[Dan man]

Just 25 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games. Time we had a thread to see us right through the Olympics where we can discuss all sorts of Olympic related news items. Here we can post news articles, discuss breaking stories and have a discussion on all things Olympics.

To get us started I'll post an article on 2 legends of the last edition of the Games. Firstly, the one and only Michael Phelps. He can't replicate the 8 golds in Beijing after dropping the 200m freestyle but repeating his success of Beijing 4 years ago was never on the cards. Still though he is attempting to win a whopping 7 golds this time. He's coming into form nicely but I still think Ryan Lochte might deny him gold in one or two races. I can see him winning all 7 medals though and many of them gold.


http://www.newsday.com/sports/olympi...olds-1.3818231


Secondly, Usain Bolt who is aiming to win 4 golds in London (100m, 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m) has been beaten in both individual sprints at the Jamaican trials. Arch-rival and training partner Yohan Blake took both race victories and has set up what could be an epic showdown in London. Blake is world champion at 100m and was marginally behind Bolt's 200m world record last season. Bolt will have his hands full retaining his 100m and 200m Olympic titles but he is such a superstar and who would ever dare write him off? One thing is for sure is that Jamaica are red-hot favourites to win the sprint relay but I don't think Bolt will be enjoying much success in the Jamaican 4x400m event. Jamaica aren't really gold medal contenders in that event but they should be up there with some of the leading teams.

http://wcfcourier.com/sports/olympic...9bb2963f4.html

[Corruptedmorals]

I'm kind of gutted Phelps is on track to smash Latynina's record though he is of course a phenomenal athlete. Fun fact- Larisa Latynina, former artistic gymnast for the Soviet Union, competed in the 1958 World Championships and won 5 out of 6 events...while pregnant!

The USA artistic gymnastic teams have been named after Trials at the weekend. Definitely one of the most popular spectator sports, USA's teams are especially interesting because they are so strong and have such depth of talent. The women's team have higher hopes of gold than the men, who will be challenged fiercely by Japan in particular. The WAG team are on track for gold, barring major catastrophe. Crucially they have 4 gymnasts competing an extremely difficult and valuable vault, (3 up, 3 count in team finals) China has one, Russia currently have none but likely to throw two messy ones, Romania unknown. They also have a huge chance of their two all-around competitors medalling due to their enormous difficulty, and are definite to take a gold in one apparatus- vault. The other three apparatus are much less certain, but another medal or two is certainly possible there.

Trials were not without drama, returning Olympian Alicia Sacramone failed to even make alternate as she only competed two events, ones on which USA needed no help although she had really good routines with no mistakes. Nastia Liukin, the 2008 AA champion, also failed but that was not suprising as she has been falling and having huge errors on bars all year, her 'ticket to London'. Bridget Sloan, another returnee was injured in warm-ups on the first day and did not compete. Chellsie Memmel did not advance to Trials or even Nationals, extremely controversially as Liukin did after abysmal performances. Unlike Liukin, Memmel and Sacramone have had extremely dissapointing previous Olympic experiences.The gymnast who finished fourth all-around, Elizabeth Price, did not make the team as other gymnasts who finished lower than her add more tenths than her on her events in a team situation. Rebecca Bross, a lock for this team in 2010, fell three times on bars and had huge errors. She blew her kneecap last year and had a difficult recovery but was consistently nailing her bars. Scoring was all over the place, top name gymnasts were gifted scores well above what they can expect in London. This year the team has been cut to 5, which is a disaster for USA as they are so deep, but not so much for other countries. This is the second cut in recent quads, it was 7 in 1996- hence the Mag 7. Numerous injuries this year, the open-ended scoring system places huge pressure to increase difficulty, at the cost of ACL's and other serious injuries. Russia are down one, China one, France and Canada two and Belgium one. And there is still nearly a month left, including a very intensive training camp for the USA teams which traditionally sees more than one injury. McKayla Maroney, the vault EF gold certainty, has already beaten the odds, she suffered concussion less than three weeks ago and lost a whole week of training.

The women's team is: Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney. Alt: Anna Li, Sarah Finnegan, Elizabeth Price.
The men's team is: Danell Lleyva, John Orozco, Sam Mikulak, Jake Dalton and Jonathan Horton. Alt: Chris Brooks, Steven Legendre and Alex Naddour.

In a sport where returning Olympians are still quite uncommon to find, and those who have competed/will compete in 3 Olympics are even rarer and can be counted on one hand (5), Oksana Chusovitina of Germany will compete in her SIXTH Olympics. At the age of 37 she still shows great power and form and won another medal on the world stage last year, and a Europeans medal this year, both on the vault- the most wearing apparatus by far. She began competing as a senior elite in 1988, eight years before most of the girls she is up against were even born. She competed for the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan after the break-up and now Germany, where she moved to in order to access better treatment for her son who had cancer but is now fully recovered. She has said she wants to return to coaching the Uzbek team after this Olympics and therefore formally retire, but she said that after Beijing too! Beth tweddle, a lock for the British team who will be named tomorrow, will compete in her third Olympics. The others were Svetlana Khorkina of Russia- who is among the very few to be known outside of the gymnastics world, (1996, 2000 and 2004) Dominique Dawes of USA (1992, 1996 and 2000), Daiane Dos Santos of Brazil (2004, 2008 and 2012) and Svetlana Boguinskaya of Soviet Union/Belarus (1988, 1992 and 1996). All of whom noticeably deteriorated by the time of their third Olympics. This is what makes Chuso so remarkable- we won't see the likes of her again! Tweddle only competes two out of four events so it's easier for her, but it is worth noting her bars routine is more difficult EVERY year and has one of the highest start values we will see in London. Daiane still competes extremely high difficulty on floor, but her form has suffered too- she's 29!

[Truman Burbank]

Interesting selection choice for Team GB in the Women's 800m, sending a B-standard athlete (whom they expect to peak), when they have 4 with an A-standard (who they clearly think have had their peak). See Steve Cram's analysis on your left. Surely Patsy and Co. will be taking note..........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18685730

[Dan man]

Originally Posted by Truman Burbank

Interesting selection choice for Team GB in the Women's 800m, sending a B-standard athlete (whom they expect to peak), when they have 4 with an A-standard (who they clearly think have had their peak). See Steve Cram's analysis on your left. Surely Patsy and Co. will be taking note..........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18685730

Very interesting selection indeed but a very fair selection...although it is very unfortunate for those with the A-standard not to be chosen. But it was a bizarre situation the G.B. selectors were left with and how could you say to Lynsey Sharp, "you beat all those girls fair and square at the British trials and again at the Euros en route to claiming a silver medal but we've decided to choose 3 other British 800m runners ahead of you for London".
That's the situation that was presented to the selectors and fair play to them for taking the courage to select Sharp despite the expected backlash that will follow. She is the best of the British at this moment in time and she proved herself again at the Euros with silver so on that form she deserves her place at the Olympics.

[Truman Burbank]

Originally Posted by Dan man

Very interesting selection indeed but a very fair selection...although it is very unfortunate for those with the A-standard not to be chosen. But it was a bizarre situation the G.B. selectors were left with and how could you say to Lynsey Sharp, "you beat all those girls fair and square at the British trials and again at the Euros en route to claiming a silver medal but we've decided to choose 3 other British 800m runners ahead of you for London".
That's the situation that was presented to the selectors and fair play to them for taking the courage to select Sharp despite the expected backlash that will follow. She is the best of the British at this moment in time and she proved herself again at the Euros with silver so on that form she deserves her place at the Olympics.

True. If she had had the A (hair-splittingly close), or if The Unchosen Few all had the B, they would probably (in my selectors mind) have opted for her, Meadows and Okoro. Why not? There's nothing to lose (per se), and it's in the spirit of The Olympics to have qualified athletes compete. It wasn't all about 'The Bottom Line' in 776BC!
More than a Game
The prideful Greeks started the Olympics because of their belief in the glory of competition and to honor the gods with their ability. The Olympics were much more than a game, they gave competitors a chance at immortality. Competitors were seen as heroes who, in their victories, received something greater than money or prizes -- honor. The Ancient Greek Olympics merged two things that the Greeks held sacred, religion and the desire for greatness.

