SWIM ZUT ALORS!

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

If I might be allowed a bit of nationalistic pride for a moment:
Hey. Alain Bernard. French guy who was saying that your team would crush the American swim team. Good job on that last leg of the swim.
Too bad it WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH!
USA! USA!
* Ahem *
Okay. Done now.
PAD

34 comments on “SWIM ZUT ALORS!”

  1. Thanks goodness for the swim team. In 32 years of watching the Olympics, I’ve never seen such a poor performance of the US girl’s gymnastics as last night. And I don’t accept “First Olympics Jitters” as an excuse – for most athletes, it’s their first Olympics, and they give the performance of their lives. One bad performance, sure – but three out of four??? Lucky it was only the qualifying round.

  3. Total props to NBC for hooking me in. I’m with Jakob D–I thought this would be a big snooze but stuff like last night…!
    The sight of the one American swimmer celebrating, looking like a skinnier version of one of Leonidas’ Spartans after they shoved a few hundred Pesians over a cliff, will forver be on any olympic highlight reel. It had suspense too–one more inch of slippage and he would have been waving his tallywhacker right at the French–which would have been great!!!
    And hey, I’m actually beginning to like France, partly due to a general rightward trend in their politics and mostly because they have the world’s most smoking hot first lady (seriously. Totally. Smoking. Hot.) but when yu are stupid enough to talk trash you had better back it up. actually, you’d be better just to shut up. If you talk trash and win you look like a boorish twit. If you talk trash and lose…well, as the French would say, Haw haw haw haw.
    In sadder news, the Russians have used the Olympics as an opportunity to settle all accounts. Putin makes Michael Corleone look like a cub scout.

  4. “I didn’t think I’d be as hooked on Olympic coverage as I’ve been. Wow.”
    Same here. I never watch sports, ever, and yet I’m totally hooked on the Olympics. And things like the American swim team’s victory last night are one of the reasons why. That was just exciting as hëll, made all the more satisfying by the schadenfreude I received from the French team’s defeat (not that I have anything against the French, but that Bernard guy did come off as a bit of an arrogant ášš).

  5. And it wasn’t long after one of the American woman swimmer’s just missed getting the Gold (in this case the British swimmer caught up). So it was nice to see the U.S. acting as a “spoiler” this time.

  6. And hey–tonight…
    Well, of course, the three best words in the English language are “I love you.” But a close second?
    Womens. Beach. Volleyball.
    Yes, incredibly toned, barely clad women throwing themselves on sand for our entertainment. It just does not get better than that, kids.
    PAD

  8. The sight of the one American swimmer celebrating
    That was Phelps, and that celebration was for getting his 2nd gold, the one that he had the biggest chance to lose, in his quest to break Spitz’s record of 7 Golds at a single Games by getting 8.
    The only things I’m disappointed by, and they’re all NBC’s fault:
    A) Not showing the Opening Ceremony live.
    B) Not showing evenings events live – we’re still getting them on tape delay in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.
    C) Not enough replays being available right away on the Internet when you just don’t know when they’ll be on TV, and that’s even with channels dedicated to specific sports on Dish Network.

  10. Sounds like the French made the mistake the Americans did back in 2000. ^_- Something about ‘smashing the Australian team like guitars’.
    So when the Australians won, they played air guitar at the Americans. XD

  11. PAD wrote: “Well, of course, the three best words in the English language are “I love you.” But a close second? Womens. Beach. Volleyball. Yes, incredibly toned, barely clad women throwing themselves on sand for our entertainment. It just does not get better than that, kids.”
    Technically, it does get better — but not on broadcast tv. Now they just have to talk the women’s volleyball teams to baby oil wrestling, and I’ll go from watching to videotaping…

  14. Craig,
    I actually agree with you. I feel under Ebersol, NBC has not only delayed events it could and some would say should have shown live (hey, they’re buying the rights, they can do what they want) but it puts into question whether their announcers are actually announcing things as they happen or are calling events after the fact to seem prescient.
    PAD,
    No. It does not get better than that:)

  15. Oh, and as to the original topic of your thread PAD, many I talk to who follow the sport more than I do say that this race may have been Phelps’ toughest obstacle to breaking Spitz’s record. And to do it against an arrogant Frenchman? Sweeeeeeeeet!

  16. Yeah, but Bernard can turn around, knock-up some woman, raise a kid to beat Phelps’s kid, and France will pay for its healthcare. There’s no the Cost-of-Healthcare Olympics because the US wouldn’t dare show its face there.

  17. A Paris Hilton video clip one week, Women’s Beach Volleyball the next…
    The long slide into dissolution and debauchery continues 🙂
    Cheers.

  18. but it puts into question whether their announcers are actually announcing things as they happen or are calling events after the fact to seem prescient.
    I’ve never thought about that; I’m not sure NBC would have the gall to do that, but you never know.
    I think the problem now is that NBC really has no excuse to fall back on regarding blackouts and delays save the one they’ve given: business reasons. And they’ve paid almost a billion dollars AND convinced the IOC to move around event times (specifically swimming because of Phelps) so they would show events live, only to still delay them for the West Coast.
    With the proliferation of high speed internet, you just can’t do that and expect people to let it slide. People will go online to find the live video if they can’t see it on their own TVs.
    Take tomorrow, for example. The US men’s soccer team plays at 5am Eastern. It might be on TV live somewhere. NBC has a soccer-dedicated channel on Dish Network. But they just throw up a 6 hour block, and it tells you which games it will replay, but not with specific times. So I have to guess. And only after the game replays on that channel may it finally be available online.
    So I will turn elsewhere for a replay of the game after I get up in the morning. In the meantime, I’ll probably accidentally stumble over the result of the match since news sites will possibly list it on their front page. 🙂
    NBC may have more live hours of programming than all other Olympics combined, but they’re making it dámņëd hard to still find the stuff you really want to watch.

  19. Oh, and I should add: If you want to watch stuff online, and you have high speed, the quality of the video really is great.

  20. Incredibly toned, barely clad MEN… YESSSSSS, you guys are right!
    A lady friend of mine was telling me that Men’s Beach Volleyball was a total disappointment. You see, the men wear shirts and full shorts instead of the speedoes that would be the equivalent to what the women are wearing. She said that women viewers were getting gypped. I told her that not all the women viewers were getting gypped. Statistically speaking, some of them had to be lesbians…

  21. CBC
    Although this year I haven’t watched a second of the Olympics, I do remember that CBC in Canada always used to be the place to watch events live, or as close to live as they could when different sports overlapped. Better hockey coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, too. In past years, I used to tape both the US coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals and the Canadian coverage.
    Phelps is impressive. University of Michigan Wolverine, if I remember correctly.

  23. I wonder if “Lin Miaoke” is the Chinese equivalent name of “Ashlee Simpson”?

  26. And now Michael Phelps has gone 5 for 5, winning one race with his eyes full of water in the last 75 m.
    Day-um.
    TWL

  27. My favorite response for that was one commentator who said something along the lines of “If you’ve ever wondered if he can do this with his eyes closed, the answer is yes he can.”

  28. Some waggish news site did a Michael Phelps vs. Aquaman comparison.
    I’d have to say that Michael Phelps may just about win every comparison….

  29. Yeah, well if you’re stranded and floating in the ocean and there’s a shark coming toward you, and you have a choice of either Michael Phelps or Aquaman to save you, I’ll take Aquaman any day.
    PAD

  30. I’m not so sure about that. At this point, I could see Phelps carrying you and still outdistancing that sucker.
    TWL

  31. Know that here a spaniard is rooting for Phelps. Because thats a sportsman for the ages… and because he stays in the Olimpic complex residences, living the experience, not like other prima donna’s who prefer luxury hotels and have zero contact with the rest of athletes.
    (…also, spanish swimmers finish fourth at their best)

  33. What galls me slightly, as it has others, is calling Phelps “The Greatest Olympian”. Yes, he’s the greatest ever Olympic Swimmer, but the greatest ever Olympian?
    Anyway, we in the UK got two golds by oen female swimmer. Otherwise, who cares about the indoor swimming when we have the rowing, cycling and yachting sewn up…
    Oh, and NBC? Because their money talked loudest, the entire swimming program had to be turned on its head, with heats in the evening and finals in the morning. Fine for the West Coast USA, lousy for us Brits.

  34. PAD said —
    And hey–tonight…
    Well, of course, the three best words in the English language are “I love you.” But a close second?
    Womens. Beach. Volleyball.
    Yes, incredibly toned, barely clad women throwing themselves on sand for our entertainment. It just does not get better than that, kids.

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