Beijing Olympics Media Thread

[nskripchun]

So I'm sure in the coming weeks, there's gonna be a lot of cool photos and videos coming out of the Beijing Olympics. I thought it might be nice to start collecting some of them.

First contributions:

Yao Ming Running the Torch
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Olympic-Torch-Relay/ss/events/sp/040708olympictorch#photoViewer=/080806/483/a8566b06995341ebb43e98b27fbaaafc

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Olympic-Torch-Relay/ss/events/sp/040708olympictorch#photoViewer=/080806/ids_photos_wl/r161746986.jpg

...

Robot Fuwa ("The Friendlies", the 5 Olympic Mascots)
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Olympic-Torch-Relay/ss/events/sp/040708olympictorch#photoViewer=/080723/ids_photos_wl/r3048369198.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Olympic-Torch-Relay/ss/events/sp/040708olympictorch#photoViewer=/080723/ids_photos_wl/r1696012743.jpg

...

And of course... requisite cute kid:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Olympic-Torch-Relay/ss/events/sp/040708olympictorch#photoViewer=/080730/483/515af814525f44389ee535b24f6a445e

[nightshade]

That picture of Yao Ming with the torch under the portrait of Mao in Tianamen Square is awesome.

Hooray, media thread. I can't wait until gymnastics goes down.

[lopan]

Jackie running the Torch (video):
http://www.jackiechan.com/2004Jc_flame

[nskripchun]

Jackie running the Torch (video):
http://www.jackiechan.com/2004Jc_flame

Good find. Dang, Jackie's big even up in Greece!

[lopan]

Good find. Dang, Jackie's big even up in Greece!
Actually, i'm wondering now if that might be from Athens 2004.... I thought he ran the Torch through China as well, no?

[nskripchun]

Actually, i'm wondering now if that might be from Athens 2004.... I thought he ran the Torch through China as well, no?

Good call. I should recognized the torch design as not being for the Beijing 2008 Olympics!

Jackie's 2004 Torch Run in Greece
http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/olympics/102185.htm

Jackie's 2008 Torch Run in China
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2008_May_5/ai_n25439546

[lopan]

I think Jackie's the unofficial mascot of the games...

Jackie's the head of the dragon and shows off his singing ability:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CP_FoSX7FE

Here he is with a bunch of artists (90% of whom I don't even know) singing the "Beijing Welcomes You" theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCMCpWnPUYA&feature=related

[awong]

i can pick out some ofthe hk and tw people singing

[nskripchun]

Here he is with a bunch of artists (90% of whom I don't even know) singing the "Beijing Welcomes You" theme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCMCpWnPUYA&feature=related

This song is super catchy. I was humming it all throughout my trip in China, since I'd see playing on TV or at stores.

http://2besureofwhatwehope4.blogspot.com/2008/07/welcome-home-beijing-welcomes-you.html

[nskripchun]

A family friend who's a sports photographer for the Seattle Times is over there right now in Beijing.

Here's his awesome photo blog:

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/bestseatinthehouse/

Check out the craziness of a torch run:

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/bestseatinthehouse/2008/08/olympics_torched.html

[lopan]

This song is super catchy. I was humming it all throughout my trip in China, since I'd see playing on TV or at stores.

http://2besureofwhatwehope4.blogspot.com/2008/07/welcome-home-beijing-welcomes-you.html

Man, I love this song. Does anyone have a half-decent res download of the music video? Joey is so hot.

[RebelAzn]

An actual reasonable look at Beijing Olympics vs. the usual anti-China bashing.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=3520296

After an Olympic lull, Beijing makes Games interesting again
Caple

By Jim Caple
ESPN.com
(Archive)

Updated: August 6, 2008, 8:39 PM ET


At initial glance, you might think the International Olympic Committee blundered by awarding the 2008 Games to a city in a totalitarian country that aids Darfur's thugs but considers the Dalai Lama a menace, and that censors political debate but can't silence the hacking coughs from some of the planet's most polluted cities.

Liu Xiang

US Presswire

Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang will try to defend his Olympic gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles.

Actually, it was an inspired decision. Beijing is just what the Olympics need.

There was a time when the Olympics were an eagerly awaited quadrennial spectacle, the ultimate competition that provided the two most important elements in sports: someone to root for and someone to root against. There were the good guys: America and the other democracies, as their athletes competed fairly and squarely for the simple love of sport and never, ever, under any circumstances, took performance enhancers stronger than spinach and Wheaties. And there were the bad guys: the amoral communists who were breast-fed testosterone and bottle-fed EPO, raised by godless governments and trained 24/7 in secret underground laboratories where every muscle was chemically enhanced and precisely monitored.

Oh, the Olympics were deliciously dramatic in those Bruce Jenner and Ivan Drago days, providing sporting showdowns in the welcome place of nuclear confrontation: The violent 1956 Hungary-Soviet water polo match ("Hey, why does the water look so reddish?"), the 1972 U.S.-Soviet basketball game ("They screwed us!"), and, of course, the 1980 U.S.-Soviet hockey game ("Do you believe in miracles? Yes!").

And then came the breakup of the Soviet Union. Suddenly, there was no great Olympic villain, just a bunch of earnest and dedicated but underfunded athletes struggling to compete for countries so new the IOC couldn't always find a recording of their national anthems for the medal ceremonies. Worse, there were no great heroes, either. We learned that (gasp!) our own athletes cheated just as readily as we thought the Soviets or East Germans ever had, or at least ours did so when not busy preening for the cameras, saluting their shoe-company banner and breaking up their cabin furniture on the Queen Mary 2.

It's hard to root for an Olympian who travels with a crew of bodyguards, P.R. types and personal trainers while showing more allegiance to a swoosh than to the Stars and Stripes.

The Olympics long ago became as much about TV programming as competition, but with the Soviet breakup -- coupled with cable TV and the Internet destroying the old news cycle and rendering tape delay as obsolete as the telegraph -- such programming lost appeal. The Games steadily lost their cache to the point that they were falling in the ratings to exhibition football games and the sacred new national pastime of competitions -- "American Idol." (Meanwhile, Bruce Jenner looks as though he's artificially enhanced his body, as well, or at least his face.)

And here is where Beijing comes in.

The four other finalists for the 2008 Olympics were Paris; Toronto; Osaka, Japan; and Istanbul, Turkey; each is a fine, attractive city, and all are most certainly less controversial than Beijing. We would not see "Free Saskatchewan" protests leading up to Toronto. But that's precisely the point: Whether it was the IOC's intention or not, due to all the surrounding sagas, Beijing has made the Olympics interesting again.

Don't misunderstand. This is not at all to say China is the new Soviet Union. But the controversies over Tibet and Darfur, the concern over free speech, pollution and working conditions, along with the tragic Sichuan earthquake (imagine the nonstop media coverage and finger-pointing if an earthquake killed more than 70,000 in the U.S.), put China in the sort of spotlight normally reserved for Angelina Jolie's baby bump. China not only rekindled interest in the Olympics, it even made people care about the Olympic torch relay for the first time. Truly, an Olympian achievement.

So we will tune in to see whether the pollution and air quality is really as bad as the media makes out -- so bad that, as one colleague jokes, even the swimming pool will be littered with oil spills, beer cans and cigarette butts. The world-record holder in the marathon, Ethiopia's Haile Gebreselassie, says he won't run the event due to health concerns. "I do not want to kill myself in Beijing," he told a Spanish newspaper. "The marathon will be impossible because of the pollution, heat and humidity."

We will tune in to see whether any athletes defy little-known IOC codicils restricting political messages (Gasp! Politics in the Olympics?) to make a statement on Tibet or Darfur. American softball player Jessica Mendoza said she doesn't plan any sort of protest, but was hopeful she can make a positive statement anyway. "I don't think it's my place to tell China what to do," Mendoza said. "It's more my place to tell people what's happening. Hopefully, the more they know what's happening, the more they'll hold the people responsible accountable."

We will tune in to see the spectacle of all those gorgeous (and expensive) new arenas, and wonder whether a protest breaks out in any one of them, and how the government will handle it.

[+] Enlarge
Michael Phelps

AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye

Michael Phelps is one of the many reasons why viewers should tune in to the Beijing Games.

But, mostly, we will tune in to see the athletes.

Our interest sufficiently stoked again, we will follow the Games to see whether Michael Phelps can match (or better) Mark Spitz's seven gold medals (though he will definitely not match him for facial or chest hair). Whether 41-year-old, five-time Olympic swimmer Dara Torres can top her age-defiant performance at the U.S. trials, perhaps by winning a gold medal while pushing her daughter on one of those Styrofoam swim boards. Whether Kenyan-born Bernard Lagat, Mexican immigrant Leonel Manzano and Lopez Lamong, a former Lost Boy of Sudan, can make Lou Dobbs turn purple by medaling as American immigrants in the men's 1,500. Whether the U.S. can again take home gold in its national pastimes of baseball and basketball or else spend the month explaining what went wrong. Whether Tyson Gay can claim the title of world's fastest man after running the 100 meters better than any human has without having an airport shuttle to catch when your flight leaves in 30 minutes.

