Is anyone actually watching the Olympics?

[VCDHunter]

Yep, admitted VCDhunter, you're right on the ball as normal.
The horsey shit, volleyball crap and that bitch who wasn't good enough and is "...waiting for the results of the tests to see what went wrong"
What went wrong?
You're a ******* useless, whinging bitch, that's what's wrong.
Bitch.
Love the track and field though
Will

I loved the "waiting for results of the test" shit, surely the ******* marathon was test enough then she's considering the 10k if she thinks she's in with a shout of a medal ******* piss taking bitch, how about a new event where she can see if she can pack her bags and piss off to the airport without bursting into tears ?

Then I read about a cyclist who stopped racing and rode off into the sunset because he wasn't in the top half or some shit. YOU'RE ON A PAID HOLIDAY YOU FUCKS - THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS ACTUALLY FINISH A RACE

:
EDIT: The Greek response/protest during the 200m mens final was a ******* disgrace tonight...
....and all in support of a cheat.

Missed it, what happened ?

[Craig Tucker]

They kept booing and creating noise making it difficult to start the race. It was deleyed for several minutes.

Will, I see we have drawn you in the cup again

[Doramius]

But Cap, wasnt USA womens soccer team the olympic champs last time? I think they beat Norway in the final. Or maybe thats 8 years ago already.

I didn't say they weren't damn good ...just that it's a surprise that we could field a world-class soccer team. Kinda like the 1980 winter olympics when we beat Russia for the Gold in men's hockey

I consider the "major" sports here as Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey.

"Significant" sports - soccer, softball, bowling, golf, so-called "wrestling", gymnastics, swimming.

"Minor" = Bass fishing, dwarf tossing, hurling, arm wrestling, thumb wrestling, billiards and pool, curling, strong-man (lumberjack), etc.

The difference between categories is not the loyalty of the fans, but the amount of coverage allowed on the main TV channels ...not ESPN, who televises everything including nose-hair growing, and extreme banking

You forgot NASCAR as a signifigant sport. That'd be cool to have international races of cars like NASCAR. If you don't think it's athletic, you haven't seen those pit crews. I don't think there'd be any racers out of Africa, India, China & the Middle East. What cars do they make? Even Spain, Portugal, Brazil & even Vietnam have their own car companies.

[ChrisX]

I haven't watched much of the Olympics during the past 18 days.

I am preparing to watch the closing ceremony in 9 hours from now.

[Doramius]

Olympics are Over. Ratings show this was the least attended and least watched Olympics in the last 20 years.

[DVD_Ripper]

Olympics are Over. Ratings show this was the least attended and least watched Olympics in the last 20 years.

Hmmm, I wonder why? In the past, during Summer all you would have on is reruns.... Now, you have new programming, more and more people are subscribing to cable as a staple item vs luxury. With 85 channels I'm gonna find something more interesting to watch vs the Olympics. For instance ... Startrek Nemesis was on against the Olymics the other nite... STrek won

[thor300]

Not so strange it was least watched, there been some pretty damn good olympics lately. Atlanta and Sydney were both great, and the 1994 winter olympics in Lillehammer was just unbeatable (remember Sonja Harding cried maybe? lol). Athens could not live up to the expectations compared to those ones. People were expecting too much.

[Doramius]

I'm pissed at the cable companies for them deliberately sending a crappy analog signal to boost more business to digital cable. That's why I'm boycotting by only subscribing to basic and have no specialty channel frills. If I want specialty channels, I'll visit a friend's house or figure a way to split the signal into my home myself.

[Capmaster]

Not so strange it was least watched, there been some pretty damn good olympics lately. Atlanta and Sydney were both great, and the 1994 winter olympics in Lillehammer was just unbeatable (remember Sonja Harding cried maybe? lol). Athens could not live up to the expectations compared to those ones. People were expecting too much.

That scandal with the French bribing the Russian judges* in the winter games (1994 or 1998?) to vote the American pairs skaters low ...and the resulting removal of the gold from the Canadian pair and awarding to the American pair. That sucked for the skaters ...the whole scandal, but the canucks handled it like pros

* And people wonder why many of us despise the French ....

[thor300]

Good that something happened, the French that time, drunken Irish this time. Gives something to talk about at least.

[Doramius]

I wish I was one of those judges. I'd get the bribe, blab all about it to the media, write a book about it, and retire on the residuals. [Leans back folding arms behind head and kicking feet up on desk] Yeah, that'd be nice.

[aero]

Olympics are Over. Ratings show this was the least attended and least watched Olympics in the last 20 years.

You are full of shit though. These were the among the second highest attended Olympics ever. Higher attended than Sydney, Barcelona etc. Television audience was the HIGHEST ever.

[thayne]

Olympics are Over. Ratings show this was the least attended and least watched Olympics in the last 20 years.

You are full of shit though. These were the among the second highest attended Olympics ever. Higher attended than Sydney, Barcelona etc. Television audience was the HIGHEST ever.

Pffft, whatever....

[aero]

The Greek response/protest during the 200m mens final was a ******* disgrace tonight...
....and all in support of a cheat.

I hae seen 10 times worse at 100 sporting events in the US and Europe. Ever been to a Soccer match in the UK?

Interesting the only violence was from an Irishman. fuking disgrace

[VCDHunter]

The Greek response/protest during the 200m mens final was a ******* disgrace tonight...
....and all in support of a cheat.

I hae seen 10 times worse at 100 sporting events in the US and Europe. Ever been to a Soccer match in the UK?

I've been to soccer matches all over Europe and have never seen cheating drug takers getting that kind of support.

[aero]

The Greek response/protest during the 200m mens final was a ******* disgrace tonight...
....and all in support of a cheat.

