Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Other Diversions › After Hours Lounge › 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China - Page 14

post #391 of 440
8/25/08 at 7:37am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty M
While watching that skit I asked my wife if that is the way the British usually wait for a bus? No telling what the British might come up with during the closing of the 2012 Olympics if Chicago is awarded the 2016 Olympics - bootleg gangsters being chased by Elitot Ness?

The handover skit is produced by the next host country, so if Chicago gets it they will be producing their own skit.
Reply
post #392 of 440
8/25/08 at 11:04am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
While watching that skit I asked my wife if that is the way the British usually wait for a bus?

Yes.

Actually, old bean, my wife and I were trying to work out if we'd ever seen Brits charge at a bus like that and we couldn't. Even if pursued by ravenous tigers and the bus offered the sole source of safety, I suspect the Brits would still queue.

Why all the adults fell on the ground to 'pave' the way for the kid is beyond me.


Quote:
The handover skit is produced by the next host country, so if Chicago gets it they will be producing their own skit.

Absolutely - it's up to the next host country to make an ass of itself.
Reply
post #393 of 440
8/26/08 at 6:38am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

The Aussies are so pissed that they were beaten by GB in the medals that they are looking at using Lottery Funding to boost their prospects in London 2012.

Quote:
The head of Australia's Olympic committee, speaking on Australian TV, also said the main objective should be to beat Britain.


The French are also piste.

Quote:
However, France will not be replicating the British model to up their medal tally in 2012, according to secretary of state Bernard Laporte. France finished in 10th on the medals table, having picked up seven gold medals. But Laporte, the former French rugby union coach, said: "We aren't just going to concentrate our means on four or five sports to bring home the medals, like the British have done."

BBC SPORT | Olympics | Australia consider British route

Reply
post #394 of 440
8/26/08 at 9:36am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Walter C
Until then, it's 18 months until Vancouver (or 4 years if you just follow Summer only).
Never liked the winter thing, though figure skating is fun. Summer is everywhere. Winter isn't. Those games feel like an exclusive club, and it's a bit annoying that they are called Olympics, which has a universal connotation, when they are anything but. Kinda hard to relate.

--
H
Reply
post #395 of 440
8/26/08 at 10:13am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Holadem
Never liked the winter thing, though figure skating is fun. Summer is everywhere. Winter isn't. Those games feel like an exclusive club, and it's a bit annoying that they are called Olympics, which has a universal connotation, when they are anything but. Kinda hard to relate.
Come now, with rare exceptions it's all an exclusive club. Athletes in the Olympics are either rich enough to pay for elite training instead of working to survive (the American model) or from a country that subsidizes their existence for the prestige.
Even though the scale of the Winter Olympics is nothing like the Summer Olympics, coming from the Northeast I can relate a hell of a lot more to the winter events. Skiing, ice skating, hockey are all fixtures of my childhood -- and, in some cases, my adult winters. Swimming, track & field, volleyball are all things I haven't done since gym in high school.
In fact, one could argue that the summer games are just as exclusive of the cold weather countries as the winter games are of the warm weather countries. There's just a lot more warm countries than cold countries.
Reply
post #396 of 440
8/26/08 at 11:01am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt
Come now, with rare exceptions it's all an exclusive club.
Yeah, I agree. None of the top athletes have just been self training to get better. Big bucks are being spent to reach their level. Maybe for smaller nations, very little money is spent, but then they're not usually getting there athletes to even the quarterfinals.

Yes, you can go out and have a pickup game of basketball or baseball easier than you can get a competition going on a downhill ski slope. At the elite level, it's big bucks either way. The swimmers aren't wearing suits from WalMart either.

I love the Winter Olympics...but I also love to ski. Unfortunately, I'm lucky if I get to ski once a season.
Reply
post #397 of 440
8/26/08 at 4:53pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Come now, with rare exceptions it's all an exclusive club. Athletes in the Olympics are either rich enough to pay for elite training instead of working to survive (the American model) or from a country that subsidizes their existence for the prestige.
Maybe but that's not the level of exclusivity with which I am concerned in my post.

Quote:
Even though the scale of the Winter Olympics is nothing like the Summer Olympics, coming from the Northeast I can relate a hell of a lot more to the winter events. Skiing, ice skating, hockey are all fixtures of my childhood -- and, in some cases, my adult winters. Swimming, track & field, volleyball are all things I haven't done since gym in high school.
I understand that. Realize that you are part of a minority.