We'll watch those and thousands of other athletes from around the globe, including China's Liu Xiang, who is truly one in a billion (actually, one in more than a billion). Can he repeat as a gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles while carrying the weight of his nation on his shoulders? We'll see. But you know how American coaches and athletes often try to downplay a poor performance by saying, "A billion people in China don't care"? Well, Liu Xiang won't be able to say it because China has such high expectations for these Olympics that not even Brad Walker could pole-vault over them. These Olympics are China's coming-out party -- the nation is expected to top the medal count (not that nationalism or politics plays any role in the Olympics) -- to show how much the country has progressed since Chairman Mao, and we'll all tune in to see how things look.

And not to sound like an apologist for China's government, but before we get too high and mighty with our moralizing, we should pause to look in the mirror. Yes, China's policies in Tibet and Darfur are contemptuous. Then again, there are many U.S. policies and actions that draw international ire, as well.

Sportswriters moaning about Internet firewalls and governmental snooping in Beijing are both flattering themselves that a Chinese bureaucratic gnome actually cares what we write about LeBron James' shooting percentage and also neglecting the fact technically our Internet traffic is monitored here, as well, albeit by your boss or your e-mail provider, not by the government. And yes, Beijing is so polluted there may be more toxic waste at the Games than at any sporting event since Lenny Dykstra retired. But Vancouver, which hosts the next Winter Games, dumps untreated sewage into coastal waters.

And the reason China made so many of those lead-paint toys is, after all, because we were buying them on sale at Wal-Mart.

China is the world's most populous nation, home to at least 90 cities with populations greater than 1 million -- and you've never heard of most of them. Beijing is an explosive world city, adding 1,000 cars a day to its roads and seemingly that many cranes to its skyline. Yes, banners here celebrate Mao, who may have been responsible for as many deaths as Stalin and Hitler combined; yet this is also a nation that has changed by leaps and bounds since 1984, when China sent its first team to a Summer Games.

Rob Gifford's entertaining and educational journey across the country's main highway, "China Road," paints a picture of the nation that is both disturbing (pollution, corruption, ethnic crackdowns and governmentally forced abortions) and exhilarating. China is never simple ("if you're not confused," he writes, "then you haven't been paying attention"), but a message that comes through often in his book is that for its faults, the nation continually offers more options and freedom to its citizens than one or two generations before.

[RebelAzn]

"For me," Gifford writes of a bus conversation with a man in his 50s, "the mere possibility of government intrusion in my life is unacceptable. For him, the fact those possibilities have receded, even if they are still there in the background, means modern China is Paradise. 'Compared to what?' is always the question you have to ask in China. This man has probably seen and suffered things, and participated in events few Westerners have ever had to bear. Now he can choose what he does. And that, to him, is progress."

So we should keep an open mind as we watch the upcoming 17 days of competition. We'll see something astounding every day, something that will make our hearts race and our chests swell (well, maybe not if we're watching rhythmic gymnastics). And along the way, despite the Chinese government's best efforts, we may just learn a little bit about this nation that is home to so many people and looms so large in our future.

And in the meantime, hopefully they won't call in our bank loans.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached here. His Web site is at jimcaple.net.

Despite all the China criticism, what is lost is that life of average Chinese citizen has improved quite a bit from 10 or 20 years ago. Chinese people actually gave 82% approval on the direction of the country vs. 48% in 2002.

[nskripchun]

For those of you who missed the Opening Ceremony (shame on ya!), a highlight reel by NBC:

NBC Opening Ceremony Highlights (http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0808_HD_OC_RC_CE005&forcereload=true)

Also, for those of you interested in more about Lin Hao, the little boy who walked with Yao Ming:

http://penguinsix.com/2008/08/08/lin-hao-earthquake-survivor-leading-the-chinese-team-in-the-olympics-with-the-help-of-yao-ming/

[RebelAzn]

For those of you who missed the Opening Ceremony (shame on ya!), a highlight reel by NBC:

NBC Opening Ceremony Highlights (http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0808_HD_OC_RC_CE005&forcereload=true)

Also, for those of you interested in more about Lin Hao, the little boy who walked with Yao Ming:

http://penguinsix.com/2008/08/08/lin-hao-earthquake-survivor-leading-the-chinese-team-in-the-olympics-with-the-help-of-yao-ming/


That was one of the best shows of any kind period. I have seen all the Circuit Du Soleli shows and this even top all of them. It was amazing show and ceremony. I still can't believe they got all those people to do all those perfect circles.

[RebelAzn]

An interesting view for Pakistan on the opening of Olympics:

http://thepost.com.pk/EditorialNews.aspx?dtlid=176894&catid=10

[nskripchun]

That was one of the best shows of any kind period. I have seen all the Circuit Du Soleli shows and this even top all of them. It was amazing show and ceremony. I still can't believe they got all those people to do all those perfect circles.

Zhang Yimou is the man.

[nskripchun]

I didn't know this until the wifey pointed this out, but the US Men's Gymnastics team has two Asian Americans representing - Captain Kevin Tan (Chinese American fr. Cali) and Raj Bhavasar (Indian American fr. Texas).

http://www.insidegymnastics.com/content/articlefiles/151-tan.jpg

http://i.usatoday.net/sports/_photos/2008/07/28/bhavsarx.jpg

http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/tsnstory.html?id=6434933

UNDERDOG AMERICANS SURPRISING IN MEN'S GYMNASTICS

Beijing, China (Sports Network) - Despite the Hamm brothers being out of the Olympics, the U.S. men's gymnastics squad has pulled together and advanced to the team finals.

Paul Hamm, the reigning all-around champion, withdrew from the Summer Games less than two weeks ago due to a broken right hand, and his twin, Morgan, pulled out earlier this week because of a left ankle injury.

The Americans were left with all first-time Olympians, but despite two replacement athletes on the roster, the U.S. has a chance to medal.

Sasha Artemev and Jonathan Horton qualified for the all-around finals. Artemev, who won the pommel horse in the weighted combined rankings from the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Gymnastics and Visa Championships. was 17th in the all-around qualifying, while Horton was seventh.

"I think we proved today to all the naysayers that we're still medal contenders," Horton said.

Raj Bhavsar, Joseph Hagerty, Justin Spring and Kevin Tan are the other U.S. gymnasts.

Tan posted the highest score for the USA on rings with a 15.725, while Bhavsar's 16.175 led the USA on vault in the second rotation. Spring and Bhavsar led the men with scores of 15.800 and 15.625, respectively, on parallel bars. Horton earned the USA's highest score on horizontal bar with a 15.575. On floor exercise, the USA scored a total 59.900. Artemev's 15.250 was the USAs highest score for pommel horse.

Reigning team world champion China finished first in the qualification round with 374.675 points, followed by 2004 Olympic team champion Japan in second with a 369.550 and Russia in third at 366.225. Germany and South Korea finished both finished at 365.675. The USA earned a total of 365.200 points for sixth. Rounding out the team finalists are France in seventh and Romania in eighth.

"To make a major team personnel change, compete in the first subdivision and qualify for the team finals is a huge accomplishment, and we are looking forward to competing on Tuesday," said Kevin Mazeika, head coach for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for men's gymnastics. "We accomplished our first set of goals -- to go out and be consistent, and to qualify for team finals. We will go through our usual process and review our performances in the prelims, and the coaches will meet to determine our line up for the 6-3-3 format in the finals."

China's Yang Wei had the highest total score from the six events. Germany's Fabian Hambuechen, the current world all-around silver medalist, was second.

Scores from the qualification round do not carry forward to the finals.

[ellencho]

It's Roldy and Kumar! Yes I know that was wrong.

Did anyone else see the Korean swimmer Park who won the 400m crawl? I love Korean mom responses to kids' achievements - his mama was scrrrrrrrrreaming! My mom's response to my achievements - "don't you want a better job?" :p

[nskripchun]

Did anyone else see the Korean swimmer Park who won the 400m crawl? I love Korean mom responses to kids' achievements - his mama was scrrrrrrrrreaming! My mom's response to my achievements - "don't you want a better job?" :p

Haha.

http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20080810/000cf1a48b7f0a089c8f07.jpg

It's S.Korea's first gold medal in swimming, and he's only 18! Pretty talented kid. Congrats to Mr. Park Tae-hwan.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSSP28679520080810
http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=680/bio/

[wuwei]

Nice to see an Asian guy win in swimming event.

I gotta give props to Grant Hackett too though, that guy has been around FOREVER.

[jaehwan]

Wow, that was quite amazing. The freestyle is cool too because it's basically anything goes (no dq's for taking an extra dolphin kick or any of those other technicals).

[THX1138]

It's Roldy and Kumar! Yes I know that was wrong.

