h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

SILVER by 1/100th of a second which over 2000m is inches. The first Olympic medal ever by a British female crew.

GOLD in the Men's 8 GB first time we've won than in 88 years.

GB now has 4 golds this games and we are leading 3 of the sailing events a Denise Lewis is going strong in the Heptathalon. I see more gold coming soon

That 8 in full

Andrew Lindsay, Ben Hunt-Davis, Simon Dennis, Louis Attrill, Luka Grubor, Kieran West, Fred Scarlett, Steve Trapmore, Rowley Douglas

So actually that is 14 Gold medals if you add them all together

Demon Drawer,

On that basis, can we count our successful women's water polo team as thirteen gold medals, not just the one?

But congrats on the men's eights, although if the Oz crew had not gone walkabout early in the race they would have mowed you down well before the finish instead of just failing to pick the Poms up.

Walter

Didn't notice any aborigianls in the boat but if you say so.

Marion and Mo. The trouble with sprinting is that, since Ben Johnson, you don't actually know how good they are (I mean, Flo-Jo, God rest her soul. I can't believe they let her records remain). There's always a suspicion. The bigger the gap between the old record and the new one, the more suspicious it gets.

A few things I've noticed:

Despite being far fitter than I ever was or ever will be, Steve Redgrave's got a gut! It's true! The other three have washboard stomachs, but he hangs over his shorts a bit.

Is there something wrong with Ato Boldon's right foot? It seems to point out sideways.

Denise Lewis's six-pack. Awesome or what?

Someone told me Ian Thorpe's got size 17 feet! Are you sure he's not wearing flesh-coloured flippers?

Listening to the interviews with the British Eight, it seems that the Aussies sowed the seeds of their own destruction. After the first heat, the British watched the video of it and noticed what were described as 'certain gestures' made by the Australian crew. This got their backs up and made them determined not to lose the final.

Lesson learned by myself long ago: Don't jeer at the opposition in the heats... You haven't won anything yet.

Didn't know that but 88 years of not winning the Blue Riband. and After they run Redgrave sadi that was definatley the end, so maybe he was considering an Eight if they didn't win.

And good for Denise a Gold after 7 events what a performance after the mistake in the high jump of passing 1.78

In 1972 I was one of 500,000 people who attended the Munich Olympic Games where a New Zealand crew won the men's rowing eights. Two weeks after the Olympics finished I was one of 1,000,000,000 people who attended the Munich beer festival.

This year's beer festival started yesterday. Oh the memories. Posted below is a paragraph from yesterday's (Pom) Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Astrid Ganssen, an Oktoberfest spokesman, said: "We are on target to pass even last year's record, where 6.5 million litres of beer and 400,000 sausages were consumed. This year we hope for more visitors than ever."

Gooday everyone,

Okay, maybe there are some suss athletes out there, and the magnificent Marion J's husband has now been sprung with a blood-steroid ratio of about one part in three, and sure Mo might not be on anything but sure looks like he is.

But tonight, watch one of the most gifted and graceful runners of the last twenty years or so go around entirely without any assistance from anything except 110,000 spectators and all of Australia. Cathy Freeman, Olympic 400 metres champion. You little beauty.

Walter.

I'm cheering on the other Cathy, Catherine Merry sorry national pride and all. We want more gold

And I will be cheering for Beatrice in the women's discus. It's on about the same time as Freeman's race so hopefully the Aus crowd will back all the downunder athletes. Pigs may also fly.

Demon Drawer,

The Pom Cathy will have to content herself with silver. You don't need more gold; I see that your Denise Lewis put in a super performance in the heptathlon, and you luckily just held on in the eights. That's enough for a day or so.

Already the 'serious' analysts here have gone into print or on TV and radio with the first suggestions that our results in the pool were a disappointment, and that for the most part the much vaunted Oz swimming team were under-achievers. Same also in this morning's press with our rowers. For the general public, and the critics, the Olympics is about 'participation' ONLY as long as there is an acceptable measure of success - acceptable to them, that is.

Did everyone except me know that there was a mountainbike competition in these Games? And for the cogniscenti, the finals of the Greco-Roman wrestling start soon; sit down, relax, and enjoy.

PS Loony, I will be cheering for Beatrice, if Channel 7 covers discus, which I doubt, but neither of us should hold our breath.

Walter.

good morning to eveyone,
and welcome to another sintelating week of olympics

I went to the soccer on Saturday, boy what a piss ordinary game, I think I will stick to Aussie Rules. I watched the Nigerian and the Chileans. There was very little structure, for the nigeians, no defense no attack they just hoped the goalie would fall over on his bootlaces before the ball got to him. And the Chileans were only slightly better. Talk about actors, academy awards stuff. They would only have to be bumped and they would fall about on the ground holding their leg or head or what ever part was touched, the stretcher would come in and carry them off, and just over the line the "injured" player would jump off the stretcher and run back on the field. Now I wont call them girls, because I have seen the girls hockey team and the girls basketball team, hand out and receive much harder treatment and not flinch. Maybe they were just playing like "boys". Any way I would sack the coach, any reasonable coach knows to keep someone in the back line to assist the goalie, and to keep someone in the forward line so that when to ball does come down there (Nigeria had 18 goes at goal compared to 10 from Chile) they can at least attempt to send it through.
But I really enjoyed it and was glad I went.

Hi Looney, glad to see NZ collecting a few medals, if it doesn't impede the Aussies, I usually cheer for the NZers, we are renowned for supporting the underdogs.

Hi Walter,
Did you know there was trampolining in the games? So someone said today, complaining about it getting no coverage.

I'm rooting for Colin Jackson and Jonathan Edwards now. Those two deserve Olympic golds.

Hi Wazungu,

Fancy meeting you here!! Good point, no I did not know there was trampolining until last night, when the teev coverage showed about fourteen seconds of it.

A couple of questions for all you experts. I can understand how come the Olympics features throwing events, especially discus and javelin, but how did we ever get shot put and 'hammer' throw - does anyone know? And who 'invented' the hop, step and jump (triple jump)?

Walter.

It's always been a school sports day thing, along with potato races and sack races. It became an Olympic sport when some Brit realised there was no way we were ever going to win a proper long jump again and that no other country would take it up because it looks so silly

Hi,

I look at the high jump and marvel. Just under 3m, I'm sure that is how high the polevault was not so long age. For someone to run up and just jump straight up that high, but they all look like they have just got out of a very long famine. I suppose it doesn't matter what you look like if you can jump very high.

Moondancer

Did anyone else see the Gold medal winner in the men's gymnastics on the rings? His strength was increadible. Also delighted to see one of the Russian gymnasts (the moustached one) actually has a day job - he is a policeman.

I completely ruined a friend's dinner party on Friday night, by insisting we all watched Steve Redgrave - however they all thanked me for it afterwards!!

I am now sneaking off to watch Cathy Freeman live (loosing to a Brit?) - I'm going to regret writing that.......

We don't have to rub it in Cathy did it.