Quote: Boxing should be removed from the Olympics.
Actually, I wouldn't mind if they removed every sport with subjective scoring.
Including gymnastics and diving? Those are probably 2 of my favorite Olympic sports (outside of the track events). I'd be totally against removing subjective scoring sports, I just wish they would get better officials (in the case of boxing less corrupt ones).
Sadly, I'd be Ok with it including those two.... .although, their subjective scoring model is significantly better than it ever used to be. Now all athletes start an event with a max possible score and receive deductions. That, at least, helps reduce the "Russian Judge" Effect..
"Better judges" and "Less corrupt" are both subjective themselves.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
Quote: ...boxing needs some SERIOUS reforms if they want to stay a relevant sport in the future.
STAY relevant? Boxing hasn't been relevant for a while. In fact, I'd even call it dead. And I use that term to really illustrate that the sport of boxing won't come back to life....because it's literally dead.
Why would someone with a great physical talent go into boxing when they could get paid more playing baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, etc.?
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
Quote: Boxing should be removed from the Olympics.
Actually, I wouldn't mind if they removed every sport with subjective scoring.
Two of the most popular Olympic sports are Gymnastics and Figure Skating, so I'm not sure that's an option. Although, I think the scoring should be a lot more transparent. Sort of like how Gymnastics and Figure Skating are now, where they start with a high mark score, and then they show the deductions made and why ... SLIGHTLY harder to influence a score, but better.
I've heard it suggested that Boxing judges should have their scores posted live as the event goes on. That way, you can see right away if the fix "is in" or if they are judging it fairly. Not to mention, it might make for better fights as a fighter who's behind might take more chances in an attempt to not lose more rounds.
Quote: Why would someone with a great physical talent go into boxing when they could get paid more playing baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, etc.?
The two highest paid athletes in the last year were boxers.
Quote: Anybody hear about the boxing judging travesty? ... sure, that's sort of redundant, I guess ... but if you thought the Paquio fight was fixed, check out this video:
That's some Roy Jones Jr-esque robbery there. Fortunatly, they eventually overturned the results and the Japanese fighter won, but give me a break ... boxing needs some SERIOUS reforms if they want to stay a relevant sport in the future.
I haven't watched any of the boxing but wow!!!! That was just craziness!!!! Glad the Japanese guy got the decision and glad that ref got the boot!
Quote: Why would someone with a great physical talent go into boxing when they could get paid more playing baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, etc.?
The two highest paid athletes in the last year were boxers.
Pacio and Mayweather?
I would assume that's just the money they've earned in the ring, not including endorsements.
And I would follow-up with questioning how many boxers were in the top 100, 200, or 300. I would guess outside of these two, there were many.
I ask the 2nd question to illustrate my point. Many decades ago there were lots of boxers earning big money....nowadays, it's a few while most of the others are earning just as much or more playing football, baseball, basketball, etc.
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
Congrats to Gabby Douglas winning the gold in the women's all-around. Congrats also to her being the first person of African descent to ever win (or first black person). That's really cool and should mean a ton to her. She should feel incredibly proud.
As a complete sidebar, I wish we would dump the whole concept of being a ____ - American. I feel like unless you have dual citizenship youre an american. I dont think theres many African-Italians, or African-Greeks, or African-Englanders...unless you have citizenship in an African country or came from one yourself personally youre not an African-American in my opinion. You're an American-American. You're American period. Like I have descendents in England, Czech Republic, and Germany...that doesnt make me an English-Czech-German American...I'm an American.
Okay I'm done
"It has to start somewhere It has to start somehow What better place than here? What better time than now?"
The White World of Sports: What Gabby Douglas’ vault into Olympic history means Yahoo! News – 4 hrs ago.. . . .. Gregory Bull - U.S. gymnast Gabrielle Douglas performs on the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012, in London. …more
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Anna Holmes is the founder of Jezebel.com. She’s also the author of "Hell Hath No Fury: Women's Letters From the End of the Affair." (Ballantine, 2002)..
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Late last night, minutes after NBC aired the much-anticipated cuticle-picker that was the Olympic women's all-around gymnastics finals—hours after the event actually took place, of course—the broadcast director cut from an on-floor interview with gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas to a broadcast booth somewhere nearby. In it sat longtime NBC commentator and sports journalism veteran Bob Costas, his prime-time-friendly, man-child hairdo in perfect position.
"You know, it's a happy measure of how far we've come that it doesn't seem all that remarkable, but still it's noteworthy, Gabby Douglas is, as it happens, the first African-American to win the women's all-around in gymnastics," Costas intoned, his besuited left elbow resting comfortably on the anchor desk. "The barriers have long since been down, but sometimes there can be an imaginary barrier, based on how one might see oneself."