Did anyone else see the Korean swimmer Park who won the 400m crawl? I love Korean mom responses to kids' achievements - his mama was scrrrrrrrrreaming! My mom's response to my achievements - "don't you want a better job?" :p

Kevin Tan and Raj Bhavasar do bear an eerie resemblance to Harold and Kumar. It's like they put John Cho's and Kal Penn's heads on the bodies of 2 really buff stocky guys.

Harold and Kumar Do the Still Rings!

[kalbi]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/swimming/from-schoolgirls-to-sponsors-to-brawling-coaches--parks-hot-property/2007/03/26/1174761379350.html

Park has been a celebrity in Australia for quite a while - seems to be a bit of a sex symbol too (thought I don't know if it's with Korean-Australians or Australians of all backgrounds). Damn those swimmers with their impossibly lean and muscled bodies... I tell you, it's not fair. They get in phenomenal shape as a by-product of their jobs.

[justanotherguy]

Right now US leads with 8 total medals but China with the highest # of GOLD medals (4). South Korea is not doing too badly either.

[RebelAzn]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/swimming/from-schoolgirls-to-sponsors-to-brawling-coaches--parks-hot-property/2007/03/26/1174761379350.html

Park has been a celebrity in Australia for quite a while - seems to be a bit of a sex symbol too (thought I don't know if it's with Korean-Australians or Australians of all backgrounds). Damn those swimmers with their impossibly lean and muscled bodies... I tell you, it's not fair. They get in phenomenal shape as a by-product of their jobs.

The guy who came in 2nd is Chinese swimmer Zhang Lin who is only 21. He came in less than a sec of Park. Here is their pic:
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/090a9QH3crgvC/610x.jpg

If you have to pick guys with the best built, it got to be the Chinese men's gymnastic team. Those guys are so damn strong and they are built like little tanks.

[nskripchun]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/09/beachvolleyball2.jpg

Add your own caption.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/george-bush-mee.html

.:.

Watching the US vs China basketball game live right now!

[jaehwan]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/09/beachvolleyball2.jpg

Add your own caption.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/george-bush-mee.html

.:.

Watching the US vs China basketball game live right now!

"Ah'm addicted to oil. Sun-tan oil. Ah kill mahself with mah White House humor."

[RebelAzn]

Old George is the funniest dude. The guy looks like some dude off the street in the middle of America somewhere. Is he really the president of the USA?

Speaking of beach volleyball, it is actually pretty damn fun. The Chinese have some good teams. The fans are really into it in China. Below are couple of Chinese teams that will challenge May/Walsh for the gold medal in beach volleyball. I am watching them playing on MSNBC right now. Xue/Zhang hug after every point. Pretty wild crowd especially considering it is raining.

Out of 600 athletes USA sent to the Olympics, almost 100 came from Bay Area, CA. I think close to 50% of all the Olympic athletes came from CA alone. Damn maybe CA should send its own team in the future.

http://www.fivb.org/EN/BeachVolleyball/Competitions/WorldTour/2007/2006%20podium%20phu_w.jpg

[nightshade]

nskripchun, that picture is hilarious.

[Heyyu]

Out of 600 athletes USA sent to the Olympics, almost 100 came from Bay Area, CA. I think close to 50% of all the Olympic athletes came from CA alone. Damn maybe CA should send its own team in the future.

Are you sure about that? Where did you get the statistics for that? Cause it's amazing if 1/6 of all the American Olympic athletes came from just one city, let alone half from one state.

[RebelAzn]

Are you sure about that? Where did you get the statistics for that? Cause it's amazing if 1/6 of all the American Olympic athletes came from just one city, let alone half from one state.

Am I sure? Unless my local NBC station lied. They repeated the fact many many times prior to the Olympic coverage.

The article below said 68, but the news cast said almost 100. I am sure the article missed a few.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/07/SP08122LM2.DTL

[nskripchun]

Kosuke Kitajima repeats his gold medal win.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/08/10/sports/11kitajima_650.jpg

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/olympics/20080811dy01.htm


Kitajima repeats gold
By Ken Marantz / Daily Yomiuri Sportswriter

BEIJING--Japan's Kosuke Kitajima became the first swimmer in history to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the men's 100-meter breaststroke, and got the world record back in the process.

Kitajima, a double gold medalist in Athens four years ago, put himself halfway toward an unprecedented repeat when he won in 58.91 seconds at the Beijing Olympics on Monday morning.

Kitajima's time shattered the previous world record of 59.13 set by American Brendan Hansen in August 2006. Kitajima had set the mark in 2003 before Hansen first broke it a year later.

After seeing his time posted on the scoreboard at The Water Cube, Kitajima thrust his fists in the air, reminiscent of his exuberant celebrations in Athens.

Norway's Alexander Dale Oen, who had been fastest in the qualifying rounds, finished second in 59.20, with France's Hugues Duboscq third in 59.37.

Hansen, who was second at the turn, had to settle for fourth in 59.57.

The event was expected to be a showdown between Kitajima and Hansen, who had not been defeated since losing to Kitajima in Athens and had the fastest time of the year in the world coming into Beijing.

But it was Oen who was the swimmer to beat after setting consecutive Olympic records in the preliminary round and semifinals.

Oen had a slight .12 second lead coming off the turn, but Kitajima poured in on down the stretch to touch first and add another chapter to the story of his sparkling career.

The 100 breaststroke is considered the weaker of Kitajima's two events and prospects are high that he can complete the double when the final of the 200 race is held Thursday.

Meanwhile, a short time earlier, Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry set a world record in the semifinals of the women's 100 backstroke, clocking 58.77 seconds to cut .20 off the previous mark set by American Natalie Coughlin in July.

[wuwei]

Are you sure about that? Where did you get the statistics for that? Cause it's amazing if 1/6 of all the American Olympic athletes came from just one city, let alone half from one state.

Um, Stanford + Berkeley, bro. Stanford sent 46, Berkeley sent 45 or something like that.

[t-tocs]

So far, China have 9, South Korea have 4, and Japan have 2 gold medals.
Awesome.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/index.html

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg309/t-tocs/medals.jpg

[t-tocs]

http://www.centurychina.com/plaboard/uploads/bush_1.jpg

[RebelAzn]

128 lb (58 Kg) Chen Yanqing destroyed Olympic record of 130 Kg by 8 Kg. It was remarkable. As someone who have lifted a ton of weight in myself, I personally don't know any guy who can lift as much as this little woman over her head.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/weightlifting/news/newsid=195260.html#chen+worth+weight+chinese+fans

[THX1138]

http://www.centurychina.com/plaboard/uploads/bush_1.jpg

What is it with Bush? Every picture of him I see is always him staring (or leering) intently at a women's beach volleyball player's butt. :eek:

[awong]

bush looks like a prevert there

[Canonball]

Does anyone else want to shoot the commentators sometimes?

[nskripchun]

bush looks like a prevert there

"America. F Yeah."

Want to know what's more prurient about beach volleyball than the players? Dem cheerleaders, yo.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/11/content_9163191.htm

No wonder attendance is high.

[jaehwan]

128 lb (58 Kg) Chen Yanqing destroyed Olympic record of 130 Kg by 8 Kg. It was remarkable. As someone who have lifted a ton of weight in myself, I personally don't know any guy who can lift as much as this little woman over her head.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/weightlifting/news/newsid=195260.html#chen+worth+weight+chinese+fans

Wow. That's absolutely amazing.

I just watched the men's synchronized diving. The Chinese are in force this year!

[nightshade]

China and Japan finished first and second in men's team gymnastics (http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/gymnastics/story/2008/08/12/olympics-gymnastics-mteam.html). Hooray.

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/articleslideshow?articleId=USPEK32883220080812&channelName=GCA-Olympics#a=1

In other news, the Japanese team edges out the South Korean team for best hair. Light on the use of gel, high on the popstar look.

