Fox334

I disagree a bit whit you, Dave. We could easily win a medal in Triathlon and in Taekwondo. Also, Boxing is always quite a wild-card and we could win a medal in women's trap. Oh, and we could win more that two medals in track and field (and we might get a gold), and don't froget that we do have a world champion in swimming.

I (kinda) think it won't be the last (provided that MLB players would be able to play in a future Olympic Baseball tournament). Anyway, I predict that Japan will be the Asian champion while Taiwan, Canada and Mexico will be the last three teams to qualify.

Ya, well they got on the wrong side on the upset during the Euro-african qualification tournament (and on home soil, to...).

Aren't you guys over reacting a tad? The main point is, this issue is of little concern for most peoples here becosse, assuming every assumption in those articles are all true, well it won't affect Vancouver 2010 much. Yet you two are making a huge deal out of this (remember, most of us here don't give a flying damn about VANOC's members past activities, even if they involve lands used for the games), and seam to assume that the reason we don't care is becosse we are a) blinded by our passing for the Olympics and/or Olympic biding or becosse we are all working whit VANOC (both of which are quite far from the truth). Its simply that, Olympic wise, its not much of an issue, and it wouldn't becomme interesting until someone is found guilty (and even then it would be relatively minor). Scandal or not, Callaghan Valley's Nordic venues will be build, so I don't see whats the big thing, really. Oh, and regarding I don't pretend to be an expert in psychologies, but I am quite certain that was irony...

Stop using two accounts, Earseyeswideopen, its annoying... Your whole argument doesn't hold much water. Its, in all, a big conspiracy theory. Come back someone is formally charged in this case (which I doubt will ever happen), and we might be willing to discus this.

Seeing just how much Japaneses and Chinese just LOVE each other, I say its a sure thing... Not. Ya, I doubt we will hear anything remotely close to Japanese during the Beijing OC...

Lets get started whit the answer ^^. I probably won't answer to everything, thought, beccose your post is quite long... First of all, you seam to think I have a bad impression of the Chinese peoples. I don't believe that Chinese peoples are stupid, far from that. Now on the issue of Tibet, Xianjing, Macau, etc. I did not say that I taught they wanted independence. I said I wondered IF they wanted it. Since it seams to be against Chinese laws to be a separatist, we aren't likely to know if they really want to be independent. As for the three Canadians that where arrested, I didn't intend to defend them. What they did is quite stupid, and I hope whatever the Chinese authorities do to them will scare them from coming back to China (if they will ever be aloud to do so, anyway...). I think there statue of foreigner should protect them, thought. Now Taiwan. That issue is interesting. I think there claim over mainland China is ridiculous. I believe that since Taiwan has been de-facto independent from the rest of China for so long that they should be aloud to decide whether they want to be a part of the PRC or there own country. But that is quite a complicated issue...

I would assume they could get one or two invitational places, thought. And beside, they will be a continental qualification, so Cuba will probably send boxers, maybe just not a full squad (6 athletes).

Ya, its totally legal. You would get laugh at by everyone for doing it (中國為建立一個自由魁北克 (Google translated...)), but you would be totally in your rights. Canada is a confederation, so its relatively easy for a province or a territory to enter or leave it. As a mater of fact, in 1967, the French President Charles de Gaulle made a speech in Montreal that ended by "Vive le Québec libre ! Vive le Canada français ! Et vive la France !" (Long live free Quebec! Long live French Canada! And long live France!). What he did was totally legal, even at that time, altought obviously a breach of procedure. The problem I have whit this whole debate is that it seams that we hear the opinion of everybody but the peoples that actually live in Tibet. And its the same thing for the separatism movement in Xinjiang, for example. You can't know what the people's opinion are becose the Chinese government does not allow the peoples in those areas to debate freely whether or not independence would be good for them. And since the People's Republic of China isn't democratic, there is no real way to know, anyway... But for me, the real question is: IF the peoples of Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Macau and Hong-Kong where freely given the choice of becoming independent, would they chose to stay whiting the PRC?

Well, they are now three teams Qualified for the Basketball competition at the Beijing Olympics. After host nation PR China and world champion Spain, the Islamic Republic of Iran qualified for the Olympics by defeating Lebanon 74-69, wining there first ever Asian Basketball championship ever in the proses. Meanwhile, Lebanon and Korea Republic will have a second chance to qualify for the Olympics via the FIBA's Wildcard tournament. You know, I am kind of surprised Iran qualified considering they are ranked 32nd in the world while Lebanon, Korea Republic, Qatar and Japan are ranked 24th, 25th, 26th and 28th in the world, respectively.

Canada qualified 7 boats, which isn't bad at all, but our best finish was a seventh place. It seams wining a sailing medal in Beijing could be a long shot...

Munich had Whitewater, but it wasn't staged again at the Olympics before Barcelona.

Italy wins 5-3 on penalties.

After 120 minutes of Football and one red card (showed to an Italian player, Rossi), its all tied up in the Italy-Portugal match which will determine the last UEFA qualifier for Beijing. Shame I can't see the game.

Well done Belgium! First time since 1928 that Belgium qualifies for the Olympic Football competition! Now, three teams will fight for the last spot: Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic.

Actually, Great Britan will not take part in the Beijing tournament regardless of there result, so if England goes trough to the semi-finals, there will be a fifth-place play-off between the third place team of each group to determin who is heading to China. THis means that Israel still has a chance if they can beat Portugal and if England goes trough.

Well, Jamaica didn't qualify for Bobsled, but a Jamaican-born breaker did win a silver medal for Canada in Turino's Bobsled competition.

That is, indeed, another story. But hey, its a FIFA Worldcup, everything can happen. The draw could also be a big factor.

They won't be a men's UK team for Beijing, FIFA already announced that if England finish in the top 4 of the EUFA U-19, a fifth-place play-off will determine Europe's forth qualifier. On the women's side, I believe that the UK will field a women's team if England is to qualify, but I am not 100% sure of that.

The very fact that the IOC alouds this game to exist is incredible... But then again, Mario and Sonic in the same game, and at the SOG whit that... Way to bring two of my passions together! *drools*

I also believe that if any of the FIS' events should be scraped, its the Super Combi. Super G is the most exiting Skiing event IMO.

Are the "additions" due to Ski Cross?

Well, I would be really surprised if there is no Wii version of Beijing 2008. I mean, the system is currently extremely popular, especially in Japan (Sega's home market), and Sega has a good relation with Nintendo.

Then again, it could really make a good Wii game.

Being a video-game nuts, I can tell you that Sega is handling the Beijing 2008 video-games. No specific system have been anounced, but PS2, PS3, PSP, XBOX 360, Wii, NDS and PC sounds realistic.