The Olympics Thread

[kishman]

Wow, the stadium looks indredible.

I can't the athletics don't start for another week.

 

[LSUY]

How long till someone gets thrown out of the stadium for not smiling or wearing too many (or not enough) colours?

 

[kishman]

That coutdown was pretty awesome, it looks so cool. It's the beginning of China taking over the whole world.

 

[Max_Junglie]

This opening ceremony is pretty mental. How long does it go on for? And yes, the stadium is incredible - I also really like the watercube or whatever the pool building is called.

Personally I'm looking forward to the cycling and the weightlifting - the lightweight categories where you get the tiny wee men lifting colossal barbells are hilarious...

 

[Max_Junglie]

Do you think this cast of thousands is the same one in lots of different costumes or do they have literally tens of thousands of people taking part?

This just makes me worry about 2012 - can you imagine what the London opening ceremony will be like? *shudder*

 

[chrissivad]

The opening ceremony is fantastic, best one i have seen (for any sport) in a very long time.

 

[Max_Junglie]

Here come the flags...

 

[LSUY]

The opening ceremony was good but I wonder how bad the closing ceremony will be though as its us who's doing it.

What order are these countries coming in?

 

[Max_Junglie]

The closing ceremony offers the possibility of Boris Johnson making a terrific gaffe of some description when the torch is handed over, which might be entertaining :grin:

The order of teams in this parade seems random - they just did Liberia, Saudi Arabia, Albania, now UAE...

 

[kishman]

It's something to do with the number of strokes in the names of the countries, or something chinese, i didn't really catch that.

the closing ceremony will be crap if britian are doing it.

 

[Max_Junglie]

I don't think we're doing it, but Mayor Boris will be involved somewhere along the line. I haven't got sound at work so I didn't hear the explanation. Those girls in the middle have been jiggling and clapping for hours now!

 

[Houdini]

I see all of the competitors are wearing the new Summer range from PRIMARK!
Whoever designed the clothes must have been on drugs, i thought i was watching a competition between holiday camp reps!
I look forward to the demonstrations, when will the first one be......will it be live on TV during a race or when China get there first Gold medal?...........Excellent fireworks tho'!

 

[LSUY]

Whoever designed the clothes must have been on drugs, i thought i was watching a competition between holiday camp reps!

I have to admit when the Ukraine came out I seriously thought they sent along the Ukrainian version of Butlins staff instead. Whoever designed a lot of the clothes must have been colour blind as a lot of them didn't even go together. The best was Estonia. Looking at their clothes you can tell that their country has just reached the 1970s. Though Team GB looked dodgy in their 1980s white jackets.

I look forward to the demonstrations, when will the first one be

The first demonstration was at the equestrian event in Hong Kong, which I doubt will be seen on any Chinese TV channel or printed in any Chinese newspaper.

The strange thing is, the Olympics might be the beginning of the end of the Communist regime in China. The worst thing the Soviet's did was to open themselves to the West. The amount of dissent in China is already growing because of things like the internet. The wealth gap in China is so huge when a lot of the poorer people see how better off foreigners are they are going to doubt the government. The Chinese economy is growing but its at least 40 years behind the USA's. The American economy is worth about $14 trillion whilst China's is just over $3 trillion. By the time China catches up with the USA Europe will have overtaken both of them.

Edit: When does the interesting events start? I've got BBCi up and I can choose from BBC One coverage of people talking about swimming (very little actual swimming being shown), the shooting finals, badminton, equestrian, women's football, boxing and women's basketball.

 

[Houdini]

Not too sure when the interesting events start, i watched the judo and see one of our geezers get knocked out of the medals!
I also sat through the women's weightlifting, that was interesting, (they scream before and during the lift, yet i saw no one touch them) and the Chinese woman looked like she could lift a horse! (She won gold)!

 

[nidge]

Watched the Judo as well. Fallon the brit that got knocked out in the final repêchage match didn't perform at his best to be honest. I used to do Judo a few years back and was pretty good at it but it just seems that it's become for too tactical for my liking and the refs don't seem to give a lot of time for any ground work but I think that is due to some rule changes since I last competed.

 

[Houdini]

It was overhauled to stop the grappling and time wasting.
Once a move has broken down it is called dead, it is supposed to keep the contest flowing.

 

[chrissivad]

:dance:Nicole Cook just won Gold in the womanes road race

 

[hughy]

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL





d.

 

[nidge]

It was overhauled to stop the grappling and time wasting.
Once a move has broken down it is called dead, it is supposed to keep the contest flowing.

Yeah, it's just a shame as it seems to have destroyed the art of ground work, also it was my strongest area. :-(

Good to see Britain get our first Gold in the womans road race. :dance:

 

[SlickMongoose]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/shooting...ia+georgia+medalists+embrace+despite+conflict

Russia and Georgia take silver and bronze in...shooting. :rofl: