I’ve got it. I watched the men’s basketball team, then watched the men’s volleyball vs. Serbia, caught some of the water polo action, and just watched the women’s synchronized diving. My favorite was the last two young girls who won silver in diving, because it is just so nice watching someone win silver, not gold, and still be ecstatic.
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WereBear
That person sitting in the rowing scull yelling “Stroke, stroke!”
I can medal in that.
Baud
I always enjoy the Olympics, even the sports I don’t care much for.
Jager
Last night somebody said the yachting competition wasn’t athletic. Anna Tunnicliffe, Olympic Sailor would disagree.
http://espn.go.com/espnw/body-issue/8094859/top-ranked-sailor-anna-tunnicliffe-nude-2012-body-issue-espn-magazine
mcd410x
Win silver and still be ecstatic: Sounds like a Democrat!
cathyx
We’re number 2!
khead
Watched the hoops. And the volleyball. Then I ate some burgers.
Now I look like this lazy kitteh.
Southern Beale
@Jager:
I just told the husband I didn’t think shooting should be an Olympic sport. Not knocking hand-eye coordination but it doesn’t seem enough to be considered a sport.
And husband just asked me who wins in the equestrian events — the horse or the rider? i thought that was funny, but he pointed out in stuff like the Kentucky Derby, it’s the horse that wins.
rlrr
There needs to be an Olympic cannonball event – I could do that.
Southern Beale
@khead:
That’s a kitteh begging for a belly scratch!
If sleeping were an Olympic sport my cats would be champs.
Mark S.
I’ve got a fever, and the prescription is–more Dressage!
General Stuck
No teevee for me. Though I am a much bigger fan of winter olympics, I would like to watch the gymnastics events, if I can find a reliable stream for them.
Otherwise, it’s all about the boys of summer for me, and the Redlegs winning ten straight, and the unlikely event of the Pirates, of all teams, keeping pace.
Mark S.
@Southern Beale:
My cats would win a napping relay event.
NancyDarling
These breathless posts are just one of the reasons I love John Cole and his blog.
geg6
They and all of USA Diving are ecstatic to have even a silver. I think there’s only been one medal for the US in any diving event in a dozen years. This was a breakthrough moment for USA Diving, which has taken a lot of heat for putting so much time and effort into the synchronized events. So happy for them!
Darkrose
@General Stuck: I found that this weekend, the Olympics were a welcome distraction from the vortex of suck that was the Giants.
lamh35
I admit to loving Olympics. I’m NOT athletic at all, but I do love watching them cause I like to imagine if I had just been a little more athletic as a youngster, I coulda been a contenda!
Can I just say, about NBC’s coverage, jeez. We get it. Michael Phelps lost last night. Enough of it. How’d even if u don’t like the guy the way the sports media put him on a pedestal and the way they are relishing his “fall from grace” yesterday is just ridiculous. He’s got like 5 more races to go???
Mark S.
They’ve sure changed the rules of volleyball a bunch since I played it in high school PE.
Baud
@lamh35:
I still feel that way. LOL.
General Stuck
@Darkrose:
The Giants are still tied for first with the hated Dodgers. I will root for them when they aren’t playing Cincinnati :-)
khead
@Southern Beale:
This is one time where we left her alone just to see how long she would stay that way. It was quite a while. Hour or so.
If there’d been any booze in the house we would have put a bottle next to her for the pics though. Just too tempting….
geg6
@General Stuck:
Beat ’em Bucs!
Damn. I haven’t said that or even paid attention to baseball since 1992. When you’ve been the vortex of suck as long as the Pirates have, you tend to tune it out in order to keep your sanity.
That said, ZOLTAN!
lamh35
Speaking USA Volleyball, there is a woman on the ladies team named Destinee Hooker and me, my mom and my sister loved hearing her name and just because she’s like the best damn hitter they got, they said her name ALOT!
pseudonymous in nc
Women’s cycling road race, women’s team archery, men’s fencing, women’s hockey, men’s football, men’s handball. Will probably catch up with a couple of others tonight. I’ll refrain from watching NBC’s time-delayed, creepy presentation of women’s gymnastics. (And consistent form over extended periods is the exception among swimmers, not the rule. They’re human racehorses.)
