[Gedominew]

Thank you but...
AHHHHH- My eyes (and ears)- had to turn it off FAST,
no thank you!

[MilenaJaf]

'80 and '84. The tit-for-tat Olympics.

We don't go to yours. You don't come to ours.

[Zwnkkvle]

Yahoo! Sports

Sunday, Aug 10, 2008 9:29 pm EDT
Some Opening Ceremony fireworks were faked

By Chris Chase




If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, "no way that's possible" at least once. It turns out you were right.

London's Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But -- hold on -- it's not necessarily as bad as you think.

The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure it's such a terrible thing.

The Opening Ceremony is, at its core, just one big performance. And isn't it accepted that some things might not be legit at a performance? The final torch bearer wasn't actually running around the top of the stadium, does the fact that everyone could figure that out make it any less? It might have been unnecessarily deceptive, but the firework-faking isn't that big of a deal. But, if I found out that the lighted-drum thing wasn't on the up and up, then we'll have problems, China.

[leangarance]

“I'm afraid the Nazis have succeeded with their propaganda. First, the Nazis have run the Games on a lavish scale never before experienced, and this has appealed to the athletes. Second, the Nazis have put up a very good front for the general visitors, especially the big businessmen” - journalist William Shirer's diary, Berlin, August 16, 1936

[BrainTop]

Not really.

[S.T.D.]

Very exciting and dramatic men's swimming 4 x 100 freestyle relay.

Jason Lezak not only had to swim the anchor leg against French record holder Alain Bernard, but had to overcome the 6 foot lead Bernard was given after 3 legs. Lezak swam the fastest relay leg in history, a 46.06, touching the wall just 0.08 seconds ahead of Bernard.

What made the whole thing dramatic was Bernar's trash-talking a few days ago:

I'm favorite and we'll smash U.S.: Bernard

Thu Aug 7, 2008 12:08pm EDT

By Francois Thomazeau

BEIJING (Reuters) - World record holder Alain Bernard opened the war of words for the Olympic swimming competition on Thursday, stating he was the favorite for the 100 meters freestyle and the French relay squad would "smash" the Americans.

Bernard lowered Pieter van den Hoogenband's world record to 47.50 seconds in March and four of his title rivals have since swum under 48 seconds, making the blue-ribbon event one of the most open on the Beijing program.

Not according to Bernard.

"The 100 meters favorite, it's me," he told journalists in Beijing. "If I didn't believe I was, I wouldn't be here at all.

"I've always said that 10 to 15 swimmers could be on the podium. But physically, I'm on top. I'm fitter than I was at the French championships, fitter than I was at the European championships."

A great fan of double Olympic champion van den Hoogenband, Bernard said the Dutchman, below par in recent months, was far from finished despite having the 13th fastest time this year, 0.87 seconds behind Bernard's world record.

Van den Hoogenband has withdrawn from the 200 freestyle to concentrate on defending his Olympic title.

"He will be there, believe me," Bernard said of the Dutch veteran. "He's going for his third title, and for someone like me, taking part in his first Olympics, it's impressive."

Bernard also said the French relay quartet, in a remark reminiscent of Gary Hall Jr's comments the Americans' would "smash the Australians like guitars" just before the Sydney Olympics, would be one of the teams to beat.

France with a team including Amaury Leveaux, Frederic Gilot and Frederick Bousquet clocked 3:12.54 in June, only 0.08 seconds from the world mark and Bernard was bullish ahead of Sunday's 4x100 freestyle relay heats.

"The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for," Bernard said.

"I'll start my Games in the 4x100 meters freestyle relay final, confident that my pals will have qualified easily.

"If the relay goes according to plans, than we'll be on a roll."



What a race! Lezak keeps Phelps' hopes alive

By PAUL NEWBERRY – 59 minutes ago

BEIJING (AP) — By a fingertip, Michael Phelps is still on course for eight gold medals. He can thank Jason Lezak for getting him No. 2.

The oldest man on the U.S. swimming team pulled off one of the great comebacks in Olympic history Monday morning, lunging to the wall just ahead of France's Alain Bernard in a race so fast it actually erased two world records.

Wow!

Few sporting events live up the hype — this one exceeded it. The 32-year-old Lezak was nearly a body length behind the massive Bernard as they made the final turn, but the American hugged the lane rope, drafting off the Frenchman and stunningly overtaking him on the very last stroke.

Watching on deck, Phelps let out a resounding "Yeaaaaaah!" and thrust both arms toward the roof of the Water Cube. His quest to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals had survived what will likely be its toughest test.

The Americans shattered the world record set by their "B" team the previous evening in the preliminaries, touching with a time of 3 minute, 8.24 seconds — nearly 4 full seconds below the 15-hour-old mark of 3:12.23.

"I was going nuts," Phelps, who swam the leadoff leg and then became the team's biggest cheerleader, told NBC. "As soon as (Lezak) came off that last wall, I started going crazy. We're a team. We went in as a team and now we're exiting as a team — and we're going out with that gold that we needed to get back."

The Americans won the 400 free relay at seven straight Olympics, but watched the Australians and South Africans take gold at the last two games.

