An Olympic observation

Costas' douchness notwithstanding, I find it distressing that while we send our finest professional basketball layers to compete for gold, America's professional wrestles must sit on the sidelines while amateurs compete in their stead. I think greco-roman wrestling would be much more exciting if there were more people being beaten with folding chairs and toaster ovens.

Also, during some wrestling coverage last night, we heard one of the announcers holler during a rather intense skirmish "He's got him face down on the mat... he's gritting his teeth and trying to score!"

We lol'd

jg

I've been watching Greco Wrestle Romaning on NBC's website, which is pretty good. They have a little running text commentary at the bottom of the screen that's written by a member of USA Wrestling. They try to explain what's going on, and they can do it much better than a non-cauliflower-eared reporter can.

JG Pasterjak wrote: ...America's professional wrestles must sit on the sidelines while amateurs compete in their stead...

I'm thinking the drug testing might be a bit of a hurdle...

If it doesn't involve Brazilian women in tight shorts, I ain't buyin.

I like the "observation" Craig Ferguson made on his show monday night:

"When it comes to the swimming competition, why do they have to swim a certain stroke? They don't tell the runners they have to run a certain way."

His other "observation": when did running with a streamer trailing behind you become a sport?

I'm waiting for Beer consumption to become a Olympic sport, Go Aussies

I learned that I don't eat enough to be an Olympic athelete. I'm going to work on that today.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/13/the-michael-phelps-diet-dont-try-it-at-home/

Here’s Phelps’s typical menu. (No, he doesn’t choose among these options. He eats them all, according to the Post.) Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes. Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories. Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

integraguy wrote: I like the "observation" Craig Ferguson made on his show monday night: "When it comes to the swimming competition, why do they have to swim a certain stroke? They don't tell the runners they have to run a certain way." His other "observation": when did running with a streamer trailing behind you become a sport?

Technically, on a freestyle event you can swim any stroke you want. It's just that you will not see anyone try such a thing at the Olympics. I've seen competitors use styles other than the crawl in freestyle in high school swim meets, though.

aussiesmg wrote: I'm waiting for Beer consumption to become a Olympic sport, Go Aussies

Given his caloric consumption and metabolism, I'm betting Phelps could win that one too.

Even better: Drunk Dizzy Bat!

What we no consider "free style" is the Australian Crawl. Before it was brought to the Olympics the fastest stroke that was used in "free style" was the Butterfly.

Why do the gymnasts get to use special gloves to hold the bars/rings better, but the swimmers don't get to use swim fins to swim better?

Bryce

Why do the Chinese get to use 10 year old girls for gymnastics?

jpod999 wrote: Why do the Chinese get to use 10 year old girls for gymnastics?

Someone pointed out that a couple of the Chinese girls look like they had each lost a baby tooth. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and suggest that they were caught at a Free Tibet rally.

jpod999 wrote: Why do the Chinese get to use 10 year old girls for gymnastics?

Easy, the Chinese calendar is half as long as the Western calendar.

They have twice as many leap years as us!