Beijing Olympics 2008!

[waqo]

The greatest sporting spectacle on Earth is upon us once more. The Chinese have opened their doors to over 10,000 of the world's finest athletes. With 28 sports and countless categories, the Olympics are always the ultimate chance to prove that you have reached the pinnacle of sporting achievement.

This 29th Olympiad, running from the 8th-24th August includes the following sports:

Aquatics
-Swimming
-Diving
-Synchronized Swimming
Water Polo

Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater
Canoe/Kayak Slalom

Cycling
Equestrian
Fencing
Football

Gymnastics Artistic
Gymnastics Rhythmic
Gymnastics Trampoline

Handball
Hockey (Field Hockey)
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Sailing
Shooting
Softball
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon

Volleyball
-Beach Volleyball

Weightlifting
Wrestling

August 22 Medals Tally:

I do think that the US supremacy in the medals tally is under serious threat, with Australia regularly taking a lot of the swimming titles off the US and the Chinese athletes really excelling across the board couple with a decline in the US dominance in the athletics arena it should be an interesting battle. I predict China to come out top (especially with the home advantage as well) with a tossup between the US and Australia for second.

[Gambler]

The U.S. hasn't had very good luck heading into the Olympics...

One of our swimmers was diagnosed with testicular cancer, one of our best runners had a problem with his leg (he either sprained or broke something, I forget), and now our leading scorer in women's football (soccer) has broken her leg. What's next?

[Denny Crane]

^tyson Gay did his hamstring i believe
it was pretty funny watching him fall over while running

as for Australia coming in second, not a chance
although we will medal in Cycling, swimming, rowing, hockey, sailing and triathalon we arent competitive enough in atheletics and gymnastics. also our shooters arent as good as they used to be.

i think top 3 as per usual will be China, USA and Russia.
Australia, Germany and Japan to fight for 4-6th place.
I think realistically Australia can aim for at least 15 gold medals. i would say half from swimming
gold chances: Womens: 50 free, 100 free, 100 fly, 200 fly, 200 and 400 IM, 4x100m free, 4 x 100 medley.
Men: 1500m is the only realistic one that i can think of. to place in the 4 x 200 and mens 400m free.

, 2-3 from cycling, 2-3 from rowing. we could possibly win both for hockey, but the men are the best chance as they just won the champions trophy. sailing could be good for 1 or 2. Might be lucky to win gold in the 5000m mens with the best white distance runner out there. Triathalon is also one that can produce a gold as we have a few former world champs in that.

[eddieson]

I'm interested in seeing what will happen in the basketball competition since the US(men) didn't get the gold last time.

[waqo]

Originally Posted by Kazman3

^tyson Gay did his hamstring i believe
it was pretty funny watching him fall over while running

as for Australia coming in second, not a chance
although we will medal in Cycling, swimming, rowing, hockey, sailing and triathalon we arent competitive enough in atheletics and gymnastics. also our shooters arent as good as they used to be.

i think top 3 as per usual will be China, USA and Russia.
Australia, Germany and Japan to fight for 4-6th place.
I think realistically Australia can aim for at least 15 gold medals. i would say half from swimming
gold chances: Womens: 50 free, 100 free, 100 fly, 200 fly, 200 and 400 IM, 4x100m free, 4 x 100 medley.
Men: 1500m is the only realistic one that i can think of. to place in the 4 x 200 and mens 400m free.

, 2-3 from cycling, 2-3 from rowing. we could possibly win both for hockey, but the men are the best chance as they just won the champions trophy. sailing could be good for 1 or 2. Might be lucky to win gold in the 5000m mens with the best white distance runner out there. Triathalon is also one that can produce a gold as we have a few former world champs in that.

Yeah but with athletics so much more wide open and Australia once in a while producing some athletics talent as well. I can see the gap being much closer than last time around. I do think the medals spread will be a lot broader this time around because there is no real dominant sporting nation.

I expect team GB to do better than 9 golds they got last time around too. I think around 25-30 golds should be enough to take the top spot.

In swimming Australia's Jodie Henry pulled out of the games I think and it should be a bit of a blow to the women's swimming titles. But I still think the Aussies shall step up to claim more than the 7 golds they won last time even without Thorpedo.


Other sports I shall have a keen eye on are Football, Basketball and Hockey.

In football, Brazil have a really good chance with Robinho and Ronaldinho both part of the majority u-23 teams. Even if Ronaldinho doesn't have the same form that he did about 12 months ago he should still be determined to prove his critics wrong.

Basketball should be extremely interesting with Team USA looking strong but will probably lose out to a European opponent in the knockouts at some point as the international format suits the Europeans a lot. I think Spain might realistically have a go this time they lost out last time after winning their group and Argentina took the gold. The key for Team USA to wrestle back their gold is Kobe. If he can reproduce the form he was in late-season (barring the NBA finals) then they have a good chance.


