Posted by Alan Conceicao on 14th August 2008
(Rau’Shee Warren’s blunder potentially cost the US its best chance at a medal. What next?)
Unlike my compatriots in wrestling and judo, boxing has the slight issue when it comes to day to day coverage of taking forever. Judo is basically all over with and boxing has merely just begun, with another prelim round to go before we even hit quarterfinals. And to think, its roughly half as many fights as the World Championships. But I digress. Its been quite the storied week thus far.
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Posted in Alan Conceicao, Boxing, Olympics, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by Kendall Shields on 13th August 2008
In a recent special report on the business of sport, The Economist wrote:
“The Olympics will allow broadcasters to show off their ability to present lots of sport simultaneously. They used to be limited to one event at a time. Now they can put several on at once, using digital channels and websites, as well as making highlights available online for days afterwards. Fans of judo should thus be as easy to satisfy as those of the 100-metre sprint.”
And that really speaks to me.
While the early mornings are starting to get me, a little — I haven’t been up this early for five consecutive days since I gave up my paper route, which was not yesterday — I remain thoroughly impressed with the availability and quality of the streaming judo. The CBC is showing only the finals of the women’s -70 kg and the men’s -90 kg, so we join the competition very much in progress.
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Posted in Kendall Shields, Olympics, judo | 3 Comments »
Posted by Lee Casebolt on 13th August 2008
If you’re an American without a very select internet provider, your choices are slim for combat sports. Women’s saber showed up over the weekend, thanks to a dominating performance by the American team, and of course CNBC has all the boxing a reasonable person could ask for. If you are a fan of judo, though, you can only thank your lucky stars for fine individuals like Kendall Shields, the folks at youtube, and whatever torrent service with access to foreign tv you can find. If you stay up til the wee hours, or have a DVR (or, like the rest of us in the Dark Ages, a VCR), you can get small snippets of the King of Sports. I refer, of course, to wrestling, which started on Monday. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Lee Casebolt, NBC, Olympics, Wrestling | 1 Comment »
Posted by Kendall Shields on 13th August 2008
The first thing to say about the fourth day of judo competition in Beijing is oh my lord what a throw. Ayumi Tanimoto’s uchi mata counter to French world champion Lucie Decosse’s ouchi gari attack, that is. You can see that here. And you really should. It was slick.
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Posted in Kendall Shields, Olympics, judo | 5 Comments »
Posted by Kendall Shields on 11th August 2008
OK, now Japan can start losing it. Three days and six divisions into this tournament, and only one gold? Add in the two bronze, which gives Japan the medal lead, and it’s not as bad as it could be, but at this point this has the makings of a minor national disaster. Both Japanese athletes were out of the main draw and into the repechage early, while some slightly obscure judo nations came out on top.
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Posted in Kendall Shields, Olympics, judo | 9 Comments »
Posted by Kendall Shields on 11th August 2008
The Japanese can breathe a little easier after day two on the mats. After the disappointment of Hiroaki Hiraoka’s first-round flame out and Ryoko Tani’s failure to capture a third-straight Olympic championship, Mastao Uchishiba did everything expected of him en route to Japan’s first 2008 judo gold.
I should point out that Judovision.org has been doing a great job of assembling all of the most important matches — sometimes clipped, sometimes in full. The site has been up and down the last couple of days due to the increased Olympic traffic, but it is definitely worth a visit. I am told that the NBC site makes many of the matches available to US viewers through their “Rewind” feature, which is probably worth your attention as well. Certainly any of the medal matches can be seen at Judovision, but you might need to dig around the NBC site if you’re after something particular from the prelims.
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Posted in Kendall Shields, Olympics, judo | 3 Comments »
Posted by Kendall Shields on 9th August 2008
As the strains of an elevator music rendition of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” fill the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium between the completion of the gold medal matches and the commencement of the medal ceremonies, let’s talk some judo. Some great judo, actually.
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Posted in Kendall Shields, Olympics, judo | 8 Comments »
