2008 Summer Olympics

[d_24]

They're kicking off right now! What do people think then? Anyone care this year? I'll be watching a few events but on the whole I can never get too enthusiastic over The Games. Mind you this has been the most controversial Olympics I can remember. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the protests. I also heard from the beeb that over 1 billion people will be watching these games and that GB is predicted to bring home 35 gold medals.

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Before Bauer...There Was House

[eagle]

The opening ceremony was amazing. Really well presented, and technically spectacular.

I'd like to think that the British ceremony would be as good, but I suspect the planners might be shitting themselves that they've only got 4 years to prepare for it, and that it might not be quite as good as the Chinese.

That said, it would be hard to improve on the Chinese ceremony, considering that all our workers would clock off at 5pm on the dot, not work weekends and demand extra pay if they were told to smile.
Well, it's either that or threaten people with imprisonment if they choose not to help publicise the country

[Power Metal Dom]

Quoting eagle from 14:51, 8th Aug 2008
The opening ceremony was amazing. Really well presented, and technically spectacular.

I'd like to think that the British ceremony would be as good, but I suspect the planners might be shitting themselves that they've only got 4 years to prepare for it, and that it might not be quite as good as the Chinese.

Exactly what I thought. The scale and the precision of the mass chereographed performances were breathtaking. The printing press blocks and the big globe were highlights for me.

Worth noting that outside of all these celebrations the following have happened:

• Three US activists were detained while attempting to mount a pro-Tibet protest near the national stadium, according to the Associated Press.

• A protester tried to set himself alight outside the Chinese embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara, as Chinese Muslims protested against alleged rights violations in China.

• An Air China flight bound for Beijing from Tokyo was forced to turn back after an Olympic-related bomb threat was received.

• Exiled Tibetans held angry protests in Nepal, with hundreds reported to have been arrested in the capital, Kathmandu.

• Hundreds of Buddhist monks tried to storm the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, India, in protest at Beijing's Tibet policies.

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Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool

[Pinecone]

Bloody hell! The torch-lighting was amazing!

[Hennessy]

I doubt the British celebrations will be held without some form of protest from someone crawling out of the woodwork. Probably anarchists or environmentalists or anti-war coalitionists. They all seem to belong to the same group of broad-left "ists" don't they?

Nothing against protest of course, just wondering whether these sorts of people actually do anything else with their lives.


Anyway Beijing Opening Ceremony was a bloody good show I thought, and London 2012 will be another great show, as long as we don't get the people who organised the millenium "events" back on board.



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The Sinner.
"Apologies in advance for pedantry."

[Freaker]

I saw it here in China, which added a lot of goosebumps-feeling to it at times - people stood up clapping, screaming, cheering when the Chinese team came in (and the ones of Taiwan and Hongkong), and gasped when it looked like the flame had gone out as he was doing his round at the top.

Although the organisers must be freaking mad about the Russian army's timing, and that the media is (rightly so) more busy reporting on the upcoming war in Georgia than the Ceremony.


On a side note: Was there anything about a Tibetan flag or so during the marching in of the athletes? The Chinese broadcast cut out twice for about half a minute each (it was sent with 20seconds delay in the first place to allow for censoring), but that may just have been technical problems with the digital TV in the place I was at.

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I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

[Aureliano]

London's 2012 opening ceremony should have a dance choreography scripted by Bill Bailey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYjfsXgd ... re=related

Just imagine replacing Beijing's thematic scroll with a huge unfolding Argos catalogue. That would be pure genius.

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http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102835

[Power Metal Dom]

A giant laminated book of dreams would be excellent ^_^

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Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool

[Fawksie]

You know why it's laminated, don't you? To catch the tears of joy!

[Anon.]

It was pretty staggering.

Every time I think about the Olympics I writhe at the thought of how much of an enormous national embarrassment the London Olympics are going to be. What deluded lunatics thought the bid was a good idea?! If you're generally pretty rubbish as a nation at doing grand projects (e.g. the Millennium celebrations) or even building something properly (e.g. the Scottish Parliament building) then surely the best thing is to keep your head down and not draw attention to this failing, instead of putting yourself in a situation where the ENTIRE WORLD will be able to witness your ineptitude?

[Bread Roll]

Hooray for Team GB's first gold medal from Nicole Cooke!

A bit disappointing for the archery team though, but looking forward to the diving tomorrow and hopefully some more world records tumbling in the pool too.

