Games of the XXIX Olympiad: Beijing 2008

[-Jrabbit]

It sounds like sour grapes, so I'm not going there. But Bela Karolyi left no doubt that he's positive some of those girls are 13-14.

[Asher]

One of the girls looks like she was just getting adult teeth...

[snoopy369]

I heard someone this morning suggest that some of the girls had quoted a younger age (14) in an earlier competition (recently earlier, not two years ago earlier). No idea where they heard that, though.

[Patroklos]

While the grip about the unusually long wait before letting her mount the beam is valid, I doubt it caused us to lose the gold. She screwed up on the floor exercise as well and that would have lost it all by itself.

The age thing seems blatant to me, the only thing that keeps me from being certain is that I can't imagine China would be that stupid. Lying about the opening ceremony singer is one thing, risking the shame of forfieting medals is another.

If it is a falsehood it will come out eventually, even China can't keep things like that under wraps these days.

[rah]

If it hasn't come out by now, it won't. They used governement documents to prove it.

I doubt the mother will be coming forward or any of her neighbors for that matter. (assuming they weren't all executed already to keep it quiet)

[-Jrabbit]

They don't have to execute them. Just hide 'em in the crowd.

These girls are taken from their homes VERY young (like 3-5 y.o.) and basically raised by the government sports apparatus. I'm sure they can fully "document" anything they need or want.

[ColdWizard]

Originally posted by Patroklos
While the grip about the unusually long wait before letting her mount the beam is valid, I doubt it caused us to lose the gold. She screwed up on the floor exercise as well and that would have lost it all by itself.

Based on what the female announcer said of the deductions from the (two) falls (.8 each) and the (three) out of bounds deductions (.1 each), the American team would still have been behind by .475, so it's likely the Chinese team was going to win no matter what.

The age thing seems blatant to me, the only thing that keeps me from being certain is that I can't imagine China would be that stupid. Lying about the opening ceremony singer is one thing, risking the shame of forfieting medals is another.

If it is a falsehood it will come out eventually, even China can't keep things like that under wraps these days.

Sure they can. No one in authority is going to call them on it and in any case no one is going to find any evidence strong enough to counter official government documents.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Talk about politics and the Games colliding:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/judo/news/story?id=3532767

BEIJING -- Irakli Tsirekidze won Georgia's second Olympic gold medal on Wednesday after advancing through an emotionally charged semifinal against Russia's Ivan Pershin.

That's right, beat those stinking Russkies


In sadder news, US Men's soccer lost to Nigeria and thus are gone . Even after they drew the Netherlands (should have won, dammit )

[Imran Siddiqui]

Cool news:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/wrestling/news/story?id=3532671

BEIJING -- Steeve Guenot, a railway worker with little government athletic subsidy, has won France's first Olympic wrestling gold medal in 84 years by taking the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram weight class.

Guenot, whose brother Christophe won bronze at 74 kg, defeated Kanatbek Begaliev 3-0, 3-1. Begaliev was trying for Kyrgyzstan's first Olympic gold medal.

France hadn't won a wrestling gold since Henri Deglane took the 82 kg class in the 1924 Paris Olympics.

Winning the bronzes were Ukraine's Armen Vardanyan and Mikhail Siamionau of Belarus.

The field became wide open when Farid Mansurov, the 2004 Olympic champion from Azerbaijan, lost 3-0, 3-0 to Vardanyan in the first round. Mansurov didn't lose a period while winning last year's world championship.

In the 74 kg class, Manuchar Kvirkelia turned two strong moves into a two-period victory over China's Chang Yongxiang, giving Georgia its first Olympic wrestling gold medal.

Kvirkelia's decisive 6-0, 3-0 victory Wednesday came in the same week Russian troops stormed through Georgia. The gold also was the country's first in Beijing.

Kvirkelia used a 5-point throw to prematurely end the first period. Any period ends when a wrestler takes a 6-0 lead.

He added a 2-point throw on a gut wrench in the second to clearly frustrate Chang, who settled for silver.

The bronze medalists were Christophe Guenot and 2007 world champion Yavor Yanakiev of Bulgaria.

[-Jrabbit]

So the late goal by the Dutch comes back to bite them.

[Imran Siddiqui]

In non-Phelps swimming news, Japan's Kosuke Kitajima became the first person in Olympic history to sweep the 100m and 200m breaststrokes in consecutive Olympics.

And Alain Bernard of France takes the 100m freestyle beating out world record holder, the Aussie, Eamon Sullivan.

[Qilue]

Anyone else endure that turgid game between Italy and Camaroon yesterday?

EDIT - In football that is, although the game I mentioned hardly qualifies as 'football' beyond kicking the ball around.

[Guynemer]

Okay, someone explain synchronized diving to me. Seriously, how the **** did this end up in the Olympics?

[Asher]

What's funny is the Olympics have "sports" like that, and trap shooting, but Baseball (understandable due to the MLB) and Softball is done in the Olympics after this year...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Okay, someone explain synchronized diving to me. Seriously, how the **** did this end up in the Olympics?

What do you mean?! Synch diving seems incredibly difficult to pull off (Hell, I have problems getting people to say something at the same exact time as I do). I've been enjoying it.