The 2012 London Olympics Sports Thread

[Admiral Yi]

Lithuania took USA basketball down to the wire.  Had a brief 2 point lead in the 4th.

[Valmy]

Lithuania took USA basketball down to the wire.  Had a brief 2 point lead in the 4th.

That is pretty common when they play the really serious Basketball countries.  Argentina took them down to the wire as well in the exhibition pre-Olympic games....and hey look who is next for USA Basketball.

[Syt]

WHat I really appreciate about Bradley Wiggins, btw, is that with his hairstyle and face he wouldn't look out of place playing an officer in a Sharpe movie.

[DGuller]

What's with the "rubber face" slow-mo shots in the running events?  Were they a new edition, or did I just not notice it before?

[Neil]

Well, Murray finally did it.

[Sheilbh]

The Chinese win medals like crazy and ONE gets suspected of doping and you get all insulted what a joke.

The head coach of US swimming publicly suggested she was cheating. It was disgracefully bad sportsmanship. The suspicion does seem to be because she's Chinese too (despite having spent most of her life in Oz for training, and the Aussies have pretty strong anti-doping tests), when a similarly aged Lithuanian girl did much the same there was no accusations.

Also Armstrong as well as being a rather unpleasant man was definitely a cheat.

[Valmy]

The Chinese win medals like crazy and ONE gets suspected of doping and you get all insulted what a joke.

The head coach of US swimming publicly suggested she was cheating. It was disgracefully bad sportsmanship. The suspicion does seem to be because she's Chinese too (despite having spent most of her life in Oz for training, and the Aussies have pretty strong anti-doping tests), when a similarly aged Lithuanian girl did much the same there was no accusations.

Also Armstrong as well as being a rather unpleasant man was definitely a cheat.

This is total garbage.  There are circumstances that make her performance out of the ordinary.  Nothing in the Lithuanian girls performance was out of the range of what one would reasonable expect her to do.  She only beat her PB by a few hundredths of a second not full seconds.  So I do not see WTF you are talking about besides they are both women who won golds who were not Americans and because it is convenient to link the two because it helps your baseless case here.  What do we now have to have a coach imply every single gold medalist is doping for every event going forward regardless of circumstances to prove we are consistent?  Whatever.  Please explain why it seems that she was accused because she is Chinese.  Chinese have won many gold medals and we have not had coaches make speculations like this before.

This is precisely why Armstrong is suspected as well of course, his performances were way beyond what he was doing before and beyong what one would reasonable expect a world class cyclist to do in his era.  But it seems suspecting him is definite while suspecting a similar situation involving somebody who is Chinese can only be based on national hatred.  FOr some reason.

[Sheilbh]

This is total garbage.  There are circumstances that make her performance out of the ordinary.  Nothing in the Lithuanian girls performance was out of the range of what one would reasonable expect her to do.  She only beat her PB by a few hundredths of a second not full seconds.  So I do not see WTF you are talking about besides they are both women who won golds who were not Americans and because it is convenient to link the two because it helps your baseless case here.

They're both untipped 15-16 year olds who won the gold while getting new PBs.  I thought the Lithuanian girl had cut her PB by 3 seconds?  But as I say Ian Thorpe says that he'd cut his PB by 5 seconds between meets when he was a teenager because that's when you're able to do it.

Maybe she cheated, and certainly China's got a history of doping.  But she's been training in Australia for years, is at an age when you make immense physical gains quickly and has been through all the Olympics anti-doping tests.  The very least a fellow competitor should do is show a bit of class and give her the benefit of the doubt.  Until there's actual official allegations she should be celebrated and not have slurs thrown at her like this.  For me I think the public allegations by a head coach are one of those things in sport that's just really distasteful, like the hounding of Caster Semenya.

What do we now have to have a coach imply every single gold medalist is doping for every event going forward regardless of circumstances to prove we are consistent?

No.  You don't have a head coach implying anyone's cheating until there's a factual basis to do it.

Clare Balding (BBC host) did the same and should apologise for it, but she's not quite as important.

This is precisely why Armstrong is suspected as well of course, his performances were way beyond what he was doing before and beyong what one would reasonable expect a world class cyclist to do in his era.

It was also that Armstrong's team doctor was implicated in a huge number of doping scandals throughout the 90s and eventually given a lifetime ban from the sport, 5 years later Armstrong finally severed that relationship.  In addition there's repeated allegations by team-mates and the rumours in other teams through the period.

[Ed Anger]

Some of those Turkish volleyball girls:

Spellus is still a chump though.

[Eddie Teach]

Some of those Turkish volleyball girls:

Too tall.

[Ed Anger]

Some of those Turkish volleyball girls:

Too tall.

You suck.

[Admiral Yi]

Shelf: did you feel the same way about public accusations of East German steroid use?

US passed China in golds last time I checked.  Thank God there's 300 swimming events. 

[Eddie Teach]

Course China wins all the lameass diving medals.

[Ed Anger]

Darnel of Turkey. 

[The Larch]

Volleyball players, the choice of "legs" men the world over.