In a political and cultural environment in which the patriotism—the very Americanness—of people of color (including the current president of the United States) is often called into question, Costas's scripted deep thought—his "little homily,” as one Twitterer called it—was at worst dishonest, at best naive. What leveled barriers, I wondered, was Mr. Costas referring to? Who, excepting the most Pollyanna-ish or cloistered of cultural observers—the type who assert the legitimacy of phrases like "post-racial"—would believe that Gabby Douglas' challenges were primarily psychic, a statement that can be contradicted by pretty much any news story or feature profile on the 16-year old gymnast, all of which make no secret of the undeniable whiteness of being that is high-level American gymnastics? "Bob Costas just re-affirmed that the success of a black person means we're not racist anymore. THANK GOD THAT'S OVER," wrote the political writer Ana Marie Cox. A few moments later she offered a revision of sorts: "Ok what he said was 'a barrier has fallen' or somesuch but one person over the wall does not a fallen barrier make. TAKES NOTHING FROM GABS."
Costas, of course, did have a point: Our ideas about ourselves, no matter our color, often prove as limiting and toxic as the external and institutional roadblocks put in our way. But you can't have one without the other. In this, Douglas' triumph seems extremely remarkable, both because of the commonality of her situation—the big dreams, the economic hardships, the one-parent household—and its unusualness: a minority in a historically "white" sport.
On that last point: In January, a fact sheet released by the National Women's Law Center reported that less than two-thirds of African-American and Hispanic girls play sports, while more than three-quarters of Caucasian girls do. And a 2007 diversity study commissioned by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S., said that just 6.61 percent of the participants in American gymnastics programs were black (10.67 percent are Asian and 74.46 percent are Caucasian). Members of USA Gymnastics—coaches, judges or athletes who participate in its sanctioned events—responded to (and within) the survey in a variety of ways, many of them unsympathetic: "This is just another example of political correctness gone CRAZY!" Said another: "As a middle class, white Christian male, is the NBA doing any "reach out" programs to me and my family?" And another advised: "Start programs in low income areas. Once people understand you don't have to be a rocket scientist to teach and coach gymnastics, it will flourish. We are too elitist to appeal to the masses."
Elitist? Perhaps. White? Definitely. Speaking of aerospace experts, it also doesn't take an authority on modern propulsion methods to notice that coverage of this first week of the 2012 Olympics has been an overwhelmingly homogenous one. Douglas, her fellow gymnast John Orozco and other Olympians like freestyle swimmer Cullen Jones notwithstanding, the focus on fan favorites like gymnastics and swimming has underscored just how few Americans of color make up the ranks of the non-track-and-field elite. (And don't get me started on crew.) This, of course, is a function of both access and opportunity, and it starts early; as the NWLC report put it, "girls, particularly girls of color, receive far fewer opportunities to play sports than do boys, as well as inferior treatment in areas such as equipment, facilities, coaching and publicity." Doesn't sound to me like so many barriers have been felled after all.
That said, I'm sympathetic to what I suspect Costas tried—and failed—to articulate last night, which is to say, the sometimes contradictory desire to both celebrate history being made and live in a world in which achievements like Douglas' seem ordinary, or, at the very least, unsurprising. But we're not there yet, despite Costas' assertions (protestations?) of societal colorblindness. These competing tensions were evident in today's newspapers—a quick scan of the front pages of the largest papers in the country revealed that only a handful of headlines led with the historic nature of Douglas’ achievement; most others alluded to it or didn’t mention it at all—and in Douglas herself, whose level of fame has risen in direct proportion to the vagueness of her public statements. ("I have an advantage because I'm the underdog and I'm black and no one thinks I'd ever win," she matter-of-factly told a reporter in June. On Friday morning, she watered that down for the "Today" show’s Savannah Guthrie, saying, "Making the history books is definitely one of the perks, and it just feels amazing.”)
But whether or not Douglas directly acknowledges and unpacks the burden of representation that comes with her achievement—and I'm by no means convinced that she owes it to anyone to do so—she "carries the aspirations and expectations of countless others," as The Nation's Dave Zirin put it Thursday night. Her two medals have the potential not only to inspire millions of young girls around the world but also to influence American ideas about what it means to be a "golden girl." (Douglas, who is the first American gymnast to win both the all-around and team gold medals in the same Olympics, will reportedly appear on the box of a special edition of Kellogg's cornflakes.) The 16-year-old's triumph—not to mention her poise, her maturity, her focus, her elegance—will help recalibrate what young females of color believe is within their reach, while also influencing Western ideas and concepts of black womanhood, strength, agency and femininity—which has been historically objectified, sexualized and, it should be noted, feared. (Remember French ice skater Surya Bonaly?) The hope, at least in these quarters, is that Gabby Douglas' all-around triumph is also an all-American one. ... . @yahoonews on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook .. .. .
