Olympics!

[Oldman]

. . the Olympic spirit (whatever that is)? ...

If you really don't know what that is, it shows how much work orienteering has to do to make progress towards Olympic inclusion.

[DIDSCO]

Oldman> Olympic spirit, a lot of that went out the window years ago, thanks to corrupt organising commitees/federations and the IOC.

Where's the olympic spirit in:

-The fat little Chinese singing girl being replaced by a cuter miming little girl at the opening ceremony....I don't here Rogge complaining about that.
-The blatant cheating of the mat referees in the wrestling and general corruption of FILA(world wrestling fed) - What are the IOC doing about that, nothing.
-The blatantly under-age female Chinese gymnasts, that are only 13/14 years old, but amazingly got new passports with new birthdays before the games. The IOC did nothing.
- The fact that so many of the medallists are covicted drug cheats but the IOC are happy to shake their hands and sing their praises.
- The fact that the olympic games host city is decided on who will give the biggest bungs / perks to the IOC members

like I said before Rogge needs to get his own ship in order before he goes round moaning about Bolt lacking in 'Olympic spirit". Rogge is actually the first person I've heard say a bad word about Bolt, but then again when did Belgiums know anything about sport? In this games Belgium have achieved zero medals. Despite having a population a quarter of the size Jamaica have taken home 18 medals so far with more to come.
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[Oldman]

Given your views, Didsco, I assume you haven't been watching any of the Olympic Games, but your posts suggest otherwise.

[awk]

My point Oldman was that much of the Olympic spirit in the hands of the IOC has been a pretty moveable feast. It certainly is not what it was originally meant to be (admittedly pretty impracticable), and is a vague concept which has been more honoured (not least by the IOC) in the breaking than in its observance. For Rogge to criticise Bolt when there are so many really bad examples of the Olympic spirit not being observed was to my mind amazingly small minded, and demeaned the whole concept of an Olympic spirit.

As for him having the courage to do it - ha! Its easy to take it out on a young athlete when he doesn't conform to your idea of polite behaviour when you're in the position Rogge is in. Let's see Rogge do something really brave, like deal with the issue of why proven drug cheats are allowed to compete in the games, and why there have been so many problems with the judging in the games, and why so many of the Chinese assurances were not honoured.

I'd be interested to know what in Didsco's post indicates a lack of watching - to my mind it indicates someone who has watched it with a rather more informed and critical eye than many, even if he expresses himself somewhat more forcefully than just as many!

[EddieH]

I have managed to get involved with the whole thing, but I would definitely boycott the ceremonies.
How can it be justified that the Chinese have simply turned people who inconveniently lived on the stadia sites out of their homes with NO compensation.
I have no sympathy for China at all in their bid for world domination regardless of thei own people

[Gross]

Gary Glitter was watching from his jail cell

[geomorph]

If Bolt was unacceptable what was David Davies?
Whilst not a drugs cheat his behaviour needs to be rooted out too.

[Doug T]

I think Bolt supported the 'Olympic spirit', since i take the spirit of the olympics to be a love of sport and all about taking part in the sport you love and doing your best etc etc.

I think it is obvious to see Bolt loves his sport and why should he not be allowed to celebrate being the fastest person ever!! all we saw on TV was the couple of minutes after he won, too right he should be celebrating, i'm sure he did at some point shake his opponents hand and congratulate them afterwards.
Rogge must be about the only person i've heard critisise him. He sounds like a oldman who doesn't understand that what will inspire kids to take part in sport is athletes like Usain Bolt who excel at their sport but can also do some crazy dancing afterwards and really make sport seem exciting and fun.

geomorph - i don't really understand your dig at david davies.

[andy]

I'm sure the first thing on his mind on crossing the line, having won (both) his race(s) in WR time, was shaking hands with his competitors

The majority of sprinters keep on running, grab a flag, lap of honour, don't they? Haven't seen many stop to shake hands

Could always argue the viewpoint that he didn't have time to wait for them to cross the finish line

[geomorph]

geomorph - i don't really understand your dig at david davies.

and I may be guilty of what Oldman dislikes jumping in with two feet.
I understood that he was extemely discourteous to officials in the post-swim/re-ceremony period.

If he was not then apologies, and I'll remove the comment if required

[Scott]

Davies doused a belligerent Chinese official with a bottle of water as he spoke to the media prior to the medal ceremony.

As officials tried to steer him towards the podium, he took offence to the man-handling he was receiving.

After telling one overly aggressive official to "shut up", he eventually threw the contents of his water bottle at a female official before calling an end to his interview.

[ruth]

one of the headline on BBC sport today reads 'Ainslie as good as Phelps'
...are they joking??!

does anyone else think sailing is the most boring 'sport' ever?!!
saw a very funny comment on TV the other day, David Mitchell (from mitchell and Webb) implying that Britain could only win medals in sports where no one else could afford to buy a bigger boat!!

[DIDSCO]

Ruth >It was Jacques Rogge who said that, he also said Ainslie was as good as Bolt. Rogge only says that because he was a sailor boy himself, such a fool.
To be perfectly honest I don't like comparisons between sports, it's totally meaningless.

[graeme]

one of the headline on BBC sport today reads 'Ainslie as good as Phelps'
...are they joking??!

Reasonable enough: I think Phelps is faster through the terrain but Ainslie's better at mapreading

does anyone else think sailing is the most boring 'sport' ever?!!

Only people who don't understand it. (like me)

[geomorph]

one of the headline on BBC sport today reads 'Ainslie as good as Phelps'
...are they joking??!

Reasonable enough: I think Phelps is faster through the terrain but Ainslie's better at mapreading

does anyone else think sailing is the most boring 'sport' ever?!!

Only people who don't understand it. (like me)

Ainslie is supreme at reading the terrain and navigating to get the best out of it and the variable power source. He is also a great tactician.

Sailing, says my partner, is no more boring than orienteering - visually they suck

For media purposes the phase 'so and so in sport x is as good as whatisname in sport y' has come in to play to allow the sound bite to be efficient. What they are saying is:
' so and so's relative performance with respect to the sum total of historic performances in sport x is amongst the best ever in that sport, and is on a relative par to that by whatisname whose performance with respect to the sum total of historic performances in sport y is also amongst the best ever in that sport, and because the sports are so different in what they demand out of an athlete comparsions between sports are pointless, so please only compare within-sport performances'.
and of course some commentators/officials might have serious trouble memorising that.