"I've been on the last two relays where we come up short," Lezak said. "To be honest with you I got really tired of losing."

Bernard was the world record holder in the 100, but he lost that mark as well. Australia's Eamon Sullivan broke the individual record by swimming the leadoff leg in 47.24 — ahead of Bernard's mark of 47.50.

While the Americans whooped it up on deck, Bernard clung to the wall, his head down. The swimmer who had talked confidently of beating the Americans was the last one to leave the pool.

The French were second in 3:08.32 — eight one-hundredths of a second behind. Australia took the bronze in 3:09.91. In fact, the top five all went below the record set Sunday.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[WUlcN1Rz]

The relay this evening that involved Phelps was awesome. It was exciting to watch the end of it and then over and over again as they constantly replayed it.

Did anyone, besides myself, happen to catch Day 1 of Women's Gymnastics tonight as well?

[beth]

There are a lot of people who arent even going to browse YouTube for the Olympics.

Something to do with the host country.

Or maybe because they dont have televisions or PCs with YouTube, especially if you are working 12 hours a day for your 3 dollars in the Glorious Middle Kingdom.

[Konservir]

To quote George W. Bush, "Our team’s fired up and so am I!"

[gusunsuth]

Great race and great pictures.

Thanks Jason.

[Mypepraipse]

Lesson:

Don't talk trash until AFTER you "smash" your opponents.

[QEoMi752]

Agreed. Last night was a major upset between the U.S.A. and France.

[tweriaroats]

What Lezak did was incredible. That has got to go down in history as one of the most amazing sports feat, ever.

He was way behind with only about 3/4ths of a lap to go and still managed to not only catch up but pass the world's best swimmer in that particular event.

Just awesome.

[bitymnmictada]

Opening ceremony's wind, fireworks, singing not quite live

9:04 AM, August 12, 2008

BEIJING -- For those of us who thought there was something weird about Beijing’s flawless-but-sterile opening ceremony, well, we were right.

I knew something was strange when the Chinese and Olympic flags blew dramatically in a breeze that did not exist anywhere else in the suffocating National Stadium.

Turns out, they were powered by special devices in the flagpoles.

I also thought it was odd that, while everybody back home was praising the fireworks displays, those of us in the stadium saw nothing more than your average Friday night post-Angels-game display.

Well, turns out, many of the fireworks seen on television were digitally created because, according to officials, the smog was too bad for anyone to see the real ones anyway.

If that wasn’t bad enough, now comes the news that even the only truly human part of the ceremony was fabricated.

That tiny, red-dressed, 9-year-old girl named Lin Miaoke who so touchingly sang "Ode to the Motherland"?

It was an ode to a fakery.

The voice actually belonged to 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, but poor Peiyi was not deemed cute enough for a world audience, so Lin lip-synched to Peiyi’s recorded voice.

The saddest thing being, Chinese officials actually publicly bragged about making the switch.

"After several tests, we decided to put Lin Miaoke on the live picture while using Yang Peiyi’s voice," said musical director Chen Qigang in an interview with Beijing Radio. "The reason for this is that we must put our country’s interests first. The girl appearing on the picture must be flawless in terms of her facial expressions and the great feeling she can give to the people."

So a child with an incredible voice gets shoved aside because she is not "flawless" enough.

So the biggest human hit of the opening ceremony is not a human at all, but a recording.

Remember all this in a couple of weeks when IOC officials will surely commend China for staging what might be the most efficient Olympics in history.

Remember this great machine comes at an ever greater human price.

-- Bill Plaschke

[yarita]

...the smog was too bad for anyone to see the real ones anyway. The official stance is there is NO smog...it is nothing more than a high concentration of water vapor held in a heat inversion....

[Abnorbprootly]

So...

A Blue-Sky Day by Alternative Terminology.



The little girl thing is quite disturbing. We're talking 7 years old.

[BrandandGeneric]

It is not disturbing. It is predictable.

The Chinese just learned a few things about marketing from us. They wanted to put on the best show, so they had Mini-Milli-Vanilli strut around looking all pretty and lip-synced someone else's voice.

We do that to a lesser degree with almost every show we put on at every major sporting event. You think Janet or Christine actually sing while bouncing attractively around the stage? You think their voice is not mixed, and echoed and reverb'd to the max to make them sound, well, passable to the general public?


I am not saying that this was right, but it is far from shocking. It just goes to show where we are headed with this event. Exactly where we have been.

Now excuse me while I get a McD's "southern chicken" and a commemorative can of Coke.

[gkruCRi1]

I repeat: A 7 year old girl.

She wasn't lip-synced, which may have been rationalized. She was replaced because she "didn't look perfect."

An anonymous child is not the same as Janet the famous recognizable celebrity.

[JRixlcvF]

I repeat: A 7 year old girl.

She wasn't lip-synced, which may have been rationalized. She was replaced because she "didn't look perfect."

An anonymous child is not the same as Janet the famous recognizable celebrity.

It is the same as Milli Vanilli though.

[kjsdiuwe]

More like C + C Music Factory or what ever that "Everybody Dance Now" group was called.

Didn't want big fat Martha Wash on video, so they used that skinny thing.