How silly are the Olympics...pretty darn silly.

We could all learn a lot from Olympians; not silly at all.

That its hard to throw a badminton game without someone noticing? :)

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That its hard to throw a badminton game without someone noticing? :)

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Some people are just gonna cheat, or try to take advantage-and, yeah, it probably is a hard game to throw. On the other hand, the aftermath has proven that that's also not what the Olympics are about.

Hard days are the best days, becuase THAT'S when champions are made .

 
Wanna know why the Olympics aren't silly? Look at the grin on Hannah Starling's face when she was being cheered prior to her dive...
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ol...etre-springboard-semis.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
 
Wanna know what's silly? Ill say it again.

No baseball or softball.

Tabletennis, badminton, trampoline....but somehow baseball isn't considered an Olympic sport?

Silly.

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Or triple jump...

On the grin, I'm sure the British citizens who wind up paying the bill for the Olympics will remember it as they end up with even deeper austerity measures. Of course the International Olympic Committee members, the politicians and their cronies who bought up the land around the Olympic sites and got the various service contracts for the Olympics may long remember the smile on their own faces as they count their piles of cash...
 
Or triple jump...

On the grin, I'm sure the British citizens who wind up paying the bill for the Olympics will remember it as they end up with even deeper austerity measures. Of course the International Olympic Committee members, the politicians and their cronies who bought up the land around the Olympic sites and got the various service contracts for the Olympics may long remember the smile on their own faces as they count their piles of cash...

On the other hand, our youngest Olympian, Katie Ledecky, won gold in swimming the 800m freestyle, at age 15:

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nothing "silly" about that smile at all......:lol:
 
Wanna know what's silly? Ill say it again.

No baseball or softball.

Tabletennis, badminton, trampoline....but somehow baseball isn't considered an Olympic sport?

Silly.

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Mate, baseball isn't even a sport - it's a kids game that somehow got taken all too seriously as it travelled over the ocean ... I suspect the Founding Fathers ate some 'funny' fish on their way as I can't think of any other explanation that would cause such a thing ...

If they take that on as an Olympic sport what's going to be next? Golf? ....

... oh hang on ... ROFL

{hurriedly flicks through the kata of his ryu to see if there is a technique for deflecting a barrage of baseballs/golfclubs :D}
 
BillC does have a point about the nefarious politicos and their puppet-masters who will be making money off of this and I am not going to defend them - but come on Bill, just for once, let something not take us down that recursive path of recriminatory discourse.

Enjoy the Olympics for what they are - take pride in people doing their best and (mostly) being good sports about it whilst they are doing it. The first week has been brilliant with the swimming, rowing, shooting and cycling - we even got Andy Murray into the final of the tennis :).

The 'boring' stuff is coming of course ... we shall not be watching anything like as much when the track and field events begin.

But for now we shall revel in the fine emotional 'wine' that we see when (not only) our people do their best. Here is a fine example of that, with beaming pleasure and suppressed tears of pride as God Save the Queen is played:

$article_d8f364818a4baaf0_1344004928_9j-4aaqsk.jpeg

http://www.itv.com/news/2012-08-03/...nna-watkins-win-gold-in-womens-double-sculls/
 
There is two sides to the Olympics neither of which is silly. One side is worrying, the officials money grabbing, the cheating etc and the other side is just amazing, that's the side of the 'ordinary people doing extraordinary things', the amount of dedication people are putting in to be the best at their sport and the appreciation of the spectators who applaud the Somilian girl who trailed in last in her heat more than they applauded the winners. Who knows, that piece of warmth may carry as far as her homeland and just for a little will unite us with people we don't know.
I don't know if people realise how much of a boost it is to people when we support our sports starts and the sheer elation when they win a medal, sure it doesn't take away the misery of unemployment, of famlity problems but just for the little while we are joined together in something that bit bigger, something that we can all share and be proud of. We all need things to smile about and we all need that bit of a boost seeing 'our' people win.
Sure the bigger countries will win more medals than us we are a tiny country compared to the USA for example but a bit of national pride in something peaceful rather than war like does us good. People, despite Mr Romney's 'fears' are appreciating the Olympics and they aren't as much worried about the cost as you'd imagine, we've got some fine sporting facilities and a boost to those wishing to take up sport, we've got new housing when the Olympics has finished and we've shown our normal resiliance in getting over problems caused by international companies unable to do the job they said they would, we always get through in the end.

Competing at the Olympics is life changing for so many people, volunteering likewise, we've welcomed people from all over the world, not just the rich but the poor too who've come with only a couple of competitors. Should the poor countries come? Of course they should, it highlights their country in ways that they couldn't do otherwise. For them rather than being seen just as Third World beggers they can claim some dignity and show what they can do if we back them. It shows you they are real people rather than just needy people on posters for charities. In places like Ethiopia and Somalia there's inspiration for it's youth to get out of the grinding poverty and their people are so proud of their athletes, you can take that away from them.

One would have thought though that as the Olympics these days are a hugely capitalist venture those who are so anti communist would have embraced it rofl.
 
