London Olympic
 

Seems that the organizer wanted Keith Moon to perform at their closing ceremony. One slight little problem, the dude been dead for 34 years.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...emony-20120413

:cool::cool:

:rolleyes: Maybe they could ask Brian Jones instead?

Epic fail on the organizers part.:rolleyes:

Maybe Michael Jackson is available.

I think they wanted to book John Bonham.

They should try to John Lennon, after all he was from the London area.

DaffyKD

I guess this is how they're gonna try to make a better olympic then China, bringing back the dead.

Perhaps Winston Churchill will attend? ;)

Maybe they had this in mind when they tried to book Keith Moon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu2m9...eature=related

bumping because the opening ceremony is in two days!

there are many greek letter organizations being represented. for SAE, the Bryan twins (Mike and Bob) are competing in tennis doubles. go USA!

Not sure if any Phi Mus are competing, but a sister's son is..... GO MICHAEL PHELPS! (AND he's a Wolverine! :D)

Per The Key, Kappas competing:
Evie Stevens, Cycling
Jennifer Kessy, Beach Volleyball

Five Tri Deltas will be competing in London
http://www.tridelta.org/news/07_26_12

Muffy Davis, Stanford, Paracycling
Annika Dries, Stanford, Water Polo
Abby Johnston, Duke, Synchronized Diving Springboard
Mariya Koroleva, Stanford, Synchronized Swimming Duets
Paige Railey, South Florida, Laser Radial Sailing

Aly Raisman is from the high school where I teach (she attended through her junior year, which was up until this past year). I was excited to see a local kid move on, but I was amazed that Jordyn didn't make it. I thought she was a lock for sure.

Wieber was excellent, but Douglas and Raisman were a little better. This is the best team we've ever had.

One would think that, when it comes to Olympic competition, the 24 best competitors in the sport would compete, regardless of where they're from. This rule that limits countries to only two competitors in the All Around competition is silly and has no place in the Olympic arena.

^^^I agree, but we dug our own grave on this one since we were one of the countries who fought hard to get that rule in place. I think at the time we were concerned about a field flooded with Chinese, Russian or Romanian gymnasts and the thought that we would be this deep didn't occur to us. Good lesson about not looking down the road at all of the possibilities before pushing for a rule change.

Not to take anything away from Gabby or Aly, but IMHO Jordyn got underscored on beam.

Well, Jordyn didn't perform her best. Everybody knows she is capable of better. The thing is, when she is at her best, she could win the gold. Can either of the other two? We shall see.

I'm still trying to figure out a few of the scores from last night. I also hated NBC sticking their cameras in her face. Current WC or not, she's still just a child.

Am I imagining things, or wasn't there better TV coverage in Sydney and Beijing? I seem to remember there being multiple events being shown at the same time on USA, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, etc and not just on regular NBC. I remember flipping between stations, I remember coverage going on all day, and I remember watching events that I had never seen before in prime time.

I would much rather watch archery instead of Rachel Maddow. Days of Our Lives vs dressage? Horse wins.

BBC has the Olympics on most Channels (1,3,4 world), between that and several sports channels, I'm covered.

I didn't want to derail the Opening Ceremonies thread, so this one seems the more appropriate one to add these:

Critic of NBC has Twitter account suspended after network complains: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympic...complains.html

London Olympics 2012: Twitter 'alerted NBC to British journalist's critical tweets': http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...al-tweets.html

Guy Adams' Twitter Account Back Up, Journalist's Account Was Suspended After NBC Olympics Tweet: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1720008.html

#NBCfail: Network spoils itself again with nighttime promo: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olymp...omo/56597752/1

NBC interviews ‘tourist’ about Queen Elizabeth, turns out it's Evander Holyfield: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ol...#ixzz22EIqHA1m

Can NBC do anything right?!

If they can, I haven't seen evidence of it.

I'm really tired of everyone at work ruining the Olympics for me..

"Hey, did you hear so-and-so won the gold medal?"

"It looks like so-and-so didn't pull it off"

"So-and-so broke the record"

Shut the f*** up! If you want to look at how we did ahead of time, great. But don't start announcing to everyone in the cubes around you what we're all waiting to watch tonight.

Ugh.

I had a feeling Gabby Douglas would win the all-around!

Man, I just love some Gabby Douglas! I want Mattel to make a doll of her so I can buy 2!

^^^That would be an adorable doll and I'm sure they've already got it in the works! They'll need to put high powered batteries and some springs in it somewhere to duplicate that energetic bounciness.

Congratulations, Gabby....absolutely Gabulous performance :)

I'm soooooooooooooooo proud of Gabby!!!!!! You GO, girl!!! :)

YES! So in love with that little bundle of energy! My daughter just loved watching the gymnastic events.

