08-09-2012, 08:16 AM | #127 |
Rainbow Badge
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Lol that is amazing! I wish we did. I remember watching the Commonwealth Games in class in primary school but never got a holiday for a sporting event.
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08-09-2012, 04:44 PM | #128 | |
Archbishop of Banterbury
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GB in a nice little space of its own - 12 golds behind China in 2nd, 13 ahead of Russia in 4th.
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08-09-2012, 05:30 PM | #129 |
Double Dragon
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Yeah, the US now actually has the lead over China, 39 golds to 37. And the overall medal count as well, 90 to China's 80. But no matter what American resource I look to, it always lists total medals as the way to go, even though it seems like we all agree that gold medals are most important.
Especially glad to see the US women win water polo gold. Wonderful defensive game played against Spain for the victory.
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08-09-2012, 06:14 PM | #130 |
「Killer Queen No Prog」
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Just as I expected going into the match, America won Women's Beach Volleyball. I knew I made the right idea betting on them.
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08-09-2012, 06:17 PM | #131 | ||
Archbishop of Banterbury
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But then again, I have a fairly cynical view of both America and most media outlets, so I could be being completely unfair and the news networks could just be stupid enough to consider total medals the definitive way to go.
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08-09-2012, 06:26 PM | #132 |
時の彼方へ
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I really think it's just because of how large our Olympic program is so they know we're always likely to be #1 in this one (especially now that the Soviet Union is no more). Yeah, China is effing huge, but their Olympic program still isn't as large as ours is and so we're happily sticking with the "LOLOL TOTAL MEDALS ARE WHAT MATTERS" idea.
But it's stupid. It's ridiculously transparent propaganda. Like you said, everybody else uses the gold medal count. And it's not like this is one of those cases where we can argue "even if 99% of the world asked you to jump off a bridge, would you still do it? ", where we can try and claim that we're right and to hell with how the rest of the world does it. The rest of the world uses the total gold medal count because it's easier for John and Jane Doe at home to keep track of than golds per capita would be while it's also at least more reflective of which nation truly has the best athletes than is the total medal count. Basically, total golds is a good compromise measure for deciding who "won" the Olympics. Yeah, it fucks over tiny programs like Kazakhstan's or Luxembourg's or whatever, but it's at least better than "lololol we only got 5 golds BUT WE GOT ALL THE BRONZES THEREFORE WE WIN" like the American media is trying to insist. ¬_¬ Anyway, I expect it'll change in the next 12-20 years. Once China's Olympic program eclipses ours both in scale (total # of athletes) and in scope (total # of sports programs), and once India quits dicking around and actually starts producing athletes and entering them into Olympic programs of their own, I think the United States will find that it's much more fun / propaganda-efficient to hang its hopes on us maybe-possibly winning the most gold medals in a particular year than it is to hang its hopes on us winning the most total medals. Would you rather a 90% chance of coming in 3rd place (the latter)? or a 30-40% chance of possibly coming in 1st place (the former)? I think the choice is clear.
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08-09-2012, 07:34 PM | #133 |
Rainbow Badge
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Just saw the 200m Jamaican sweep (as it shall be known as from now on) and Bolt is a freak! Anyone see him taking pictures of Blake on the track after the race?
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08-10-2012, 11:40 AM | #134 |
時の彼方へ
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Location: Lafayette, Indiana
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19180559
Did not realize that Hong Kong had its own separate Olympic team. (I would think that an athlete from Hong Kong would rather have access to all of the facilities and sponsorships of the Chinese program.)
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08-10-2012, 08:07 PM | #135 |
Dominator of Bike Levels
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Personally I like the medal points system: Three points for a gold, two for silver and one for bronze. That way there's still some recognition for second and third, but the gold medals aren't devalued as just counting for one.
Also it's not really like the entire rest of the world using one system has really stopped us from doing our own thing before (see: The Metric system). While I'm in the thread though: Holy shit rhythmic gymnasts are the most fun thing to watch in the olympics.
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08-10-2012, 08:19 PM | #136 |
Rainbow Badge
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>Medal points system
It's a good idea and makes sense, the point is people only care about gold medals, see James Magnussen and channel 9 in the 100m final. >Rhythmic Gymnastics Oh yeah, they are talented. It's actually pretty good to watch and it is the only type of gymnastic event where they actually score them well IMO. |
08-10-2012, 09:26 PM | #137 |
Dominator of Bike Levels
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I think if it were changed to a points scoring system even channel nine might let up a bit... though probably not, they're pretty awful.
And yeah, rhythmic gymnastics is the one sort of gymnastics where the snide commentator lady doesn't spend the entire time talking about how badly the gymnast blew it.
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The Kim Il Sung of ASB. |
08-13-2012, 10:07 AM | #138 |
Gee, Brain...
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In news so stunning you could enter into Miss Brazil, Tyrion has been disqualified after failing a drugs test.
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08-13-2012, 11:55 PM | #139 | |
時の彼方へ
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Quote:
EDIT: Ah. I see it's a nickname based on That Book Series I Have Yet To Read 'Cause I'm Waiting For George To Finish Writing The Series™.
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