The Official 2012 London Olympics Backlash Thread

[NorCal]

Greco LW finals right now. Pretty much awesome.

 

[munchausen]

Watching that one the comp and Mexico v Japan soccer on the tube, which is tied 1-1 and has been great. Superheavy weightlifting is coming up. Not getting any work done today.

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

If you've got an internet connection, tune into beach volleyball now.

 

[munchausen]

The US/Brazil match? it's on NBC right now.

 

[LawrenceMD]



Heh, I did admit to sour grapes.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Otherwise, I'm the first guy to believe in "if you have to blame the officiating, maybe you should have played better." With that being said, this was Canadian women's soccer - we already exceeded all expectations in even getting to the semi-finals. They **** the bed in an epic fashion last women's World Cup, are ranked 11th in the world and somehow held a lead 3 times against the world's #1-ranked club. They played about as well as possible, and I don't think its so much they should have defended better - I think its because USA is ranked #1 for a reason and we were only in those leads because we had one of the world's best playing the best game of her life. I don't blame the athletes for responding the way they did; the officiating was certainly not on the scale of the women's hockey final in 2002 but that sequence of calls was just about as obscene and game-changing as it could have been. When team USA's coach comes out and says she has never seen calls like that made in that situation before - much less in the 81st minute of a one-goal match - I think its fair to at least allude to questionable officiating influencing the outcome of the game, which it certainly did. Yeah, its poor form to cry about the reffing after but it is certainly understandable.
I don't find the whining to be the problem - every country has their hubris, and Canada's is related to having a seriously external locus of control. My issue is with how fickle Canadians are when it comes to be athletics. In anything outside of men's hockey, we are far too content to completely ignore our athletes, jump on the bandwagon when they are winning and immediately bail out and commence crucifying some Canadian institution for failing them as soon as they lose. There is an air of cynicism before every single Olympic games, especially the Summer games. Even with the Vancouver Winter Olympics being held on home soil, everyone was holding their breath, expecting the colossal ****-up to happen. Everyone had written the games off completely for a week until we started winning all of the gold medals, and then suddenly it was cool to be a Canadian again. Nobody gave a **** about the women's soccer team until they beat Great Britain, at which point the balance shifted from extreme cynicism to the polar opposite of the spectrum; expecting victory at all costs and having a hissy-fit when it didn't happen. It pisses me off that its cool to celebrate mediocrity and then get angry when we achieve it. Whats worse is how the nation pays lip service to making the country a better place for sport and standing behind our athletes each time the Olympics roll around yet year after year, all of our varsity athletes are playing at American colleges on scholarships because nobody gives a **** about sport in this country

.

the inside scoop is that Wombach was yelling at the ref doing an informal "count" whenever the CAN GK had the ball for a goal kick throughout the match.

(kind of like what the chicago crowd did to Karl Malone during the 1996 NBA finals whenever he'd recite 50% of the rosary [in latin] during free throw attempts).

supposedly the count got as high as "16" so by then the ref was goaded into calling the penalty....

video proof shows that it did get up to 18 seconds.... gameswomanship at its best i guess.

Embedded media from this media site is no longer available

 

[fir3fox]

I feel bad for the Romanian girl.

 

[Piobaire]

And suspensions for Canadians.

 

[Lord-Barrington]



Heh, I did admit to sour grapes. Otherwise, I'm the first guy to believe in "if you have to blame the officiating, maybe you should have played better." With that being said, this was Canadian women's soccer - we already exceeded all expectations in even getting to the semi-finals. They **** the bed in an epic fashion last women's World Cup, are ranked 11th in the world and somehow held a lead 3 times against the world's #1-ranked club. They played about as well as possible, and I don't think its so much they should have defended better - I think its because USA is ranked #1 for a reason and we were only in those leads because we had one of the world's best playing the best game of her life. I don't blame the athletes for responding the way they did; the officiating was certainly not on the scale of the women's hockey final in 2002 but that sequence of calls was just about as obscene and game-changing as it could have been. When team USA's coach comes out and says she has never seen calls like that made in that situation before - much less in the 81st minute of a one-goal match - I think its fair to at least allude to questionable officiating influencing the outcome of the game, which it certainly did. Yeah, its poor form to cry about the reffing after but it is certainly understandable.
I don't find the whining to be the problem - every country has their hubris, and Canada's is related to having a seriously external locus of control. My issue is with how fickle Canadians are when it comes to be athletics. In anything outside of men's hockey, we are far too content to completely ignore our athletes, jump on the bandwagon when they are winning and immediately bail out and commence crucifying some Canadian institution for failing them as soon as they lose. There is an air of cynicism before every single Olympic games, especially the Summer games. Even with the Vancouver Winter Olympics being held on home soil, everyone was holding their breath, expecting the colossal ****-up to happen. Everyone had written the games off completely for a week until we started winning all of the gold medals, and then suddenly it was cool to be a Canadian again. Nobody gave a **** about the women's soccer team until they beat Great Britain, at which point the balance shifted from extreme cynicism to the polar opposite of the spectrum; expecting victory at all costs and having a hissy-fit when it didn't happen. It pisses me off that its cool to celebrate mediocrity and then get angry when we achieve it. Whats worse is how the nation pays lip service to making the country a better place for sport and standing behind our athletes each time the Olympics roll around yet year after year, all of our varsity athletes are playing at American colleges on scholarships because nobody gives a **** about sport in this country.

Great comments. I couldn't agree more.

 

[Douglas]

Catalina Ponor. Yes, please.

 

[Kajak]



Some humor to lighten the mood:
http://gawker.com/5932333/american-rowers-third-place-in-rowing-first-in-boners

Akos Vereckei knows its only acceptable to pop wood post race after setting a world record.

Edit: Well that was a dumb post.

 

[Blackfyre]

 

[culverwood]

The Australian girls are doing well!

 

[tullytra]



Spoiler: Floor Routine

Spoiler: Floor Routine

I was happy to see her do so well yesterday. She finally got her "time" from NBC as opposed to having to play third fiddle to Douglas (deservedly until yesterday) and Wieber.

 

[munchausen]

For all of the hype directed at Wieber in the beginning, Raisman has had a much more impressive Olympics. She's a very impressive young woman. I wonder if we will be seeing her again in 4 years.

 

[munchausen]

Women's wrestling is on. fapfapfapfapfap