[raaj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SBomm Women's Beach Volleyball

The cutest derriere on display at this olympics has to be of 'Misty May..'

Now, now.. is this thread getting "Freakin' naughteyh !!!" *a la Ben Stiller in Dodge Ball*

 

[raaj]

On a serious note though.. watching the stunning comeback by Paul Hamm of the US to win the men's all-around Gymnsatics Gold medal was surreal.. The last two days have to be one of the best in US sporting history.. The men's swimming team wins the 4x200 freestyle medley, ending Australia's strong hold on this medal for the past 7 years.. a US woman wins the first ever fencing Gold medal in the history of the Olympics.. the women's swim team win the 4x200m freestyle medley setting up a world record.. and now Paul Hamm stages one of the most surreal comebacks in Olympic gymnastic history..

Going from the lead after 3 rotations only to faulter on the vault to drop to the 12th place.. and then giving great performances in the remaining two routines to snatch the gold medal by 12/1000ths of a point...

It was a great last few hours I have spent watching the highlights of today's Olympic action..

 

[KR...]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raaj On a serious note though.. watching the stunning comeback by Paul Hamm of the US to win the men's all-around Gymnsatics Gold medal was surreal.. The last two days have to be one of the best in US sporting history.. The men's swimming team wins the 4x200 freestyle medley, ending Australia's strong hold on this medal for the past 7 years.. a US woman wins the first ever fencing Gold medal in the history of the Olympics.. the women's swim team win the 4x200m freestyle medley setting up a world record.. and now Paul Hamm stages one of the most surreal comebacks in Olympic gymnastic history.. Going from the lead after 3 rotations only to faulter on the vault to drop to the 12th place.. and then giving great performances in the remaining two routines to snatch the gold medal by 12/1000ths of a point... It was a great last few hours I have spent watching the highlights of today's Olympic action..

Yes, that was awesome! The greatest comeback ever! See kids, that's what happens when you never quit no matter what the odds are.

 

[KR...]

More Basketball insanity...

New Zealand has defeated Serbia and Montenegro 90 to 87
That's a huge upset right there.

Spain defeats Italy 71 to 63
Spain is now undefeated and 3-0

USA vs. Australia ...
We are at half time and Australia has dominated the 1st half, leading with as much as 12 points!

If Bizarro USA loses this game, it could be the biggest upset ever, you thought losing to PR was bad, sweet mother of mercy, this would be a true nightmare. They better win this game since I do not except them to beat Lithuania.

 

[KR...]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KR... More Basketball insanity... USA vs. Australia ... We are at half time and Australia has dominated the 1st half, leading with as much as 12 points! If Bizarro USA loses this game, it could be the biggest upset ever, you thought losing to PR was bad, sweet mother of mercy, this would be a true nightmare. They better win this game since I do not except them to beat Lithuania.

Thankfully, The US actually played well in the 2nd half and won by ten points.

Final Score 89-79

 

[BigD]

Quote:

On a serious note though.. watching the stunning comeback by Paul Hamm of the US to win the men's all-around Gymnsatics Gold medal was surreal..

by raaj,

If you consider robbing a gold medal...it is.

Quote:

Yes, that was awesome! The greatest comeback ever! See kids, that's what happens when you never quit no matter what the odds are.

by kr,

No Hamm bashing, but these judges scoring were NOT consistant with other mistakes from Russian, Chinese, and Romanian. I guess if Hamm falls he still scores 9.1+, but if Russian, Chinese, Romanian and non-American falls they score 8.9. Hmmmmm????? Throughout the whole event, it was clear that Hamm was going to win. No matter what!!!

This was disgrace to all other participating gymnasts!

 

[KR...]

More Basketball insanity... part 2

Angola played the game of their lives while Puerto Rico played their worst game, and this is never a good combo. Angola nearly pulls out the massive upset winning their 1st game ever, but Puerto Rico gets lucky and holds on for dear life and wins 83-80!

Argentina blows out China to win their game 82-57!

That's it for Basketball for today.

EDIT :

Final game that was not shown on TV :

Lithuania defeats Greece 98-76

 

[BigD]

Only worthy contender to US basketball team are Spain and Lithuania. China and Argentina are 1 man team (Yao and Ginobili).

