The 2012 Olympics Thread

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 30 Jul 2012 03:22

Trying to understand why this Chinese and SoKo's are so good at archery. See this "South Korean women archers win record seventh team gold".

Is it their sea-food that makes their eyesight so good. I thought we were at least good if not the best.

Gone with the wind, women archers blame weather conditions

TOIlet Olympics home page. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/lond ... ympics.cms

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 30 Jul 2012 03:31

An interesting piece of news from the women's archery team final where SoKo beat China: while SoKo has a stable and strong team with players who have lots of top flight experience, the Chinese team does not. The Chinese have been nipping at SoKo heels for a while, and finished 2nd in Beijing 2008 as well. What did they do then ? They threw out that team and got another three, who were the finalists this time. They'll probably repeat the exercise in Rio 2016 and maybe even win finally.

Just goes to show that in some sports, you really can get to the top without anything more than finding a few good people and making them train physically and mentally till they drop. A look at the quarterfinal eliminator shows that in any of the other three eliminators, 210 would have been a winning score. Our archers are not mentally strong enough yet; the Danes accounted for the crosswinds with higher arrow speed, as the live numbers on the site showed - they were shooting 2-5km/h faster.

PS: I don't think seafood has anything to do with it. Train them MUCH harder than they do now, if we want to go from the level of beating everyone at CWG level to being AG/OG winning standard. Ten years ago we just started establishing ourselves at CWG level. Now's the time to raise our standard, first at AG level, and then OG by consequence. ~25 golds at AG level in just a few sports will show our ability.

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 30 Jul 2012 03:45

Time to raise the bar. Need more tougher training. IMO, we should only host Olympics only after we are able to secure at least 40-50 gold medals. So seems quite long way to go. The point trying to make is no host would like to host the game and see other teams fetching all the medals and we are still not able to make double digit gold medals. I realize its easy to say sitting in front of the computer then taking some grueling training for 6-7 hrs in the field for 7 days a week.

saip · Post by **saip** » 30 Jul 2012 03:48

Just watching water polo. Montenegro Vs US. Montenegro is a country with 660,000 people -- smaller than some of our towns. They are putting up a good show.

I wonder how many pools there are in Montenegro but a town of that size in India will be lucky to have even one!

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 30 Jul 2012 03:52

1. We need to increase the pool of the players at 12 - 15 years old level at each sport.
2. We need to regularly participate in international events at junior level in each sport.

ManjaM · Post by **ManjaM** » 30 Jul 2012 04:54

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics-- ... iwen-.html

This girl does a 58 sec final 100 m in the 400 m individual medley. Thats pretty frikking fast. Soon after doing that people are gossiping about possible doping. Its almost an instinctive reaction from westerners. Anyhow, congrats to the girl.

Surya · Post by **Surya** » 30 Jul 2012 04:58

if the drug tests come clean - its pure heartburn

here is time displaying its khujli. At times much as I get irritated with the drones in the forum, i cannot wait for the constant rah rah of the NBC commentators to be reduced to whines

The American squad in London has, for the first time, more women than men. Women make up the majority among the Russian and Chinese squads, too. Both of those countries have traditionally encouraged female participation because it’s easier to rack up medals through women’s sports than via the male ones that are better funded in the west

Read more: http://olympics.time.com/2012/07/29/the ... z223dRZgR7

ManjaM · Post by **ManjaM** » 30 Jul 2012 05:09

Ye Shiwen - This girl was just .03 off Ryan Lochte.

Lochte went 58.65 to Shiwen's 58.68.

I guess the Chinese womens team is so well funded that they will soon start beating the Amreeki men.

saip · Post by **saip** » 30 Jul 2012 06:16

That is one heck of a time for her. Her time for the last 50 meters was faster than three Men finalists including Locht. But overall her time was 15 sec slower than the 8th finisher in Men.

Kakkaji · Post by **Kakkaji** » 30 Jul 2012 06:23

I don't understand how sports like "Beach Volleyball" are in Olympics, while Kabaddi is not.

A lot more people play Kabaddi than some of these obscure sports that are in the Olympics.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 06:53

those are driven by american TV cos like NBC and ESPN.
soon you will see some of the X-games...infact the winter olympics already have some of them like trick snowboarding.

