London Olympics

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Everyone's upset over the officiating, claiming the match was rigged for the Americans. I didn't watch it, because I don't really care about soccer or anything in the summer Olympics (I didn't even get to see Mary Spencer's fight- which was the only thing I did care about- and she lost). Also my internet went out Saturday night and I didn't get it back until today so even if I had cared to watch it I couldn't have.

But Since nobody will shut up about it, I've seen clips of the supposed rigged calls, and I've read about the arguments both from Canadians and Americans, and it just seems to me like the officiating was BAD, not rigged, just BAD. And it's seemed to me since these Olympics started that my country's turning into a bunch of sore losers, who are expecting Canadian athletes to deliver like in Vancouver, forgetting that Canada has ALWAYS done better at the Winter Olympics than the Summer ones, and that the COC's goal for these games was to crack the top 12, which was considered by many to be overly ambitious. But people want us to take another number 1 spot, or to take more gold medals, and are so frustrated by what they are perceiving as underperforming, that they've taken to childish cries of "NOT FAIR NOT FAIR!".
Gold medal game.



No call on the play.

Disgusting.
 
22 players on the field, with only one referee.

<snark>What you you expect from a game where the officials can't figure out how to work a stopwatch?</snark>
 
And there were missed calls on the Canadian team too I'm sure. I saw a clip where one girl (Canadian) stomped on another's (American) head. No call.
Bad officiating. But not rigged.
 
22 players on the field, with only one referee.

<snark>What you you expect from a game where the officials can't figure out how to work a stopwatch?</snark>
5 referees, or 7 for the top matches. Only one on the field, but 2 on the lines and 2 more following with computers.
There's plenty of silly things in football, but not really the lack of referees. Not allowing computer replays to change a ruling is idiotic, for example.

Also, yes, that's some baaaad refereeing.
 
5 referees, or 7 for the top matches. Only one on the field, but 2 on the lines and 2 more following with computers.
There's plenty of silly things in football, but not really the lack of referees. Not allowing computer replays to change a ruling is idiotic, for example.

Also, yes, that's some baaaad refereeing.
Not allowing replay/ call review is a big problem with a lot of sports, I think. I get that they worry it'd slow the game down cause every call would wind up getting scrutinized, but honestly, just limit the number of call disputes a team can make. I really like how Box Lacrosse does it, where each team can throw in the towel twice a game to dispute the call. And almost every time I've seen them do it (Usually for crease violations), the call on the field gets reversed.
 
Not allowing replay/ call review is a big problem with a lot of sports, I think. I get that they worry it'd slow the game down cause every call would wind up getting scrutinized, but honestly, just limit the number of call disputes a team can make. I really like how Box Lacrosse does it, where each team can throw in the towel twice a game to dispute the call. And almost every time I've seen them do it (Usually for crease violations), the call on the field gets reversed.
I like the tennis/badminton style. You get 2 (or 3, depending) calls; if you're right, you keep your call, if you're wrong, you lose it. So....make all the calls you want - as long as you're right every time. If you're wrong 3 times, though, tough luck for the rest of the game.

Also, even computer pictures aren't always perfect. In one of the cycling things, there was a photo finish for 3rd place (and it came down to less than 1/1,000th of a second). They couldn't properly see because they only took a finish picture from one side...and the back wheel of number one (Hoy) was blocking the view of one of the two competitors for 3rd place.
Obviously, they gave the Belgian the 4th place :p
 
G

Graham

Dumb question of the day: am I the only one who's having shop.london2012.com redirect to www.teamusashop.com?
[DOUBLEPOST=1344623532][/DOUBLEPOST]No the stupid redirect essentially prevents you shopping for Team GB stuff in the US, even though the site has prices for shipping to the USA.

Whoever built the site is a total idiot!
 
Gold medal game.



No call on the play.

Disgusting.
I agree, very poor "non-call." There were a couple of other calls in the same game that were just WTF? That handball should have been called and a PK awarded for Japan. German ref, seemed more interested in her hair than the game.
 
Hmmm...unless I'm mistaken, we're the country listed first because we are doing better than everyone else in the olympics.*






*Ok, medal count is a stupid way to rank countries in the olympics but come on.
 