Quote:
In fact, one could argue that the summer games are just as exclusive of the cold weather countries as the winter games are of the warm weather countries. There's just a lot more warm countries than cold countries.
Adam, as I sit here at home in New England with all the windows open, enjoying the summer evening breeze, I wonder if you are actually serious.

Name one country that is so cold that people do not know what it is to go out for a jog or sprint. While you are searching, I can rattle off oh -- about 457 that have never seen snow.

Some 80 countries participated in the last Winter Games. Just about the entire planet, ~200 nations had a delegation in the Beijing Games. Why do you think that is? Heck there were countries in Beijing I had never heard of (Nauru?! -- says the guy from Togo.)

And how about those 80 countries? A good number of them are unlikely participants due to their climates. So how many Algerians, Senegalese or Thai (all participants) do you think were glued in from of the TV watching these games? If it snows anywhere in Brazil, Iran or Lebanon, it is at the top of some deserted peak. And I am ready to bet that the Winter athletes from those countries actually live elsewhere, much like that Boukpeti dude from my country (who actually grew and lives in France.)

I really didn't think this was a matter of controversy. The simple reality is that Winter Olympics are the province of a minority of nations/cultures, and thus nowhere close to universal. Some of the games are fun to watch, but most of us have no stakes in them.

I get all warm and fuzzy during the Parade of Nation in the Summer Olympics because I know everyone is there. Not so in Winter, because (allow me to quote you again)
Quote:
There's just a lot more warm countries than cold countries.
('cept, in case this bears repeating, which it shouldn't, cold countries are not cold year round )

--
H
Reply
post #398 of 440
8/26/08 at 7:13pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Jamaican bob-sled team...

(says the guy from a tropical island sitting nearly on the Equator)

But point taken, Winter Olympics are almost completely alien for those of us in South-East Asia. There is simply no interest at all, because we have no experience with skating on ice, skiing on snow etc. Although I wonder if in years to come Dubai (with their artificial indoor ski slopes) might participate...
Reply
post #399 of 440
8/27/08 at 5:24am
Thread Starter 

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

I understand what Holadem is saying, and can see why not as many people enjoy the Winter Olympics as much as the Summer. Basically, if one didn't grow up in places that has winter, they're not likely to have interest in the Winter Games. I like the Winter Olympics, but then again, I grew up skiing and ice skating, and enjoyed watching the Flyers play ice hockey.

Heck, the NHL has tried to expand hockey to places that is warm all-year around, and so far, has failed miserably.

I get more upset when certain "experts" (like Bryant Gumbel) start complaining that the Winter Games shut out anyone that isn't white, when Asians have been competing in them for some time now.
Reply
post #400 of 440
8/27/08 at 6:28am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Don't recall many athletes from the state of Alaska but i might have missed them.
Reply
post #401 of 440
8/27/08 at 6:39am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Has everyone forgotten the Jamaican bobsled team?

Tropical nations at the Winter Olympics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reply
post #402 of 440
8/27/08 at 6:41am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

someone mentioned just 3 posts before you did.
so at least you two havent forgotten them.
Reply
post #403 of 440
8/27/08 at 6:47am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Sorry, I never read more than 2 posts!
Reply
post #404 of 440
8/27/08 at 7:40am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
I get more upset when certain "experts" (like Bryant Gumbel) start complaining that the Winter Games shut out anyone that isn't white, when Asians have been competing in them for some time now.
Well, I kinda feel that way but I didn't wanna say it Yeah Asians are catching on, but is anyone else? Will anyone else... ever?

I have nothing against the winter games. They are legit sports and must be part of this celebration of Sports and Humanity. It would be awesome if both games could be one event. That cannot happen in the same city for obvious reasons.

Ideally, both events would occur simultaneously, one on either side of the Equator. Imagine the Winter Games taking place in Argentina or Chile at the same time or right before/after the Beijing Games. Similarly with Sidney, and say Turin in February of 04.

Unfortunately, the earth's landmass is heavily skewed toward the Nord, severely limiting the number of venues below the Tropic of Capricorn for Winter Games to literally a handful of cities/countries (and that's before we get into the level of economic development that makes hosting Olympics a possibility. That leaves us with Argentina, Chile, Oz, New Zealand and South Africa, which I am afraid doesn't get cold enough.)

