The Grand Rio 2016 Summer Olympics Journal!!

The 2016 Summer Olympics, held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, came in with great controversy—much of it warranted—and left…without (much) controversy. While there were empty seats for events for various reasons (though less prevalent over time and closer to final events), a police shooting, misbehavior of some athletes and coaches (not an unusual occurrence), and a busted bathroom courtesy of one famous swimmer, there was no apocalyptic outbreak of viruses and diseases, nor was egg on the face of Rio organizers or the IOC. It was not a flawless Games, in execution, but it appeared to be handled as well as it possible, given everything. In terms of athletics and competition, however, it was one of the very best, with a healthy mix of masterclasses and upsets.

Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics Blog - The Final, Final Stretch!!

Alright, everyone, let us visit Sochi one last time for some Para-/Olympic goodness!!

Days 8-9--No Adjustment Required

--So this version of snowboard cross, in video game terms, is more like a speed or time trial than the outright race. All things considered, I guess that is reasonable. I imagine that in the next few years, you'll see something resembling the usual craziness…

--The current state of the sport reminds me of a lot of the Paralympic sports in earlier times. It's a little rough around the edges and touch-and-go, a handful of riders are clearly better than the rest of the field, and maybe it is not as exciting as the others, but give it some time to maturate and grow…

Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics Blog - Days 2-7 (Or Days 2-7)

I can't think of better way to commemorate the 400th post of HardDoor than with a post that has absolutely nothing to do with either anime or boxing!! (Remember, this blog does have a little bit of randomness, or at, it is supposed to…)

To get serious for a moment, I cannot say I have been impressed by NBC's level of coverage for the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics. When I heard that they were going to be offering an "unprecedented" 52 hours, I balked at that and originally started about that and the lack of respect for the Paralympians in the previous entry. But, then I saw when the events were being broadcast and decided to relent before I watched how they were being offered. Six days in, and unfortunately, my biggest concerns still came true.

Sochi 2014 Winter (Para-)Olympics Blog - From One Beginning and End to Another Beginning and End

My, what a difference three weeks make…

With the Olympics, politics are not supposed to be front and center, but sports and the idealism of peace, unity, and cooperation are. For all of the security, political, social, and domestic concerns, for two and a half weeks, all was right in the little globe of a world. Athletes from many different nations and cultural backgrounds competed against and intermingled with one another with nary an issue or grand controversy, with everyone appearing to have enjoyed themselves. IOC president Thomas Bach has emphasised that the Olympics showed that, indeed, peace is a tangible thing and the Games are a prime example that that can very much be grasped.

But then, reality came knocking on the door.

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - The Final Stretch!!

**cue mad sprint for the finish line**

Day 16…15…No matter, it's the third-to-last day…

--The Canadian men's curling team play, scream, and work like you'd think they would with their physique. They throw rocks mega-hard, sweep the ice so hard, you'd think it would melt to the bottom, and yell hard enough to make drill sergeants blush. For their effort, I, thus, dub thee, "The Curling Curlers" (or "The Curling Canadian Curlers", for you nationalistic folk).

--Is there some kind of curling division in the Canadian Army?

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - "On the Fifthteenth, or Fourteenth, Day of the Winter Olympics, Sochi Gave to Me…"

--Filip Flisar (Slovenia, ski cross) = epic mustache

--Didirk Bastian Juell (Norway) = epically big air

--The ladies' long program skate was no more short on surprises than the short program. Actually, it may have been even more so…to an extent.

--The night, though filled with very fine performances, was also bittersweet on some levels. The final outcome was both a surprise and not…

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - Days 13/12 - 14/13 (**Not to be Read as 1 1/12 - 1 1/13**)

For the slightly confused, the larger date number is my convention ("Day 13", which counts Feb. 6 as "Day 1"), and the lower one is the (*deeply, deeply flawed*) "official" designation ("Day 12", which counts Feb. 6 as "Day 0" (oh, you sad folks…)). In all, it's just code for "Feb. 18-19".

