katisha

Who knew fencers could also be hawwwwt? Daryl Homer.

Is there a limit to how much swimming eye candy we're allowed to post? Oh, I hope not... :) Luca Dotto... Ning Zetao... Oh, I'm going to miss the swimming!

Yuck! Pools usually only look like that if they're full of uncontrolled algae!

Well, further to my original post, I think it's unlikely we will go anywhere near beating the Dream Team but if we do it will mainly be due to the NBA players on our team, Bogut, Mills and Dellavadova. We do have a National Basketball League in Australia, but it's small and struggles to survive season by season. Here, it's all about rugby league football, Australian rules football and cricket. Basketball is seen as "too American" and it doesn't grab attention. I find this mystifying because I would far rather watch hoops than boring footy any day. So it's a minor miracle we have ANY players in the NBA and especially a point guard like Mills. You can understand Bogut being in demand anywhere in the world at 214cm but there must be thousands of players like Mills on the fringes of NBA selection. More power to him!

Cool - thanks for clearing that up! Quietly hoping Cam McEvoy can get us another gold tomorrow in the 100 metres freestyle, but I was so impressed by the effort of young Kyle Chalmers too. But I am loving the new geeky breed of Australian male swimmers. McEvoy is a physics student and Mitch Larkin is studying engineering. Go the four-eyes (from a fellow four-eyes!) I have wondered if either of them swim in prescription goggles.

She sure is. Wowsa! Straight woman but can certainly appreciate female beauty!

Hey, can we Aussies share that bronze? The commentators were saying he was born and bred here and has previously won Olympic gold competing for us! :)

Since there's no topic for this sport that I could find, I am assuming not many people care or think it's a joke that multimillionaire NBA players are even allowed to compete (but, well, hello, golf, tennis....) but as an Australian basketball fan who would just love to see our Boomers get a medal of ANY colour or description, I'm just putting this up in case anyone else wants to talk hoops!

I'm just watching this because our local network finally decided to show some gymnastics. "Oh, yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about - WHOO!" Nauseating indeed.

Just finished watching my recording of today's swimming session. Not a good one for the Australian team but hopefully there's still a medal or two coming. All of you who dislike Sun Yang, feel free to root for Mack Horton in the 1500m. ;) Random question: why are so many of the female swimmers wearing two bathing caps instead of one? Re the Phelps/Le Clos incident, I have decided to forgive Chad because he is so purty. /shallow Which is more than can be said for poor old Michael. I have seen Phelps crop up on a number of "hottest athletes" lists and I don't get it. He is, to use the Australian vernacular, a "prawn" (ie rip off the head, eat the body).

You'll never guess what the first words out of the Australian commentator Basil Zempilas's mouth were after the men's 4x100m freestyle relay: "And Michael Phelps has his 19th gold medal!" Yes, US folk, the disease has even infected Australia's normally uber-jingoistic swimming commentators! Meanwhile, I got a real kick out of learning this today.

I didn't see this but it sounds like typical Seven. And speaking of the swimmers, why can't the poolside commentators just let them walk off in peace when they are obviously really upset, like Emma McKeon was after the 100m butterfly? We didn't need to hear her tearfully telling us she was disappointed in her swim. The red eyes and sad face kind of gave that away.

We Australians clearly suck at gymnastics so the network covering the Olympics here is showing virtually none of it. I love watching gymnastics no matter what countries are involved but Channel 7 seems to think us viewers would prefer tedious hockey and rugby sevens games. So I am keeping up with the gymnastics purely via this thread. Thanks for the great info.

I guess the truth hurts. Is it too much to hope Mack can defeat Sun Yang again in the 1500?

Ha, so true! But you've got to admit, compared to the blue Bejing horror (hello, national colours, anyone?)... ..the atrocious Los Angeles 1984 "souvenir tea towel" look... ..and my personal favourite, the Barcelona "we're being attacked by huge insects" look... ..the current ones really aren't that bad!

If it's any consolation I thought the Australian uniforms were pretty crap too. Mind you, we have had far more offensive ones!

Very proud Aussie here who enjoyed today's finals session immensely! Particularly impressed by Mac Horton who seems a nice, non-arrogant young guy with a great attitude. Everyone saw where arrogance got our men's 100 metre freestyle swimmers in 2012. Watch and learn, James Magnusson.

Australian water polo player Rhys Howden. Sigh.

Australian viewer here who is only now getting to watch this latest season, so forgive my rather untimely remarks. I've watched two eps so far. Re the first episode I saw with Zeus the savannah cat and Sebastian, I really enjoyed the Zeus part of the episode because there's something about a decent and devoted "cat daddy" which really resonates with me. Beautiful cat but perfectly easy to understand how a cat of his background would be literally climbing the walls in a small apartment without lots of other stimulation. I totally agree with the above poster re Sebastian and his owners. Talk about unprepared! I find it hard to relate to episodes with truly problematic cats because in all my years as a cat owner (or being owned by cats, more like!), I have never had any that have behaved like that. My current kitty, Claude, is 15 years old and has always had the most beautiful nature. He would no sooner bite or scratch me than fly to the moon. And the only time he has ever hurt me is accidentally, when I am trying to get into his cat carrier, because he hates it so much and will go into a "bat" position and strike out to avoid going in. But that's it. I don't know how Sebastian's owners put up with his aggression for so long, unless they really didn't think there WAS a solution? Awww, I thought he was wonderful, and what a beautiful, sweet kitty Elsa was. As someone said upthread, it's nice to see episodes about cats who aren't just out and out aggressive, but have other types of behavioural issues. I also got quite misty-eyed over the blind cats and their foster carers, especially while watching the ginger one playing so happily. The Meki half of the episode, I found myself getting rather frustrated with his owner because she just couldn't see the forest for the trees and that she was a huge part of the problem. I've never seen a cat who would willingly want to go under their owner's shirt for comfort. He's a cat, not a kangaroo joey who needs to be in a pouch to feel safe!

Cheers, Wendy. I will have to look out for that one too.

Probably everyone else knew this but I never realised Peter Scanavino was another guest star who ends up with a spot as a permanent character. Just rewatching S14 E13, Monster's Legacy, and there he is as the janitor! Did a really good job, too, IMHO.

Carisi has definitely grown on me, too. I didn't like him much at first, and that's without ever having seen his first ever ep at the beginning of S16. I actually did see it the other day and he was irritating and unevolved, and on a shallow note he looked terrible with that pornstache. But fast forward to the end of S17, and without my even realising it, he's become one of my favourites.

I haven't had a chance to watch this episode yet but I had to come to this forum to confirm the inevitability of a Ricky win. Ah, good luck to him - he is certainly a talented dancer, but it was so obvious from so early in the season that he had it in the bag that I, like many others here, found the season incredibly dull. I'm from Australia and you all saw the winner of what was probably our last-ever SYTYCD (because the ratings were so crappy), Michael Dameski, and if that has to be our last season, it couldn't have had a more worthy winner. He is just brilliant. He did that solo wonderfully on our show but I saw a clip of his performance on your finale and he still found a way to improve upon it. Hopefully his performance may open up some opportunities for him in the US.