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preciousinformer

Listed below are comments made by preciousinformer between Friday, 15th August 2008 and Wednesday, 27th August 2008.

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World view of Beijing 10:43pm on 27 Aug 2008 Ken Egan may have been a more experienced fighter but unfortunately he lost that fight. Deal with it.

He looked fairly sluggish compared to the Chinese maybe due to fatigue, and that was enough to give the Chinese boxer the confidence to attack early which was an excellent tactic because all he had to do was to hold on till the end. Ken definitely looked like the more experienced boxer but that was not his fight unfortunately.

Now South Korea was a different story, the refereeing then was the most shameful I have ever seen. Read more on the Roy Jones fight.

Chronise, thanks for the clarification, BTW, chi bao le ma? :-P
Is Phelps really the greatest? 11:51am on 27 Aug 2008 I'll have to go with 1welshbloke as his arguments so far has been sound in this discussion.

I also agree that it is far harder to succeed in athletics than swimming mainly because of the applications used in athletics creating muscle bounded athletes.

Take a look at swimmers these days, they usually carry a slender but long body frames with big hands or feet. These guys would flop if they tried to run but with the HELP of water they rely less on muscle power and mostly on endurance, good techniques and freakish limbs to paddle faster.

Athletes on the other hand are all about muscles and stamina. Ask anyone in the gym on how hard it is to build the right physiques and maintain it over 2 or 3 Olympic games. Track events require explosiveness and incredible strength and endurance over the covered distance. Athletes often succumb to injuries because of the huge amount of stress running, jumping (impact sports) has on the body.

Speaking of injuries, have you ever seen a swimmer pull out in the middle of a race because he/she ruptured a thigh or sprained an ankle? I have not. Swimming looks so leisurely compared to running.

How about world records set in either pool or track? Putting drugs aside, I think I've seen more records broken in the pool than on the track thanks to improving technology. Swimsuits now make a big difference in the pool and they cost $$$$ to buy. If you don't have one then you are at a disadvantage, simple as that.

What Phelps did was amazing, but I have to agree it is easier to win more medals in the pool. For the record, Phelps never swam in the 50m and never will, nor will he swim the 1500m. If he does and wins both then he is simply the greatest.

Michael Johnson did the 200 and 400 in world record times, who else can do that? They are very different races as one is all about burst speed and the other is endurance. Johnson probably could have done the 100 but given the injuries that he has had over the years I'm surprised he could even excel in 2 events.

That's like asking Phelps to set world records in the 100m and 400m free, which he can't and never will.
Swimming success story 01:12am on 23 Aug 2008 I was not impressed with Davies' behaviour, but funny how things get worded here :

"Davies doused a belligerent Chinese official with a bottle of water as he spoke to the media prior to the medal ceremony."

That "belligerent" official was a mere woman who was trying to get him to make his way to the medal podium. I have been watching the Olympics from day 1 and the Chinese have done a masterful job of getting things done properly, orderly and fairly.

But we get this as a response :

"Just another example of British thuggery on the international scene" - Youtube

"David Davis, you won the silver, but lost more..... "

"This David Davies guy has become extremely famous in Chinese Forums. People are all talking about how much of a typical English gentleman he was for not following the schedules and splashing water in a woman's face . I'd say he'd probably consider himself president of the earth if he ever won gold.." - a sarcastic forumer

No wonder people hate us.
Tweddle's Olympic dream ended by 0.025 6:40pm on 19 Aug 2008 Weren't Daley and Comaneci 14?

Anyway, Asian people have always looked young for their age (some of them look old too).
Britain's cycling success - is it cricket? 6:29pm on 19 Aug 2008 jojo_35,

We're world class as critics where everything comes into play, race, age, ugliness..the lot.
Britain's cycling success - is it cricket? 6:27pm on 19 Aug 2008 I'm sorry but aren't you getting a little too ahead of yourself?

GB barely made any impact in the 2000 Olympics (maybe 3 medals total for cycling?) when the Australians were actually competitive.

Athens though was a bit better and Beijing was definitely an improvement mainly because neither Australia or America (a noticeable omission) were in full force. Wait till these guys come back and we shall see whether the British cycling team is truly great. We're not talking about the kind of dominance we see from the Chinese in table tennis, badminton and gymnastics, or the Jamaicans in track and field. I mean, these are the kind of life long dominance that we've feared for years.

Winning is winning however, and for some of these guys who competed in 2000 and 2004, they deserved it.

Lets hope that they can carry that winning spirit in the tour de france and London 2012.
Why China needs more Dog & Ducks 12:55pm on 16 Aug 2008 Matt, thanks for the reply.

As many have said, you can't simply turn a country's fortune in a new sport in just a few years (unless the coach is Hiddink), but you are right - it all depends on how they manage football in China. Right now it isn't world class.