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CALLBACK!!?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

[Cain]

I saw the recap of the swimming yesterday afternoon in Trafalgar Square. It was quite fun, but the broadcast went off once BBC1's coverage was off the air and we had adverts instead.

I wish that I have more than 5 channels so that I could sit down and watch the hockey, but Freeview refuses to pick up more than no channels.

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I hold an element of surprise

[Anon.]

Quoting eagle from 14:51, 8th Aug 2008
The opening ceremony was amazing. Really well presented, and technically spectacular.

...and computer-generated:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... faked.html

[d_24]

Quoting Anon. from 04:08, 11th Aug 2008

Quoting eagle from 14:51, 8th Aug 2008
The opening ceremony was amazing. Really well presented, and technically spectacular.

...and computer-generated:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/others ... faked.html

Eh? It was magnificent because of the human involvement not a few graphics on a screen.

GB grabs a few more medals. Rebecca Adlington got gold and Joanne Jackson got bronze in the Women's 400m freestyle. Good stuff.

What pisses me off though is the flagrant disregard for sportsmanship and Olympic spirit that the Americans had in the swimming. If I see Michael Phelps or anyone else hollering like that again I'll bloody hold them under the water.

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Before Bauer...There Was House

[Bonnie]

Come off it. That is the same exact reaction every single athlete in the entire Games is reacting when they win the gold. And that finish was SPECTACULAR! The cameras are focusing on Phelps (including long range mics) so of course it looks like he's roaring more than others (because, quite literally, he's winning more gold medals than anyone else in the world-- everyone else would be lucky for their 30 second shout to be filmed just once, but because he's won three times, he gets three shouts, taped and repeated over and over again. It's still one shout per gold, which I think it acceptable). Didn't you see Kitajima's yell? He practically swam across the pool again, his yell was so powerful.
i don't know if he'll make his 8, though. Aussie-Thorpey-boy still has talent.


And like I said in my Livejournal. I really don't want to lose to China on medal count. Not enough to go out to perfect a discipline and bump up our count, but enough to shake my head when I see that we're down.

While living in the UK, I completely forgot what it felt like to watch the Games, to root on the little gymnasts and applaud even when the Chinese/ Russians/ Romanians also show great talent and skill; to learn about a sport I knew nothing about previously because it happened to be on TV rhythmic gymnastics anyone? or power walking? Or watch the "Chinese Taipei"/ aka Taiwan (notice how the media are very careful because they don't want to offend) vs China in badminton-- a sport we Americans view like croquet, you play it at a Sunday picnic for five minutes before your boredom kicks in and you switch to volleyball.

After living in the UK, where, forgive me, the media doesn't get the chance to report winning very often, I forgot what it felt like to CARE about the Olympics!

Everyone likes to be on the WINNING side and if you deny it, you obviously have never been on the winning side. It's the opposite of that dread many of you are feeling about the London Game- you don't want to disappoint and are already preparing to do so. Only after Friday's ceremony did it hit me-- hey, I'm back where we kick butt! I'm not trying to be obnoxious but try to imagine the opposite of that "impending dread" feeling and you just might know what I mean-- it's pride. Yeah, nationalistic pride in something I personally played no part, but pride all the same.

And now I can't wait for the Winter Games. I have a little secret about those--sometimes, I cheer for Canada. (Because in some sports, they're down right good!)

[d_24]

tl;dr

He acted like a twat. As does Andy Murray when he wins. Not that he's being doing a lot of that recently.

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Before Bauer...There Was House

[Power Metal Dom]

A silver medal went David Florence in the men's Canoeing slalom and I think a bronze has been won in some equestrian event.

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Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool

[lizzie_liz]

Quoting Power_Metal_Dom from 15:04, 12th Aug 2008
I think a bronze has been won in some equestrian event.

Britain have indeed just want 2 bronze medals in the Eventing, a team bronze and an individual bronze for Tina Cook who came into the team at a very late stage after Zara Philips and one other memeber dropped out.

[Anon.]

Quoting d_24 from 12:58, 11th Aug 2008
Eh? It was magnificent because of the human involvement not a few graphics on a screen.

Apparently the human involvement was not entirely real either:

http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/Article ... id=9201384

[Power Metal Dom]

Quoting Anon. from 20:25, 12th Aug 2008

Quoting d_24 from 12:58, 11th Aug 2008
Eh? It was magnificent because of the human involvement not a few graphics on a screen.

Apparently the human involvement was not entirely real either:

http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/Article ... id=9201384

Who didn't see that the little girl was miming? Pretty obvious.

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Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool