Actualy on super GB gold rush Saturday, Team GB made good headway on that, 6 golds, 3 on them in 43 mins. And the velodrome is far from over! I'm not that interested in the gamnes, but I'm stunned with how many medals GB are winning!
Originally the whole freestyle thing meant, "Choose your stroke and let's see who is the fastest." Most people originally did butterfly but after those using the crawl started winning all the medals everyone switched over to various crawls until today freestyle implies a crawl. I don't think most people realise that freestyle is not a stroke. It's exactly what it says, "FREEstyle." Nowadays everyone uses some sort of crawl in the freestyle and so they included other races for all the other different kinds of strokes. There's no doggy paddle race though. That seems to be an oversight.
Yes indeed you americans do keep telling us the only thing holding you back is the amount of people you can field. The thing about it is, if your real dominance is hidden in these games then of course in all the normal international competitions where all that matters is the individual, you would normally dominate - but of course you dont. So therefore your 'we could could field so many more winners' blather is a bluff.
I'm messing with you by mocking that stupid post. Also trying to work in a South Park joke: [video=youtube;zuQK6t2Esng]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuQK6t2Esng[/video]
If it is true that the Chinese government does not threaten its athletes, then why are they the only ones that never smile? All the other athletes are very happy during competitions, but the Chinese always appear serious and to an extent imo fearful. The only time they ever express any emotion is when they win and its like a sigh of relief more than happiness. Also we all know that they are very secretive about what goes on in their nation, especially in respect to human rights.
some cultures and some individuals are just more reserved and modest and sometimes over the top immodest displays are considered the rudest of behaviour....modest displays of victory doesn't describe the reactions of mens 1500m swim or mens badminton both chinese...
You are wrong.The only reason you get the wrong conclusion is that you watched too little game. Here is an image for you:
Then you have to apply it to all countries because there are a number of them who have been shown to not pass tests but have been given second chances. Not my idea of sport. Whoever they are and from whichever country, the only way to stop it is not being selective with the results but life bans on everyone concerned.
The vast majority of Americans do not follow soccer. A lot of kids play soccer, but other than that nobody follows it. Most Americans couldn't name a single player on the U.S. men's Olympic soccer team. When it comes to pro sports, Americans follow American football, baseball, basketball, hockey, MMA, etc.
I have to admit, I'm becoming a big fan of women's beach volleyball. Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic is quite the player.
soccer is number two in participation with children and adults, only basketball has more...just because you can't name a a player on the USA team don't assume no one else can...and assuming people who play don't follow the game they enjoy most is just hubris, again you're projecting your biases on everyone else...
You're not even an American, so what the (*)(*)(*)(*) do you know about it? I'm not disputing that a lot of people (mostly little kids) play soccer, but as far as overall popularity among sports fans in the U.S., soccer isn't even close to American football, baseball, etc. The tv ratings for soccer are well below the other major sports.
Perhaps you have seen only thin Chinese. Fat Chinese smile a lot like the Smiling Buddha. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...B52&qpvt=photos+of+smiling+buddha&FORM=IDFRIR Chinese regard the late actor Bruce Lee as their hero and idol. Have you ever seen Bruce Lee smiling? If you think the Chinese competitors "appear serious and to an extent imo fearful", there may be two reasons -- either the apparent fear comes from your mind or they are fearful they could never live up to the aspiration of Bruce Lee. In conclusion, let's look at the photo of an American Chinese family in the link below. Do you find smile on all their faces? New US ambassador to China looks to reassure Beijing http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14525122
what do I know? apparently much more than you how embarrassing is that....from your ill informed opinions you're not even an athlete, watching tv is not a sport... american football is mostly played by children, adult leagues other professional are negligible, how many over 35, over 45 football leagues are the in US? I know I'll find those soccer over age soccer leagues in every major US city...how many womens football leagues? anywhere near the number of womens soccer leagues ...adult hockey comes no where close to soccer not even in canada were canadains also have no clue soccer is the most widely played sport...24 million soccer players in the US and at least 50% of those will be adults....
What he said is actually correct, statistically speaking: Originally Posted by wyly soccer is number two in participation with children and adults, only basketball has more...just because you can't name a a player on the USA team don't assume no one else can...and assuming people who play don't follow the game they enjoy most is just hubris, again you're projecting your biases on everyone else... The reason it doesn't make it to the TV, as that the game of football is not based around TV adverts.
it's the phenomena of a spectacle as well, the media tells what we should like and we join in... and football as you say is formed around television, watching it on tv the vast majority of people are convinced they're watching action packed athleticism but the reality is they're being distracted by talking heads and commercials...the actual game only contains an average of 12.5 minutes of play...tv companies love this because advertising is where they make their money....sports that have continuous flow like hockey and soccer are not well liked by tv providers because they are difficult to profit from as they're not advertising friendly...
And the way TV advertising is used in the US particularly probably explains the discrepancy between the US and other places in sport popularity. In other places such as the UK, we just have less advertising breaks on TV, and longer spaces between them. It isn't a problem for our commercial TV to show 45 minutes of a game, then have a relatively long single advert break, followed by a bit of half time chat and then another long-ish advert break before having 45 minutes of unbroken sport again. The most popular US sports seem to be the 'stop-start' ones where adverts can be fitted in during the game, and they generally aren't too popular elsewhere because they are just so 'stop-start' all the time, and are found by many to be very frustrating to watch for that reason.
Can I just add one thing. The Olympics is on bbc here, a totally advert free station, unadulterated reality tv at it's purest, god save the queen ha. I can't believe I said that.
'a' station???!!!! There's about 20 of the darned things, in addition to the whole of 2 of the regular channels, and on top of that the BBC seems to think that it's all that people tuning into the 24 hour News channel want to hear about, too - apparently there is no other news in the world (either that, or it just hasn't occurred to them that people tuning into the news channel might actually want to see the news, not yet another channel devoted entirely to the darned Olympics). It's not even as if I'll be seeing my country's flag being raised, or hearing my national anthem being played, when one of my countrymen wins something!!!!!
I love when someone from another country gives a lecture on how things are in the U.S. The idea that soccer is a hugely popular sport in the U.S. is completely laughable. Go into almost any sports bar in the U.S. and ask them to turn on a soccer game and they'll probably laugh in your face. Try to start a conversation with someone about their favorite soccer player or team and they'll look at you like you're speaking another language.