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"It has to start somewhere It has to start somehow What better place than here? What better time than now?"
Quote: Yep. That's why I hate the "each team can only place 2 people" rules. I understand the Olympics want to get more countries involved, but if the idea is to get the absolute best 24 people competing against each other, then let the top 24 people compete. If it ends up that Malaysia or Tunisia doesn't have anyone in there and the US has 5, then so be it.
JMHO
Have you watched the NBC interviews wit Bela Karolyi? He's a STITCH to watch in those talks.
He was saying the exact same thing.... that the rules essentially emiminat some of the candidates who would make the finals sooooooooo much more exciting and watchable.
That said, I'm still overjoyed that Gabrielle Douglass was able to compete at the level she did... and win it all.
To me the picture of the Olympics so far is this of Shin A Lam:
Recently, our own Bruce Jacobs wrote about how the coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games was just fine, and how nobody should be airing their grievances about it, which many have taken to the web to do. However, if you don’t like tape delays, web streams that freeze or are blurry on many occasions, or have even one iota of interest in seeing nations other than the United States compete, you would disagree with Bruce’s point of view.
If you agree with Bruce, you probably don’t care that you were not shown one of the saddest moments in Olympic history from an on-field perspective.
Monday, in the women’s fencing epee semifinal match between Britta Heidemann of Germany and Shin A Lam of South Korea, Lam led with one second left on the clock. All she had to do was not be touched in that one second and she would be advancing to the gold medal match. Unfortunately for Shin, the clock never started after the referee signaled to restart the match, giving Heidemann more than one second to land the winning touch.
Incensed, the Korean team paid to file an appeal of the decision, while Shin had to sit on the playing surface, known as a piste, to indicate that she did not accept the decision of the judges. She was there for over a half hour, with much of that time spent in tears, before the appeal was denied.
Shin remained on the piste after the decision was made in protest, before then being removed by security. She was then sent into the bronze medal match shortly after and, understandably still distraught, was defeated by China’s Yujie Sun. Shin should have been fencing for gold, but left empty handed.
Since the incident, it has come out that the timekeeper for the event was a 15 year old British volunteer. Really? This isn’t fencing class at the Y, this is the Olympics. There was nobody in the entire world with any timekeeping experience that could have been called upon to take on such an important task? When I was 15, I wouldn’t have had the attention span to do that job either. Whoever made the choice to put a child in charge of the clock for an Olympic event should be fired.
It has also been reported that Shin has been offered a “consolation medal” by the IOC for the myopia of the officials. Consolation medals aren’t bronze, silver, or gold. They are glorified participation ribbons with a little greeting card attached that says “Whoops” on it. Shin justifiably turned it down.
This was a riveting story and one that would have been perfect for primetime television. However, it wasn’t swimming, diving, gymnastics or beach volleyball and didn’t directly involve an American, so NBC saw no reason to pay it much attention.
To an extent I can see their point in not covering Shin’s case in prime time. We are in America and residents of this country want to see their countrymen compete. But instead of showing nauseating profile pieces about Missy Franklin and how much she loves Justin Bieber or an interview where Andrea Kremer asks a swimmer what their strategy was (obviously their strategy was to win, Andrea), couldn’t NBC have donated five minutes to the biggest story of the Olympic Games to that point?
Maybe I’m stubborn for thinking that the Olympics should be treated as and covered like a sporting event. But as someone working for a sports radio station, who watches sports for the sports rather than the frills and the pageantry, I have been disgusted by NBC’s coverage of these Games. Almost as disgusted as I am with whoever decided to let a 15 year old manage the clock in Olympic fencing.
UPDATE (8/4/2012 3:19 P.M.): Shin and the South Korean team won the silver medal in today’s women’s team epee final against China. A somewhat happy ending to the story.
Quote: They should have redone the 1 second part of the match, fair for both parties.
What would it have cost, 1 second?
There has (and always will be) some hinky stuff going on in these olympics... between that, the boxing officiating, and the badmitten controversy that you NEVER get to see on NBC...
I'm happy that I can see the events live online, but overall I've always felt NBC sucks at showing sports... they try to make it into reality TV... when in actuality you don't need to add anything to the olympics... they have enough drama on their own... and as the article said, I think it should be more than just USA...
I've been watching "Live Extra". It's free on the web if you have NBC on your cable or satellite. It's a quality HD feed, and you can watch every event....two at a time. There are commercials, but you don't have to put up with the announcers continuous feel good sidebars. You can also watch full replays of all the events. The weightlifting has been fantastic.....it's been my favorite sport to watch in these olympics.
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. - John Muir
Home country favorite Mo Farah and his USA training mate Galen Rupp outsprint the pack to finish 1-2 (respectively).
