Difference between revisions of "2012 Summer Olympics"

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Revision as of 13:14, June 19, 2013

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXX Olympiad and informally as London 2012, took place in London from July 27 through August 12.[1] During the Modern Olympic Games, the pagan origins of the Olympics have been replaced by faith-based achievement by the participating athletes.

Political Questions Resolved by the Games

Athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees participated.[2] Sports contests having the greatest political interest are (note especially the growing list of lack of public schools for the gold medalists below):

Sport Political issue Answer
Multiple How many athletes will do the equivalent of Tebowing after a victory? American Meb Keflezighi, who won the silver medal in the marathon in 2004, typically gives glory to God with the sign of the Cross after finishing a race.[3] Missy Franklin, who won three gold medals at the 2012 games, thanked God as one of her first comments after winning.

Lauren Cheney and at least four other members of the women's soccer team are devout Christians who participate in Bible studies and worshiped together in church services.[4]

American Allyson Felix, whose three gold medals (200m, 4x100m and 4x400m relay) were the most by a female track star in nearly 25 years, has said "I feel so blessed that God has given me the talent of running. My running is an amazing gift from God, and I want to use it to the best of my ability to glorify Him. For me, my faith is the reason I run. ... My goal is to be more Christ-like every single day, and that is not an easy task."[5]

The first American medalist (silver) in the 10k since 1964, Galen Rupp, reportedly has a strong Catholic faith and attended Catholic high school.Dawn Harper, gold medalist in 2008 and silver medalist in 2012 in the 100m hurdles, said "My faith was definitely a part of me growing up. ... I knew that God was real in my life."[4]

The first gold medalist for Ireland since 1996, boxer Katie Taylor said after winning: "I serve an amazing God and without Him I wouldn't be here without this gold medal around my neck." Her boxing robe contained the verse, "The Lord is my shepherd and my shield."[6]

After winning the all-around women's gymnastic title, Gabby Douglas tweeted, "Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me."

Bernard Lagat, a medalist at prior Olympics, did the Sign of the Cross just before he was introduced to the crowd for the 5k race. He then "finished fourth after being clipped from behind in the final 200 meters," but showed tremendous sportsmanship, praised the winner, and gave thanks afterward as "the most blessed person during my career."[7] Indeed, at least three out of the eight athletes running in the 5k finals did the Sign of the Cross shortly before being introduced for the race, and a fourth runner is known to be a devout Catholic.

Ethiopian Tiki Gelana remarkably overcame a mid-race fall to win the women's marathon, after thinking "thank God" at the beginning of the race for the rain because she grew up running in rainy weather - but the lamestream media reported her quote with a small "g" for "God".[8]

Double-amputee runner Oscar Pistorius noted that he thanks God "Because He is the reason for my success and the one that takes me from strength to strength."[7]

The winner of both the 10,000 and 5,000 metres races, Mohamed Farah, bowed towards Mecca to give thanks to Allah after both his victories.

Multiple Will almost no athletes from public school sports programs win any gold medals, despite how public schools spend more than $500 billion annually to teach and train Americans? The lamestream media state that Missy Franklin, the star swimmer, is a high school student, but fail to mention that she attends Catholic school rather than public school.

American 2012 Olympic gold medal winners (incomplete)

  • Private: Missy Franklin (Catholic high school)[9], Katie Ledecky (Catholic high school); triple-gold medalist Allyson Felix was a graduate of Los Angeles Baptist High School
  • Homeschooled: Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney
  • College or adult: Michael Phelps,[10] Dana Vollmer, Vincent Hancock, Conor Dwyer, Kristin Armstrong, Nathan Adrian, Allison Schmitt, Shannon Vreeland, Kim Rhode, Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers, Aly Raisman, Ricky Berens, Jamie Lynn Gray, Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Serena Williams, all members of the women's soccer, women's water polo, women's basketball, and men's basketball teams
  • Public school: Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber won a group gold medal as part of the team led by homeschooled Gabby Douglas
Multiple How many athletes will be unfairly expelled based on liberal censorship of their free speech? One athlete -- Greek triple-jumper Voula Papachristou -- was expelled from the Greek National team by her own country's Olympic committee before it officially opened based on a one-sentence joke about immigration, even though she apologized. The joke in question was this from her Twitter: "With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!" It should be noted that Papachristou apologized for the tweet.

In addition to the Greek Olympic Committee's decision on Papachristou, the IOC's own twitter-use policy has been criticized for hindering free speech. The policy, which is claimed to protect the IOC's commercial rights, goes as far as to prevent athletes from "reporting on events". According to The Globe and Mail, even a tweet such as "Won our games against China, USA. Next up, the Brazilians," could get an athlete expelled from the Games without notice. As of yet, no athletes have been expelled by the IOC for this social media censorship policy.

Lolo Jones, a pro-abstinence American hurdler, is being criticized by the lamestream media for sending out a pro-Second Amendment tweet.

The liberal thought police expelled a Swiss soccer player for tweeting that South Koreans are "retards."[11]

Opening Ceremonies Will Overrated Sports Star David Beckham be selected to light the Olympic cauldron? Beckham was not selected as the final torchbearer. He was, however, a passenger on the speedboat that carried the torch up the River Thames. He assisted in the hand-off of the torch to Sir Steve Redgrave, one of Britain's greatest Olympians. Sebastian Coe, chairman of London 2012, stated, "He [Beckham] will be more than an ambassador given what he has done, the commitment he has given and the amount of time he has spent with us in London on this project. He was not only alongside us when we won [the right to host the Olympics], he was alongside us when we threw our hats in the ring."[12]
Multiple will atheist nations underachieve in team sports? Yes. The performance by Great Britain's teams was abysmal. They were eliminated in the quarterfinals in soccer, the national sport. They did not even make the tournament round in men's basketball, after going 1-5 in the qualifying matches. In men's volleyball, Great Britain's team lost every single match and was eliminated.

Increasingly atheistic Australia underachieved in team sports also. It failed to qualify for men's or women's soccer. In men's soccer, they finished last in their four-team qualifying group, competing against three mediocre teams: United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Iraq (Australia competes in soccer competitions against Asian teams, not Oceanic teams, unlike in most other team sports). The women did slightly better in qualifying, finishing third behind Japan and North Korea, but also failed to qualify. This is the first Olympics since 1976 where the Australian men did not compete - however the competition, while still weak, is much tougher than the competition in the Oceanic Zone they faced until 2004. Still, Australia was the best team in their men's qualifying group and should not have finished last.

In women's basketball, France won Group B with a 5-0 record, while Australia finished 4-1 in the same group. Great Britain is 0-5. France and Australia won their quarterfinals. France will face Russia in the semifinals while Australia will face the United States.

In women's handball, Great Britain finished 0-5-0 and France is 4-0-1 (W-L-D). France lost to Montenegro the quarterfinals. Handball is almost unknown in GB, with only a dozen or so clubs, in stark contrast to most other countries in Western Europe.

In basketball, Australia finished 3-2, fourth in their group, and lost to the USA in the quarterfinals. France finished 4-1 and will face Spain in the quarterfinals. Basketball is a minor sport in GB, much less played than in continental Europe, and GB would have considered themselves lucky if they had won a match.

In men's volleyball, Australia finished 2-3 and was eliminated in the group stage.

Multiple Similarly, will atheist nations underachieve in general? China, an officially atheist and communist country, led in gold medals in the first week but then dropped badly to a distant second place behind the United States, despite China having more than three times the population of the United States and despite having a national program designed to produce champion athletes. Increasingly atheistic Australia performed much worse than expectations. Australia won 35 medals, but only 7 gold medals. France has 34 medals, of which 11 are gold. In 2008, Australia won 46 medals and France won 41. Australia won 14 golds that year, a total that they failed to surpass. "Atheistic" Great Britain, on the other hand, had its best Olympic showing since the 1908 Olympic Games (where Team GB had over half of the athletes in competition), although this is possibly because they were the hosts (as they were in 1908 and 1948). Even excluding Britain (which may or may not be accurate), the data is inconclusive as there is a 1/4 chance (25%) that two randomly selected countries would underperform by pure chance. 2016 will provide additional data to analyze, and it may be possible to reach a conclusion. Furthermore, any analysis including Great Britain in these Games is problematic, because hosts typically experience about a 30% medal boost.
wrestling have feminist Title IX quotas destroyed the U.S. team? The U.S. men's wrestling team won only three medals - less than half that won by much-smaller and less prosperous Iran, and only a fraction of the medals won by Russian, despite the U.S. winning far more medals overall than both nations.

Men's track has also been ravaged by feminist Title IX quotas, and Team USA won only one bronze medal out of 12 medals in the marquee events of the men's 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m events -- which the U.S. previously dominated.

A majority of medals won by Team USA were won by women, but many of those were in sports unhelped by Title IX, such as women's gymnastics, swimming, tennis, and beach volleyball.

men's basketball will selfless play by outspoken Christian Kevin Durant overcome ball-hogging by Overrated Sports Stars Kobe Bryant and LeBron James on USA Basketball? Outspoken Christian Kevin Durant set an all-time Olympic record of 147 points, including a game-high of 30 points in the tight final game, while the media-promoted players did not do as well.
women's soccer ranked #1 and won the gold in the last two Olympics, most recently with a foreign coach. Now that this U.S. team is politically correct, will it underachieve?[13] Major rivals will be Japan, Brazil and France. The U.S. women's team advanced to the finals only because of a foul that is almost never called in a big game: holding the ball too long by the Canadian goalie.[14] In the finals the women's team then won the gold by a margin of only one goal against an underfunded team from Japan that had to fly to the Olympics in economy class.
Joke sports Will underperforming countries pad their medal totals by excelling in many varieties of swimming and in non-serious sports like badminton and dressage? Several nations were able to obscure their underachievement in real sports and pad their medal totals by winning joke sport events of dubious value, such as table tennis (atheistic China won all 4 gold medals),[15] swimming relays (there is no baton passed in a swimming relay), equestrian (Great Britain racked up five medals in this), [add more], synchronized swimming (China won two of the six medals awarded), and synchronized diving (where China won all four gold medals).
men's tennis will one of the Greatest Conservative Sports Stars -- such as Novak Djokovic -- win the gold medal? Will Andy Murray of atheistic Britain underperform? Both players advanced to the semifinals, where Murray defeated Djokovic in straight sets. Murray defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland for the gold in straight sets, while Djokovic underperformed and lost to Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in the bronze medal match. Murray then went on to play in mixed doubles match that same day and medalled silver with Laura Robson, losing to the heavily favoured Mirnyi and Azarenka.
8-month pregnant athlete Will the lamestream media report on Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi of Malaysia, who is competing while being 8 months pregnant, or does that send too pro-life of a message? Taibi was eliminated from the Olympics on the first day of official competition after finishing in 34th place. Few articles mentioned her prior to her elimination; there was more publicity about her after her defeat.[16][17][18][19] The New York Times ran an article on the athlete on 16 July 2012,[20] The Guardian [21] and ESPN [22] both reported on her results in the competition.
Gun events Will the lamestream media downplay the gun events because they want to continue to push gun control? Great Britain shooter Peter Wilson's gold medal success in the double-trap clay pigeon event was widely reported and celebrated in the British media, despite Britain being strong in favor of gun control. The victory of Chinese air rifle shooter Yi Siling in winning the first gold medal of the games was reported in most GB media.[23] Coverage is similar to other sports with modest national following. See the entry above on the Malaysian shooter for an exception to this lack of coverage.
Openly homosexual athletes Will the liberal media overpromote homosexual athletes, far beyond their achievements? Several months before the games, Sports Illustrated ran a feature article entitled "The Transgender Athlete", which included significant overage of a transgender female-to-male shotputter attempting to qualify for the United States women's Olympic team. However, she failed to qualify at the US Olympic Trials, and as such did not receive any coverage during the actual Olympics.
Multiple Will countries that have implemented same-sex marriage underperform? (See below for a more lengthy explanation) The total number of medals decreased:[24]
Belgium - 5 in 2000, 3 in 2012
Canada - 14 in 2004/2008,[25] 18 in 2012
Netherlands - 25 in 2000, 20 in 2012
Norway - 6 in 2004, 4 in 2012
Spain - 19 in 2004, 17 in 2012
Total - 69 expected, 62 actual - decline by more than 10%[26]
Men's Handball Will heavy underdogs Tunisia overperform in Group A? Group A should perhaps be dubbed the "Group of Left", since the other five teams are Sweden, Iceland, and Argentina, where same-sex marriage is legal, and increasingly atheistic Great Britain and France. Tunisia went 2-3 in the group stage, becoming just the second African team ever to advance to the quarterfinals. They then lost to Croatia, the winner of Group B.

2012 Olympics - Sports performance: Religious faith vs. atheism

See also: Sports performance: Religious faith vs. atheism

The Sports Journal is a monthly refereed journal published by the United States Sports Academy. A journal article appeared in the Sports Journal entitled Strength of Religious Faith of Athletes and Nonathletes at Two NCAA Division III Institutions. The article was submitted by Nathan T. Bell, Scott R. Johnson, and Jeffrey C. Petersen from Ball State University.[27]

An excerpt from the abstract of the journal article Strength of Religious Faith of Athletes and Nonathletes at Two NCAA Division III Institutions declares:

