Beijing 2008 games

[Amadeus]

If you're watching, great! If not, I hope the reason is not baseball (for those in the U.S.).

[cdm2003]

I heard that this year BMX bicycle racing is a newly added sport. Interesting, but I'm still waiting for the chariot races! I've got my own quadriga in the back yard with blades affixed to the wheels and it's just getting rusty.

[Amadeus]

Hehe... nice chariot. But I think using it would get you disqualified.

I usually enjoy more those sports where machines play little or no part, such as water sports, gymnastics, track racing, bolley-ball (not beach bolley-ball, though), &c. Can't wait to the opening ceremony!

[quendidil]

I'm watching weightlifting and judo, and maybe the 100m sprint.

Judo is the only Olympic sport we have that resembles pankration in any way.

[Alatius]

I'm generally very much uninterested in any kind of sports, at least when it comes to watching it on television. If there is anything though that I might try to see, or at least stay and watch for a while while zapping, it would be the gymnastics (both mens' and womens'). I find the way that the gymnasts' strengths and flexibilities manifest themselfes are much more awe inspiring and not the least much more visual appealing to watch, than, say, competitions which are solely based on who passes the calx first.

Now that I think about it, I guess that what I am interested in watching mostly is defined by to what degree the performances are individual, and can have a merit as separate entities, similar to how a work of art doesn't have to be compared and judged in relation to others in order to be interesting. For I have very little interest, if any, in which particular individual actually wins.

[Scribo]

Judo always draws my attention. When is the Fencing on? Mithras have I missed it? I shall be most forlorn if that's the case.

[cdm2003]

Can't wait to the opening ceremony!

Did you see it? It was absolutely fantastic...amazing...I have never seen such a production.

[Amadeus]

Can't wait to the opening ceremony!

Did you see it? It was absolutely fantastic...amazing...I have never seen such a production.

Yeah, I saw it. It was really good! Especially those cubes moved by people. I wonder if London will be able to match this...

[Estoniacus Inoriginale]

A nice show, this opening ceremony, was. They showed people in white robes doing tai chi. It turns out tai chi is a martial art, I prectice it as one, and there are fast and powerful looking movements, whether throws, strikes, or joint-manipulation, even spine manipulation.

[1%homeless]

I wonder if London will be able to match this...

Well, a news commentator said that London wasn't even going to try to match this. It's ironic that they have outspent all the capitlist countries for the Olympics. Anyhoo, they spent about $100 million to $300 million just for the opening ceremony. I gather that English tax payers would throw a hissy fit over 50 to 150 million pounds being spent just for an Olympic opening ceremony...

[GreekGeek2]

I really liked the opening ceremony, but my bad feeling about Chinese people keeps on getting worse... They even tried to influenced the weather by lancing some rockets with special gasses I think, I mean that's like really scary?

[edonnelly]

I really liked the opening ceremony, but my bad feeling about Chinese people keeps on getting worse... They even tried to influenced the weather by lancing some rockets with special gasses I think, I mean that's like really scary?

It would be fair to say I have bad feelings about the Chinese government, but I've found the Chinese people to be really great whenever I have encountered them, and I don't hold their government's actions against them.

1%homeless - Are those figures what the government spent, or do they include what the corporate sponsors have spent? (I'm not suggesting it's not an obscene amount either way, but if most of it comes from sponsors, it could likely be spent wherever the games are held).

[darodalaf]

Judo is the only Olympic sport we have that resembles pankration in any way.

Is Judo more like pankration than Greco-Roman wrestling?

darodalaf

[mingshey]

I missed most of the opening to care for my little baby.
I saw the replay of the opening (striding from scene to scene) and found that the Olympic anthem was sung in modern Greek.
Though Olympic games are of Greek origin, I didn't expect to see Greek language play any role in the whole event.

[Estoniacus Inoriginale]

Someone wanted to know about pankration, judo, and greco-roman wrestling.
Judo is more similar as a sport to greco-roman wrestling, the main difference is that Judo is from 19/20th century Japan and was developed from a military martial art called jujitsu. Pankration means in Greek, with all force, or something like this. Pankration had no rules, but fights had to be between 2 people and on an arena, all kinds of strikes and fingerjabs were allowed from 2500 to 1500 years ago, to all parts of the body. Real pankration would never be an olympic sport nowadays. But the closest thing would be mixed martial arts, a fighting sport with a very light set of rules, allowing sportsmanlike fighting in all ranges, standing up, wrestling on the ground and all manner of body slams. If one were to combine the following olympic sports into one harmonious ruleset: boxing, taekwondo, judo, greco-roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, then one would achieve something similar to pankration, but it's not going to happen in the olympics, although it is very famous in the form of the sport called mixed martial arts, MMA for short. MMA can benefit from all martial arts, provided it uses moves that are allowed, while jabing the eyes and neck with fingers is not allowed or kicking the knee for that matter, though, in any legal sport.

[quendidil]

Pankration and wrestling were two separate events in the ancient games.

That's why I said judo was the closest Olympic sport the closest sport of any kind we have to pankration is MMA.

[Estoniacus Inoriginale]

I agree, quendidil - pankration and wrestling are separate fields of sport, historically. I should have been more explicit, although, honestly, I didn't even adress this consciously.

[cma]

As an Australian, and therefore interested in water sports, did Greeks or the Romans ever have swimming races? Or did they consider water only suitable for fish? The only mention of swimming I can recall is Nero's mum saving herself from one of her son's nasty tricks with her boat.

[PeterD]

[ It's ironic that they have outspent all the capitlist countries for the Olympics.

They---the Chinese government---have not spend a dime. It is us, the Western consumer, who footed the bill, albeit indirectly. Just about everthing under the sun is imported from China. Heck, the other day I went to buy garlic. Where do you suppose the Garlic came from? Garlic!

[Bert]

[ It's ironic that they have outspent all the capitlist countries for the Olympics.

They---the Chinese government---have not spend a dime. It is us, the Western consumer, who footed the bill, albeit indirectly. Just about everthing under the sun is imported from China. Heck, the other day I went to buy garlic. Where do you suppose the Garlic came from? Garlic!

So did the Chinese spend money on sports or not?

[PeterD]

So did the Chinese spend money on sports or not?

Yes, our money.

[Kasper]

.. but then again, we got their garlic.

[1%homeless]

.. but then again, we got their garlic.

LOL.

Are those figures what the government spent, or do they include what the corporate sponsors have spent?

Well, I assume that it is what the government spent from reading the reports. Plus, I always presumed the cost burden was assumed by governments first like any regular business. There is no guarantee that sponsors and investors will entirely offset the costs. I remember reading somewhere that China will not make a profit off the games and they will take a loss. Although that's not entirely true because the infrastructure built still has future profit potential for other operations...