I noticed that girl in the IM, unlike the broad shoulders and big builds of the typical female swimmer...she is long and slim like a SSN...a different mould.....quite attractive physique one might add.

anyone who can slap around the swaggering white pakis and the khanates who think they own the water has my support

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 08:03

I thought rebecca soni the US swimmer might be PIO - turns out to be 100% hungarian descent lol.

but could have some romany linkage via the out of india thread.

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 30 Jul 2012 08:19

Spain kicked out in football

sum · Post by **sum** » 30 Jul 2012 08:33

The gold winner was 98+98+98+94 = 388 . The finalist had scores of 384 or more, so Sidhu would have been in the final with a better 1st and 4th set. In CWG2010 she scored 96+95+97+95 = 383, better than in the Olympics. In the pistol pairs, her personal score was 384 - which would have made her a finalist yesterday.

She was actually 4th throughout the prelims and the last shot let her donw and pushed her out of qualifying for the finals.

negi · Post by **negi** » 30 Jul 2012 09:20

Kakkaji wrote:I don't understand how sports like "Beach Volleyball" are in Olympics, while Kabaddi is not.

A lot more people play Kabaddi than some of these obscure sports that are in the Olympics.

Huh so on radio today some Amrikhan says how come badminton is in olympics while darts is not .

negi · Post by **negi** » 30 Jul 2012 09:37

You have to give one thing to the communist way of doing things i.e. they get the job done. Be it the USSR or now China their war like preparations for the games and making them a matter of life and death do yield results. We should see Ye Shiwen's win in a positive manner i.e. the long propagated myth that swimming is essentially a white man's sport is now formally broken. I remember they also had broken into the men's 110 mt hurdles group some time back which has been dominated by folks from African descent.

kshatriya · Post by **kshatriya** » 30 Jul 2012 09:43

Today is a Big Day. Bindra, Narang in 10m. Fingers crossed

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 09:49

brazil and south africa are also emerging as a force in the water...though one might argue they have european stock in such events mainly.
france and netherland seem to have become stronger while germany has faded somewhat.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 30 Jul 2012 10:35

I wonder if its the cold or climate in Londonistan that is causing Indian athletes, as well as Americans, problems? Of course that may be an excuse, but the timings and scores between coming in from 1st to 8th place aren't really that much.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 30 Jul 2012 11:01

The London weather is really not an excuse, especially not in events that don't entail physical effort but precision. If you want an Olympic gold you need to train for it in the appropriate setting.

I wish our archers would stop whining. They're a pair of good teams, and with much more training they can medal at AG and OG level in future. But the 'it's so cold that I got sick' and 'it was so windy' excuses are not the stuff they should be uttering.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 11:25

they needed to train somewhere exactly as in london to prepare. in some events like indoor sports it doesnt matter, but in outdoor its a failure of planning if you show up without right prep. yesterdays womens cycle road race was done in heavy rain but they kept going at high speed.

btw while we may bemoan the lack of ati adhunik cheen / NCAA training in india, do take a look at this video and the living and training conditions of what is one of kenya's top running schools .... which has delivered multiple world champions...far poorer than any sports school in india for sure...watch the entire video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dmjQfCY ... re=related
yes even there its a 500:1 ratio between the also rans and the eventual world champions but they are able to find people who put themselves through years of grind for a chance at glory and money (like our JEE system coaching schools

). it is alleged they have "hundreds" of people who marathon below 2:15 while barely a few others in rest of world do that

maybe the thing is a ruthless drive and work ethic matters more than chi chi infra - the milkha singhs and sriram singhs did not get any much chi chi but they delivered results.

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 30 Jul 2012 11:57

Singha wrote:brazil and south africa are also emerging as a force in the water...though one might argue they have european stock in such events mainly.
france and netherland seem to have become stronger while germany has faded somewhat.

Singha Saar, it is all about money put where the mouth is, govts policy to encourage sport/s and selection of sportsperson for training.

Chin is leading everywhere with all mongol stock, while medal in mongol's favourite sports like judo etc are won by caucasians etc

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 30 Jul 2012 12:05

Medal Tally - Updated regularly

http://www.london2012.com/medals/medal-count/

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 30 Jul 2012 12:12

the games are going pretty well (barring the usual hiccups) and the atmosphere is fantastic, everyone is having a good time. there is a real buzz around the village. support for indian atheletes is strong, not just from the NRI's but also more respect from commentators, particularly for boxing. And if you use the special features on cable, you can see most of the events that Indians are competing in, on tv. i saw the women's road race (cycling) on tv yesterday - wow, what a compelling finish! indian women archers came close, but denmark were stronger on the day - real pity. jai bhagwan's bout was really good too. you see a different approach, attitude and composure in the indian team now also, the athletes feel that they deserve to be there.

incidentally, was watching interviews with aspiring athletes, even in "lazy" britain, children aged 7 and 9 train for swimming 8 times a week for a total of 9 hrs in the pool because they want to be in the games one day. sure you need good facilities, but to have the will power, drive and family support - thats what makes the difference to put in the hours. not sure many in india will get that kind of support.

so you can imagine how much training the chinese do!