And what a sprint! It began just after the final lap began. Mo had just positioned himself in 1st place when the bell rang, after being jostled, boxed out, and harassed by the Ethiopian runners (the "Brothers Bekele") for much of the race. Galen ran 'under the radar' hovering between 6th and 8th place during that time, but positioned himself into 4th as the final circuit commenced.
The pace accelerated noticeably. Strides lengthened. Mikele tried to close on turns 1 and 2.... to no avail. Muchiri's (Kenya) holding forth, but fades as they exit turn 3.
Now, it's on like Donkey Kong, kids.
Galen moves outside to take an unobstructed path. Mo opens up a 2 body-length lead over Bekele The Shorter.
Sprint time. Who has it left in the tank? Who wants it more?
As the race enters the final 50 meters, Bekele's gassed. Mo stretched his lead to break the tape going away.
But the hair-raising story: Galen Rupp's gutty performance. He made a steady accelerando to the tape, blowing past Bekele with 20 meters to go, and finished behind Mo Farah by the same interval that he put between himself and Tariku Bekele. Brother Kenenisa finished 4th.
Coach Alberto Salazar must be walking on cloud fifty tonight. His boys slammed the pack, 1-2... on the biggest stage in the world.
THIS RIGHT HERE- is why I watch the Olympics.
Once every four years. Once in a lifetime chance. One shot.
Will you step up... or will you fold under pressure?
Quote: Speaking of aerospace experts, it also doesn't take an authority on modern propulsion methods to notice that coverage of this first week of the 2012 Olympics has been an overwhelmingly homogenous one. Douglas, her fellow gymnast John Orozco and other Olympians like freestyle swimmer Cullen Jones notwithstanding, the focus on fan favorites like gymnastics and swimming has underscored just how few Americans of color make up the ranks of the non-track-and-field elite.
Well now that we are moving on to basketball, women's basketball and track and field, I think I will write my own piece... I mean if you can make a movie called "White men can't jump"... can I make a movie called "Black men can't swim"?
Usain is the only man to (cleanly) repeat in the 100m and may become the first to do the same in the 200m. To be fair, I was 6-7 years old when Johnson was at his prime.
To me the thing about Bolt is, he broke the world record in 2008 by essentially jogging the last 10 meters. That's absurd. And then he goes on to repeat and win in the fastest field in the history of track. To me, that's without equal.
Quote: Usain is the only man to (cleanly) repeat in the 100m and may become the first to do the same in the 200m. To be fair, I was 6-7 years old when Johnson was at his prime.
To me the thing about Bolt is, he broke the world record in 2008 by essentially jogging the last 10 meters. That's absurd. And then he goes on to repeat and win in the fastest field in the history of track. To me, that's without equal.
to each their own, but the "latest" Olympics is almost always the "fastest field in the history of track." they just keep getting training better, which increases athletes performance.
Michael Johnson was ridiculous. He looked like he jogged the 100m and 200m at the US Men's trials in Sacramento and blew away the field. Not to mention he had at one time the WR in the 100m, 200m, and 400m. Ridiculous (noone has ever won gold in the 200m & 400m at the same Olympics).
here are his Atlanta 200m (WR) and 400m runs (OR). His WR for the 400m was in a different meet.
Quote: Usain is the only man to (cleanly) repeat in the 100m and may become the first to do the same in the 200m. To be fair, I was 6-7 years old when Johnson was at his prime.
To me the thing about Bolt is, he broke the world record in 2008 by essentially jogging the last 10 meters. That's absurd. And then he goes on to repeat and win in the fastest field in the history of track. To me, that's without equal.
Youth today... no respect for history
Carl Lewis anyone? Last time I checked he was clean (some controversy about cold medicine but was cleared) and won the 84 and 88 100m..... granted Usain is the second guy to repeat... and Carl couldn't repeat the 200m... he won in 84, got second in 88 so Usain would be the first to repeat in both 100 and 200 and the first to ever repeat the 200
In terms of track and field my top athletes are Carl Lewis, Jesse Owens, and Michael Johnson.... though I do have to say Usain is up there in the top 5... dude is just scary fast and I dont' think I've ever seen anyone dominate the Olympics like he has in the 100m... but Johnson to me was more dominating for a longer period... don't forget that Usain didn't even win his country's trials.
Edit: Wanting to make sure I had my history correct I went back and checked the olympic 100m... Technically there was another 100m repeat champion... Archie Hann of the USA won in 1904 and 1906...
Man... 2 nights ago, I really, REALLY wanted the Turkish women's volleyball team to bring more of a game v. the US. Another set would have been nice, because...
DAY-UMMM.... thems was a group of fiiiiine-lookin' women.
Not an ungamo in the bunch, yo!
The Olympics: good-looking young people moving fast. What's not to like?
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