Ahira's Hangar

They are coming soon!

Is anyone other than me planning on watching at least parts of the Games?

What are your favorite sports to watch?

I'll admit that I like some of the less popular stuff - like equestrian, wrestling, sailing, and whom I consider to be the greatest all round athletes on Earth who compete in - the pentathalon! (yeah I know - track and field fans says it should be the decathalon that determines the wrold's greatest all round athlete - but those are all track and field events, where the pentathaletes must master many different sorts of sports...)

As with the winter games, I do not like sports with obscure and possibly politicized judging - in the winter games the figure skating and in the summer gymnastics.

And I do not like boxing - though Olympic boxing is not as downright brutal as the professional. Though I love pretty much all of the other martial arts.

for those who want to know more about the awesomeness that is the pentathalon

Personally, I like the winter games better. Don't know if there's a deep, psychological reason for that; all I can say is that watching athletes deal with ice and snow rather appeals to me. I guess all the white stuff makes for more picturesque TV viewing, too.

Of course, the summer games has its attractions, too. The main thing is track-and-field: I especially like the drama of the sprints - the 100m, 200m, 400m runs and the 4x100m relay (men's and women's). So, yeah, I'm guilty as charged of watching the "prima donnas" of the Olympics - the sprinters.

But that's okay, because rest assured that I'll have zero sympathy for any one who knowingly takes banned substances and gets caught. It does make you wonder how many of the Chinese athletes might be doped (whether knowingly or not), because you have to consider the intense pressure they must under to produce medals for the glory of the Communist Party. (This is the cynical portion of my post.)

Diving and swimming are the other two events I most like to watch. Yeah, the Chinese have dominated diving for years, but I will be cheering on our divers from Canada, one of whom at least has a very good chance for a medal. I wish our swim team the best as well, but, like everyone else, I will be curious to see how many medals American Michael Phelps will win - and how many records he may set.

I hope to watch the games, but I don't have cable or sattelite. If it's on broadcast networks, then I'll definitely watch. If it's on a free website, I'll watch.

I love the ceremony, so my favorite parts are the opening, closing, and awards ceremonies. And, I don't really pay that much attention to the judging, so I enjoy gymnastics and ice skating, especially rythmic gymnastics with the ribbon. So pretty.

Diving, shot put, some track & Field events-will be watching Gay (except for the 200m), marathon, gymnastics. I always get wrapped up in the gymnastics for some reason . There's, like, a 42 year old female US swimmer and a 36 or 38 year old diver? wow.

I don't want to watch it, I, sorta, feel like the Chinese are (politically) shoving it up the US's arse but there's nothing else on TV in August...

I like the winter games a lot better, too, Moonwatcher! Must be because of our northern climate homes.

But nontheless - even though the politics might well bother me - and even knowing some of them are cheating and doping creeps (who I hope will get caught) - I will probably be glued to the summer games. And the athletes, regardless of country, all deserve our support - being there is something they have worked towards, sacrificed for, and trained for their entire lives. And the politics swirling around the host country is something that none of them can control or do anything about. Now, the doping is another story.

Menolly, I think they will be on NBC this year, so there should be plenty to watch on regular old TV.

It is certainly not the US only - given the Darfur and Tibet situations (among others) it really is the entire world that China is giving the finger.

But as I said, no athlete from any country is responsible, and they all deserve our support.

We have finally gotten a chance to watch some of the Games this afternoon. We watched women's fencing and men's cycling road race.

I need to find the websites for the games. We're not receiving NBC at all...

I think that the NBC website has constant live streams from all events?

Add to sports we've gotten to watch:
men's gymnastics
women's beach volleyball
men's boxing

By far the coolest thing so far has been the women's fencing!

Some family members of a USA coach were attacked in a tourist spot in Beijing. The father was killed - they do not know whether or not the mother will make it and she is in serious conidtion. The tour guide was also injured. The attacker then commited suicide. They think it was just a random thing from a crazy person rather than a terrorist action or the like.

Makes me wonder why in the hell Chicago is a finalist city for an upcoming games, given the violence levels and huge numbers of really aggressive street people there! What are they going to do? Round up all of the street people druggies and lock them in Soldier Field for the duration of the Games?

I believe the next summer games are to be held in London; I think that Chicago is one of three finalist cities for the summer games after that one. On the one hand it would be cool to have them within a half day's drive. On the other hand, why in such a crime riddled place??? The murder rate over there this summer is pretty damned intimidating. And the last two times I have been over there, I had really negative experiences with freaky aggressive crazy and/or drugged out street people right beside (in one case on the front steps of) a major tourist destination.

I have lived for more than forty years in the Detroit area. if I say a place is scary as hell, that means something.

Have now watched some men's and women's swimming, too. It was cool seeing a lady almost as old as me anchor her swim team in a relay to get a silver medal.

The men's gymnastics is fun to watch. Those athletes are amazingly strong! I have a problem with gymnastics and figure skating and other such events with questionable scoring. While they can be great to watch, I never know whether or not the winning athletes actually are the winning athletes due to the possibly corrupt judges. Though I do not know if that is as likely with gymnists as it is with figure skaters.

I didn't know the crime rate in Chicago was that bad. I thought it was the sort of thing exaggerated in Hollywood movies about Chicago.

Re: that attack in Beijing -- I saw on the local US station (KARE 11 News) that the man who was killed had been a prominent business owner in Minnesota, and whose family is well-known there. It makes it that much more tragic when it is a good, decent person who dies so senselessly. This may have been a random attack, but I'm sure it has shamed many Chinese who've been sincerely trying to make foreigners feel at home during the Olympics.

Yep, Dara Torres swam a great final leg for the US. And yeah, I share your misgivings about judging at the gymnastic events. The CBC was interviewing Canada's Kyle Shewfelt about his routine; there is a sentiment that he was given an unfairly low score, which resulted in him missing the finals.