Official 2012 Olympics Thread!

[Mistermoonlight]

Here's your place to talk about the 2012 Olympics!

First of all, I cannot believe that the Olympics committee is blocking YouTube airing of Danny Boyle's magnificent opening featuring Daniel Craig as 007 and no less than the Queen of England as a Bond girl! Just brilliant. Here's the best version I could find. If you find a better version, please post it.

[AntiArbitrator]

I saw the Daniel Craig-Queen Elizabeth skit and it was fun to watch. The announcers on the station that I watched sounded amazed and gave the impression they believed the Queen actually jumped from the helicopter. They said people would be talking about that for years to come. I hope someone else was watching the same network.

I am thrilled that our gymnasts won the gold medal so I am going to post some pictures of them.

[AntiArbitrator]

U.S. gymnastics team wins gold
The "Fab Five" of Gabrielle Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross beat out China and Russia to win gold in the women's gymnastics team final. Pictures in alphabetical order.

[irish]

Your Gabby Douglas is absolutely brilliant!!

Your gymnasts are fab!

[irish]

Now.... a estimated 2 Billion poeple across the world saw Usain Bolt run the 100metres.

.....er, any one here watch?? ;D

[AntiArbitrator]

Aug 6, 2012 14:54:57 GMT -5 irish said:

Now.... a estimated 2 Billion poeple across the world saw Usain Bolt run the 100metres.

.....er, any one here watch?? ;D

Me! Thanks for reminding us we should be chatting about this stuff. We get a little lazy in the summer.

[AntiArbitrator]

Basketball - the one sport we should never lose!!!

London Olympics
U.S. men take it to limit to win basketball gold
Team USA is extended by Spain in final but wins 107-100 for second straight gold medal. Kevin Durant scores 30, LeBron James 19 and Lakers' Kobe Bryant 17 for U.S.
By Mike Bresnahan, Los Angeles Times
August 13, 2012


LONDON — Chris Paul grabbed the game ball and handed it off quickly to a Team USA attendant for safekeeping.
Then the U.S. players jumped up and down in a huddle near midcourt as "Born in the USA" played on the North Greenwich Arena speakers. Some of them grabbed flags and jogged around with them over their heads.

It could mean only one thing.
The U.S. had defeated Spain, 107-100, in the Olympic gold-medal game Sunday.

Kevin Durant scored 30 points, LeBron James had 19 and the U.S. capably extended a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

If this was the end of the "Dream Team" concept, it was fitting for the U.S., though the sport's international governing body reportedly now is not considering an age limit of 23-and-under for the 2016 Olympics.



The Americans won their second consecutive gold and improved to 13-1 in gold-medal games, their lone misstep the controversial 1972 final against the Soviet Union. The U.S. lost to Argentina in the semifinals at Athens in 2004.

Despite generally lopsided scores the last two weeks, the U.S. found some memorable moments during its 8-0 run. It set an Olympic record by scoring 156 points against Nigeria but then struggled to beat Lithuania by only five points, giving hope to the rest of the medal contenders.

There was also a fiery preliminary game against Argentina, when Carmelo Anthony got punched below the belt by a backup point guard.

[AntiArbitrator]

A couple of highlights.

Team mates at home, but played against each other in the gold medal game.





***

[SoCal]

I like the hug.

Now that is sportsmanship.

[spoonieluv247]

what can I say... what an impressive body... or work. Body of work!!!!

[AntiArbitrator]

Athletic bodies!!!

[AntiArbitrator]

In terms of gold medals, the U.S. won 46 medals, 8 more than China at 38. Olympic host nation Great Britain is in third place with 29 gold medals, Russia has 24 and South Korea is fifth with 13 gold medals.

Below is the Olympic Medal Count 2012 Chart:



Olympic Medal Count 2012 Chart - the final. The total of 46 gold medals was the highest for the U.S. in an Olympics contested on foreign soil. Those gold medals were supplemented by 29 silver medals and 29 bronze medals for a grand total of 104, giving Team USA the lead in the medal count for the fifth straight Games.

Those totals are still far behind the best medal hauls for the U.S at any Olympics: 83 golds (174 overall) at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, boycotted by the Soviet Union, and 78 golds (a whopping 239 overall) at the 1904 St. Louis Games.

China had capitalized on its home-country advantage four years ago to win 51 gold medals, 15 more than the U.S. And although the U.S. won more medals overall in Beijing, 110-100, some experts give greater weight to the number of gold medals when ranking Olympic performances.