Having lived in China and seeing the state of education in that country, it is highly competitive, but can be corrupt as well when a politician or former politician steps in with a "my second brother's nephew has a good making of an international football player".
The kid automatically gets a career even if he doesn't end up as a world class player.

Like I said, social economics. They just don't have the proper program to recruit young talents who don't have that kind of connection. This happens everywhere in fact but the diversity between rich and poor in China is fairly substantial. If you're in a better position financially and socially then you're always going to get somewhere.

Richer countries like Australia have been participating in world cups for over 30 years and not producing any results until the last one where they reached the semi-finals, all thanks to Hiddink and his management team. Now you might think that football isn't an expensive sport (what hobby is?), but you can't boil down a team's success to just an individual, it takes an employed management to lead a team and an incredible coach.

Quality management cost money because they have to cover a wide range of expertises to train and manage the team. Look at the NBA, they have no less than 3 or 4 coaching staffs to coach every game for offensive and defensive plays. Basketball in America is big business.

In countries where basketball or football is less developed, where are they going to get that kind of backing? especially if the management aren't as experienced as the players themselves, what faith do the players have in their managers if this was the case?

Football in China is for entertainment just like the Premier League, and there is nothing wrong with that. On an international scale however it is of course a different story for both (to China's credit they do well in the Asian/Oceanic league).

Given the communist background of the Chinese and just plainly "doing it for the motherland", I think the Chinese are just happy to be good at some sports. Eventually they may catch up or fall down due to overwhelming expectations (everybody does without exceptions). If you look at another country like India, they have just one silver from Athens and one gold in Beijing, and they too have a population of over a billion.

As for Britain, we won 9 gold (30 medals) in 2004 and currently on 6 in Beijing (13 medals) as of writing.

We were on equal standing with South Korea in 2004, but they are currently ahead of us in 2008. They have a lesser population but a "healthy" sporting program.

2004 :

1. US
2. China
3. Russia
4. Australia
5. Japan
6. Germany
7. France
8. Italy
9. South Korea
10. Great Britain

Aldington's win in her 2 races was a surprising bonus to GB and compares favorably to our last effort of 2 bronze for swimming events in Athens. According to Athens, GB's strength seem to lie in the use of equipments and animals like a bike, horse or boat. These are certainly elite sports and not something that Nigeria or Ethiopia can afford to invest in anytime soon. That puts us in an advantage somewhat.

And lastly, in Asia, it cost less than £0.50 to swim in a pool. The local swimming pool near my place cost £3.60. So much for swimming hopefuls. I bet it would be cheaper to swim in America and Australia as well.
Why China needs more Dog & Ducks 1:26pm on 15 Aug 2008 I also understand the frustration of Chinese soccer fans at their national team and local teams. Soccer is nothing more than just another money making venture where players can earn big money from playing a game, and owners earning even more money from people watching a bunch of people play a game.

But at least things are well regulated in China, had they not been then think of the social problems in UK but 100 times intensified.
Why China needs more Dog & Ducks 1:22pm on 15 Aug 2008 Its very simple,

Football (or soccer) rely on tactics, shrewdness and skills which the Chinese will have no problem with, but football is also a game with a lot of spite and unsportsmanlike plays. It is physical and unnecessarily negative.

Is football a well regulated sport? Didn't think so.

I think like most countries, the Chinese enjoy watching the good stuff, but when it comes to playing the game, they're not prepared for the worst that football brings.

Chinese people aren't confrontational (as with most Asians), that's why they prefer individual or well regulated events where they don't have to bother with too much outside influences.

But Asians are no pushovers either, remember the Japan/Korea world cup and how the Koreans beat even Italy? Even I couldn't believe the things they got away with but that's football and that's why I hate it. When its played beautifully its a great game but when ugliness starts to show its face then no one can enjoy it. In this case, at least the Koreans are prepared to fight back because they want it more.

The Chinese are happy specialising in their pet sports and are, unsurprisingly, good at them. Lets see, badminton, table tennis, diving, shooting, archery, gymnastics,
weightlifting, judo are just some of the sports they are good at right now.

The author compares China with England (in football), and wonders why with its 1+ billion population cannot produce a world class team?

Well again, its simple and its to do with social economics. Most youngsters in China do not have the available resources or training to help them realise their talent. More importantly, they don't have the money to prepare themselves for other things in life other than to earn a living.

And I always say this to people using China's population as an excuse, why doesn't the UK produce more champions despite the billions of pounds worth of resources and financial backings to support A SPORT? Or any sport for that matter?

America has been this for decades, Australia has done extremely well with this setup but the UK?

Now that is even more inexcusable if you ask me.

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