Counting down the Olympics
 

It will start at 8:00AM EST or 8:00PM +8 GMT

Let us welcome the Olympics Game!

我們歡迎北京奧運會!
We welcome the Beijing Olympics!

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The pictures online of the opening ceremonies look awesome! Kudos to China this year, & let's all hope for a safe Olympics for all!

I'll admit, I'm typically more excited for the Winter Olympics than the summer ones because of the excitement of winter events over summer ones (in my mind anyways), but I'm going to be tuning in to some Olympic coverage to check out the various buildings they designed just for the events.

The water building, & the new stadium being 2 of them that come to mind immediately.

GO TEAM USA!!!

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I'll be watching as much coverage and reading as much about the events as I can.

Some of my favorites:
the track and field events
diving
synchronized swimming
swimming
archery
gymnastics
rowing
triathlon
and two of my very favorites:
wrestling
weightlifting

I'm feeling Olympic today!

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I"m with Jane...but will add soccer to the list. I got to attend the gold medal round at the Atlanta Olympics.....what a rush.

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Olympics? Who would count down to the Olympics when the Viking's first preseason game is in 19 minutes!

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Has anyone on the west coast got a station that will do live feed from the olympics? Best thing we have atm is NBC and they just do same day tapes..

I'll be looking forward to swimming, cycling, basketball, water polo, and rowing.

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?????????? Your favorites are wrestling and weightlifting?? Huh. There I go, assuming again. Jeff K., if you go to NBC.com, I believe that they have live streaming broadcasts and schedules as to when they air. Thank god for DVR, because I go back to school on next week. I myself watch anything that's on, but I do kinda like gymnastics, though.

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I'll be watching cycling when I'm not consumed by both band camp 6 hours a day, cycling, summer reading, and work... I may have to Tivo some of it so that I can get around to watching it at some point.

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Yup. I had a good friend in h.s. who was a wrestler and taught me a respect for the amount of commitment, dedication, self-discipline - and the value of a good coach - that is ingrained in this sport.

Weightlifting - I have a good friend who is my husband, who taught me a respect for the amount of commitment, dedication, self-discipline - and the value of mind over matter. In weightlifting - you can pump yourself up or psyche yourself out. That can be applied to any discipline but if you aren't training properly and focused - serious injury can occur in the blink of an eye. I have a great respect for the competition and the athletes.

and oh my - what an amazing opening ceremony....

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I'm insanely excited for synchronized swimming and more volleyball. I'm a synchronized swimmer (the show was at the end of July), so I can't wait to see how hard the routines are going to be. I used to play volleyball, I watched one of the games this morning, and I can't wait to see what else is going to happen. I guess I'm obligated to watch track, too. Woot Cross Country :rolleyes: (right now, I'm not very enthused for practices to start up, since it means that I can't volunteer as much as I would like to at our teams's table during registration)

The opening ceremonies were AMAZING...was anyone else shocked pants-less when people popped out of the blocks?

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6 medals at the moment. USA!!!

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Some of the angles they did showed legs underneath the boxes before they popped out, but it was definitely an intense amount of choreography that went into it.
8 medals now!

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I believe the olympics can be viewed online at www.nbcolympics.com

I hope this is helpful to those of you that need a source to watch them!

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I personally am not watching the Olympics. I watched ten minutes of opening and that was enough. I really dislike the Olympics. I have little to no interest in the sports they show, and I hate that they usually block off my usual shows. However, I am grateful that it is on the opposite side of the world. That way they compete late night when I'm going to be sleeping mostly. Sorry if this seems like a rant, just was hoping CD would be a place to not think about the Olympics. Oh well, to everyone else...enjoy the games...I can't wait till their over.

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My son said, "That's a lot of pneumatics!" And then someone added, "And a lot of controllers."

We thought so too; my son said, "Show more down by the ground!"

We were also impressed by how well the tai chi performers quickly got back into near-perfect lines and circles. More synchronization. And by the torch-bearer's slo-mo run around the top of the stadium.

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I was babysitting my friend's cousins while we were watching that, and they didn't believe the announcer when he said that there wasn't anything on the ground showing them where to go.

