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Here we start, guys!! I got tickets for boxing (men welter and fly eighth and quarterfinals) and for the women basketball semifinals.
But especially, for us living here in London....let the party start!!!!
Comments
Didn't see the Openning Ceremony as I was busy partying. Understand it was 'quirky'. Who says the Brits can't be taught anything.
Good to see Kazakhstan up there in 7th with 2 Gold.
Of FM member representation we have:
2nd: USA - 3-5-3-11
3rd: Italy 2-3-2-7
8th: Oz: 1-1-1-3
11th: Netherlands 1-1-0-2
16th: GB 0-1-1-2
Four days gone and our hopes and prayers are with Great Britain as she tries to find honour in defeat.
Team GB.... (such an underwhelming name) finally
get a gold in rowing. Nice of us to pull back to let
you win.
At the moment between the Chinese and yanks we are all
playing for the "well done" ribbon.
The opening ceremony was wonderful and the stadium 'cauldron' is symbolic. We weren't going to join the Barca/Atlanta/Sydney/Athens/Beijing game of 'my one is bigger than yours'. Not bigger: better.
You can imagine the past seven years in Britain have been dominated by people saying 'we won't build it, if we do it will be rubbish, the transport will fail, etc.,'. All fabulously wrong. Many people outside Greater London were ready to give us a good kicking and it is most pleasing that they have just had to shut it.
I have been to many venues in the past week and they are packed to the rafters, all the time. The pool and the velodrome top the list for me and the athletes love that fact that everything is together. I feel very lucky to be here and very proud to be a Londoner.
Returning to the medals: Australia is currently 19th. New Zealand 12th. Awkward.
to rip out the funding to the sports thinking we would still
finish in the top 5. Sent over a smaller than usual team, and this
is the result. Now they have to explain.
Anyhow, from what I've seen so far the facilities look great. GB have
put in a lot a money into the facilities and athletes. This will
also carry over to the next Olympics, and expect GB to do well again
in, is it Sao Paolo?
Gloat in your glory. We are a young team and this is our worst result since Montreal.
it's not over yet, and I think we will finish top ten.
As for the medal count - oooh....very awkward. Britain absolutely dominating the rowing and the cycling, and a big congrats to them for doing so. Very noticable that the medals are being spread around a lot more in these games, which itself is a testament to the effectiveness of institutionalised sports training, which is a lead that Oz held for too long, and is now paying off for everyone.
I still think that the Chinese swimmers are cheats though, and if anything, there needs to be some questions asked about the effectiveness of drug screening.
In the paraphrased words of Paul Keating, this is the Olympic Result that Australia had to have. They predicted 15 gold, and I thought maybe 10 would be closer. Well the way things stand, 6 would be the very best outcome that they could hope for, though the total number of medals will be close to original predictions. Twelve silver to date shows that the athletes were at the right level, by something missing in final preparation.
For someone who grew up in the era of Mark Spitz, the results from Phelps are amazing. I still think that Spitz was better because he had to achieve his results against East German GM prototypes.
A final note on proceedings to date. It is somehow bizarly British that the biggest scandal so far has been the manipulation of semi-final draws in the Badminton. ...............Badminton.
Been some pretty cool dramas though. I particularly liked the Korean girl that staged a sit-down protest for 70 minutes in the fencing till she had to be physically dragged away. Popular opinion ruled the day in the men's 4x400 realy to allow South Africa to embarass themselves in the final. And what about those crazy pole-vaulters? Seems that in that sport the athletes are the ones who decide who competes in the finals.
Quote of the meet has to be Mr Bolt: "I came here to with one goal - to become a legend. And your looking at one now". Does this guy have the same management team as Lewis Hamilton or what?
Absolutely awesome result for the Brits. Nothing can be taken away from their incredible improvement in comparison to recent decades. After the euphoria will of course come the hangover (just ask the Aussies on that one), but a fantastic games where their athletes have stepped up in a big, big way.
I was watching the medal ceremony for the K4 1000 and it really did strike me how happy the team from Hungary were. I can remember the seveties and eighties when the Eastern bloc athletes would stand stone-faced to receive their medals. To some degree their lack of enthusiasm was probably shame for their drug-assisted preparations, but also I think, because they didn't get it - the reason for the Olympics I mean. Now we see athletes from these countries having a great time and feeling what it is like to truly represent their country in the Olympic cauldron. Sadly, when I watch the athletes from China, and North Korea on the podium, I see the shadows of the former eastern bloc chiselled into their matter-of-fact, did-what-I was-told-to-do flat expressions. Sad.
There has been one incident off-the-ball as it were that is worth getting a bit more airplay. There is a free daily news magazine in Sydney, Melbourne and Briabane called Mx. I've never heard of it, but I guess if you are a commuter in these cities you may pick one up on the way to work on the train or whatever. In the spirit of cheekiness, this paper (and its website) presented a medal tally. On the medal tally bord they showed Soth Korea as 'Nice' Korea, and North Korea as 'Naughty' Korea. Cheeky, and you may get a momentary smile from reading it, but in all other respects, small audience, and who cares, right?
