I was watching swimming tonight and saw a fine English swimmer from Dorking named Richard Tancock. The English win the Olympics of Names.

(Some of this is basically true.)

GTG- Dorking is a very nice place, in the Surrey countryside. I think, for even better/worse names, Austria wins. I probably can't repeat the names of some places in Austria on here-let's just say one starts with F, and two with W.

Ceri- I really think there should be some sort of handbook to the olympics-how to score Judo, how to Fence and so on. It would greatly improve the viewing experience

53- I think with guitar and tennis to practice, I haven't got a lot of time for much else. If I fully focused on cycling, I wouldn't be able to play guitar as much, or tennis too. Thank you very much for your offer, but I think I will leave cycling as a hobby for now.
The video you posted was very interesting, thank you.

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"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

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Tennis...That is the other sport I currently combine, it's a good complement to cycling, cycling builds your aerobic as well as your anaerobic base which is critical in Tennis since all your requirements are short bursts, very much similar to sprinting, but then cycling does not add pounding to joints.
That is one of the severe downsides in Tennis, especially if you're on a hard court 90% of the time...
Will Federer succeed...??? I believe Murray still has a long ways to go in reining in his own personal and internal drama, which against Federer on grass is a big disadvantage...
Federer is the best at reading his opponent and optimizing his strategy on the fly to his opponents detriment... Should be an interesting Tournament...

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Nah. Murray is strong on grass, but he was very lucky to get to the final at Wimbledon; he didn't have to face Nadal or Djokovic. He's probably rated about right at fourth in the world - but he's a long way behind the top three. It's true that he can beat all of them on a good day, but not when they're cooking.

Federer is simply the most beautiful tennis player in history. If he has a problem I think it's only that he's struggling to stay hungry nowadays. Must be hard to keep caring when you've done it all for years and now have a family and other things coming into you life. But at his best he is still absolute poetry in motion!



How dare you! Listen to this man, he knows:

Exactly!

It's a whole other thread - and if someone wants to start it I'll be there! But in short, Britain has by far the most silly names: we win hands down at that sport. No one can touch us.

...Though I do know what you mean about Austria. I bet I can guess some of the ones you're thinking of.

Anyway. Olympics: just been watching the men's gymnastics. What sadist invented the rings? If some Middle Eastern dictator was doing that to people in prisons we'd put him on trial at the Hague for crimes against humanity. Hurts just to watch.

Cheers - C

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best name in the olympics so far is Storm Uru, kiwi rower...

so happy to see Lizzie Armistead win silver yesterday, the road race went past my house, and also my work place so i got to see both the men's and women's road race go past.

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Fender Blacktop Stratocaster HH Sonic Blue

Fender american special telecaster Olympic White

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Surf Green

Vox VT40+

This morning I came across a vintage bike in the trash. It was a Murray, painted all gold and with nice chrome trim. It has an Olympic logo on it saying "The official bike of the 1984 Olympic games." Kinda cool. Anyways, I retrofitted some of the parts to my moped.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Federer is unreal, easily my favourite player of all time to watch and I truly believe he is the greatest there has ever been (though that is a subjective argument that can get messy!). However to drop like he did in the rankings to come back up to No 1 in the world at that age is unbelievable, he is a cut above. I'm not sure you can question his hunger, it takes some serious desire to come back to the heights he has. Although I think we can all agree on how beautiful that one handed backhand is, such a shame you don't see it often anymore.

However I do feel for Murrey, he is a fantastic tennis player but he has to play at the same time as 3 of the greatest players that have lived. In most tournaments he has to beat 2 of them to win a grand slam. I think Wimbledon was a big big chance but once the roof was closed there was only going to be one winner in the still air.

As for the names, yes lets not derail this thread with talk of beauties such as Wyre Piddle

I think there is an Oriental lady athlete that goes by the name of Ono. Thus, "Ono, she has done really well!". Not hysterical, but an odd thing to hear in the olympics. On the GB mens football team, we have Cleverly, and Cork.

I really do think Austria has the greatest place names though. I cannot convince you by typing them on this forum unfortunately...

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"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

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Also one time in Germany when I went to Stuttgart I found they have a very entertaining name for a tower in the town...

Yes, I'm learning german in school. It is quite funny sometimes...

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

The bike that I learned to ride on back in the 1980s was a black Team Murray BMX bike, and I distinctly remember it having one of those "Official Bike of the 1984 Olympic Games" stickers on it!

America definitely had Olympic fever in 1984, largely because the games were held in Los Angeles. That was the year the Soviet Union boycotted and the U.S. kicked butt in just about every event. I also remember the opening and closing ceremonies being big productions: the closing ceremony actually featured a "spaceship" landing in the stadium and an "alien" addressing the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0_3RNjuKSk

Definitely one of those "could've only happened in the 80s" moments!

for some reason I seem to only watch the women's competitions
i have always liked women's volleyball

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Lots of Dichs and Fährts to contend with though. I was in Germany on a school trip when I was about 14. We all found it very funny how the number plates in that particular region all said "Coc". Simpler times. . How did your speakings go by the way?

Back on topic, I've been watching the sailing the past few days. We Paddy's won one of the women's Laser class heats, so that was good.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

My speaking went pretty well. I had to talk about holidays, past present and future also where I would go if I were rich. Although I don't actually know my mark, because they couldnt moderate them in time for the summer break, my teacher said it was "super" I got 2 A's in both the mocks also, which is good. Hopefully next summer will be a repeat performance

We watched a film in our last lesson before summer, and the angry Germans were so funny... I don't think I could ever take an angry german seriously again

Well done in the sailing. At the moment, team gb is about 20th in the medal table, which is disappointing. Still, early days.

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

Sounds good. Our Reading/Listenings were a walk. German is about the only subject I'm genuinely expecting an A* in.

I've had experience with angry Germans. We took our exchange partners aerosofting in September. In the queu to return our guns I shot the guy in front of me point blank in the arse. He wasn't best pleased.

Is anyone else looking forward to the men's cycling time trials tomorrow? I'm expecting better things from Wiggins this time around.

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Rated "M" for meaty.