Originally posted by Adam420
She was full on fat, like obese fat
yeah I saw photos of her but she didn't stand out bigger than other judoists to me
the bigger issue was that they let her in with a blue belt - the requirement is a black belt
freaking PC crap
Nrg2Nfinit
quote:
Originally posted by LightsOut
Anyone see that girl Afghan sprinter? Talk about political correctness. She finished like 5 seconds behind everyone else in the preliminary round (which in short distance sprinting is like an eternity). Not sure how the qualification process works for the track events, but surely her spot could have gone to someone that would have at least been competitive, this girl never stood a chance.
Edit: Found a video.
Imagine being a sprinter from a country with a really competitive program, and you miss out on qualifying for the Olympics by 0.001 seconds. But this girl gets a place. Ridiculous.
The whole point of the olympics is to see the countries best compete against other the best of other countires. Imagine if the qualifications were as you said where a bench mark was simply based on the top performing athletes in the world. You would pretty much eliminate 50% or more of the countries which compete in the olympics.
Furthermore for some events, we would simply be watching the same country competing with itself (ie table tennis).
It would be a horrible method to promote a new sport in a country.
That being said, the IOC pushed hard to have each country participating to have at least 1 female competitor, so i'm sure the rules for qualification per country were lax to the point where the competitiveness was hindered to some extent.
Still, there are preliminaries, heats and rounds that the competitors have to go through before they get ot a final round. YOu won't see ty competitors getting bye's to the medal round.
here is an example of something worse than the afgani girl
Rank Athlete Nationality Time Notes
1 Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei Kenya 2:01.04 Q
2 Ekaterina Poistogova Russia 2:01.08 Q
3 Rosibel Garcia Colombia 2:01.30 Q
4 Elena Mirela Lavric Romania 2:01.65 q
5 Margarita Garcia Kazakhstan 2:02.12 q
6 Neisha Bernard-Thomas Grenada 2:03.23 q
7 Elisabeth Mandaba Central African Republic 2:12.56
8 Sarah Attar Saudi Arabia 2:44.95
even worse is the turkish runner in heat 2, but she pulled a muscle :p
Rank Athlete Nationality Time Notes
1 Mariya Savinova Russia 2:01.56 Q
2 Alice Schmidt United States 2:01.65 Q
3 Tintu Luka India 2:01.75 Q
4 Malika Akkaoui Morocco 2:01.78 q
5 Andrea Ferris Panama 2:05.59
6 Haley Nemra Marshall Islands 2:14.90 SB
7 Merve Aydın Turkey 3:24.35
anyways i think its a good idea to get these women into the game, it should send a signal about womens equal rights in those countries.
Nicolas Oliver
Congrats girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Canada wins Olympic women's soccer bronze
The Canadian Press
Posted: Aug 9, 2012 9:53 AM ET
Canada's midfielder Diana Matheson, left, fights for the ball with France's Louisa Necib during the women's soccer bronze medal match Thursday at the London Olympics.
Canada's women's soccer team has captured a bronze medal at the London Olympics.
Diana Matheson scored in the 92nd minute to beat France 1-0 in the third-place game.
The result gives Canada its first Summer Games medal in a traditional team sport since 1936.
Matheson's goal came after France dominated the second half and nearly went ahead in the 61st minute when striker Gaetane Thiney's shot hit a post.
Canada had an excellent chance in the 15th minute but captain Christine Sinclair launched a pass from Rhian Wilkinson over the net.
France entered the game having outscored Canada 6-0 in their previous two meetings, including a 4-0 win at the Women's World Cup.
Jessdub99
quote:
Originally posted by LightsOut
American Athletes at the Olympics: 530
Chinese Athletes at the Olympics: 380
Game, Set, Match: China.
Thankfully your opinion bears no weight in the Olympic world.
Intangible
I was in a office pool for the 200m - my guess was 12.29s sooo close to wining $100!
(Holy crap Jamaica!)
LightsOut
quote:
Originally posted by Jessdub99
Thankfully your opinion bears no weight in the Olympic world.
If the USA ends up with a few more medals then China when all is said and done, but did so with 150 more athletes competing, is it not fair to say that China had a better overall performance? Would you not agree that's a fair assessment, regardless of what the official standings say?
Special K
I wouldn't given that China's population is what 4-5 times the size of America's. They have the biggest talent pool to choose from and as such should they should wiping out their nearest rivals (and they aren't).
Nrg2Nfinit
quote:
Originally posted by LightsOut
If the USA ends up with a few more medals then China when all is said and done, but did so with 150 more athletes competing, is it not fair to say that China had a better overall performance? Would you not agree that's a fair assessment, regardless of what the official standings say?
I guess by that logic, botswana should be the best team in the olympics
In all seriousness though, China certainly has the biggest pool of potential athletes by a fair margin, yet somehow qualified 150 less then the US. I'd love to know which country provides the most athletic funding for their athletes, I'm tempted to say the US probably takes the cake...
Dior Homme
quote:
Originally posted by Special K
I wouldn't given that China's population is what 4-5 times the size of America's. They have the biggest talent pool to choose from and as such should they should wiping out their nearest rivals (and they aren't).
Biggest talent pool? I don't know. I'd rather look at it as how many athletes enter the olympics rather than population size. Population doesn't determine if you are a front runner for medals. Yes they have a much larger population than any country in the olympics but that doesn't mean their whole population ARE athletes.
I would say for the amount of china men and women who are at the olympics is a good enough statement that they dominated. if china ends up with 90 medals say, and had 380 athletes perform, thats a pretty good amount of medals won with the amount of quality. keep in mind the athletes that china sent, do perform in teams and are not all individual competitions.
so for the states to have sent 530 athletes and at the end of today have 90 medels, talk about watering down chinas medal count.
Dior Homme
His team was disqualified because a team member got knocked down and injured and he never got to run with the baton. But now, the IOC is allowing their team to participate in the finals today. I can't wait to see this guy run.
Nike’s Specially Designed Track Spikes Helped a Double Amputee Sprint in London
South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius just ran in the Olympics. Unlike his competitors he did it as a below-the-knee amputee, using Ossür's Flex-Foot Cheetah legs. But he also faced a unique challenge that his competitors didn't have to consider—how do you get track spikes on your prosthetics?
The short answer is they have to be fitted by hand. That's a process that ordinarily takes up to two hours. Spikes fall off, because unlike a foot, which bends and curves, carbon blades are less mobile. Luckily Oscar is sponsored by Nike, so top-notch tech was at his disposal. Not that it made the design process a breeze.
Oscar traveled to Ossür's lab in Iceland along with Nike designer Tobie Hatfield to create a spike that was just right for his unique situation. Of course, Oscar can't feel his feet to talk about how something fits, so the process was unique. Tobie filmed Oscar sprinting on a pressure-sensitive treadmill at 500fps, to make sure he saw every movement and studied Oscar's form just right. Tobie's solution was something called a Spike Pad. FastCo explains:
Hatfield wanted the most shock absorption possible, but didn't want Pistorius to lose launch power to a spongy pile of foam. So the resulting Spike Pad itself was fully realized then. It's formed of a midsole—two machine-molded pieces of foam with two different densities (softer is in the back where the Pistorius lands during his stride and harder density is in the front where Pistorius begins his stride)—along with a carbon fiber Spike Plate that attaches to the bottom.
And what about the whole two-hour installation? Tobie cut that time down to just 15 minutes, affixing the spikes with contact cement, and removing them with a blowdryer. Amazingly, the Spike Pad helped Oscar make it to the semi-finals for the 400m in London.
FunkyCrew
quote:
Originally posted by Dior Homme
Biggest talent pool? I don't know. I'd rather look at it as how many athletes enter the olympics rather than population size. Population doesn't determine if you are a front runner for medals. Yes they have a much larger population than any country in the olympics but that doesn't mean their whole population ARE athletes.
that's a great point actually - population size is usually the popular defence againts why a certain country isn't doing well in the Olympics
