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The Olympics!

Discussion in 'Colosseum' started by Gnarfflinger, Aug 9, 2008.

  1. Decados

    Decados The Chosen One

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    This reminds me of the badminton mixed doubles match for bronze medal that I watched. The game was Indonesia against China and the behaviour of the Chinese pair throughout was rather shocking. IMO they should have been penalised for time wasting deliberately (taking extra time to get ready when their opponents were serving to deny them momentum in the game) in the first set, but were only warned about it towards the end of the final set. They argued line calls through the (very close) match and at one point managed to get the umpire to award a let (incidentally, against the rules as the commentators started screaming) for a shot they had lost. Of course, the bad behaviour was not just limited to the players- their coach could be seen shouting at a line judge over a call he disagreed with.

    In comparison, the Indonesian pair were admirable calm and polite. It is a shame they lost the third set (21-19, I think). The entire incident lowered my opinion of Chinese badminton considerably.
     
  2. Merlanni

    Merlanni Veteran New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!)

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    Is that not the case whit every jury sport.

    Next olympics we will have the same. Russia I believe. Never allow judges of country that is in the match to judge.
     
  3. Tassadar Gems: 23/31
    Latest gem: Black Opal


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    Meh, the Olympics is a farce. I'd be surprised if more than 50% of the competitors aren't on some kind of drug.
     
  4. Harbourboy

    Harbourboy Take thy form from off my door! Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Woohoo! Go New Zealand!!

    I'd be surprised if most of SP aren't on some kind of drug.
     
  5. Montresor

    Montresor Mostly Harmless Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder

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    I think Iceland will top the list after the Handball final. That will be one medal per 304,367 Icelanders. :D

    Maybe, but you can't prove anything! :p
     
  6. Baronius

    Baronius Mental harmony dispels the darkness ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    I see many posts with various comparisons. We all know it's about sport and fun, but, of course, everyone likes to see ranks, and good ranks for his or her own homeland. :) Statistics can be created in very many ways, one of them is the well-known unofficial medal table (the more gold medals you have, the higher you're, followed by silver & bronze medals in priority order -- unlike the American system, which assigns points to each medal etc.). Other one is the aforementioned population/medals statistics (I like it). But it's obvious that others could be made up too. For example, "most gold medals per population ever received while in top 3 of the table" (indeed, I'm 99% sure that would be Hungary :)). So it's all about how we approach it, but I'm sure we all can agree that the sport and fun is the most important.

    Indeed, the bias, which seems to be present in all events where questionable situations may appear (so e.g. kayak-canoe or swimming isn't really such an event). For example, what the judge did in the women hand-ball matches (Norway-Korea, then Korea-Hungary) was sad. But that's how it works; in such events, you need to be significantly better than the opponent to avoid the (severe) risk caused by the possible bias of the judge.
     
  7. Gnarfflinger

    Gnarfflinger Wiseguy in Training

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    What about that Cuban Tae Kwon Do practitioner who lost out on the bronze for exceding the alotted injury time then went after the referee? Lifetime ban, I think from the world's Tae Kwon Do governing body!
     
  8. martaug Gems: 23/31
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    Jamaica has 11 medals, So that is 1 per 254,939 people. Thats gonna be hard to beat.

    The US has 107 but only 34 gold, about 31&3/4%, while china has 98 medals with 50 gold, 51%!
     
  9. The Shaman Gems: 28/31
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    I didn't get that one, what happened? I know we and the Greeks managed to mess up very badly with some doping scandals, but I didn't follow the olympics in much depth.
     
  10. Montresor

    Montresor Mostly Harmless Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder

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    He was disqualified in the Bronze match, went berserk and attacked the referee. His coach refused to apologise, stating that the match had been fixed. Both were then banned for life.

    Link to story on CNN.
     
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