As the Olympics closing ceremony began, the United States team did not hold back and showed their joy with their teams overall performance that brought pride and joy to the country.

Swimmers won the most medals for Team USA, 31. That equaled the Beijing team's total but the London swimmers won 16 gold medals, four more than the Beijing team.

Michael Phelps dominated the pool here by winning six gold medals and eight overall to pad his career total to 22, the most in Olympic history. Missy Franklin, Ryan Lochte and Allison Schmitt each won five medals and U.S. swimmers set five world records, two by breaststroke specialist Rebecca Soni.

The second-biggest contribution was 29 from a track and field team whose distance renaissance softened the sting of losing three of four individual sprint races to Jamaicans.

[SoCal]

I'm just glad it's all over.

The Olympics are sheer torture to watch. NBC never showed any event live (I think), and would run it's prime time coverage from 8pm to midnight (at least those were the hours here in CA).

So, from about 8pm to 11:45, we got a coupld of events, lots and lots of taped interviews, backgrounds of some atheletes and commercials and then in the last 15 minutes, we got the single most important event of that day.

Gee, thank you very little. Plus, everyone had already heard who had won, lost, got hurt or had been disqualified hours earlier.

Hope the athletes had fun, but, I'm glad it's all over.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programs.

[AntiArbitrator]

Aug 13, 2012 18:52:32 GMT -5 SoCal said:

I'm just glad it's all over.

The Olympics are sheer torture to watch. NBC never showed any event live (I think), and would run it's prime time coverage from 8pm to midnight (at least those were the hours here in CA).

So, from about 8pm to 11:45, we got a coupld of events, lots and lots of taped interviews, backgrounds of some atheletes and commercials and then in the last 15 minutes, we got the single most important event of that day.

Gee, thank you very little. Plus, everyone had already heard who had won, lost, got hurt or had been disqualified hours earlier.

Hope the athletes had fun, but, I'm glad it's all over.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programs.

True statements. I enjoyed the coverage as little as you did. Otherwise, I would have been posting "live" comments in this thread. It seems to me in other years coverage of the actual events was more extensive.

[SoCal]

I had the best time during the 1984 Olympics. I lived in Burbank at the time and we were all afraid the traffic would be awful, but most industries adjusted their work schedules so trucks weren't on the freeways at major travel time. It was the lightest two weeks of traffic I can remember.

I was working at a hospital in Glendale, and they put up a big screen in an auditorium and at lunch and breaks, we would all go in and watch LIVE events.

That was the best.

[AntiArbitrator]

That sounds like fun. That is the way I remember watching the olympics too. It seemed like there was more talk and less action this time around, and it was selfish to not let us copy anything from YouTube. But I am glad we won so many medals.

I wonder if I am the only one who thinks people should paticipate on the teams of their birth country and not get to choose which country they play for. I was glad Pau Gasoi played for his country, even though they almost beat us.

[SoCal]

And some of the commentators? Who chose these dim bulbs?

Ryan Seacrest? REALLY? I know when I think of competitive sports he immediately comes to mind....not.

[KyleEl]

Aug 15, 2012 20:00:40 GMT -5 SoCal said:

And some of the commentators? Who chose these dim bulbs?

Ryan Seacrest? REALLY? I know when I think of competitive sports he immediately comes to mind....not.

I saw him during coverage of one of the Triple Crown horse races. NBC has real professionals doing those. When Seabiscuit came on, the contrast was obvious.

[AntiArbitrator]

Aug 3, 2012 17:42:07 GMT -5 Mistermoonlight said:

Here's your place to talk about the 2012 Olympics!

First of all, I cannot believe that the Olympics committee is blocking YouTube airing of Danny Boyle's magnificent opening featuring Daniel Craig as 007 and no less than the Queen of England as a Bond girl! Just brilliant. Here's the best version I could find. If you find a better version, please post it.

I think we should include the video for historical reference.

[AntiArbitrator]

BET Awards Ceremony is on and they include people who are outstanding in the arts.

Congratulations to Gabrielle Douglas for winning the Young Star Award.

Aug 3, 2012 20:56:46 GMT -5 AntiArbitrator said:

U.S. gymnastics team wins gold
The "Fab Five" of Gabrielle Douglas, Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross beat out China and Russia to win gold in the women's gymnastics team final. Pictures in alphabetical order.