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The Olympic Games - Day One
Aug. 14th, 2004 10:41 pmI like the Olympic Games. Despite the fact that it's commercialised and, probably, full of drug cheats I still really enjoy having the opportunity to watch sports that are never usually on TV.
Today I've watched:
Rowing - I don't mind watching rowing but I find that, as a lot of the races are so close, it makes me very nervous! Today I was pleased to see the men's coxless fours get through to their final although they made it look like very hard work which is a bit worrying. I'd really like Matthew Pinsent to win his fourth gold medal as his achievements have been eclipsed by those of Steve Redgrave for most of his career and he is a great competitor.
Shooting - Two Chinese people won the first two medals of the Games in the shooting so a bit of the competition was shown. Not a great spectator sport, although very skillful and I'm sure very exciting if you're involved.
Swimming - I'm not a great fan of swimming. I find the long races boring and like rowing watching can make me very nervous on behalf of the competitors. No great suprises in the pool today. Ian Thorpe and the new American star Phelps both won their first races and the Brits weren't very good. It was nice to see an Argentinian girl win a medal though, I don't think there will be many smiles as big as hers in the medal ceremonies.
Judo - One of the British medal hopes was knocked out, not literally I'm glad to say, in the second round. He was fighting a Greek guy and it looked suspiciously like the referee was being extra nice to the home competitor. I really don't understand the rules of Judo. All I kept thinking whilst I was watching it was that the robes they wear are really impractical as they nearly always seem to come undone.
Gymnastics - One of my favourite sports to watch. Only the mens qualifiers today so not very exciting but I'm sure it will improve over the week. Interesting to see a Chinese gymnast mess up the parallel bars as they are normally such polished performers. Japan qualified in first place for the team contest which must've been a bit of a shock for the Americans, Chinese and Russians. I hope they do well as Japan don't normally win many medals and the other three countries are normally the top three.
Boxing - I don't like boxing. I think it's a horrible sport and I can't bear to watch it as I can almost feel the blows. Fortunately, there's only one British contender this time so hopefully the BBC won't feel compelled to show too many bouts. Tonight, they were showing the sole Irish qualifier who managed to sock his Mexican opponent in the eye so hard that he had to have one of those adhesive stitches put on it. Nice.
Basketball - The NZ womens team had a good attempt at beating the USA but were outclassed in the end. The Americans are in a class of their own which isn't suprising bearing in mind that basketball is such a huge college sport in the states. Quite exciting to watch as it's so fast paced.
Sailing - Useless sport to watch as it's impossible to tell which direction the boats are meant to be travelling in most of the time! Ben Ainslee, one of our main medal hopes, managed to get himself disqualified from a race in which he finished second so I shouldn't think he's very happy tonight! There are 11 races in all though and he's allowed to ditch his lowest score, so all is not lost.
Cycling - Yawn! It was the men's road race today which takes over 5 hours. Fortunately, they didn't feel the need to show the whole race or I might have had to go and do somthing constructive with my day instead of staying in glued to the TV, or maybe compromise and watch 'National Velvet' on Five. Anyway, we didn't win but got to see lots of nice views of Athens. Tomorrow is the women's race and we have a hope of winning that one.
Beach Volleyball - Hmmm, still not quite sure what this sport is doing in the Olympic Games, except giving Australia a chance to win yet more medals, but anyway. They only showed one match today and, suprise, suprise, the Aussies trounced their Bulgarian opponents.
Synchronised Diving - We won our first medal! Yay! A silver in the men's synchronised diving. We nearly won a bronze in the women's competition but we were beaten on the final dive by, guess who, yep it's those Aussies again! It's such an amazing sport to watch and definitely one you don't see televised unless the Olympics are on.
All in all a good day and there'll be plenty more to keep my square eyes occupied over the next couple of weeks.
Today I've watched:
Rowing - I don't mind watching rowing but I find that, as a lot of the races are so close, it makes me very nervous! Today I was pleased to see the men's coxless fours get through to their final although they made it look like very hard work which is a bit worrying. I'd really like Matthew Pinsent to win his fourth gold medal as his achievements have been eclipsed by those of Steve Redgrave for most of his career and he is a great competitor.
Shooting - Two Chinese people won the first two medals of the Games in the shooting so a bit of the competition was shown. Not a great spectator sport, although very skillful and I'm sure very exciting if you're involved.
Swimming - I'm not a great fan of swimming. I find the long races boring and like rowing watching can make me very nervous on behalf of the competitors. No great suprises in the pool today. Ian Thorpe and the new American star Phelps both won their first races and the Brits weren't very good. It was nice to see an Argentinian girl win a medal though, I don't think there will be many smiles as big as hers in the medal ceremonies.
Judo - One of the British medal hopes was knocked out, not literally I'm glad to say, in the second round. He was fighting a Greek guy and it looked suspiciously like the referee was being extra nice to the home competitor. I really don't understand the rules of Judo. All I kept thinking whilst I was watching it was that the robes they wear are really impractical as they nearly always seem to come undone.
Gymnastics - One of my favourite sports to watch. Only the mens qualifiers today so not very exciting but I'm sure it will improve over the week. Interesting to see a Chinese gymnast mess up the parallel bars as they are normally such polished performers. Japan qualified in first place for the team contest which must've been a bit of a shock for the Americans, Chinese and Russians. I hope they do well as Japan don't normally win many medals and the other three countries are normally the top three.
Boxing - I don't like boxing. I think it's a horrible sport and I can't bear to watch it as I can almost feel the blows. Fortunately, there's only one British contender this time so hopefully the BBC won't feel compelled to show too many bouts. Tonight, they were showing the sole Irish qualifier who managed to sock his Mexican opponent in the eye so hard that he had to have one of those adhesive stitches put on it. Nice.
Basketball - The NZ womens team had a good attempt at beating the USA but were outclassed in the end. The Americans are in a class of their own which isn't suprising bearing in mind that basketball is such a huge college sport in the states. Quite exciting to watch as it's so fast paced.
Sailing - Useless sport to watch as it's impossible to tell which direction the boats are meant to be travelling in most of the time! Ben Ainslee, one of our main medal hopes, managed to get himself disqualified from a race in which he finished second so I shouldn't think he's very happy tonight! There are 11 races in all though and he's allowed to ditch his lowest score, so all is not lost.
Cycling - Yawn! It was the men's road race today which takes over 5 hours. Fortunately, they didn't feel the need to show the whole race or I might have had to go and do somthing constructive with my day instead of staying in glued to the TV, or maybe compromise and watch 'National Velvet' on Five. Anyway, we didn't win but got to see lots of nice views of Athens. Tomorrow is the women's race and we have a hope of winning that one.
Beach Volleyball - Hmmm, still not quite sure what this sport is doing in the Olympic Games, except giving Australia a chance to win yet more medals, but anyway. They only showed one match today and, suprise, suprise, the Aussies trounced their Bulgarian opponents.
Synchronised Diving - We won our first medal! Yay! A silver in the men's synchronised diving. We nearly won a bronze in the women's competition but we were beaten on the final dive by, guess who, yep it's those Aussies again! It's such an amazing sport to watch and definitely one you don't see televised unless the Olympics are on.
All in all a good day and there'll be plenty more to keep my square eyes occupied over the next couple of weeks.
