OLYMPICS 2008 (BEIJING)

[jjpb3]

No one's bringing it up, so I thought I would.

Which stories are you following? (I personally can't resist following Michael Phelps's pursuit of Olympic history. Yes, I'm cheering for Tom Daley to get his medal in diving.)

What do you think so far? (Dang it, I missed the drummers in the opening ceremonies because of a client meeting. But the rest of the opening was simply impressive. )

Which events are you following? (My faves: badminton, diving, gymnastics [men's and women's, SQ LPP], track and field, and (indoor) volleyball; occasional peeks into basketball, as that is what my brothers will talk about , and swimming to see how Master Phelps is doing).

C'mon, SQTalkers, weigh in.

[sqforever]

I've actually been following the story of the "random" stabbing of the relative of the US volleyball coach. I hope that no other major incidents occur but with so many threats and things that can go wrong at Beijing 2008 this year, anything is possible.

And yes, congrats to Phelps. Many have seen him as the one to really make a splash (pun not intended) this year, and he definitely did! Now, just seven more gold medals to go......

The Singapore team is doing better this year, with Tao Li really having a shot at getting a medal. And the SIN team beat the mighty US of A in their opening badmiton match which I thought was impressive and a sign of good things to come.

[jjpb3]

The US has a badminton team? I don't think they're really pinning medal hopes on that one.

I have to say, I follow badminton because I cheer for the SE Asian teams.

Go, Indonesia and Singapore!

[N_Architect]

Good you brought it up, jjpb3.

Regarding Phelps, I am not really interested here as I kind of consider it too much of a pursuit from a person, and on top of it everyone else in the world being anxious if he's gonna make it or not. He may be a fine athlete and a fine person, but it will not make a single difference if he gets 2 or 22 medals. An Olympian is an Olympian, whether he/she has got one or five or seven or seventy seven gold medals. There are people / athletes who have had tremendous difficulties in preparing for these games, there are people who arrive at the games every four years having a long and painful story behind them that the whole world has (and probably never will) no clue about, but some of them make it, and this actually shows how enormous their achievement is. As a result, following what the media wants to feed me with and waiting to see if Mr. Phelps will get eighty seven golds is not my cup of tea, really. I rather dig behind the stories every day to find some not-discovered-by-media heroes / athletes.

So far only watched the opening ceremony on a couple of different instances (actually one of those instances was when the Singaporean team was entering the stadium ) and admit was impressed and felt rather emotional.

[jjpb3]

Regarding Phelps, I am not really interested here as I kind of consider it too much of a pursuit from a person, and on top of it everyone else in the world being anxious if he's gonna make it or not. He may be a fine athlete and a fine person, but it will not make a single difference if he gets 2 or 22 medals.

That's where we differ. Why discount the journey if it's an individual (and very particular) one? Yes it does make a difference, because it's about personal triumph. There are others equally deserving of a gold medal. If he manages to achieve his goal in the face of all that talent and ambition, why begrudge him?

An Olympian is an Olympian, whether he/she has got one or five or seven or seventy seven gold medals. There are people / athletes who have had tremendous difficulties in preparing for these games, there are people who arrive at the games every four years having a long and painful story behind them that the whole world has (and probably never will) no clue about, but some of them make it, and this actually shows how enormous their achievement is. As a result, following what the media wants to feed me with and waiting to see if Mr. Phelps will get eighty seven golds is not my cup of tea, really. I rather dig behind the stories every day to find some not-discovered-by-media heroes / athletes.

I just don't see why you would discount personal records that way. If others make it to the podium despite the odds they face, I'm more than happy to celebrate with them. If Michael Phelps achieves his goal (by the way, the number of golds is eight, not eigthy-seven -- hyperbole doesn't serve your rhetorical purposes in this case, in my view), I'm happy to celebrate with him as well. An Olympian is an Olympian, as you say. I don't quite understand why you would diminish achievements because the media happened to lavish attention on them.

But we're all entitled to our view, of course.

[SQflyergirl]

Go, Indonesia and Singapore!

What about Malaysia?

