Olympic Games Beijing 2008

[Yossarian]

Bolt!

the kid is an unbelievable specimen.....what he has just managed to accomplish is in my opinion on par, in terms of its degree of difficultness, with Phelps' exploits in the pool the last couple of weeks



Some shameful sh!thead who was drooling over Phelps the other day (understandably) and scoffing at Bolt's 100m record was arguing with me that Bolt wasn't nearly as good an athlete as Phelps was because he didn't carry the same enormous program that Aquaman did. And I was trying, futilely, to convince 'em that it was like comparing apples and Orangutans, and that track was the considerably more strenuous and grueling sport of the two.


Although they're both aerobically demanding, one is a non impact sport while the other one is considerably more intense and laborious on the body and just wreaks havoc on your central nervous system....I mean, there's a reason why the 100 metre sprint record hasn't even gone down a second in the last one hundred yrs while that same record in swimming in the same amount of period has been decreased by like twenty seconds. Also, there aren't nearly the same amount of variations in running within the same discipline, as there is in swimming....DUH! I mean, they can attempt to run backwards and sideways, I suppose.


folks go to swimming pools to recuperate serious injuries, they don't venture out to the hardened surface of a track field and start doing wind sprints, man.....I said to this ******* knobshiner, 'Go do 10 100m sprints on a track one day, then 10 100m sprints the next day in a pool and just compare and contrast the two in terms of their brutalness on the body".....he's taken up the challenge and will be doing them this weekend under my watch....we shall see.


Anyway, so how many events can the track equivalent of Phelps (Bolt) carry?

100m
200m
plus one of the two relay events for those two races....most likely the 4x 100 relay

what else? Doubt they'd be able to hurdle or high/long jump aswell with nearly the same amount of consistent success....hmm

folks just dont understand the amount of work and immense athleticism that it requires to be able to run the 100 and 200 at top level.....the differences in exertion and technical know how in the two is immense, man.....I think (aint positive) Carl 'I ain't no Cocksucker' Lewis is the only man to ever do what Bolt has just done.

 

[fender]

Bolt is just out of this world and he only just turns 22.


Great set of commercials for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

 

[newbie original]

Numbers don't lie......8>2 or 3 and people will always view Phelps' achievement as the superior of the two, regardless of the difference in the nature of the two sports, just because the breadth of his dominance translates into 8 golds in comparison to Bolt's 2 (or maybe 3).

He broke the 100m record with one untied shoelace.

Recent 100m champions:
1988 - Ben Johnson*(representing Canada) born in Jamaica
1992 - Linford Christie(representing Great Britain) born in Jamaica
1996 - Donovan Bailey(representing Canada) born in Jamaica
2008 - Usain Bolt(born AND representing Jamaica)

* - failed drug test and stripped of gold medal

There are rumors that "they"(some person or persons) are considering getting him trained to run in the 400m after the Olympics. The Jamaican Prime Minister is considering declaring a national holiday in honor of his achievements.

 

[Keegan]

Bolt won't be running the 400m... many greats in 400m history have tried to convince him, but he doesn't want to. Now we see what he can do when he "runs through the tape" as he has been criticised so heavily for... he averaged 9.65s per hundred metres! No other athlete has set world records for the sprint double. 2 down, and one to go... on another note, did anyone here see the margin of victory in Melaine Walker's win in the 400m hurdles? Sprint factory, baby... and there's more to come, 3 ladies in the 200m final, and the 4x100 ladies is still pending as well.

 

[Help?]

folks go to swimming pools to recuperate serious injuries, they don't venture out to the hardened surface of a track field and start doing wind sprints, man.....

People also do a lot of jogging on a track to stretch out their muscles and speed up the healing time for their leg injuries. Nobody proved yet, that sprinting is harder than swimming fast and as far as i know, legs have more power by nature, besides you don't have water to slow you down. I can do a 5km run anyday, but not so much a 5km swim. Same with 100 m dashes, i find sprinting easier, because it finishes much faster. Nobody knows what's actually harder, because the two sports are really incomparable. Not to undermine what Bolt has achieved, but Phelps' achievement is just simply the greatest ever in the sports history.

 

[Keegan]

... maybe because if you start to jog 5km and get tired you can just sit down, while in swimming you can't?

 

[Help?]

Why, if you want you can stop swimming as well anytime. But either way, i'm talking about running and swimming non-stop, no brakes.

 

[King]

... maybe because if you start to jog 5km and get tired you can just sit down, while in swimming you can't?

If that comment is meant to be implied on a race than it is the stupidest comment I have seen in this thread!!! Why exactly would you wanna stop in a ****in race? It don't matter if its swimming/sprinting/cycling. If you stop you lose. And swimming needs more energy than sprinting because air don't have that much friction on you than what water has.