[awong]

i kept noticing the hair lol, but i did not see the koreans hair on tv, just the japanese

[minorTruths]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/off-the-field/bills-blue-screen-of-death-malfunction/2008/08/12/1218306871673.html

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/08/12/china_wideweb__470x325,0.jpg

CTRL+ALT+DEL: software malfunction at the opening ceremony

Stephen Hutcheon
August 12, 2008
Advertisement

Turns out that Bill Gates was not the only famous Microsoft identity to be spotted at the Olympic opening ceremony.
Numerous bloggers also observed the cameo played by the so-called Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) - the Windows error screen that flashes up on your computer, signifying that it's time to reboot.
The screen was projected onto the roof of the National Stadium during the grand finale to the four-hour spectacular as veteran Chinese gymnast Li Ning, suspended 70 metres above the stadium floor, "jogged" towards the Olympic torch.
The BSoD message begins with the following sentence: "A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer."
Usually, the only way to remove the BSoD is to restart your computer pressing the Ctrl+Alt+Delete buttons at the same time.
Images of the malfunction have popped up on Chinese forum sites showing the clearly visible error message projection.
The ceremony, which featured 14,000 performers depicting 5000 years of Chinese history, also involved the use of advanced technology to control the sound, lights and projectors.
At various times during the event, images of whales, clouds, and the faces of young children were superimposed on the roof the stadium - also known as the Bird's Nest.
And as Li Ning completed a lap of the stadium roof's rim, images of the torch relay were flashed up.
The spectacular opening ceremony also included 35,000 fireworks launched from 1800 sites around the city, to form patterns in the air.
Yesterday it was revealed that organisers digitally inserted computer-enhanced images of some of the firework displays broadcast during the opening ceremony.
The BSoD is a bit of an in-joke among geeks and is often used to poke fun at Microsoft's bug-prone Windows operating system.
Gates, who stepped down from his last official full-time position at Microsoft at the end of June, remains as the software company's part-time, non-executive chairman.
He has been spotted at several Olympic events, accompanied by his wife and is here is a private capacity. Microsoft is designated as an official supplier to the 2008 Olympic Games.
It's Windows XP operating system was chosen to run on all PCs used by the organisers a well as being the operating system installed on PCs supplied by Lenovo Group, the computer maker than is one of the major sponsors of the 2008 Olympics.
Microsoft's newer operating system, Vista, was not chosen.
Lenovo chairman, Yang Yuanqing, was quoted as saying that because of the complexity of the IT functions at the Games, it was decided to not use the the more recent operating system. "If it's not stable, it could have some problems," he said.

[awong]

haha, if vista was used it would have been worse vista = winME2.0

should have used win2k, the best windows that runs well on a variety of systems

[nottyboy]

Despite all the China criticism, what is lost is that life of average Chinese citizen has improved quite a bit from 10 or 20 years ago. Chinese people actually gave 82% approval on the direction of the country vs. 48% in 2002.

Not to make the thread take a negative turn, but this was an editorial in this week's Weekly Dig rag. More of the same tired stuff, for sure.

I don't know if they have this editorial online, btw.


Dear Reader,

Our beloved editor told me to start this letter off as follows: "Fuck the Olympics." And why not? As NBC slathers all over the Chinese nozzle, they fail to mention egregious human rights abuses, blatant environmental catastrophe and the Han Chinese populace. No to mention the warped tactics China uses to produce athletes, seizing children as young as three, training them everyday like slaves and casting them off if they fail to achieve, leaving them to die without job training or education. Nice. How about its runaway economic cycle accelerating the impending world recession? Its policy toward Tibet, bordering on genocide? May we suggest a boycott of this entire god-awful, bloody mess?

Instead, might we recommend sock monkeys, thrash metal, the complete works of William Shakespeare and gearing up for a November (by then the Olympics will be long over) ballot question to repeal the income tax?

Fuck the Olympics. I'm gonna read more about this Chichester freak.


David Day
David@weeklydig.com
http://www.weeklydig.com/

[RebelAzn]

Not to make the thread take a negative turn, but this was an editorial in this week's Weekly Dig rag. More of the same tired stuff, for sure.

I don't know if they have this editorial online, btw.

What he does not mention is USA athletes get the same treatment. Many of these kids get trained like when they are little. Phelps started swimming when he was 5. Not to mention the fact most Americans have the means to access swimming pools or whatever training facilities they want while most Chinese in China don't. What is the difference between kids in China get trained by the government vs. kids here? Many parents sent their kids to sports school because they realize if their kids are successful the family as a whole could benefit quite a bit due to endorsements etc. I saw a documentary of Phelps training. He got access to the most advanced equipment, doctors and whatever else he needs out there. On top of it, he got access to the most advanced computer where they track his every single stroke in the entire length of a swim. On top of that, USA athletes got access to the most advanced enhancement drug out on the market (Ex. Marion Jones). Of course, writers like him don't even mention any of it while bashing China.

I guess next time they bring Olympics to the USA we should expect the media to go off on USA on its racial discrimination. Its abuse of American Indians throughout history. Its consumption of world oil supplies (5% of world population while using 25% of oil supply worldwide). Its pollution problems. Its widespread doping problem among athletes. Its IRAQ policy among others. Why don't we turn every Olympic broadcast into a political debate on the world level while we are at it.

[lycheng]

What he does not mention is USA athletes get the same treatment. Many of these kids get trained like when they are little. Phelps started swimming when he was 5. Not to mention the fact most Americans have the means to access swimming pools or whatever training facilities they want while most Chinese in China don't. What is the difference between kids in China get trained by the government vs. kids here?

To most American's, the fact that the Chinese government controls children's lives makes all the difference in the world. Americans are raised with a strong sense of independence and a disdain towards collectivism. David Brooks of the New York Times wrote an OpEd piece (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/opinion/12brooks.html?ex=1376280000&en=c0f222cc3baf977d&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink) about this earlier this week.

The bias against government as surrogate parent is so strong that, unfortunately, any reasoned argument in favor of government sports programs is lost on most Americans.

[RebelAzn]

To most American's, the fact that the Chinese government controls children's lives makes all the difference in the world. Americans are raised with a strong sense of independence and a disdain towards collectivism. David Brooks of the New York Times wrote an OpEd piece (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/opinion/12brooks.html?ex=1376280000&en=c0f222cc3baf977d&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink) about this earlier this week.

The bias against government as surrogate parent is so strong that, unfortunately, any reasoned argument in favor of government sports programs is lost on most Americans.

What most Americans don't realize in Chinese society they always preach country before yourself. It is a concept most Americans don't understand or even appreciate. It is also a difference in eastern vs. western on concept of life. This is why most Americans don't get it when Yao said "It would be the biggest disappointment in his life if he can't play in the Olympics" when he got hurt. Most Americans feel he should forget about the Olympics and focus on the Rockets since the Rockets is paying his salary.

[THX1138]

What he does not mention is USA athletes get the same treatment. Many of these kids get trained like when they are little. Phelps started swimming when he was 5. Not to mention the fact most Americans have the means to access swimming pools or whatever training facilities they want while most Chinese in China don't. What is the difference between kids in China get trained by the government vs. kids here? Many parents sent their kids to sports school because they realize if their kids are successful the family as a whole could benefit quite a bit due to endorsements etc. I saw a documentary of Phelps training. He got access to the most advanced equipment, doctors and whatever else he needs out there. On top of it, he got access to the most advanced computer where they track his every single stroke in the entire length of a swim. On top of that, USA athletes got access to the most advanced enhancement drug out on the market (Ex. Marion Jones). Of course, writers like him don't even mention any of it while bashing China.

I guess next time they bring Olympics to the USA we should expect the media to go off on USA on its racial discrimination. Its abuse of American Indians throughout history. Its consumption of world oil supplies (5% of world population while using 25% of oil supply worldwide). Its pollution problems. Its widespread doping problem among athletes. Its IRAQ policy among others. Why don't we turn every Olympic broadcast into a political debate on the world level while we are at it.

Hey, don't forget the US government's "handling" of Hurricane Katrina, and a little thing called the US War on Terrorism, which isn't about fighting terrorism any more than the American invasion of Iraq was about (cough) Weapons of Mass Destruction.

But this is to be expected from the American corporate media. They blithely go about criticizing other nations, while ignoring the large 2X4 stuck in their own eye.

America's Cold War instincts die hard. If you took much of the American media's (bad faith) criticism of China and compared it to that directed towards the Soviet Union, it would be prolly very similar in nature. Only the details would be different.

The more things change....

[nottyboy]

I guess next time they bring Olympics to the USA we should expect the media to go off on USA on its racial discrimination. Its abuse of American Indians throughout history. Its consumption of world oil supplies (5% of world population while using 25% of oil supply worldwide). Its pollution problems. Its widespread doping problem among athletes. Its IRAQ policy among others. Why don't we turn every Olympic broadcast into a political debate on the world level while we are at it.

It's a big double standard, but from what I've seen a lot of people prefer to stay blind to it. For example, mention Native Americans, and a lot of people seem to brush it aside as a matter of the past (as if Native Americans don't exist anymore). The nice ones will admit that they are mistreated, but the conversation quickly moves on to some other issue. You have way more dialogue about racism against Blacks and Latinos than you do about Native Americans and their situation.

[uRB4N]

Americans need to lose their sports team mentality when it comes to other countries.

[ellencho]

I just want to say that the men's floor gymnastics guys are so cute. I just want to squish them! :D:D:D And just in case any of you were wondering, yes that officially makes me an ajuma.

[nskripchun]

I just want to say that the men's floor gymnastics guys are so cute. I just want to squish them! :D:D:D And just in case any of you were wondering, yes that officially makes me an ajuma.

Eye candy for the ajuma!

http://www.towleroad.com/images/2008/08/14/gymnasts.jpg


http://disgrasian.blogspot.com/2008/08/gymnast-and-gay-go-together-like-ramma.html

[ellencho]

Haha that is hilarious! The one guy on the back left looks so uncomfortable!

