Summer Olympics 2008

Please stay on topic. We have only 2 weeks left to go watch the Ceremony and start game!!!! You can say who WIN the game and how many USA get a medals rank.
 
I think that China is getting a bit carried away with the Olympics thing.

They're so obsessed with censorship and not doing anything good themselves.
 
VamPyroX said:
I think that China is getting a bit carried away with the Olympics thing.

They're so obsessed with censorship and not doing anything good themselves.
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:huh: Why you moved my thread to General Chat from Sport Forum? :huh:
 
WRESTLING IS THE SPORT TO WATCH!!! Cejudo, Askren, Cormier should do good in Freestyle.

But the Greco Team will KILLLL the Russians! They are returning World Champs! Mango will SLAM everyone!

The soccer will be interesting too.
 
As a softball gal and former fast pitcher myself, I am hoping to watch the women's fast pitch games. Their last Olympics cuz after this one, no more women's sofball. :(
 
bad news Iraq got banned! for Olympics

Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics
BBC SPORT | Olympics | Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics

Athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee has announced.

The team was already the subject of an interim ban after the Iraqi government replaced the country's Olympic committee with its own appointees.

Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence.

Iraq had been planning to send a team of at least seven athletes to the Olympics which start on 8 August.

Two rowers, a weightlifter, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoka and an archer were in the frame for the trip to Beijing.

"The deadline for taking up places for Beijing for all sports except athletics has now passed," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.

"The IOC very sadly has now to acknowledge that it is likely there will be no Iraqi presence at the Beijing Olympic Games, despite our best efforts."

She added: "Clearly, we'd very much like to have seen Iraq's athletes in Beijing.

"We are very disappointed that the athletes have been so ill-served by their own government's actions."

Hussein al-Amidi, the general secretary of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, said: "This morning we were informed of the final decision of the International Olympic Committee to suspend the membership of the Iraqi Olympic Committee.

"It's a final decision, there is no way to appeal. This means that Iraq will not take part in the coming Olympic games.

"It is a blow to Iraq and its international reputation, its athletes and its youth.

"I swear those athletes who have been training - they phoned me today and they were crying and were very upset."

The Iraq government dissolved the National Olympic Committee in May and the interim IOC ban was put in place on 4 June.

Davies added that the Iraqi government had been asked to travel to Switzerland to meet the IOC to discuss possible remedies but failed to do so.

The committee which the government dismissed was elected in 2004, in line with the Olympic movement's regulations.

The Iraqi government said it took the decision to appoint a new committee because the previous one was corrupt and had not been functioning properly.

Ahmad al-Samarra'i, chairman of the committee dismissed by the government, and several other members had previously been abducted by gunmen while attending a meeting in central Baghdad in July 2006.

They have not been seen since.
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Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html?no_interstitial

China named its Olympic women’s gymnastics team on Friday, and the inclusion of at least two athletes has further raised questions, widespread in the sport, about whether the host nation for the Beijing Games is using under-age competitors.

Chinese officials responded immediately, providing The New York Times with copies of passports indicating that both athletes in question — He Kexin, a gold-medal favorite in the uneven parallel bars, and Jiang Yuyuan — are 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility since 1997.

Officials with the International Gymnastics Federation said that questions about He’s age had been raised by Chinese news media reports, USA Gymnastics and fans of the sport, but that Chinese authorities presented passport information to show that He is 16.

Online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, however, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He and Jiang may be as young as 14 — two years below the Olympic limit.

Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic all-around gymnastics champion at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, recently watched a competition video of He and other Chinese gymnasts on the uneven bars.

“The girls are so little, so young,” Retton said. Speaking of He, Retton rolled her eyes and laughed, saying, “They said she was 16, but I don’t know.”

An advantage for younger gymnasts is that they are lighter and, often, more fearless when they perform difficult maneuvers, said Nellie Kim, a five-time Olympic gold medalist for the former Soviet Union who is now the president of the women’s technical committee for the Swiss-based International Gymnastics Federation.

“It’s easier to do tricks,” Kim said. “And psychologically, I think they worry less.”

The women’s gymnastics competition at the Beijing Games, which begin Aug. 8, is expected to be a dramatic battle for the team gold medal between the United States and China. At the 2007 world championships, the Americans prevailed by 95-hundredths of a point.

On the uneven bars, He and Nastia Liukin of the United States are expected to challenge for the individual gold medal.

In Chinese newspaper profiles this year, He was listed as 14, too young for the Beijing Games.

The Times found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He’s birthday as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts — now blocked in China but viewable through Google cache — shows He’s age as “1994.1.1.”