.@Mark S.:
The big rule changes arrived in the late 90s: the libero, but especially the move to rally scoring, which shortens matches and keeps the crowd engaged. Badminton went in the same direction in 2006.
JPL
Synchronized diving was awesome. How do they train for that?
Sorta felt bad that I was hoping Canada would choke but yet I did. Sorry, Kitten. Water polo was brutal. At least in Ice Hockey that can’t drown, at least today.
Mr Stagger Lee
Who won the women’s beach volleyball between the US and Argentina? I was watching but not paying attention, if know what I mean.(now here is where the ex-wife would come after me with frying pan)Oh btw I love the table tennis competition.
Soonergrunt
If there’s a medal event in sweating like a pig, I’m certainly a contender. The fan on our AC compressor died. I’m just not desperate enough to pay $130/hr for emergency service. I’ll wait till tomorrow morning and pay $80/hr.
Of course, it’s 105* F outside and it just passed 86* inside. The AC has been out for a few hours, but we only started to notice it about two hours ago, but now it’s heating right up.
The sun goes down in a couple of hours. We’ll open some windows when it starts cooling down.
Mark B.
I was surprised by how brutal and violent the game of water polo is. I think you play defense by trying to drown the guy with the ball. Which is why they get rid of it fairly quickly.
kestral
Any day that I can watch fencing during my lunch hour is a good day. Nothing takes the edge off of dealing with stupid customers quite like watching two guys sword-fighting.
LanceThruster
I’ll get my Olympics[tm] fill from the highlights as I cannot bear to suffer through the broadcast coverage. It sucks that much.
Todd
Am really liking the women’s volleyball for the, uh, athleticism.
Todd
All kidding aside, do y’all realize that hundredths of a second divide contenders in swimming?
Litlebritdifrnt
@Soonergrunt:
The A/C in my car died, everything was working, but the air was pumping out hot stuff instead of cold stuff. I asked my local shop about how much a fix would cost and was told about $200.00. Yesterday my DH went out to the local Autozone and got the do it yourself freon replacement stuff which cost $45.00, installed it this morning and this afternoon my car was like a fridge, I actually had to turn the a/c down it was so cold. I am so grateful for that, being in my car in 104 temps without a/c was just miserable on Friday.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Todd: There was a tweet this afternoon, “NBC coverage is all women’s beach basketball, what is that” Hello! Women in bikinis, hello! NBC is turning into the soft porn channel of the Olympics.
jeffreyw
Tool cat.
Litlebritdifrnt
@LanceThruster:
I was talking to my mum today. The coverage of the Opening Ceremonies on BBC started at 9pm and ended at 12:45 a total ceremony of 3 hours 45 minutes. The NBC coverage started at 7:30 and ended at midnight including adverts, which meant that they cut out at least two hours of the ceremony, when you figure the stuff they cut out for expediency and the stuff they cut out so they could insert their fucking useless ads into it. So NBC cut out two hours of the opening ceremony. They should be fucking shot.
Soonergrunt
@Litlebritdifrnt: The compressor fan is out. I can verify power all the way to the unit.
Southern Beale
Idaho libertarian puts up a billboard equating Obama with the Aurora shooter.
So much fail.
Litlebritdifrnt
Hey John, after the men’s basktetball win did you see all of the players going to FLOTUS for a hug. It was a classic. Every one of them lined up for a hug including all of the coaches.
Tractarian
2 busy watching Olympics can’t take time to post
Mike E
A great tv ad from an olympics at least 8 yrs ago:
VIDEO–A Turkish or Iranian weight lifter, after tremendous effort, cleans and jerks successfully a seemingly impossible amount of iron; holds it over his head until the judges signal clear; lets the massive weight crash to the mat and is immediately thronged by his training team in wild celebration.