[RebelAzn]

Article on USA vs. China on gold medals.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/the-medal-count.html

Article on China only cares about gold: http://www.kansascity.com/495/story/754609.html

BTW, just about every country in the world and IOC rank Olympic performance based on # of gold medals won except for the USA and a couple Western countries, which does it based on total medal count. I guess if you count 2nd and 3rd place winners, what about 4th, 5th and 6th? Its all about how you look at things I guess.

[Canonball]

He Kexin is my goddess and she totally kicked that Russian import's ass on the uneven bars. Blondie got owned, pure and simple, and yet the American commentators won't let it go. When the camera showed Kexin smiling joyfully at winning the gold, one snarky douchebag actually asked, "Does she really think she won the gold?"

[RebelAzn]

He Kexin is my goddess and she totally kicked that Russian import's ass on the uneven bars. Blondie got owned, pure and simple, and yet the American commentators won't let it go. When the camera showed Kexin smiling joyfully at winning the gold, one snarky douchebag actually asked, "Does she really think she won the gold?"

I personally think the Chinese girl who got Bronze got screwed. She did the best routine. Yes the whining from American media is getting ridiculous. It is a panel of international judges who made the call and the rule to break ties are clear to all the competitors. How about show some sportsmanship and stop whining for a change?

If anyone remember, it was a Korean gymnast who should have won the gold medal in men's all around at 2004 Olympics. Paul Hamm from USA won it due to an error by the judges. They gave a wrong start value to the Korean gymnast's routine and he got screwed out of a gold and ended with a silver. USA media sure did make even close to same amount of noise during that time. They sure hell wasn't going to give the gold medal back to the Korean.

Gymnastics need to get rid of the age limit. It is just stupid. If a girl at 12 is good and strong enough, why not let her compete? Last I checked gymnastics require a ton of strength. If a 12 years old have the strength to compete, why not let her or him?

[wuwei]

Gymnastics need to get rid of the age limit. It is just stupid. If a girl at 12 is good and strong enough, why not let her compete? Last I checked gymnastics require a ton of strength. If a 12 years old have the strength to compete, why not let her or him?

Child abuse, bro.

It does require a lot of strength, however that strength is relative to their own bodyweight. And whatever strength a girl gains from 13 to 16 is completely overshadowed by the gain in body weight, and loss in agility.

Either way, it's a shitty situation. You either dont restrict age and risk having young girls being put through gruesome training, or you restrict age and compromise the legitimacy of the sport by forcing people to compete when they are not in peak shape.

[RebelAzn]

Child abuse, bro.

It does require a lot of strength, however that strength is relative to their own bodyweight. And whatever strength a girl gains from 13 to 16 is completely overshadowed by the gain in body weight, and loss in agility.

Either way, it's a shitty situation. You either dont restrict age and risk having young girls being put through gruesome training, or you restrict age and compromise the legitimacy of the sport by forcing people to compete when they are not in peak shape.

Just because they take away the age limit does not mean there won't be child abuse. People that will abuse kids will do so regardless of the age limit. Kids still will be abused during preparation for the competition even when they are not old enough. I think the age limit is stupid. There is fine balance between age, strength, coordination and others to make a perfect athlete. Both Liuskin's dad and Sara Miller said they should get rid of the age limit altogether.

[THX1138]

Article on USA vs. China on gold medals.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/the-medal-count.html

Article on China only cares about gold: http://www.kansascity.com/495/story/754609.html

BTW, just about every country in the world and IOC rank Olympic performance based on # of gold medals won except for the USA and a couple Western countries, which does it based on total medal count. I guess if you count 2nd and 3rd place winners, what about 4th, 5th and 6th? Its all about how you look at things I guess.

For America, the Olympics medal count is just a proxy for the USA's increasing paranoia and hostility towards China's emergence on the world stage in general.

This American media coverage and its various complaints about everything from the open ceremonies lip syncing (which in fact organizers consulted with NBC about) to the women's gymnastics competitions to the medal count all reveal the USA's chauvinist Yellow Perilism, as it nervously looks over its shoulder at China coming on strong.

This kind of insecurity is pathetic behavior for the World's Only Superpower, but it's nothing new. (See the Cold War)

It's also entirely predictable. Any person could have predicted the tenor of this (American) corporate media coverage before it even began.

Every thing is geopolitics for America--even the Olympics.

[ktkbs]

I can't wait to see how America weasels around losing the gold. Are they going to give each member of the basketball team a medal in spirit? Or will they go by total medals, counting silvers and bronzes when they never did in the past?

I can't tell.. are the evil, sneaky Chinese bent on conquering America and violating white womanhood or are they weak and harmless and unable to surpass sacred Aryan America without cheating?

[RebelAzn]

This is an interesting article about how to handle China from Jerusalem Post of all the places.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710408496&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The politics surrounding Beijing's hosting the Olympic Games have exposed two interrelated phenomena: the wounds and self-consciousness of the Chinese, and the extent to which the West misunderstands them. But they also represent a significant opportunity to better understand a country that will play a more influential role this century than previously.
People hold a Chinese flag as...

People hold a Chinese flag as others chant slogans in support of China and the Olympic Games after the dawn flag raising ceremony in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Friday.
Photo: AP

For several thousand years, China existed as a regional hegemony. Its soft power extended to the far reaches of East Asia, and its riches drew bold explorers from the West. China's very name - the "Middle Kingdom" - indicates it has long viewed itself as a leader, and was indeed long regarded as such. Yet by the middle of the 19th century, China had become a vastly different place. Foreign invasions and occupations devastated China's national pride. The most traumatic of these were the British Opium Wars of the 1860s and Japan's brutal occupation prior and during World War II. For a nation that had traditionally dominated its region, the slicing and dicing of the homeland by foreigners constituted a profound humiliation from which the Chinese are still recovering.

The years following the war saw a beleaguered China emerge unified, thanks to Mao Zedong. While his rise to power and solidification of communist rule featured extraordinary brutality - including the political persecution of hundreds of thousands - Mao ushered in a period of massive transformation and an invigoration of Chinese national pride. His exclamation on independence in 1949 that "the Chinese people are back on their feet" still reverberates in China. Like Russia's current image of Stalin, the Chinese (many of whom did not live under Mao) see his legacy as the man who unified China against all odds and reclaimed its dignity. Such is the power of a national symbol in China.

For the Chinese, Beijing's hosting of the Olympics is yet another national symbol, a step in reclaiming the national pride stripped away 150 years ago. In this regard, the discourse headed by prominent Western leaders such as Angela Merkel of Germany and Gordon Brown of the UK prior to the Games on targeting the opening ceremony for boycott is indicative of how misunderstood China is, and the extent to which such threats could backfire.

CRITICS RIGHTFULLY point out China's myriad political shortcomings and problems. China's violence toward the Tibetan minority and its own citizens, its support of Sudan's genocidal regime, and its harmful environmental policies are surely unacceptable. We must demand of China that it assume the role of global leadership more responsibly. Nevertheless, the attempt to bully it into changing its policies through a symbolic Olympic boycott only exacerbated these problems.

The core of the problem is a failure to adequately distinguish between the policies and shortcomings of the Chinese government and the views and aspirations of the Chinese people. The threat of an Olympic boycott embarrassed the latter, while doing little to sway the behavior of the former.

Despite China's rapid ascendancy, we must remember that the Chinese people are deeply suspicious of the intentions of foreigners; at the same time, they desperately wish to be included in the global community. Calls for boycotts and other forms of delegitimization, rather than encouraging China to change, have deepened these public feelings of suspicion. Overall, they have made it less likely China will respond positively to the goading of Western democratic powers.

Even those Chinese who oppose the policies of the Communist Party of China have rallied around it when they felt their national identity under attack. Continued threats to delegitimize China will push the Chinese people further into this defensive posture. If we truly want to positively impact China, our engagement has to be constructive and carefully weighed. Gradual engagement, rather than rhetoric of shaming China, should be our modus operandi, if we wish to avoid alienating the Chinese people. After all, it is the will of the Chinese people, rather than any one particular policy of the communist party, that represents the best long-term hope of greater democratization and political freedom taking hold.

PAYING HOMAGE to China's rich history and culture at the Olympics is a good starting point. This should be concomitant, though, with calls on China to improve itself on various issues. Criticism must be aimed squarely at the CCP while keeping China's national pride intact, as US President George W. Bush wisely chose to administer in Bangkok on his way to the opening ceremony.

Western governments should enrich relations between the Chinese community and their own by means of cultural exchange and cooperative projects. The message needs to be unequivocal: We respect China and celebrate its culture, but demand responsibility on China's part. Mismanagement of foreign policy, including decisions by Western leaders to pursue delegitimizing actions such as cultural boycotts, will create greater distrust bereft of constructive policy impact.

The writer is a graduate of the departments of international relations and East Asian studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializing in Chinese studies.

