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Post by mummifiedstalin on Jul 31, 2012 13:19:23 GMT -5
Anyone care? I won't say that I'm "following it" so much as just enjoying a lot of what's on.
Fencing, handball, water polo, judo: these seem to be things that fascinate me this time around. I don't really care much about the countries or the "back stories" of various athletes, or the whole WHY ISN'T LIVE!?!? complaints. But it's fun to watch sports I don't usually get to watch.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Jul 31, 2012 21:16:10 GMT -5
I've watched almost every moment of it so far. If I have a choice I'll tend to watch the competition of a sport that only usually gets viewed during the Olympics. I'll only turn it off if my only choice of sport is basketball. Don't want it, don't need it. Give me handball instead. Or cycling. Or the bloody massacre that's water polo. Heck, I'll watch the jumping horses in the equestrian competition before I'd watch basketball.
Can you tell I don't like basketball?
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Torgo
Moderator Emeritus
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Post by Torgo on Aug 6, 2012 14:04:18 GMT -5
I would be watching it if I had TV, which I don't.
I got to watch one last monday, I believe, where the US men's gymnastics team flat out embarassed themselves. That was painfil to watch. I also recall we got a gold medal in swimming and Japan overturned a verdict in gymnastics.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Aug 9, 2012 0:05:47 GMT -5
Olympics = good fun.
Suck = now having seen the same 8 commercials more times than anything else in my life. I honestly believe that The Bourne Legacy, Grimm, and Go On are all that I should ever watch once the Olympics are over. I have lost my will.
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Post by TheNewMads on Aug 9, 2012 6:49:41 GMT -5
There are a ton of sports that really should not be olympic sports. horse dressage, frickin' obviously, but also... badminton? seriously? i mean, could we be any more prep-school?
i'm also not buying volleyball as an olympic sport. i think olympics, i think badass displays of athleticism. javelin toss. power lifting. hurdles. i don't care how amazing you are at volleyball, you're really not that amazing at volleyball. i watch olympic volleyball, i'm still just watching people play volleyball.
swimming. swimming is stupid. it's like track, only slower, with more splashes, and you can't see anything. you might as well make sack races an olympic sport, or make the athletes run through mud. although i do like when the swimmers first dive in and they get that underwater shot and they're all waving their whole bodies like fishes.
in the other direction: ping pong. is ping pong an olympic sport? if not, it oughta be. people make fun of ping pong but holy crap have i seen ping pong players do some incredible stuff.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Aug 9, 2012 9:48:47 GMT -5
Yes, "table tennis" is there.
Synchronized swimming. Would anyone do this if someone somewhere hadn't decided to give an award for it?
The more I watch, though, the more I'm convinced that the Olympics are really just desperately depressing for a lot of the athletes. They work for years for 10 seconds...and then almost everyone loses decisively. I've never seen more sadness and dejection on TV apart from, you know, murder victim families.
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Post by Grape on Aug 9, 2012 14:03:08 GMT -5
Badminton is an excellent sport. Skill, speed and an object that moves at over a 150mph. What's not to like? And we invented it, the games are in our country and it's damned well staying. Also, watch out for tea making, queueing and having a stiff upper lip. All events to come before Sunday.
And if you've ever fancied driving around London, do it before Sunday as I've never seen the streets so devoid of traffic.
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Post by TheNewMads on Aug 9, 2012 14:22:40 GMT -5
Oh, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying badminton is a BAD sport, i just don't think it should be an Olympic sport. I'd like to see it go back to (what i perceive to be) its roots, which is more of a track-and-field and/or test of individual athletics. team sports to me in general seem kinda weird as Olympic sports.
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Post by TheNewMads on Aug 12, 2012 6:03:30 GMT -5
i just learned race-walking is an olympic event.
RACE-WALKING.
i mean, come on.
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Post by Grape on Aug 12, 2012 13:49:31 GMT -5
Oh, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying badminton is a BAD sport, i just don't think it should be an Olympic sport. I'd like to see it go back to (what i perceive to be) its roots, which is more of a track-and-field and/or test of individual athletics. team sports to me in general seem kinda weird as Olympic sports. Oh, I quite like the sports that I'd not normally see or bother with(with exceptions such as synchronised swimming). I went to the archery events (although I am an archer, so the interest in natural) and I've even watched things like handball, field hockey and diving (although I have no idea of what the hell was going on in the diving). I'm not a great watcher of the Olympics but as this one was on my door step, then I've got more and more involved as the games went on. Some of this may have to do with the home team doing so well (our best for 104 years or so, I believe) but it's going to feel a tad strange for the next couple of days with no highlights to watch or results to check. Oh well, the football season starts next week, so life goes on.
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Post by TheNewMads on Aug 12, 2012 14:37:54 GMT -5
wrasslin'! i just watched a couple guys grab the backs of each others' necks and make really intense eye contact for five minutes. it's boring. and i'm actually in favor of having wrassling as an olympic sport.
i think i've actually figured out my prerequisite is as to how i judge whether an olympic sport is worthy, which is... can you see steve reeves as the herc playing that sport in an old-school hercules movie? if so, then it is allowed. if not, then it's best played elsewhere. can you see the Herc doing some old-school mat wresting? hell, yes. can you see him donning a crop and tights and doing some fancypants cross country horseriding for points, or speedoing it up and playing beach volleyball? i mean maybe on a lark but he wouldn't be taking it seriously. honestly i think proper olympic sports in my mind should be a little antisocial. you're not hanging with your homies tapping some croquet balls around, you're by yourself trying to jump over a high hurdle. that's what i think re: the olympics, it's about solo or one-on-one action, and desperate athletic struggle. also, the sport should not be fun. badminton and volleyball are fun. leaping over high hurdles, not fun.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Aug 12, 2012 15:10:45 GMT -5
Just enjoy the spectacle. The reality is vastly corrupt greed that pretty much leaves a blight behind it in all but a handful of host cities.
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Post by afriendlychicken on Aug 12, 2012 20:42:42 GMT -5
I think that thenewmads hasn't been paying attention to the Olympics for awhile. Race-Walking has been a part of the Olympics since, I believe, the Seoul, Korea Games of 1988. I know, I know, who cares! I enjoy the Olympics. I'm not a cynical person; maybe living in Hawai'i helps with that; so I watch it as a way for the countries of the world to compete with each other yet do it in a way that's fun. There's joy, there's pain, there's sadness, there's fair play; most of the time; there's humble & arrogant athletes. It's like life in mini. I learn about about who I am just by seeing what athletes I root for. I ended up liking the Malaysian female diver that won a bronze medal. She was sweet and so happy. That's me personified. Great job London. It was a fun Olympics to watch. But we could have done without the Spice Girls and One Direction in the closing ceremonies.
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Torgo
Moderator Emeritus
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Post by Torgo on Aug 13, 2012 0:08:50 GMT -5
The Spice Girls still exist? Huh. Learn something new. Shouldn't they be Spice Women by now? Doesn't that non-PC femininity defeat the idea of "girl power?"
What was the medal count? I haven't been keeping track. Who was the big winner this year?
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Post by TheNewMads on Aug 13, 2012 6:41:24 GMT -5
no, it's true i don't really keep up with the Olympics that much. So the committee is probably wise taking my advice with a grain of salt, esp. when i advise them to only include sports that are no fun.
i think i saw the last olympic event. i was kinda nodding off on the couch in my hotel and they were all, "Well, that's it. No more Olympics. that was the last event. We're out of events." I think it actually WAS a sack race. I dunno, maybe I was dreaming. I also dreamed the Spice Girls still exist. THAT was weird.
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