 

[Keegan]

If that comment is meant to be implied on a race than it is the stupidest comment I have seen in this thread!!! Why exactly would you wanna stop in a ****in race? It don't matter if its swimming/sprinting/cycling. If you stop you lose. And swimming needs more energy than sprinting because air don't have that much friction on you than what water has.

Don't be silly, King... Help? said he could run 5km everyday and I was replying to his statement. Are you stupid or just retarded? Reading and comprehension go hand in hand, as a rule.

 

[$teauA]

King you silly boy

 

[Jaboldinho]

Numbers don't lie......8>2 or 3 and people will always view Phelps' achievement as the superior of the two, regardless of the difference in the nature of the two sports, just because the breadth of his dominance translates into 8 golds in comparison to Bolt's 2 (or maybe 3).

He broke the 100m record with one untied shoelace.

Recent 100m champions:
1988 - Ben Johnson*(representing Canada) born in Jamaica
1992 - Linford Christie(representing Great Britain) born in Jamaica
1996 - Donovan Bailey(representing Canada) born in Jamaica
2008 - Usain Bolt(born AND representing Jamaica)

* - failed drug test and stripped of gold medal

There are rumors that "they"(some person or persons) are considering getting him trained to run in the 400m after the Olympics. The Jamaican Prime Minister is considering declaring a national holiday in honor of his achievements.

Makes no damn difference when he doesn't step on it and fall.

Still, that is one amazing mother****er.

 

[fender]

The disqualification of Churandy Martina from Netherlands Antilles in the mens 200m final is just cruel.

He loses the silver medal after US officials lodged a protest after studying a video of the race because he stepped on the line towards the end of the race, same thing happened to Spearmon from America when officials disqualified him for stepping on the line. Rules are rules but that was just not right.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080821/news_1n21olydq.html

The US mens and womens relay did a fine job of screwing up in the 4x100m relay heats. Karma anyone?

 

[Tosiek]

Artur Noga finished 5th in the 110 m hurdles; he was the only white guy in the final. He will be really big in near future.

 

[Zlatan]

Great day for us with two gold medals. Early morning Maarten van der Weijden won the gold medal on 10km swimming. After suffering and surviving leukaemia he achieved this today. Kind of an Lance Armstrong-like story.

Later on the day we also won the gold medal in women water-polo for the first time in history.

 

[Yossarian]

People also do a lot of jogging on a track to stretch out their muscles and speed up the healing time for their leg injuries. Nobody proved yet, that sprinting is harder than swimming fast and as far as i know, legs have more power by nature, besides you don't have water to slow you down. I can do a 5km run anyday, but not so much a 5km swim. Same with 100 m dashes, i find sprinting easier, because it finishes much faster. Nobody knows what's actually harder, because the two sports are really incomparable. Not to undermine what Bolt has achieved, but Phelps' achievement is just simply the greatest ever in the sports history.

I get where yer coming from, bro. But it's been proven conclusively that sprinting is a significantly more physically distressing and draining sport. Sure you're cutting through air instead of water, but at the same time, the forces of gravity are more prominent in sprinting than in swimming. The ground reaction you get as your muscles hitting it is very straining and violent. Few sports have a more substantial and brutal impact on your CNS than sprinting does. The amount of force that it takes to generate all that propulsion is immensely more distressing on the body over the long haul than most physically intense sports, nevermind swimming....which might I repeat, is a non impact sport, therefore making the comparison of the two really preposterous and inappropriate from a physical sense.


The particular point you make about being able to run the 5k more consistently than you are able to swim isn't really applicable in this debate because both of these are considerably longer distance pursuits, right? Of course swimming 5k is more difficult endurance wise than running it because you're pushing through a dense liquid instead of a vapor, therefore bringing into play your ability to inhale and exhale properly more often, plus, it involves more muscle groups, whereas with running, the exertion is mostly concentrated on the lowerbody and you're not breathing in and out as much because the minimal resistance that air offers,


But I repeat, just because swimming demands more of your cardiovascular system due to a stronger force than the opposing air in running, it doesn't make it more strenuous and devastating on your body....especially the joints. Over time, that 5k run you do on that hard surface that gravity is impacting on more, is gonna lead to some injuries and wear down your body.....you wont get the same effect in swimming. Infact, the opposite.


Anyway, getting back to my point of contention, which was that sprinting was a far more physically demanding activity than swimming, and you having the opposing viewpoint that running was more brief and therefore less taxing...it's true that it ends quicker, but if you're doing longer interval sprints, say a set of 10 in a workout where you run your heart out instead of jogging through them and do another 10 for swimming with equal effort and consistency, you'll notice quite clearly that the after effects from your wind sprints are more profound and lingering than the ones incurred from your swim. It would also help if you were fundamentally sound in your swimming mechanics since they're less basic than the rudimentary ones for running, which comes more naturally to us.



