Athens 2004 - The Olympic Games

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]I saw Paul Hamm. But something else that really struck me was the...Romanian team. One of their guys did absolutely shocking on the parallel bars, but then this other guy on his team came up, and did a bloody excellent job of it. It was really inspiring.[/size]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='Baron Samedi][size=1']And you're quite right Chibi. You beat us...finally.Took you long enough :p![/size][/quote]


[color=darkviolet]The point is we beat you...I guess. MAybe the point is that nobody drowned.

I was teasing my brother's friend Will because his family is originally from Romania (as in his parents speak mostly Romanian and were born in Romania) I told him that the only reason the Romanians do so well in Gymnastics is because they have bad gas. (trust me, if you knew Will you'd say that too) and i told him that they couldn't have any Romanian swimmers because that would give them an unfair advantage. Will was like 'Yeah and we'd win too, because we're good at everything.'

Well, tonight there was a Romanian swimmer in one of the races. So I had to tell Will about it, and mention that he lost becuase he didn't eat his gassy romanian food.

Okay, back on topic

I finally got to watch the equestrian events Wednesday, but it was the last part of the 3 day and show jumping, which I don't find that interesting. but I watched anyway. THere was a guy on there from Ireland I loved the name of his horse it was : Drunken Disorderly. Too bad they got about 16 faults.[/color]

[Guest lavalamp]

Well, Carly won the all-around. Her floor routine was [i]solid[/i] but for me personally, left a lot to be desired. There's something about the Americans and their floor routines which just don't go over well with me. Their dance is always so lifeless. I don't really like Carly Patterson, and was [as terrible as this is] praying she'd go out of bounds on a pass so Svetlana Khorkina could take her gold.

Svetlana had been less-than-spectacular, although I [b]completely[/b] disagreed with the comment made by the female announcer which called Svetlana's score on the uneven bars unfair. That's just bull.

Overall, I'm proud of her. This is her last Olympics, and she's been through so much, some of which you got to see on flashbacks they included. Svetlana is a strong woman, and although she seems to be arrogant and egotistical, I think it suits her. There's a fine line between being confident and obnoxious, and I don't think she crosses it. Carly Patterson, on the other hand, treated the event like it was just another day in the gym. Maybe it was for her, but it's such a hard contrast when you look at how the other gymnasts were so enthusiastic. The way she faked that she was about to cry when her coach picked her up and copped a feel of her butt annoyed me a little.

I'm bitter, but so is Svetlana, and I was all smiles when she landed her vault. I was so nervous that she wouldn't/couldn't. The pressure must be immense, so I'm definitely in awe of all of the gymnasts. It's still so hard to see her go as she's really been the only one intriguing me in gymnastics for the last few years, but times change I guess.

[wiccansamurai]

Wow. Men's high bar was.... amazing tonight.
[spoiler]The best man didn't even win a medal. The crowd went mad for like 10 minutes, which couldn't be good for Paul Hamm. I can't beleive Paul Hamm did as good as he did with all the pressure tonight. I was thinking it'd be like the other individuals (FYI, for those who don't know, there was a judging error in all-around, and Paul Hamm almost lost his gold medal to the South Korean. He then did very poorly on the individuals) and he'd choke, but he got a silver. Hamm is my new hero, being this is my first time actually watching the olympics and he was just amazing. Anyway, about the really good gymnast, I don't remembre his name, but he did this great routine, and then scored lower than everyone else. They had to have an official come out and have the Canadian and Malaysian (sp?) judges change their scores, and that still didn't change anything. And then, several people fell over and such, and the one guy to actually stick to his release, fell earlier and practically didn't count anyway.[/spoiler]

Can you tell I like men's gymnastics?

I think the thing I liked most about the Olympics so far is how close it brought me and my dad because we always watch them together. But now that gymnastics are over (I think?) I've got nothing left to look forward to.

Paul Hamm is really my new idol.

[roxybudgy]

I feel sorry for the Australia's women's rowing team, one girl stopped rowing near the finish line and her team mates threatened to throw her out of the boat.

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='roxybudgy']I feel sorry for the Australia's women's rowing team, one girl stopped rowing near the finish line and her team mates threatened to throw her out of the boat.[/quote]

[color=darkviolet]I don't blame them...if one of my teammates had stopped rowing near the finish line in the Olympics I [i]would[/i] throw her off the boat. Forget just the threats.

