Re: Obituary of the day I would rather they win. Then the local news wouldn't so full of fake sad people. Yes, I am talking about my local news. The one that covers the U of Arizona. I'm gonna hate this...
Distance. Though I blew out my knee middle of my junior year. I was hoping to be good enough to be in the state 800 final - that would be California. I had the mix of being a sprinter as a kid, but getting into distance when I got to be about 12 or 13. I would never be to level of making it to the Olys, though - I don't think I had nearly enough natural talent (I can now say this with reflection - when I was younger, I used injuries as an excuse). Admittedly, I was asking for your perception. Having the experience of running both distances (my 2 year in HS, I ran the 4x100, 4x400, 800m and either the 1600m or the 400m - we had a very strong distance team, so it was usually the 400m), I do have an understanding of the differences of the different events. There is a significant difference between the anything over the 200m and those 200m and below. Further, there is a difference between the 400m and 800m and those above. In anything above 800m, there is must more strategy involved as opposed to the raw strength of the sprints. Though they more flashy, they are different. Tell me, did you watch the marathon? I watched the womens' marathon because I really enjoy the strategy. Do you watch anything over the 400m? And I'm not trying to say you're wrong - I just saying you have a different and perhaps more focused perception.
Re: Obituary of the day If that were the case, I fear that Japan's women will dominate us in that department, too. But you never know.
Re: Default Re: Who qualified, and who didn't, and other olympic sports stuff Exactly... unlike cycling which is at the top of everyone's viewing charts throughout the year.
U.S. Men’s Basketball Advances to Final United States 101, Argentina 81 In a Blink, Jamaica Shatters a Relay Record. In a Slog, an American Wins the Decathlon Brian Clay became the first American decathlete since 1996 to win the gold medal, but he ceded the spotlight to Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man. Ethiopia’s Dibaba Outkicks Rival to Complete a Distance Double Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba completed a historic double, winning the 5,000 in 15 minutes 41.40 seconds and becoming the first woman to win the 5,000 and 10,000 in the same Summer Games. U.S. Baseball Loses to Cuba in Semifinals Cuba 10, United States 2
Let this be a lesson for USA Baseball to find competent Major Leaguers (no minor small-fry) who are willing to make a 3-year commitment a la their basketball counterparts. These guys we sent out can't lift a finger to the Nationals, I reckon. They got eight to figure it out. At the minimum.
U.S. Relay Teams Finally Find Gold After a week of notable stumbles, the U.S. track team fully asserted itself in the last two events on the track. More Gold for Ethiopia in Distance Running Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia is the first man to complete the distance double at the Olympics in 28 years, winning the 5,000 meters, six days after capturing the 10,000. Messi and Aguero Lead Argentina to Soccer Gold Argentina won its second Olympic soccer title in a row, beating Nigeria 1-0. South Korea Wins Improbable Gold in Baseball South Korea 3, Cuba 2 U.S. Wins Bronze in Baseball United States 8, Japan 4
And that's why eight years will pass, my friend, and the USA still won't get a gold medal if MLB will not follow the NBA's lead. I'm fearlessly predicting it right now.
They got gold in 2000 even without the MLB players. The NBA only got into the Olympics because FIBA allowed them to do so.
Johnson says Bolt, not Phelps, was tops in 2008 Wednesday, December 24, 2008 NEW YORK CITY, New York (CMC) - The Associated Press (AP) news agency has named American swimmer, Michael Phelps, the top male athlete of the year for 2008, but the great American track athlete, Michael Johnson, believes Jamaican Usain Bolt is the man for that award. AP announced two awards Monday for the 23-year-old swimming giant - male athlete of the year and selected his eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics as the top sports story of the year. Only Olympic sprinting sensation Bolt (five votes) and New York Giants quarterback, Eli Manning (four), got more than a single vote. Phelps was named on 172 ballots, becoming just the third swimmer to claim the award. But Johnson, who now only holds the 400-metre world record after Bolt shattered his 200-metre mark, believes the Jamaican is unquestionably the best for the year. "Without doubt, Usain Bolt is the athlete of the year," Johnson said. "He left with three Olympic gold medals, three world records, and as a global superstar," said Johnson. Johnson credited Phelps for his record-breaking feats in Beijing and hailed the Olympic athletes as prime candidates for the award in an Olympic year. "You could argue that other people have done incredible things during 2008, but in an Olympic year it almost always comes down to Olympic athletes as my choice for athlete of the year, because there is no more difficult title to achieve and no more pressure-packed environment," Johnson said. Johnson highlighted the swimmer's achievement of erasing the previous record gold medal haul of seven by Mark Spitz in Munich 1972, but has not given Phelps extra points over Bolt for the number of gold medals he won. "Bolt comes out on top for me and not just because I was a track athlete myself. In swimming there are many more opportunities to win gold medals than there are for athletes in track," said Johnson. Phelps follows Don Schollander in 1964 and Spitz in 1972 as the only swimmers to win the award. Phelps had won six gold and two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Praising Bolt's pre-Olympic form, Johnson pointed to his world record 9.72 seconds in New York in May and declared his 9.69 gold medal triumph in Beijing as the best 100-metre run he had ever seen. "Once in Beijing Bolt was brilliant. (He) put on the greatest 100-metre performance ever. The race left spectators and even seasoned veterans of the sport like myself in disbelief." Bolt's 19.30 run in the 200, erased Johnson's mark and the 22-year-old marvel also helped Jamaica win gold in the sprint relay in a world record 37.10 seconds. "That 200 record, which belonged to me, had stood for 12 years and as I had broken it by an astonishing four-tenths of a second, many thought it might stand longer than the 22 years of Bob Beamon's long-jump world record set in 1968," Johnson said.
Not only what the above post states, but the fact that swimming records were being broken at considerable margins by multiple swimmers leads me to look upon the swimming events with a jaundiced eye. Sure Phelps still won all those races, but the whole swimming competition ended up rubbing me the wrong way.
In all honesty I've long been suspicious of people who win by huge margins whether that's Bolt, Phelps or anyone else. I suppose you can argue that Phelps didn't so much win a number of events but win the same event a number of times but even so. Hopefully they'll continue to try and develop new tests to find this stuff and see what comes out.