I thought that the drawing was really cool; the one that the performers did with their arms and legs. Did anyone catch where the inkpad things were on their bodies? I know that there was one on each arm and leg, but where exactly were they? It seemed like sometimes the ink would flow when the hands were touching the paper, and sometimes it wouldn't, then it would flow when the wrists were touching the paper.

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I just saw the single most epic moment ever. The US beating the French by .08sec and breaking a world record by 4secs. Its the most amazing thing I have ever seen; to see the US beat the French in the very last effort...literary the US went from being 2nd by almost a half a swimmer length(the height of the person in front of them) to 1st in just the last 3-4secs. AMAZING!!!

Here is the link to the whole story..

http://www.nbcolympics.com/swimming/...ay+rundown+u+s

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I wanted to see that, but I ended up sleeping. I remember before going to bed the announcer saying that on paper every way he played it out the French won. Probably going to be the best moment of the Olympics, unless of course Phelps gets his 8th medal.

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You could watch the replay on nbcolympics.com as of this morning.

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That was quite amazing. I was supposed be sleeping, but I watched it anyway. The best thing was the looks on the guys faces at the very end in the last 50 meters. PRICELESS. I loved the story about the one swimmer who almost drowned when he was a kid, and now he's a gold medal winning olympian. I thought that was impressive.

Did anyone watch women's gymnastics prelims? It wasn't all that great, suprisingly. China and the U.S. had several big mistakes in their various events, including several falls and missteps. I'm hoping they do better in finals.

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I saw the replay on TV, I just wanted to see it live.

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I was working a busy station the past few days/nights so I haven't been able to catch many things live yet but I just finished watching the opening ceremonies and then the mens 400 and WOW both of those were amazing, like one of the announcers said about the opening ceremonies "Just retire the trophy now for Olympic opening ceremonies because this can't be topped"
NBC's online coverage is great now that I am working somewhere slow for 24 hours I can enjoy everything I have missed.

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A.) Those Chinese girls look like they're 13, not 16 (they have to turn 16 sometime during 2008, from what I understand of the rules). Well hey what else is new.....

B.) The American team had to deal with a late scratch from one of their gymnasts. She could only participate in the uneven bars. The team had zero room for error most of the night as there was no 5th gymnast to compete so the team could get a "throwaway" score. Quite clutch with the performances, actually.

C.) I laughed when the American announcers got all un-GP with their "What now, French dudes?" commentary after the 400 free relay final.

D.) And this was most likely extreme coincidence (...), but did anyone else notice that a painting of Chairman Mao on the building across the street was in plain view over President Bush's right shoulder throughout most of his interview with Bob Costas?

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That wasn't the only un-GP comment then.

The comment during a trial run of the parallel bars when a Chinese man sat on the bars Saturday night, was something to the effect of "That's something a 5-year old would do when learning the sport, not something a competitive athlete would do."
Ouch! Did you feel that burn??

That was a funny comment I will admit, but these announcers are not hosting MXC or ABC's Wipeout, & they are not just blogging about the event where comments like that are accepted, they are the official announcers of the prestigious Olympics & are the voice of an event which is an international event of unity & sport which is meant to bring the world together.
You would think they would keep the colorful comment to a minimum.
And I hope someone noticed that, & fired that guy.

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It's easy to identify and point out the moments that are somewhat tacky and un-GP. How easy is it to point out the moments that are graceful, eloquent, and well-spoken? There will likely be a balance and that is what I will look for.

There have been some quiet moments and some rowdy moments so far. I've enjoyed a great many and hope to see many more in the next few days.

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I have to say that I heard some very un-GP things said, but I agree when saying thats its easy to hear un-GP than GP stuff.

With that being said; I'm very proud of the US team with being GP. Esp. the swimming team, with making an effort(phelps) to shake the hands of the French DURING the medal ceremony. And also not saying anything negative about anyone in the interview of the 4x100m.

