THE OLYMPICS: Official Thread of All-Things Games! (Sportsmanship Required)- Page 3

[EugLoven]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 6:06pm

Hmmmm.... (sorry I misunderstood the previous message) in that case MAYBE! Which would be kinda cool. I tried Wikipedia-ing that sh*t but nothing... Wouldn't that be nice if the American commentators were casually mentioning spouses? Neato.


Speaking of spouses, some tragic and sad news:

CNN: American Killed at Games was Coach's Father-in-Law
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/09/olympics.murder/index.html



A Chinese attacker stabbed to death Todd Bachman (the father-in-law of a U.S. Olympic men's indoor volleyball head coach Hugh McCutcheon) and seriously wounded his wife, Barbara Bachman, and a Chinese tour guide before killing himself, the International Olympic Committee said Saturday.

The Bachmans of Lakeville, Minnesota, were attacked at the Drum Tower, an ancient monument in downtown Beijing.

Barbara Bachman's injuries are "serious and life-threatening," an IOC statement said. The tour guide's condition was not immediately clear.

McCutcheon's wife, 2004 U.S. Olympic women's indoor volleyball player Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon, was with her parents when they were attacked, but she was not hurt.
Updated On: 8/9/08 at 06:06 PM

[Albin]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 8:25pm

The feature on Michael Phelps near the top of tonight's prime time show made me a little moist.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 9:47pm

A couple of thoughts:

It's day two, and I'm already VERY tired of Bob Costas.

I don't envy the folks in London who have to follow that opening ceremony. They probably can't top it, so I'd recommend going in some completely different way.

[Albin]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 10:00pm

I was thinking the same thing about London. There's no way they can top last night's ceremony.

[Albin]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 10:09pm

Phelps. One down, 7 to go!!!

[clever name]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 10:19pm

Aww I loved the camera on his mom and sisters!

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 10:48pm

Our men's volleyball team is scheduled to play this evening at 12:30AM. They will be coached by an assitant coach. It will be interesting to see how they respond to this tragedy.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 10:50pm

I think they'll put more into it than they ever have before.

[obsessedjb]

Posted: 8/9/08 at 10:59pm

I agree.


WTG Phelps!

[supportivemom]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 12:25am

I just saw the end of tonight's broadcast where Bob Costas was interviewing Bela K. Bela said that Chelsie Memmel was injured. I just found an article dated Aug. 3rd that said she injured her ankle and that the docs were paying close attention to it. I was hoping she would do really well but it seemed like Bela said the Americans had lost her events. I am so disappointed! She has worked so hard for an Olympic comeback!

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 12:36am

Talk about women's gymnastics, have you noticed the commercials with Shannon Miller?

wow-I always thought she was a pretty girl. She still is, but she's done so much to change her face!

[LaurenB]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 7:45am

The only thing that bothers me about Costas is the color of his hair. He keeps getting bad dye jobs. Do the yahoos at NBC think we don't notice?

The commentators who annoy me to the extreme are Tim and Elsie (Elfie?) who cover the gynmastics. I may have complained about them before, LOL, at the last Olympics. They are terrible. Remember how well it used to be covered when ABC aired the Summer Olympics many years ago? Those commentators would actually educate the audience as well as comment on the action. You knew that the gymnast was doing an iron cross, or an inverted cross, etc. They would point out the positions of the hands and how the different grips increased degree of difficulty, or the placement of the hands on the vault (front, middle, etc.) would increase the difficulty.

These guys just do the ooohs, aaaws, and "he needs to stick his landing." They are not informative in the least. Did I miss a discussion on the new scoring system?

And where the heck is Mark Spitz? With all the talk of Phelps breaking Spitz's records, you'd think he would have been interviewed by now, commentating on how he was able to focus on his 7 events, how he trained, and what Phelps needs to do.

I remember being annoyed to the hilt watching the games in 2000, where I thought the coverage was way over-edited. It used to be that the games were broadcast live, and sitting at home watching on TV, you could feel the tension in the air. You felt like you were in the arena, whether watching track and field, gymnastics, or swimming. Now NBC edits to the max, and most of the time the broadcasts feel anticlimatic to me because of the constant cutaways.

