Seeing as huge sports fan Rox has yet to start this I guess I will have to.
I just wondered if anyone else has an interest in this event or views on it?
I am very much looking forward to the athletics but I am worried that our weather and inability to make a decent track will spoil such events as the 100m final. However if Usain Bolt is on form we could still be in for an amazing 100m and 200m with Yohan Blake pushing him all the way or even beating him.
As for the other events I wish they wouldn't include so many. For example, football is massively popular in the UK but I don't know anyone who cares remotely about it in the Olympics. So I say get rid of all those events like football and tennis which feel artificially added and concentrate on the more traditional ones. Not saying we must recreate exactly what happened in Greece but it certainly needs cutting down in my opinion.

What about adding *real* British athletic "sports", like darts, snooker, and drinking?

PS. Considering that Usain Bolt forgot to tie his shoe laces and virtually stopped to take a toilet break half-way through his previous olympic record in Beijing, I am hoping to see a new record that will endure my entire lifetime.

I'll be adding at least one of those myself.

My wife will be carrying the Paralympic torch this time!

I bet your wife is thrilled heiowge what an event!

Rox has her head so burried in work it's not funny. I'm off for IPP in a week and have to bring along a bloody computer and finish an online course.

My running has been moved to midnight and the gym is a sneak in at 7 in the am.

In the mean time I'm enjoying all the cock ups! Makes for good tv

I join with Roxanne: WOW!!


And Tony, isn't there any Olympic rowing (very British...) on the Thames included in the Games?
(I'd like to see that)

For the Dutch, the most spectacle will probably be the swimming events.

That reminded me of this video.
I like the olympics because it’s a good chance to see great athletes, but I don’t like how it’s like “if a person from our country gets gold that makes us the best country at everything, ever.”

Edit: I should probably mention that the video has some language that the easily offended won’t appreciate.

I watched the opening ceremony last night. I had some trepidations whether we could pull it off, considering how good Beijing was. But it was fantastic! Spectacular! I didn't know that the Queen could parachute And it was great to see Sir Steve carrying the torch into the stadium, it brought a tear to my eye. Made me proud to be British. Now I'm looking forward to watching the aquatics, archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, field hockey, football, gymnastics, handball, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, weightlifting and wrestling. Oh I nearly forgot, the women's beach volleyball

Hi

i watched the Olympic openings too, Great production, very impressive indeed...

cheers

TBH I was quite disappointed by the ceremony, even slightly embarrassed as a Brit. While some of the ideas had great potential, like the industrial revolution, I thought they missed some great opportunities. For example, they could have transformed the landscape more quickly and completely into a modern cityscape by clever stage mechanics, but ironically they cleared the set slowly and manually so that it felt like they were just clearing the stage after the show. Also it seemed like they just threw all these ideas together in a chaotic fashion without any overarching vision, story, or message, so again a missed opportunity. And what on earth were the NHS beds in there for? While the NHS is indeed a great British ideology, in practice it is a national embarrassment as it is one of the worst run healthcare systems in Europe. And what was the teen texting story about? Seriously, at an olympic opening ceremony when the country is on stage in front of the world?

At least the music was great, the funny bits were quintessentially British, and the torch lighting at the end was truly impressive. And I do like the fact that it was a lot more "human" than the robotic and precise Beijing ceremony, even if a lot less impressive.

But maybe I'm just turning into one of those grumpy old British men complaining about their own country.

I thought it was decent, except, where was the TARDIS? I kept hoping for it to pop out at some random moment.

Chris

I think it's particularly amazing that they asked the wife of one of the most apathetic people to carry the torch.

Sure, I think it's amazing that she gets to carry it. I'm just not a fan of the huge money pit that we really didn't need that is the games.

That would have been great. With The Dr and Amy running out and doing something daft.
I was expecting the ceremony to be pretty awful but was surprised. I agree about the NHS stuff being stupid and also about the music being great.
Looking forward to some great sport. Definite Gold for Cavendish (GBR) in the cycling road race I would say....... oh well never mind.
Right now I have the choice of watching either men's beach volley ball or women's football. Kind of wish it was the other way round to be honest.

I missed all that stuff. Mind, I was sleeping and at my age, I need all the beauty rest I can get.

