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 Yeah, I love Olympic sports. I am not ashamed of it. I don't care much for some of the sports that have arbitrary scoring (those scored by the arbitrary opinion of judges and not by the outcome of a contest or event) like gymnastics or diving, but I respect the skills. The other Olympic sports like shooting, judo, boxing, swimming, track, cycling, volleyball, wrestling and whatnot. I was stuck to the TV to watch the opening games (kinda by default since my girlfriend is an Olympic nut and a former college athlete in an Olympic sport) and there was a lot to see. I woke up the next morning to find an email ready and waiting from the long and lost Jack Cobra. It appeared as follows with my comments in italics.
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"Since I have the Olympics
on 8 different stations this morning I have Olympic Fever. So, here are
my initial thoughts, or things to watch out for if/when you watch the
Games.
1. The Opening Ceremonies were pretty bad ass. I watched them for 12 minutes and that's like watching 14 hours of regular TV. Chinese people
know more than Kung Fu and fireworks; they know how to work in unison.
I fear the day we go to war with them because I'm sure their military
is a well oiled machine. (I
loved the opening ceremony as well, it should be good given the amount
of money that they spent. The drums were awesome. I, however, do not
fear the Chinese military. I thirst for it. The Germans were a well
oiled machine, and we took them. America needs to be tested so that
its men can rediscover their purpose and make this country better.
That cannot happen beating up on little countries that don't threaten
us so we can take their commodities. It can only happen in the schools
or in the field of battle against an opponent greater than ourselves.)
2. If you live in China
how do you describe one of your friends to someone else? For example,
right now in the U.S. I'd tell someone that (Paine) is gruff looking,
medium height and generally has a bad attitude. (I prefer to think of myself as in possession of rugged good looks and roguish charm.) If you live in China all your friends have brown hair, brown eyes and are short....how do they tell each other apart? (Actually,
there are a lot of ethnic differences in china, but they aren't always
visible to our culture since it sees things that are uncommon to it as
oriental. In the past, languages variations we know of today were
ethnic groups that were later folded into a larger whole, like
Cantonese and Mandarin. Though I am not a Chinese historian or
anthropologist, I believe the most common ethnic group in China is the
Han, and it comprises many different subdivisions of ethnicity. The
next group would be Zhou, and it is typically an ethnicity
geographically connected with the northern parts of the country. China
is a big place and it has a lot of different kinds of people, but I can
certainly see where Jack is saying this. They probably chose a lot of
performers who looked similar for many of the performances.)
3. I'm watching the Chinese women play soccer against Canada and there is a foreign announcer. Each time he says 'for China....." it sounds like vagina. Seriously. Canada 1, Vagina 0 (One thing that seems clearly obvious in Olympic sports is that pretty much everybody is waxing their fun parts. Ouch)
4.
I believe the over/under on the number of Americans killed at the games
was 2 and we are well on our way to being over on that one.
5. Equestrian riders should always be midgets."
Back to me.
I saw a lot of things I liked from the US athletes and few things I
didn't. I like that the USA women dominated saber fencing. In the
world of fencing, saber is not always looked upon highly. Fencers
around the world tend to think of fencing as stylistic and elegant, but
that is an inherent oddity as fencing is simulated combat which is
anything but stylistic and elegant. It is, by nature, very practical
and effective. In fencing there are essentially threes types of
combat: foil, epee and saber. Foil is very regimented and linear and
has rules for initiative and scoring that takes away aggression and
free-form creativity. Epee is not quite as regimented, but still lacks
points for slashing and a few other things. Saber is more like
combat. Whoever gets there first wins. Saber, more than the others,
is an exhibition of aggression, guile, and initiative. In other words,
it is more American. It is to fencing what Bruce Lee was to Kung Fu. Such as it was, the most aggressive player
(Mariel Zagunis) was able to defeat two other Americans who were more
highly ranked and defend her Gold medal by doggedly attacking them
until they broke from their usual games.
Another thing that the Olympics will teach you is that champions stick
the landing. In other words, winners finish strong and don't let
weaker opponents stick around. Never was this more apparent than when
the Rogers and Dalhausser let the Latvians sneak up and win despite the
American team being one of the most powerful at the games. They were
simply not ready to play and the Latvians were. I was a little upset
with that and told my woman that Walsh and May wouldn't let that
happen. I was right. Walsh and May are assassins. They are
shootists, they are beach ninjas. They faced a scrappy Japanese team
and beat then like rented mules. That is how Champions play. (above: The only time you will Bush anywhere near May and Walsh) (Sorry, I couldn't resist that. I was able to resist more suggestive photos, but not that.)
