| Footage of Olympic Tapes
The Olympic Tapes are available.
5 two-hour tapes, one for each weapon. These are high-quality (ok,
so they're also second-generation due to PAL->NTSC conversion) tapes
taped from European broadcasts of the fencing events. These are not
hand-held, shot over someone's shoulders videotape. Many have slo-mo
replay highlights and shots from various angles. Play-by-play coverage
is provided by the Swedish group, so sorry about not being able to
translate what's said. That said, it's better than that James Chambers
guy who keeps mistaking a beat-attack for a parry-riposte (by the other
guy).
Moral of the story from the Olympics: FOOTWORK, FOOTWORK, FOOTWORK!!
Also: The french really think too highly of themselves.
Tape Code Tape Synopsis
================================================== ===================
MS Men's Sabre. Semi final bouts between Ferenscik and
Gourdain, and Kothny and Covaliu. Then bronze bout
between Kothny and Ferenscik. Then gold bout between
Gourdain and Covaliu. Then, bronze match between
Germany and Romania. Then gold match between Russia
and France. Very good actions. Fairly clear resolution
and nice camera work. I took the liberty to edit out
many replays and dead-time between the action so that
all actions could fit on one tape.
WF Women's Foil. Semi final bout between Vezzali and
Badea. Semi final bout between Koenig and Trillini.
Bronze between Trillini and Badea. Gold between
Koenig and Vezzali. Then gold medal match between
Italy and Poland, then bronze match between Germany
and USA. The bronze match between Germany and USA
is missing the crucial last 3+ minutes when Ann Marsh
is called for covering target (and got hit on a riposte
as well). Vezzali cleans up big time, completely
demolishing the opponents. Her patented attack-remise
with close-in just baffles the opponents who can't
get the point on her.
MF Men's Foil. Bronze bout between Ferrari and Chevtschenko.
Gold medal bout between Kim and Bissdorf. Then bronze
team match between Italy and Poland, then gold match
between France and China. The Ferrari-Chevtschenko bout
starts from 0-0, then at 3-2 or so, jumps via commercial
(cut out) to 13-11 or so. Still, lots of good fencing
and clearly showing the different style between the hot-
head Ferrari and the cooler (but almost somnabulant)
Chevtschenko. The Kim Bissdorf bout is worth watching
for the emotional aspect as well as very clear, precise
motions. The Italy-Poland bronze team bout is good to
see what footwork means and how to do it (the Italian
way). The China-France gold medal bout unfortunately
died near the fifth encounter. Too bad. Brice Guyart
is the man to watch in the near future. Very good
footwork and clean handwork.
WE Women's Epee. Gianna Habluetzel-Buerki beats Logounova
in a very defensive game (but watch the beautiful toe
touches and the incredible footwork). Timea Nagy beats
the wasp, Laura Flessel-Colovic with a gutsy fake attack,
parry-riposte. Laura is clearly a superior athlete, but
it was Nagy's day. Then Laura blows away Logounova in the
bronze while Nagy and Habluetzel-Buerki trade touches to
the bitter end. I only have the bronze team bout (and only
part of it), showing China behind when the tape ends.
China wins, though.
ME Men's Epee. Boy, what a show! Hugues Obry beats Marcel
Fischer in a shortened segment (shortened by Eurosport).
Obry must have the biggest mouth around. Then, we watch
the bronze bout between Fischer and Lee of Korean. Lee
wins at the end 15-14. Very good fencing, and quite a
departure from the antics of France and Italy. Next up,
Pavel Kolobkov beats Hugues quite convincingly. And
Pavel doesn't have to show his fillings. I skipped the
bronze team bout between Cuba and Korean because it
showed just the last three touches between Trevejo and
Lee. It was quick and painless as Cuba wins 45-30. I
needed to remove that to include the complete (as complete
as I could get...still had to edit out portions of dead
time) between Italy and France. Boy! talk about chutzpah
and braggadoccio. Milanoli of Italy is one ballsy guy.
Watch his antics on the strip and see if you can duplicate
that on your bouts. Perhaps the US fencers can learn
some from this tape. You gotta do some rope-a-dope
Ali action to get under your opponent's skin. The match
ends tied 39-39 (or so) after Rota catches up with two
quick hits on Obry. Then in the one-minute extra-time,
Rota makes a very basic parry-riposte to the back hip
of Obry. Obry cries like the baby he is. Wonderful tape
to show that there's no love lost between France and Italy.
You can clearly see that nationality and competitive
enmity is deeper and thicker than the desire to win Aussie
gold.
Ordering instructions:
Send email to: edew (at) handspring (dot) com (You know what to replace
the (at) and (dot), right?). Please make sure to put the following on
the subject line:
2000 Olympic Fencing Tapes
(I'm creating a wizard on MS Outlook to move all such subject headings
to a separate mailbox. Otherwise, I might neglect to do it.)
Choose which tape(s) you want by the above code names.
They're pretty self explanatory: MS, WF, MF, WE, ME.
Put a number next to each indicating the quantity of that tape.
Example:
2000 Olympic Fencing Tapes
MF2
WE1
ME1
Make sure your email address is correct so that I can reply directly to
that email address (don't put those "NOSPAM" strings within your
email address).
I will then mail you the cost (cost is $25/tape with $10 off if you get
the whole set) and snail-mail address to send the check.
Make check payable to "Eric Dew" and YOU MUST INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED
MAILING LABEL. Go to the Post Office and pick one up. It's free there.
Or, go to a stationery store and buy some address label or name badge
label labels. CLEARLY WRITE OUT YOUR MAILING ADDRESS. Please don't
send me those small return address labels; I might lose them.
THE MAILING LABEL IS THE ONLY RECORD THAT YOU ORDERED TAPES. Once I
cash that check, I don't know who you are, so if you don't have a mailing
label, it won't get sent to you.
Lastly, I can only offer this at the price of $25/tape assuming many people
will buy it. There is much fixed cost which I hope to spread out among
people. It would discourage future tapes if only one person buys it and
dupes it for friends.
Deadline for orders is Jan 31, 2001.
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