[Canonball]

I can't wait to see how America weasels around losing the gold. Are they going to give each member of the basketball team a medal in spirit? Or will they go by total medals, counting silvers and bronzes when they never did in the past?

I can't tell.. are the evil, sneaky Chinese bent on conquering America and violating white womanhood or are they weak and harmless and unable to surpass sacred Aryan America without cheating?

Which is another thing. The male Chinese gymnastics team OWNED the US team on every level. My sister and I were up into the wee hours enthralled. They were buffer, stronger, faster, and more daring. After a while, the commentators had to stop their propaganda and recognize how that shit is properly done. I'm getting seriously tired of this schoolyard taunting, "Our team's the most dedicated team on earth. Our team's the most determined team on earth. Our team's the most this, and the most that, and NO ONE can compare to them and the only reason our import lost the gold was that the computer fucked up after the judges screwed her over."

The fuck ever. I never cared about men's gymnastics until Yang Wei stepped up and showed the world how real men work the rings. And yeah, America should feel insecure and shit itself. They're on Chinese home turf and those guys are not fucking around this year. I'm not saying American athletes suck altogether, but they--and other Western nations--have shown the world how lazy and lax they can be with their training. I mean, most of the Western countries got as far as they did because they had the foresight--as usual--to import people of color (or in the US's case, people from Russia) to do their dirty work. Don't let Nastia's irritating Valley Girl accent fool you. Bitch is old-school Soviet all the way.

And I hope China's figure skaters step all over everybody this winter. Bring the Western world down a couple thousand notches (...but I'm pretty sure the Russians will own everybody).

[angi]

Skip the nationalist nonsense...

Bring on more hotties! Holy cow, this Olympics has been one Grade A sausage fest. Most of the time they have those weird, "training too much" faces. This year, wow. Just wow. Naise.

[nskripchun]

Skip the nationalist nonsense...

Bring on more hotties! Holy cow, this Olympics has been one Grade A sausage fest. Most of the time they have those weird, "training too much" faces. This year, wow. Just wow. Naise.

Heard of this story?

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/The-hot-Paraguayan-goes-cold-at-Olympics?urn=oly,101791

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/e8/fullj.bd53fe93f710831b5427a1a8eaafff61/bd53fe93f710831b5427a1a8eaafff61-getty-81973090mw080_olympics_day_.jpg
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/e8/fullj.bd53fe93f710831b5427a1a8eaafff61/bd53fe93f710831b5427a1a8eaafff61-getty-81973090mw080_olympics_day_.jpg

Grlz wit javelins = teh hotness.

[etain]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3542649

One of the worst ones I've seen yet, and unfortunately one of the most prominent. I can't copy and paste because it's actually uploaded as an image (parodizing some sort of Politburo classified memo) but maybe I can link the image:

http://assets.espn.go.com/i/mag/2008issues/082508/reilly_beijing7.gif

[RebelAzn]

While it is easy to go around the media and find plenty of anti-China (expected) articles, its more interesting discussing what's actually going on at the Olympics.

Here is an article on how much these Chinese gold medalists can make. While the pressure on getting gold medals is huge and the training harsh, the reward can set some of these guys for life. Average gold medalists in China can expect to make $460K USD. They are set for life if they win.

http://www.clickboothlnk.com/e/?enc=ceqnklpnqxes&optionalinfo=&deployid=2815273&land=0&pid=0

In China, all Olympic medalists are striking gold

Winning athletes are being showered with cash bonuses - a testament to the big business sports has become here in recent years

GEOFFREY YORK

August 20, 2008

BEIJING -- Canoeists are not exactly the glamour athletes of China's Olympic team. Their sport is one of the most obscure in the country. But if they manage to add to China's gold-medal harvest this week, they will be rewarded with instant wealth.

One of Beijing's biggest breweries - located just down the road from the Olympic canoe/kayak basin - is pledging a cash bonus of $150,000 to any Chinese canoeist who wins gold at the Olympics. Any silver or bronze medalists will get bonuses of about $75,000 or $30,000.

In addition to these prizes, more bonuses could be showered on the medalists from various governments, corporate sponsors and private businesses. The potential bonanza would be the biggest that China's little-known canoeists have ever received.

The prize from the beer company is just one example of how China's Olympians are cashing in on the booming economy and the fast-growing resources of Chinese governments. Its medal-winning athletes will be the best rewarded in the country's history. Sports has become a big business in China in recent years, especially because of the rise of celebrity culture in this nominally Communist country. And of all the sports that have gained popularity in China in recent years - including soccer and basketball - the Olympics is by far the biggest phenomenon in the country this year.
Print Edition - Section Front

China's elite athletes, including Yao Ming of basketball and Liu Xiang of hurdling, have already been rewarded with multimillion-dollar contracts from advertisers and corporate sponsors.

Even after withdrawing from the Olympics because of an injury this week, Mr. Liu managed to retain all of his corporate sponsorships, which earned him an estimated $24-million last year. He is one of the most famous faces on Chinese television and billboards, thanks to his advertising deals with Coca-Cola, Nike, Cadillac, Visa, and more than a dozen Chinese companies. They have all pledged to keep supporting him, despite his shocking pullout from the Games on Monday.

Mr. Yao is even wealthier than the famous hurdler, with an income of about $57-million last year, according to an estimate by Forbes magazine.

China's richest female athlete is diving champion Guo Jingjing, who has won two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. She has endorsement deals with dozens of companies, including McDonald's, Toshiba and Avon, and her annual income is estimated at more than $2-million.

This huge flow of money is a dramatic change from the 1980s, when China's first Olympic champion was rewarded with a monthly salary increase of 48 yuan (worth about $7 at today's exchange rate).

When Xu Haifeng captured China's first-ever gold medal by winning the men's free pistol event at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the government gave him a bonus of 9,000 yuan (about $1,400).

In comparison, the first Chinese champion of this year's Games was Chen Xiexia, a weightlifter from the southern province of Guangdong. The Chinese news media estimates that she will receive bonuses of five million yuan (about $770,000).

The average Chinese gold-medal winner this month will receive about three million yuan (about $460,000) in prizes and bonuses, according to an article in Titan Sports, a Chinese sports newspaper.

Even the least-known Chinese medal winners are cashing in. The Bank of East Asia, a leading bank in Hong Kong, is awarding about $44,000 to every gold medalist on China's national fencing team.

[wuwei]

When Xu Haifeng captured China's first-ever gold medal by winning the men's free pistol event at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the government gave him a bonus of 9,000 yuan (about $1,400).

This part is pretty amazing to me, that China only won its first gold medal in 1984, that's just 24 years ago, and now its looking at leading the medal count in this one.

[RebelAzn]

Frankly, I am quite surprised how many gold China has got. They currently have 46. USA's best effort with everyone competing was 96 at 44 golds. 84 does not count cause Soviet and their allies weren't in the Olympics. While China still have a long way to go in team sports like basketball and soccer, they are finding success in sports like field hockey and water polo. I don't even think most people in China know what is field hockey and water polo. Hopefully, this trend will get more kids off their asses and go play some sports in Asia.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=oly&id=3540842

China's the boss, and it's not even close
Associated Press

BEIJING -- The story line was in place even before they filled the pool inside the Water Cube. This was always going to be China's Olympics to win, and there wasn't a lot the United States or anybody else could do about it.

The message didn't come from the Chinese, though they had to have a pretty good idea what was coming. They didn't spend billions on the magnificent structures where these games are being staged with the idea of coming in second in the medal standings.

No, it was the American side playing the game of lowered expectations. Better for those at home to understand going in that these games might be tough than have them look up midway through the Olympics and wonder what in the name of Michael Phelps is going on.

Which is precisely what many have to be wondering about now.

Lowered expectations are one thing. Lowered performances are another.

Sure, Phelps cleaned up in the pool and his teammates added to the swimming haul. That's almost expected, because Americans have dominated swimming at most Olympics since Johnny Weissmuller won five gold medals in the 1920s.

And U.S. athletes are doing a fine job of finishing second and third. Already, 50 of them have spent a few Olympic moments in Beijing standing on podiums listening to the national anthems of other countries.

But the golds? Gone to China, nearly every one. Well, not quite, though it may seem that way to everyone not watching American television. While NBC has spent much of its prime-time glorifying all things Phelps, the host country has been busy collecting the most prized medals by the handful.

In just 10 days, the Chinese have not only passed the total number of golds (32) they won four years ago, but also the total number (36) won by the United States in Athens. As of Monday night they had 39 golds, closing in on the 44 won by the U.S. in 1996 in Atlanta. The U.S. won 83 golds at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, but those were boycotted by the Soviet Union and its allies.

China's success is no surprise. The country's Project 119 program was designed to match that many total medals at these games, and China has spared no resources in making sure that happens at home in Beijing.

What is a bit surprising is that the U.S. lags so far behind in a gold-medal race that figured to be competitive, if nothing else. The Olympic powerhouse that topped the gold medal count the last three Olympics has a grand total of 22, and that's after all the swimming that isn't synchronized has ended.

