF or have-a-whack-of-cash-GAF to check out the para-olympics. The GF and I went and saw a few events in 2010 here in Vancouver and it was outstanding! Sledge hockey was fucking nuts and the players seemed a bit taken aback a bunch of Canadians were all screaming like maniacs watching Italy and Croatia battle it out on the ice.
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All the Paralympic events are amazing. Watching people from all over the world overcoming such hardships is a real pleasure.
 
nny said:
(Artistic Diving Archery)

Oh wow, that was an amazing jump for the Korean! Even though he slipped on the jumping board, he still managed a 9!

;_;
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I'd watch it.

sikkinixx said:
I encourage UK GAF or Europe-GAF or have-a-whack-of-cash-GAF to check out the para-olympics. The GF and I went and saw a few events in 2010 here in Vancouver and it was outstanding! Sledge hockey was fucking nuts and the players seemed a bit taken aback a bunch of Canadians were all screaming like maniacs watching Italy and Croatia battle it out on the ice.
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Most of the events are completely booked up. There were a handful of things open last time I looked, but the site is so godawful it's really hard to find them again.
 
sikkinixx said:
I encourage UK GAF or Europe-GAF or have-a-whack-of-cash-GAF to check out the para-olympics. The GF and I went and saw a few events in 2010 here in Vancouver and it was outstanding! Sledge hockey was fucking nuts and the players seemed a bit taken aback a bunch of Canadians were all screaming like maniacs watching Italy and Croatia battle it out on the ice.
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On the one hand, I'd think I'd really like to; inspiring stories, impressive sporting feats and the fact that I'd love to go back to the Olympic Park. On the other, though, all those trips to London *were* a bit wearing. We'll see how I feel after I have a couple of weekends where I actually get to relax for a bit!

It'd be nice to sample some venues *other* than the main Stadium, too. And I really need to pick up a Mandeville for my nieces to go with the Wenlock.

(One other thing partisan-UK GAF should be aware of: We're *really* good at the Paralympics. Really. We're often second in the medal table. There's a very real chance of us topping it for this one.)
 
I'd like to go down for some of the Paralympics, but I think I might have already missed the boat (much like with the regular Olympics).
 
Oxx said:
I'd like to go down for some of the Paralympics, but I think I might have already missed the boat (much like with the regular Olympics).
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I got opening ceremony tickets ten days before the ceremony
I got 4x100m final tickets eight days before the race.
I got 100m final tickets the day before the race.

In short: Keep trying; it's very possible. Somewhere back in the thread I threw together a guide on using a Firefox plugin to alert you whenever tickets appear.

Edit: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=40677406&postcount=1355
 
I ended-up spending far too much of my London trip setting in restaurants trying to buy tickets on my phone.

At least I can do it from home now.

Edit: I think I just saw a pass for the entire day's events at the Exel Arena for £10. Can't argue with that value.
 
While i still do love the olympics, this is a great story:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i...2012-london-olympics-article-1.1134190?pgno=1

Link to a similar story was posted here, but this one has Conte saying he wanted six specific athletes tested. I have no doubts those six athletes were the Jamaican sprinters, considering they have ties with Angel Hernandez and Angel was one of the persons who helped fuck over Conte on federal court.

Doping is everywhere and i think the only thing we can be sure is that we can´t just blame Shiwen, Ledecky, Bolt and a few others because on most of those finals, probably a huge part of the athletes were juiced. The critic has to go to all of them and the system. I had no idea my theory was right, that i´ve always thought athletes would dope in cycles before testing and then they would be clean afterwards but still benefiting from the juice, which is basically what Conte explained.

I had a couple of friends who went over to play basketball in the US and the stories confirm some of the things i always thought. The amount of doping on high schoolers and college athletes is absurd, and the same thing happens in other countries, specially in places where freedom of speech is not as stablished as it is in the US.

I guess that´s also adding up to the list of why we brazilians suck so much in the olympics. Our dopers are either bad at it and get caught (Cielo, Mauren Maggi) or they just don´t do it.
 
sikkinixx said:
I encourage UK GAF or Europe-GAF or have-a-whack-of-cash-GAF to check out the para-olympics. The GF and I went and saw a few events in 2010 here in Vancouver and it was outstanding! Sledge hockey was fucking nuts and the players seemed a bit taken aback a bunch of Canadians were all screaming like maniacs watching Italy and Croatia battle it out on the ice.
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Don't worry, it's almost sold out.