AUDIO–Whoever said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” never won an olympic silver medal.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw: She is a pritteh kitteh.
Mark B.
@Litlebritdifrnt: I’m not sure I get your math. If the US coverage was from 7:30 to 12:00, that’s 4 1/2 hours, and the British coverage being from 9:00 to 12:45 is 3 3/4 hours. So the US coverage was actually 45 minutes longer, but shorter of course because of lots and lots of commercials. But I have a hard time believing they cut 2 hours out.
Anyway, I thought the opening ceremonies were pretty great. Delightfully weird and quintessentially British. Even if I only did see the abridged version.
Mr Stagger Lee
Germany is yet to win a medal? Taiwan, Colombia,has one hell Borat’s Kazahkstan has won two, but Bundesrepublik Deutchland?
Nein, Nein, Nein, Nein,Nein!!!!!
J. Michael Neal
@geg6: Some of us tried to tell you a couple of years ago that the Pirates were on the way up. All you did was get mad at us.
Edit: Admittedly, they’re about a year or two ahead of where I expected them at this point. I hadn’t realized they’d be able to heist A.J. Burnett or that James MacDonald would develop quite like he has.
hildebrand
I have loved watching fencing, table tennis, field hockey, archery, and football. I appreciate being able to watch something other than swimming and gymnastics.
In table tennis, watching Ariel Hsing was an absolute joy. I really, really want to learn to serve like she does – she has a brutal short serve that buckled the knees of anyone she played against.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Soonergrunt:
May I suggest window units? Our compressor fan went out, we had replaced the huge unit outside just the last year. I figured that I could live with window units rather than spend a gazillion bucks on the whole house unit. Guess what? We did. We have a window unit in the living room and one in the bedroom . There is one upstairs for my parents room that only gets used for one month out of the year. My electric bill has stayed under $100 even when the temps outside have hit 104. My last electric bill for using the “whole house” a/c was $400.00. I know which I prefer.
Hal
Since I’m not a sports fan, I just tend to find sports broadcasts hard to watch. My nephew watches ESPN regularly and I’ll listen if I’m in earshot, and man do those broadcasters know how to draw out a conversation. Not to mention the absolute reverie bestowed on the athletes, though I imagine you would find the same excitement from trekkies at a star trek convention standing in line to get Levar Burton’s autograph.
Soonergrunt
@Litlebritdifrnt: Midnight minus 7:30 PM is 4.5 hours. That is longer than 3hrs 45minutes.
I know that the British school system spends an inordinate amount of time teaching children how to talk with those funny accents you all use, but surely they teach time as well?
karen marie
@khead: That kitteh is not lazy, he/she is thinking … about whether to let you live.
jeffreyw
@ SiubhanDuinne: She is really a dainty little kitty. She was a rescue in the plainest sense of the word. A woman who works for our regular vet had a neighbor that left this new born kitty outside over the weekend while she was gone out of town, it rained all week end. The vet aide found her unresponsive and near death and took her in to work with her, told the neighbor the kitten had died. Mrs J learned of the story while in with one of the pups for something or another and offered to “foster” her. Hah. As soon as she stabilized Mrs J fetched her home and with some TLC she pulled through.
Tripod
Dressage is a similar anachronism to the now dropped figure skating compulsories. OTOH show jumping and cross country are athletically serious endeavors for both horse and rider.
I enjoyed the Women’s road race. Vos is a cycling machine.
Raven
@Litlebritdifrnt: If it was down on refrigerant it has a leak somewhere.
Soonergrunt
@Litlebritdifrnt: Our house is 1680 square feet, on one floor, all bedrooms occupied. The unit itself is only six years old, so it’s relatively efficient. The repair should be about what a decent sized window unit would cost.
I’ve actually thought about supplementing our A/C with a window unit, but decided some time back to install a solar powered attic fan (which is working rather well) and to add reflective barrier insulation (thanks to a suggestion by a BJ commenter) but it’s too hot to work in the attic right now.
karen marie
@jeffreyw: “WTF, I can’t eat that.”
Raven
@Soonergrunt: I have a power roof fan and soffit vents. I think it helps.
FlipYrWhig
@WereBear: The coxswain, of course. Which reminds me of a T-shirt I saw at college for the rowing team: “Eight Big Men and Their Little Cox.”
Raven
@FlipYrWhig: I had a softball team in one of the leagues I ran called “Nine Jerks and a Squirt”.
jeffreyw
This 20 second Youtube took me 11 minutes to upload. Fuckin DSL.
fraught
Mitten$ is competing in the show pony competion right? Can’t miss that one. Who’s riding him, Barbarah Bush?
khead
@karen marie:
She’s dreaming about pouncing on the first toe that twitches at 7 AM.
Yutsano
@Hal: There is the possibility they’re paid by the word. Some radio DJ contracts are structured in that fashion.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@khead: Oh, a kitteh!!
Soonergrunt
@Raven: I’m quite certain it would be worse in here without the solar attic fan.
Randy P
I’m watching via the NBC streams and I’m finding I love watching prelims with competitors you know will never make the finals, and I also love watching obscure sports on the streams. It’s just so fantastic watching it the way people in the stadium would, without ads and annoying commentary. Today I watched the drama in the first round of 56 kg (123 lb) men’s weightlifting. Didn’t have the patience for the whole thing, I admit: I skipped forward, then went to the London 2012 site to get the final results. (“Hey, that Italian guy didn’t do too bad overall!”)
Watching this way gets you interested in competitors who you will never see on the finals-only coverage, who are throwing their heart and soul into their event.
Also watched some surprisingly gripping table-tennis, and women’s volleyball which I always enjoy. For some reason I can’t stand beach volleyball though.
Do Chinese competitors have a tendency to start slow and then win big? I saw that several times already.
jeffreyw
@khead:
Kittehs have a thing about toes.
Steeplejack
Holy shnikeys! Just saw a clip of gymnast Alexandra Raisman’s parents watching her routine. Backstage parents to the max. Brr!
Litlebritdifrnt
@Soonergrunt: @Mark B.:
You are of course entirely correct. Except for the fact that there was 4 minutes of ads for every 1 minute of coverage. NBC has totally failed in its coverage of this Olympics, totally and utterly failed thanks to the attempt of making money.
The british opening ceremonies began at 9PM not 7:30 pm like it did inthe US at 7:3o pm
Raven
Allison Schmitt of Georgia earned a silver medal and set the American record in the women’s 400-meter freestyle on Sunday at the Olympics. Woooffffff!
MikeJ
@Jager:
Only somebody who has never competed in a sailboat would say such a stupid thing. That’s my opinion as a former Laser racer anyway.
In all of the pics of me hiked out I’m clothed though.
fraught
@Steeplejack:
Saw that too. Wierd and disturbing. What must their home be like?
Raven
@Litlebritdifrnt: Oh baloney, the coverage of the Olympics in this country have been this way for two decades.
fraught
Haven’t been watching like I usually do. Is NBC doing those cancer tear jerker bios with the sad music before every event? Hated those.
Raven
@efgoldman: Yea, you are right. I keep forgetting that I have been to two, LA and Athens/Atlanta and how long ago LA was.
Raven
@fraught: If you set up the DVR time skip you can miss all that gas.
gbear
@jeffreyw:
Is Century-Link you’re DSL provider? Century-Link bought out Qwest in the Twin Cities and my DSL speed has gone down the toilet since the switch. I used to love DSL but now it sucks.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@jeffreyw: Ooh, a pretty calico kitteh. Is that Bitsy all growed up?
Darkrose
@General Stuck: I like the Reds, mostly because Brandon Phillips is awesome.
And Fuck the Fucking Dodgers!
Mark B.
