Field Theory: Handle the Scandal
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3410,
TVNZ's outage during the 200m butterfly final caused Moss Burmester's family to miss the race.
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In my opinion, Phelps is easily the best swimmer of all time. The best Olympian though?
Tom Fordyce at the BBC gives this issue a good workout. As do the comments.
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What does the TVNZ message board have to say about the coxless fours?
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There's a slightly longer historical view at the bottom of the comments section of Fordyce's article.
Now for some perspective. The modern Olympic Games have been going since 1896. That means there have been 28 (25 in fact, as Wars happened). The actual Olympics did, of course, start around 786 BC. The Ancient Olympics came to an end somewhere between 393 and 435 AD. 'Our' Olympics are just a small fraction of that total.
Which is where I bring us on to Leonidas of Rhodes. Born 188 BC, he was 24 when he competed in his first Olympics and won at the stadion (200 yard sprint), the diaulos (400 yard spring), and the hoplitodromos (a race in armour). Our hero Leonidas won again at these three events in 160 BC, 156 BC and 152 BC. Bringing us to a grand total of 12 Olympic crowns/golds/wins.
Chew on that, Mr. Phelps.
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he was 24 when he competed in his first Olympics and won at the stadion (200 yard sprint), the diaulos (400 yard spring), and the hoplitodromos (a race in armour). Our hero Leonidas won again at these three events in 160 BC, 156 BC and 152 BC. Bringing us to a grand total of 12 Olympic crowns/golds/wins.
Chew on that, Mr. Phelps.
I agree, let Phelps swim in armour before he can be crowned the best!
Actually many news agencies changed their tune almost hours after the feverish headlines began. Phelps is now the "most successful Olympian". But they still say "of all time" when, clearly, it should be "of the modern era".
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Leonidas of Rhodes? Jim Phelps?/
Nope - my money's on Milo of Croton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_of_Croton
Has Mr Phelps ever carried a 4-year old cow the length of the stadion, then killed, roasted and eaten it?
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[Milo of Croton] would train in the off years by carrying a newborn calf on his back every day until the Olympics took place. By the time the events were to take place, he was carrying a four year old cow on his back. He carried the full-grown cow the length of the stadium, then proceeded to kill, roast, and eat it.
That would be a hell of an opening ceremony. But the original cow would probably be replaced with a prettier one.
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There's certainly a lot of fun to be had comparing the ancient Olympics with the modern.
I wonder what ancient HDTV owners would have made of this?
Nearly all scenes depicted on pottery show runners competing nude, except for select pieces of armor during the hoplitodromia. Some accounts say early runners wore something similar to a loin cloth, and there are two versions for why the garment was abandoned. In the first, a runner competing at Athens was in the lead when his shorts fell down and he tripped over them. In the second, Orsippos of Megara won the stadion in 720 B.C. at Olympia, but he lost his shorts in the process, thereby starting a new trend.
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Eventually was able to watch the video on the Huffington Post website, (ironically they appear to have nicked it from TVNZ as it has the ONE logo in the corner). Couldn'y watch the video on the TVNZ site because it doesn't play. Why in this day and age to media players not progressively download like youtube does (same problem with the hopeless Comedy Central website). I'm on Woosh and it's a moderately fast connection but the TVNZ site wont play streamed or archived footage, as usual geeks with high spec computers can't conceive of people not having ultra fast connections and high spec computers. TYoutube has been a smash becaus - like Amazon - they ALWAYS deliver, might take a while but it gets there.
Also the CGI footprints are a huge disappointment. The opening ceremony is the best part of any games I always think and the footprints were truly thrilling - oh hang on they weren't real. Big difference.
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the footprints were truly thrilling - oh hang on they weren't real. Big difference.
They were real, it was just the footage of them that was faked.
So had you been in a helicopter zooming along Beijing's central axis you would have seen something very similar to what they showed. Except it would've been more smoggy and smokey from the previous fireworks and your helicopter would've been shot down as a potential terrorist threat.
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Not the perfect place for it, but can someone tell me what the lightweight double sculls are (is?)
Is it a weight division? A different boat?
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Actually, the Artistic Olympics would only include foil and sabre; the referee's role in epee is to stop the fencers beating on each other with the guards of their blades (slightly more common than you would think), count the pretty lights, and stay the hell out of their way. The outcome is generally not affected by what they do. Foil and sabre are another story. They have, like, permitted targets and sissy stuff like that.
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Lightweight in rowing is a weight division. A crew average of 70kg for men, and 57 kg for women. So all the smaller people can have a chance in a sport dominated by giants.
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Let's award peter Montgomery a gold medal for totally 'over the top' commentating. I'm dreading watching/listening to the rowing finals, but i guess I can always turn the sound off!
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No no no.... he's not "over the top" he's "laying it on"....
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3410,
Speaking of Gold medals, has anyone actually seen a medal ceremony yet?
