by Dong Zhou » Wed Aug 01, 2012 5:39 pm
-Personally preferred the Athens Opening Ceremony and will be interested to see, in a few years, what the defining image will be of the London opener. Would have cut out the music scene, used Tim Berners-Lee in something else, the Beatles man and the NHS bit but kept the fantasy tales bit. Went on too long but with the odd spectacular moment and a lot of enjoyable humor, really liked how they did the flame light thing and credit to the bookies for refunding all bets on that. Probably the best way to deal with the Beijing factor, go another way entirely.
-Yeah, the NBC ignoring the memorial, it's Twitter disaster and that it likes to avoid showing things live then spoil the results just before showing it has become noted over here. Over here, the BBC has gone all out and bar an early issue with the men's cycling, done pretty well. Sure there are the usual complaints by some over certain commentators (for me, football commentator Mark Lawrenson who is a nasty piece of work as well as incompetent) and those who wonder why it is giving over everything to sports but that is to be expected. It is a pleasant surprise given the general impression of dire Jubilee coverage and getting out done by ITV in terms of punditry at the Euro's. I personally like it when they use John McEnroe and Michael Johnson together, they banter so well.
-The problems that were predicted, transport chaos, overcrowding of the city and disgruntled Englanders haven't happened. Indeed seems to be a problem with too few people taking in the sites and going out. There was a lot of complaints, some understandable concerns, some being anti-London and some seemed to be whining for the sake of our national past-time, but wherever the torch went, it got greeted with crowds. So on the day of the Opening ceremony, a party atmosphere seemed to descend where I live and seems to have descended over a fair bit of the land.
The problems are more empty seats, which seems to be problems with the Olympic family which we can't do much about but is generating bad feeling. However each and every day, some new story of organizational chaos and incompetence is popping up, some of it quite bad. Getting rather embarrassing: keys to Wembley stolen, food running out, the Visa card system breaking down, cycling GPS information unable to get through, confusing the flags of North and South Korea, collapsing seats...
-Not followed the Olympics today but vaguely aware we have won gold today. Pleased becuase that may shut the press up about our lack of medals and get them to concentrate on sports. I suspect had Zoe Smith not talked of the twitter abuse and the abuse Tom Daley got from one person caught the headlines, the press would have turned on a few of the swimmers/divers rather then kept with the "honorable effort" line they have been doing. Of course I am delighted when we do well, particularly when it was a surprise and may reinvigorate us in a sport we tend to do badly in. Gymnastics is a good example, press very excited about what our male and female gymnasts have done this tournament and the publicity may help the sport over here.
-Was somewhat pleased to see Lizzie Armitstead using the press coverage after her narrow defeat to the impressive Marianne Vos to complain about the sexism in cycling. At least it is getting some discussion on the issue and shining an embarrassing light on the sport.
-I do hope headscarves in Judo don't cause a problem.
-Watched the men's football live, watched the bbc highlights show for the rest. Enjoy seeing the swimming highlights and the beach volleyball is entertaining, also enjoy seeing the gymnasts.
-I also like the Olympics because you see the good, the sad and the ugly. Heart break for one, a moment of glory for another, human decency sometimes appearing as well as it's darkness. Some nice tales about individual athletes.
-We have seen the dark side of the games. Rumors of a betting scam by one Ireland competitor, Albanian teenager weightlifter Hysen Pulaku ejected due to failed drug test, ditto Moroccan 1,500m runner Mariem Alaoui Selsouli and Hungarian discus thrower Zoltan Kovago out for failing to provide a sample. A provisional ban for Uzbekistan gymnast Luiza GaliulinaYe Shiwen performs majestically in the pool so immediately gets accused of doping which greatly saddened me, Michel Morganella and Voula Papachristou expelled for racist tweets, Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang vs Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na turning into a loser takes all badminton game. Lots of protests against officials like Spain football team, water-polo team and South Korean Shin A Lam, extreme bitterness by men's cyclists like Mark Cavendish. South Korean sailing coach, Lee Jae-cheol was sent home for drink-driving, twitter users abusing athletes.
For sadness: Athletes like Paula Radcliffe injured, athletes were they don't perform quite well enough or had a horrible moment and are distraught like Jordyn Wieber, Anastasia Grishina and Ksenia Afanaseva or the sheer frustration of Euan Burton with himself. In a way, sad to see Michael Phelps struggling even as he breaks the medal record, he looks look a man whose time at the top has passed. More importantly, there has been a death with Turkish boxing ref assistant Garip Erkuyumcu in his hotel room.
Glory like Brazilian female striker Cristiane getting her record 11th Olympic goal on the first day as they put five past Cameroon, a hopeless South Africa losing 4-1 to an impressive Sweden but Portia Modise's shot from the half way line over Sweden keeper Hedvig Lindahl's head was the moment that was remembered. The blind archer Im Dong-Hyun catching the headlines on the offical opening day. Seeing Ryan Lochte, Allison Schmitt, Sun Yang, Missy Franklin, Ye Shiwen, Cameron van der Burgh, Camille Muffat, Rūta Meilutytė, Yannick Agnel flying through the water, Marianne Vos pushing ahead of her rivals at the last, the acrobatics of Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan.
Tales like judo champion Sarah Menezes and veteran gymnast Anna Dogonadze. Seeing sporting reactions like female cylists patting Vos and Armitstead to congratulate them, swimmers congratulating the victor, defeated Ole Bischof hugging the tearful Kim Jae-Bum. The cheering of former swimmer Hamadou Djibo Issaka performing for Niger as a rower and he keeps going despite the defeats he suffers.