Right now it's 12:30 in the wee hours and I'm watching the women's weight lifting. OMG!! Those women sure can lift! I think their arms are as big as my thighs!

Strangely, I was watching the ceremony with my daughter and she said it would be great if the Dr. could arrive in the TARDIS and light the cauldron. That would have been great.
As a man, my problem is that my thighs are only as big as my arms!

Finally found my favourite track from the event- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fZiny2HlcI . Sounded better within the show, very haunting. Never heard of it before.

Well thanks a lot, Tony, now I've had this on repeat on YouTube for over an hour.

Well I was also thinking the opening ceremony wasn't going to be that great.

But they did a good job anyways. Sure liked how they gave so many volunteers opportunities to be part of the ceremony.

By the way, Rowan Atkinson was amazing!

Rowan was superb!

Dear goodness that expression on his face when he was still bumping the key and the rest had stopped ROFL!!

The whole ceremony, the music, I was swept right back through my entire childhood

Ive been doing Tae-Kwon-Do for about 6 years now so it will be great to learn tactics from people that are a bit more skillful than I am

I was in London today and did a bit of sightseeing connected with the Olympics. I didn't attend any events.


The stadium and that stupid modern art thing that looks like a mangled roller coaster.


Tower Bridge


Events like the Olympics attract rich visitors. This is Paul Allen's (co-founder of Microsoft) 126m US$200 million Yacht berthed at South Quay on the Isle of Dogs.

Hi Tony, is that a zeppelin in the upper right corner of the stadium picture ?

Yes, I assume the Goodyear blimp.

The 'stupid modern art thing', is by Anish Kapoor, I like his work a lot, however I think this is not his best realisation.

First thing I thought was "What a weird rollercoaster".

Second thing: "Dang, that boat is worth a LOT of cubes!"

I always thought that something like this has happen but this is the first proof of it unless I'm wrong. This would be against the law here. It just makes me sick to even think about that. I just don't care for the Olympics because there is so much bad stuff going on at one single time but then you look at the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Why can't they do better things for there community instead of put a bid in to hold the Olympics which I think is $100,000,000.00.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ead_module

I wonder how many other children suffer like this. I also wonder what happens after they return home with a medal or not. Gets you wondering! Right!!!

I don't know about anyone else but I am getting bored with the "lesser" events. At last the athletics start Friday. Come on Jessica Ennis!

I don't know about you all, but I'm really tired of the replays of the thrown badminton matches. Badminton? Really?
Thank goodness I have a trip sans TV planned in a few days

Ahh Rox, you have just started an interesting discussion. Should they have been disqualified? What rule did they break precisely? Not saying it was very sportsman like or within the spirit of the games but can someone please show me the rule that states you have to try? I mean, we have all seen Man utd put out a rubbish side in some minor cup competition.
Darren I am not saying you are wrong but it's a different culture to what you or I know. I would love to ask these kids in ten years time if they regret what happened to them. I suspect most will say it was a possible opportunity to do something amazing with their lives. Please remember the media have always twisted and exaggerated stories to reflect their own bias views and make money. As for the cost of the games I see it as no different to the space program or Cern. Plus it gives a depressed country a massive lift and encourages outside investment. You may be right on all points but there is certainly a counter argument.

um, no we all haven't. No football zone-remember.

The local media here is speculating about bet making and two medals and all that. Rules? Beats me, but the idea of throwing a game so you can ensure you play with your own country to get a medal? It deserves disqualification on the grounds of being a slimy person....If I understood it right (and with my poor Chinese, I probably didn't) even their coach said they deserved the disqualification.

But more to the point...badminton is a sport? Really? of Olympic caliber? Bring back naked wrestling! Now THAT is a sport

I'd pay a dollar to watch that! Well, the female version anyway.

Have you tried Google yet? Remember what the primary use of the Internet is for! I'm sure you won't be disappointed! DON'T do it at work though!

Looks like Phelps is at it again...

If Michael Phelps was a country, he would currently be 11th on the medal table, beating 194 entire countries!

I guess he'd be an island.

At first I thought you meant because he's not a team player, but I assume you mean because he's surrounded by water.

Brilliant morning and evening of athletics. Pleased to see Jessica Ennis get her gold. 100m mens building nicely, relief that the track is fast, really hope drugs cheat Dwain Chambers screws up, congrats to Somalia for their 10,000m win, sad about Sharapova, glad there's nothing special Sunday morning (Rox will know what that means), now bored of swimming, cycling, rowing etc etc. Just leave the camera on the track please. Goodnight and thank you.

..and I am really glad, that Lilly Schwarzkopf finally got Silver. Luckily the jury understood that the disqualification was wrong.

What I found quite sad is, that the in the female triathlon they did not simply decide for giving two gold medals.

Unlucky referees today.

Three gold medals in one Olympics athletics session for the first time! Congrats to Jessica, Greg and Mo! And don't forget the rowers and the cyclists who made it six golds! I AM BRITISH AND WE ARE TEAM GB!

I measured Greg Rutherford's long jump gold medal distance of 8.31m out on our floor, and then just stared at the distance for a good 5 minutes.

Also, I find it amazing that Ennis got about 300 more points than second place in the heptathlon, which is the same gap between second and tenth/last place!

I was also shocked, it simply doesn't seem possible



Again I noticed this, I think her final score was 327 ahead of second place, a truly impressive feat from the athlete whose face was on the front of London 2012.

I was in London today (Saturday), the last time I was there was a few months ago and I have to say that London looked amazing. The olympic atmosphere was rife throughout the city, the city looked very clean and tidy, and the diverse nationalities really was great to see.

I also went on the Boris Bike, which I have to say was amazing. While they are very industrial and bulky, cycling through the streets of London was truly awesome, and at times rather scary. I think that it is a great scheme that costs next to nothing, £1 for 24hour access time, and free cycle for 30 minutes between docking, but offers so much for the city.

Sadly I don't have any tickets to events but made my way to Hyde Park where they had the events on the big TVs as well as other amusement and catering facilities. The only 2 downsides for the day was that all the grass in Hyde Park had been ruined by the rain and festival goers weeks before, so the whole area was covered in wood chip mulch, and that McFly were playing on centre stage, and were quite honestly awful in my opinion.

Overall though it was a great day for me and a truly Super Saturday for team GB.

Robert

Actually if you count his gold medals from last olympics as well he'd be 3rd in front of england with 18 gold medals, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. holy geezus, this man's gonna keep his record for a long time...



Well we could say the same thing as on the 100m men (swimming) where the american beat the english by 0.01 second. And the french lost the bronze by 0.04 too

The funny thing, I was thinking this because I would hit my head on the ceiling.

Here's a proportional graphical representation of the winning margin ahead of the field:

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 .................... 1

Well, that's a bit unfair as you'd have to compare with all-time medals of each country. But still...

Oh right, that wasn't a problem for me. One of the joys of living in a converted oast house is 12ft ceilings

Worst part: the world record is 8.95 O.O

But then all the effort the winner put in would have been wasted.

No, not in this case. After about 2,5 hours even the photo finish did not bring a clear result. They finally decided, that there was a difference of 2/1000 secs. Is this necessary?

I agree that was a bit mean of the judges, but probably the olympic rules are very clear and never envisaged such an unlikely scenario. Or maybe they didn't think to make any spare gold medals.

For me yes. As long as the result is accurate I would not want a gold if I had come second even by 1/100000 secs. Imagine explaining that to your grand kids "Here's the gold medal I won in the 2012 Olympics, it was very close at the end and I didn't actually win but they gave me a gold anyway".
For me dead heats should only occur where the technology is unable to separate the competitors. However I guess it's humans who have to interpret the photo so there may be a question of accuracy below 1/100 anyway.

This sort of happened in the 1960 Olympics in the swimming - see here.

Sounds like an American election to me.

Brilliant 100m final tonight.
1. Usain Bolt - 9.63 (slow start)
2. Yohan Blake - 9.75
3. Justin Gatlin - 9.79 (drugs cheat)
4. Tyson Gay - 9.80
5. Ryan Bailey - 9.88
6. Churandy Martina - 9.94
7. Richard Thompson - 9.98
8. Asafa Powell - 11.99 (pulled up injured)

Glad to see Bolt back to his best. Surprised and happy the track is fast and the weather held. Thought Blake would push Bolt a bit more and perhaps get under 9.70.
BTW did anyone notice something being thrown onto the track at the start behind the runners?