London 2012 & Paralympic General Chat

Nah, mate, was the first race, where he won gold. 400m medley, which she won as well. She was quicker than him in the final 50m, which were freestyle and only a fraction slower over the entire freestyle section, that is the final 100m.

 

Got it.

Anyways, Water Polo is a brutal sport. Anybody seen them basically punching and kicking each other with the underwater cam? Also, literally every single American is from Southern California. :icon_mrgreen:

 

Yes, water polo requires incredible stamina. Swimming is for a longer period of time is not easy as it is, but having a guy trying to drown you all the time makes it so much harder.

 

They're * huge guys, too. I was looking at the US roster and only one of them isn't between 6'3" and 6'7", and he's still 6'1". And all but two are bigger than 200 lbs and the others are in the 190s. I don't really understand how that's possible with the stamina they need.

 

USA-Tunisia on for Basketball now. Should be close.

*Edit* They're actually keeping pace. Coach K is * awesome though... pulled out all 5 starters at the same time. :icon_mrgreen:

 

It turned out to be much closer than I planned on for the first few minutes there!

 

Normalcy appears to have been restored to the universe. Tunisian coach just looked panicked as * there.

 

On waterpolo - it's an exhausting sport. Strong physique and great stamina are required. Also they probably have much greater lung capacity than regular people. Basically only keepers are having any rest as all players are constantly moving and fighting with opponents. Although it does seem a bit gay when they pull each other's underwear and fight underwater.


Today we beat British team 21:7 and won 14:10 vs current champions Hungary. One of the few realistic gold medals Serbia can win, hopefully they do it.

 

I watched that Waterpolo today,unreal amount of energy needed for that.

I always thought it was easy,well it is easy on holidays when you are pished and playing in about 4 foot of water.

I'm enjoying the various sports.

 

From what I understand it's between the US, Hungary, Serbia, and on the outside a bit Romania. Montenegro are dangerous as well.

 

Yeah, about 6-7 teams are always in later stages. Yugoslavia were great and after break up Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia continued the tradition. Spain and US are strong and could end up with a medal. Then you have Italy and Hungary who are two best teams of all time in the sport. Although Hungary lost first two games and maybe won't qualify for quarters at all, it's a hard group.

Though it can be a bit boring when there are same teams taking top spots at European and World championships and Olympics, but I'm not complaining!

 

Yeah, although I thought Italy weren't supposed to be that great this time around.

 

Sorry, but I just love seeing Phelps failing. Can't stand him!

Heartbreaking end to the show jumping for the Swedish lass, one fence between her and gold and she couldn't clear it.

 

Fans jeered as the women's doubles match between China's Yu Yang and * Xiaoli and South Koreans Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na ended in controversy.
Constant errors, including players serving into the net, featured in the match which the Chinese top seeds lost.
Continue reading the main story
“
We've already qualified and we wanted to have more energy for the knockout rounds.
”
Yu Yang
Both pairs were already through to the quarter-finals with the winners to face China's Tian Quing and Zhao Yunlei.
The South Korean pair did not comment, but Yu said she and * were saving energy for the knockout stages.
Match referee Thorsten Berg came on to court at one point to warn the players.
South Korea won the Group A match, which lasted 23 minutes, at Wembley Arena 21-14 21-11.
The two Chinese pairs can now only meet in the final.
The longest rally in the first game lasted four shots.
Yu said: "Actually these opponents really were strong.
"This is the first time we've played them and Wednesday it's the knockout rounds, so we've already qualified and we wanted to have more energy for the knockout rounds.
Continue reading the main story
“
The federation has a huge experience in refereeing their sport and we have every confidence that they will deal with the issue appropriately
”
International Olympic Committee
But South Korean head coach Sung Han-Kook said: "It's not like the Olympics spirit to play like this. How could the number one pair in the world play like this?"
A subsequent match between South Korean third seeds Ha Jung-Eun and Kim Min-Jung and Indonesian pair Meiliana Juahari and Greysia Polii was played out in a similar atmosphere.
Berg returned to court and brandished the black card, signalling disqualification, but it was rescinded and the match resumed when the Indonesians protested.
Both pairs had also already qualified for the knockout stages, with the winner of Group C to play Yu and * and both Korean pairs to face each other if Ha and Kim lost.
The Koreans won 18-21 21-14 21-12 and did not comment before leaving the court.
Polii stopped and told reporters: "I don't know what happened. If that's the game, we have to accept all the things.
"Either they want to trust us - we play bad or we play good. That is our control. Our control is only to play as good as we can."
Paisan Rangsikitpho, a member of the Badminton World Federation's technical committee, said the governing body would "have a real discussion tonight to see what has happened, but I have to get all the facts".
An International Olympic Committee spokesman said: "The federation has a huge experience in refereeing their sport and we have every confidence that they will deal with the issue appropriately and take any necessary measures.

 

I'm sick of hearing about the doping allegations against Ye Shiwen from jealous Westerns.

If she was British she would be the nations new sweetheart, with every major company racing to pay her megabucks to be in their adds. The BBC would never have payed any attention to some loser, US coach complaining.

If she was American or Australian she would be hailed as the new superstar product from the giants of the swimming world like 17 year old Missy Franklin.

But she isn't, she is Chinese which means something has to be going on somewhere. Right...

As Ian Thorpe said young swimmers can take chunks of time off their PB's that older swimmers can't. It's far from u precedented. She has taking the drug tests and passed. She just has an amazing front crawl.

Congratulations Ye.

 

And I'm sick of the race card. You know how many times people make doping jokes/accusations about Americans? People in this thread brought up some bullshit about how Americans aren't tested by the IOC or the Wada or some stupid thing like that. There were similar accusations about Bolt. It's not because she's Chinese, it's because she's so young and that split was fairly absurd. It's just odd, nobody's coming out and saying that they expect her to be positive, it's just a red flag that would be pulled up regardless of where she's from. Same thing with the Lithuanian girl due to the improvement curve she's had.

 

Also, most of the media coverage has been in reaction to the coach, who most people agree just sounds bitter. There's hardly been widespread condemnation. As I said, it's mostly just been, "that's odd, let's keep an eye on it", which happens all the time and usually turns out to be just an athlete being extraordinary.

 

It's because she comes from and trains in a country which isn't a traditional swimming nation. If she was from one of those nations (USA, Australia, Russia etc) then people wouldn't have questioned this as much or have payed as much attention to those that have questioned it.

Today it's been the top headline on the BBC. I'm sure people said Usian Bolt was to good to be true but those claims didn't get the same level of covered that Ye is getting now because Bolt is from a country with a famous sprinting history - Jamaica. Ruta Meilutyte isn't from a famous swimming country but she did train in a country which a) has good training facilities and b) is the host. So she could never have cheated this time round.

I'm sure this US coach is just sad to see that the US is losing it's place as the best swimming nation to China, headed by people Ye and others like Sun Yang.

No. Probably a lot but nobody takes them seriously because America is seen as a great Olympic nation with funding and history.