Anybody find the coverage of the dressage odd? The commentators are watching from the NY studios, so they can't remark about the event unless they can see it on camera (aside from the scores). It seems so impersonal, no background coverage about what's happening that is out of the camera's range.

The only good thing I can say about NBC is that they at least did a short (and I mean short) tribute to Jim McCay at the end of the first evening.

OK, LOL, rant over.

I really did enjoy the opening ceremonies. Those guys (drummers and the print press guys) did seem to express real joy and pride at a job well done, at the end of their routines. I hope they weren't tortured during rehearsals.

[supportivemom]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 10:39am

Shannon Miller lives in my hometown now. She does look like she has changed her face a lot. I don't like Elfie or Tim either. Elfie was a Canadian gymnast who went to the Univ. of Florida. She was never really that great. I liked Bart Connor and Kathy Johnson. Anyway, it was so hard to understand Bela last night and he wasn't miked so I wasn't sure what happened with Chelsie. I did enjoy seeing the Chinese and Japanese men. They were amazing! I just hope that NBC shows more women gymnasts then just the Americans because I want to see the Romanians, Russians, and Chinese. By the way Lauren-excellent rant!

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 12:26pm

I was just reading an article about the broadcasting of the games. It said NBC paid millions to broadcast the games live. We didn't get the opening ceremonies until Friday evening (CO). I just talked to a friend of mine in NYC and he told me they actually showed them live in the morning there as a lot of his hotel guests were in watching them. I stayed up until about 3:00 or 4:00 this morning and nodded in and out of men's volleyball. I think that was actually live. So if they aren't showing them live across the US, I feel they could at least broadcast everything at the same time across the US. Granted, the west coast broadcast would start early. I am assuming that we are 2 hours behind the east coast as basketball is on here and my friend in NYC is watching the events that are on after basketball. (He is not watching them but I just called and asked him to turn them on so I could find out what the east coast is seeing now) I am curious as to what time they start on the east coast? During the week, they start at 7:00 here. I already know the results of women's gymnastics and we don't see it until tonight.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 12:28pm

[ShbrtAlley44]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 12:33pm

Hahaha!

Is anyone else tired of hearing Kiefer Sutherland and Morgan Freeman voiceovers?

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 12:57pm

I like the Morgan Freeman ones. Maybe I have heard Sutherland's but didn't recognize his voice. I am loving everything Phelps though! They just showed a short montage of him that starts out with him, with a black backdrop, bent over as if he is about to dive into a pool whil he stretches his arms out and around the back of his body. I almost fell off the couch!

Did anyone watch the piece on basketball in China. Interesting how popular Kobe is over there.

Updated On: 8/10/08 at 12:57 PM

[trinaaron]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 1:05pm

For anyone who knows volleyball, why does one member of each team wear different colors?

Edit: I do know the difference between wear and where, I promise. Updated On: 8/10/08 at 01:05 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 1:13pm

I was wondering that also.

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 1:15pm

Sorry...double post!

Updated On: 8/10/08 at 01:15 PM

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 1:16pm

That volleyball uniform is for a relatively new position called a libero. It was added to the game maybe 10 years ago. Basically, it's a defensive specialist. The libero can sub in and out freely for any back row player, and libero subs don't count toward the limited substitutions that are allowed in each game. The libero can never be in the front row in the rotation, and therefore can't attack. The libero also can't set with his/her hands from in front of the 10-foot line.

[trinaaron]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 1:26pm

Thanks

[clever name]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 1:31pm

OK.. What is UP with those full body gymnastics uniforms the swimmers are wearing??!!! I MISS SPEEDOS!

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 1:42pm

These new suits are supposed to help them swim faster, with increased buoyancy and a sleeker line. If you're looking for Speedos, you may have to wait for diving.

[trinaaron]

Posted: 8/10/08 at 2:00pm

I think they look kind of cool on the men, but the poor women look squished on top.