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For once I am in agreement with Molten... someone mark this one down.
To me the Olympics have become too over hyped, thank God the US wasn't granted the honor of some city going billions in debt in a non-money making event that takes years to pay off and disrupts the area its hosted in.
China is using the Olympics as a tool to do a snow job on the rest of the world. Why isn't someone asking about the thousands that were rounded up and tossed in jail for fear they might speak out against the Olympics and/or China itself. Ask the business owners of the companies that were shut down for the Olympics... ask the citizens who have seen prices sore cause the trucks have been parked and business closed to hope to clean the air.
Of course the censorship in China will keep any negative reports from being spreaded

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One thing I think about when talking about, posting about, thinking about the Olympics - is the growth of robotics on an international level. The growth of robotic competitions. VEX is making a huge impact internationally. FTC is making an impact. I had the privilege of volunteering in Atlanta as a queuer for the FTC competition. While volunteering, I met many students from many countries. Of those students, there were those who did not speak English well, if at all, and I became very creative in communicating with those teams.

ChiefDelphi is a place where members of FIRST teams and of the VEX teams gather and the teams reflect their nations.

Even though this is Chit Chat, when discussions regarding peoples and nations pop up/crop up, I always keep the reading membership of ChiefDelphi in mind and the bigger picture, the larger community. There is great diversity within the many cultures and the many nations and we can build bridges of understanding when communicating and when learning about each other. I will always treasure and remember the time I spent as a volunteer in Atlanta. It opened my eyes even wider to the potential and possibilities in FIRST.

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Nicely said. I think that yes, it may be disruptful, but think of what an honor it is to go to championships, and think of the dozens of people who work hard at their sports who would not feel this great of honor, this feeling of making it to the top. All of our issues with China are clouding this; it wasn't as big a deal, I don't believe, when they were held in Sydney or Athens. I heard some of the un-GP comments too;to me they sounded slightly racist and snotty in some of the things I heard waching various events. That's just people being woefully undereducated, in my opinion.

Tune in to gymnastics finals tonight; they should be good!!!

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Women's individual time trial for cycling, Armstrong just snagged 1st spot right now from the Brits, and passed two cyclists that left before her.
EPIC!:yikes:

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Dang....the women's team got second. They had some mistakes, and they just couldn't get it. Oh well, they still got a medal, and that counts for something. Did anybody see the clip of the Hungarian weightlifter who completely twisted his arm out of his socket, or the other man who tore his calf muscle once, then tried to lift again? Those were not fun moments.

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No i have not seen those, I'm sorry for those guys. fours years of training to end in a pulled musle or dislocated arm.:(

My favorite moment was when the guy won Toga's first medal ever in white water kayaking. (Great sport there...)

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Since Jane brought up the question of finding graciousness, I think that Tyson Gay's comments after getting 5th in the 100 m semi-final were quite gracious. Particularly when you consider the circumstances. He was frank about feeling devastated, but offered no excuses or whining. He offered his congratulations to those who qualified on. When you spend literally years focused on one single event, disappointment can be profound. He showed how to handle it with dignity. I also saw a volleyball match in which one of the Chinese men turned to the referee after a ball had been ruled out and gestured that he had touched the ball and it should be a point for the other team. Or one of the American women gymnasts, who would not respond to baiting to try to get her to say one of the Chinese gymnasts was under age, saying "Well, I don't look like I'm 20." Or watching the women's marathon and seeing a runner turn to a competitor from another country (both of them a couple minutes off the lead) and yell at her not to drop back. The second women, who had been slowing down, sped back up and ended up finishing a little ahead of the first woman. Or all the silver medalists turning to smile and congratulate the gold medal winners.

I mention this because of some of the recent threads about robotics being a sport. As FIRST grows it becomes more sports spectacle like. So let's try to remember the good examples we see here in the Olympics, since they are so accessible now.

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Closing ceremony coming up soon....wow, that went by fast.

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I can't believe how tough the Brazilians are in volleyball. Both the men's and women's finals matches were extremely close. I was cheering for both sides. Brazil is going to be tough in the future. Looking forward to hearing the Brazilian National Anthem in the future.

"Pátria amada, Brasil!"