London 2012 Olympic Games

[James]

Thought I'd give the 2012 Olympic Games a home here.

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[Ranbir]

Best Olympics Ever.

Ceremonies and Performances. Best EVER.


The weightlifting has been boss.

[James]

So I'm not really big into following the olympic games myself, but a few news stories have caught my attention, and I'm not beyond appreciating the somewhat disheartening way in which NBC seems to be handling the charge they paid so much for.

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NBC skipped what was widely acknowledged as a tribute to victims of the bombings that took place in London on July 7, 2005 so we could, instead, enjoy an interview between Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps. Their first response, once this became known, was to respond that it "wasn't tailored for the U.S. audience." Apparently we'd rather enjoy People-magazine-like drama? They later suggested that they didn't even know that it could be interpreted as a tribute. True, that wasn't distributed with the program, but it was pretty common knowledge among those who were covering it (and indeed, many who were tuning in to watch it) and that would represent a pretty startling lack of effort to understand the opening ceremony they were editing up for their 'U.S. audience'.

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On July 30, Twitter banned the account of journalist Guy Adams, after he posted a string of tweets which was highly critical of Twitter. It seemed suspect, but there was also a clear violation of their ToS: he posted a private email address belonging to an NBC executive. Still, it seemed off-balance, but it was a clear violation.

Today, July 31, it turns out that Twitter actually went out of its way to notify NBC of the journalist's tweets, which is just ugly.

[Ranbir]

The stadium announcer announced it just before. Pretty nutty.

Also Romney being a tool, and our own Conservative Adrian Burley MP calling it a left communist ceremony.

Best Ceremony Ever.

Great drama in the gymnastics, the USA were flawless though so the Russian penalties wouldn't have mattered.

[James]

Also Romney being a tool, and our own Conservative Adrian Burley MP calling it a left communist ceremony.

Really? I'm trying to find a link to what he [Romney] said but I'm having trouble. Do you happen to have something handy? It surprises me only a little as I'm not having too much trouble finding similar comments from others on the American 'right' (e.g. that windbag Limbaugh).

Best Ceremony Ever.

I enjoyed it. I missed China's, though, which still seems to be seen as the golden standard. I need to find it in video form somewhere, but that's proven to be a little challenging on the few occasions I've tried.

[Shen Ai]

Really good opening ceremony. Romney was proven wrong.

It slowed down at the end but the bit with the Industrial Revolution was brilliant.

That and Rowan Atkinson's appearance was the highlight. The Queen and Craig narrowly missed out on the top spot. I really want to see the Queen parachute in.


England, I mean, Britain, hasn't been doing so well I heard, or from when I last checked. I was horrified when I heard about the Cycling team.

Sun won the swimming, two medals I think, he beat the Korean champ and Ryan Lochte. Impressive.

Canada got a Bronze though, in diving I believe. We better hang on to that. Probably our last medal till the Winter Games.

[Ranbir]

Britain used up all their win on the ceremony.



James, basically Romney was asked, once he was in London, if he felt we were ready and if everything was set to go etc. It was a political gaffe, really. Once you're there, city of your major ally, you should just go, 'yes, they're ready, everything is good'. What he said was ultimately used as ammunition from the Mayor to declare we are ready and then even the PM responded to itwhen questioned.



Most reviews have made point of the contrast; both nations making different statements. You should be able to get it on DVD.

[Human5]

I enjoyed London's opening ceremony, but the Beijing's opening ceremony and performance was much better.

[Dong Zhou]

-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.

[Ranbir]

First Olympics for many women this 2012. A lot of Muslim nations allowing women to compete for the first time in history.