Another registration list that is unblocked, dated Jan. 27, 2006, and regarding an “intercity” competition in Chengdu, China, also lists He’s birthday as Jan. 1, 1994. That date differs by two years from the birth date of Jan. 1, 1992, listed on He’s passport, which was issued Feb. 14, 2008.

There has been considerable talk about the ages of Chinese gymnasts on Web sites devoted to the sport. And there has been frequent editing of He’s Wikipedia entry, although it could not be determined by whom. One paragraph that discusses the controversy of her age kept disappearing and reappearing on He’s entry. As of Friday, a different version of the paragraph had been restored to the page.

The other gymnast, Jiang, is listed on her passport — issued March 2, 2006 — as having been born on Nov. 1, 1991, which would make her 16 and thus eligible to compete at the Beijing Games.

A different birth date, indicating Jiang is not yet 15, appears on a list of junior competitors from the Zhejiang Province sports administration. The list of athletes includes national identification card numbers into which birth dates are embedded. Jiang’s national card number as it appears on this list shows her birth date as Oct. 1, 1993, which indicates that she will turn 15 in the fall, and would thus be ineligible to compete in the Beijing Games.

Zhang Hongliang, an official with the Chinese gymnastics federation, said Friday that perhaps Chinese reporters and provincial sports authorities made mistakes in listing He’s and Jiang’s birth dates differently from the dates given on their passports.

“The two athletes have attended international sports competitions before, and I’m sure the information is correct,” Zhang said of the athletes’ passports.
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Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/sports/olympics/27gymnasts.html?pagewanted=2&no_interstitial

The International Gymnastics Federation said it had contacted Chinese officials in May about the gymnasts’ ages after receiving inquiries from fans and reading newspaper accounts, including one in The China Daily, the country’s official English-language paper, stating that He was 14.

“We heard these rumors, and we immediately wrote to the Chinese gymnastics federation” about He, said André Gueisbuhler, the secretary general of the international federation. “They immediately sent a copy of the passport, showing the age, and everything is O.K. That’s all we can check.”

If someone provided proof that any gymnast was under age, or filed a formal complaint, Gueisbuhler said, he would be “quite happy to check and ask again.”

“As long as we have no official complaint, there is no reason to act, if we get a passport that obviously is in order,” he said.

Steve Penny, the president of USA Gymnastics, said he had asked Kim of the international federation about He’s age after receiving e-mail messages referring to newspaper accounts and comments made on blogs and in Internet chat rooms that said she was 14. But Penny said he was not really concerned.

“If they have valid passports, bring ’em on,” Penny said. “If they say they’re good, we’re going to beat them.

“You can’t worry about it. You do your job, and you expect other people are doing theirs and you expect it’s a fair field of play.”

Privately, some gymnastics officials said that even if other countries had real concerns about the Chinese, they might be reluctant to make accusations for fear of reprisals by judges at the Beijing Games.

If it is true that under-age gymnasts are competing, Kim said: “It’s a bad thing. It should not be acceptable.”

Yang Yun of China won individual and team bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and later said in an interview on state-run television that she had been 14 at the time of those Games. A Hunan Province sports administration report also said later that she had been 14 when she competed in Sydney.

Bela Karolyi, who coached Retton of the United States and Nadia Comaneci of Romania to their Olympic gold-medal triumphs, said the problem of under-age gymnasts had been around for years. Age is an easy thing to alter in an authoritarian country, he said, because the government has such strict control of official paperwork.

He recalled Kim Gwang Suk, a North Korean gymnast who showed up at the 1991 world championships with two missing front teeth. Karolyi, who said he thought Kim must have been younger than 11 at the time, and others contended that those front teeth had been baby teeth and that permanent teeth had not yet replaced them. Her coaches said she had lost them years before, during an accident on the uneven bars.

At those world championships, Kim was 4 feet 4 inches and about 62 pounds, and she claimed to be 16. At one point, the North Korean Gymnastics Federation listed her at 15 for three straight years; the federation was later barred from the 1993 world championships for falsifying ages.

“Oh, come on, she was just in diapers and everyone could see that, just like some of the Chinese girls are now,” Karolyi said. “If you look close, you can see they still have their baby teeth. Little tiny teeth!”

But it is not likely that anyone could prove that the Chinese gymnasts are under age, Karolyi said.

