Does anyone know if they'll be televising the men's individual all-around tonight? I couldn't find it listed on nbcolympics.com or yahoo sports, except that yahoo sports says that telemundo will be recapping it in the wee hours of tomorrow morning???
Yes they will be televising it live...probably just like last night with not a great deal of coverage and going back and forth between swimming. NBC starts its coverage tonight at 8 pm but due to the time zone difference, I would not expect to see the men's all around until about 11 pm Eastern Time. It's not scheduled to start until 11 am Thursday in Beijing....which is about 11 pm Eastern Time....if you have DVR or a tape I would tape the late night telecast from 1am or so until 4 am or so...it's definitly listed for that time.
However, I would not expect too much coverage since there are no US men that are favored to medal.
Last edited by sillylionlove; 08-13-2008 at 02:51 PM.
The U.S girls couldn't do it this time. A combination of Shawn's underscored perfect bar and Alicia's nervous wreck we have to settle for silver. Such a pity. :(
Oh I think the americans know how to be sportsmen. And whoever thought silver was insignificant?Originally Posted by Tinymavy15
Silver is no small deal. IMO, the American girls would have to have been 100% al the way through and the Chinese would've had to make serious errors-every one of them- to win the gold. Not to take away from what the Americans did because they were absolutely amazing, even with the mistakes. And my heart goes out to Alicia Sacramone, as I hear she's totally blaming herself.
Now I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories, but I heard an interesting one today. All three of the American girls (even Shawn Johnson, who never goes OOB) went OOB as did most of the other teams. IIRC, none of the Chinese did-although I may be wrong on that. One of my friends was watching last night and said he almost thought the floor (in bounds space at least) was not as big as most other floors (that the OOB space was bigger- I'm sorry if I'm not making sense lol). And as the Chinese have trained on that floor, they know exactly where to place themselves.
I'm not saying I believe it or not but it's a very good theory (and this same person has a theory on all the records being broken in swimming). And I mean, Shawn Johnson stepping OOB? It just doesn't happen.
Oh, maybe I'd better not watch then. I still get peeved over Shannon Miller's underscored (IMO and Mary Lou Retton's, who was writing a daily commentary on the '96 games) bars routine in Atlanta.
I don't know if I put a lot of credence into the OOB issue - unless I'm not understanding it. Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's a standard size that the floor must be for the Olympics and it's not as though it's an old ice rink that has the same surface area, but might be longer in one country and wider in another. The floor space is square and has to be of certain dimension.
Also, last night's commentator said the she felt that Alicia pulls back on her tumbling passes because she worries too much about going OOB because she's done it many times in other competitions.
the NY Times had an article where they questioned the legitmacy of the broken world records - not questioning who won. This pool is about 3 feet deeper than other past Oly venues. Also, it's wider, but only 8 of 10 lanes are used. The added depth and width has resulted in less resistance in the water since it's not sloshing around as much. Also, the one piece suits being worn are like girdles that mold the body into a more aerodynamic shape. All of these factors are shared by all of the swimmers - so , it's fair with regards to the race, but it's not neccessarily appropriate to say that the world records have been broken because the races were performed under very different conditions.
Here are a couple of links about the swimming technology.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/sp...html?ref=world
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=93478073
I have been watching myself, and noticed that our american women have been getting underscored, especially on the beam. In the qualifying round on Sunday one of the comentaters mentioned that shawn and nastia were underscored on the beam, they also mentioned that the chinese women's scores in the team finale were a bit too high on that apparatis. I felt realy bad for Sacramone when she fell on the beam. I believe it shook up the the rest of the team. It did not help them on the floor exercise and they all stepped out of bounds (That actually remined me of what happened to Miller and Dawes at the '96 games in the all- around which I found painful to watch) I have been reading messages on other boards and Alicia has been blamed for the team losing which I find unfair. They should not feel ashamed for winning the silver. I hope that Shawn and nastia go all out and show why they are among the best in the world in the all-around.
Last edited by delray1977; 08-14-2008 at 04:32 AM.
That's from a preview from Sports Illustrated - what kind of media ist that? Before the competition even started - the author makes sure that everyone who reads it knows that, if the Americans don't win, it's the fault of the Chinese audience and the judges.She and Liukin better find a way to do so on Friday, because the raucous pro-Chinese crowd in the National Indoor Stadium will be raising the roof in support of Yang and Jiang, and the judges will be looking for any excuse to send the crowd home happy.
Bet on Johnson and Liukin to deny them that pleasure. Which one will grab gold?
Isn't sports illustrated a halfway serious magazine? Because I expect to read that kind of thing in the cheapest of tabloids.
About everyone going out of bounds on the floor exercise (and maybe Alicia underrotated and fell because she was afraid of going out of bounds) -- another possibility is that the floor was "bouncier" than usual.
Wasn't there a problem one year when the vault was the wrong height and everyone was falling until they got it fixed?
I have no idea if there is cheating by the judges but I think they keep the names of the judges hidden. Why?
As far as the Ladies are concerned, Russia should have won that competition for keeping with the music and with dance steps. The Americans were ok, but the Chinese ignored the music.
Overall, I was not overwhelmed with the Men's Division in Gymnastics. But so much more for Swimming with or without Phelps.
Actually, I think that's exactly right -- Sports Illustrated is a "halfway serious" magazine. I think they do try to be factual but also they try to write in an "edgy" style to attract readers.
About the "home ice" advantage, I do think there is something to that. In the first place, judges are human. They get caught up in the emotions of the moment like everyone else.
Plus, in so far as sports falls into the category of "recreation-entertainment" (and what else would it be? Agriculture? Rails and Transportation?), the bottom line is "satisfy the customer." Every sports team has a better record at-home than away.
BTW, another thing that appeared to rattle the U.S. lady gynmasts was the long delays between when tey stepped up to the apparatus andwhen they were permitted to start their routine. As I understand it, this was to accommodate the Chinese television networks who wanted to interview the Chinese girls between events and still show the Americans live.
I remember Al Troutwig saying something about the floor exercise surface being less springy than what the American gymnasts were accustomed to. Perhaps the gymnasts were attempting to overcompensate for that popped out of bounds?
The equiptment that the use in international competitions overseas is made by a european company and in the US they use equiptment made by an American Company called AMC(I think) The european equiptment can be different which is why they have "podium traning". This is so the gymnasts can get used to the equiptment because it can be different. Many of the North American gymnasts did complain about how different the equiptment was but who knows if that was the real reason.
That's very interesting. In figure skating, European skaters mostly train on Olympic sized rinks and on harder ice. American rinks are mostly hockey size, and I have heard that the ice is typically softer. So there is definitely an adjustment that the skaters have to make when they travel.Now that I think about it, it could be the other way around. Maybe a springier surface makes you bounce up more, while on a harder surface you go farther laterally.
Last edited by Mathman; 08-14-2008 at 05:09 PM.
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