GreekChat.com Forums - Beijing: 08-08-2008

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Confession: One of my absolute favorite things about the olympics so far has been the Visa commercials with Morgan Freeman. Guilty Confession: I even looked some of them up on youtube. :o

I loove those Morgan Freeman commercials.. especially the one about Michael Phelps when he's all "despite what you think no he is not part dolphin".. it didn't occur to me to look those up on youtube but I'm def going to!!!

I cannot believe Deena Kastor had to DNF! She's not my favorite runner, but I really grew to respect her after watching Spirit of the Marathon. Wow, what an absolutely awful shame.

GO JAMAICA!!! (that's all).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benzgirl (Post 1698663)

GO DARA

(kick ass)

Oh Jesus. I just saw the video of the Hungarian weightlifter who dislocated his elbow during his lift. It literally bent inward during his lift. Do NOT watch that video if you have a weak stomach. It was horrible. :(

I'm pissy that the gymnastics event finals are at 3 am. WTH? :mad:

I did NOT know that they had women's weightlifting.

Go Phelps!!!

As an aside - I think it's awesome that he got the record and all, but I feel bad for his teammates (who by the way, helped him get more than 1 of those gold medals). They got the complete shaft during the medal ceremony.

I realize this is a very big deal, but they could have at least showed his other teammates for more that .21 seconds during the medal ceremony.

Quote:

Originally Posted by texas*princess (Post 1699402)

I said the same thing to my kids during the ceremony...

Results for my friends - they were in 4th, one point out of 3rd, going into the medal round (which only the top 10 teams compete in and the places are multiplied by 2). The conditions, which have been bad - no wind and horrible currents, took a 180 degree turn for the worse (for my team at least) and now it blew 16 with gusts to 25 (a team in contention for a gold in another discipline, the 49er, broke their mast - so scary, awful conditions).

anyway, my girls ended up in 9th place for this race knocking them all the way down to 7th overall:(:(:(. What a bummer! Something they've been working for for years and in one race, it's over...

I'll see them in Rochester in 2 weeks, I think many bottles of Chardoney will be consumed:(.

My other friend Anna is currently in second in laser radial. Hopefully, she can stay up there!

Srmom1,
I don't know what you just said, but it sounds exciting. Congratulate your friends on all of their hard work.

Quote:

I don't know what you just said, but it sounds exciting. Congratulate your friends on all of their hard work

Misunderstood and little appreciated sport of sailing:p It isn't ever televised because watching it is like watching paint dry!! But, it is exciting while it's going on!

I will congratulate them though, and thanks! It is an honor just to represent your country.

Hugs to Alicia (once again) and Anna Pavlova from Russia. Alicia missed the bronze medal by a tenth of a point. Anna got a no score on her second vault, because the judges didn't give her the signal to start. Anna thought that he or she did. That lost momentum carried her over to the floor exercise where she fell on her last pass.

Congrats to Oksana Chusovitina.

Y'all may not know what they're talking about, but I wanted to post some info on the carnage that occured on the sailing race course on Saturday to give you an idea of what they're enduring.

This is from an email from one of my friends:

Quote:

Any thoughts of Qingdao as a light-air venue blasted out the window today as heavy squalls, accompanied by huge swells and torrential rain, lashed the Olympic sailing city. There was carnage in various classes all over Fushon Bay but for us it was largely a case of hurry-up-and-wait while our race committee tried to get its act together.

We were scheduled to start three races at noon but at that time it was blowing 18 to 30 knots, with squalls and blinding rain. The rain was torrential; so heavy that at times the visibility at times was down to 10 meters. We were held ashore initially because our race committee boat was sinking. After staying on the dock for a few hours we went out for 1:30 pm start.

Once we battled our way out to Course E, we sat around until 4:00 pm when the committee finally started a race. That was simply because the committee had problems. They weren’t able to anchor. They couldn’t set a course. It was amateur hour. It was embarrassing to be at the Olympics and have such poor committee work while the sailors on the Tornados and the Stars were sitting out there in 25 knots of breeze, huge swells and rain squalls, waiting for them to get sorted out. Finally we raced. Five hours on the water in tough conditions for a 40-minute race.

Then from the US 49er sailor's blog - the US team had to withdraw because they had so many problems, things broke so badly that no amount of jury rigging would hold them together.:(

Quote:

It was getting windier, and waves were considerably bigger. We survived the bear away, but then capsized on the first major wave after the set. We ripped out a foot strap and broke a tiller extension in the wipe out. Meanwhile all the lead boats capsized on the same downwind. ITA, AUS, GER and BRA all flipped within sight of us. At one point 7 of 10 boats were upside down.

From here we missed the action, but from what we understand ITA, AUS and GER all had multiple flips trying to get to the finish. ESP came from 5th place, only flipped once on the run, and won the race. GBR and BRA were also capsized on the run. BRA took the main down, and finished under jib alone.

So, another exciting day on the race course! haha! This is the kind of stuff that would make good television!! But, it won't be shown on tv.

So, while gymnasts and basketball players are competing in the climate controlled arenas, and beach volleyballers are landing in soft sand, carnage and terror are occuring out on the sailing race courses!!!:eek: