I'll fully admit that I am an all-out Olympic Addict - or at least have been. Main reason, all the sports that are of real interest to me, take center-stage for 2 1/2 weeks ( and many other sports that I never get to watch but like to when on TV), get great coverage and often in prime-time. Of course I have been lucky to live in Canada, and the CBC, up until this Olympic Games, would have wall-to-wall, virtually all-day coverage of Olympic Games, covering as many sports as they humanly could live and in real time.

This Summer Games from Rio, may see a change for me:

1) Despite my sunny optimism, the non-stop drug stories, are starting to, finally make me a cynic. How can you not be when you have friends and people you know personally, cheated out of places in finals and even medals!

2) My contacts at the CBC tell me that, with HUGE budget cut-backs, there will be dramatic changes in what get's covered live and what does not. Most sports, from most venues will have an online live stream option, but what is shown on the network, will be greatly reduced. At this writing, they are not sure if the triathlons will get a network-time-slot. Live-stream for sure, but it just so happens, that this time around the triathlons will be competing with some other high profile competitions. That will be a big change from 2008 - when on the main CBC Network, the men's triathlon race had the highest viewer numbers on the CBC for any race/event during the Beijing games!!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I keep hearing about how the open water swimmers will be in the pollution-filled lagoon, but according to this:

https://smsprio2016-a.akamaihd.net/...thon_swimming_en.pdf

...the 10km swim events are in the sea off Copacabana Beach.

Was the venue moved? Am I missing something? Are the sailing events still in Poop Lagoon?

ETA: Upon further research, it seems the sailing events are still being held in Guanabara Bay (should be re-named Guano-bara Bay?), but I am not sure the open water swimming events have ever been scheduled to be there. I thought I had heard that the triathlon swim would be off Copacbana beach and that the open water swimming would be somewhere else (more polluted), but that doesn't seem to be the case, at least not now.

I am not sure if the marathon swim location has been moved. However both the Triathlon swim and the marathon swim are being held at Fort Copacabana, which is also the start point for the cycle road racing.

Two years ago I spent a week in Rio and swam every day at Copacabana beach and did not get sick. Most days the swell / waves were quite large and this could have an impact on the swimmers. It is a beautiful location.

The Russians are still catching heat for the Olympics. http://www.thedailybeast.com/...e&source=copyurl

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DISH is how we do it.

Steve, I am the same Olympic fan and spent a lot of time in front of the t.v watching CBC coverage. I always loved the track and field coverage, which I though was first rate. They spent a lot of time covering Canadian athletes of course but I thought the focus was always on covering the best, even if a Canadian wasn't in the field.

I've been looking forward to the games again but you are right, it's not the same. I am tired of always hearing about the corruption within the IOC and a lot of that can be solved if they just kept the Olympics in Greece. No more bidding, wining and dining with delegates making millions.


For me, the Russian scandal is really upsetting because I know it isn't the only country engaging in State sponsored drug abuse. I have no proof but China comes to mind as another country (remember the Chinese women from a few Olympics past). They want to win the medal count and I know enough about how they work to be extremely suspicious. If countries like that can cheat with tacit government approval, what about all the smaller countries that want one of their athletes to win on the world stage and that says nothing about the athletes themselves, who can cheat on their own.


I'm also disappointed with the budget cuts at the CBC and suspect that the Olympics will go the way of boxing, where you have pay per view. The IOC delegates want more money and if Rio turns out to be less than a spectacular success, corporations may start re-thinking their massive contributions. They will look for more money and getting viewers to pay seems to be the next step.

Australia is off to a rough start in Rio.
TV woman reporter (near) robbed by transvestites in Copacaban beach.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/...ahern-mugged-in-rio/

in Australian TV they make fun of it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...ite-Rio-Janeiro.html

Australian athletes in the village have some drama (fire drills).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...mes-village-Rio.html

Not really a fire drill. An actual fire, but the smoke detectors seem to have been disabled.

