What, no Olympics thread?

[Desdichado]

So a virtual unknown wins for the US in the 100m, Justin Gatlin. Doesnt' break a record, but overall it's supposed to be the fastest 100m race ever.

Yeah, less than a tenth of a second amongst all of the top five racers.

I do wish Mo Green would have won, though. Gatlin comes across as unsufferably arrogant.

 

[diaglo]

And down goes the US in basketball again... Still, they made it to the next round.

yeah, i love the fact that the Olympics at least when it comes to basketball proves that team sports should be played with teams and not with individuals.

there is no "I" in team.

 

[drothgery]

And the meet Spain in the Quaterfinals. Though luck for Spain, to play so well in the group phase and then have to meet the US.

The seeding's not set until the Puerto Rico-Greece game later today. I haven't seen much of the men's basketball team playing, because even when they manage to show the game live on the east coast, they still tape-delay it California, and watching sports on tape-delay when I already know the winner just isn't fun.

But it seems like they're getting a bit of a bum rap. Sure, they've had problems coming together as a team, and adjusting to international rules. And there's no way they should have lost to Puerto Rico under any circumstances. But they've improved with every game -- there's absolutely no disgrace in losing a close game to Lithunia -- and if these guys scrap their way to a gold medal, then I'll be cheering for them every step of the way. And not just because Carmelo's an ex-Syracuse guy.

 

[Ranger REG]

yeah, i love the fact that the Olympics at least when it comes to basketball proves that team sports should be played with teams and not with individuals.

there is no "I" in team.

Generally, that's true ... but honestly, I really don't care about our 2004 USA basketball team. Well, there is one thing I do care: the display of public embarrassment to the world. To be disgraced in front the worldwide audience, brings great joy to my sinister heart.

 

[Crothian]

So, the Hamm guy won the Gold in all around gymnsatics but it turned out there was a scoring error. I think hew should return the medal and accept the Silver.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So, the Hamm guy won the Gold in all around gymnsatics but it turned out there was a scoring error. I think hew should return the medal and accept the Silver.

It's interesting - in Gymnastics, they're basically saying "Yeah, there was an error, and the officials who made it have been suspended, but the decision stands", while in Equestrian (Team Eventing, I think), when an error was pointed out, the gold medallists (Germany) had their medals rescinded, and the next three teams moved up a spot.

Consistency would be nice.

Hamm will find that for the rest of his life, the "It wasn't a real gold medal" whispers will follow him around... I'd think he'd do far better with a real silver and a reputation as a stand-up guy, than a gold based on a screw-up at the administrative end...

On a related note, now that pseudoephedrine has been removed from the banned substances list, Andreea Raducan is appealing to get her Sydney AA gold back...

-Hyp.

 

[drothgery]

So, the Hamm guy won the Gold in all around gymnsatics but it turned out there was a scoring error. I think hew should return the medal and accept the Silver.

There were two scoring errors on the South Korean's parallel bars routine. The first one, which the South Koreans are complaining about, is that his routine was given a 9.9 start value instead of a 10.0, which probably cost him a tenth of a point in scoring. But he also apparently did four "stops" instead of three, which is an automatic .2 deduction. And there's no way to know how he would've done on the two later events, if he'd had a bigger lead.

 

[Krieg]

yeah, i love the fact that the Olympics at least when it comes to basketball proves that team sports should be played with teams and not with individuals.

there is no "I" in team.

Yeah, but a single decent outside shooter and this team would be undefeated.

 

[drothgery]

Yeah, but a single decent outside shooter and this team would be undefeated.

obSyracuseFan: If they were going to pluck someone out of the Big East for the team, it should've been Gerry McNamara, not Emeka Okafur.

 

[johnsemlak]

It's interesting - in Gymnastics, they're basically saying "Yeah, there was an error, and the officials who made it have been suspended, but the decision stands", while in Equestrian (Team Eventing, I think), when an error was pointed out, the gold medallists (Germany) had their medals rescinded, and the next three teams moved up a spot.

Consistency would be nice.

Hamm will find that for the rest of his life, the "It wasn't a real gold medal" whispers will follow him around... I'd think he'd do far better with a real silver and a reputation as a stand-up guy, than a gold based on a screw-up at the administrative end...

On a related note, now that pseudoephedrine has been removed from the banned substances list, Andreea Raducan is appealing to get her Sydney AA gold back...

-Hyp.

The problem with consistency in this is that rules for each sport (including disputes with officials) are mostly handled by the federations governing each sport (the FIG in the case of Gymnastics). I'm not familiar with the exact rules in either case, but the FIG could have different procedures for how to dispute (and correct) an judge's decision, than say in Equestrian.

Also, I think different Olympic sports are vastly different from each other in terms of how they are officiated, the degree of subjectivity involved, the influence judges' decisions have on the outcome, and the practical means to correct errors made by officials.