Numerous studies report athletes to be more religious than nonathletes (Fischer, 1997; Storch, Kolsky, Silvestri, & Storch, 2001; Storch et al., 2004). According to Storch, Kolsky, Silvestri, and Storch (2001), four reasons may explain why religion interacts with athletic performance. First, athletes may identify with religious beliefs for direction and humility. Second, athletes may turn to religion to gain a sense of optimism and security, benefiting from such beliefs following a disappointing athletic performance. Third, religion can be used for emotional and psychological support in stressful circumstances like the uncertainty of athletic competition, which can cause athletes an overwhelming amount of anxiety. Religious beliefs can offer the internal strength to persevere through the stress. Fourth, religion “provides a cognitive framework conducive to the relief of anxiety associated with competition” (Storch et al., 2001, p. 347). This framework allows relief from fear and anxiety on the basis of the athlete’s understanding (i.e., belief) that a supreme being is in complete control of the situation. For example, athletes may rely on religious faith to place a poor athletic performance in perspective...

Religion can be an important aspect in athletes’ lives and may serve a protective function against psychological distress and maladaptive behaviors such as substance use or aggression (Storch, Roberti, Bravata, & Storch, 2004). Viewers of sporting events can frequently observe athletes pointing to the sky, engaging in team prayer on the court or field, and glorifying God following athletic competitions.[28]

Atheism and sports performance

Besides lacking the aforementioned benefits that religion bestows on athletes, atheists have higher rates of depression and suicide than the religious (see: Atheism and mental health and Atheism and depression and Atheism and suicide). This suggests that atheism is a detriment to sports performance.

2012 Olympics: faith vs. atheism

A number of Christian athletes have thanked God for their 2012 Olympic medals (see below). To date, no Olympic athlete at the 2012 Olympic games has credited atheism with providing them enhanced sport performance.

Nations that have implemented same-sex marriage

Argentina

Belgium

Canada

Denmark

Iceland

Netherlands[29]

Norway

Portugal

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Underachievement by nations allowing same sex marriage will be particularly evident.[30]

Nations that are increasingly atheistic

Underachievement by atheistic nations will be particularly evident in the team sports, where spiritual motivation is usually non-existent. Expect the atheistic nations to underachieve most notably in soccer, where teamwork is paramount.

Also, since Great Britain is the host nation, it may receive a boost in performance in spite of its increasingly atheistic nature. One should be careful to account for this when comparing Britain's performance this year to that in previous Olympic Games.

Winners

Individual Events

Team Events

Expected Medals

Many factors contribute to a country's success in the Olympics (e.g., population, proximity to host country, culture), and Gross Domestic Product cannot be used as a fair proxy, due to low (per capita) GDP China comfortably coming first in the 2008 Olympics and Russia ranking third. Below is how the Olympic medals would be awarded if each country earned medals in proportion to their GDP, which vastly overestimates the United States' performance.

Commemoration

The 2012 games mark the 40th anniversary of 11 Israeli Olympic team members taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorist group Black September. The Internal Olympic Committee has been urged to offer a commemorative moment of silence for the athletes at the opening ceremony. The IOC has rejected the moment of silence or any mention of the tragic event so as not to upset Muslim countries. [32] Sportscaster Bob Costas says NBC will honor the Munich 11 despite IOC’s refusal to allow it. [33]

There were reports in the media that NBC had cut out a portion of the opening ceremony memorializing the London subway bombing victims. However, according to ceremony director Danny Boyle, the portion was intended as a tribute to his late father, who would have celebrated his birthday that day had he still been alive. Although pictures of victims were displayed, it was not intended to commemorate the victims specifically. [34]

NBC Coverage

Scorn for Comcast's NBC coverage of the Olympic games hit America coast to coast. Viewers took to the internet with the trend #NBCfail During the event. The groans began at the opening ceremony when American viewers were denied the tribute to British victims of Islamic terrorism. However, Sports Illustrated later reported that ceremony director Danny Boyle had intended the tribute in memory of his father, whose birthday would have been that night, and that it was not specifically for the 7/7 victims. While pictures of some of the victims were displayed on the video board, in Boyle's mind, it had "nothing to do with 7/7". [35]

As the games moved forward, live events were interrupted or had already finished, replaced with commercials and NBC commentators talking about the athletes. It has been reported the Comcast spent $1 billion for the rights to televise the 2012 Olympics.

See also

References

  1. This makes London the first city to host the Games three times - the previous occasions being in 1908 and 1948.
  2. Independent Olympic Athletes from South Sudan, who does not yet have a National Olympic Committee, and the former Netherlands Antilles, who no longer has a National Olympic Committee due to their dissolution, will also compete under the Olympic Flag.
  3. http://www.letsrun.com/2009/nycmen1101.php
  4. 4.0 4.1 http://blog.beliefnet.com/inspiringathletes/page/6/
  5. http://www.examiner.com/article/allyson-felix-says-my-faith-is-the-reason-that-i-run
  6. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/08/09/2990989/the-lord-shepherds-irelands-taylor.html#storylink=cpy
  7. http://espn.go.com/espnw/olympics/8260406/2012-olympics-mo-farah-makes-5000-win-look-easy
  8. http://news.yahoo.com/rain-queen-gelana-wins-soggy-maratho-175353459--spt.html
  9. Franklin's swimming has been with a swim club
  10. Phelps' swimming has been with a private swim club.
  11. [[1]
  12. London 2012 Olympics: David Beckham will be 'more than an ambassador' at the Games telegraph.co.uk, July 10, 2012, retrieved July 28, 2012
  13. A foreigner, reportedly a lesbian, was selected as the head coach of the already champion American Olympic women's soccer team in 2007, and in the following year that team repeated its gold medal-winning performance of 2004. Aren't there American, although perhaps not politically correct, soccer coaches good enough to run the Olympic team?
  14. http://www.thestar.com/sports/london2012/football/article/1238210--london-2012-soccer-controversial-call-against-canada-in-u-s-semifinal-rarely-made
  15. http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/tabletennis/story/_/id/8247325/2012-summer-olympics-china-sweeps-all-four-table-tennis-gold-medals
  16. Pregnant shooter’s Olympics end after 34th-place finish in qualifying sfgate.com, July 28, 2012, retrieved July 28, 2012
  17. Pregnant shooter does baby proud foxsports.com, July 28, 2012, retrieved July 28, 2012
  18. Pregnant shooter misses final, treasures experience usatoday.com, July 28, 2012, retrieved July 28, 2012
  19. London 2012: 'Be quiet, mummy's shooting,' says pregnant competitor guardian.co.uk, July 28, 2012, retrieved July 28, 2012
  20. [2]
  21. [3]
  22. [4]
  23. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/olympics-first-gold-medal-china
  24. South Africa is excluded from this analysis for several reasons: it did not change its Marriage Act to include same-sex marriage, it has relatively few same-sex civil unions, and its medal total in average medal total in the Olympics prior to 2008 was almost identical to its medal total in 2012.
  25. A prorated number is used here, averaging 12 in 2004 and 18 in 2008, because same-sex marriage became effective in late July 2005.
  26. There was also an increase in increase in overall medals available, which makes the decline larger.
  27. Strength of Religious Faith of Athletes and Nonathletes at Two NCAA Division III Institutions
  28. Strength of Religious Faith of Athletes and Nonathletes at Two NCAA Division III Institutions
  29. Although part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Aruba competes separately at the Olympic Games. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Aruba, although marriages performed in the European mainland Netherlands are recognized per the Kingdom's requirements. Additionally, the territories of Curacao and Sint Maarten, who competed as "Independent Olympic Athletes" under the Olympic Flag following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles and the loss of recognition of their Olympic Committee, have the same regulations as Aruba with regards to same-sex marriage. Since citizens of these territories are also Dutch citizens, they are also eligible to compete for Team Netherlands. Therefore, they may have won some of the Dutch medals. In all three territories, the population is heavily Catholic and there is large opposition to same-sex marriage in spite of the Kingdom's requirements. When Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba opted to integrate fully with the Netherlands as part of the dissolution, the Dutch House of Representatives passed a law that will make same sex-marriage legal in those territories effective in October 2012. However, this law was very strongly opposed by locals and should not be seen as a reflection of popular opinion. Athletes from those three territories were permitted to compete as Independent Olympic Athletes as well. However, of the four IOAs at the Olympics, three are from Curacao and one is a marathoner from South Sudan, which does not yet have a national Olympic Committee. Neither Aruba nor the Independent Olympic Athletes won any medals.
  30. In the United States, 6 out of 50 states permit same-sex marriage (Washington, D.C. also permits same-sex marriage), and 8 additional states permit civil unions. Two states (including Washington, which had previously recognized civil unions) have declared same-sex marriage legal, but implementation is postponed until after voter referendums on the laws in November 2012. Additionally, in Mexico, same-sex marriage is legal in Mexico City, a federal district roughly equivalent to Washington, DC, as well as in the state of Quintana Roo.
  31. Since the 2001 Australians have increasingly answered "no religion" in the official census. The growing numbers of those answering "no religion" has coincided with fewer people self-identifying as Christian: Year Book Australia, 2008
  32. IOC refuses request for a memorial to Munich victims, EJU News, may 22, 2012
  33. Bob Costas Says He Will Observe Moment of Silence For Victims of 1972 Munich Massacre, WeaselZippers, July 21, 2012
  34. [5]
  35. [6]