2012 Summer Olympics Thread: London July 27 - August 12

[sole vintage]

 

[gllahone84]

Bob Costas seems to never age

 

[jhawk826]

[h1]Olympic anti-China conspiracy afoot? Some Chinese think so[/h1][h3]By William Wan, Updated: Wednesday, August 8, 12:30 PM[/h3]
BEIJING — China may lead the Olympic medal tally in London, but some Chinese still apparently believe the rest of the world is ganging up on their country.

Several Chinese state-run media outlets alleged Wednesday that a conspiracy may be afoot in London following a string of controversies involving Chinese athletes. The latest incident to infuriate the Chinese occurred this week when judges awarded a Brazilian gymnast gold over the largely favored Chinese competitor Chen Yibing, known in China as the “King of Rings.”

“Anger grows over alleged Olympic bias,” blared the front page of China’s government-owned Global Times on Wednesday. The People’s Daily blamed such results on a “hysterical” and “paranoid” fear of China.

It may seem like sour grapes to the West, but the conspiracy theories reflect an increasingly common line taken by Chinese leaders that Western powers are trying to contain China even as its status as a world power rises.

“This is not an overreaction, because those abroad keep saying things about China, so China has a right to say something back,” said Tao Wenzhao, a U.S.-China relations expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who said many foreign commentators, including those in the United States, have been biased against China.

If China keeps its current spot atop the Olympic medal table, it would be the first country to defeat the United States at the Summer Olympics since 1992. But its rising tally has only seemed to feed suspicions among Chinese officials.

Because of China’s growing worldwide dominance, their theory goes, other countries are forced to resort to unfair tactics to knock the country down a peg.

Last week, after Chinese women’s track cyclists Guo Shuang and Gong Jinjie dominated the team sprint, setting two world records in an hour, they were hit with a disqualification and relegated to silver medals. Afterward, the team’s coach told reporters: “They robbed us of the gold medal. A gold medal which was really important for the Chinese people because they are still looking for their first gold in cycling. They would have made history.”

Then there was the badminton match-fixing scandal in which eight players were expelled, including the Chinese doubles champions, for throwing early bouts in an effort to ensure easier matches down the line.

Anti-China bias was evident even in the opening days of the Games, Chinese officials said, when commentators aired suspicions about the surprising performance of China’s gold-medal swimmer Ye Shiwen.

“Swimming is traditionally dominated by powers like Europe and the U.S. Now China is suddenly making a strong impact,” read one editorial in the Guangming Daily, which attributed the suspicions to the West’s declining place in the global economy after four years of economic crisis. “When they see they are losing their advantage in traditionally dominant areas, they start to question irrationally,” the paper said.

The world-against-us mentality voiced by Chinese officialdom in many ways echoes the leadership’s reactions to the recent strengthening of ties between the United States and other allies in Asia. Chinese officials have repeatedly decried U.S. plans to expand America’s military and economic presence in Asia as an attempt to encircle and contain China.

Throughout the Olympics, however, reaction among the Chinese public at large has been much more diverse and nuanced.

The Games have remained the top trending topic on China’s popular Twitter-like microblogs since they began. Many Chinese netizens have been strongly supportive of individual athletes embroiled in controversy, such as the gymnast Chen, who lost out on gold by 0.1 of a point.

“Chen Yibing touched me the most . . . Even facing an unfair score from the judges, the champion of many years stayed calm and kept smiling on the stage,” said one Weibo commenter called “May_Ranran.”

“Such grace is worthy of our pride,” said another.

But such admiration has rarely been extended to China’s vast national sports apparatus as a whole, which has been the subject of sharp debate on Chinese social media forums throughout the Games.

One commenter using the handle “fishing people” noted that her daughter and Ye, the swimmer who faced doping allegations, are the same age. “Ye spends all day practicing swimming at the pool and doesn’t go to school,” she wrote. “She could be illiterate. Meanwhile, my daughter goes to school everyday but there is almost no physical education. What kind of system is this?”

While the government may try to rally the people with nationalist sentiments and cast aspersions on other countries’ motives, times have changed, noted Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at Beijing University of Technology.

“The government can’t use the old ways of propaganda, and China can’t create a better image for itself simply by winning more gold medals,” he said.

Many in China are criticizing its sports system, he said, because it uses tremendous sums of money, an often life- and career-crushing selection process, and sometimes cruelly intensive training to churn out its champions.

“When the average life span in China, its medical system and its people’s overall health overtakes the West, that will be a more powerful proof than any Olympic champion,” he said.

Researcher Liu Liu contributed to this report.

 

[you big dummy]

 

[jhawk826]

Jones earned every marketing dollar

---

By Darren Rovell


The fact that Lolo Jones came in fourth in Tuesday's 100-meter hurdles final could certainly affect her future marketability.

But let's get this out of the way: Lolo Jones deserved every single dime of the marketing dollars she received before that race started.

The notion that her athletic achievements weren't worthy of the attention the media and corporate America had bestowed on her was first floated in a New York Times column earlier this week. She was an attention grabber, according to the article, which quoted an expert in "Olympic Studies" who said Jones reminded her of Anna Kournikova. Kournikova famously earned big endorsement dollars without winning a WTA singles title during her career.

Wednesday, as Jones wept on NBC's "Today Show," it was easy to see how much the article and the discussion it inspired got into her head. And since her emotions likely made it tough for her to properly defend herself, let me do it for her.

[font=verdana, arial, geneva]Hurdler Lolo Jones deserves credit to her creating her own relevancy.[/font]

Whether you think Jones should or shouldn't be a household name, the bottom line is she is.

If you think her name is cheapened by some strategy to be relevant, to constantly be in the news -- most prominently the open talk about her virginity -- then shouldn't she get some credit for the fact that it worked?

Credit for the fact that in this world of clutter, she got into the heads of marketers who, for whatever reason, wanted to attach their brands to her?

Credit to her creating her own relevancy. Is that cheap? Is that undeserving?

McDonald's, Asics and Red Bull, all of whom sponsored Jones, aren't in the business of throwing away their money.

They're in the business of getting your attention and selling food, shoes and drinks.

And admit it, man or woman, Jones made you look up at the TV or at a magazine ad. It's harder to tell if she convinced you to run or get a large fry.

While winning is often the most important component of marketing, it's not the only thing. And it's not the job of companies to pad the wallets of athletes with endorsement deals just because they managed to win on the field, court or track.

Jones' competitors, Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells, who finished ahead of her to take the silver and bronze respectively, also don't think the attention Jones has received has been fair.

To them I ask: What have you done to get your name in front of Olympic sponsors? When you didn't get deals, did you ask them why? Did you work on becoming more marketable?

I know Jones did. The last time I saw her in person she asked me for my advice on her Twitter handle, which at the time was @runlolorun. She was thinking of changing it to her name and wanted to know if I thought it was the right move. I said it was. She made the change. Over the next couple months, she became one of the most followed athletes on Twitter.

A couple months later, I told her I needed help filming a pilot for a TV show I was working on. I told her the show would never run. She didn't care. She wanted to get the reps in and use the opportunity for media training.

As others worked on improving their times, Jones worked on pitching herself as well. Maybe that cost her on Tuesday, maybe it didn't.

But to say she didn't deserve what she earned in endorsements because she didn't medal is just plain wrong.

 

[futuremd]

No one is saying she didn't deserve that money.

Its the fact that she didn't deliver and she wanted to whine about how unfair the media was afterwards.

Dont play the innocent virgin then be surprised that people dont' jump back on your team when you don't deliver.

That money came with the fame and she knew what she was getting into 

 

[jumpmantwenty3]

this ish is ridiculous:

"She has a jump of 22 1/4 feet...which gives her a lead of 1 centimeter!"

:x

 

[lynchpin33]

For those of us old enough to remember is the flack that lolo jones receiving has bad as it was for the dan & dave campaign back in the 1992 olympics? Reebok put all the money into both of the decathletes and one of them did not make the team, can not remember which one and the one that did, did not do that well if i recall.....

 

[rko2004]

These beach volleyball girls are very close friends.

 

[lynchpin33]

These beach volleyball girls are very close friends.

until bob costas said something about their husbands and kids i was REALLY wondering....

 

[runningfishy]

i have no doubts in my mind that athletes could do a lot better w/o the BS they do. like lolo. jordyn weiber and even team USA basketball.

gabby dougas failed miserably after her spot light.

lolo was crap too

ryan lochtne as well

same w/ phelps. phelps could've gotten a lot better.

 

[rko2004]

until bob costas said something about their husbands and kids i was REALLY wondering....

they never let go of each other too man. During the ceremony and then the interview. The interview was like watching a couple.

 

[Mound Raised]

I just wanna love all over her.

 

[knightngale]

Lolo is being hated on because she is declining and her athletic ability is not her main draw factor anymore. It used to be beauty+olympic champ potential but now it is basically just her beauty. She probably knows this and started telling the world about her tight vag in order to stay relevant because 4th place finishers are not relevant.

 

[futuremd]

These beach volleyball girls are very close friends.

until bob costas said something about their husbands and kids i was REALLY wondering....

They've played together for 20+ years. They're technically sisters. 

 

[big j 33]

i have no doubts in my mind that athletes could do a lot better w/o the BS they do. like lolo. jordyn weiber and even team USA basketball.
gabby dougas failed miserably after her spot light.
lolo was crap too
ryan lochtne as well
same w/ phelps. phelps could've gotten a lot better.

Phelps already did it all in Beijing and clearly relaxed and took it easy. Spotlight wasn't a factor.

Lolo was older.

Gabby Douglas already won in the two most important events, of course her focus would be weaker.

If your point is athletes could perform better if they didn't have a lot of attention and pressure on them... Then duh..

 

[eracism]

Salute. Thanks.

 

[shogun]

These beach volleyball girls are very close friends.

until bob costas said something about their husbands and kids i was REALLY wondering....

They've played together for 20+ years. They're technically sisters. 

They've only been a team since 2001 I think unless they played together indoor previously. Those 2 are always holding hands. Misty retiring as part of the G.O.A.T. team. I didn't know she competed at Sydney too. Her team only got 5th place. Kerri was still on the indoor team. Walsh says she wants to be back for Rio. Maybe she'll be back with the partner she ditched for these Olympics.

Nice to see Allyson Felix finally win gold. She looks so fine. Do the short distance track runners usually have this longevity? This was Felix's 3rd Olympics and she performed better than ever. I just assumed a runner would slow down after 8 years but the top female runners seem to stay consistent.

 

[futuremd]

These beach volleyball girls are very close friends.

until bob costas said something about their husbands and kids i was REALLY wondering....

They've played together for 20+ years. They're technically sisters. 

They've only been a team since 2001 I think unless they played together indoor previously. Those 2 are always holding hands. Misty retiring as part of the G.O.A.T. team. I didn't know she competed at Sydney too. Her team only got 5th place. Kerri was still on the indoor team. Walsh says she wants to be back for Rio. Maybe she'll be back with the partner she ditched for these Olympics.

Nice to see Allyson Felix finally win gold. She looks so fine. Do the short distance track runners usually have this longevity? This was Felix's 3rd Olympics and she performed better than ever. I just assumed a runner would slow down after 8 years but the top female runners seem to stay consistent.

my mistake.

either way, 3 gold medals and the acclaim of being the best in your sport universally, id say its worth it.

And Carmelita Jeter is 30+ and running the fastest shes run in her life. 

 

[mronegative]

dat focus

 

[jumpmantwenty3]

 

[mronegative]

:\ new bg

 

[shogun]

Cambage is killing the U.S. team . Doing work in the paint. I'd like to see her go against Griner.

 

[irishbaz]

Well done Katie

 

[jhawk826]

The US women's has no size. Brittany Griner should have been included on the roster for a game just like this. You never know when you would have needed her.