The International Paralympic Committee is hopeful London 2012 will be the first sellout in the Games' 52-year history.

With the Games 16 days away, more than 2.1 million of 2.5 million tickets have been sold - 600,000 in the past month.

Athletics events in the Stadium, cycling at the Velodrome and wheelchair tennis have largely sold out.

But organisers are reviewing venues to see where more tickets can be made available for the most popular events.

There have been 15 summer Paralympic Games since the first in Rome in 1960 and most have seen large numbers of seats given away.

Athens sold 850,000 Paralympic tickets in 2004, Sydney sold 1.2 million in 2000 and, while Beijing sold 1.8 million in 2008, it had to give away the same number to fill the city's venues.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19240972

I've already got some athletics tickets. :)
 
Figured I should drop this in here:

The Toronto Star said:
Newfoundland boy, 10, gives heartbroken Canadian relay team his Timbits soccer medal

Following the heart-wrenching disqualification of Canada’s 4x100 relay team at the Olympics and hearing how the team was denied a bronze medal, 10-year-old Elijah Porter decided to write a letter to his new, crestfallen heroes.

The Newfoundland lad sensed the team of Justyn Warner, Gavin Smellie, Oluseyi Smith and Jared Connaughton needed to know that he had their Canadian backs. And then some.

“When I heard what happened on Aug. 11, I knew it was wrong. The rules were not right. But at last I realized how good you were. We’re Canadians. We persevere,” wrote Porter in a letter posted by Warner on his Twitter account.

“We create better lives for each other. The cold didn’t stop us from living in the North. We didn’t lose the War of 1812. We adapt and survive.”

He doesn’t stop there. Porter also promises that if he becomes a biologist and gets rich, he’ll donate money to Canada’s Olympians.

And, perhaps to make up for the bronze medal lost when the team was disqualified, Porter included his Timbits soccer medal, with the final line:

“I hope you like the medal!”
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Aw... that's so nice.

Link to a pic of the letter and the medal is in the article.

What Timbits Minor Sports Programs are
 
Dark Schala said:
Figured I should drop this in here:

Newfoundland boy, 10, gives heartbroken Canadian relay team his Timbits soccer medal

Following the heart-wrenching disqualification of Canada’s 4x100 relay team at the Olympics and hearing how the team was denied a bronze medal, 10-year-old Elijah Porter decided to write a letter to his new, crestfallen heroes.

The Newfoundland lad sensed the team of Justyn Warner, Gavin Smellie, Oluseyi Smith and Jared Connaughton needed to know that he had their Canadian backs. And then some.

“When I heard what happened on Aug. 11, I knew it was wrong. The rules were not right. But at last I realized how good you were. We’re Canadians. We persevere,” wrote Porter in a letter posted by Warner on his Twitter account.

“We create better lives for each other. The cold didn’t stop us from living in the North. We didn’t lose the War of 1812. We adapt and survive.”

He doesn’t stop there. Porter also promises that if he becomes a biologist and gets rich, he’ll donate money to Canada’s Olympians.

And, perhaps to make up for the bronze medal lost when the team was disqualified, Porter included his Timbits soccer medal, with the final line:

“I hope you like the medal!”
Click to expand...

Aw... that's so nice.

Link to a pic of the letter and the medal is in the article.

What Timbits Minor Sports Programs are
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Aww bless. :(
 
I haven't been following the Olympics or the politics surrounding it, but read this article recently and can't wrap my head around this comment made by Nttorney:

At its worst, the obsession with the Olympics also brings out racist sentiment. Reading the Chinese message boards regarding certain sports, you always inevitably see a plethora of insults regarding all manner of things, from other Asian countries (especially India and Japan), racist commentary about why African descended athletes dominate, the jealousy and fear of Western men, and insults regarding the appearance of Western women. There is even a strong racial sentiment regarding which Chinese athletes should represent China.
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http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/too-much-olympic-fever-in-china/

The fuck? Anybody familiar with 'chinese message boards' or more articles about this? The bold part was the real WTF-moment for me. o_O
 
Anybody know if the BBC montages are going to be available in youtube? I'd like to watch them. Searched the channel, but couldn't find anything (admittedly, i wasn't too thorough).
 