@Litlebritdifrnt: Well there is a 5 hour time difference between Greenwith and EDT (I think, might be 6), so the networks showed the ceremonies on a delay. I don’t see any problem with starting the delayed broadcast a little early, we Americans like to get to our beds early.
And I think you’re overestimating the amount of ads, it’s probably a whole closer to 20% of the coverage than 80%. It’s still too much, but let’s not exaggerate.
Raven
@Mark B.: Early, they are on until midnight.
jeffreyw
@gbear: No, mine’s Frontier – they took over all the Verizon copper in this area. It does beat Hughes satellite all to hell, though.
jeffreyw
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yes, that’s Bitsy, it’s been not quite a year now.
Soonergrunt
just gave the dog a cold bath. She’s much happier now.
Jager
@MikeJ:
As a fellow (former) Laser sailor, on the money!
Mark B.
@Raven: I probably stated the whole time difference thing confusingly. Because of the time difference, it’s now 3 am in London, and there’s very little sports-wise going on. In order to fill up their broadcast schedule, NBC is showing the Olympic events with varying time delays, to fit them into and fill up their programming day. A few events are being shown live, but not many.
burnspbesq
@geg6:
Go Abby! Go Devils!
Now it’s Nick McCrory’s turn.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Can anyone(after consuming any amount of alcohol, even) imagine a US men’s team – in any sport – lining up to hug Ann Romney? The “secret political weapon” of the perpetual sneer, which she wears with a hint of “someone just farted” about her eyes?
Jager
Everyone of the Olympic boats requires the sailors to be athletes!
maven
Excited to see the Canadian-(ien) men’s diving team includes Alexandre Despatie again this year. He’ll be showing his stuff in the men’s 3 meter synchronized/individual springboard.
Makin’ us white boys proud.
NancyDarling
@Mark B.: My boss of 35 years in SoCal was on the water polo team in ’60. He won a special medal as the leading scorer in the entire games. He is left handed and that was lethal. I think we came in sixth that year. Sometime in the ’90s some buddies convinced him to play in a seniors tournament. He came back beaten up and bloodied, but I’m sure he gave as good as he got. He told them not to call him next time. It is a rough game—lots going on under the water. One of his team mates played in four different Olympics—his name escapes me now.
When the Hungarians played the Russians in ’56 in Australia, there was literally blood in the water. I think the games were held in November—after Soviet tanks had rolled into Budapest.
maven
guess that didn’t work so well…..
geg6
@J. Michael Neal:
Well, it’s hard to have faith when you know the owners don’t give a shit, which was true then and probably still is. However, Hurdle has really been great and I almost believed last year until the whole season unravelled in a horrible call in a 16 inning game. I’m a believer this year and will probably be going to one of the bring your doggie nights coming up. That will be the first time in about six years I’ve been to a baseball game. I always said I could be won back if they (owners and players) showed they cared about winning. And they seem to have decided that they do. Finally.
Oh, and anyone who thinks women’s gymnastics is creepy and warping doesn’t have a clue. I was a gymnast until I got too tall to manage it. It’s hard work and takes great dedication and commitment. Those little women would kick the ass of almost any man you can name. I was never pressured to lose weight or become anorexic or stop developing or work out with severe injury. Never once. They would have let me compete even as tall as I was, but I knew I could never be as good as I wanted to be once I grew over 5’5″ in 9th grade. So swimming became my only sport since height was an advantage in that sport. And I also joined the diving team where I could use my skills from gymnastics to advantage. To call it creepy is to tell me you are ignorant about the sport and what it takes to be great at it. A far creepier thing than competing in or appreciating it.
Soonergrunt
@maven: So proud you posted it four times?
Taken care of.
Mark B.
@NancyDarling: I played briefly in college in an IM league. I’m a good swimmer, but I found I didn’t have the stamina to keep up with the constant activity in water polo. Also, at that level, I don’t remember the insane amount of kicking, grabbing and punching I saw in the game today. Probably doesn’t happen at that level of competition.