I hae seen 10 times worse at 100 sporting events in the US and Europe. Ever been to a Soccer match in the UK?

I've been to soccer matches all over Europe and have never seen cheating drug takers getting that kind of support.

LOL, I know you have not seen any soccer in Europe if you think crowds are better behaved! Unruly and dangerous soccer fans are used for case studies in many studies of mass hysteria and violence..

On doping specifically, please, You are either kidding or don't follow soccer in Europe. Please illuminate yourself and us about doping rules in Euro soccer. I will save you the time: Soccer is considered to have the biggest doping problem of all major sports. The problem is especially accute in the UK. Do you have any idea how hard FIFA fought the World anti doping Asociation in order to get it's own "special" set of rules -- much less stringent than everyother major sport?

And I really doubt you have been to any soccer matches in Europe if you haven't seen worse crowd behavior. Do you know how many people die during and after matches or how much property damage there is?

I was at the 98 world cup in France. Police were beaten into coma's, crowds were tear gassed, and hundreds of ticketholders were deported .

[VCDHunter]

Either you can't read or the tear gas has effected your eye sight "I've been to soccer matches all over europe and have never seen cheating drug takers getting that kind of support" - perhaps you can provide me with a link to where these drug taking cheats are cheered onto the pitch every saturday afternoon.

[Craig Tucker]

Aero, you are indeed correct about some of the behaviour of soccer fans (particularly the English), and it cannot be condoned. But VCDHunter was referring to the apparent support by the olympic crowd of someone who had missed a drug test, presumably because he knew he would not have passed and had not earned his place in the final. It was not fair on the competitors (who had earned their place) who need silence to hear the starting gun.

It would be more likely here for the booing to be aimed at the shamed athlete rather than the innocent party. For example in Englands Recent friendly against the Ukraine at St James park, Keiron Dyer was constantly booed and jeered (by the home fans) because of a disagrement with Newcastle about which position he should play.

[aero]

Either you can't read or the tear gas has effected your eye sight "I've been to soccer matches all over europe and have never seen cheating drug takers getting that kind of support" - perhaps you can provide me with a link to where these drug taking cheats are cheered onto the pitch every saturday afternoon.

Excuse me you are the one who interjected, and either intentionally took the discussion out of context and/or clearly can't read.

When someone said the crowd was a "disgrace" I replied I have seen ten times worse behavior at European soccer matches. You incredibly denied this -- when people are killed and tens of millions in poperty damage has been done at Euro matches and followup brawls. I have been to hockey games in peaceful canada that make a few minutes of protest in Athens look like nothing.

Craig, as to your comment about who disgruntled fans aim their ire at, in my experience -- and I lived in Eurpe for ten years, including in the UK, point of fact is that the ire and violence is most often recieved by neither, but by totaly innocent parties. I saw vehicles and stores burned by UK soccer fans.

I am not saying European sport or soccer is wholey charaterized by mayhem, or even that a lot has not been imporved, but I was simply putting a few minutes of whisteling into context.

Simply put there was a non violent reaction to a disappointment. It comprised whistling and chanting for a bit more than five minutes. No one was strcuk, nothing was thrown on the track (and how many times have US athetic games been interrupted by people, often many, thwoing stuff on fields in protest). There is no evidence tha tit was aimked at the US athletes, none.

And did yousee the tour de france this year? French "fans" on the sidelines were throwing things and striking competitors.

The lasting and number one "disgrace" of the 2004 Olympiad is three years of press reports, mainly from the US, about how screwed up the games would be, about how Americans should not go, near racist comments on how Greeks as a people are disorganized, terrosms scares that had more to do with US domestic politics than Greek security, about how the Greeks are anti-American when everyoen who went says otherwise, etc.

In the end the hometown crowd protests, including booing, and its European analog, whistling, are notable only for how commen they are. To call that a "disgrace" of the Olympics just betrays that someowe doesn't follow much sport at all.

If anything the Greeks reversed the "disgrace" of prior Olympics, where every square foot of the Olympic ideal was merchandized, branded, "sponsored" and turned into a commerical.

[VCDHunter]

Type all you want, the reaction by the Greeks was a disgrace and all in favour of a druggie cheater.

[Doramius]

Olympics are Over. Ratings show this was the least attended and least watched Olympics in the last 20 years.

You are full of shit though. These were the among the second highest attended Olympics ever. Higher attended than Sydney, Barcelona etc. Television audience was the HIGHEST ever.

Neilson ratings were showing it as lower rating percentages than any of the previous Olympics. That's just in the US. Also, when they polled the number of butts in seats for various events, compared to years previously, The numbers were fewer. However, the regular turn out for people walking around the sites of the Olympics was high. It just seems very few people wanted to watch the sports and would rather site-see the area.

[BobV]

I been watching mostly womens BeachBasketball, very entertaining, but would be boring if it wasnt for the bodies.

Beach Basketball, I thought you you were joking. So I googled, and damn, there it was.

[Craig Tucker]

Must be tricky dribbling the ball.

[Doramius]

Must be tricky dribbling the ball.

Have you seen slam ball?

[Craig Tucker]

Is that with the trampolines.

[Doramius]

Is that with the trampolines.

yeah. Imagine trying to dribble on a trampoline.

[Craig Tucker]

I have never actually watched a game, but the trampolines are just next to the basket arent they, not all over the court.

[Doramius]

There's a small portion of court, yes, but most of the action happens around the baskets anyway. How much of basketball really gets played in the center of the court. I don't know all the rules, but I know they have some adjusted dribbling rules. There's an aquatic Basketball, and the much famed DonkeyBall, too.

[ViRaL1]

Don't forget about Spaceballs. :P