555 replies to this topic

[birdistheword]

US gets it. Man, that rain's made things a tad more revealing.

[Badger]

I hadn't noticed before what a bunfight these middle distance runs are. There was nearly a punch up in one of the womens 1500m heats just now. This Lisa Dobriskey looks a bit of alright (in both senses).

[James D]

LOL

[James D]

LOL

And it gets better!!!

[Badger]

I used the run the last leg in the school relay team when i was 12/13. The prospect of doing that used to keep me awake long after i had got too fat for selection.

[Agrimorfee]

Lest we come away feeling all warm and gooshy about the host nation this year, please read the following :

Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Ritan Park in Beijing is filled with men practicing tai chi, women doing yoga and toddlers with their grandparents. Welcome to the Olympic protest park that isn't.

Ritan is one of three parks where protesters were supposed to be able to demonstrate during the Olympics as long as they received permits from the city. Yet there won't be any legal gatherings at Ritan, Beijing World or Purple Bamboo parks before the games end Aug. 24. That's because all 77 applications were withdrawn or rejected, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The lack of activity shows the government never intended to allow demonstrations, said Fu Hualing, a University of Hong Kong professor who studies human rights in China. China set aside the protest zones in July after international criticism of its human rights record. At least seven Chinese were detained after applying for permits, according to family members and human rights groups.

``The government's concern is if people get a taste of voicing their disputes and of being able to do it safely at these parks, then they might expect that to continue,'' Fu said.

Beijing police spokesman Zi Xiangdong denied allegations about the arrests.

``No one has been detained for applying to protest at the parks as far as we are aware,'' he said.

Designated protest zones have been used at international events since demonstrators disrupted World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle in 1999. Organizers of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Athens games tried to limit protesters to specified areas, as did the host cities of the last two Republican and Democratic conventions in the U.S.

Transparency Sought

While the International Olympic Committee was pleased Beijing decided to open the protest parks, it asked for information about how permit applications were processed, said spokeswoman Giselle Davies.

``The more transparency we have on this, the better,'' she said at a news conference before the statistics were released.

Applications had to be submitted at least five days before a planned demonstration, so Aug. 19 was the last day requests could be granted.

That doesn't mean demonstrators have been silent. Foreigners advocating Tibetan rights and religious freedom have held illegal protests near the Forbidden City, Olympic Village and the offices of state-run China Central Television.

At least 37 protesters have been deported after unapproved actions, according to activists and state-run media.
Members of Students for a Free Tibet wrapped themselves in Tibetan flags and fell to the ground in a ``die-in'' on Tiananmen Square. Others hung a pro-Tibet banner on CCTV headquarters.

`Plastic Fruit'

The organization shunned the parks because they're too far from the main Olympic venues, co-founder John Hocevar said.

Beijing World Park, which features replicas of international landmarks including the Statue of Liberty and Egypt's pyramids, is about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of downtown.

``The parks are a little like plastic fruit and we wouldn't want to take a bite of them,'' Hocevar, 40, said. ``Freedom of speech isn't something you can put in a box.''

The city government oversees the parks separately from the IOC and the Beijing Organizing Committee, known as Bocog. It required applicants to submit two forms, identification and a Chinese translation of their request at least five days before a planned protest.

Seventy-four applications were withdrawn voluntarily after police asked government agencies to mediate the disputes, Xinhua reported Aug. 18, citing police officials. Two applications were incomplete and one was rejected because demonstrators wanted to use children, which isn't allowed.

Late Night Arrest

Bocog spokesman Wang Wei said he's pleased with the results.

``For those who want to protest, as long as their problems get solved, it's good enough,'' Wang said.

The seven Chinese identified by human rights groups as having been detained include three women who wanted to protest the demolition of their homes during Beijing's facelift for the games.

Among those was Zhang Wei, 47, who was sentenced to a month in jail, according to her son, Mi Yu.

A woman in civilian clothes knocked on Zhang's door at about 11 p.m. on Aug. 6, saying a downstairs water pipe had burst and workers needed to come in to fix it. When she opened the door, two policemen pushed their way in and took her into custody, Mi said.

`Do Anything'

``They're willing to do anything to make sure the Olympics go on without a hitch,'' said Mi, 23. ``China doesn't pay attention to human rights, and it's been this way for a long time.''

Two former neighbors, 79-year-old Wu Dianyuan and 77-year-old Wang Xiuying, were sentenced to a year of ``re-education through labor'' after applying for permits five times, New York-based Human Rights in China said.

``Because the government announced the protest parks under the auspices of the Olympics, that encouraged Chinese people to take the risk and apply,'' said Phelim Kine, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. ``It led people to think there would be no reprisals.''

Even Chinese nationalists were told not to protest during the games. Zhang Likun, whose group opposes Japanese militarism, said that's a shift from previous policy.

Zhang's group won't act without official approval.

``We want to keep our necks,'' he said.

[Melted Cheese]

Good article. I've been doing my best to ignore this stuff because I've been massively entertained by the olympics. I hate the unavoidable political-tension elephant in the stadium at every Olympics. But this one is especially difficult to ignore. Do we suppose that the world-at-large is watching these Olympics and thinking "Wonderful Olympiad! Oh, wow, China sure has come a long way! What a great country!"? I should hope not. I mean, I'm sure the majority of Americans don't give a fuck about human rights (torture is our official policy, after all) but that's probably not a great sampling of popular opinion. What's the level of awareness of China's general shittiness in Britain? Australia? Other countries represented on this board?

[nagode]

hottest olympian...Linn Jørum Sulland...norweigan handball



ok maybe not the hottest. (amanda beard and that paraguayan javelin thrower still hold those spots for me)..but definitely the cutest

[birdistheword]

Good article.

I've been doing my best to ignore this stuff because I've been massively entertained by the olympics. I hate the unavoidable political-tension elephant in the stadium at every Olympics. But this one is especially difficult to ignore.

Do we suppose that the world-at-large is watching these Olympics and thinking "Wonderful Olympiad! Oh, wow, China sure has come a long way! What a great country!"? I should hope not. I mean, I'm sure the majority of Americans don't give a fuck about human rights (torture is our official policy, after all) but that's probably not a great sampling of popular opinion.

What's the level of awareness of China's general shittiness in Britain? Australia? Other countries represented on this board?

Hersh wrote another piece blasting the IOC prez for criticizing Bolt's celebrations while saying nothing about China's human rights violations:

BEIJING — The audience for the Olympics is losing young people to the X Games, music videos and computers, among other diversions.

Track and field is losing its audience, period, in Europe and the United States.

So what was International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge thinking when he lambasted Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt for some crowd-pleasing theatrics, which Rogge felt was disrespectful to the competitors?

Only spoiling two moments so electric they might get a few more people interested in track and field.

And if you wanted to take athletes for task, Jacques, why didn't you rip Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbaeva for her disdain? Throughout that competition, she spent most of her time with a towel over her face, deigning to lift part of it occasionally to see what was going on.

And, Jacques, you look like a coward. You will take on a wondrous, young athlete — Bolt turned 22 Thursday — but you have been notoriously silent about China's disrespect about about greater openness and respect for human rights. And you let them stage an Opening Ceremony in which performers were all but tortured during preparation and rehearsal. (Only North Korea could have done it better, the ceremony's director said.)

Meeting with reporters from several wire services Thursday, Rogge said Bolt's behavior at the end of his world record runs in the 100 and 200 meters was "not the way we perceive being a champion."

Please.

Yes, Bolt was showboating over the final 20 meters of the 100, turning sideways, holding out his arms and hands as if to say, "Give it up for me," then slapping his heart with his right arm.

In the 200, he flopped on his back after the finish and shimmied during his victory lap.

Rogge thought Bolt should have spent more time congratulating his fellow competitors. He would have been waiting a week for them to catch up with him.

Bolt's immediate exuberance is what made those moments more than just very fast races. Rogge thought Bolt needs to mature.

That made the IOC president sound like an old man who lived most of his life in an effete, upper-class world.

Rogge is 66. He was a three-time Olympian in sailing.

Jacques, your fuddy-duddy is showing.

Associated Press photo by Natacha Pisarenko

[petras]

Yeah it's all just smoke and mirrors over in China...my opinion of them hasn't really changed. I'm sure plenty of people are fooled though, people like my parents who don't own a computer and get all their news from like the NBC 5 o'clock news.....they have no idea what's really going on in the world at large. As far as they know China is peachy keen. If all you watch is the network news would you even know what a Tibet was and what it had to do with China? I think not.

[TJENZ]

hottest olympian...Linn Jørum Sulland...norweigan handball



ok maybe not the hottest. (amanda beard and that paraguayan javelin thrower still hold those spots for me)..but definitely the cutest

her nose is awful

[nagode]

hottest olympian...Linn Jørum Sulland...norweigan handball



ok maybe not the hottest. (amanda beard and that paraguayan javelin thrower still hold those spots for me)..but definitely the cutest

her nose is awful

oh please...how bout this, better shot?....theyre olympians not models...

[feisty]

I noticed that there are a lot of cute handball players

[Mike Schank]

Hot pic of Jenny Finch crying on the front page of Yahoo, rubbed one out to it. You think she does roids? What if she has a tiny Chyna dick.

[birdistheword]

Jebus, the U.S. softball team took that loss hard. I thought they were getting rid of softball because they didn't believe it was truly competitive - if they're making a serious push to bring it back, wouldn't this loss actually HELP in the bigger picture? Sucks to lose, but sucks more to lose the Olympic competition altogether.

[birdistheword]

Another sports writer rips Rogge for criticizing Bolt and not China:

http://sports.yahoo....t...o&type=lgns

BEIJING — Jacques Rogge is so bought, so compromised, the president of the IOC doesn’t have the courage to criticize China for telling a decade of lies to land itself these Olympic Games.

All the promises made to get these Games — on Tibet, Darfur, pollution, worker safety, freedom of expression, dissident rights — turned out to be phony, perhaps as phony as the Chinese gymnasts’ birthdates Rogge was way too scared to investigate.

One of the most powerful men in sports turned the world away from his complicity. Instead, he has flexed his muscles by unloading on a powerless sprinter from a small island nation.

Rogge’s ripping of Usain Bolt’s supposed showboating in two of the most electrifying gold-medal performances of these Games has to be one of the most ill-timed and gutless acts in the modern history of the Olympics.

“That’s not the way we perceive being a champion,” Rogge said of the Jamaican sprinter. “I have no problem with him doing a show. I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands, give a tap on the shoulder to the other ones immediately after the finish and not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 meters.”

Oh, this is richer than those bribes and kickbacks the IOC got caught taking.

All the powerful nations — including the United States — have carte blanche at the Games. They can pout and preen, cheat, throw bean balls, file wild complaints, break promises that got them a host bid, whatever they want. They can take turns slapping Rogge and his cronies around like rag dolls as long as the dinner with a good wine list gets paid.

A single individual sprinter? Even if you don’t like his manner, that’s whom Rogge deems it necessary to attack, to issue a worldwide condemnation?

“I understand the joy,” Rogge said. “He might have interpreted that in another way, but the way it was perceived was ‘catch me if you can.’ You don’t do that. But he’ll learn. He’s still a young man.”

Perceived by whom? Old fat cats making billions of Olympic dollars on the backs of athletes like Bolt for a century now? They get to define this? They get to lecture about learning?

Bolt is everything the Olympics are supposed to be about. He isn’t the product of some rich country, some elaborate training program that churns out gold medals by any means necessary.

He’s a breath of fresh air, a guy who came out of nowhere to enrapture the world with his athletic performance and colorful personality. This is no dead-eye product of some massive machine.

He was himself, and the world loved him for it.

On his own force of will, Bolt has become the break-out star of these Games. He saved the post-Michael Phelps Olympics. It wasn’t so much his world-record times, but the flair, the fun.

No one at the track had a problem with this guy; they understood he is everything the sport needs to recover from an era of extreme doping. The Lightning Bolt made people care about track again, something that seemed impossible two weeks ago.

“I don’t feel like he’s being disrespectful,” American Shawn Crawford told the Associated Press. “He deserves to dance.”

Apparently, Rogge would prefer 12-year-old gymnasts too frightened to crack a smile.

It got better when, in the same press conference, he pretended to forget all the lies China told him to get this bid, all the troubles, all the challenges, and praised the host nation. Yes, these have been an exceptionally well-run Games from a tactical standpoint, and the Chinese people have displayed otherworldly kindness.

None of which denies the promises broken, the innocent jailed, the freedoms denied — the kind of issues someone with Jacques Rogge’s standing should be talking about.

He has no spine for that. Not for China. Not for any big country. He had to criticize someone, he had to make headlines, he had to show he was a tough guy. So who better than someone from somewhere that can’t ever touch him back?

Yes, Usain Bolt is the problem of the Olympics. He’s the embarrassment. He’s the one who needs to learn.

Sure, Jacques, sure.

Dan Wetzel is a Yahoo! Sports national columnist.

[feisty]

Remember when all those chubby girls from Lockport played for Greece? Opa.

[demoncleaner]

What's the level of awareness of China's general shittiness in Britain? Australia? Other countries represented on this board?

That it clearly has a long way to go. Equally clear however is that is that China realises its desire to become a world leader through economic development requires that it present itself in a way that can be embraced by the west. These olympics have reinforced that direction, hopefully they have also shown to China that the west will not be fooled by a façade. It's crucial however that the western media does not “play along” with China and pretend it can't see the emperor has no clothes.

No one expects China will change overnight, but this is the only path that will lead them to it. It will need to be a generational shift. The west will not bully China into liberalism, however we can encourage them to reach it through their own desire to be part of us. I think, knowingly or not, the direction China has taken economically has set it on a course that is almost already irreversible.

[Petition]

The world will have its' chance to see that the bride wasn't ready for her coming out party. Everyone will see what a cheap, lying, gold digger she was all the time!!! and yes, it came to pass.

[birdistheword]

http://www.timesonli...icle4583174.ece

IOC orders investigation into He Kexin's age

By Chris Chase

The International Olympic Committee has ordered an investigation into the age of Chinese gymnast He Kexin, The Times of London reports. Faced with almost insurmountable evidence which suggests that He is two years younger than the birth date listed on her Chinese passport, the IOC has launched an inquiry that could result in the stripping of He's gold medals.

This news comes on the heels of another Times report that details the findings of a New York computer security expert who found official Chinese documents that list He's age as 14 years and 220 days. Mike Walker used a Chinese search engine's cache feature to find He's actual date of birth on spreadsheets from a Chinese government website. The spreadsheets were taken down off the site recently and He's name had been removed.

Assuming the IOC is committed to a real investigation and not some dog and pony show, the revelation that the Chinese government covered up the ages of gymnasts could end up being the defining moment of these Games for the host country. Officials wanted the Olympics to be a coming out party for a new China. But while the Games have been a huge success, there is a legitimate possibility that China's legacy from Beijing '08 will be that of a massive government cover-up, not the magical Opening Ceremony or the transformation of Beijing or anything else positive.

All the good work China did to put on these Olympics could be forgotten because of an unnecessary, arrogant move by the government. Why risk everything to put a 14-year old in the competition when they could have replaced her with an of-age 16-year old gymnast? Sure, He is a better gymnast than the Chinese gymnasts who were eligible to compete, but with the judges they had at the Olympics, would it really have mattered?

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