Beijing: 08-08-2008
 

Alright, I did a search and I couldn't find a thread already started for Beijing 2008, so I figured it might be a good time to start one since it's only a little over a month away.

We're keeping a close eye on Bryan Clay in the Decathlon. He's not only the hometown favorite, but he's also the cousin of one of my dear HS buddies. Bryan took Silver in Athens four years ago. We knew that the punk would go places, so the Olympics is no surprise!

Who are your Olympic favorites this year?

I have a number of friends who are sailing in different events:

Anna Tunnicliffe in Laser Radials

http://www.annatunnicliffe.com/

Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe, and Debbie Capozi in Women's Keel Boat (Ynglings)

http://www.team7sailing.com/componen...page/Itemid,1/

And Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree in Men's multi hull (Tornados)

http://www.t-squaredracing.com/

http://olympics.ussailing.org/The_Team/John_Lovell.htm

I have sailed agains those gals for a number of years, and they are all awesome. (I also know some women who are sailing for other countries, but I can hardly cheer for them!!;))

I have been sailing with Johnny's wife for many years, and have been through the last two Olympics with them. They are some of my dearest friends!!! He won a silver medal in Athens. This will be his fourth (and last!!) Olympics. I am really hoping that he and Charlie can do as well as last time!!!

I've been watching some of the swimming trials and track trials. I'm so impressed by the 41 year old female swimmer! She's amazing.

Personally, I can't imagine spending as much time on a sport as these Olympic hopefuls do. Anybody who even makes it to the trials is impressive to me!

Two women from my high school are competing for the US, one in rowing (who I knew during school) and one in swimming (who I did not know).

college buddy Brian Johnson is competing in the long jump. SU!!

I think this weekend was the first time I've ever watched the Swimming and Track and Field Olympic Trials.

Oh, and Dara Torres? WOW. She's 41 years old but still kicking ass!

Justin Spring, who's on the US men's gymnastics team went to my high school, so I'm cheering for him. I'm also really excited about diving.

Kevin Tan (US men's gymnastics team) is a Penn State grad.

And I too think Dara Torres is pretty impressive.

I have to agree with you on the 41 year old female swimmer. She's pretty inspiring. I am really looking forward to the swimming/diving events, the gymnastic events and (especially) all of the Equestrian events. I have not seen any of the trials except the swimming (and that included the 41 year old female). :)

Starts tomorrow! It's already 08-08-08 in Beijing so I imagine the Opening Ceremonies will be starting in just a few hours.

I saw the final legs of the Olympic Torch Run on the news tonight...screw the masks. One needs a full on suit to survive in that pollution.

ETA: The U.S. Flagbearer has been selected

Did anyone notice that Denmark had their men wear Jorts in the opening ceremonies?
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids...2694831394.jpg

^^^LOL. Yes, but Nordic men tend to look good in anything, so they should get a pass, even from the frat-raters.

I'm excited! I actually have the opening ceremonies set on my DVR since I'll be out celebrating! My b/f's college roommate is becoming an official U.S. citizen today...wish I could afford it so that I could become one now....:(

So yeah...when it comes to the Olympics, I cheer on my two countries: USA and Canada!!

True, plus that flag bearer could probably take all the frat-raters on single handedly.

I love the Olympics. Two weeks, where almost no work get done!

My sisters' old babysitter/Woodlands (where my dad lives) hometown hero Laura Wilkinson is competing in her third (and according to her, final :() Olympics in women's platform diving -so pumped for her!!:D

Pepperdine has 12 alumni participating as athletes or coaches, so here's who I'll be cheering on:

Athletes

Simon Aspelin, Tennis (Sweden) ... Appearing in his first Olympics ... Will play doubles with fellow Swede Thomas Johannson ... Currently ranked #11 in the world in doubles by the ITF ... Won the 2007 U.S. Open doubles title ... Earned All-American honors at Pepperdine all four years (1994-97).

Merrill Moses, Water Polo (USA) ... Appearing in his first Olympics ... First played for the senior National Team in 2001 ... Led Pepperdine to the NCAA championship as a junior in 1997 ... Earned three-time All-American honors for the Waves.

Ryan Radmanovich, Baseball (Canada) ... Appearing in his second Olympics ... Canada took fourth place in 2004 ... Reached the Major Leagues in 1998 with the Seattle Mariners ... Currently plays in the independent Northern League ... Played one season for the Waves (1993) after transferring from Hancock Junior College ... Hit .305 with a team-high 13 home runs ... Was a fourth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins following the 1993 season and turned pro.

Sean Rooney, Volleyball (USA) ... Appearing in his first Olympics ... Joined the AVP Tour in 2004 and also played in the Korean League ... Made the USA National Team in 2007 ... A four-time All-American (2002-05) for the Waves ... Was the 2005 National Player of the Year and the MVP of the NCAA Championships as Pepperdine captured the national title.

Jesse Smith, Water Polo (USA) ... Appearing in his second Olympics ... The USA took seventh place in 2004 as Smith was one of the top scorers ... Made his senior National Team debut in 2001 ... A three-time All-American at Pepperdine (2001-03).

Coaches

Marv Dunphy, consultant coach for USA Men’s Volleyball ... Heading to his fifth Olympics as a coach ... Was the head coach of the USA in 1988 when they won the gold medal ... Was also an assistant coach in 2000 and a consultant coach in 1996 and 2004 ... Heading into his 26th season as the head coach at Pepperdine and has won four NCAA championships ... Played volleyball for Pepperdine in the 1970s.

Brian Goorjian, head coach for Australia Men’s Basketball ... Heading to his second Olympics as a coach ... Led Australia to a ninth-place finish in 2004 ... Has coached five Australian League championship teams in his 20-plus years as a coach there ... Played three seasons on the varsity at Pepperdine (1974-76) ... The Waves made the NCAA Tournament his senior year.

Terry Schroeder, head coach for USA Men’s Water Polo ... Heading to his first Olympics as a coach ... Participated in three Olympics as a player, winning silver medals in 1984 and 1988 and finishing in fourth place in 1992 ... Was Pepperdine’s head coach for 20 years before stepping aside to join the USA coaching staff in 2006, and has plans to return some time after the Olympics ... A three-time All-American at Pepperdine (1977, ’78 and ’80) and still the school’s all-time leading goal scorer.

Troy Tanner, coach for USA beach volleyball duo Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh ... Heading to his first Olympics as a coach ... Won a gold medal playing for the USA men in 1988 ... A three-time All-American at Pepperdine.

Other Roles

Kevin Barnett, NBC Sports commentator for volleyball ... A two-time Olympian for the USA ... His volleyball squads finished 11th in 2000 and fourth in 2004 ... Earned two-time All-American honors at Pepperdine in 1996 and 1997.

Bob Ctvrtlik, U.S. Olympic Committee Vice President and member of the International Olympic Committee ... A three-time Olympic volleyball player for the U.S. who won a gold medal in 1988 and a bronze medal in 1992 ... Earned NCAA Player of the Year honors and won a national championship in 1985, his only season at Pepperdine.

Gary Moy, Global Sports Partners operations ... Associate Director of Athletics at Pepperdine ... Will be working at his ninth Olympic Games and servicing 32 National Olympic Committees at the Casa Americas in Beijing ... Team Manager for Marv Dunphy’s 1988 Olympic Gold Medal squad ... Served as the USA Olympic Team Delegation Director at the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics.


There are also around 40 athletes that are from or train in the Seattle area. We've got a lot of rowers and swimmers!

^^^

Pep, I'm surprised there aren't more Pepperdine alums on the Water Polo and Volleyball teams! We lose a lot of local kids to you guys every year!

Dara is my idol!
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...DaraTorres.jpg

The opening ceremony was SPECTACULAR!!! WOW!!!

^^^^
Yep - that's how I look on a diving board.

Not.

She is amazing - I can't wait to see how she does.

The athletes are entering. I'm so corny, but I love the opening ceremony. Guaranteed water-works when the USA comes in. It always happens on queue.

Yeah, I am too, especially volleyball. I knew both Merrill and Kevin when I was there, though. I suspect there are plenty of Hawaiians on the volleyball team?

And the Nordic men did NOT disappoint! :D

This is why living on the West Coast can stink. I'm dying to see the opening ceremonies but I still have about a half hour to go. I hope I can make it til midnight.

What annoys me every opening ceremony is during the Parade of Nations when Liberia comes out. The announcers always say that it was founded by freed American slaves. Umm no, actually, it was founded for freed slaves. Huge difference.

It was so cute seeing some of the foreign athletes wanting to have their picture taken with Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade.


The opening ceremonies were :eek::eek:. The following host cities might as well throw in the towel. No one can touch China now! I have no words...it was just the most spectacular thing I have ever seen.


Some of those foreign men...;) HOT!

Awwww the story of that little Chinese boy touched my heart!!!

He was a survivor of the earthquake, where 20 of his 30 classmates passed away. Once he was able to free himself from the rubble, he went back to try and save some of students. When asked why, he said because it was his job---he was the class leader, the hall monitor (of sorts). *TEAR*

This DOES bug.

I was bugged by a lot of the comments during the parade of nations.

For example, the announcer said at one point... "The Central African Republic is a republic in Central Africa" with little to no sense of irony. UM, WHAT?

There were a lot of comments that I perceived as demeaning made about smaller nations. It was really offensive to me. Some of the poorest commentating I've seen at an opening ceremony. On par with John Tesh commentating gymnastics at the Atlanta games... oh, the horror!

The first time he said it was with irony. Now he says it out of tradition.

I was annoyed at some stupid comment Bob Costas was making about one country (I forgot which one) that criticized NBC for cutting away when they came out at the last Olympics thus, their countrymen were unable to cheer for their athletes as they were announced b/c of a stupid commercial.

Ugh! I remember John Tesh. Unfortunately, Al Trautwig is no better! He is always looking for the drama. Gymnastics is drama-filled enough, no need to go hunting for it!

He was talking about Canada.

He was actually talking about a little country that comes immediately before or after Canada in alphabetical order. However, since China has no such thing as alphabetical order, the country came in a lot sooner. I can't remember the name of the country, but it was really small.

I remember visualizing people sitting around their TV sets, holding flags and waiting to see their countrymen, only to get a tiny snippet of them when NBC returned from commercials. Maybe I was being too sentimental or dramatic, but Bob Costas REPEATEDLY said himself that some of these people don't advance or even make it anywhere near getting metals. So, it's safe to presume that their country will never see them compete. The least they could do is show the folks entering Olympic Stadium waving their country's flag proudly. I don't know much about advertising dollars and all that good stuff, but I thought once or twice that NBC surely could have aired the Parade of Nations with no or limited interruption.

He was talking about the Cayman Islands who entered the stadium immediately behind Canada. They did cut to a commercial right after the Cayman Islands came in.

I wish they would quit doing commercials during the entrance of the countries. I love to see how all the countries dress and see the size of their teams, their timing makes it feel like some of these countries are not "worthy" of our note. As was mentioned several times, some countries have teams that know they basically have no chance of winning medals, so the entrance into the stadium is their shining moment. Why cut them out of that one small moment?

Well, off my soap box. I am really frustrated since the events are delayed almost a day here and they they call it "Live" coverage .

DaffyKD

I've decided I'm taking up sailing. There were so hot sailors out there last night.

As for Kobe, I don't think anyone took a picture of him. This morning I read that Kobe was walking with his bodyguard so that no one could high-five him. " American basketball player Kobe Bryant marched with his bodyguard who prevented other participants from high-fiving him." (Cleveland Plain Dealer) I saw Jason Kidd and a couple of other BB players having their pictures taken.

Well this time I didn't cry when USA came out, but did when the Chinese entered. The story of the little boy walking with Yao Ming was incredible. He was so innocent walking next to the giant -- sort of a juxtaposition. It was cute watchin Yao watch over him in the infield too.

I also loved that Iran had a female flag-bearer. Maybe there are better times ahead for women in Iran.

I had to turn it off after the parade of nations. I was dozing off. I'll watch the ending today before watching Michael Phelps compete tonight.

Kobe took a few pictures with people when they were in the center of the stadium. They did a close-up of people from other countries taking pictures with him and some of the other US Basketball team members. I'm not surprised at him acting snotty, but I hate that he represents our country like that.

Sad news for U.S. Olympics
 

The family of an ex-Olympian and the in-laws of the current U.S. men's volleyball coach were attacked today in Beijing.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oly_china_american_killed

I heard of the attack and that it was tied to the volleyball team, but I didn't know of the association with an ex-Olympian

Re Kobe: After he took pictures with other athletes he was asking how to say "thank you". I think he'll never have the image that he use to have but I don't think he's as much of a primadonna as some people would like you to believe.

I'd say so. What struck me was the marriage of super high tech with the remarkable coordination of thousands of human beings (arguably low or non-tech) to create an amazing "cinimatic" presentation.

I really hate the overuse of the word awesome, but this really was.

They were doing that a lot still this year and also (perhaps more offensive than cutaways for commercials actually) if a big country (USA/Canada/Germany etc) was about to appear, they would skip even mentioning a smaller country's delegation or giving ANY info about them.

Totally agreed with both of you. I also disliked how they almost scoffed at some countries. It's like "You live in a weenie country with no chances of winning! hahahahaha!" Granted, half the time it came off like that and half the time they did seem to be emphasizing how important it was to these people to even be there. But one of the commentators was really driving home how they all had no chance and were pitiful or whatever. It just seems really imperialist to me.


LOL. I am glad someone else remembers the suck of John Tesh and gymastics. He literally could not get anything right - even important details about the events themselves!

Ah, OK. I was half paying attention to some parts of the parade in a futile attempt to finish my masters thesis. I didn't realize it was a "thing." I just think it's a stupid and borderline offensive thing to say. Where does the USA think it can get off on publicly mocking other countries? I just really seemed to notice a barely disguised contempt for smaller or lesser known nations this year.

I missed the first half of the ceremony and I'm really bummed. Vancouver will have a lot to live up to - and even more so London I think.