I think it's still doable, in spite of the logistical/political nightmare it would be. Rio might get the Summer 2016 games, why not set the games in February (their summer) and have the Winter games in say, Stockholm?

Cities might have to enter into North South Partnerships in order to bid. More cooperation in the spirit of the Olympics

Yeah, just dreaming out loud here.

Well, at least the Albertville Winter games were the same year as the Barcelona Summer games in '92. And then for some reason, they decided to interspeed the Summer games with winter ones (or the other way around). Does anyone know why?

--
H
Reply
post #405 of 440
8/27/08 at 8:22am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Don't recall many athletes from the state of Alaska but i might have missed them.
On the other hand, there were more than 250 athletes in Beijing from such similarly sweltering places as Iceland (28), Finland (58), Norway (85) and
Sweden (97)

--
H
Reply
post #406 of 440
8/27/08 at 9:17am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marianne
The Wikipedia entry ignores the Mexican bobsled team (as I recall they had better results than the Jamaicans)—but that might just be my bias.
Reply
post #407 of 440
8/27/08 at 9:26am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lew Crippen
The Wikipedia entry ignores the Mexican bobsled team (as I recall they had better results than the Jamaicans)—but that might just be my bias.

Maybe that's because it snows in Mexico!

Quote:
In winter cold waves, or 'northers', can bring near-freezing conditions for a few days to the east coast as far south as Tampico or Veracruz. Snow has fallen as far south as Tampico, which is within the tropics. The west coast is protected from such cold waves by the mountains and plateaux of central Mexico.

BBC - Weather Centre - World Weather - Country Guides - Mexico

Or maybe it's because they didn't make a movie about the Mexican bobsled team.
Reply
post #408 of 440
8/27/08 at 9:31am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Well, I kinda feel that way but I didn't wanna say it Yeah Asians are catching on, but is anyone else? Will anyone else... ever?


Black Athletes Set to Compete in Most Diverse Winter Olympics Ever


Quote:
Coleman, who was born and raised in upstate New York, said the main reason why many blacks may not have an interest in Winter Olympic competition is due to exposure and stereotypes classifying skating, skiing and bobsledding as sports that are not appealing to people of color. Such myths may be challenged with strong outing by Davis, Flowers, and Jones, as well as fellow bobsledders Lorenzo Smith III and Bill Schuffenhauer, who won a silver medal in 2002 in the four-man race, and figure skater Aaron Parchem, a silver medalist in the 2006 National Championship’s pairs competition.

I guess some people feel the reason black athletes don't compete in the Winter Olympics isn't because of shut doors, but instead it's because of myths and stereotypes (including the incredibly damaging myth concocted by Bryant Gumbel) that do no one any good.

My brother went to the National Hockey Championship for 13-14 year olds back in 1972. The leading scorer on his team was black. Why did he play hockey? Because he lived in Bobby Orr crazed Massachusetts and every kid wanted to be a hockey player.
Reply
post #409 of 440
8/27/08 at 9:48am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

By the way, the first black medal winner at the Winter Games was from the US - Debi Thomas - Bronze Winner in Ladies Figure Skating in 1988. She was also World Champion in 1986 and one of the finest skaters of her time. She quit skating to pursue an education and career as an orthopedic surgeon.

Shut doors indeed.
Reply
post #410 of 440
8/27/08 at 9:59am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Jeff, that is one hell of a strawman. You are answering to an argument that as far as I am concerned, no one has made. The scope of my argument in this particular thread of the discussion has been global, not U.S.-centric. I am concerned with nations, and cultures and regions of this world as the plethora of countries I named in my posts should show.

I have no interest in exploring race relations in the US as far the Olympics are concerned -- and I never did.

--
H
Reply
post #411 of 440
8/27/08 at 10:27am
Thread Starter 

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Holadem
It would be awesome if both games could be one event.

Figure skating made its Olympic debut in 1908, and ice hockey in 1920. The first Winter Olympics was in 1924. So at one point, both Summer and Winter would have been staged as one event. Well, sort of.

I think Jeff was responding to a post that I made, about Bryant Gumbel and his lameass comments.
Reply
post #412 of 440
8/27/08 at 10:43am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Holadem
Jeff, that is one hell of a strawman. You are answering to an argument that as far as I am concerned, no one has made. The scope of my argument in this particular thread of the discussion has been global, not U.S.-centric. I am concerned with nations, and cultures and regions of this world as the plethora of countries I named in my posts should show.

