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« on: August 26, 2008, 02:26 AM »
Beijing 2008 -- Final impressions
10 ) The horrible system used to score boxing matches.
The system (where 3 of 5 judges must tap a touch pad within one second of each other to register a scoring blow) has been used for at least three Olympics. It has never worked properly. It works worse now than when it was introduced and needs to be scrapped ASAP.
9 ) Matthew Mitcham, AUS
with the most perfect 10-meter dive I've ever seen.
It is moments like these that makes having the Olympics worthwhile.
8 ) The US Men's Vollyball team
They faced and defeated almost all the other top-rated teams including World #1 Brazil in the gold medal match.
7 ) Vasyl Lomachenko, UKR
His complete domination in the featherweight boxing gold medal match left the inept boxing judges with nothing to do.
Three standing eight-counts in 1:51 of the first round. End of contest. Wow!
6 ) Usain Bolt, JAM
I saw it and am still a bit in disbelief. In the middle of the 100, he kicks it into another gear. Never saw an olympian win this short race by such a large margin. Fastest dude on the planet.
5 ) The scandal of underage female Chinese gymnasts.
This story gets bigger every day as more evidence is uncovered.
New documents have been found that indicate FIVE of the 6 girls are under the required age. The age limit is in place to protect the long-term health of young still-developing girls, whose bodies can not handle the stress of gymnastics. The gals on the olympic team are elite and have shown they can handle it, but God only knows how many legions of others sacrificed their feet, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, etc to uncover these precious few.
4 ) Kenenisa Bekele, ETH
Winner of the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races. You know his acceleration on the bell lap and closing kick are coming . . . and there's nothing you can do about it. The world's best runner.
3 ) Michael Phelps, USA
What can be said about him that hasn't been said 100 times already?
His turns are the best. So many times he went into a turn tied with a competitor only to resurface with a half-length body lead.
His next-to-last race is the 100 meter butterfly final which he wins by an eyelast 50.58 seconds to Milorad Cavic's 50.59. His hard charge at the very end of the race proving to be the difference. That huge effort must have tapped what little reserves he had left, right? Wiith 16 races and 7 gold medals in 7 (or 8 ) days there must be a fresher swimmer on the squad that can give the United States a better chance at winning what looks like, on paper, to be a very close race.
His last event is the butterfly leg of the 4x100 medley relay. Even after all his other races, his leg sets the record for fastest fly leg in the history of the event and beats his nearest rival by 0.7 seconds. USA goes on to win the race by 0.7 seconds. That kind of effort after all he'd done is just mind-blowing. His endurance and recovery are at a level no other swimmer has ever achieved..
2) The Chinese winning 51 gold medals
They won more gold in these games than in the last 2 (maybe 3) Olympics combined. They're only going to get better as their country continues to grow and prosper.
1) Jason Lezak hauls in Alain Bernard
The Frenchman had boasted pre-race they were going to "smash the Americans" in the 4x100 freestyle relay. During the final leg Bernard makes a huge tactical mistake by swimming right next to the lane line allowing the American to draft off his wave and overtake him in the last few meters.