Ahira's Hangar

If they were to have the Olympics a half day's drive away I would rather it be in Toronto, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinatti, Pittsburgh, Louisville/Lexington, etc. etc. I would feel safer in all of those places than Chicago. St. Louis is pretty creepy, though, too, so I would not be thrilled if it were there. Twin Cities would be fine, though that would be more than a half days' drive, as would St. Louis.

All of the North American Olympics (Montreal, LA, Lake Placid, Calgary) have either taken place while I was not an adult or else were too far away for a casual weekend trip (Salt Lake, Atlanta). I have always dreamed of seeing the Olympics, and would go if they were held as close as Chicago, though I would not be thrilled if they were held there as opposed to say...Toronto. If they were either in Chicago or Toronto I would not actually stay in the city. I would take the train from Ann Arbor/Detroit to about two hours out from the host city and stay there as a basecamp, using Amtrack/Via as a commuter route between my base camp and the Olympic city. I would not want to pay the huge amount of money hotels would charge for Olympic weekends. I would plan my tickets/ events around the train schedule. Since I would prefer to see more obscure events like judo or women's fencing or archery or Greco-Roman wrestling above the big ticket things like track or swimming or gymnastics or boxing, I am sure I could find plenty of events to mesh into the train schedules. I would also get to eat two meals a day at the basecamp city (breakfast and a late supper), leaving only one overpriced meal in the Olympic city. I would think savings in hotel and parking and meal costs would pay for the train, and preferring obscure sports and not caring if it is the medal rounds would make tickets cheaper and easier to get (I could probably get tickets from legitimate sources rather than from scalpers).

So it could work...

Well, I'm impressed that you have such a detailed plan in hand for the day when the Olympics come near you.

If some day Toronto gets to host the Games, I hope for Torontonians' sake that their city won't end up incurring the kind of massive debt that Montreal did when it hosted the Olympics in 1976. My understanding is that Montreal finally paid off its debt only recently.

Watching women's gymnastics and cycling road race now. Let me just say, I think the beam in gymnastics is one of the most diabolical things ever invented in sport. It messes with my head - and I'm just a spectator. Every time I watch one of the girls do a back flip on it, my heart stops: will she fall off? will she crack her head on it? That thing is just evil.

Keep in mind Olympic events take place all over. I remember womens soccer for the Atlanta Olympics took place in Miami's Orange Bowl...

The 4x100m Mens Freestyle Relay was amazing - the way the US team came from behind to beat the heavily favored French team. The French anchor had a near-body length lead on his American rival at the start of the last 50 metres, yet somehow the American caught up, and the world record fell by 3 seconds or more. One of the defining moments of the Beijing Olympics for sure.

I'm flipping between NBC and CBC. I agree that NBC has been delivering good, balanced coverage. But it's understandable that the US networks would tend to concentrate so much on the American athletes, given the history of deep talent on US Olympic teams.

So, another memorable day. Talk about deep US talent (in the pool, at any rate): Gold for Aaron Peirsol, Natalie Coughlin and Michael Phelps. And in each of those swims, a teammate also scored a medal. 6 medals for the US in just 3 races.

And that Chinese gymnastics team finally winning Olympic gold...those guys were impressive, especially on the rings.

Missed all of that; they must have all been on while I was at work last night.

However, I was just watching white water kayaking. It was really really cool!

Back when we had cable the CBC station out of Windsor was part of our local channel package. With the satellite we do not get it. I really miss CBC Olympic coverage, Hockey Night in Canada (even though we usually got stuck with the Maple Leafs, with CBC apparently not understanding that the swath of Ontario from London over to Windsor is filled with Wings fans instead of Leafs fans), and The National.

Here is a link to some local Olympians (who train in Ann Arbor) so you can keep track of them:


We've got a lady in the pentathalon as well.

Anyone from your area in Beijing?

edited:
here is a compelte list of how Olympians with Michigan ties are doing so far:


Obviously, Michael Phelps is the local poster boy.

Have been watching men's baseball. The US is having their butts handed to them on a plate by Korea. I dread seeing them play against a really good team like Japan. Since there are a couple of Toledo Mud Hens on the team, I was hoping they would do OK. I wasn't expecting a medal, but I was hoping they would be respectable...

Joseph "Joe" Hagerty (born April 19, 1982 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is an American artistic gymnast. He is the 2008 U.S. national champion on the horizontal bar and the 2008 all-around bronze medalist. He was a member of the bronze medal-winning 2008 U.S. Olympic team.[1]

2008 Olympians with UF ties

Information shown is Name, Years at UF, and Country Represented

Baseball
Matt LaPorta 2004-2007 U.S.
Juan Carlos Sulbaran Begins in 2008-09 Netherlands Antilles

Women's Basketball
DeLisha Milton-Jones 1993-94 - 1996-97 U.S.

Women’s Soccer
Abby Wambach ^ 1998-2001 U.S.
Heather Mitts 1996-1999 U.S.

Swimming
Bradley Ally 2005-06 - present Barbados
Sarah Bateman Begins in 2008-09 Iceland
Caroline Burckle 2004-05 – 2007-08 U.S.
Melanie Costa-Schmid Begins in 2008-09 Spain
Rodion Davelaar Begins in 2008-09 Curacao
Brett Fraser 2007-08 - present The Cayman Islands
Shaune Fraser 2006-07 - present The Cayman Islands
Balacz Gercsak 2007-08 - present Hungary
Roberto Gomez Begins in 2008-09 Venezuela
Ryan Lochte 2002-03 – 2005-06 U.S.
Gabriel Mangabeira 2001-02 - 2003-04 Brazil
Ricardo Monasterio 1997-98 - 2000-01 Venezuela
Omar Pinzon 2006-07 - present Colombia
Anna-Liisa Pold Begins in 2008-09 Estonia
Roland Rudolph 2006-08 - present Hungary
Adam Sioui 2001-02 – 2004-05 Canada
Gemma Spofforth 2006-07 - present Great Britain
Dara Torres 1985-86 – 1988-89 U.S.
J.B. Walsh 2004-05 – 2007-08 Philippines

Swimming Coaches
Gregg Troy, UF Head Coach (Assistant U.S. Coach) 1998 - present U.S. (met when I worked at the UAA)
Anthony Nesty, UF Associate Head Coach (Suriname Coach) 1998 - present Suriname (met when I worked at the UAA)
Eddie Reese, Member of UF Swim Team (Head U.S. Coach) 1961-63 U.S.

Women's Tennis
Jill Craybas 1994-1996 U.S.

Track & Field
Aaron Armstrong 2000, 2001 Trinidad
Hazel Clark 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 U.S.
Kerron Clement 2004, 2005 U.S.
Kristin Heaston 1997, 1998, 1999 U.S.
Moise Joseph 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Haiti (met when I worked at the UAA)
Mariam Kevkhishvili 2007, 2008 Georgia
Tiandra Ponteen 2004, 2005 St. Kitts
Calvin Smith 2007, 2008 U.S.
Novlene Williams-Mills 2003, 2004 Jamaica

^ - named to U.S. Soccer Olympic roster, but suffered a broken leg July 16 and will miss the 2008 Olympics

Florida is well-represented, I see...

I assume you've all heard about the controversy over the opening ceremonies? The "digitally enhanced" fireworks was just funny. What wasn't funny at all was the story of the little girl who wasn't allowed to appear on stage to sing because she wasn't deemed pretty enough by the Chinese politburo. Yeah, those twerps are really helping me to improve my opinion of them...

Well, the ordinary Chinese citizens on the street are certainly doing their best to make up for the dubious actions/policies of their political leaders.