London Olympics Open Thread

[Buffy]

It's that time again. International forums like this one breed contention for who's the best in the world, so have at it!

 

That was a *brutal* football match between the U.S. and Columbia this morning! The Columbians thought they could intimidate the little gringo girls, a notion that Hope and company disabused them of in rather convincing fashion.... :cheer:

 

The minute you let her under your skin, then you begin to make it better, :phones:

Buffy

[blamski]

i have to admit, i'm a big fan of the rhythmic gymnastics. the one where they do all the amazing jumping, spinning, stretching somersaulting stuff, but do it as the same time as amazing catching and throwing of hoops, balls, ribbons and stuff.

 

without wanting to denigrate at all the talents of most top athletes, so many of these sports are about being the fastest and/or strongest, and having a certain amount of good technique. the rhythmic gymnasts have to combine all this with an absolutely incredible precision. i mean... to see someone throw a hoop 20m up in the air, then do 3 or 4 somersaults, pikes, twists, spins and what-have-you, then just reach out and catch the thing without looking just takes my breath away.

 

 

i also enjoy the weightlifting for the sheer theatre of it.

[CraigD]

I’ve not watched the Olympics for many years, but with this year’s available for the first time on my home tube (err, I guess you can’t call it that anymore, as CRTs have gone the way of the buffalo – I mean the magic sight and sound thing-y in my house) in glorious 3D!, had to put on the nifty glasses and check it out, and so on, and so on... ;)

 

Beach volleyball’s been a favorite of mine since before it was an Olympic sport, because it’s fun for anyone to play, and recognizably the same sport for casual and world class players alike, and because, as the WCers play it, it has a distinct alternating advantage (to the receiver, rather than the server) that reminds me of tennis. I pretty much like any sport that involves running in soft sand, and wish beach flags were an Olympic sport.

 

But that’s not what prodded me to post in this thread.

 

Watching the uneven bars (well, not the bars themselves so much as the tiny women swinging on them), I was suddenly struck that the apparatus has changed dramatically since I first paid it much attention, back in the days of Olga Korbut and Nadia: the bars are so wide apart that the moves that most impressed me back in the 1970s, the painful-looking pelvis-to-bar “beats” and “wraps” are physically impossible. I didn’t see any feet on the bar moves, either – while not physically impossible, a bit of reading informed me that’s been illegal for some time now.

 

The uneven bars don’t seem much different now than the men’s high bar. There are two of them, sure, and one’s too low to fully swing around fully extended, but several times I glanced at women on the top bar, and found myself thinking “hey! Since when have women done high bar?”

 

The uneven bars’ evolution has eliminated an entire unique class of moves – beats and wraps – which I miss. :(