· August, 2008

Stories about Sport from August, 2008

China: gold medals=a great power in sports?

  31 August 2008

51 gold medals, a comment of "truly exceptional" from IOC, and spectacular images left to the world, China held a real party of sports in 16-day Olympics. But does this achievement necessarily mean China has been a super power in sports, and even common people could fully enjoy the glory and health brought by sports?

South Africa: The final insult

  29 August 2008

JC writes about the final insult on the South African national rugby team: “The Springboks are expecting gracious favour from Lady Luck, God and the Highveld hoodoo but none of these intangibles will be enough to prevent another historic Australian win.”

China: The Cost of a Gold Medal

  29 August 2008

Zhaomu re-posted a forum article which calculated the cost of a gold medal exemplified by the Olympic shooting team. It is estimated that a gold medal costs between RMB30 – 80 millions (around US4.5 – 10 million).

Barbados, Antigua: Digicel vs. Stanford

  28 August 2008

The Bajan Reporter is all over the story of telecommunications giant Digicel taking Allen Stanford to court “in order to protect its sole and exclusive rights as primary sponsor of West Indies cricket”. The West Indies Cricket Board insists “that the team that will play England on 1 November represents...

Kenya: Kenya in the Olympics

  28 August 2008

Kenyan Pundit congratulates Kenyan athletes for their performance in Beijing….but, “…why the hell there were more officials than athletes in the Kenyan contigent that went to Beijing?”

China: Olympic Medals Shape

  28 August 2008

A graphic representation of the distribution of medals shows that China has big tits. The picture was created by Form One high school boy at bbs.163.com.

Kuwait: Parading Purchases at the Olympics

Arabs really love shopping, they spend hours after hours in malls, and that's why they wanted to show their shopping skills at this year's Summer Olympics. Unfortunately shopping is not included in the games, but this couldn't stop some Arabs from parading their purchases.

Jamaica: Athletic Subversion

  27 August 2008

“Jamaica's garrison politics found its way onto the Olympics stage in two performances – once in a scintillating display of athletic grace and vigor, and once in a celebratory performance of the “gully creepa”: Abeng News Magazine explains.

Jamaica: Gustav etc.

  26 August 2008

As Jamaican Annie Paul waits for Hurricane Gustav “to huff and puff and blow our house down”, she blogs about everything from Usain Bolt-inspired dance moves to Michelle Obama: “(She) was impressive, wasn't she? Neither pale, nor male–i can identify with that…”

China: Weather Intervention

  26 August 2008

During the Olympics, the Beijing government created artificial rain to secure good weather for the opening and closing ceremonies. Lui Li said that if the government had plan to intervene the weather, it should have forecasted it to the people.

China: Olympic Regrets

  26 August 2008

Chen XueLei reflected upon his Olympic experience since 7 years ago when Beijing applied for the hosting city. Now that the Beijing Olympics has obtained great success on stage, the blogger wonders if it is really a success for the majority of Chinese people.

Saudi Arabia: Where are the women sport heroes?

Saudi girls deserve sport heroes too, says Jillian, at a post on women in the Olympics at Kabobfest. “Little girls in Saudi Arabia (which I will use as an example from now on, given that Qatar's population equals that of Boston) deserve to have strong heroes too,” she notes.

MENA: Veiled Athletes in Beijing

Despite the Saudi Arabia's decision to ban Saudi women from taking part in the Olympics this year, Blogger Dilshad D. Ali writes about the emergence of hijab (veil) at the Beijing Olympics. Blogger Jana, also lists the 12 veiled Muslim athletes who competed this year in Beijing.