Beijing Olympics

metaoblivia

I know there's been a lot of politics and controversy surrounding the Beijing Olympics, but is anyone else really exciting about them? Opening ceremonies start in a week and a half, and I can't wait. I love the Olympics, and if I didn't have to work, I'd watch them all day and night long. My favorite events are gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and diving. I also love to watch the Opening Ceremonies and the athletes marching in.
What events are you looking forward to?

Amz

metaoblivia wrote: »

I know there's been a lot of politics and controversy surrounding the Beijing Olympics, but is anyone else really exciting about them? Opening ceremonies start in a week and a half, and I can't wait. I love the Olympics, and if I didn't have to work, I'd watch them all day and night long. My favorite events are gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and diving. I also love to watch the Opening Ceremonies and the athletes marching in.
What events are you looking forward to?

Swimming and Track and Field for me. I also like Triathalon and some of the Martial Arts events.

I tend to watch a bit of the opening ceremony, but usually get fed up pretty quickly and only watch 'til Ireland come out.

It's hard to avoid the drugs scandals and the other controversy surrounding this particular Olympics, but for the sake of the athletes I hope it's a good Games.

robinph

Will pretty much be watching whatevers on, just depends on if I'm ever up that early in the mornings.

Dodge

robinph wrote: »

Will pretty much be watching whatevers on, just depends on if I'm ever up that early in the mornings.

Same here. Boxing, Cycling, Track & Field and basketball probably being my main interest.

Looking forward to having access to RTE's mediaplayer with 5/6 options. BBC's red button and iplayer would have similiar I'd imagine

robinph

Are RTE streaming stuff online then, or is it something else?

I have a slingbox setup in the UK so have access to the BBC red button stuff via that. Only problem being that my brother in the US will also be wanting access to it as well whenever the NBC commentators forget about other countries taking part in the games which they often do aparently.

I might actually end up turning up for work early for a couple of weeks inorder to watch the games.

Dodge

robinph wrote: »

Are RTE streaming stuff online then, or is it something else?

RTE are streaming live, and have offered a choice of 5/6 events simultaneously

I'd imagine it would be limited to Irish IPs

robinph

Must check if the ISP have updated the IP in work which has been listed as German for a good while now, get's annoying when Google keeps on changing language on you.

ZiggyStardust

metaoblivia wrote: »

I know there's been a lot of politics and controversy surrounding the Beijing Olympics, but is anyone else really exciting about them? Opening ceremonies start in a week and a half, and I can't wait. I love the Olympics, and if I didn't have to work, I'd watch them all day and night long. My favorite events are gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and diving. I also love to watch the Opening Ceremonies and the athletes marching in.
What events are you looking forward to?

Can't wait myself. Have taken the second week off work. Well they are only once every 4 years.
Looking forward to Athletics and cycling, but I'll watch all events and will keep a keen interest in all Irish competitors.

brianthebard

I'm looking forward to the boxing,weightlifting,throwing sports and the sprinting for once,the hype round the jamacians is interesting.Will watch a lot of it i'd say,gymnastics can be impressive too from a feat of strength pov.

fatgav

someone in the athletics forum has made an excel document of when all the irish athletes are in action. it'll be my handy guide for the next three weeks. i'll take an olympics over a world cup any time. hopeful that one of the boxers will sneak a medal

Pherekydes

I'll be goggle-eyed from watching too much TV over the next 3 weeks.

Likes: Athletics, Swimming, Cycling and Gymnastics (Wifey loves this)

Dislikes: Equestrian sports, Synchronised drowning

It'd be nice to win a medal or two.

oneweb

RTE will be streaming content.

Of course, I only thought of looking @ RTE's site after I'd spent the best part of an hour searching for "olympics live stream".

Opening ceremony @ 13:00

www.rte.ie/sport/olympics2008/player.html

robinph

Only just found the RTE content today as well. Think they may have only just put that part of the site live though, maybe nobody told them the Olympic was on.

Nothing worth looking at on there yet of course, well apart from the total cringeworthy "news" reports from roving reporter Colm Murray who has aparently just discovered some weird new food stuffs that those Chinese people have. Seems that they don't use a knife and fork for eating either and use something called "chop sticks" instead.

Them crazy foriegners.

Sparks

Looking forward to the shooting. Not looking forward to the backstabbing, biting and clawing and general walloping that's coming when we don't come home with ten gold medals...

the_brain

must say rte's website is pretty class.... watching any sport thats on live.... good job

(almost like having an interactive service on your tv except its on my laptop )

robinph

Beach volleyball on bbc interactive at the moment.

redspider

I'd like to open up the conversation with some things that are wrong with the Olympics (not just this one). The points below should be taken as thought-out criticisms rather than a rant.

For one, some sports have semi-contrived events. For example, Swimming has freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, medly, etc. Imagine if in Athletics there were backward running events, hopping (one legs and two legs), and medley's thereof. It would look farcical. Yet, because we are accustomed to this with swimming it seems normal. Thats one reason why 8 gold medals of Phelps, whilst I of course recognise that he is a brilliant swimmer, needs to be diluted down.

Another aspect is that the original ideal of the ancient Olympics was individual events. There are too many team events. Some individual events, such as the cycling, can get tainted due to team factors as well where the team helps an individual. Is there really a need for team gymnastics? There is no team athletics for example.

Some events have weight categories, such as Judo, Weightlifting and Tae Kwando. Imagine a Tennis 60kg event. Or the Shot-Putt for 48kg people.

There is Beach Volleyball, whilst very pretty on the eye, but no beach badminton, no beach football, etc. Why not?

Equestrian sports can at times depend on the horse. Is it really a sport? As in an active sport? Also, there is no horse racing, yet our government funds it as the biggest "sport" in Ireland. Well, I suppose betting is a sport. ;-). Why not horse trap racing? Should Archery really be in it? Shooting? Are these sports in the modern sense of the word or a pastime?

Looking at Sailing, shouldnt there just be one boat type. Finn, 170, Laser, why? Imagine 20 soccer competitions, with 20 variations of pitch sizes, football types, no of players. Of course, like swimming, there could be backwards football, football on one leg, not to mention the variations with kg weights.

There's mixed doubles in Tennis. Why not mixed relays in athletcis? Why not mixed beach volleyball? Why not mixed beach volleyball 68kg with a size-4 orange ball?

As you can see, there are a lot of discrepancies between the sports. I think the organisers should streamline the variations, remove the 'pastimes', and try and follow the ancient ideals. And amateur ONLY. That would mean no Messi, nor beach volleyball alas!

No doubt people have their own gripes. If you were running the Olympics, what would you do with it?

Redspider

Sparks

redspider wrote: »

Should Archery really be in it? Shooting?

Yes and yes. Shooting is the oldest sport in the modern games, has been in it far more than other sports, and Archery has a similarly proud heritage.

Are these sports in the modern sense of the word or a pastime?

Yes. Look, sport isn't all about being the strongest or fastest - there's an entire range of sports where being the best means having the most control, both physical and mental. Shooting and Archery are examples of that.

Oh, and there's the little matter of them having the best anti-doping records out there (it probably helps that there's only the one drug (beta-blockers) that boost performance in those sports, and that drug has to be taken on the day)

No doubt people have their own gripes. If you were running the Olympics, what would you do with it?

Lose the money.
$2.6 billion for TV rights alone means that the Games have become commercial ventures. Hence sports like Shooting are being forced out more and more because they're not photogenic or dynamic and exciting for couch-bound, cheeto-munching spectators; and replaced by fit young women in bikinis. Citius, Altius, Jigglius?