[Kiwi]

I just don't see why you would discount personal records that way. If others make it to the podium despite the odds they face, I'm more than happy to celebrate with them. If Michael Phelps achieves his goal (by the way, the number of golds is eight, not eigthy-seven -- hyperbole doesn't serve your rhetorical purposes in this case, in my view), I'm happy to celebrate with him as well. An Olympian is an Olympian, as you say. I don't quite understand why you would diminish achievements because the media happened to lavish attention on them.

But we're all entitled to our view, of course.

I don't diminish Phelps' achievements (2 down BTW), but I do think the media is over the top with best Olympian ever stuff. He already has lots of Olympic medals (and will get many more I suppose) in part because of the sport he excels in. Some other sports have excellent sportspeople who by virtue of their chosen sport may only get the chance of a single medal (or none at all for sports not represented at the Olympics). Exceptional sportsman - yes. Best ever - I'm not convinced.

[jjpb3]

but I do think the media is over the top with best Olympian ever stuff. ... Exceptional sportsman - yes. Best ever - I'm not convinced.

I agree 100%. 'Best Olympian ever' (I haven't seen that description in the BBC coverage, thank God) is something I'd reserve for when I've seen all the final results.

[N_Architect]

That's where we differ. Why discount the journey if it's an individual (and very particular) one? Yes it does make a difference, because it's about personal triumph. There are others equally deserving of a gold medal. If he manages to achieve his goal in the face of all that talent and ambition, why begrudge him?

I do not think I tried to discount the journey or begrudge him. I just think that:
(a) there are many more individuals equally striving hard but do not get the publicity he gets, and I always prefer to go after the news on them, rather than on the 'big' names. I just do not like it when I open refdesk.com (my Firefox's home page) and I read on the 'in the news' column that "One down for Phelps, seven to go!", as I believe there are much more important news we should focus on. It's like talking about a well established and known entrepreneur adding an x% in his group od companies value - the rich has become even richer - what difference does it make?
(b) there are so many other stories we can focus on. Personal triumph is indeed about the individual, but it's best if we always focus more on the qualitative aspects rather than on the quantitative

I don't quite understand why you would diminish achievements because the media happened to lavish attention on them.

I don't think I tried in any way to diminish his achievements or his efforts/attempts for the 8 golds. It would be too negative from my side, and it seems it appears to be so, although I do not feel as such.

But we're all entitled to our view, of course.

Indeed, we are. Even though we may, occasionally, be little bit too critical (like me, for instance).

[jjpb3]

What about Malaysia?

Oops. Indeed.

Go Malaysia!

[SQflyergirl]

Oops. Indeed.

Go Malaysia!

Yay! Now i need to find out what sport we're taking part in.

[Lobster]

I agree 100%. 'Best Olympian ever' (I haven't seen that description in the BBC coverage, thank God) is something I'd reserve for when I've seen all the final results.

Well you will not see that in any British media as the award for the greaest Olympian ever has already gone to Sir Steve Redgrave.

[Kyo]

I'm tipping Hackett to top Phelps and wreck the American dream...

OZZIE OZZIE OZZIE!!! OI OI OI !!

Like almost every other Aussie, we love our swimming team... no Thorpie this time around though..

[upright man]

Regarding Phelps : he already said that he isn't trying to draw attention to himself or his 8 gold target - it's the media that's hyping this all up.

I thought I wouldn't be too interested in this Olympics, but the last few days I've been spellbound watching it all - swimming, diving, badminton, cycling, rowing, even archery (love the Korean men's team - they're super cool).

[MAN Flyer]

I have to say my interest in the Olympics has sadly diminished over the years. I didn't even watch any of the opening ceremony, or even the highlights. I presume it was the biggest ever, best ever, longest ever yadda yadda...

I used to love it, and can still recall the great triumphs of Coe, Ovett and Daley Thompson (especially him whistling the national anthem on the podium ). However, it's turned into one big commercial excercise now, and I expect in 2, 3 or 4 years time to read stories of winners this year who were later found to have cheated when the authorities finally catch up with the cheats, again.

I also cannot for the life of me see why football and tennis are in the Olympics. WTF is that all about ?.