Now, that said…

Day 13/12/Feb.18

--Paul-Henri de le Rue (France) may have up short for the bronze, but knowing that he was in an induced coma a month ago, fourth in an Olympic final in an unpredictable event like snowboard cross must still be some slice of victory, however thin…

--Without context, you'd likely think that Alex Deibold (USA) earned the ire of some upset snowboarders. Funny…

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - Sure, They May Say It's "Days 10-11", But Somewhere Else In The World, It's "Days 11-12"…

 I mean, right?

Day 11? Day 10?

--Every cross-country distance ski event is an exercise in torture, plain and simple…

--Although, to be perfectly honest, I would love to see them compete in a swirling blizzard with low visibility…

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - Day 10 or Day 9…Whichever…

As of Feb. 15, a little over a week since Sochi 2014 Olympic Games started, and for all of the overblown budgets, questionable construction projects, the weather (which still played role), and the politics, this has been a pretty enjoyable and successful Olympics, thus far. The athletics have been high, there have been few, if any, controversies, the athletes appear to be enjoying themselves, and the officials have been trying hard to deal with the effects of hosting a (relatively, and sometimes literally) warm Winter Olympics, who have earned high marks from the participants.

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - I Call It "Day 9", You Call It "Day 8"…

February 14, a.k.a. Flatland Valentine's Day, may have been the Day of Love, but it was also a day of lovely sports action *ugh*…

--After the some (very) fine skating from the individual male skaters in both the team skate and short program, most notably from record breaker Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) and three-time world champion Patrick Chan (Canada), I was expecting an exemplary battle and display of skating prowess from them and the rest of the field. Instead, it was a rather tepid affair, maybe part nerves, part fatigue from back-to-back nights of competition (previous Olympics featured a day of rest in between). I was expecting to be wowed by Hanyu, based on his work thus far in Sochi, but he skated to a proficient, but also somewhat bland, long program, which saw two inexplicable falls.

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - Day 8, or Day 7, Your Pick…

The Sochi 2014 Olympics. February 13. As according to HD…

--Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) channeled some of that team skate goodness into a great, record-breaking short program. Just the kind of start you'd want to see out of someone who looked the way he did in that prior event. Unfortunately…

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - The Site Says, "Day 6", But My Heart Says, "Day 7"…

Sure, Sochi.ru says that the Olympics "began" on Day 0, but why's that? I could get prelims not really counting, but since the actual team skate competition began that day, that should really be "Day 1". Is this going to turn into a "Year 0" argument, now? I mean, if zero means "nothing" did that day really exist? And when you really look at it--

[rest of post deleted]

All that said, here were the various thoughts and observations for Day 7 (for us rational thinkers) / Day 6 (crazies):

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - Days That Lie Somewhere Between 4 & 6…Or Is That 5?

Be it Day 5 or 4, Feb. 10 churned out a great day of Olympic action!

--The men's 500m speed-skating final was certainly something. First, the Netherlands' Ronald Mulder posted the fastest time in the medal run. Then, his identical twin brother, Michel, bested his time, leaving Ronald to sulk on the bench with his head down in his hands. Right after that, fellow countryman Jan Smeekers topped his time, and Michel was left to sulk on the bench with his head down in his hands. Ten seconds later, however, Michel's time was adjusted, and instead of hitting the time he needed exactly, Smeekers was now off by 1/100th of a second, leaving him the silver medal-winner and a re-delighted Michel Mulder the gold medalist (with Ronald still with the bronze).

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - Day 4/3

Before we dive into yesterday's proceedings, let's revisit the Opening Ceremony, but not because I liked it so much…

Day 2/1: The Opening Ceremony:: Reloaded

--So I understand that NBC removed content from the OC. Some of it important. Again. I was wondering what happened to the Olympic Oath…

Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Blog - Days 1-3 (Or is that Pre-day-Day 2?)

As big a fan of the Olympics I have been--enough so to all but shun anime, boxing, and anything else I normally watch--I really have not had the time to get pumped up for either the London 2012 Summer Games or this most recent one in Sochi. Regardless, I somehow managed to watch more of the former than I thought I would be able to, but still never had any real chance to write about it, Twitter notwithstanding (and I was chomping at the bit on the (mind-numbingly stupid) subject of Gabrielle Douglas' (just fine) hair and the-sport-that-was-boxing-in-name-only). I may not have been able to develop the kind of connection I had wanted to with it, but it was a great Olympics, nonetheless.

