2008 Summer Olympics Beijing

[Usiel]

Since the Olympics started today, I figured we could use a thread to discuss what's happening. I saw some of the opening ceremony on TV and it was pretty standard Olympic stuff although the actual lighting of the torch was really good as the flames kinda shot through the air and spiralled around the torch before lighting it....yeah, the opening ceremony was pretty nice, too many special effects, but this is something that shouldnt be strange... after all, they're chinese people.

 

What a pity that this nice event has had an unfortunate incident!!!

[HaziLPTonz]

"too many special effects"?

 

and "after all..theyre chinese?" chinese people may have invented the fireworks(be thankful), but theyre certainly no pyromaniacs...

 

killjoy racist much?

 

 

 

anyways...it was a SPECTACULAR opening ceremony, it dealt with the history beautifully, the atheletes looked great in their attire and looked excited at the prospect of competing. if anything the opening ceremony has got to be up there with one of the best, the chiinese really spared no expense on this, the opening ceremony was a great move away from the problems leading up with Burma, shichuan(i think its spelt) earthquake,russia invading a 70k population country and so forth, even if but for those few hours, the world was united and in party mode

 

what im looking forward to is the football, handball and hockey, handball cause its so aggresive and exciting to watch, hockey cause its one of my sports and football cause well, the argies and brazillians i hope will turn up the samba, so amny records that could be broken too...

 

phelps 8x golds? hackett hattrick 1500m? etc

[woodyloveslinkin]

Australia is on its worse possible start since Atlanta. Oh the Czechs got first gold medal in Shooting I think it was.

[HaziLPTonz]

i dont know about the worst possible start though, considering most of our medal chances are later in the tournament regardless, its not that big a deal, i think only 2 athletes are out in terms of medal contention sports that wont continue-some girl in badminton(why thats an olympic sport and rugby 7s isnt...well...you got me there) and rogers in cycling(i think u can throw evans in there too), but like i said, most of our medals will come later with the more high profile events like swimming,hockey,basketball etc

 

steph rice got our first gold-world record to boot as well

[woodyloveslinkin]

It's a pity Thorpe isn't around anymore to show his huge feet in the Watercube no more.

[Sygy]

Regardless of the sport what about the politics involved? Are any people here pro boycotting the Olympics or hosting protest due to China's poor human rights reord and how some people have said 'the lack of democracy'. Or do some people here think that Politics and Sport are seperate?

[GraDoN]

i dont care much for the politics, where there is sport there will always be politics....

[Stllmn8j]

Regardless of the sport what about the politics involved? Are any people here pro boycotting the Olympics or hosting protest due to China's poor human rights reord and how some people have said 'the lack of democracy'. Or do some people here think that Politics and Sport are seperate?

 

Boring/Random Sports>Politics

[FireHawk]

uhhh go USA? I have never watched olympics really

[Sygy]

Boring/Random Sports>Politics

 

God this is humiliating. could you pls explain what the whole '>' thing is?

[GraDoN]

think he means any sport is better than politics

[UnhingedMouse0]

The > and < basically come from math:

> = Greater than

< = Less than

 

...but are often used to show better/worse.

 

a.k.a.

 

Boring/Random Sports (are better than) Politics :yes:

 

 

 

 

 

And whats with all the protesting? I thought the olympics were supposed to be a time where all the nations put their differences aside and come together for sport and competition. Sooo yeah...

[FireHawk]

And whats with all the protesting? I thought the olympics were supposed to be a time where all the nations put their differences aside and come together for sport and competition. Sooo yeah...

What i thought to

[Sygy]

thanx for the explaining!!

 

i do believe that orginally they go hand in hand and i believe that everywhere is politics and too a more cynical view that everything is properganda. HOWEVER, i contradict myself bc i believe in such a hostile political climate that the only way forward to (hopefully) unity would be everyone coming together to enjoy something and that the Olympics are a great stepping stone for global unity. yes chinas human rights record is shameful and yes Putin has he blood of what, 2,000 georgian on his hands after the invasion this week but it should all be set aside for the more a more solely politics based arena.

 

On the other hand!!!! China being so heavily policed and centralised, i do see that it is the perfect time for chinese NATIONALS, to protest being as they police have to been told not to arrest or be overly aggressive in Beijing due to the presense of the rest of the world. But, when u hear of British or Americans doing it, i think why put yourself as such risk when you can safely do this at home and not seem as tacky?