The UK's main successes have been coming from the rowing and the cycling both of which have and will have an effect on the country in this time of 'obesity'. Sir Steve Redgrave after he reitred from rowing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Redgrave) initiated a scheme that actively looked for teenagers who could row, his team went round schools looking for people who were tall and wanted to row. Encouraged by the UK's previous successes there was no shortage of volunteers, even though only a few were chosen rowing clubs were inundated with young people wanting to learn to row. In cycling the british riders along with Sky have been going around the country encouraging children to ride their bikes. In a place like Middlesborough not far from where I am this is invaluable as it's one of the poorest and most unhealthy places in the UK. http://www.borohealthytown.com/managecontent.aspx?object.id=10290&param.1=12165

Children see our Cyclists doing well, they look at their own bikes and start thinking 'I can do that!' and so it begins, healthy kids with an ambition. Our boxers so far are doing well getting through the heats, this encourages kids into the boxing clubs which long been a place where the more wayward youths have been 'corrected' and set on the right path. Gymnastics here, both men and women have also done well again encouraging kids, the gymnastic club attached to my daughter's Cheer group has had more inquiries from parents in the last week than for months and months.

In the Olympics there's many sports we will look askance at thinking 'wow why would anyone do that' but there's kids somewhere in the world who are being inspired to do just those sports and who are we to say that's silly? Why turn our noses up at table tennis or synchronised swimming when it's providing the very same things for young people that martial arts is for us?
 
BillC does have a point about the nefarious politicos and their puppet-masters who will be making money off of this and I am not going to defend them - but come on Bill, just for once, let something not take us down that recursive path of recriminatory discourse.

Politics exists, and, while it's not supposed to be, it's always been part of the Olympics.

Corruption exists, and while it's clearly not supposed to be- it's always been part of the Olympics
USA Boxing, as an organization , is relatively broken,and used to dominate international boxing.Olympic boxing,\ itself is also broken, and has revealed its corruption in every since Seoul.

That doesn't make the Olympics, or the Olympic ideals "silly."

In other real Olympic news, in spite of their professional status and being clear favoirtes for the gold in these Olympics, the U.S. basketball team got a real scare from Lithuania, who gave them all they could in a thrilling game that the USA won, 99-94[/b]. Well done, Lithuania.....

Serena Williams crushed Maria Sharapova for the gold in women's singles tennis. Of course, Ms. Williams and Ms. Sharpova are professionals at something that isn't even a sport, it's just a game for children started by pampered, inbred Brits ( :lfao: insult the great American pastime of baseball again, Mark, and I'll have to come over there and thrash you! :lfao: ) though, that is pretty much how I feel about tennis, I just know that I'd like Serena and her sister-or Serena and Ms. Sharapova, or some combination thereof, to make a Jeff sandwich......

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.....of course, that sandwich probably wouldn't have enough meat to truly satisfy anyone....:lfao:

And this inspiring guy made his Olympic debut:

View attachment $pistorius.jpg

Win or lose, I haven't the words-and there's nothing silly about that......
 
Hey Jeff, you can have a crack at football all you like and I'll pillory rounders as much as I care to {even tho' being threatened by scary mad scientists is not pleasant :p} ... but let's not mock one of the few truly fabulous sports there is i.e. tennis :lol:.

Mind you, I have to confess that I found the rowing and swimming absolutely enthralling this Olympics, something that really surprised me.
 
Sometimes something happens in life that stays with you forever and you will tell your children and your children's children 'I was there! I saw this!'

Simply the Best.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19133483

Our medal total may seem small to some but consider we only have a population of 60,587300 compared to China's 1,347,350,000 and the USA's 314,047,000 on the whole we are doing well!

"The whole experience of being there, going to the park, the helpful volunteers, it was really great."

"It truly was an astonishingly, unforgettable evening. London was the centre of the universe for a few hours tonight, and to say I was there, right in the middle of it, is something that will be with me forever."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-19132479

Earlier Chris Eccles, who taught the heptathlete at King Ecgbert School, said every pupil knew about the athlete's achievements.
"They are inspired by her because they can see someone from their own town being so successful," he said.
"They see people like Jess as great role models."
Ennis started running at the Don Valley Stadium when she joined the City of Sheffield Athletic Club at the age of 13.
Despite being a world-class athlete, she still competes for the club in the Northern League.
Club chairman Mike Corden said the gold medallist was a "phenomenon".
"Our kids in the club are inspired by her. They are so proud of her," he said.




 
Meh-the French really invented it., didn't they? It's not for anyone, as far as I'm concerned-tennis.

Meh.


Can't say I'm a fan really, still emotionally drained from last night! I was working but everything stopped last night for a couple of hours. For a little while you could hear the whole country roaring, it was amazing. This is why the Olympics aren't silly, for that little we were all united in shouting for three amazing athletes who made us proud to be British, something people shouldn't take lightly. We've have banking crisis, credit crunches, the war in Afghan and an uncertain future but for a few hours on that Saturday night we were screaming, shouting and united in our pride in being British. It was and is wonderful.
It's one of those 'where were you moments'.
 
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