Watching the women's tennis final right now. I had to put it on mute because I can't handle hearing Sharapova's squeals this morning.

Only can say:

USA, USA, USA!

These kids make me proud!

See, I had a feeling Gabby would be the surprise of the Games. After she "won" the American Cup (she was actually competing exhibition, but her score would have won the a-a), I just thought she was the one to watch. And then she won trials. Gymnastics can be about peaking at the right time (see Kristie Phillips back in '88 for the opposite), and I think Gabby's doing just that.

I won't lie, I'm happy to see the Phelps era end. Yes, he's great, but I'm ready to hear about someone else when it comes to mens swimming.

SO happy for Serena and Andy Murray getting golds in singles tennis! Murray had and AWESOME match today, and Federer wasn't on his game at all. Watching Serena dance was one of my favorite parts.

^^^Agreed, and this has nothing to do with that, but who was his orthodontist??!! I'm mean, anyone who grew up in a country not named Great Britain should have better teeth than that.

********

I didn't see Gabby winning the all-around (meaning I didn't see it coming). Glad an American won it, but initially I thought Jordyn and Gabby would go to the all-around (still a little sad that the rules are what they are and she didn't get to go), and I wasn't even sure Jordyn would get it, but I thought Jordyn would finish ahead of Gabby.

I really thought that unless she had a major disaster, they would find a way to give it to Victoria because Americans had won the all-around in the previous two, we won the team, and the World's had been a close and controversial finish. Never so glad to be totally wrong.

I agree with Marta (because who would disagree with that woman), that I don't think I can remember a gymnast coming on the scene and coming up as quickly as Gabby.

And on that note....Daughter showed me this today which she found pretty funny....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQzkMoEGDGE

I know I'm in the minority about this, but this is one reason I just never can get interested in gymnastics, men's or women's, in the Olympics. I like events where person who is the fastest, throws or jumps the furthest, or scores the most goals/points wins. I don't really like the events with panels of judges who can "find a way to give" a win to an athlete or team.

I don't think you're in the minority actually. A lot of people (okay, mostly men) mention that as a reason they don't like gymnastics or ice skating.

I should have qualified that statement by saying that sometimes gymnasts, coaches, and fans believe this has happened when the score was REALLY close. Of course, unless the competitors are pretty even to begin with - it can't be done. If it's close, I don't think it's necessarily intentional - in other words, I don't think they get together and decide ahead of time - I just think the thought can influence their judging a bit if it's close.

Gymnastics is subjective, certainly, but not as subjective as people think it is particularly when you know how difficulty is determined and how execution points are deducted. It really is pretty specific and doesn't give judges much latitude. In addition, depending on the level and the meet, several people judge separately and if their individual scores aren't within a specific point difference, they have to dicuss, go over their deductions and rescore. I know, more information than you wanted.

I agree the sports you mentioned are less subjective; on the other hand, can you say you've never heard basketball fans complain a ref determined the outcome of a game due to a subjective foul being called? Those complaints are fewer in football, but they happen. What about several recent boxing matches? I agree that things like swimming and track are pretty straightforward, but my husband is a track coach, and believe or not, they've had some fishy stuff go on there as well.

Oh absolutely. Cheating/flubs/subjectivity can enter any referreed sport, but to be honest, I think they're less prevelant in some sports than others, just through the nature of the game. And ultimately, the game is still decided by goals scored, not by points awarded by a judge.

And to be honest, I really don't care about Olympic basketball or tennis either. I think I'm old school and miss the days when Olympic athlete meant not professional -- if I want to watch an NBA game or a pro tennis match, I can. (Though I'll take college basketball over NBA any day of the week.) I mainly watch the Summer Olympics for swimming and track and field, though I can also get into things like volleyball or water polo. Other stuff I'll watch if it's on, but only because it's on.

Yeah, I never thought I'd see an American athlete crip-walking in London. LOL

Are you suggesting that gymnastics judging is more or less subjective
than other sports, particularly in light of the e.g. you used. I've officiated high school basketball for 11 years (7 years at the varsity level) and if I had $10 for every fan (99 percent of the time a parent/fan from the losing team) who claimed that refs determined a game's outcome due to subjectivity, I'd be rich.

We're required to be in sync in terms of floor mgt., have consistency of calls, high degree of rules proficiency/application, and rigorous performance/evaluation criteria that have to be adhered to or you don't advance. At the varsity level, virtually every game is recorded. If you're making b.s. calls, you don't stay long at that level.

If you weren't suggesting more subjectivity in other sports,necessarily than in gymnastics, my apologies. But when I hear someone talk about alleged subjectivity, or how officials control (determine) contests, particularly at higher levels of competition, I seldom stay silent.