2008 Beijing Olympics

After watching much of the track & field and swimming US Olympic qualifiers, I am really looking forward to the Olympics. It is always a great event with amazing stories & performances. I'm worried about this one because of what is being said about the smog and the predictions of problems. I really hope it goes okay and that nothing awful happens.

While I understand the reasons why people would want to protest, the decision was made long ago to put the Olympics in Beijing. Once that has been done, it should return to just being a sporting event. Many of the athletes have dedicated years of their lives to competing in this event and they deserve their time in the sun, or smog as the case may be. Is the smog really that bad or are we just so sensitive now or giving China a hard time? LA use to get some pretty nasty smog back in '84 when they were held there and I dont remember it being an issue.

Anyway, to kick off the run up to the Olympics, I thought I'd ask you guys to share your favorite summer Olympics memory(s) and your least favorite summer Olympics memory(s). Here's mine:

Favorite: 1) Bob Beamon (sp?) breaking the long jump record in Mexico. It has to be the most amazing jump ever. I loved his reaction. I was too young to have seen this one live but I've seen the footage so many times that I feel like I did.

2) Dave Wottle running with his baseball cap on and winning the gold in the 800m with an amazing final kick.

3) Olga Korbett in the '72 Olympics.

4) The Coe-Ovett rivalry in the 800m and 1500m at Moscow

Least favorite:

1) Mary Decker crying like a baby when her collision with Zola Budd took her out of the race. I know Zola's move is controversial and I know Decker must have been unbelieveably disappointed but I know a bad sport when I see one.

2) '72 USSR vs USA gold medal bball game.

 

I'm a huge Olympics guy. I went to the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Saw Carl Lewis win the long jump and Michael Johnson win the 400m.

My earliest memories are from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. So I remember the whole Zola Budd/Mary Decker fiasco. My Mom bought me a 1984 Olympic program which included a huge historical section about all the games.

My favorite Olympic athlete of all all time is a guy name Paavo Nurmi from Finland. He ran in the 1920, 1924, and 1928 Games (Antwerp, Paris, and Amsterdam). He has more Olympic Track & Field gold medals than anybody else (He won some by winning the now defunct cross country events). He was a distance runner. He apparently would routinely set unofficial world records just for fun while training. He lit the flame at the 1952 Helsinki Games.

Love Jesse Owens and Babe Didrikson Zaharias from the 30s.

Greg Louganis is a good memory from the first Olympics I remember.

 

... and I've been to Beijing before. About four years ago. It is unbelievably polluted. China's skies are just loaded with coal soot. It's going to be very, very noticeable I think. Wouldn't be surprised if some athletes drop out or they have to postpone some event.

Too much crap the Chinese government is doing is just going to diminish the event in the world's eyes.

 

Unfortunately, the world record holder in the marathon has already pulled out of that event because he has asthma.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... athon.html

 

Paula Radcliffe from Great Britain hasn't decided whether she is going to run or not run yet, I think.

An American professor familiar with the pollution and weather in Beijing that at best they can only now reduce the smog by about 10% and it would be 'clear skies' if it rains every night.

This isn't going to happen.

 

I really don't have a favorite moment. I just enjoy the Olympics as a whole. I do like the Winter Games better, but I'm looking forward to these games.

It's all water under the bridge now, but I just can't believe they gave the games to China. It's going to be tough competing in those smoggy conditions.

 

Yeah, just read the other day that Japan's athletes are going to utilize dust masks during the Olympics; if I remember correctly, New Zealand will be doing the same thing as well. Try as Beijing may to curb their pollution problem as much as they can, it's nigh on impossible for them to get rid of it all by the time it all starts up.

By the way, everyone's surely seen the footage of the dress rehearsal for the Opening ceremony? If you refuse to see it live, then you can just look for a condensed version on Youtube.

 

I am not a big fan of the Olympics, but my favorite moment was watching Mary Lou Retton lead the way into the arena for the finals of the gymnastics to Sousa's "The Liberty Bell March". Most of us know it as the theme to "Monty Python's Flying Circus", so I was doubled over laughing!

 

Well if you're going to go back as far as the Flying Finn then I would have to say Eric Liddell is my favorite Olympian. Not only was he one of the best athletes, if not the best athlete, Scotland has ever produced; he was, by all accounts, as fine, decent, and honorable as a man could be. Chariots of Fire only offered a glimpse into how great of a person he was. During WWII he was being held in an internment camp in China. Churchill negotiated a prisoner exchange to allow for his release, but he allowed a pregnant woman to go instead. He died in that campl

 

Love Chariots of Fire.

 

Here's a video showing some great olympic moments and athletes, several of which we've already mentioned. However, it highlights Dave Wottle's amazing run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3UReAhX ... re=related

 

remember Dave & Dan?

 

the decathletes?

 

Fav moments - Daley Thompson winning gold in the 1984 decathlon. Seb Coe and Steve Ovett in 1980 (although that it at the very start of my memories)

Worst moment - Ben Johnson ruining athletics for me in 1988.

Now, I wonder which drug each winner is using and will not watch athletics. The shame of Dwain Chamber's this year taking the BOC to court has just highlihgted the embaressment of the sport.

I am looking forward to watching young Tom Daley in the diving and wish GB had a football team going.

 

shame - Reebok had the big ad campaign, and one of them didn't even make the olympics. The other I don't think won much...

 

Derek Redmond finishing the 400m with the help of his dad -- that'll always be one of the most sentimental moments in the Olympics' history.

I don't really remember much from last one at Athens, but that was because Hurricane Charley ripped through Orlando right as the Opening ceremonies were being held -- causing us to miss out on most of the festivities on the telly. :|

 

yeah, that's probably part of the reason my favorite memories predate '88. I had hopes that it wouldnt affect these Olympics but an American swimmer and 7 russian track and field athletes have already been disqualified. One of the russian athletes being disqualified is a sort of vindication for Paula Radcliffe as I recall from the news article.

I also wish GB had a football team, but several English guys and Scots that I've talked to dont seem to feel that way. Hopefully, GB will have a team in the London Olympics. I was already wondering if the host team automatically gets a spot. If so, would it have to be a GB team or could it be an English team?

 

Okay, I may have misjudged the Fulham faithful. Are Lyle, GBFanClub, KrHimself, Shinerbock ( of course he has good taste), PSand22, and I the only ones who have fond memories of the summer Olympics?

 

The first games that I can remember with any clarity are the Sydney games, and most of the good moments for me from them involved the US Track team seemingly winning every major event. Unfortuanately, these memories are tainted for me by the doping scandals that have enveloped the sport, especially Marion Jones. She was truly the star of those games and most of my memories from Sydney are courtesy of her, but now those are undoubtedly tarnished. As far as Athens went, Michael Phelps winning his 6 (?) golds was cool, but the fact that seemingly every event had half empty stadiums/arenas kind of dampened the atmosphere for me. That being said I love the Olympics (especially summer) and am looking forward to Thursday.

 

The Dream Team of '92 was pretty outstanding for me, and I remember Kerri Strug teaching me that toughness comes in 90 pound packages in '96.

I also remember a cyclist no one had heard of named Lance Armstrong come in something like 12th in the '96 Olympics. He proclaimed that a disappointment, about 2 months before he learned about his cancer. How did he do as well as he did?

Sad to say now, all the endurance events that I used to like about the Olympics are ruined for me because I don't know who is doping, and when that's a big draw of the Olympics, that casts a pall on the whole thing.

I still like some events, for some reason I am a fan of the marathon because it is on the last day and what those guys and gals can do.

Jesse Owens (from THE Ohio State University) driving Hitler into a hissy fit is always going to be a bright light of history