Yeah, I mean, I absolutely agree that 'merica sucks* is by far not the best country all things counted, but CONTEXT.

*That's a joke and does not necessarily bear any resemblance to actual opinions held by the poster.
 
So, who's up for another three hours of platform diving again tonight?!

I am, because an American wins(!) after finishing 18th (out of 18 qualifiers!) in the preliminary round. He passes the heavy Chinese favorite on his final dive of 102.6 points, the highest scoring dive in Olympic history under the current points system. For perspective, the gold medal winner in 2008 finished with enough points to have finished fourth in this event this year.
 
Cool, the US won the Olympics again, see you in Rio
I think that everyone that competed was a winner, not just a country, it's so much more than just a medal count. The Saudi woman that raced and the rower from Niger all the way up to Phelps and Bolt are inspirations to everyone.

But then again, I obviously look at the world much differently than you do.
 
I am pretty proud of the Spanish Basketball team. They took a bunch of future Hall of Fame Players to the wire.

I just wonder what the age requirement change will do to Olympic Basketball.
 
The big change was giving up the amateur requirement, since most other teams were really pros. Especially the way the Soviet Union called their national team the "Army Team."
 
The age limit thing has been ruled out, at least for 2016. Anyway, if it ends up getting implemented, I think it'd really help out the Europeans. They start balling professionally (and nationally) at a young age, whereas the US is still dominated by the AAU circuit.
 
23 and under would probably make the US do even better. Before the dream team we were still easily the best and our teams were completely composed of under 23 players playing against the best of the other countries.
 
There were 4 under-21 FIBA world championships before they were discontinued (2005). The US team won gold twice. The other two times they didn't even make it into the medal round.
 
Wasn't part of the problem for the US that the NCAA had issues with eligibility after some players participated in the Olympics and World Championships? I don't remember clearly, and that could just have been speculation.
 
Well the team would still be great, especially if you get 3 over 23 year olds like in soccer. LeBron, Howard and Durant and an U-19 team would probably medal, let alone an under 23 team.
 
Wasn't part of the problem for the US that the NCAA had issues with eligibility after some players participated in the Olympics and World Championships? I don't remember clearly, and that could just have been speculation.
The NCAA has issues with everything. A text message sent at the wrong time to the wrong number can have you ruled ineligible. A weather delayed flight has had a kid ruled ineligible.
 
The NCAA has issues with everything. A text message sent at the wrong time to the wrong number can have you ruled ineligible. A weather delayed flight has had a kid ruled ineligible.
Heh. Relevant to both parts of the conversation - in 2010/11, Turkish player Enes Kanter was ruled permanently ineligible to play for any NCAA member school, due to his having played for a Turkish club team during his teens. In the US, the AAU system is still able to maintain some semblance of amateurism, at least by NCAA standards. The international club system allows youth players to play for professional teams in what basically amounts to a "minor leagues". While playing for his team, Kanter was paid what amounted to cost-of-living expenses, plus an additional amount for education expenses. Unfortunately, the "additional" education money was paid directly to his parents, who set the money aside in a separate account, where it remained untouched. The NCAA allows for this scenario, but the club team must pay the educational institution directly, i.e. it can't be a reimbursement to the parents, as it was in this case. Ultimately, it was determined that Kanter was paid around $20K above the actual expenses incurred, & even though the Kanters never touched the money (think his father is a doctor) & offered to return the money to the club, the NCAA laid down the ban-hammer. Meanwhile in America, high-school & college players already in the system accept "gifts" of hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of goods & merchandise, some from known sports agents, & are still allowed to play after serving multi-game suspensions & making reparations. /rant

Anyways - as for Team USA Basketball. In the late 80's/early 90's, the college players just weren't getting it done anymore. Silver in the '87 Pan-Am games, a bronze in the '88 games - only the 2nd olympic non-gold ever for USA basketball - followed by silver @ '89 Americas championships & another bronze @ the '90 world championships. The US definition of amateurs wasn't fitting with the world definition anymore, & so with a little rule tweaking, the US set out to make sure we regained dominance in basketball with a vengeance, & the Dream Team was born.
 
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