Beijing 2008- A lot of PW's?
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swimmer52 posted 17 weeks ago.
This whole Beijing thing really ticks me off.
Call me wrong, but I wonder if China wanted the olympics on their turf just to win more medals. Think of it, their athletes are probably acclimated to the terrible conditions and can perform better than ours than if they both competed in normal healthy conditions.
I wonder if it was all a ploy.
"Whether you think you can or can't, you're right"
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tholosophy posted 17 weeks ago.
swimmer52 wrote:
This whole Beijing thing really ticks me off.
Call me wrong, but I wonder if China wanted the olympics on their turf just to win more medals. Think of it, their athletes are probably acclimated to the terrible conditions and can perform better than ours than if they both competed in normal healthy conditions.
I wonder if it was all a ploy.
Yes...I am sure that is exactly why they wanted the olympics in Beijing.........
Its tough conditions, like altitude, heat/humidity, etc. Just like Los Angeles Olympics in 84 (heat, humidity, pollution).
Athletes, media, and others need to stop complaining. They just want an excuse if they fail and go slow. Not even sure the Chinese endurance athletes train in Beijing (I doubt they do). I would consider it a level playing field, only the strongest survive.
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calilargeguy posted 17 weeks ago.
To me the air conditions aren't the biggest issue with China hosting the olympics. The fact that 16 police officers were killed 2 days ago, the chinese authorities supposedly broke up a terrorist plot about 3 weeks ago, and the continuing civil unrest in the remote areas doesn't really promote the idea of the games. How the IOC decided to award China with hosting is completely baffling. Oh well. Hopefully they will show the tri and cycling events. I could care less about the womens rythmic gymnastics, but of course that will be on during prime time on NBC. Why can't we have a pay per view package where we can pick what we want to watch? I think they are missing the boat on this.
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longtall33 posted 17 weeks ago.
He's not exactly an endurance athlete, but the BBC had a correspondent write about trying to do aerobic activity in Beijing:
Comfort is the enemy of success
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derek5 posted 17 weeks ago.
Comparing the olympics of 84 to these olympics is absurd. It is been proven that the amount of pollution in Beijing is much, much worse than L.A. or any big city in the U.S. for that matter. The thing that people forgot about the olympics is that it is about money. No matter how you look at it, it comes down to money.
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PrinceofClydes posted 17 weeks ago.
I recall vividly watching some track & field events at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 (yeah, I'm that old!) There were many world records set, including Bob Beamon's 29'2.5" long jump.
Alberto Juantorena, a 6'8" basketball player from Cuba won the 400m and 800m in fine style.
I don't recall the marathon at all though.
I'm thinki8ng the combination of high altitude & pollution, such as it was in 1968 in Mexico City was a greater hardship (30% less oxygen) than the pollution in Beijing at 209' above sea level.
Much was made of the altitude, over 5,000' Not once did I hear anyone claim that endurance events suffered from pollution, and or a combination of both.
The TdF boys rode over the highest roads in Europe last month and I heard no complaints.
As acounter-point though, I lived in Taipei during 2001-2002, equally polluted, for a year and after 3 or 4 months I found myself waking up during the night to hack and cough to clear my lungs before returning to sleep. I was running along the river and running stairs and playing BB outdoors all the while.
I was very glad to get back to the Okanagan Valley here in BC just to breathe the air without fear.
Of course, sometimes we have forest fires, remember IMC in 2003?
PoC
"Pain doesn't last, chicks dig scars, glory is forever!"
- Shane Falco.
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PrinceofClydes posted 17 weeks ago.
calilargeguy wrote:
..
Oh well. Hopefully they will show the tri and cycling events. I could care less about the womens rhythmic gymnastics, but of course that will be on during prime time on NBC. Why can't we have a pay per view package where we can pick what we want to watch? ..
What? and miss the small bore rifle shooting?