In hockey I traditionally support my paternal nation Pakistan but they are very weak at this point in time with all the major stars having retired and the newer generation not really stepping up to fill in their shoes. Regardless, with some rich Olympic history and immense stickwork they may pull off some upsets to claim a medals spot at least. I have Australia down for the mens and women's too but the Dutch and Spanish are always a threat. The Spanish have come far in the sport and are a real force. It should be an awesome tournament!!

[Yoshitsune]

Weird why won't wushu(kung -fu) be part of the Olympic games since it's one of the most famous chinese martial arts

although it's an interesting sports No wushu at Beijing Olympics: Sport: More Sport: News24

so disappointed
===================
bref about the others sports ,each country is special in a certain type of sport like Football it was brazil ,basket ball>>americans....ect
it will be interesting to see a new country getting the title for winning a certain sports which is not it's speciality


i won't be surprised if China gets to win martial arts competitions

btw i like to watch martial arts fights they're epic & legend



Things will be interesting

[Keerua]

The Olympics are boring as hell to watch @ TV, but I am gonna enjoy the martial arts competition this time and maybe watch grown buffed up men grope each other (wrestling).

[/win]

i'm gonna enjoy watching the olympic weightlifting

[GaaranGaara]

Originally Posted by Keerua

The Olympics are boring as hell to watch @ TV, but I am gonna enjoy the martial arts competition this time and maybe watch grown buffed up men grope each other (wrestling).

Boring? I'm going to watch every event I can.

Finland's biggest hope for medals might have been the javelin. Our best man is suffering from problems with his technique.

[GaaranGaara]

Sorry for the double post, but this doesn't have anything to do with the last post I made so I figured I'd make a new one

This is about the womens soccer tournament that started yesterday. I don't know why they they had to start it before the opening celebrations. Maybe they would run out of time otherwise. So anyway..

History was made, the fastest ever goal was scored by Norway's Leni Larsen Kaurin after two minutes of play. The last record was from 1996.

On the first day

Canada vs. Argentina 2-1

Germany vs. Brazil 0-0

Japan vs. New Zealand 2-2

China vs. Sweden 2-1

DPR Korea vs. Nigeria 1-0

Norway vs. USA 2-0

The official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games

From there you can check who scored for your country ^^

I know there already is a results thread for Beijing but I thought I'd post them here for discussion.

Bad start for USA. I was thinking they'd win it again like they did in Athens.

Today the men's tournament is starting.

The official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games

With those matches ^^

Carry on.

[Blacknyte]

i'm just gonna watch basketball...usa completely dominates

[Matthew T. 16]

did they do a remake for mario and sonic at the olympic games for this?

[lokes]

Men's Football Day 1 Review: Giants take off - The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

go go italy!

[GaaranGaara]

Originally Posted by lokes

Men's Football Day 1 Review: Giants take off - The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

go go italy!

I'm rooting for Argentina.

On another note the finnish swimming team are lucky to be alive.

Originally Posted by A Finnish TV-channels website

The finnish swimming team had moments of horror

The finnish swimming team had their had moments of horror while transferring from a training center in Singapore to Beijing, China on wednesday. A typhoon shaked the plane.

- "While we flew over the typhoon I noticed that the flight attendants were crying right beside me. I didn't feel confident at the time, but we made it." - Hanna Marja Seppälä

I can post the link for the article, but I doubt any of you would understand it. Besides I just translated it above.

[CLAY]

Lets go USA b-ball.

[waqo]

With the men's and women's football tournaments already underway, we're approaching the time for the opening ceremony (1208 GMT) and I'd just like to present an interesting fact on China's amazing Olympic history: China didn't win its first Olympic medal till 1984!

And to think that they are now potential favourites to win the medals tally is really remarkable.

Tomorrow morning should see the finals of a couple of shooting events (2 out of 6 gold medals shall be contested in shooting) with the Chinese favourites to grab gold lets see how it pans out!

[Leroy]

wow so i just watched the opening live on TV and im at a loss for words, Beijing really knew what they were doing

[Kraker2k]

^The lighting of the torch was pretty epic, shame I only tuned in when all the countries were rolling in, the starting bits seemed very exciting.

[Apoo]

I have to wait till 8pm to see it on NBC...

[Leroy]

Originally Posted by Kraker2k

^The lighting of the torch was pretty epic, shame I only tuned in when all the countries were rolling in, the starting bits seemed very exciting.

it was very exciting, fireworks, flying people, huge artwork, fabulous other stuffs
dont want to spoil for anyone who havent watched it