Chrono said:
I haven't been following the Olympics or the politics surrounding it, but read this article recently and can't wrap my head around this comment made by Nttorney:



http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/too-much-olympic-fever-in-china/

The fuck? Anybody familiar with 'chinese message boards' or more articles about this? The bold part was the real WTF-moment for me. o_O
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tino browses some. Chinasmack.com translates some. You might as well take YouTube comments as representative of American opinions. Not really applicable here, but I don't really like the trend of lazy China-based journos cherry-picking a couple of Weibo comments and then writing a story about Chinese public opinion. The Atlantic did an article on the supposed declining popularity of table tennis in China, focusing on a couple of Weibo messages: http://www.theatlantic.com/internat...falling-out-of-love-with-table-tennis/260845/
 
Superstars like Lin Dan and Sun Yang get multimillion dollar endorsement deals, but it looks like even gold medalists in minor sports get a lot:

http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens/2012/0815/231921.shtml

A Gold Medal's Worth in China
By Chen Anqing

Gold medals awarded at the London Olympics have a material value of about $700. But in China, the dividends they pay can make the athletes who win them set for life. This is especially true for 23-year old Yi Siling (易思玲), China’s first gold medalist of 2012.

Winning Gold

As soon as Yi won gold in the 10-meter air-rifle, fireworks started going off across her hometown of Chenzhou (郴州) City, Hunan Province. Pretty soon the small guest room of her family’s home was filled to the brim with reporters and television cameras. After four days, Yi Siling’ 90-year old grandfather had to lie down for an entire day to recover from the non-stop interviews.

Yi’s apartment is only 70 square meters. It’s poorly-lit with very old furniture. The only new appliance is a television given by a local TV station.

Yi Siling’s parents are both laid-off factory workers who support the entire family on money from the small restaurant they run. Yi has a little brother who’s also learning shooting and a sister.

A neighbor said that the family had been living in poverty for years; especially since Yi Siling began her career as a professional shooter.

“One air-rifle pellet costs one yuan and a shooting suit costs 4,000 to 5,000 yuan,” the neighbor said.

That was well beyond the family’s means. Luckily, a shooting team in Zhuhai (珠海) City, Guangdong Province invited Yi Siling to join without needing to worry about room, board or other expenses. Then 15-years old, Yi didn’t hesitate, but the years since have been tough. Yi’s grandfather told the EO that he avoided seeing her for the past two years so he wouldn’t distract her.

Huge reward

The gold medal has changed everything for the family. Yi Siling is now a brand name for her hometown of Chenzhou and for Zhuhai where she trained. It’s the first time for both cities to boast an Olympic gold medal winner.

Chenzhou will hold a high-profile ceremony for Yi and reward her with 500,000 yuan cash, a villa worth over 800,000 yuan and a 200,000 yuan car. The township-level government will give her a further reward of around 50,000 to 60,000 yuan. Tang Nengbin (唐能斌), director of the city’s township-level sports bureau said many companies are planning to offer her endorsement deals.

The Chenzhou city government is also planning to offer jobs for Yi Siling’s parents. Even her coach, head-teacher and grandfather will be taken care of.

However, no one has specifically mentioned what Yi Siling herself will do after finishing her time on the national team. Fan Jianping (范建平), director of the city-level sports bureau, said several Olympic gold medalists from Hunan later became officials in the provincial government. Former gymnastics gold medalist Xiong Ni (熊倪), for instance, is now deputy director of the provincial sports bureau.

The rewards don’t stop in Chenzhou though. For successfully “importing” Yi Siling, Guangdong Province will give her one million yuan and the Zhuhai city government will add at least another 800,000. Yi also received an email from the State General Administration of Sports just two hours after winning her medal saying she’d get a car worth 750,000 yuan from FAW-Volkswagen Audi (一汽大众奥迪).

For those keeping track, that adds up to a total prize package worth at least 4.1 million yuan (not including further endorsements and jobs).

Sport Changes One’s Fate

“I feel I’m a superstar now,” Yi said.

While she’s had to deal with numerous interview requests, Chenzhou Sports School (郴州体育学校) where she trained has been receiving calls from many parents planning to send their children to learn shooting.

“She can be a good example for shooting students,” said Zhou Jiguo (周纪国), party secretary of the school. “She also brings hope to poor students. Sport changes one’s fate.”

But Yi Siling is a rare case.

Another student named He Xian (何仙) was champion of the 10-meter air-rifle shooting competition at a championship for five provinces; but no one mentions why she’s failed to go further. “I still think He Xian has the potential to win glory for the country,” said Long Shoubai (龙寿柏), who coached both Yi Siling and He Xian.

He Xian is currently working as a street vendor in her hometown. She declined the EO’s request for an interview.
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