2012 Olympics

[robertoart]

Gold US-1 Aust-1 GB -0

Any Chinese forum members? You have bragging rights

[Tim McG]

Micheal Phelps gets nailed for a false start.

[robertoart]

Already controversy re-ticketing. It seems the best seats in the house for all events have gone to VIP's and corporates, who as usual don't turn up. Resulting in what looks like badly attended events. People beginning to complain that thousands are missing out on watching the games. I bet they'll all come out for the 'marquee event' finals though.

Macca didn't do Her Majesty at the opening ceremony

Edited July 29, 2012 by freelancer

[brownie]

So it was oldtimer Vinokourov who won the cycling road race!

Just hope we don't hear anything about foul play one more time...

[sidewinder]

Gold US-1 Aust-1 GB -0

Early days. Overtaking the Aussies ie scheduled for around mid-week.

[Adam]

And the Olympic flame is not visible outside the stadium. Dummies.

[robertoart]

Gold US-1 Aust-1 GB -0

Early days. Overtaking the Aussies ie scheduled for around mid-week.

I think our Olympic talking heads are expecting it. They are already rehearsing our excuses. Along the lines of 'Great Britain has modelled their preparation for these games on the Australian model. They have sunk lots of money into ensuring success, they have stolen our intellectual property...etc.etc.etc."

The excuses will be just like The Ashes, when the ball starts swinging and our middle order collapses

There is already a national outrage under way because our 4×100 relay team missed out on Gold.

Edited July 30, 2012 by freelancer

[Jazzjet]

Didn't see any of it but heard the radio reports - glad they went quirky rather than pomp and circumstance. Though I did catch Parry and Elgar in there.

Hilarious to hear the looney right getting all uptight. Hopefully they'll be a samba band and chicken tikka all round in the closing knees-up.

Somehow, a lot of the ceremony reminded me of Rob Young's 'Electric Eden' book brought to life, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

[RDK]

Good entrance by Her Maj..

My young daughters were complaining that the Queen always looks so dour/sad. "She's the Queen," they say, "why isn't she smiling and having fun?" It did take some effort to convince them that it wasn't really her parachuting out of that chopper.

[GregK]

Nothing interesting here. Wake me up when the Winter Olympics start.

[robertoart]

Day 4

Gold - US 9, France 4, Germany 2, Australia 1, GB 0

Well done France!

Bragging rights still belong to China.

C'mon Great Britain

[Aggie87]

8 Badminton players expelled for trying to lose their matches to secure lower seedings, and thus less competition (or something like that).

No offense to any supporters of badminton (or ping pong), but these just don't seem like Olympic sports to me.

[Soulstation1]

USA Basketball favored by 54 points

Win by ~ 47 points

[Big Wheel]

8 Badminton players expelled for trying to lose their matches to secure lower seedings, and thus less competition (or something like that).

No offense to any supporters of badminton (or ping pong), but these just don't seem like Olympic sports to me.

Certainly more of a sport than biathlon (which requires a machine), or rhythmic gymnastics or ice dancing (technically demanding interpretive dance). Ping pong at that level requires as much skill as regular tennis and probably better hand-eye coordination and reaction time.

As for USA basketball, they could have won by 60 if they'd opted not to showboat in the 1st and 4th quarters and keyed in on one Tunisian player who was draining open jumpers.

Edited August 1, 2012 by Big Wheel

[JSngry]

That high-level ping-pong scares/impresses the hell out of me. No way I could focus my reflexes that tightly and quickly.

[Big Wheel]

The NYT story on the badminton fiasco makes the badminton federation look pretty bad. They set up a dumb system this year and are now penalizing the players for playing strategically. Is this really so different from a swimmer who saves his energy for the big heats and takes it easy in the quals, just making sure he finishes 8th or whatever?

[brownie]

Shame on the Olympic officials for allowing a woman competitor from Saudi Arabia to take part in the women's judo event with a modified hijab

AP story in The Washington Post

The officials obviously bypassed the Olympic Charter principles that ban the use of religious, political or racial discrimination.

[GA Russell]

I find myself more impressed by the number of different athletes per country that win a medal than by the number of medals per se. A few great athletes like Michael Phelps skew the totals.

[ejp626]

Trying very hard not to get caught up in the Olympics hype (and not turning on the TV at all helps ).

Still, it sounds like the U.S. women's gymnastics team winning the gold was a pretty special moment. Might try to figure out a way to watch some of the highlights of that.

[mjb]

8 Badminton players expelled for trying to lose their matches to secure lower seedings, and thus less competition (or something like that).

No offense to any supporters of badminton (or ping pong), but these just don't seem like Olympic sports to me.

How about Beach Volleyball?

Yikes!

[papsrus]

The NYT story on the badminton fiasco makes the badminton federation look pretty bad. ...

Acknowledging that you're making a serious point about strategy and competition, and forgive me if you're a badminton enthusiast, but that's a funny line.

What's next, an international scandal in bicycling?

... oh wait.

[mjazzg]

Lord Bradley of Sideburn

[B. Goren.]

Wow! The Israeli tennis players, Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich won Federer and his partner in the couples games.

[sidewinder]

Lord Bradley of Sideburn

Everyone will be growing them now !

[mjazzg]

Lord Bradley of Sideburn

Everyone will be growing them now !

fertilser out here already .As the man said himself "not as popular since Noddy Holder" !!