“It’s literally impossible,” he said. “The paperwork is changed just too good. In a country like that, they’re experts at it. Nothing new.”
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shel90 said:
As a softball gal and former fast pitcher myself, I am hoping to watch the women's fast pitch games. Their last Olympics cuz after this one, no more women's sofball. :(
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I know, thats totally ghetto huh. :( Im definately a womens softball team USA fan. Dude, they'll kill everybody again, don't worry shel-->they should let someone else win a game, maybe they let softball stay. :giggle: and then after gold medal ceremony-->party at my house with the women softball team :D
 
I had such fabulous time here when olympics were in Salt Lake city. I wished I could relive that again. It was such a great experience to be part of the olympics and all those experiences during that 17 days....AWESOME BABY:lol:
 
hohDougRN said:
I had such fabulous time here when olympics were in Salt Lake city. I wished I could relive that again. It was such a great experience to be part of the olympics and all those experiences during that 17 days....AWESOME BABY:lol:
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I read your post at alldeaf members ages. It's :topic: anyways. Mongrel is very dangerous! I saw the USA man got injury because he had a knees surgeries from ACL many times. It's heartbroken for his injury. I saw his face express said OUCH with crying. He is retired now.

I never try on ski before. I want to try! I am afraid of downhill. LoL Cross Country Skiing is very difficult ever I heard.
 
I have a tough time finding the 'fun' in cross country....I prefer to use gravity with skiing. Maybe I just lazzy, but who bloody cares
 
~♥~Pinky~♥~ said:
I read your post at alldeaf members ages. It's :topic: anyways. Mongrel is very dangerous! I saw the USA man got injury because he had a knees surgeries from ACL many times. It's heartbroken for his injury. I saw his face express said OUCH with crying. He is retired now.

I never try on ski before. I want to try! I am afraid of downhill. LoL Cross Country Skiing is very difficult ever I heard.
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:lol: U and Hubby need to take a winter trip to Utah and I'll show you guys a great time
 
Injured gymnast Paul Hamm not going to Beijing
Injured gymnast Paul Hamm not going to Beijing - Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

Paul Hamm won’t be going to the Beijing Olympics, after all.

The reigning Olympic gold medalist announced Monday that he is withdrawing from the U.S. team because his broken right hand is not sufficiently healthy enough for him to compete in Beijing.

He also hurt his rotator cuff in his accelerated recovery effort.

“I have put my heart and soul into my comeback and done everything I could to get ready in time to compete in Beijing,” Hamm said in a statement released by USA Gymnastics.

“After returning home from the preparation camp, I had a few physical setbacks, and it became clear to me that my physical preparations would not be sufficient to properly represent the United States and contribute to the team’s efforts to win a medal.

“At this point in time, the success of the team and fairness to the team, and the alternates, is most important. While I am very disappointed, I feel I can wait no longer to make this decision.”

The U.S. men are scheduled to leave Wednesday, and competition begins Aug. 9.

One of the alternates—Sasha Artemev, David Durante and Raj Bhavsar—will take Hamm’s place.

Hamm’s injury clears the way for China’s Yang Wei in the all-around race. Yang is the two-time defending world champion, and the all-around gold was expected to be a two-man contest between him and Hamm.

Hamm broke his hand May 22 at the national championships, just 11 weeks before the start of the games. He had surgery five days later and pushed his recovery in hopes he’d be healthy enough to help the Americans get back on the podium and defend his gold medal.

Hamm’s withdrawal likely ends the career of one of the best gymnasts the United States has ever had. He is the only American man to win the world (2003) and Olympic (2004) titles, and he led the United States to a silver medal in Athens, their first at the Olympics in 20 years.

Hamm, who graduated last year from Ohio State with a degree in accounting, plans to go to business school.

“We admire Paul for making this difficult decision,” said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. “Paul’s comeback this year has been phenomenal, made even more impressive following the injury to his hand. He has raised the level of determination among the entire team to put forth a medal winning effort in China. We respect his decision at this time, which is being made to serve the best interests of all of the athletes involved.”

Hamm appeared to be on track at a weeklong training camp two weeks ago, where he proved he was physically able to compete at a July 19 intrasquad meet. Hamm did portions of all six events that day, looking particularly good on floor exercise, and estimated he was about 90 percent healthy.

But he struggled with some of his skills on parallel bars and acknowledged he still had pain in the hand. Every one of the six events puts a heavy load of stress on the hand.

When Hamm returned home to Columbus, Ohio, it was clear just what a toll the hard training had taken. Hamm struggled with practice and pain all last week, and he decided over the weekend that it was better to let a healthy athlete take his spot.

The Americans would have needed Hamm to compete on all six events in team qualifying, and likely would have put him up on all six in team finals, too. The scoring format in team finals is unforgiving, with three athletes competing on each event and all three scores counting. Make a mistake or struggle, and it costs the team dearly.

Despite taking 2 1/2 years off after Athens—an unprecedented layoff in the sport—he had firmly established himself as a contender for another gold, winning every meet he entered this year, often by large margins. At nationals, he was practically perfect through his first five events before breaking the fourth metacarpal in his right ring finger in the closing minutes of his parallel bars routine.

Even with the injury, he still finished the night almost four points ahead.
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