I have no interest in exploring race relations in the US as far the Olympics are concerned -- and I never did.

--
H

But you agreed with Bryant Gumbel, who said that black athletes were shut out of the Winter Olympics. That's the only thing I was addressing. That I approached it from a US centric angle is not a strawman, it was an example which refuted Gumbel's absurd oversimplification of the lack of black athletes in winter sports. It just so happens I agree with your other arguments; to whit - black athletes tend not to reside in countries that specialize in winter sports.

But in your post that I quoted, you agreed with Gumbel's absurd myth that black athletes are "shut out"; as if there was an unspoken racism fueled rule that keeps winter sports "white", which is an absurd myth and panders to the most base form of racism there is. Gumbel is an idiot, and he played the race card when he should have played the geography card. That's all I was saying.
Reply
post #413 of 440
8/27/08 at 11:37am

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Ah. Then perhaps I shouldn't have quoted Walter to begin with -- I have no idea who Byrant Gumbel is. I took what Walter said to mean that in practice, the Winter stuff was the exclusive province of White people, which it is. You have a sizeable representation from other regions with the right climate, like China and Japan. But by and large, most of the world is left in the cold (ha ha um ok.) A misunderstanding it seems.

--
H
Reply
post #414 of 440
8/27/08 at 12:04pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Holadem
Ah. Then perhaps I shouldn't have quoted Walter to begin with -- I have no idea who Byrant Gumbel is. I took what Walter said to mean that in practice, the Winter stuff was the exclusive province of White people, which it is. You have a sizeable representation from other regions with the right climate, like China and Japan. But by and large, most of the world is left in the cold (ha ha um ok.) A misunderstanding it seems.

--
H

Gumbel is a former Today Show host relegated to a sports show on HBO who, during the 2006 Turin Games, said (among other things), "So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the winter games look like a GOP convention."

As I said, he's an idiot.
Reply
post #415 of 440
8/27/08 at 12:18pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
But Laporte, the former French rugby union coach, said: "We aren't just going to concentrate our means on four or five sports to bring home the medals, like the British have done."

Hmm ... what's that odour I can smell from across the English Channel? Could it be the whiff of sour grapes?


As regards the Winter Olympics, it seems mean-spirited to deny specialists in winter sports not to have their moment of glory. Yes, fewer nations take part in winter sports, but if you look at Olympic events such as cycling, rowing, wrestling, handball, etc, it's only a subgroup of all the nations who take part in these, and a small subgroup at that. But nobody's saying that these sports should be denied a place in the summer Olympics.

And besides which, when else can Norway feel important?
Reply
post #416 of 440
8/27/08 at 12:35pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew markworthy
And besides which, when else can Norway feel important?

793 - Lindisfarne
Reply
post #417 of 440
8/27/08 at 12:42pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
As regards the Winter Olympics, it seems mean-spirited to deny specialists in winter sports not to have their moment of glory. Yes, fewer nations take part in winter sports, but if you look at Olympic events such as cycling, rowing, wrestling, handball, etc, it's only a subgroup of all the nations who take part in these, and a small subgroup at that. But nobody's saying that these sports should be denied a place in the summer Olympics.
...as opposed to the person who said that Winter Games should be excluded from the Olympics?

I give up.

--
H
Reply
post #418 of 440
8/27/08 at 4:35pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Could it be the whiff of sour grapes?

Nah, just a bad year in Bordeaux.
Reply
post #419 of 440
8/27/08 at 6:11pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Quote:
Originally Posted by Holadem
Ah. Then perhaps I shouldn't have quoted Walter to begin with -- I have no idea who Byrant Gumbel is. I took what Walter said to mean that in practice, the Winter stuff was the exclusive province of White people, which it is. You have a sizeable representation from other regions with the right climate, like China and Japan. But by and large, most of the world is left in the cold (ha ha um ok.) A misunderstanding it seems.

--
H
How quickly we forget Sapporo (if 36 years is quick).
Reply
post #420 of 440
8/30/08 at 10:40pm

Re: 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China

Get Fuzzy had a comic strip about badminton, ping pong, and other Olympic events yesterday:

http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzz...-20080830.html

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: After Hours Lounge
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Other Diversions › After Hours Lounge › 2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China