New Olympics thread London 2012

[Penthesilea]

Great work, UK! I watched the entire thing, beginning to end.

Me too! Went out for a cigarrete break twice, and guess what? Missed the Queen/James Bond segment (and John's video doesn't play for me). We could hear the kids laughing so hard about it.

My favorite were also Mr. Bean and the party in the hosue. I also liked that pop culture songs were present throughout the ceremony, the Brits paraded to Bowie's "Heroes" and so on.
And only the Brits would include humor in such a way into what is often a too forcedly solemn, and thus boring, event.

I also love to see the athletes parading, Jeff! And I'm proud to say that the Germans' costumes were not the most ugly ones this time 'round! Still horrendous colors, but hey, I've seen worse.

We always cheered when a country marched in where we knew people living there. That was fun! My kids have friends from Morocco and Brazil, and I got to cheer most often, with so many Brokies around the globe! Canada, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, US, UK from the top of my head.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Me too! Went out for a cigarrete break twice, and guess what? Missed the Queen/James Bond segment (and John's video doesn't play for me). We could hear the kids laughing so hard about it.

The lady definitely has a sense of humor. 

I also love to see the athletes parading, Jeff! And I'm proud to say that the Germans' costumes were not the most ugly ones this time 'round! Still horrendous colors, but hey, I've seen worse.

 

[delalluvia]

Me too! Went out for a cigarrete break twice, and guess what? Missed the Queen/James Bond segment (and John's video doesn't play for me). We could hear the kids laughing so hard about it.

My favorite were also Mr. Bean and the party in the hosue. I also liked that pop culture songs were present throughout the ceremony, the Brits paraded to Bowie's "Heroes" and so on.
And only the Brits would include humor in such a way into what is often a too forcedly solemn, and thus boring, event.

I also love to see the athletes parading, Jeff! And I'm proud to say that the Germans' costumes were not the most ugly ones this time 'round! Still horrendous colors, but hey, I've seen worse.

We always cheered when a country marched in where we knew people living there. That was fun! My kids have friends from Morocco and Brazil, and I got to cheer most often, with so many Brokies around the globe! Canada, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, US, UK from the top of my head.

Alas, the channel showing the opening ceremonies here in the US only showed a few countries, and skipped most.  

I did enjoy the Queen's scene - I especially liked how she made "James Bond" wait when he entered the room.  Ah, it's good to be Queen.  

And of course, I did like David Beckham's introduction.  Dang, but that guy is hot.

Any idea why Muhammad Ali is still part of the ceremony?

I understand the need to be humorous, but that scene from Chariots of Fire is one of my favorites and represents something really positive and inspiring and the skit I saw was going to ruin it for me so I switched off for that.

And torch lighting was a let-down.  

On another note, it's 50 degrees at night, so I'm glad to see the female volleyball players are actually wearing reasonable shirts and leggings and not still wearing those stupid bikinis they have to dig out of their asses every few minutes.

I find it funny to see that the swimmers are starting to wear more and more clothing IN the water than gymnasts are wearing out of it.

Speaking of gymnasts, it strikes me every time I see the gymnastic competitions how sexist it still is.  Either BOTH male and female athletes need 'artistic' gymnastic events and BOTH male and female athletes need music for their floor routines or they shouldn't.  Otherwise it fosters the idea that only the women are there to 'dance' and entertain, while the men are just athletes.

[Penthesilea]

Alas, the channel showing the opening ceremonies here in the US only showed a few countries, and skipped most.  

What?
That seems like such a disrespectful and stupid thing to do. I mean, that's what the opening ceremony is all about, isn't it? Parading of the athletes and ignition of the olympic flame. A shame they didn't show it.

On another note, it's 50 degrees at night, so I'm glad to see the female volleyball players are actually wearing reasonable shirts and leggings and not still wearing those stupid bikinis they have to dig out of their asses every few minutes.

Not happy with the dress code for the femal beach volleyball players either. 

[Penthesilea]

Did anybody watch last night? Whoo-Hoo for the Brits, winning three gold medals in the athletics stadium within one hour! It was the Heptathlon, long jump (m) and 10K run (m).

I just loved seeing the female Heptathlon's winner being shown so much, with her lovely last name displayed proudly.




I can't help but get a little kick out of seeing her.

[Penthesilea]

And what a drama around German Heptathlon athlete Lilli Schwarzkopf!
At first they disqualified her for overstepping her lane in the starting phase of the 800m run. They showed her a photo of it and she saw indeed a foot overstepping the line. But it wasn't her foot, it wasn't her at all and it even wasn't her lane. It was Russian athlete Kristina Sawitskaja on lane 6 who had overstepped. Schwarzkopf had been running on lane 5.

After the jury watched the video of the starting phase, they saw their mistake and took back the disqualification. Schwarzkopf won the sivler medal and Tatjana Tschernowa (Russia) won bronze. Here are the three happy women after two hard days:

[delalluvia]

Did anybody watch last night? Whoo-Hoo for the Brits, winning three gold medals in the athletics stadium within one hour! It was the Heptathlon, long jump (m) and 10K run (m).

I just loved seeing the female Heptathlon's winner being shown so much, with her lovely last name displayed proudly.




I can't help but get a little kick out of seeing her.

I did.  That was great.  But again, American television didn't show any of her other events.  Just the running.  I don't get that at all.

It's so excruciatingly boring when they do that.  There's no drama, no buildup, nothing you watch the Olympics for.  They are basically just doing a long version of the nightly sports news report - only showing the winning play, only showing the winners.  They're not showing a 'competition'.

They keep running "Watch all events streaming on NBColympics.com" but I don't want to sit in front of my computer for hours watching the full events, I want to watch it on my TV where I can relax on my couch. 

[delalluvia]

And what a drama around German Heptathlon athlete Lilli Schwarzkopf!
At first they disqualified her for overstepping her lane in the starting phase of the 800m run. They showed her a photo of it and she saw indeed a foot overstepping the line. But it wasn't her foot, it wasn't her at all and it even wasn't her lane. It was Russian athlete Kristina Sawitskaja on lane 6 who had overstepped. Schwarzkopf had been running on lane 5.

After the jury watched the video of the starting phase, they saw their mistake and took back the disqualification. Schwarzkopf won the sivler medal and Tatjana Tschernowa (Russia) won bronze.

Now that's just retarded.  How in the world could they make a mistake like that with all the technology they have now?

[Penthesilea]

Now that's just retarded.  How in the world could they make a mistake like that with all the technology they have now?

The explanation was that they watched the picture in b/w only (at first). After protests, they watched color photos and the video.

[Penthesilea]

I did.  That was great.  But again, American television didn't show any of her other events.  Just the running.  I don't get that at all.

It's so excruciatingly boring when they do that.  There's no drama, no buildup, nothing you watch the Olympics for.  They are basically just doing a long version of the nightly sports news report - only showing the winning play, only showing the winners.  They're not showing a 'competition'.

They keep running "Watch all events streaming on NBColympics.com" but I don't want to sit in front of my computer for hours watching the full events, I want to watch it on my TV where I can relax on my couch.  

A, dang it. Well, there IS the time difference, but still, nobody is forced to watch. I wonder why at least some sports channels don't show all of it. Over here, the two main channels (public corporations) alternate daily, and they show nothing else all day ('xept news) when it's their turn.

I agree that the built-up is a big part of the fun. Though yesterday, we were away all day and thus also saw just the 800m run. But I had followed the Heptathlon some on the first day.