Take away the eight won by Phelps and things really look dismal.

"We were trying to lay expectations down that we've seen this coming for a couple of years and certainly didn't want anyone to be shocked," U.S. Olympic official Steve Roush said, referring to the lopsided medal tally. "Some felt maybe we were sandbagging. I wish we were."

Ask why the Chinese are dominating the gold-medal count while the U.S. struggles to pick up a gold here and there, and you hear the usual things. The home team always gets a boost from the Olympics, China has a sports school program that trains athletes from a young age, and the hosts have targeted certain sports (weightlifting, shooting, badminton) to cash in on.

Left unsaid is that the U.S. also identifies athletes at a young age, spends hundreds of millions of dollars to train them, and throws in a nice bonus if they win gold. And no country has done anything more to make their athletes feel at home in China than the Americans.

They took over a local university so the 600 athletes could train and live in comfort, imported tons of their favorite food, provided them with everything from masseuses to sports psychologists, and even taught them the words to the national anthem, just in case.

They still aren't winning, something the Chinese are beginning to notice.

"Track and field competitions were already in the third day and so far 'Uncle Sam' hasn't taken one gold," the nation's biggest sports newspaper, the Titan Sports Weekly, said Monday.

That changed when Stephanie Brown Trafton won the women's discus and the American men swept the 400 hurdles. U.S. officials hold out hope for a strong final push in track, but Tyson Gay didn't even qualify for the 100-meter final, what was supposed to be an All-Star shot put trio flopped, and there's not a Carl Lewis anywhere in sight.

"I am surprised we haven't won more gold," Brown Trafton said. "But you know what? I hope this sets a trend."

Much to NBC's horror, there's not a lot left out there to even make it close, unless IOC officials rewrite the rules and give the U.S. credit for all of the 12 gold medals that will surely hang around the neck of the U.S. men's basketball team on Sunday.

Purists will insist that none of this matters and that the Olympics are all about individuals and teams doing their best for Olympic glory. They'll say just competing means more than anything.

That, of course, is nonsense.

Bragging rights by countries have been an Olympic staple since the inception of the modern games in 1896. They were especially fun -- even important -- to grab during the Cold War, where the medal haul often served as a proxy for real world events.

The world has changed, but that hasn't.

And with time beginning to run out in these games, the U.S. isn't finding a lot to brag about.

----

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlbergap.org

[RebelAzn]

Chinese women been kicking butt at the Olympics. Got to give props to Chinese woman weightlifter Chen Yanqing in the 58 Kg class, she lifted more weight than men in the same 58 Kg class.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/newscenter/news/newsid=242935.html

With three days and many more gold medal rounds still to come, Chinese athletes have clearly succeeded in their well known but unspoken goal to win the most gold medals at these Games.

China has already won 46 golds, up from the 32 they took in Athens four years ago, compared with 29 for the United States. China is also threatening to overtake the total medal count -- watched almost exclusively by the U.S. -- as well. The difference between the two nations at the end of Day 13 was just eight, with 95 for the U.S. and 83 for China.

Although China closed the gap to 83-81 at one point, the U.S. retained the overall lead. The U.S. added gold in women's soccer action, but failed to win as expected in softball and women's water polo. Medals are probable in men's water polo, men's and women's basketball and several track events, as well as BMX and mountain biking. Still, Chinese strength in table tennis, boxing and diving -- all of which have medals to come -- will keep the overall contest tight.

The U.S. has tended to excel at team sports, where only one medal is at stake, no matter its dominance -- think softball, basketball, beach volleyball -- while the Chinese have excelled at individual sports, where multiple medals can be won, such as diving, weightlifting and gymnastics. The contrast was heightened at these Games by the U.S.' disappointing performance in track and field. Only an incredibly strong performance in the pool, where the USA won 10 gold and 17 total medals, has kept the competition this close.

China has dominated in areas of traditional strength, such as diving, weightlifting, badminton and table tennis. But the host nation is also excelling at sports where they have never done so before; they are guaranteed to win four medals in boxing; took six in swimming, including one gold; and hauled in two medals in both rowing and sailing.

These medals may represent early success for Project 119, the much-heralded Chinese program to win more gold medals in sailing, swimming, track and field, rowing and canoe -- where 119 gold are up each Olympics. They have taken two golds in those sports thus far, just one more than in Athens, but are becoming more competitive.

Chinese women athletes, who account for 53 percent of the nation's 45 gold medals and 59 percent of the total medals, have made a much larger contribution across the board. American women, on the other hand, have won just 44 percent of their country's golds (12 of 27), though they account for 53 percent of the total medals.

"Women started off on a more equal athletic footing in China than they did in the West," says Susan Brownell, an American professor at Beijing Sport University's Olympic Studies Centre and the author of Beijing's Games: What the Olympics Mean to China. She says that sports were traditionally a part of an elite male education at places such as Yale, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. When women began trying to compete equally, they had to battle and scrap for the right to do so and subsequently for funding, practice time and everything else necessary to succeed at the highest level. This was not the case in China.

"It goes back to the turn of the century when western women missionaries encouraged Chinese women to participate in sports as a means of improving what they viewed as women's virtual slave status in China," says Brownell. "Fast forward to the 50s when this attitude dovetailed with Communist ideology preaching equality and women got equal support.

"I don't think men resented it or pushed back against women's athletics the way they did in the West because it was not an established part of elite male life."

All of which might explain Chinese weightlifter Chen Yanqing's surprise at being asked about being able to out-lift most European men in the 58k category she has dominated in the last two Olympics. "I never thought that women would be inferior to men," she said . "Ever since I was a kid, I was taught that women and men were at the same level."

[justanotherguy]

LOL, somebody can't do math. So 95-83 = 8?

"China has already won 46 golds, up from the 32 they took in Athens four years ago, compared with 29 for the United States. China is also threatening to overtake the total medal count -- watched almost exclusively by the U.S. -- as well. The difference between the two nations at the end of Day 13 was just eight, with 95 for the U.S. and 83 for China."

[etain]

I've been waiting for someone to say something like this. Good job Jim Caple, especially after that crap we got from Rick Reilly.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=3548749

BEIJING -- So, the International Olympic Committee wants the International Gymnastics Federation to investigate the ages of Chinese gymnasts to put the matter to rest once and for all.

[+] Enlarge
China Gymnasts

Al Bello/Getty Images

The IOC has opened an investigation into whether China falsified the ages of members of its women's gymnastics team.

I'm not sure what it hopes to find because the Chinese government assures us its gymnasts were all of qualifying age -- despite many documents to the contrary, plus the fact that one was seen competing with her umbilical cord still attached. And the Chinese government would never lie, would it? Just as our presidents never tell a fib.

The IOC can save a lot of time, effort and money by taking a far simpler, more conclusive and, quite frankly, obvious approach to this issue. If it wants to know whether an athlete is cheating, simply check the passports. If they say "U.S. citizen," then the athletes are above suspicion. If they say anything else, they are guilty. (Well, maybe not the Canadians, who aren't suspicious because they're not winning anything.)

Hasn't the IOC been paying attention to American Olympic coverage over the decades? Our Olympians are always clean. It's the other athletes who cheat like foreign accountants in offshore tax havens.

Those Chinese swimmers who medaled in the women's 200-meter butterfly? They clearly juiced because there is no way a relatively unknown team could medal and shave such time off previous world records. Only an American who has been on the cover of Time magazine, such as 41-year-old hero Dara Torres, could do that without raising suspicions. I mean, c'mon! Our success in the pool wasn't a surprise. Everyone expected our swimmers to win tons of medals, and they did, even though they had to overcome all the people who said they couldn't do it.

And those newfangled speedsuits had nothing to do with their world-record times, either, so you can just forget about that right now.

Which brings me to all those nations who keep stocking their teams with ringers. Becky Hammon competing for Russia even though she doesn't speak the language? Milorad Cavic swimming for Serbia even though he grew up in Anaheim (I didn't realize Disneyland had been part of the former Yugoslavia)? Appalling. America would never fast-track athletes for citizenship, unless perhaps they were from Africa and had awesome qualifying times.

These countries are merely trying to surpass our gold-medal total, which is foolhardy. The Chinese even regularly update their "Olympics-leading" gold tally on chalk and message boards throughout the city. That's just sad, and a terrible twisting of the true Olympic spirit.

The Olympics aren't about which country wins the most gold medals; they're about which country wins the most medals, period. And America holds a solid lead there. Besides, the "official" gold tally neglects all the multiple golds we've won on relay teams and in other team sports. This just isn't fair. How can you not count all gold medals that are handed out to an entire team? By the time you include all our gold medals -- eight for each men's swimming relay team because the athletes in the qualifying heats get them, as well -- I bet we'll have a commanding lead there.

