2012 Summer Olympics

The 2012 Summer Olympics are coming up, and I for one can't wait. If I can't be there in person, then you can sure bet that I'll either be watching it or recording it to watch later! That being said, here are some links to official pages of some of the American teams. It's easy to see the martial origins in some of the sports!

For the latest news on Team USA go to:  http://www.teamusa.org/

For information on the Fencing team (The event I'll be watching the closest!), go to:  http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Fencing.aspx

For Archery go to:  http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Archery.aspx

For Boxing go to:  http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Boxing.aspx

For Judo go to:  http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Judo.aspx

For some reason the Karate folks are in a different place:  http://www.usankf.org/

And then back to teamusa.org for Tae Kwon Do:  http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Taekwondo.aspx

Finally we have our Greco-Roman Wrestlers at:  http://themat.com/

Like I said above, I'll be watching the fencing team closely this time since, in my personal opinion, the western fencers were all screwed to the wall with changes in the rules which clearly favored the east.

If you don't remember, the big change was in the fact that they could only score while moving forward in an apparent attack. This kind of scoring is common in the east, so that is the way they practice. Meanwhile, here in the west, we tend to see the value in feigning an attack or stepping back to create an opening. (I have to note here that this is a common, acceptable strategy/tactic that can be found in any strategy book, east or west!) As I remember, there were several champion fencers who, again in my own opinion, were robbed of titles due to rule changes. As a result there were a number of Chinese and Korean fencers (in particular) that took home medals over their western opponents.

Now let me make one thing clear: It's not that I mind people from eastern countries are winning, it's the fact that the rules looked to be changed to give them a deliberate advantage over western countries. I feel like it was an insult to both us and them. We'll have to wait and see how things go for us this year.