The 2012 London Summer Olympic Games

[PotomacCyclist]

First cycling event airs tomorrow (Saturday) on the main NBC channel.

5 to 11 am (AM not PM!), Men's road cycling race, NBC

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For swimming fans, the Saturday primetime broadcast features the finals of the men's and women's 400m IM events. The men's competition should include a head-to-head matchup between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. This is one of the featured individual rivalries at these Games.

I've also watched some of the soccer games, which started a couple days ago, before the Opening Ceremony. And I'm not even a soccer fan.

[eminva]

I realize I'm coming to this thread late, but some of you might be a little young to appreciate the political implications of the Olympic games. I was a youth athelete keeping my eye on the stars of Track and Field in the 1970's. Because of the Cold War, there were very few opportunities for athletes from the west to compete against athletes from behind the Iron Curtain. Virtually none, except for the Olympics. The boycotts of 1980 and 1984 were devastating for many of those athletes.

Things are much different today, and I realize that. Sports is a business and I have no illusions about the lengths some athletes will go to to get an edge (and that is nothing new). But there is a history of sport being politicized, with the athletes bearing the consequences.

Looking forward to getting up early tomorrow!

Liz

[PotomacCyclist]

I was just reading about Cynthia Woodhead, ranked no. 1 in the world in four freestyle swimming events in the late 1970s. She had been expected to have a great run at the 1980 Summer Olympics until the boycott.

http://assets.espn.go.com/oly/summer.../woodhead.html

Rowdy Gaines was also expected to win several Olympic swim medals in 1980. He almost quit the sport after the boycott but came back to have some limited success at the 1984 Games. Many know him as the commentator for NBC's Olympics swim coverage. Even in 2008, when the topic of the boycott came up, you could see a complete look of despair briefly come across his face. He looked so lost for a moment, until he could regain his composure. Even after all this time, you can still tell that it affected him very deeply. I know there was a lot going on in the world at the time but I think the boycott mostly hurt U.S. athletes, not the Soviets.

Anyway, there are no boycotts this year (except perhaps some tiny country that few people have heard of). Even Great Britain got its act together and decided to enter the Olympic soccer tournament. For various reasons (divided international soccer teams among England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and disputes about professional players in the Olympic tournament), the UK has not been in the Olympic soccer tournament since 1960. They haven't even tried to qualify since the 1970s. Kind of bizarre, considering how popular the sport is over there. The team is playing under the name of Great Britain, not the UK. They are also going by the abbreviation of Team GB. Sounds like a Formula One racing team.

[PotomacCyclist]

A planned stunt bike sequence has been cut from the Opening Ceremony because of time constraints.

http://news.yahoo.com/london-shorten...8991--oly.html

Seems like they managed to fit in the bike sequence after all, I think. There was a nifty scene with dozens of riders on stunt bikes with glowing wing structures on their backs, resembling massive white doves. Impressive visual. Then one of the cyclists was lifted high above the stadium.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oly...reakdowns.html



Earlier in the Opening Ceremony, Bradley Wiggins rang the massive bell to help kick off the ceremony.

***
No spoilers but the men's cycling road race was completed this morning. If you are a cable/satellite subscriber, you can watch the full replay online. The video does not have any commentary. The relative silence is somewhat strange.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/cyc...road-race.html

[KLizotte]

If you are a cable/satellite subscriber, you can watch the full replay online. The video does not have any commentary. The relative silence is somewhat strange.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/cyc...road-race.html

Hahahaha. At around 3:40 all guys are shown taking a whizz on the side of the road. Do race organizers designate such places ahead of time? I'm sure the spectators weren't expecting that for their Olympic experience!

Anybody know what the ladies do or do they not have such long races?

The "I'm not stopping" mechanical fix at 1:08:34 is cool.

[5555624]

Anybody know what the ladies do or do they not have such long races?

As I write this, the women's road race is starting (live). It's shorter than the men's road race, as it's only 140 km.

[PotomacCyclist]

Supposedly the women could face hail and heavy rain showers on the course during today's road race.

***
There will also be individual time trial races. Both the women and the men race the TT events on Wed. August 1.

Here's the full Cycling schedule, including all of the track, mountain bike and BMX events:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/cycling/r...les/index.html

There are quite a number of track cycling heats and finals.

***
The triathlon races are on August 4 and 7.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/triathlon...les/index.html

Modern pentathlon has some interest for triathlon fans, even though it doesn't include cycling. It does include swimming and a run/shoot combo, along with horse riding and fencing.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/modern-pe...les/index.html

I only know about modern pentathlon because of Sheila Taormina. She is the first woman to have qualified for the Olympic Games in three different sports: swimming (1996), triathlon (2000, 2004), modern pentathlon (2008). She won a gold medal in 1996 as part of a freestyle relay team.

[KelOnWheels]

This race is exciting!

[PotomacCyclist]

Those red Specialized bikes are confusing me. The only bright red bikes I've seen for the past year and a half are the heavy and slow CaBi bikes. It's strange to see people riding so fast on bright red bikes now.

[KelOnWheels]

That's what we need for the next Olympics - CaBi racing!

Emma Pooley is teeny! I wonder what size bike she rides?