Almost unbelievably, the North Korean News Agency decided to respond directly to this 'attack' on the honest peoples of the peninsula. In the text, they refer to Brisbane Metro in error. The response was 14 pages long and has done wonders for mX in terms of advertising. A little of what the fun-loving North Korean Government had to say is reproduced below. :
The Australian newspaper Brisbane Metro behaved so sordid as to describe the DPRK as "Naughty Korea" when carrying the news of London Olympics standings.
This is a bullying act little short of insulting the Olympic spirit of solidarity, friendship and progress and politicizing sports.
Media are obliged to lead the public in today's highly-civilized world where mental and cultural level of mankind is being displayed at the highest level. Brisbane Metro deserves criticism for what it has done.
The paper behaved so foolish as to use the London Olympics that has caught the world interest for degrading itself.
The paper hardly known in the world must have thought of making its existence known to the world by joining other media in reporting the Olympic news.
Then it should have presented its right appearance to the world.
Editors of the paper were so incompetent as to tarnish the reputation of the paper by themselves by producing the article like that.
There is a saying "A straw may show which way the wind blows". A single article may exhibit the level of the paper.
Many people were unanimous in denouncing the small paper for defaming the mental and moral aspects of the players of the DPRK who earned recognition from several appreciative world famous media.
Even hostile forces toward the DPRK heaped praises on its players' successful performance at the London Olympics, saying that "Korea whirlwind" sweeps the world.
The Australian paper cooked up the way of moneymaking, challenging the authority of the dignified sovereign state. The paper deserves a trifle sum of dirty money.
As already known, it was reported that a lot of petty thieves sneaked into the London Olympics together with tourists. Players fight to the finish in the stadium, but those petty thieves demonstrate their "skills" outside the stadium.
The paper Brisbane Metro is little different from those petty thieves. In a word, the paper discredited itself. How pitiful it is.
The Brisbane Metro will remain as a symbol of rogue paper for its misdeed to be cursed long in Olympic history. The infamy is the self-product of the naughty paper Brisbane Metro which dared challenge the spirit of Olympic, common desire and unanimous will of mankind.
Ah yes, Kim like dad has no sense humour. Upset over naughty!!! I'm sure we can think of
a few tasty names that would be a declaration of war...
But they were "Happy and Glorious". Surely after the chaos that was Athens
and the boring that was Beijing, he could think of more deserving platitudes?
[Edited on 14-8-12 by SuperRoo]
Would be disingenuous to quibble though. The Brits did a great job, and the national spirit flowing from the way that the population responded to the games is very heartening (if that comment can be taken without inference to being in any way patronising).
The problem with benchmarking the orgnisation stems from the fact that Sydney simply took the orgnaisation to a new level. That sticks in the minds of all who were involved and was reinforced by journalists that were overcome by the effort that was put into making them feel good.
The fact is though, that London actually built from that benchmark and did things that were unique and wonderful. Simon called it quality - which I think is not the right word to use. London, and Great Britain were showcased in a way that destroyed stereotypes,and demonstrated what is important for that country. They excelled in organisation, nice British touches and a powerful and unforgetable (unrepeatable??) performance in the comptetitions themselves.
They should be proud, and others should not measure their achievement against others.
I do have one point though.... what is with the skimping on the bouguets? Talk about a pocket full of posies.
Other than that - A fantastic Olympic games that were thoroughly enjoyable to watch. In particular the Brits handed us an absolute thumping in the cycling and rowing, and with the non-appearance of our swim squad, made for an very ordinary Australian performance that will be much debated in the comming months. Sixteen silver medals told a story of 'almost' that was heartbreaking for our sports fans.
So now it is on the Commonwealth Games which - if form holds - will see a changing of the guard there as well. The combined medals for the countries of Great Britain were 197 in 2010, against 177 for Australia (though Golds were 51 GB v 74 Aus)
London '48 introduced the volunteers and Sydney took it to a new level. London 2012 called them 'gamesmakers' and they were a hit. Just goes to prove how powerful volunteering is compared to clock-watching, minimum-waging.
Lease, you are correct, it was that cuddly, old fascist Samaranch who felt it was his job to travel the world 'dictating' his own ratings. Rogge put a stop to that. Nice guy. Sailor.
And congrats to Britain for how their athletes worked, prepared themselves and performed.
You guys didn't need to steal the gold in the supermaximum weight boxing from Cammarelle in the last day though.....that was a clear theft.
And like 4 years ago, the heroes were Bolt and Phelps, forever delivered to the olympus of the sports legends.
Roll on the paralympics, now.....and (gosh!!!) I'm terrified at the idea that in a few days it's bloody football again!!!