But the men's gymnastics was sure a thing of controversy tonight I think Canada and Mylasia's judges should get their heads checked because Alexi (the last name escapes me) from Russia's routine deserved much higher than what he was given. 9.672 my
foot. So he took a step on the landing, the guy did five releases which were all very amaizing I think he deserved much higher than what he was given. I realy do admire the guy though, he even went up and tried to calm down the crowd so Paul Hamm could do his routine.

I felt really bad for Paul Hamm when he had to go on after Alexi because not only had the crowd delayed his routine, but because the judges then gave him a 9.8 for a routine that was nowhere near as stunning as the Russian guy's. I think he must have been extremely relieved that the Italian gymast scored the same amount of points and passed him for gold because then he didn't have to explain why he won gold.

That Korean gymnasts high bar routine was seriously lacking tonight and he's the guy that thinks he should have gotten gold instead of bronze in the mens all around. It was pretty bad, first he smacked his feet on the bar during the beginning of his routine, then he almost fell during the dismount. I wonder if he's still pulling for his protest.

I'm still anxiously awaiting the rest of the equestrian events, but it's pretty hard to catch them when they only come on Bravo at about 5AM.[/color]

[Guest Alex Row]

[QUOTE=ChibiHorsewoman]But the men's gymnastics was sure a thing of controversy tonight I think Canada and Mylasia's judges should get their heads checked because Alexi (the last name escapes me) from Russia's routine deserved much higher than what he was given. 9.672 my
foot.[/quote]

[color=brown][B][i]Damn straight.[/i][/B][/color]

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman']So he took a step on the landing, the guy did five releases which were all very amaizing I think he deserved much higher than what he was given. I realy do admire the guy though, he even went up and tried to calm down the crowd so Paul Hamm could do his routine.[/quote]

[color=brown][B][i]Same here. That man's performance impressed the hell out of me and I was shaking my head in disbelief of a select few judges' given scores.[/i][/B][/color]

[quote name='ChibiHorsewoman']That Korean gymnasts high bar routine was seriously lacking tonight and he's the guy that thinks he should have gotten gold instead of bronze in the mens all around. It was pretty bad, first he smacked his feet on the bar during the beginning of his routine, then he almost fell during the dismount. I wonder if he's still pulling for his protest[/quote]

[color=brown][B][i]Me last night: ROFL. This is the guy who claims he was supposed to get the gold?[/i][/B][/color]

[wiccansamurai]

Now I feel bad for the Russian hurdler! That other girl (Names really escape me, I'm sorry) fell over at the FIRST hurdle, and knocked over the russian. Maybe she wasn't a favorite (The girl who fell over was) but she didn't even get a chance.

Interesting thing me and my cousin noticed: The Male diver for Canada, alexander something wasn't it? Anyway, before all of his good scores he patted his butt. Before his really bad dive, he never patted his butt, and before his silver winning dive, he patted his butt twice. :p Had to point this out.

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='wiccansamurai']Interesting thing me and my cousin noticed: The Male diver for Canada, alexander something wasn't it? Anyway, before all of his good scores he patted his butt. Before his really bad dive, he never patted his butt, and before his silver winning dive, he patted his butt twice. :p Had to point this out.[/quote]

[color=darkviolet]I didn't notice him doing that...maybe I should have paid better attention hmm? My best theory on why he did that was some kind of ritual, but since he skipped doing that once he got a bad score on his dive. Nobody really knows but him though.

Oh, here's a higlight from today's games...[b]AMERICA WON GOLD IN WOMEN'S SOCCER![/B] :D

I have to mention that because one of the women-I beleive the one who scored the winning goal-is from my little section of Western New York State. :D. So now we have two olympic medalists from my little area of New York. One in Women's Hockey from Churchville and one in Women's Soccer from Webster (I think she's from Webster). The one from Churchville went to my friend's High School.

Well, that's all from me today. I'm off to watch the diving.[/color]

[badjesus]

Did anyone see the taekwondo? one of my teachers is on the british team and i must know what happened.

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]The gymnastics was... a bit of a shambles, I'd agree. I was frankly a bit disgusted, both with crowd behaviour and with the result.

Taekwondo. All I know is that I think an Australian got into the later rounds, but I never saw a British team.

And, what frankly delights me is that the Dream Team [spoiler]lost to Argentina. And Lithuania. And Puerto Rico. But the Argentina match is what matters. Now they're only running for bronze, haha. Apparently these gum-chewing millionaires refused to stay at the Athletes Village. Bloody arrogant pricks. Sorry, but thats what everyone thinks.[/spoiler]

And, who owns you in the Cycling? Why, Australia of course :p[/size]