The Olympics!!!

[NorgeFly]

Is London as empty as they're saying?  Stories here show room vacancies and some empty venues.  

Well run Olympics through and through.  

What is the news from elsewhere?

I spent the day at the Olympic Park yesterday and it was amazing! Everything ran smoothly, the atmosphere was electric.

80,000 people left the stadium and 15,000 left the Aquatics Centre at the same time as I was leaving the park and was dreading the queues for trains etc. but it worked smoothly, waited no more than 10-15mins for the Javelin train to St. Pancras. It was like clockwork.

There were even "Games Maker" volunteers entertaining the crowds as we left, had us singing and cheering as we waited to enter the train station.

Britain should be proud, it only of the impressive medal count put for the impressive show that we've managed to pull off despite the natural pessimism if the Brits

[NorgeFly]

So thats it...the Olympics enters the home straight, but I would love to know what's the worlds view is...did London and the UK do a good job of hosting the events ?  Marks out of 10...

10 out of 10 from me. Spot on and has absorbed pretty much the entire population of the UK for two weeks.

[Sami]

They sure know how to make a proper and entertaining opening / closing ceremonies...

(compared to the Chinese at least, which - if I remember - was mostly about trying to get big wow effects, and who have no similar popular music and movie history to show, on which the Brits have relied a lot here)

[LemonButt]

Here in the US, we see most things on a tape delay due to the 5+ hour time difference.  As a result, the US media has leaked a lot of results on the internet news sites (without any spoiler alert warnings), spoiling the action for when it was finally on TV several hours later in the day.  We also had a lot of publicity as it pertains to the security contractor debacle and the huge number of empty seats at some of the events.

I think the Olympics were less significant here in the US than in previous years because we have so many distractions right now, such as the polarized politics surrounding the upcoming elections, Penn State scandal, floundering economy, etc.  For every major story on CNN about a US athlete winning gold there is a distracting story, such as how the federal government considers gold medals as taxable income and will end up paying income tax on their medals.

Personally, I'd give it a 5 out of 10 just because the US media has kind of made the Olympics suck between the spoilers, 90% of the time spent on bios/commercials versus actual competition, and all the other sensationalism surrounding all the other current events.  Not sure if this is how the Olympics go down in Europe/Asia when we have it here in the Americas or not.

[Frogiton]

Wake up, record all olympics, continue on with day, watch news on Fox which doesn't give a @#$% about the olympics, watch olympics, skip commercials, go to sleep. But yeah there were a few times where I got spoilers like Usain Bolt winning the 100 and 200, but that was inevitable and not really a spoiler.

Then whatever NBC didn't air, I could watch online in full with no commercials.

I think the Olympics were less significant here in the US than in previous years because we have so many distractions right now, such as the polarized politics surrounding the upcoming elections

Elections are on olympics year every year.  (Obama 2008, China 2008; Athens 2004, Bush 2004)

I give London a 10 though, from what I say between the outdoor courses, stadiums, scenery, atmosphere, everything was very electrifying and well put on to me. However, since I'm in America, I haven't seen the closing ceremony yet.

The olympics have become a bit of a milestone to me. I look back on China 2008 and I was just finishing middle school or I look at Rio 2016 and it's hard to believe I will be graduating college then. So for me olympics are sentimental in that sense.

U-S-A. U-S-A. U-S-A!  

[LemonButt]

Olympics are always in election years, but this year the election apparently determines how the world will end.

An example of a distraction would be this gem on CNN's front page with the Olympic headlines about sex before competing boosting athlete performance: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/10/health/sex-athletes/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Fox News seems to be the best about giving a headline but not giving away the spoilers.  There has been a big to-do in the US about spoilers and NBC, so Fox News has been the best about spoilers.

[ArcherII]

Eric Idle


Period

I was afraid that Monty Python would be left out of the Olympics. Thank you UK!

[stevecree]

Mixed emotions this morning !

Very sad it's all over, and I also regret very much I did not make the 3 hour drive to see some of it for real and soak the atmosphere.

However I am ever so proud of everything that London 2012 was and the way we welcomed the world - the venues, the spirit & atmosphere, the tears of joy and pain, and even prouder of Team GB's performance.   Did you know that in Atlanta 96 games GB won a single Gold medal....2012 and that rose to a staggering 29.  Our athlete's really made home advantage count and lifted the spirit of an entire nation.

The whole thing was unbelievably well staged, and will live long in the memory.

Also congrats to USA for overtaking China again 

[LemonButt]

We managed to mess up the closing ceremonies even on tape delay: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/13/sport/olympics-nbc-fail/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

[stevecree]

Ouch !!