The Olympic Games 2008

[VitaminG]

Thats the most british thing I've ever read

and last night they interviewed the guy who designed the new swimming suits they debuted this olympics, it is definitely the reason the records are falling, and all the old swimmers think its cheating.

I don't see how it's cheating. Most sports have advances in technology & equipment. All the top swimmers have access to this latest piece of equipment. It's unfortunate that some less privileged swimmers can't afford or don't have access to these suits, but then, they don't have access to the state-of-the-art swimming pools, training technology, analysis, etc etc either. Plus the suits might be making them faster but it's like drag racing - the top guys are looking at fractions of seconds, tiny percentages, off their time.

It's not like Eric the Eel is going to get himself one of these suits and suddenly find himself in an Olympic final....

[Endrik]

was watching the Russian men's team play last night. I haven't watched handball in years - I forgot how rough it can get. Great stuff!

yeah, Handball is a great sport, tough and very interesting.
I have gone to watch plenty of games where my brother is playing and it always amazes me that they don't go at it like in Ice Hockey... I would get really pissed because of all the body contact.
Interesting that in US almost no one knows about that sport but I showed it to Tommy and a couple of other guys and they seemed to really dig it.
What's interesting is that unlike in most of the team sports where females are playing kinda goofily... in handball the women play just as interestingly and physically as men. Women's handball finals usually have the most injuries out of any sport I've ever seen. It's brutal. Chicks playing with blue eyes, bloody noses and broken arms.

[horns666]

Man, I love playin' handball...your hand ..my ball.

I mean with a chick...yeah.

[Ben...]

Take that Togo!!!

We finally got a medal. We actually got 3 in one day.

[Endrik]

jeez how world records are ran!!!

Usain Bolt is one of the most amazing runners I've ever seen. 9.69 with no effort.
I wonder how much the time would have been if he would have finished the race with full force... I think 9.5 will be made pretty soon. And I think he is the only one who can break Michael Johnson's 200m record.

He showed us the future of running. Lean athletes, and the right, chilled out mindset. Dude was very relaxed and had fun. Over-concentrating can ruin good results. Bolt is miles ahead of everyone mentally and physically (his body is the most relaxed).
My friend who was a great runner said to me a year or two ago that the future super runners will be lean and there's no place for big muscles. I guess he was right.

[dg]

Hasn't been on TV here yet, but I'll check it out tonight. When I saw him in the prelims pull up at about 60M, look from side to side a few times and still go under 10 seconds, I had a feeling he was going to win the gold. The article I read said he put his hands down & started celebrating with 7 steps to go. Hopefully he won't end up regretting that. You never know if it will all come together perfectly like it did, and to leave hundredths (maybe even more than a tenth) on the track like that seems stupid to me. Celebrate after the damn race is over. You could blow an achilles, knee or hamstring at any time and never get close to that fast again.

[Endrik]

He could have run at least a tenth faster but I think he knew what he was doing. Some people are speculating that he is trying to do "Sergey Bubka" (the Soviet Union promised to give a lot of money for every breaking world record, so Bubka was clever, he was so good at pole vaulting that he knew that he would break the current record at the time by a mile, so when he broke the record the first time, he started increasing the height only by 1cm, and that way he broke the record so many time that he got so much money).
So some people believe that Bolt tries to break records step by step because each time he gets a lot of money from Jamaican government.

[SEEGERMANY]

"I tried bobsledding. Leaned towards track and field. Fuck it, think I'll be a gangsta"

[Ralph E.]

Jamaica rocks...

Usain rocks...

My wife and I's home away from home (been there 6 times). We LOVE Jamaica! We would move there if we had the money... I am thrilled that he won and won with style!

[shobet]

He'll have more fast-twitch and super fast-twitch muscle fibres than the rest of us.

[SEEGERMANY]

Ralph, you've got me beat by three trips! I love the south side of the island!

Back to the olympics, yesterday's ladies marathon was pretty damned impressive with Romainia's runner simply blowing away the compitition several miles before the finish. Impressive!

[Endrik]

triple win to Jamaica in women's 100m...

before the race the Jamaican runners were smiling, the others were serious


anyone watched tennis? there has been plenty of great players turning the last two decades but Nadal is becoming something more... like Borg or McEnroe

[Ralph E.]

...there has been plenty of great players turning the last two decades but Nadal is becoming something more... like Borg or McEnroe

+1

[dg]

If you mean as a marketable personality, I can see it, but it's a little early to say he's in Federer's or Sampras' league or will match their records. You've got to prove it over years. That said, he is great on all surfaces (which Sampras wasn't) and seems like the kind of guy who won't lose focus, so he could end up as one of the legends. It would be awesome to see someone win a Grand Slam, and he has the potential to do it. If Federer comes back strong, that will be an extremely tall order for the next few years, though. He had mono this year. I can't imagine playing tennis with mono. I wasn't myself for almost a year after I had it.

[Endrik]

In my opinion Nadal has more "pure talent" than any other player since McEnroe, he is 22 and has 5 Grand Slam wins already. He is so consistent it's ridiculous. Federer doesn't have much chance against him 1on1, Nadal has won him at least 10 times.