- emphasis on the "bore" part. heh.
or the entire 37 wt. divisions of boxing, race-walking, archery, ping-pong, badminton, horse-jumping, 12 divisions of dinghy sailing, .. is Ballroom Dancing in this time?
PoC
"Pain doesn't last, chicks dig scars, glory is forever!"
- Shane Falco.
2954
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1369 days
Anton posted 17 weeks ago.
I'm really interested to see the Men's and women's 10K swim! I heard it's OW but not sure and don't have time to research it...
Don't laugh at the racewalk POC.. those folks break 4 hours for 50k. In fact I sure the current world record for 50k is 3:30 or there abouts...
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" - Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://agingsuperhero.blogspot.com
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PrinceofClydes posted 17 weeks ago.
Hey Anton, I'm not mocking any Olympic athlete. The level of expertise, skill, ability, courage, is beyond mortals like me to emulate, but it don't all make for good spectating, especially from 12,000kms away on tv, unless you're a parent of one of the athletes, or an aficionado of the sport.
Ever seen an Olympic dinghy race when there is no wind?
I don't get much out of watermelon seed spitting, or frog jumping, or cow-pie tossing contests either.., see what I mean?
Oh yeah, and those race-walkers beat my marathon time easily. :)
PoC
"Pain doesn't last, chicks dig scars, glory is forever!"
- Shane Falco.
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Leroy Bonkers posted 17 weeks ago.
Anton wrote:
I'm really interested to see the Men's and women's 10K swim! I heard it's OW but not sure and don't have time to research it...
Quote:Oh yeah, Open Water. It's going to be great. I've read a bunch of stories about elite swimmers who didn't have good enough turns to win int he pool but can haul booty in OW. I think I heard that one of the female competitors actually has only one leg.
Takes like two hours for the best swimmers. So next time you hear an announcer refer to the 1500 meter as the marathon of swimming... well, now there really is a marathon of swimming.
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Anton posted 17 weeks ago.
Why...thank you Leroy!
And POC...I know YOU would never belittle some of the fringe sports...I mean, after all you played basketball. ;)
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" - Vincent Van Gogh
My Blog: http://agingsuperhero.blogspot.com
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Leroy Bonkers posted 17 weeks ago.
Did I manage to quote myself before posting in the first place? I wish I was that fast on the bike.
I haven't been too diligent in checking posts in the last couple of days so I'm not sure if anyone has brought this up yet, but...
The Olympics are starting in 3 days and I know I'm always looking forward to seeing some of the best athletes in the world compete. However, this could be the worst showing of any olympics in years past, ESPECIALLY for endurance athletes.
Beijing has one of the highest air particulate rates of any city. The factories from the south spew tons of pollution which drifts north to linger over the olympic city. Not just smog either, but solid matter that when breathed in will strongly affect the breathing and lung function of finely tuned athletes. Citing a mountain bike race that took place in Beijing last year in preparation for the games: of the 40+ of the top men's olympic mountain bike hopefuls from around the world, only 8 of them finished the 40km race. About half of the women's field had to withdraw. The athletes reported not being able to take deep breaths after about 25 to 30 minutes of racing.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2007/sep07/olympictest07
No US olympic athletes are currently in Beijing. The mountain bike team and the triathletes are in South Korea, the swimmers are in Singapore, track and field is in Dalian, 3000 miles from Beijing.
One of the top marathoners in the world, current world record holder, Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie is not running his best event in Beijing because he has a pre-existing asthma condition that, paired with the air conditions in Beijing, could trigger a severe attack and possibly cause lasting damage. He was probably going to win, but instead he's only participating in the 10,000 meters.
Chinese officials have taken steps to clean up the air in the city such as moving dozens of factories outside the city and limiting automobile use, but according to experts there is little that can be done that will actually clear up the air in time for the games.
So, I think what I'm really worried about is the health of the athletes and the performances they will have. These guys work they're whole lives to get to where they are and this situation could compromise all of that.
I think all I can say is good luck to all of the athletes and don't let it get you down. Do your best and hope for rain. :)
-GH