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A few Olympic thoughts

August 9th, 2012 · Posted by Skuds in Life · 1 Comment · Life

I’ve enjoyed watching the Olympics today. Here are a few random thoughts that occured during the coverage:

Taekwondo

On the face of it, the prolonged pauses seem to back up the arguments against using video replays to review decisions in football. Just like with tennis they have introduced an attempt to reduce vexatious challenges. In tennis they limit the number and in Taekwondo it looks like you lose the right to make challenges if you lose one. The main difference seems to be that it is the coach who makes the challenge rather than the competitor.

What is interesting is how making the challenges is part of the game tactics, with a lot of them coming very late in the game, sometimes just to give somebody a chance to get their breath back.

Surprisingly watchable sport, although it seems a bit tame after having watched Ong-Bak a couple of weeks ago. I like the way the points are racked up as you go along so the fighters know what the score is rather than having to wait until the end of the round like in the boxing.

Boxing

Is it just me or is the women’s boxing a lot more exciting than the men’s? Maybe it is just the fights I have seen, but there are more punches and less hugging.

Hockey

Would it be better or worse without all that water on the pitch?

Beach Volleyball

The women’s games get all the publicity but by chance I have seen a lot more of the men’s games. The women may be better to look at but the men are better to watch.

BMX

Good fun to watch. Instead of the plain track of the velodrome you have loads of humps, bumps and jumps not to mention spectacular incidents. In spite of all that I think the velodrome events are more enthralling. Have to wait and see how the mountain biking compares – it is being held very close to my old home in Essex right by the world’s most underwhelming castle. I see the official 2012 website talks about panoramic views of the Thames estuary. Not something to boast about really since it is a view that only Wilko Johnson loves.

iPads

While Usain Bolt was doing his laps of honour and mxing with the crowds there were quite a few iPads being brandished to take pictures along with all the smartphones and normal cameras, something I have noticed a few times during the games. They do look a bit bulky for that sort of thing. I hope it is a passing fad because concerts and other events are already bad enough with everybody holding phones up to film everything, without having 10-inch slabs waved about everywhere.

iPlayer

I have just watched Jade Jones win the Taekwondo gold on the computer. Previously I have been watching most stuff on the TV. In theory I could forget about the edited BBC One and BBC Three coverage and watch the live streams of each event and have loads of pop-ups running at once. No need to choose between the hockey semi-finals, women’s football final and athletics – just watch them all simultaneously. I’m sure our broadband is up to it but I’m equally sure my basic graphics card and basic brain aren’t.

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