HardDoor's Winter Olympic Wrap-Up! '10

"A funny thing happened on the way to the forum..."

I was beginning the special I had planned for February when I remembered all the sudden that the Olympics were starting soon. Being the massive Olympics fan that I am, any time spent watch television was spent watching the events in Vancouver, which admittedly interfered with my plans. Turning around to watch things happen while typing was a little taxing and took up time at first, but luckily I found a way to get my computer's TV tuner card to be read again and was able to watch and type on the same screen at the same time. Overall, everything is going quite well with it, but due to its length, it appears that I'll be changing its release format to be more multi-part than I initially thought...

The XXI Winter Olympiad in Vancouver started on a somber note with the passing of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili at the controversial Whistler Sliding Center, who died during a training run when he slid off the course dubbed "the fastest in the world" and collided with a steel pillar. Though the tragedy weighed on the minds of many, the Games became one of the best and most memorable in some time, both Winter and Summer--in spite of the fluctuating weather. And thus we begin the now-traditional post-Olympic review...

So Long, 2008!

And so ends quite the year that was 2008, or at least when midnight comes around later. The North American anime industry saw its biggest shake-up in years, if not in its history, with FUNimation solidifying itself as the dominant company with its acquisition of the titles from the doomed Sojitz-ADV venture and their partnership with the reduced Geneon (not including the major shows they picked up on their own) as well as its massive push in the digital distribution sector (more on that later). Bandai Ent. shocked many with its pick up of Gurren Lagann off the heels of the aforementioned deal collapse and created some intrigue (and amusement/annoyance, depending on who you ask) with their still-mysterious Project Nebula and the "novella" being played out within their site's source code. Even a small company in Media Blasters got in on the surprises when it announced its "rescuing" of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit when it became a victim of Geneon's collapse late last year. On the boxing side, there were upsets galore, with Bernard Hopkins schooling Kelly Pavlik, the U.S. Olympic boxing team stinking up Beijing (and let's not even get into the scoring, all-around...), Antonio Margarito's march through Miguel Cotto, Joe Calzaghe smoking out Roy Jones, Jr., and the biggest of all, Manny Pacquiao's absolute destruction of Oscar De La Hoya.

:boxing: Boxing Bits ::09.17.08:: The *REAL* Late Edition ::: Final Olympic Results, Calderon (Sort of...) Wins...

Yeesh...I really don't like falling behind posting things, especially boxing news and results. This post formally concludes HD's inaugural boxing preview for the summer of 2008...

HardDoor's Olympic Wrap-Up! '08

A little late coming, as a number of things occurred in the past week that prevented me from getting this finished earlier. Nonetheless, here are a few of my thoughts on the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. --HD

Alas, the Summer Olympics Games have concluded, and Beijing certainly didn't disappoint. The level of competition all around was great, the athletes and those involved seemed to enjoy themselves very much, many new faces made their presence know and a few old ones made their final bows. Outside of a relatively very few unfortunate acts unsportsmenlike conduct, the human rights antics and information suppression of China even during the Games, and the usual gymnastics drama, the events were very smooth and went without a great deal of controversy. The following is a simple list of random thoughts about the experience of watching all of those events, which gladly dominated the bulk of my TV viewing time, and of how the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games played out.

Olympic Fever Hits HardDoor! '08

Ah, it's that time of the fourth year! When the many countries of the world center around one city for two weeks to compete over twenty separate athletic games to vie not only for national pride and bragging rights, but also for personal and individualistic achievement as well.

I've always been a big fan of the Olympic Games and this year's festivities in Beijing have certainly been on my mind as of late. I like to watch as many of the sports as I can (read: all) and I'll probably be literally only watching Olympic-related programming all throughout (that's just how I like it :D ). At the same time, however, Otakon 2008 will be taking place this weekend (with some big news bound to come up) and then there is the preparing of the fall anime and boxing previews (with some great titles and fights coming up).

Things might be a little tight in getting posted, but I certainly will try be up-to-date with everything. But hey, here's to a safe and great Olympics and Otakon!

--HD