[Dan man]

Oscar Pistorious the South African double amputee 400m runner (also known as Blade Runner) is set to make history by becoming the first athlete to compete at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the same year. He has been named in the South African 4x400m relay squad for London:

http://news.sky.com/story/956036/bla...ondon-olympics

Ireland's own Jason Smyth who is double Paralympic champion over 100m and 200m from Beijing also has his eyes set on the same record. He has the B-standard for 100m and will defend his Paralympic titles in London. If the OCI decide to send him to the Olympics with the B-standard then he too will go into the record books as the first to compete in both sporting events in the same year.

[Dan man]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...?newsfeed=true

Team G.B. have targeted 48 medals and 4th place in the medals table for London 2012. I think the 48 medal aim will be achieved with ease....somewhere near the 60+ medals mark is definitely attainable and with in excess of 20+ golds they should finish at least 4th in the table, and at a stretch they could surpass Russia. Now G.B. would need to have an outstanding Games and Russia have a bad return by their standards for this to happen but a few golds either way could decide it. U.S.A. and China will likely do battle for top spot.

[Skid]

Interesting interview with Katie Taylor on the NBC website (it's a few weeks only, I just read it)

http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blog...hold-name.html

The title of the article says it all - She really could be one of the faces of London 2012. NBC will certainly be watching her (and Queen Underwood's) progress.

[Skid]

This looks like an interesting series starting on Monday (tomorrow) on BBC2

BBC2 Monday 7pm

Faster, Higher, Stronger
Season 1 Episode 1 of 4
Stories of the Olympic Games - 100 metres New series. The history of the Olympic Games, focusing on different events and the athletes who have pushed performance to the limit in their pursuit of gold. The first of four programmes being shown on consecutive nights examines the 100m final, and features Jim Hines, the first to run the race in less than 10 seconds in 1968, Carl Lewis, the best finisher of them all, and Usain Bolt, whose massive stride allows him to virtually eat up the track. Britain's Alan Wells also recalls the dip at the line that won him gold at Moscow in 1980, while archive footage, period reconstruction and special filming techniques provide an insight into the event

http://www.tvnow.ie/detail.asp?id=128196548

[feargale]

How is this intended to differ from the Countdown thread?

[Corruptedmorals]

Originally Posted by Skid

This looks like an interesting series starting on Monday (tomorrow) on BBC2

BBC2 Monday 7pm

Faster, Higher, Stronger
Season 1 Episode 1 of 4
Stories of the Olympic Games - 100 metres New series. The history of the Olympic Games, focusing on different events and the athletes who have pushed performance to the limit in their pursuit of gold. The first of four programmes being shown on consecutive nights examines the 100m final, and features Jim Hines, the first to run the race in less than 10 seconds in 1968, Carl Lewis, the best finisher of them all, and Usain Bolt, whose massive stride allows him to virtually eat up the track. Britain's Alan Wells also recalls the dip at the line that won him gold at Moscow in 1980, while archive footage, period reconstruction and special filming techniques provide an insight into the event

http://www.tvnow.ie/detail.asp?id=128196548

The second one was about gymnastics. It was great, and featured such high quality footage, and interviews with loads of big names. It did skip several decades though- could do with it itself being a series, ending was very rushed.

[_Bella_]

Could anyone explain to me the controversy over the Aaron Cook elections. Why wasn't he selected if he is currently ranked no.1 in the world?

[Dan man]

Originally Posted by feargale

How is this intended to differ from the Countdown thread?

This thread can be used to discuss all sorts of Olympic news, positive and negative. The countdown thread is a light-hearted thread and should be kept as such, getting us geared up for London in a positive mood.

[Truman Burbank]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18806505

See swimming! Looking forward to seeing Missy Franklin also, great performance in the recent US Trials.

[Corruptedmorals]

Hmm, can anyone find other inaccurate sports on that list? China are the nation to beat in gymnastics apparently..when the reality is, they are expected not to even medal in the team final. The nation to beat is the USA, China will come away with 1 medal- they came away with 5 and the team gold last time, they haven't a chance of repeating.