2008 Summer Olympics - Beijing, China (2 Viewers)

[Craig S]

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Amen. Moments like this are why we watch the Olympics. I had just resigned myself to silver when it became evident in the final 50 that Lezak was gaining. What an incredible performance! I was jumping up & down and screaming by the end. I'm SO glad we're able to see so many of these events live.

And so the dream stays alive for Phelps as well. Amazing to think that by the end of the week he will likely have left the current record for career gold medals (9) far behind.

I'm watching the HD broadcast from the OTA signal here. I notice some pixelation & other artifacts from time to time, but overall I've been very pleased with the PQ. The flyover shots of Chinese landmarks at the beginning of tonight's broadcast were stunning!

 

[Carlo_M]

I think my girlfriend just called me out on my man-crush for Phelps.

Yep, that 4x100 freestyle relay was pretty much the best team swimming event I've ever seen.

Love how Weber-Gale knew that everyone was shooting Phelps so he ducked under his arm while celebrating. I wonder how many cameramen were like "goddarn it, get outta the way!"

 

[Walter C]

I'll echo what everyone has already said about the 4x100 freestyle relay. Good thing I recorded the last hour and then watched it before coming to work, since I was too tired to watch after 11 PM.


And the music score Buglar's Dream enhances it.

Also, seeing the landmarks is the reason why I watch cycling and the marathon as well.

 

[DaveF]

I happened to catch that last night! How exciting! I've not seen any pre-event coverage: were the French talking smack about the Americans before the race?

I also saw the women's 400m individual: it was equally exciting, but alas the opposite result, with the American losing by 0.07s to the English! It was a heck of a race, and I thought more exciting to watch than the men's relay.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Alain Bernard of the French team had stated "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for."

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

From yesterday's wire...

BEIJING–World record holder Alain Bernard of France opened the war of words for the Olympic swimming competition yesterday, saying he was the favourite in the 100-metre freestyle and that the French relay squad would "smash" the Americans.

Bernard lowered Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband's world record to 47.50 seconds in March and four of his title rivals have since broken 48 seconds, making swimming's marquee event one of the most wide open on the Beijing program.

But not according to Bernard.

"The 100-metres favourite, it's me," he said. "If I didn't believe I was, I wouldn't be here at all."

Bernard also said the French 4x100 freestyle relay quartet would be one of the teams to beat.

"The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for," Bernard said.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

I like this quote from Sports Illustrated's story on Lezak's swim...

"The whole thing was remarkable," said Orjan Madsen, the German head coach. "It was one of those moments where you just sit back and say, 'Jesus Christ.' If I wouldn't have seen [Lezak overtaking Bernard] with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it."

 

[Holadem]

Aaargh I was missed the relay, tuned in at the end with for the celebration. Dammit, I hear it was some epic stuff.

--
H

 

[Steve_Tk]

That last 50M we were on our feet screaming at the TV. Great stuff!

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

I transferred it off my TiVo and exported it to a QuickTime file. I'll send you a PM when I upload it later today.

 

[DaveF]

Holadem, I'm not a sports guy, but this had me shouting in surprise and excitement at the TV last night. It was very cool. I hope you catch a replay.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

I remember how bad NBC's "Chunky Style HDTV" was 4 years ago, and this is an improvement over 2004. I remember specifically how bad the rendering of bubbly water was during the swimming events. But you're right, it's still not quite as good as it could be. I'm viewing NBC OTA on a 100-inch screen.

 

[Johnny Angell]

So, I watched the first match for the favored USA women's team in beach vollyball and if I remember correctly, they played best 3 out of 5 matches (why don't they call them games?) and the men are playing best 2 out of 3. I would have expected it to be 2 out of 3 for the women and 3 out of 5 for the men.

BTW, just watched the top USA men's team clobber their second opponent. They are back on track after the big upset in their first game.

 

[DavidJ]

Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus...it was an awesome moment. My wife and I stayed up to watch it and we were of course shouting at the TV as Lezak began to overtake Bernard and celebrating when they won. It has been a hot topic among my friends and it is great that an Olympic event can still create this kind of response.

 

[andrew markworthy]

I wouldn't like to be on the committee planning the London opening ceremony after the Beijing performance. Having said that, the Athens opening ceremony was done by Brits, I believe, and it wasn't too shabby. I for one am looking forward to the regeneration of the area of London where the main stadia are being built. I remember Barcelona and Athens before they got the Olympics and revisiting both places recently I was amazed at the transformation.

Just to give you the perspective from another country - your 'race of all time' got barely a mention in our coverage. We all think the 'race of all time' was the sensational winning of the gold in the women's 400m freestyle.

Incidentally, before we all get too gung ho about the number of medals won, it's well worth looking at one of the alternative medal tables weighted by size of country and GDP. In other words, when you allow for the fact that a country with a bigger population is bound on average to win more medals, and this is compounded by how much money can be sent on specialist training, etc, the situation is radically different. The following is one such table, but there are plenty of others:

Bill Mitchell's Home Page

Please note that I'm not suggesting this table is right because it places the UK higher than the USA. Generally in these tables, the UK and USA are pretty similar in ranking - and towards the bottom.

 

[DavidJ]

That's as it should be. They were both great races and it is completely understandble that the women's got the pub in the UK. Based on what I've read though, the men's race was something extraordinary regardless of country, but that is easy to say from here. We definitely get a bit USA-centric. In my house, we were also pretty fired up about Dale Oen taking the silver in the 100m breaststroke (my wife's dad is Norwegian) and it was cool to see Abhinav Bindra win India's first ever individual medal.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Gee, Andrew comes in with yet another in his long running series of "You Yanks are too high on your horses, let me knock you down a few" posts.

Who'da thunk it?

Seriously Andrew, I saw your name as the last poster and I knew the contents before I clicked. You gotta get some other material, man.

 

[Marianne]

YAY!!!

One of the reasons it was so sensational is that Great Britain hasn't won a Gold Medal in any women's Olympic swimming event for 48 years!

 

[Walter C]

I can understand that. Being Korean ourselves, my mom and I were also excited to see Park Tae-Hawn win the 400m freestyle the other day. I believe this was Korea's first ever gold medal in swimming.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Is NBC doing a 30-60 minute daily wrap-up show? I am not going to commit to watch all this Olympic programming, and it's a pain to try to keep up with the events as they spring up during primetime.