Yeah make it a straight U23 competition. Having overage players is silly imo. They were supposedly removing this rule I have no idea why they ended up not removing it.

Didn't expect Germany to get blown the **** out

Likely because the presence of players like Messi and Ronaldinho draws more attention to the olympics?

in on this late but everyone needs to check out this routine, two different angles and commentary.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOOmFgBAdIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRVZViKTZkg




Also LOL at people complaining about baseball and softball being removed... baseball is basically non-existant everywhere but japan and USA, really fair.... at least handball has a lot of good countries.

well you can certainly argue baseball isn't popular in Europe or Africa- but other parts of Asia, South America and the Caribbean it definitely is.

It's getting cut for one Olympics before coming to a revote at least partly because it was lots of European votes- and it was reportedly close.

If MLB had been able to guarantee more stars there's probably no way it would get cut.

tbh- if the rest of the world doesn't miss it and MLB doesn't care- it probably doesn't belong in the games.

that got silver?

no idea I think they were referring to before this event and seeds in her team...


also this classic is ***** insane on many levels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5gR0g8lHIs


4 years later though

Rudy Fernandez looks awesome

Watching this game so I can check out Marc Gasol.

Saw him in high school in USA and he SUCKED.

Now, as a Grizzlies fan, I'm hearing rumors he will be 3rd-4th best rookie in the league this year.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Also, why the **** couldn't the Grizz bring back JC Navarro.

He almost set a rookie record for 3-pointers IIRC.

I feel like rooting for China, upset ftw gogo.

Enjoyed watching Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon win gold for Thailand.

Yikes, how the **** do you pronounce that monster?

How it looks.

enjoying the kayak/Canoeing whitewater thingy

I'm going to call him Prapa for short.

Cool I didn't notice this been watching online for last 10 mins I hope they have this in HD with commentary at some point, def fun to watch.

btw China looking vv good against Spain the 2nd half should be interesting

EPIC 15 pt lead

Also does anyone else miss Craig Sager's pimp suits?

lol @ ref giving bunch of "T" signals and not calling a tech

WTF? Do you have any idea what you're talking about?

USA
Canada
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Cuba
Venezuela
Nicaragua
Panama
various other Latin American countries
Japan
Korea
Taiwan
Australia

Those are the countries where it's most popular.
It's growing in Europe particularly in Netherlands, Sweden (I think), Italy.
Also in South Africa somewhat.

So it's hardly like it's so non-existent outside the U.S. and Japan.
The Caribbean winter leagues and the Caribbean World Series get some really big freaking crowds in Venezuela and Mexico, etc. Like 40k+.
Somehow I doubt they're getting 40k for handball pretty much anywhere.

Much of Latin America has some seriously rich baseball history.
I would be surprised if there was a single major league team that didn't have at least one Dominican on their roster.

And Japan is definitely not the only asian country playing baseball.
Taiwan won the Little League World Series for about a zillion years in a row. And they are now placing players in the MLB.
The Korean League is of pretty reasonable quality too I've been told.

well im glad its gone!

China on full meltdown mode

I don't know why anyone would be glad a sport is gone.
I would be happy for them to keep handball and keep baseball and add cricket, rugby, hurling, aussie rules football, golf, indoor-soccer or beach-soccer, and ultimate frisbee.

The more, the better.

I think synchronized swimming and trampoline are pretty silly and I have zero interest in them. But that doesn't mean they have to go or anything like that.
If they are taking the place of something else then I would definitely prefer something else. But I can't see why you can't just add more sports and make the whole thing even awesomer.

In individual sports they could add a backwards-running event, cannonball-diving event (biggest splash wins!!), a dancing-like-the-stars competition, hot dog eating contest, push-ups, tiddly-winks, scrabble, staring contest, ro-sham-bo, synchronized jumping-jacks, and who can hold their breath the longest and I would be fine with any of that.

I have zero interest in getting rid of even the sports that aren't my favorites because I think that having so many sports makes it far more interesting.

For the casual watcher, I think handball is a much better sport for TV than baseball or softball ever was.

This China/Spain game is epiccccc.

lol flopament

Rubio sick defense

Great finish in the Spain China game.

Could go OT.

It's supernice to see it live, on the television it looks a lot slower. I suggest you watch some of the men's doubles games, those are so fast-paced, can be really spectacular. There's also a very good atmosphere when the Chinese are playing.