Steeplejack
@fraught:
“No wire coat hangers!”
maven
@Soonergrunt:
That was unintentional. But probably Providential. haha
thanks; my Shift Bar was stuck.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mark B.:
I don’t have a problem with a curated, recorded primetime package interspersed with profiles and non-event footage: every national broadcaster does that for the Olympics, and it’s an especially good way to show a large audience some of the great contests that happen in the more obscure sports.
I do object to the way that NBC embargoes the stuff it has pre-selected to show in primetime, and shadily acts as if there was just no way that they could broadcast it live on their umpteen channels. When Dick Ebersol stepped down, his replacement Mark Lazarus, who came from cable, talked about embracing the immediacy of live coverage. This is also the first Olympics where “free” live streaming comes with a price tag — authenticating against a cable package. But it’s clear that NBC considers unedited live coverage an imposition and not an opportunity, when other national broadcasters see it as a challenge and a way to demonstrate themselves at their best.
@geg6:
I don’t think the sport’s creepy; I think NBC’s presentation of it is creepy, just as its presentation of women’s ice skating is creepy, because they fit the close-up-and-personal template all too well. Both are events that I’m considerably more comfortable watching when the commentary and editorial framing comes from a non-US broadcaster.
NancyDarling
@Mark B.: My boss had probably double the lung capacity of the average guy—real barrel chested and thick from front to back. In his 60’s he was doing 2 mile ocean races in just under an hour.
dead existentialist
I watched for 1/2 hour before Masterpiece Mystery and saw all of two races: 100M Men’s Breaststroke (59 seconds) and the Women’s 400 Free (4 minutes?). Five minutes of Olympians, 25 minutes of balderdash. No, I’m not that interested in watching sporting events that happened yesterday, sandwiched between commercials and cutest stories.
I was at the 2008 Trials and the Mutual of Omaha qualifier this year, and I’ll tell you that things move very rapidly live. A race ends and within a minute or two, the next one begins. (Yeah yeah, I know it slows a little for the finals, but . . .)
I will watch some of the livestream stuff because there are no announcers, but really, how interesting is it to watch women’s field hockey, badminton, and handball, etc.?
pseudonymous in nc
@dead existentialist:
Each to their own. Hockey can drag, I think, because it’s finicky; badminton at that level is a fantastic spectacle (as is squash, which should be in the Olympics but isn’t various political and technical reasons); handball is a highly regional sport, but it’s fast, competitive, and structurally not that dissimilar from basketball. Archery turns out to be great TV; I’ll be also be watching the cross-country eventing tomorrow to see posh people falling off their horses.
(A friend of mine’s on the NBC tech crew in London for the swimming and diving; in Omaha, the A/C failed in the video trailer, and his team nearly passed out from the heat.)
RadioOne
Gymnastics has to be the hardest thing to do as an athlete in the Summer Olympics. It was fun watching the US gymnastics team do well tonight.
mikeyes
@Southern Beale:
“I just told the husband I didn’t think shooting should be an Olympic sport. Not knocking hand-eye coordination but it doesn’t seem enough to be considered a sport.”
Kim Rhode just won a gold medal in Olympic Skeet with an Olympic record of 99/100. To say that this is just hand eye coordination is the same as saying that Kevin Durant has good hand eye coordination.
Shooting at this level is a full time job with technical, physical and fitness training that rivals any sport in athleticism. Ms. Rhode is one of only five other athletes who have medaled in five straight Olympics and she is likely to do so in at least one other as she is only 33 years old.
Up until the 1996 Olympics shooting was one of the few events in which men and women competed on and equal basis. (Yatching and equestrian are the others, the subject of smarmy remarks above.) In 1992 the skeet champion was Zhang Shan of China, a woman, but the powers that be in the sport decided that women were too fragils to continue competing against the men (not to mention that women were winning the events on a regular basis) so Zhang was not allowed to defend her title in 1996 as the governing body went to all women’s events after her win.
uptown
They’re called women, John. One’s 23, the other 22.