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If I start going on about TVNZ's coverage I'll soon be !!!!111 - ing far more than is healthy
you'll be *&@!# Quax-ing
Not trying to threadjack or anything but all the &@! made me think of the Liam Gallagher interview in the Times Online this week. It included this paragraph in reply to being asked if he would have sold his wedding photos to a tabloid like Wayne Rooney did:
“Absolutely f###### nothing. It smells funny, it doesn’t sit right. I’d have to be well and truly f###### desperate. I’d have to be homeless. It’s like, haven’t you got e-f######-nough, you little ####? I find that hard to f###### take. But that’s famous people for yer. When they’re not on the f###### telly they want to be in a f###### magazine and when they’re not in a magazine they want to be on a f###### bottle of water. It’s like, f###### chill the f### out, you can’t do one f###### job right let alone f###### trying to do f###### five, you ####!”
Respect.
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Speaking of Gold medals, has anyone actually seen a medal ceremony yet?
I'd noticed this too.... I think I've seen part of one, but that was probably by mistake :)
What happened to all the standing on the tiered podium, raising flags, and listening to the national anthems??? I assume it is happening but TVNZ certainly aren't showing us. (maybe when a black singlet appears on one, we'll be allowed to see it?)
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I always remember the Liam Gallagher interview soundbite after they landed in Australia having harranged the flight crew. What did he have to say to the flight attendant?
Got a tattoo me, stab 'im
mmmmm, quite.
Speaking of Gold medals, has anyone actually seen a medal ceremony yet?
Yep, a Phelp's one and the Czech woman who won the first gold of the games.
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Oh and TVNZ did show Kitijima's second medal ceremony, but we only caught the end of it
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I’d have to say that I’m finding the vitriol sprayed in PJ’s direction on here very comforting.
Almost cathartic in fact.
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It’s like, f###### chill the f### out
Quite.
On my own not-chilling-out note, I got the closest to psychotic over a commentary during the Dressage this afternoon. Thanks very much, but if I wanted out-loud counting over those pictures, I could do it my *&@!# Quax-ing self.
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“Absolutely f###### nothing. It smells funny, it doesn’t sit right. I’d have to be well and truly f###### desperate. I’d have to be homeless. It’s like, haven’t you got e-f######-nough, you little ####? I find that hard to f###### take. But that’s famous people for yer. When they’re not on the f###### telly they want to be in a f###### magazine and when they’re not in a magazine they want to be on a f###### bottle of water. It’s like, f###### chill the f### out, you can’t do one f###### job right let alone f###### trying to do f###### five, you ####!”
Liam is a Man City fan so he hates Rooney anyway. He's probably doubly pissed off at the moment as his team's billionaire owner might now have trouble laying his hands on his billions.
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#### Quax LOL However the censoring reminded me of Nixon for some reason:
NIXON: How the [expletive deleted] do I get this [expletive deleted] thing to work here? Testing, testing, one, two, [expletive deleted] three -- Rose Mary, can you hear me?
WOODS: Yes, Mr. President.
NIXON: Have the kitchen get lunch ready. The usual -- cottage cheese and ketchup. And get the barber up here. It's only 11 o'clock and my 5 o'clock shadow is already [expletive deleted] out of control.
WOODS: Yes, Mr. President.
NIXON: And send in Bob Haldeman. [Sound of door opening, footsteps.]
HALDEMAN: You wanted to see me, sir?
NIXON: Bob, did I ever tell you about Nixon's six crises?
HALDEMAN: Yes sir, you did.
NIXON: About the time Nixon smashed the Hiss spy ring singlehandedly? They all said, ''Pumpkin papers? Dick, are you crazy? They'll laugh you all the way back to Whittier!'' But Nixon showed them. Nixon showed them all.
HALDEMAN: Yes sir, you told me that.
NIXON: Oh. Uh, what's the latest on Watergate?
HALDEMAN: Well, it's getting worse. McCord and Hunt were involved, and it looks like Gordon Liddy's in on it, too.
NIXON: That [expletive deleted] Liddy. Nixon has a good mind to dangle him over the world's biggest candle. I think we should just let him hang there and twist slowly in the wind. Look, will any of them talk?
What's also a bit weird is how he refers to himself in the third person. (Cue The Turnip "Do I not like that?", if we need to link it back to sport)
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I like Pete Montgomery he talks a lot of rubbish but who cares I like his enthusiasm, he isn't afraid to make a dork of himself which I find appealing. He reminds me of Murray Walker the old F1 commentator, it didn't really matter what he was on about it was the comforting excitable drone of his familiar voice that was as much part of the atmosphere as the sound of the revving engines.
Peter Williams' ties are another matter though, clearly he is dressing himself. Perhaps he is at the brink of some hilarious Mike Hosking-style wardrobe meltdown.
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