American Judo players are awfully far behind the curve. Many are not technically proficient enough to play for ippon with world class judokas and seem to be trying to muscle their way into waza ari situations. I really enjoyed how the referees were allowing the players to take it to groundfighting and go for chokes and submissions, but it is the up top stuff that makes for ippon and we are just laggin behind the rest of the world. I know that we are somewhat better at wrestling but the eastern bloc countries are still decades ahead of us.
Perhaps the most exciting moments so far were the end of the cycling
road race, which was freaking awesome if you like cycling, and the
Men's 4x100 Freestyle where the USA men took Gold on the shoulders of a
strong start and finish leg. The French were talking shit about the
Americans prior to the race, and it wasn't to tough for them to do
since the American squad was not supposed to be much deeper than
Phelps. Still, the French were in the lead with the holder of the
world record for the free in the pool and you know what? Fuck the
French. They can were silver and eat beans, Yankees dine on steak. I
don't have much love for the Frogs. I don't forgive the Vichy dirtbags
who fought at the beaches of Normandy and as far as I am concerned the
only thing the French have done since 1900 is provide a pretty place to
fight a couple of wars. Though that contribution may be understated,
it was still awesome to see that guy close the final 25 meters of that
swim.
Outside of that, I give propers to Yao Ming for holding his own on the
basketball court and to the Chinese team in general for playing hard
but they were just plain outmuscled and outshot. The American boys
were shooting the ball really well and the Chinamen were just not
physically big enough to keep us off the boards.
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2008 Cubs Preview
I not only watched the U.S./China tilt (twice) but many of the other prelim basketball games and the U.S. is going to have some problems down the road. Their are other teams (Greece, Argentina, Germany, and Spain) that run their offenses really, really well while the U.S. is left at times with four guys standing around. Also, why Coach K leaves Mike Redd on the bench until late in the 2nd half befuddles me. If he's there to make the defense guard the perimeter (because the U.S. has struggled from the perimeter historically) then shouldn't he start the game (or get in really early) make a couple from downtown and force the opponents to stretch their D? Only at that point will the U.S. team be able to use their overwhelming individual talent because then the opponents defense/depth/talent will be stretched thin. We'll see what happens.
The 4X100 relay was one of the best events, not just finishes, I've ever seen in the Olympics. Thy gymnastics was kind of interesting with the announcers and Bela Kuroli (sp?) absolutely ripping the judges time and again. On top of that the U.S. women struggled (but advanced) and face health and confidence issues heading into the finals.
I was unable to see the end of the men's road bicycle race but the women's was good. I wish they would show those races in their entirety or at least long enough that I could see the historical sites that the athletes are cycling through (Forbidden City, etc.).
I understand that the U.S. Volleyball teams are going through some tough times personally but they just don't seem to have the physical talent that the Cubans or other squads have. I have to say that's the area where I've been the most disappointed.
Something else that I found interesting was that in Women's Basketball it seemed that the guards for the European nations were wearing either low top running or volleyball shoes while their post players were wearing legit high top basketball shoes.
I noticed that too and couldn't figure it out. I can't think of any reason to do that. I suppose you could get away with it if you were the sort that had sturdy ankles, but why would you?
my Dad tried talking me into wearing v-ball shoes for basketball when I was in middle school because they supposedly could grip the floor better. I don't know. I guess the low top shoes would weigh less than the high tops but you could still get them in basketball models. It almost looked like some of them had Asic running shoes on or something like that.
Olympic badminton rules!!!
Cobra Brigade-1 Vagina-0
I think Olympic Fever killed Cobra Brigade.
Actually, it drove me to the point of taking a vacation and going back to Indiana for a bit. We will be up and running again before the beginning of NFl regular season. It seemed like the best time to take a break since Bruce Paine Girlfriend has to start teaching classes on Labor Day and Bruce Paine turned 29 on Wednesday. A good time to go home and be around friends who know what a Hoosier is and don't end sentences with "eh" like they are from Canadia. We will be back in time to talk about Bears vs. Colts.