I've had sadistic coaches who put us through punishing windsprints and painfully long laps in the pool, and to be honest with you, I'd rather take my lumps in the pool anyday......I can't think of anything more unplesant and depleting to the body's resources than windsprints.....they take you out for days, man. I also don't ever recall heaving chunks of vomit from doing long sprints in the pool that were meant to make you suffer.

 

[Keegan]

So far we've won all the sprints (100m & 200m) and the USA has managed to mess up both races in the 4x100m so it should be smooth sailing there as well... Sprint Factory, baby!!!

 

[King]

King you silly boy

No. Not silly. Bill O'Reilly. Its legendary.

 

[leungtl]

The BEST post-race interview you will ever watch. She might be on drugs, but not the performance enhancing ones

Probably even better than KG's "anything's possibleeeeeeeeeee" post-match interview...

http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-1997778006057090118&hl=en

"Did you see me?! I was standing at the start, I was j-... DID did you see how pumped I was? I was probably more pumped in my life, and I just got out, I don't even know how I got out, I got over the hurdle, like OH SH*T I can see the girl pass me" *makes running motion on the spot*

 

[Keegan]

Can't win 'em all... we managed to mess up the 4x100m for women too! Ah well... that's how it is.

 

[Fernandez]

By Karolos Grohmann

BEIJING, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The International Gymnastics Federation has agreed to investigate claims that China fielded underage gymnasts at the Olympics after a request by the International Olympic Committee that it look into the issue.

The IOC asked FIG on Friday to examine the case of double gold medallist He Kexin, who is registered as 16 although media reports have suggested she may be 14.

He, who won team gold and a gold on the asymmetric bars, was registered for the Games as having been born on Jan. 1, 1992. Gymnasts must turn 16 in the year of the Olympics to be allowed to compete.
ADVERTISEMENT

“Given that there have been some discrepancies regarding her age that have come to light, we have asked the FIG to look into this matter,” an IOC official told Reuters.

“It is because of these discrepancies that we have asked for this investigation to start.”

The FIG said it had asked the Chinese national association to submit documents proving the birthdates of five gymnasts — He, Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Deng Linlin and Yang Yilin.

He’s age has been under scrutiny since the start of the Games and various media have reported she had competed in past events under a different birthdate.

A U.S. computer expert had said in emails to the media on Thursday he had uncovered Chinese state documents that proved He was born in 1994 and not 1992.

The caption on a photograph published by Chinese state news agency Xinhua last year referred to “13-year-old He Kexin”.

The FIG said it had provided evidence, including copies of passports, when questions were raised by online media about the gymnasts’ ages earlier this year.

“In the interests of laying the matter to rest and in response to a request from the International Olympic Committee, the FIG has now asked the Chinese Gymnastic Association to submit further documents testifying to the birthdates of the gymnasts,” the FIG said in a statement.

“On receipt of these documents, the FIG will forward its conclusions to the International Olympic Committee. It is in the interests of all concerned, not least the athletes themselves, to resolve this issue once and for all.”

NO EVIDENCE

Chinese head coach Huang Yubin said all their gymnasts had complied with age requirements, telling a news conference: “Since Asian bodies are not the same as Westerners’, there have been questions. But there shouldn’t be.”

IOC sports director Christophe Dubi said there was no evidence so far of ineligibility, while IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said it was not a formal investigation but was designed to clear up the situation and “put it to rest”.

Games organisers BOGOC said if there had been a problem, the gymnasts would never have been allowed compete. “If they had not been cleared, they would not have been admitted,” said BOCOG spokesman Wang Wei.

USA Gymnastics, whose women were runners-up to China in the team event, welcomed news that the IOC wanted to get to the bottom of the controversy.

“USA Gymnastics has always believed this issue needed to be addressed by the FIG and IOC,” USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny said in a statement.

“An investigation would help bring closure to the issue and remove any cloud of speculation from this competition.”

He, who pipped American Nastia Liukin under the tiebreak rule to snatch the Olympic asymmetric bars title, has repeatedly faced questions over her age at news conferences.

Each time she has replied: “My real age is 16. I don’t care what other people say.”

China have had their most successful showing in the gymnastics at an Olympics, winning nine gold medals out of the 14 up for grabs. (Additional reporting by John Ruwitch and Sonia Oxley; Editing by Jon Bramley)

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/be...gymnasticsprobe_pix_tv&prov=reuters&type=lgns