Linux Format forums

Re: Olympic opening

MartyBartfast — Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:46 pm

Author: MartyBartfast

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:46 pm

Marrea wrote:

bobthebob1234 wrote:

If you people don't like it then your loss.

Precisely!

Watching Bradley Wiggins' achievements made me proud to be British. And the showjumping was great too. The horses and riders are so beautifully turned out it's a pleasure to watch. Makes a pleasant change from scruffy footballers with their tattoos and long hair held back by alice bands.

Bet it was great to be at the rowing too !

Re: Olympic opening

Marrea — Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:35 pm

Author: Marrea

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:35 pm

bobthebob1234 wrote:

If you people don't like it then your loss.

Re: Olympic opening

towy71 — Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:07 am

Author: towy71

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 9:07 am

I have tickets for the main stadium next Thursday and I will be going to watch athletes competing in the decathlon, 400m heats etc.,
The cycling has been pretty exciting and beach volley ball excited some comment in my houseful of women

Re: Olympic opening

MartyBartfast — Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:14 pm

Author: MartyBartfast

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:14 pm

Went to see the 3 day eventing showjumping at Greenwich yesterday and it was fantastic (and I'm not very sporty), mind you I'd be pretty cheesed off if I'd stumped up to go to last nights Badminton!

Re: Olympic opening

bobthebob1234 — Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:50 pm

Author: bobthebob1234

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 9:50 pm

Well I enjoyed it and have watched some of the sport and I am going to see the hockey next weekend so there. If you people don't like it then your loss.

And if handled correctly afterwards it should be a good thing for the country

Re: Olympic opening

Rhakios — Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:20 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:20 pm

Ah yes and once upon a time amateurs were amateurs and so on. Sport is a business, not a past time, these days. Just like most things really.

Re: Olympic opening

nelz — Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:15 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:15 pm

I didn't say it financed the Olympic, but it is the largest contributor. As a pure sporting event, it doesn't need the razzamataz, but people clearly enjoy it and the Olympics is no longer purely a sporting event (if it ever was), more a festival based around a sporting event. People enjoy it, people take pride in it. I always went to the TT for the bike racing, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the other events that took place during the fortnight.

Re: Totally OTT

Nuke — Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:39 pm

Author: Nuke

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 1:39 pm

nelz wrote:

Nuke wrote:

It should not cost that much to promote sports, compete in them, nor to televise it.

The sale of television rights is the largest source of income for the Olympics. TV needs the Olympics spectacle and the Olympics needs the TV money, even if some of it does go on the spectacle.

My assertion stands, and I understand that the sale of TV rights is far, far short of financing the Olympics. In recent years no Olympics have "made money", whatever that means. It is hosted for the prestige, whatever that means. Some Hoteliers, hookers, restauranteurs and sellers of Olympic tat might make a lot of money, but the host nation as a whole does not.

Thousands of lower-key sports events are televised all year round without needing to be launched with a four-hour Royal Variety Show.

Re: Olympic opening

Ram — Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:54 pm

Author: Ram

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:54 pm

Well the TdF is one event I do watch... saw glimpses of the Olympics RR but went out on my mtb instead.

Re: Totally OTT

nelz — Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:54 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:54 pm

Nuke wrote:

It should not cost that much to promote sports, compete in them, nor to televise it.

The sale of television rights is the largest source of income for the Olympics. TV needs the Olympics spectacle and the Olympics needs the TV money, even if some of it does go on the spectacle.

Totally OTT

Nuke — Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:16 pm

Author: Nuke

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 12:16 pm

I'm sorry, but I think the Olympics have gone completely over the top, the opening ceremony above all else. I saw a bit and it was nothing to do with sport, it was a Variety Show. IMHO the Olympics should be scaled back to just the track and field athletics. To spend that amount of money ... for what? It should not cost that much to promote sports, compete in them, nor to televise it.

My own sport is road cycle racing. I still watch it on TV, but in my active days I regularly rode against Sean Yates (now Sky team manager with Wiggins and Cavendish under him) and Phil Ligget (now TdF lead commentator). I once came 5th in the Southern England championships. So I am hardly anti-sport.

But cycle racing, like many other sports, has its own traditions. The cycling Olympics are just another World Cycling Championships which are held yearly anyway, but even these are nowhere near as as significant as the three Grand Tours (of France, Italy and Spain) or even some of the one-day classics such as Milan - San Remo. I hardly remember any World/Olympic champions (OK, Cavendish, Simpson and Merckx ... ), but I could tell you most of the Tour de France winners since it began.

I saw Chris Boardman, former multiple Olympic gold medallist, say a fortnight ago on TV (quite unabashed but brave I think), that he would have swapped all of his Olympic medals for just one win in the Tour de France. Any serious racing cyclist would have said the same.

Cycle racing does not need the Olympics.

Re: Olympic opening

AndyBaxman — Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:30 am

Author: AndyBaxman

Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:30 am

catgate wrote:

I'm rather puzzled about it all.
Here we have this gigantic racist event, held every four years, with each nation that "stages" the farce trying to "out do" the last nation that wasted billions in trying proving their "superiority" in bad taste and lunacy, by spending record sums in proving their immaturity.
Why should a nation claim credit for the efforts of one of its citizens just because that citizen happened to be born with the ability to run/jump/row/throw/spit/fart better/harder/faster/higher than other members of the human race.
It really is a great big con.
Most of the world can get along nicely without any interest at all in "athletics" for the rest of the four year period, but then they are expected to feel obliged to scream and shout and wave the flag in this gigantic racist festival of incompetence.
Still it's good for the "sponsers" and the IOC committee.

Yeah, my PE teacher was a b'stard, too.

Still love the Olympics, though.

Re: Olympic opening

Rhakios — Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:20 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:20 pm

Hmm, sounds like a cross between football and children's parties.

Re: Olympic opening

catgate — Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:08 pm

Author: catgate

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:08 pm

I'm rather puzzled about it all.
Here we have this gigantic racist event, held every four years, with each nation that "stages" the farce trying to "out do" the last nation that wasted billions in trying proving their "superiority" in bad taste and lunacy, by spending record sums in proving their immaturity.
Why should a nation claim credit for the efforts of one of its citizens just because that citizen happened to be born with the ability to run/jump/row/throw/spit/fart better/harder/faster/higher than other members of the human race.
It really is a great big con.
Most of the world can get along nicely without any interest at all in "athletics" for the rest of the four year period, but then they are expected to feel obliged to scream and shout and wave the flag in this gigantic racist festival of incompetence.
Still it's good for the "sponsers" and the IOC committee.

Re: Olympic opening

nelz — Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:49 am

Author: nelz

Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:49 am

AndyBaxman wrote:

And the lighting of the cauldron was totally inspired. A bit of it brought in by each team and then lit by the next generation of athletes (when everyone was expecting some celebrity sportsperson to get the honour) was a pure genius.

I agree totally, some parts were a little odd, but the lighting was pure genius. I imagine quite a few people groaned when Redgrave took the torch from Beckham to carry into the stadium.

I just heard on the radio that one of the seven that lit the cauldron didn't even tell his parents he was doing it.