08/08/08 The Olympics (Page 1 of 4)

Hey Cathy,
Swimming, biking...all stuff I used to do for recreation when I was a kid!
What's next? Catching butterflies??

Screw the Olympics, the entire Asian population is already lining up at the casinos out here for what is considered the luckiest day of the millenium.

                                                                                                  PAI GOW,

                                                                                                  J Dawg

I was watching some of the trials with my kids yesterday...amazing athletes.

Bicycle motocross (BMX) is an olympic sport this year. I asked in a previous post if anyone here used to or still does race which was pretty much responded to as nay. I raced from 1979-84, then have been away from the sport ever since. I attended a national event in Pittsburgh last weekend and was amazed at the talent these guys and girls have. If you get a chance to see some racing during the O games I urge you to check it out.

I'll tune in when they bring in da big boys (and girls)....THE USAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!....I have a collection of unique friends in Cali...some NEVER watch sports....but this is the OLYMPICS!!...wish I could at least chat with them a little bit...one of my friends asked me once..."hey Dave, how many points do you get for a homerun?"..... this was at a baseball game I took him to, he said it loud with the seats filled around us...I almost spit my beer on the guy in front of me   ....back to the topic, I hope the air is clean enough to see the games, you talk about dirty!..geez loueeze

Dave..."the sports junkie"

Wow Cathy, this road race is truly something awesome to see!! With 40 km still to go, the pack is being led by two Tour winners, Contador and Sastre!!!!! Never seen anything like it before - nor have any of us seen a circuit like this before - around, through and over the Great Wall.

This has been a stunning race so far, one that anybody could still win. It's very odd that there aren't thousands of people along the way, just incredible scenery.

For Cathy - and Maryland.

Phelps opens with Olympic record

Michael Phelps's bid to make Olympic history got off to the perfect start as he set a new Games record in winning his heat in the 400m individual medley.

The 23-year-old American is aiming to win eight gold medals in Beijing and beat Mark Spitz's record of seven golds set in 1972.

He cruised into Sunday's final with a time of four minutes 7.82 seconds.

Second fastest after the heats was Hungarian Laszlo Cseh, with Italian Luca Marin third fastest.

However, fellow American Ryan Lochte remains one of Phelps's biggest threats, despite only qualifying as fourth fastest.

Phelps, who won six golds in Athens four years ago, was keen to lay down a marker and was inside his own world record pace after the initial breaststroke stage and at halfway was half a second inside the world best.

It's been a great day for the USA, GB and Holland! If you don't want to see any spoilers then do NOT scroll down. Still to come in a couple of hours from now is the Holland vs. USA football game, which I shall be watching live.

The ladies road race, which took place in pouring rain, was not won by the Dutch favorite, but by the English rider, Cooke. Most noteworthy for me about this race was the participation of Jeannie Longo, 49 year old (yes, 49!) French ex world champion, riding in her seventh Olympics. Truly astonishing.

Phelps won his first gold with a truly remarkable world record, though this was hardly surprising.

Finally, the Dutch ladies 4x100m relay team took the first Dutch relay gold since 1936, which was certainly a major achievement!