Official 2008 Beijing Olympics Thread

[Sketch]

Has anyone caught any of the men's volleyball? (Indoor, not beach) Those guys are serious athletes, an average spike reach is somewhere in the region of 340-350cm, that's about 11 feet and they put some serious heat on it. Wow.

[Zoots]

Whooooo! Go USA! Swimming only works at the olympics but what a race!

The trailor swimmer was absolutly slicing through the water-you could see him explode off the wall coming off the turn and he just seemed to dig his way through the water to catch up to frenchie. Wow

What an amazing race.  The swimming events are my favorites at the Olympics.

Just an incredible last leg by that guy.  I can't believe how much ground he made up in the last 15 meters.  Amazing.  Awesome!

[Zoots]

Not to put down the spirit of competition or whatver

But has anyone seen Bia and Bianca Feres?

[dang]

And how!  Gorgeous.

[Amonkey]

I am so p---ed right now.  I actually stayed up to see Brazil vs Russia in women's volleyball on Telemundo, the spanish channel and even though they're suposed to be on, there's a religious show on instead.  What's worse, the religious show is from Brazil!  There's never any brazilian shows on Telemundo, and when there are it's right when Brazil is playing.  The irony!

[blazingarrow]

On a more serious note, is there any website that has details on how the basketball competition is structured. I don't remember exactly how it works, and would like to keep up on it.

All I can find are results.

For the record, that's all I'm interested in when it comes to the Olympics. Bringing the basketball gold medal back where it belongs.

[ederson]

Has anyone caught any of the men's volleyball? (Indoor, not beach) Those guys are serious athletes, an average spike reach is somewhere in the region of 340-350cm, that's about 11 feet and they put some serious heat on it. Wow.

I watched Poland-Germany (not all the game cause it was the same time as the us-china) and Russia-Serbia. On top level volley is very spectacular and there is great competition cause there re 4-5 teams for the gold. Talking about spiking . Stanley Clayton is impressive. Not the best in the world but he is 6.9 , jumps to the sky and he has a very strong hand. I had the chance to watch him play closely for two seasons.

[Sketch]

I'm more impressed by Giba, dude is like 6'3" and hits just as high as anyone.

[Amonkey]

Is there anybody watching this?  On NBC (in America), President Bush was on the NBC stage with Bob Costas for a good 10 minutes.  Bob was conducted a good interview, with a lot of political questions (he was def ready for this) and President Bush actually answered them well and intelligently.  I am not a fan of Mr. Bush.  I think he may have been one of the worse presidents of all time.  However, this interview shows why people say he's such a "down to earth" guy.  That was pretty cool!  Well done Mr. Bush, well done.

I guess that's my reward for staying up late to watch the Brazil Russia volleyball game.  The local Telemundo is still up, and the same horrible show from my native land is still going.  The worse thing is that it says it's live, yet the clock on the show is completely wrong.  Anyway, good night everyone.

[ederson]

I'm more impressed by Giba, dude is like 6'3" and hits just as high as anyone.

Well Giba a top3 player. He ought to be impressive.
So sad he plays for a mediocre russian club

[ederson]

UNBELIEVABLE !!!!
sorry for the caps but if you`ve seen 4x100 freestyle relay then you feel like i do. The first 5 teams broke the world record. USA (winners) broke it by FOUR seconds. In the last 100m France was one body ahead but the last American swimmer managed to cover the difference. Phelps was ecstatic since he is handing 8 gold medals and this was supposed to be the most difficult.

This race is definitely one of the fighelights of the games

[celticmaestro]

UNBELIEVABLE !!!!
sorry for the caps but if you`ve seen 4x100 freestyle relay then you feel like i do. The first 5 teams broke the world record. USA (winners) broke it by FOUR seconds. In the last 100m France was one body ahead but the last American swimmer managed to cover the difference. Phelps was ecstatic since he is handing 8 gold medals and this was supposed to be the most difficult.

This race is definitely one of the fighelights of the games

the last 50m were unreal. lezak was about 2 seconds behind with 25m left. remarkable. definitely a highlight of the games so far. 2/2 for phelps.

[ederson]

Just before the turn the Greek commentator said "I can`t see how can France lose the race" 
I couldn`t also and watching Phelps celebrating like this i think that he couldn`t either.

Phelps` race for 8 golds will be exciting to follow. I think he won`t do it. He won`t win 200m freestyle

[Roy Hobbs]

Phelps` race for 8 golds will be exciting to follow. I think he won`t do it. He won`t win 200m freestyle

Isn't he the world record holder and the heavy favorite?  The one hurdle I see remaining (other than fatigue) is the 100m butterfly.

[celticmaestro]

Phelps` race for 8 golds will be exciting to follow. I think he won`t do it. He won`t win 200m freestyle

Isn't he the world record holder and the heavy favorite?  The one hurdle I see remaining (other than fatigue) is the 100m butterfly.

i think the main obstacle he needs to overcome is the fact the 200 fly and 4x200 freestyle relay finals are only an hour apart.

[ederson]

Relay is generally difficult. A great performance by Phelps may not be enough. on the other hand a bad time from him can be covered but the rest of the team....
Considering the competition today was his biggest obstacle. He is the favorite in every race  (unless dolphins start participating in swimming competitions) but i don`t how and why i have the feeling that he won`t win 200 freestyle.