The Official Olympics Thread (with the consent of the Chinese Gov.)

[DrinkingHarp]

Phelps 8 for 8..hes some boyo

Has to be the single greatest ever athletic achievement by an individual of all time.

[Hardy]

The full schedule for everything is here:

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/AT.shtml

You can search by sport, by event, by athlete, etc.

[Hound]

that was cat. man is a freak. he could easily smash that again. he should dominate again 2012, but wat is the shelf life of a sprinter?

would him and phelps (age 23 i think) make 2016 as well as 2012?

Colonel swimmers peak younger than sprinters, with the very notable exception of one Irish swimmer. Phelps probably wont make 2012 and definately wont be around in 2016.

As if you have a clue!

The current fastest 100m male freestyler in the US is  Jason Lezak - age 32
The fastest american female freestyler is Dara Torres - age 41

Phelps could go for another 3 Olympics. But will he have the motivation and enthusiasm to put in all the training every day when he'll be a multi millionaire?

Phelps now was 14 golds and 2 bronzes. Apparently some gymnast has 18 medals, so perhaps that might motivate him to go for one more.

Still can't figure how he beat the Serb for his 7th gold. There was an overhead freeze frame shot where you'd swear the Serb was touching the wall and Phelps hands were still 6 inches away... Must have been a misleading picture...

[nifan]

I believe as you go up to the further distances in the swimming the shorter your life span is.
One commentator was talking about addlington dominating for the next 12 years as she is only 19, but a coach said that at her distances and the way they train they tend to get shoulder problems, which is less common for shorter distances.

I dont know torres, but I assume she is a shorter distance swimmer.

[Hound]

Torres is a sprinter. 50m and 100m.

Some Derry bird with a strange surname and who was a dentist in the RAF, won silver in the velodrome in the 3000m, behind another GB representative Rebecca Romero. Romero because the first GB athlete to win medals in two separate sports, having won a silver in rowing in Athens.

Derval O'Rourke only 6th in her first round heat with a poor time of 13.22. Top 2 qualify for semis along with 6 fastest losers from the 5 heats. 12.98 was required to qualify, so I'm sure she'll be disapoointed as she has run 12.90 this year. Heat winners were running just below 12.70.

Michelle Carey finishes (way) last in her 400m hurdles heat. If she'd matched the time she ran 3 weeks ago in the National Championships she would have qualified for the next round, but she was miles off that (2 secs).

More positive news from the showjumping. Denis Lynch gets his second clear round (1 time penalty again). After 40 of the 76 jumpers have gone, he's joint leader from the combined 1st and 2nd qualifiers. Top 35 qualify for the final two rounds (but unfortunately I think all 35 start from scratch).

[Main Street]

The full schedule for everything is here:

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/AT.shtml

You can search by sport, by event, by athlete, etc.

The rte track and field list is suitable for a quick check on the time of Irish athletes competing.

But that official site is brilliant.
The Boxing site is full of info.

Watch out -  all times are local.

[gallsman]

The Brits are getting far too carried away over Adlington. Conratulations to her, it's a phenomenal achievement for a British swimmer, but domiating for 12 years??? Grant Hackett is the greatest distance swimmer ever and he's done after 10 years, never mind 12.

[gallsman]

The Brits are getting far too carried away over Adlington. Conratulations to her, it's a phenomenal achievement for a British swimmer, but domiating for 12 years??? Grant Hackett is the greatest distance swimmer ever and he's done after 10 years, never mind 12.

Some say he couldn't Hackett.

FFS, walked into that!

[Our Nail Loney]

Uladh whats this about the us team hating bolt?? I don't follow the athletics apart from the olympics so I don't really know

As for Bolt, f**k he was class, I wanna see him go full pelt though for the whole 100metres just to see how fast he can be!

When is the 200m final?

[Hound]

Uladh whats this about the us team hating bolt?? I don't follow the athletics apart from the olympics so I don't really know

As for Bolt, f**k he was class, I wanna see him go full pelt though for the whole 100metres just to see how fast he can be!

Quite simply, when somebody beats the yanks it would not be unusual for the yanks to bad mouth them.  In fact it would be unusual if they didn't - especially when you're talking about the average egotistical American athlete (and sprinters would have a bigger ego than most).

I'd be pretty sure Bolt is on exactly the same stuff (whether legal or illegal) as the yanks are on.

[Hardy]

I dunno about that Hound. He looks to me to be on far superior stuff.

[Minder]

Bolt ran 20.16 in the 200m as a 15 year old and broke 20 sec shortly after that,he may have been on something as a 15 year old but i would say its highly unlikely.

[Down Gael]

Has anyone though that maybe he is clean, maybe he is just that good?

[ziggysego]

Why is the coverage delayed in the US?

[DrinkingHarp]

Has anyone though that maybe he is clean, maybe he is just that good?

That would ruin all the conspiracy theories