The Olympics - anyone else excited??

[MarkB]

I think the olympics have grown way too big.

They've been gatecrashed by dozens of sports and events that really should not be there (for a variety of reasons, including a. they are lame, b. they are stupid, c. they are spin-offs from other events or sports and the people who compete in them are only people who couldn't cut the mustard in real events [I put walkers especially in this category], and d. they just are not befitting of an olympic gold medal).

And another thing, I have nothing against Micheal Phelps (that guy can swim), but little wonder he has a gazillion gold medals, there are so many up for grabs in swimming.

After alll, they hand out golds for a stroke like the butterfly. If we applied similiar logic to athletics, then there would be a gold for this:

You could have the:

• 100m silly walk
• 200m silly walk
• 400m silly walk
• 4 x 100m silly walk relay
• 4 x 400m silly walk relay
• 4 x 100 m medley relay (sprint / silly walk / hurdle / walk)
• 4 x 400m medley relay (sprint / silly walk / hurdle / walk)

That would put real athletes on a similiar footing to swimmers.

 

[Pushka]

And another thing, I have nothing against Micheal Phelps (that guy can swim), but little wonder he has a gazillion gold medals, there are so many up for grabs in swimming.



You could have the:

• 100m silly walk
• 200m silly walk
• 400m silly walk
• 4 x 100m silly walk relay
• 4 x 400m silly walk relay
• 4 x 100 m medley relay (sprint / silly walk / hurdle / walk)
• 4 x 400m medley relay (sprint / silly walk / hurdle / walk)

That would put real athletes on a similiar footing to swimmers.

You forgot the silly walk Backwards!


Absolutely agree which is why I dont regard Phelps as 'the greatest Olympian ever', as some do. Carl Lewis (and others I'm sure) won gold in different disciplines requiring different skills.

 

[Sheryn]

Olympics a non event for me meaning I didn't watch on TV but heard or read some comments.

• Underage contestant.
• We aren't spending enough on our athletes.
• Counsellors available for athletes etc.

I would rather -

1. Fix transport and roads as that effects everyone.
2. Fix health funding (include dental and allied health industries)- add more staff, hospital beds and cut the red tape.

Sheryn

 

[nomadic]

I was curious about how much a gold medal would be worth if you melted it down and did a google ...

apparently every Olympics have their own medal designs and total weight may vary. There are certain requirements involved.... each Olympic medal must be at least 68mm across and 3mm thick.

Determining the actual value of a gold medal is tricky and the estimated price actually changes from day-to-day.

The best way to start is by pointing out that only a small percentage of a gold medal is actually made of gold.

According to the Olympic Charter, the gold and silver medals must each be made of at least 92.5 percent pure silver and the gold medal must be gilded with at least six grams of gold.

The price of gold changes daily. Assuming there’s six grams of gold in each gold medal at the current prices per troy ounce, the gold in a gold medal today would be worth around $160.

The remainder of the gold medal is made out of silver. The price of silver also fluctuates, but at an average of $14.50 per troy ounce, the remaining silver in the gold medal hovers around $60.

That puts the estimated monetary value at around $220, depending on how the markets are doing on any given day. This year's medals also include Jade for the first time, which could impact the value.

But that measurement is just the monetary side. The rarity of an Olympic gold medal can also give it extreme value.

 

[MarkB]

Well, to give you a real example.

I noticed this on ebay last week:

It's an actual (as in actually earned and awarded, not a copy) Olympic silver medal from 1976 - "The original recipient of this medal was Simion Cuţov (born May 7, 1952 - died 1993) was a boxer from Romania, who represented his native country at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. There he won the silver medal in the lightweight division (– 60 kg) after being defeated in the final by Howard Davis Jr. of the United States."

So out of curiousity I watched the auction.

It attracted 26 bids and the winning bid was $USD 4,627.77 (~$AUD 5,265).

That's a fair premium over it's silver content value.

 

[TheBacon]

After alll, they hand out golds for a stroke like the butterfly. If we applied similiar logic to athletics, then there would be a gold for this:

LOL, not sure I agree completely, but kudos coming your way for the laugh

 

[Olly]

I've been home most of this week so had the Olympics playing in the background most of the time. A couple of nights I slipped a 4 hour VHS tape in when I watched something else and caught up later, and yet I've still missed seeing any of the following - archery, shooting, discus, javelin, shotput, hammer throw, heptathlon, decathlon, boxing, martial arts, equestrian, weightlifting, kayaking, baseball, soccer, fencing and probably a few more I can't even think of. Some I don't care about missing but the point is how did I miss them? They mustn't have got much coverage surely????

So, my complaint about the Channel 7 coverage is never knowing what was going to be covered through the evening - there didn't seem to be a schedule anywhere. On the odd occasions I caught a presenter saying what was coming up they usually only mentioned 4 things in general terms like 'the mens heats of the 4 x 100m' when in actual fact they also jumped over to some medal stoushes in other events but these weren't mentioned so I never realised they were going to be covered too.

Instead of watching 10 heats of 1 event or a whole game of something between 2 other countries surely there must have been something else going on elsewhere worth covering.

I also would have liked to hear more of the 'life' stories of peoples struggles to get to the Olympics - Aussies and others. There's always a lot of those, but I didn't hear any except our female cyclist who broke her neck in January this year and struggled to get her health and fitness back in time for the Olympics.

Olly

 

[Olly]

Anybody see the bronze medal fight in Tae Kwon Do between Kazakhstan and Cuba? A fight is 3 x 2min rounds. Half way through the second round the Cuban got hurt and got 1 minute injury time. You have to be ready to continue fighting at the end of the 1 minute. You also get a 10 second countdown and warning when time is coming to an end.

At the end of the 1 minute the Kazakhstanian (?) claimed the fight because the Cuban wasn't up and ready to continue and the referee awarded it to him. The Cuban fighter and coach questioned the decision and argued their case but the referee stood by his decision and put his arm up to award the fight to Kazakhstan. The Cuban fighter lost it and kicked the ref in the head and was staunching up to him quite menacingly. Another official who stepped in to stop things got roughed up and shoved by the Cuban too. Slowly officials managed to coax the Cuban fighter and Coach out of the area but no-one was getting too close. No security or police to be seen. Obviously not expected to be needed in a controlled competition like the Olympics by world class athletes with the eyes of the world on them. The whole thing was disgusting! Life time bans for the fighter and the coach followed almost immediately.

Olly