 

[plainsong]

How about the sour grapes from the French team for the three day event team and individual medals? I forget the names, but this German rider was one of the few with a clean round in the stadium jumping, but after her ride a big scandal started by the French, saying that she backed her horse out of the course after the clock started, which is like refusing the entire course. So they judges gave her 19 time faults. So then the Germans said, and rightly I think, that the clock hadn't started yet so she had to go by it again. The judges agreed and took away the bogus time faults. As she was the best that day and the best overall, her team won gold and she won gold for the individual.

But the French team won't let it die, and they're gonna appeal, so what a roller coaster for this team and that poor woman! Her and her horse were the best on the day, but because a clock didn't work, she could loose both gold medals.

The French riders didn't do as well, so I think if they get the gold from this, they won't have earned it through riding skill.

 

[BigD]

Just take a short look to what happened to the final of 200 m backstroke man on swimming 2 hours ago! This olympic game is turning out to be extremely bureacratical and bullsh*t technicalities.

I just hate to see bad judging!!! These athletes train all their life for one purpose, olympic gold medal. If 0.01 point makes the difference between gold and silver, these judges have to be critical and fair. Otherwise, it's injustice for all other athletes in the game. Shame on those gymnastic judges! I hope they learn their lessons and hope to see the best of the best at the podium.

 

[raaj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigD by raaj, If you consider robbing a gold medal...it is. by kr, No Hamm bashing, but these judges scoring were NOT consistant with other mistakes from Russian, Chinese, and Romanian. I guess if Hamm falls he still scores 9.1+, but if Russian, Chinese, Romanian and non-American falls they score 8.9. Hmmmmm????? Throughout the whole event, it was clear that Hamm was going to win. No matter what!!! This was disgrace to all other participating gymnasts!

BigD..

I am not denying the fact that judges were inconsistent with their scoring.. but almost all teams have suffered and benefited from this inconsistency at different times..For example, US gymnast Brett McClure (sp??) was given rather harsh scores.. though his routine was flawless (albeit a little less spectacular/flamboyant).. Some of the Korean and Romanian gymnasts also benefitted from some high scores on different routines..

Overall, no one can complain that the judges were too harsh on or robbed some team of a medal.. The judges' inconsistency has at times benefitted some gymnasts too.. Finally, the inconsistency of the gymnasts themselves robbed some of them of a well deserved medal.. Paul Hamm excelled at the right time to snatch the gold from the Koreans.. it is just as simple as that.

 

[SBomm]

I thought the Team Equestrian controversy was solved. I read the decision last night that the rider restarted because of a timing equipment malfunction. The judges/jury ruled that a competitor shouldn't be penalized for such a problem.
I wanted to watch the cross country portion of Team Equestrian but I woke up too late, I work until 2am. It was shown live and ended at about 7:30 am. When I turned on the TV I saw the final rider go over the last 4 jumps.

Gymnastics judging has always and will always be controversial. The scoring system's point values change frequently over the years. Today's .01 difference is comparable to a .1 differnce 30 years ago. They keep extending the decimal point futher out. In '76 the scores were only to the tenth of a point so there were just 10 divisions between 9.0 and 10.0. Now the scores got to the thousanth of a point leaving 1000 divisions between 9.0 and 10.0

 

[plainsong]

The story I've heard is that the French plan to appeal this. It seems they don't feel like winning it the hard way, by riding with clean rounds and fast times.

It will take a week or more before we hear from this decision. Maybe the French team will cave, who knows?

 

[taoster]

officiating has been real bs so far. Another sport is basketball(and baseball), referees has been terrible, while no country has benefited from the random sporadic foul calls. You'd expect good officiating at this level.

 

[BigD]

Quote:

Originally Posted by raaj BigD.. Overall, no one can complain that the judges were too harsh on or robbed some team of a medal.. The judges' inconsistency has at times benefitted some gymnasts too.. Finally, the inconsistency of the gymnasts themselves robbed some of them of a well deserved medal.. Paul Hamm excelled at the right time to snatch the gold from the Koreans.. it is just as simple as that.

Not really! C'mon we talkin'bout Olympic gold medal which is decided by 0.01 point of difference. Definately 2 wrongs does NOT make 1 right. Please...These gymnasts trained their whole life for 1 gold. Bad judging and officiating is NOT acceptable and fair to other athletes. Remember the difference between gold, silver, bronze boils down to 0.01.

Yes, Hamm made a great comback. I give him tremendous credit to overcome the impossible, BUT gold is far fetching. Certainly silver or bronze. His 9.1+(vault), 9.8 (parallel), 9.8+ (high ring) is definately inflated. It was clear that name 'HAMM' got into every judges' heads. Just poor judging.