Athens 2004 Olympic Games

[pzarquon]

Anyone watching The Games (http://www.athens2004.com/)?

I think our family watches more of the Winter Games than the Summer Games, but we still catch what we can, provided there's no "CSI" or "Law & Order" marathons going on. :) I, for one, liked the Opening Ceremonies well enough (though I'm the only person I know who likes Bjork), my daughter and wife finding the countries on a world map as they circled the stadium. And we've got NBC's coverage (http://www.nbcolympics.com/index.html) on in the background today as our family goes about its business.

So far, looks like the Chinese are on a roll, with four gold medals already (and we watched them clean our clocks in women's volleyball).

Anyone catch a list in either daily paper of local athletes or athletes with local ties in the games? I would mind knowing who to watch for...

[Linkmeister]

Won't do you much good now, but a week or so ago there was a special Olympics section in one of the papers, and it had a list of team members with Hawai'i ties. Sorry.

Why do you like Bjork?

What annoys me about the coverage, as always, is the delay. We're gonna see men's swimming tonight in prime time, and the results for Michael Phelps' first race have been known for 7 hours as I type.

[Albert]

Phelps surely isn't handsome (those ears!) but he does have a beautiful body and I congratulate him on his first Gold Medal.

(Most of NPR's reportage of the Olympics so far is like listening to a couple of drug dealers talking about their customers ... )

[kamlost]

I wasn't rooting for Phelps :\ He just annoys me. I was rooting for Thorpe!

China is certainly doing well.

The opening ceremonies were gorgeous!

I'm very interested in catching coverage of track & field. Maybe the individuals for gymnastics.

[YoungNeil]

Clay Stanley looked great in the US volleyball win vs. Netherlands.

Local boy making VERY good.

http://www.usavolleyball.org/

[Mocha]

Thanks for the good VB link...I remember Stein Metzger when he was a student at Punahou...rascal. :p

[Mocha]

Does anyone know when they'll show table tennis...or is it done?

[Linkmeister]

Does anyone know when they'll show table tennis...or is it done?

Today's tv schedule (http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/schedule?day=18&tv); you can click ahead for future days. Today's table tennis looks to be done with on MSNBC, but that was the quarterfinals, so there's more to come.

I gotta say, watching on cable is more likely to get you a broader view of the Games than the somewhat jingoistic prime-time show NBC has. They're still American announcers, but the sports they're showing are far less likely to have American athletes in medal contention, thus less "homerism."

The official site (http://www.athens2004.com/) is good; you can see venues, transport, all manner of stuff. There's also an official NBC site (http://www.nbcolympics.com/) which will show schedules on all channels.

[Mocha]

Many, many thanks Link...guess I'm just lazy to look on-line I found out that they have something on today...later on Bravo. There's just too much to watch and too little time, even if I were to tape each station I couldn't watch it all.
Mahalo... ;)

[Albert]

Well, Phelps is doing really well, even if not quite as well as he reportedly wanted to. But some of that was probably media hype.

Keep on swimming, Mister Phelps, bring that gold back to America! :)

[Linkmeister]

I could care less about medal counts, but watching the joy on some of the winners' faces is a lot of fun. I watched the women's sabre the other day, and that young lady from Oregon (who got in because she was the highest-rated fencer in the world without a spot) was a sight to see when she won the gold.

[pzarquon]

I admit to tracking medal counts, but only when I want to do a quickie check in when I don't have the time to tune in fully and savor the whole show. TiVo is even pushing daily medal count updates to its subscribers, which is pretty neat.

The joy of victory and the agony of defeat, though, I agree... human drama at its best.

Though, we were watching a womens' archery event yesterday, and the Koreans were kicking serious butt, but it looks like celebrating or visible pride was coached right out of them.

[Mocha]

Thanks to previous links telling me the times, I was able to watch the table tennis doubles and watch China win gold over Korea. (women) Sometimes the ball went over the net so fast if they weren't far enough away from the table I wouldn't even have seen the shots. Even watching events that I'm not familiar with is interesting: Equestrian dressage and kayaking. :)

[Linkmeister]

Somebody watch badminton and tell me if you think the net is much lower than what we backyard players were used to. We used to set up a net and use it for both v-ball and badminton, but it looks to me like the official badminton net height is much lower than v-ball.

" The top of the net from the surface of the court shall be 5' (1,524 m) at the center of the court and 5' 1" (1,55 m) over the side lines for doubles."

From Laws of Badminton (http://www.worldbadminton.com/ibf_laws.html#3).

So it is lower than backyard players use.

[kamlost]

We did that before - used a volleyball net as our net. Once we got into a real badminton court it was disconcerting. You can use the racket to measure the proper height of the net.

[pzarquon]

Won't do you much good now, but a week or so ago there was a special Olympics section in one of the papers, and it had a list of team members with Hawai'i ties.Why I didn't go out looking in the first place I'll never know. In any case, the Honolulu Advertiserhas a good online presentation (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/specials/olympics2004/athletes/) of the Olympians with Hawaii ties.

Playing for the good ol' U.S. of A.


ROBYN AH MOW-SANTOS - Volleyball
LINDSEY BERG - Volleyball
HEATHER BOWN - Volleyball
BRANDON BROOKS - Water Polo
ANDY BUSSEY - Kayaking
BRYAN CLAY - Track and Field
KATHY COLIN - Kayaking
STEIN METZGER - Beach Volleyball
LAUREN SPALDING - Kayaking
CLAY STANLEY - Volleyball
Playing on International teams:


NIK BERGER (Austria) - Beach Volleyball
MARIE-LUC ARPIN (Canada) - Water Polo
KELSEY NAKANELUA (American Samoa) - Track and Field
KRISTY ODAMURA (Canada) - Softball
STACEY PORTER (Australia) - Softball
TANIA (BRUNTON) TUPU (New Zealand) - Basketball
BROOKE WILKINS (Australia) - Softball