I predict that we will discover the Russians are behind the poor facilities for the Australians in an attempt to gain competitive advantage.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Meanwhile France has a an advise to visitors at Rio - Surrender (actually not a bad advise)
http://www.reuters.com/...-crime-idUSKCN1072MQ

And in open water swimming - keep your mouth closed
http://kdvr.com/...-keep-mouths-closed/

According to the NYT article the marathon swimming is in Guanabara Bay. Yet the official Rio Olympics web site says that the marathon swimming is being held at the Fort Copacabana beach where the Triathlon swim is being held. According to the article the water is safe at Copacabana and meets WHO standards.

https://www.rio2016.com/en/marathon-swimming

Serious question, how much did they pay the health official to say that?

In the case of Russia and China the reasons can run deeper. If u look at Chinese soccer league for example,, they are growing in leaps and bounds by spending huge amounts of money and signing foreign players (not the top ones buy still) and have huge media coverage. Reason is that the Chinese gov't recognized "sport and entertainment" as part of it's national policy. Once you label it as such then it can open doors to wrong doing. This is just an example. No question that Russia in a similar manner looking for more success and influence thru it's sport programs. When the governments of emerging countries (?) (politics) gets involved in sport it can lead to things like that. And it's particularly true in the case of eastern European countries (East Germany). Some things don't really change much.

Funny how the devious Rooskies were all doped up, doping gives a large advantage, and the difference between elite athletes is small, yet a piss-ant country like Great Britain beat them in the medal count at the 2012 Olympics. Very curious. Travelling with your own pillow and putting pineapple juice in your water must work wonders.

Security firm fired
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/...-over-221722153.html

The blame game has already begun
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...lems-foreigners.html

The Russian doping lab in pictures-http://www.nytimes.com/...i-olympics-2014.html

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DISH is how we do it.

Wow.

The amount of resources devoted solely to keeping athletes from cheating at a game is crazy. As is the amount of effort spent by cheaters trying to evade detection.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

A few takes from the article.

1) I wonder how long it will take before we read that Grigory Rodchenkov does of poisoning or meets some form of "accident?"


2) I always wondered about the complicity of the athletes themselves. The article states that the athletes sent photos of their doping control forms to the lab, is that a normal procedure?


3) The IOC is a disgrace for not banning the entire team.

So far the real celebrities are from Australia. Seems like everyday they are making the news. https://www.thestar.com/...thletes-village.html

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DISH is how we do it.

Take away a county's guns and look what the men turn into: From Crocodile Dundee to a bunch of pantywaists whinging about mosquitoes and missing t-shirts. Next they will be making press releases about the frappuccinos in Olympic village being too warm.

Elite athletes and gov't entities with special interest in them will always be ahead of the curve. Maybe I'm cynical. But years in the iron sport (the real one) taught me drugs are easily available and hard to detect if used properly. Endurance peds are a little different in that the edge endurance peds give you isn't long lasting or as easy to maintain off it.

Anabolic benefits have always been easily maintained a month. I've heard some athletes are going 2-3 months off cycle with minimal lost power.

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"In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway." T Durden

We will still beat you in the pool and the marathon swim. Having to swim faster than the sharks in Oz is a great motivator. :)

According to the NYT article the marathon swimming is in Guanabara Bay. Yet the official Rio Olympics web site says that the marathon swimming is being held at the Fort Copacabana beach where the Triathlon swim is being held. According to the article the water is safe at Copacabana and meets WHO standards.
http://www.independent.co.uk/...almost-a7165866.html

Russia may not have a Paralymic team at the games. https://www.rt.com/...ic-athletes-ban-rio/

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DISH is how we do it.

Womens soccer has begun with preliminary games.
Sweden 1- South Africa 0
Brazil 3- China 0
Canada 2- Australia 0
Germany 2- Zimbabwe 0 at half time
USA plays New Zeland in a few minutes time. Unfortunately Spectrum internet provider does not offer game coverage unless on subscribes to a bundle with television, which I do not have. Flippin' NBC!

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DISH is how we do it.

Looks like the women will move on fairly easily. Interesting to hear the Brazilian crowd chanting Zika every time Solo touches the ball.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Ah, never mind from the other thread. I guess she said/posted some stuff that made her look paranoid. Kind of a stupid thing to chant IMO.