The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad White Oak Log II



obviously not everyone feels that team sports don't belong in the olympics, but could we at least agree that the winners should be decided by a true round robin and not this pool/single-elimination crap?  is it too much to ask that every team play every other team and that the one with the most wins gets the gold, second-most the silver and third-most the bronze?  likewise, the eight (or whatever) fastest of all the heats should advance, not the few fastest of each heat and the next so many fastest overall.  and while i'm on a roll, how about putting an empty lane between people in the track events so that if, for example, someone stumbles on the first hurdle, she won't take out another runner?  oh, and who's the genius that decided to charge a false start to the entire field?


well, at least she didn't try very hard.


the second batch of gold-silver-bronze of interesting events on "normal" tv...
    women's soccer gold medal match**
    men's beach volleyball medal matches
    men's springboard final

** which reminds me, i still need a really good "next-generation" soccer game, though unless it allows me to assign Overact Falls to a button it won't be complete, just as beach volleyball games aren't complete unless they show players coated in sand when they come up from a dive.


where's the baton?!  (ouch. not quite so funny any more.)


excuse me, i just had to interrupt myself.
    i could write a book from the idiotic/obvious things announcers say, but this one was actually funny.  i heard it during synchronized swimming, which, as a side note, is *so* much more interesting than gymnastics.  i just wish there was a picture-in-picture underwater cam showing us how they actually do that.  speaking of gymnastics though, i still maintain that svetlana's diva-ness was good for the sport, or rather, made *for* good sport if only because it kept me interested.


somewhere in germany an engineer weeps.


water polo.  it's not unlike basketball with elements of soccer and hockey thrown in, only in six and a half feet of the wet stuff.  four seven-minute periods with a three-minute half-time.  unless you're giving me a PFD, i think i'll stick to watching it.  as an aside, the water temperature in official matches must be at least 79F - though it's probably expressed as 26C since the IOC is all weird like that - and the cage is 10' by 3').


i'm not sure what the deal is with the russians' strange stances when they start the long jump run-ups, but it's hard to argue against a sweep.


indoor volleyball spikes reach speeds of over 69mph.  i guess i can forgive them for losing their balance on a dig after all.


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