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 30 Jul 2012 13:47

It's good to see Gambhir has encouraged Indian contingent at the Olympics. Below is his statement.

Gambhir was also happy to see the media giving so much importance to Olympics. "Why only cricket, we would like to see all other sports flourish in our county.

"As a cricketer surely I am happy that my sport is so popular in India, but other sports need to be encouraged and made popular too. So I am happy that the media back home is taking interest in Olympics, "Gambhir added.

Murugan · Post by **Murugan** » 30 Jul 2012 14:02

Incidentally China is also dispelling myths of 'White is the superior' and 'Aryans are the pure blood and stronger than anybody race' etc. They are proving that they are better than Americans too.

Gaurav_S · Post by **Gaurav_S** » 30 Jul 2012 14:12

Freestyle relay loss Australian swimming's darkest day

OUR failure to win a medal in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay is our greatest swimming disaster in a rich history that dates back to Fanny Durack winning gold at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.

Our men went into the event with the two fastest 100m swimmers this year in James Magnussen and James Roberts, plus a former world record holder in Eamon Sullivan and a fine swimmer in Matt Targett.

But gold turned to tin from the second 50m of the event when lead-out swimmer "Missile" Magnussen failed to produce his usual acceleration, leaving us second behind the US when Targett took off.

From there they basically slipped backwards in front of our shattered eyes, with the French winning gold ahead of the US and Russia.

Forget about gold but not even in top 3.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 30 Jul 2012 14:14

japan are also performing very well this year
chinese success in swimming is highly commendable

Virupaksha · Post by **Virupaksha** » 30 Jul 2012 14:19

SBajwa wrote:1. We need to increase the pool of the players at 12 - 15 years old level at each sport.
2. We need to regularly participate in international events at junior level in each sport.

and if they fail?? What are the options which a unsuccessful sportsman have in India? I know of people in exactly such situations, their decisions taken and why and also its consequences.

Before calling out the middle class in India, understand this. If that kid fails to make it to the biggest league, that kid is lost for anything else. You need a pool of 500-1000 people to "waste" their lives for those top 5-10 to emerge. There is a reason why the Indian sportsmen are either filthy rich or poor. Most of the middle class are just one failure away from moving to poor. They have to put their parents retirement money, their siblings education and expenses on line for being part of 500 out of which only 5 succeed, a success rate of 1%.

I would support a person becoming a engineer/doctor even if his "calling" is somewhere else. The families and the society are not yet equipped enough to handle failure. 490 half-hearted engineers are any day much better than 490 wasted lives for showing something in d*ck measuring contests and scams like olympics/CWG.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 14:22

http://www.london2012.com/archery/event ... -095808034

deepika kumari in ranking round - a poor 18th in 1st half and then 2nd in 2nd half but the gap was too much to make up...overall 8th.

I dunno what it means but link above has the data.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 30 Jul 2012 14:26

narang bindra on

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 14:57

live here...bindra is failling off, narang is in 3-4 place
http://www.london2012.com/shooting/even ... -103716947

the italian campriani is on top.

munna · Post by **munna** » 30 Jul 2012 15:00

Bindra out

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 15:02

bindra will end up around 15th with 594. zhu qinan didnt do well at 10th either. but his buddy wang tao is neck to neck with gagan narang.

even to snag a bronze in shooting seems like one has to be near perfection.

narang qualifies in 3rd place just ahead of wang tao. 598 each.

munna · Post by **munna** » 30 Jul 2012 15:04

Narang does it

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 30 Jul 2012 15:07

when is the shooting final?

munna · Post by **munna** » 30 Jul 2012 15:09

Final starts about 1 hours 20 minutes from now

Time for Reverse Jinx?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 30 Jul 2012 15:11

how many qualify for the final ? top8 or top10?

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 30 Jul 2012 15:14

How do the points carry over in the final?

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 30 Jul 2012 15:15

what is the format in the final?