But I do hope the IOC gets to the bottom of this age controversy because it is damaging the credibility of gymnastics, which is otherwise utterly beyond reproach and never subject to the manipulation of biased or petty judges. That, of course, is due to the straightforward and easily understood scoring system that is such a hit with viewers.

Something, after all, must be done to prevent immature, underage girls from being thrown into an intense, pressure-packed international competition they are far too young to handle emotionally. Forcing a young girl to compete like that would be like entering a 6-year-old in a beauty contest, or a fifth grader in a national spelling bee, or expecting an 11-year-old boy to compete in a worldwide baseball tournament on national TV. Americans just don't believe in placing that kind of pressure on children.

By the way, be sure to tune into the Little League World Series this weekend on ESPN. I just hope those foreign kids with the beards and mustaches are really 12.

[RebelAzn]

Yet more whining from USA's Tae Kwon Do team. Unbelievable. Why don't we change the contest to Ultimate Fighting next time. Unfortunately, this is the attitude of many kids that play sports today in America at will. The attitude is win at all cost no matter what. If you lose, it must be the opponent's fault, they cheated or they got lucky.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/taekwondo/news?slug=cr-lopez082208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

[RebelAzn]

Glad someone is looking at things from a different perspective.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080816/COLUMN0301/808160335/1072/SPORTS


statesmanjournal.com

August 16, 2008

Gymnastics final ruined by one-sided NBC broadcast

James Day

So how do you watch a thrilling women's gymnastics all-around competition in which Americans finish one-two and wind up being ashamed that you are an American? Easy. Just listen to the NBC announcers whine and screech their way through the evening in a performance that was so blatantly pro-American I was fuming.

Let's start at the beginning. NBC introduced the competition as a battle between Americans Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. No other gymnasts were mentioned. NBC got lucky when Liukin won gold and Johnson took silver, but NBC failed to inform viewers who the toughest competition for the Americans would be.

Then, analysts Tim Daggett and Elfi Schlegel commenced to whine about the judging. That is, they whined about judging that they perceived to be unfair to Liukin and Johnson and never about judging that was unfair to anyone else.

It reminded me of watching a U10 soccer game. Two players collide. One side calls for a foul on the blue team. One side calls for a foul on the white team. That's the key here. One side.

At one point after a non-American gymnast's routine, Daggett announced that he would drop dead if a certain score was achieved. Believe me, I was ready to take him up on his offer.

This is the same Daggett who after a few bobbles by American gymnasts in the team competition Tuesday night referred to the performance as a "disaster of epic proportions."

Get a grip. The guy is sitting in a country that experienced a REAL disaster, the May 12 earthquake that killed 70,000 people. That's a real disaster, not someone stepping out of bounds on the floor exercise.

The coup de grace came just before NBC closed down for the night at 1:30 a.m. West Coast time. Studio announcer Bob Costas set up a piece of film that showed the real-time reaction of analyst Bela Karolyi, the legendary Romania coach who tutored Olympians Nadia Comaneci (1976), Mary Lou Retton (1984) and Kerri Strug (1996).

Karolyi was shown openly, demonstrably cheering while watching Liukin's gold medal-clinching floor exercise. NBC liked the footage so much they repeated it Friday night and put Karolyi in the studio with Liukin and Johnson to chat about it.

Appalling. Throughout the competition the guy was one of the worst whiners about the judging. How can we possibly believe he is offering unbiased, expert commentary on the event after we see him pounding his fists on the table and hugging Costas?

Also, NBC committed one of the cardinal errors of sports broadcasting: They didn't tell us the score often enough. A list of the standings on the top six would have been helpful, just as it is when you turn on an NBA or NFL game and the score is right there on the screen.

I did come away from the competition with a great deal of respect for Liukin and Johnson, teenagers who couldn't take a breath during the competition without an NBC camera in their face. I could count Johnson's freckles.

NBC's pictures were great. They blew it completely on the words.

jday@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801

[awong]

i agree with that article after watching gymnastics, it was very annoying and one sided. Then I go and watch the diving competitions and found the broadcasters very fair and balanced and instead really talking about technique and errors without putting any personal bias. Watching the diving portion was more enjoyable b/c of it.

And i cant stand that bella guy, and his endless whinning about the chinese gymnast age, seriously they wanted to make a huge deal about it.

[minorTruths]

I've pretty much watched a fairly good deal of the the gymnastic coverage. But by chance I completely missed the night the women gymnasts were competing for the individual all around. So I can't attest to what the article says.

But during the other times of viewing the coverage, Tim Daggett came off to me as very pro Chinese. At times it seemed as if he was cheering for the Chinese athletes more than he did the Americans (which can be annoying too I suppose). The other two commentators seem to be a lot more the whiners, but Tim Daggett seemed to overshadowed them as he commentated the most given his gymnastics background. I didn't think he was bad at all. So I am not sure entirely about the article's take.

Bob Costas is someone I found annoying during these Olympics. I have never had a problem with his sports broadcasting, but for some reason he got on my bad side during the Olympics.

[awong]

i didnt see as much of the individual too. But did think the men's coverage with the same people was a bit more balanced, than the womens. But it was the other two that did come off whinning a lot

[RebelAzn]

I've pretty much watched a fairly good deal of the the gymnastic coverage. But by chance I completely missed the night the women gymnasts were competing for the individual all around. So I can't attest to what the article says.

But during the other times of viewing the coverage, Tim Daggett came off to me as very pro Chinese. At times it seemed as if he was cheering for the Chinese athletes more than he did the Americans (which can be annoying too I suppose). The other two commentators seem to be a lot more the whiners, but Tim Daggett seemed to overshadowed them as he commentated the most given his gymnastics background. I didn't think he was bad at all. So I am not sure entirely about the article's take.

Bob Costas is someone I found annoying during these Olympics. I have never had a problem with his sports broadcasting, but for some reason he got on my bad side during the Olympics.

Tim Daggett was only pro Chinese during men's competition because Chinese men were just way superior than anyone else in the execution and difficulties of their routines. Tim was impressed because there was not much debate and Chinese men certainly look older than 16. It is a completely different story when it comes to women's portion, he was bias as hell.

The USA boxing commentator was bias as hell too. While most of us are confused about the scoring, the guy kept mentioning "home cooking" as if all those international judges work for the Chinese government. Whining was at all time high.

The woman diving commentator was very good. She was able to spot out good/bad of every dive regardless of diver's origin. She gave credit where credit is due.

Volleyball guy was decent too.

The worst of them of is Karoli the NBC expert on gymnastic. No one with that kind of bias should ever be on TV doing reviews. He was cheering loudly like a monkey during USA women's gymnastic routine. Homers like that should stay home and stay off the TV screen. Even Bob Costa even snickered when talking about that Karoli guy and his "unbias" reviews.

[RebelAzn]

America refuses to accept defeat in medal count: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4599875.ece

[aelward]

LOL, sounds like sour grapes.

My favorite are the folks who say they should multiply the medals won by teams by the number of individuals to show how many golds were REALLY won. More rationalizing... I hope they hurry up and get over it.

[ktkbs]

My favorite are the folks who say they should multiply the medals won by teams by the number of individuals

I called it.

I think we should consider how many of the medalists aren't "real Americans"; i.e blacks, Arabs, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, those who are mixed race, etc.

[nskripchun]

Late post... but pretty cool photo from the womens' softball game:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/08/21/2008129755.jpg
(Eri Yamada, after a solo home run)

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/bestseatinthehouse/2008/08/21/olympics_thats_why_they_play_t.html

.:.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2008/olympics/2008/08/24/redeem.dream/p1.redeem.jpg

Spain? Ha.

*Ahem*

REDEEM TEAM.

Still not a big Kobe fan. But props to him, Lebron James, and D-Wade for bringing home the gold.

And beating those "affectionate gesture" guys.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/olympics/2008/08/24/redeem.dream/

[nskripchun]

Poplicks has posted some awesome pics right here:

http://poplicks.com/2008/08/olympix.html

[awong]

in other random olympic talk, I got my olympic shirt from my friend who went to china, but the shirt dye comes off when you wash it and got on other clothes...good thing it was with my brothers clothes and not mine :D

[ktkbs]

he prob. bought it from an unregulated street vendor

[nightshade]

in other random olympic talk, I got my olympic shirt from my friend who went to china, but the shirt dye comes off when you wash it and got on other clothes...good thing it was with my brothers clothes and not mine :D

LOL your brother must be pissed.

[nskripchun]

in other random olympic talk, I got my olympic shirt from my friend who went to china, but the shirt dye comes off when you wash it and got on other clothes...good thing it was with my brothers clothes and not mine :D

Speaking of Olympic gear... both the stores on ESPN.com and NIKE.com are having sales on everything Olympics-related, from t-shirts to shoes.

http://www.espnshop.com/catalog/advancedSearch/keyword--beijing+sale/cm--57831/

[awong]

LOL your brother must be pissed.

he doesnt even know since he is very obivlious to it :lol: