Just wondering who will be tuning in and which events you think your countries have a good chance in?

I will be watching Olympic table tennis which starts saturday. China dominated in 96 and 2000 but I believe Werner Schlager may have a chance at bringing gold to Europe. I definitly do not think there will be an all Asian final this year.

As for the North America's bid for a medal...

I love the summer Olypics. I am fascinated by people who can do those things to their bodies & still live!!! Hope the USA does OK in gymnastics. Basketball is not going good though :(...so many of the pro's turned down the offer to play due to the heightened fear of terrorism. I remember the Olympics of 1976 in Munich. Does anyone else? I was glued to the TV 24/7 & very frightened.

I was born in 76 so don't remember much from that year :-) I imagine it would have been similar to watching the events of 9/11 on TV though.

In a way it's good to hear there are not so many pros going though... after all, the olympics is in essence supposed to be for "amateurs". I enjoy the events that you don't get to see at other times, such as gymnastics and track and field. At one time I probably would have included swimming in that list but there seems to be alot of that on Australian TV nowadays and the commercial channels are always carrying on about Ian Thorpe et al. It's a bit oversaturated.

Excuse my historical ignorance, but I was born in 1984, and I dont recall ever learning about in school or discussing the events of the 1976 Olympic games. Mind explaining what happened (assuming there was some terrorist act during the games)? That would save me from going against my lazy nature and actually looking it up :)

Anthony, I made a typo..it was 1972. The Israeli wrestling team was taken hostage by, I believe Palenstinian terrorists. They were taken to a airport, atempts were made to free them & all were killed as were some police officers I think and one or two others. Jim McKay was the Olympic broadcaster then & TV stayed on for almost 3 days. The days of innocence ended for me then. :(

Sam, I agree that the pro's make it way too easy. The other teams have pro's though. I love basketball but will not watch Pro ball, only college. We have a college match-up here in the USA called "March Madness". One can overdose on college b-ball & it is awesome. WIll educate you later on this :!)

Wow, I didnt know about this atall, that must have had quite a dramatic impact on your world. As Sam said, similar to us watching the events of 9/11 unfold on television.

But one thing I can relate to is march madness hehe.

Go NC State!

No way NC......go Blue Devils!!!! he-he :~)

ack! blasphemy!

I love the sports that you don't get to see everyday. I can sit for hours and watch badmitton, synchronized swimming, diving, weightlifting, etc. I'll also watch every bit of track and boxing that I can.
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For noobguy and mimi: GO 'HEELS!
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there's synchronised diving this year as well - whats all that about?
good to see half the british team couldnt be bothered to turn up for the opening ceremony prefering a beach barbecue/beer party at their training camp in Cyprus. total commitment as always :-).

Ditto Robert...hubby gets ignored, TV gets my full attention at all times!!!!!!!!!

I always follow the swimming ( go thorpedo! ) and like the 100 & 400 running. We went to some of the Sydney olympics, and at that level everything on offer is fantastic!

Wasnt that the most incredible cerminony you've ever seen?? I almost fainted lol

Didn't see the ceremony but I did see the women's 4x100 swimming relay.....yahoo!

Coming from a small country as Sweden i have to put my hope on our new champion Carolina Cluft. Is it called Decathlon when they compete in different disciplines? She compete in 7 disciplines.
High Jump with Stefan Holm, and Christian Olsson in the long jump with 3 steps...lol
Jan -Ove Waldner in table tennis even if he might be a little old now, but u never know with him, he took silver last year and he was kind of "old" even then.

He is an amazing singles Table Tennis player. They are not showing the Table Tennis tournament here. Its kind of sad, they show every single game in the Poker tournaments on ESPN but they will not televise olympic table tennis, which is the second largest international sport to soccer. What to do with america *sigh*

Agree with Mum42.... THE GIRLS DID GOOD... WHOOHOO... and go Thorpey...and i agree with tommy i think that Jan-Ove Waldner could take out the gold this year in table tennis... AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE.. OIE.. OIE... OIE.... hehehehehehhe

Athens Greece.. 3000 years ago they had it there.. amazing!!

Yip !!!! Justine Henin won a gold medallion on women tennis - single game. Good for the Belgians.

Can't help smiling about our wins in the pool.....

Personally I love watching gymnastics. Makes me wish I could bend and flip like that lol
Did anyone else see Hamm's win??? That was so cool! And also, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq were participating this year! I was so happy to see that. The diversity is what draws me the most to the games.

commiserations to Paula Radcliffe who looked about as distraught as a human could possibly look after having to pull up just a few miles from the finish in the ladies Marathon. I have to say that looks about the hardest marathon course i've ever seen, 85% of the course on an uphill incline in 34°C heat. bitchin'

What about the cycling road race?!? My god, I couldn't even do that course once, let alone that many times!!

At my age I couldn't do any of the events without dying! :~)

The netherlands are going good with the olympics.

Not as good as the Australians! Am I correct in thinking that your countrymen have stolen a few medals from us Pim??

i think the brits should have taken more performance enhancing steroids it seams to have worked for everyone else :-)

The Australians have certainly done well so far, guess all those sports academies have paid off, so congrats to you.

(Miffed you beat us in the cycling team pursuits though!) ;)

Congrats to the Netherlands, a small country, but a lot of medals.

We were ROBBED in the womens triathlon!! And by one of our own former coutrymen... boohoo!!

Sam, do you mean Kate Allen, I am in Austria and they are happy with the result. I love Austria!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Johanna... did you see the race? She overtook Lorretta Harrop about 20 metres from the finish line. Also she is originally from Geelong but since she married an Austrain she now competes for them. So unfair!! ;-)

Yes I saw the race the last part of it ,a Belgian woman was fourth, l can understand you, but as in Belgium, we are 1/3th.of the state of Texas , tens of athletes are naturalized because of marriage or money profit, look in the Soccer , we have a small team in first class , with 11 players who are from the Ivory Coast, that how the world is now. Be international.In atletism we have a lot of Marrocans, Asians all with belgian nationality.In the Oil states there are all of Kenians or Africans runners all for the money, all with their new nationality. Sport became big money.

It's OK, we have enough medals anyway! ;-)

i love watching the syncronised swimming and gymnastics, makes me want to do those things instead of dance.... ALMOST lol id never give up dance for nething... also like watching track and field go USA!

Almost finished!

I cant believe its almost over! I mean, today is the LAST DAY??? Dang... lol

Did everyone watch the men's marathon? Don't want to ruin it for you if you havent but WOW... lol

YEah i saw that guy get pushed off, that was ashame. But at least he got 3rd

yeah

Hard to believe they are already over! Definitely the best summer Olympics I have been to!

Even with NBC's rapid-fire, highlight-reel coverage here in the US, it was great to see the spirit and nationalism displayed by each country. It must have been absolutely amazing in person.

I am already suffering from withdrawal...

I am also seriously thinking about the possibility of being there for the next one. It's going to be some spectactle that's for sure.

I wish that I had either the time and money (but mostly the money) to make it to some of the Salt Lake City games. Winter's more my season anyway. Maybe Torino...
I will definitely miss watching Beach Volleyball, though. :( I would love to meet Kerri Walsh. :-p

It was amazing in person, but after 16 days of 15+ hour shooting days, I am glad to be back. Now comes the task of sorting through 3500+ images! As tbhockey put it best, the opening ceremony was amazing, especially live and in person. The whole feeling one gets from attending the Olympics is fantastic. With that said, I still enjoyed the 1988 winter Olympics the best, it’s more fun when your home city hosts the games.

xentrik, a good way to see the 2006 winter games is to apply to volunteer, I volunteered here in Calgary and it's much more exciting than just watching as a spectator. Plus, all of the events are free!