[Blue Sky Turtles]

I say you leave politics outta the whole olympics period. It's meant to be a time where countries should be able to cheer for their national team, regardless where China stands on both animal and human rights, no one needs a wet blanket boycotting the olympics because of what they do outside of the olympics. On the other hand, you gotta face it the watercube is a techonological break through with contruction materials and so forth, watched a documentry on it and they at least are trying to get their act together with the pollution side of things. You gotta at least give them some credit for that side. But I'm not saying that their human and animal rights, or the lack of such things, are positive aspects, you just gotta enjoy the games while it lasted. No one bitched about the Indigenous culture (who have been historically supressed and attempted genocide in the past) taking part in the Australian team back on '00 games in Sydney, but....there was controversy over how Cathy Freeman, ran her lap of honour with both the Aboroginal flag and the Australian flag.....

 

You might not know this me being back on the forums so slowly but I root for Australia!!!

 

Aussie Aussie Aussie!!

Oi! Oi! Oi!

[azemkamikaze03]

 

 

And whats with all the protesting? I thought the olympics were supposed to be a time where all the nations put their differences aside and come together for sport and competition. Sooo yeah...

 

 

to put it simple...you thought wrong

 

especially with a place like china

 

 

Oh and shout out to all the americans who blew their fuckin chances with setroid

[HaziLPTonz]

politics and sporting events may go hand in hand somewhat, but when it comes to the actual sporting arena, politics should be left out of the stadium, the olympics is one of the few times this may people are united for anything, why ruin it?

 

the chinese may be doing bad things, but which country hasnt fucked up? America invaded iraq+afghanistan and are still occupying, Russia just invaded a 70k population country,zimbabwe(period) etc

 

plus ANY boycott would ruin the athletes chances, its a 1 in every 4 year event, they dont want ANYONE ruining it for them, say what you want about money and all those yearly world championships, but people want an olympic medal, to be part of an olympics, to represent their countries, you CANNOT take that away from them, i dont think many people ever get a chance to compete on such an arena, and it would be sad if any, ANY protesting occured during the olympics events, because thats hijacking an event(illegal), you're doing it against china(get you jailed/killed) and you ruin the athletes times and bring up all those troubles that the world is trying to forget for just abit, no matter the time, human kind wants to forget its troubles if for abit, and the olympics provide the perfect opputunity for the world to not only unite, but to forget the current troubles and celebrate, even for awhile...

 

business will resume once the olympics end

[littleblackstone]

And whats with all the protesting? I thought the olympics were supposed to be a time where all the nations put their differences aside and come together for sport and competition. Sooo yeah...

 

amen.

_________

[UnhingedMouse0]

The Chinese pulled a Milli-Vanilli during the Opening Ceremony

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/The-Chinese-pulled-a-Milli-Vanilli-during-the-Op?urn=oly,100162

 

 

LAME!

[FireHawk]

Tonz;583354'] America invaded iraq+afghanistan and are still occupying' date='[/quote']

If you think America should just straight up leave you are not as well knowing as you think. Neither one has had a government step up to the plate and if America left now it would be anarchy. That and the fact. The United States is trying to combat Iran who would take over Iraq if the U.S. left. You are ignorant if you don't realize the war in Iraq has turned to a proxy war against Iran the last few years.

[azemkamikaze03]

Lol way to fake fireworks and music china!

[UnhingedMouse0]

Well, with the footstep fireworks they specifically said in the brodcast that they were CGI... so that I dont care about since I wasnt decieved.... but with the little girl... come on... did they really need to pull an ashlee simpson? :-P

[azemkamikaze03]

i didnt even know they were cgi! i was like wait what?

[LPShinodaFM]

Guess where i am. ;] My hometown of Beijing.

 

I saw a volleyball match like day before yesterday. The atmosphere was amazing. I also have tickets for a track and field event in the Bird nest and the Water Cube (water ballet I think? xD lol) I'm like watching TV everyday with no time difference. It's great.

 

I thought the opening ceremony was awesome. The cultural atmosphere was so thick. I dunno if ppl who're not familiar w/ the chinese culture would really understand it and appreciate it but I loved it. :thumbsup:

lol the broadcasted footsteps were cgi xD i knew it.

But the girl.. -_- damn i actually thought she was great.

[UnhingedMouse0]

Oh more goodness.

 

Though theres no real way to confirm it, one of the girls on China's gymnastics team might only be 13, and thus should not be able to compete.

If this is the case, China cheated their way to a gold metal. :shoot:

 

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=ap-gym--underagechinese&prov=ap&type=lgns