Everyone ready?!?! Who's your country? What events are you excited for?
AMERICA FOR TABLE TENNIS GOLD! ;D
GO ARGENTINA.... !!
I'm looking forward to see all those weird/un-popular sports that TV doesn't care to show any other time...
Like hammer/jabaline throw, jumping (all it's kinds), shooting, archery, synchronized swimmming, diving, judo, weightlifting, etc...
Also, I really enjoy winter olympics much more... but I still have to wait 2 more years...
I'm American and of course pulling for Team USA. However, everything has become so sensational that watching the Olympics is almost not enjoyable. You can watch an hour of the Olympics and get 20 minutes of commercials, 35 minutes of commentary and athlete biographies, and 5 minutes of actual Olympic action.
I was mostly excited for the opening ceremony and boy did they deliver. Personally I think this one beat the one in China hands down. Well done Danny! It was a true joy to behold. Sochi 2014 have their works cut out to beat this.
I'm not really interested in most sports other than the gym and the tennis which we (Russia) will probably be quite good at.
Quote from: LemonButt on July 28, 2012, 03:05:00 AM
I'm American and of course pulling for Team USA. However, everything has become so sensational that watching the Olympics is almost not enjoyable. You can watch an hour of the Olympics and get 20 minutes of commercials, 35 minutes of commentary and athlete biographies, and 5 minutes of actual Olympic action.
No commercials in the UK thankfully :)
Quote from: ezzeqiel on July 28, 2012, 03:03:45 AM
I'm looking forward to see all those weird/un-popular sports that TV doesn't care to show any other time...
Also, I really enjoy winter olympics much more... but I still have to wait 2 more years...
I agree, too much running, swimming, and gymnastics on TV. I love the weird oddball sports you never hear of.
I also think that the winter olympics are a bit more exciting.
I am British, i thought that the opening ceremony was good but i thought that if i wasnt British i may not understand it. I am hoping we come 3rd this year but not a high chance of that hapenning. ;D
Quote from: mean123 on July 28, 2012, 10:11:34 PM
I am British, i thought that the opening ceremony was good but i thought that if i wasnt British i may not understand it. I am hoping we come 3rd this year but not a high chance of that hapenning. ;D
HAHA...mean123, our hopes of 3rd look more than possible at this point in time.
Go Team GB ;D
Quote from: LemonButt on July 28, 2012, 03:05:00 AM
I'm American and of course pulling for Team USA. However, everything has become so sensational that watching the Olympics is almost not enjoyable. You can watch an hour of the Olympics and get 20 minutes of commercials, 35 minutes of commentary and athlete biographies, and 5 minutes of actual Olympic action.
~55 minutes of action, and the other five is commentary here in Finland :)
..And I'm also enjoying a lot more watching winter olympics, since Finland doesn't get medals from these..
NBC pays so much for the olympics.... so much that they pay for it with crazy ass commercials
Here in the UK, the BBC, which is free to watch and advert free, has over 20 channels dedicated to showing every single event live.
These are also duplicated in HD, plus Eurosport 3D ! We're spoiled rotten !
But after watching hours and hours of it I must say I think these games are amongst the best I have ever seen, and I'm very proud indeed to be a Brit ;D
Since Germany sucks at anything but rowing, I hold my thumbs for Team USA mostly.
In America, the Olympics are volleyball, swimming, running, or gymnastics. According to NBC, those are the only sports that exist.
Quote from: Frogiton on August 08, 2012, 05:07:06 AM
In America, the Olympics are volleyball, swimming, running, or gymnastics. According to NBC, those are the only sports that exist.
Beach volleyball was the only sport I watched in Beijing 2008 Olympics, I was staying in USA at the time. I watched those two ladies get their golds after the long hard campaign. Now would there need to be any more sports if that is on all day :P
Go GB!!!
Amazing games for us locals... hope the rest of the world is enjoying it too!
Quote from: Frogiton on August 08, 2012, 05:07:06 AM
In America, the Olympics are volleyball, swimming, running, or gymnastics. According to NBC, those are the only sports that exist.
Swimming, running, gymnastics... So that accounts for 80% of the olympics... You also forgot Basketball... They're busy punishing the olympic field. Also that American Women Soccer Team... that canadian game keeps getting played over and over.
Sorry that table tennis/badminton, equestrian events and sailing didn't seem to draw anyone's attention... and the USA mens soccer team didn't even make the olympics (which didn't stop NBC from having an all soccer station).
There are something like 7 channels showing stuff live in the USA. They're just putting the sports Americans watch on the marquee stations.
Sorry, but there's too much anti american stuff that gets said in here that is simply not true.
Quote from: swiftus27 on August 09, 2012, 12:28:14 PMYou also forgot Basketball... They're busy punishing the olympic field.
USA plays Argentina in 12 hrs. Manu upset??
Sorry, born and raised in SA TX. Would be a slap in the face though... lol!
Talentz
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...
Quote from: SAC on August 12, 2012, 12:09:35 AM
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...
I'm a Londoner so maybe a bit biased, but in truth, I thought we'd make a complete lash-up of the whole thing and was dreading the prospect of trying to live and work here while it collapsed into typically British chaos ; so, it not only didn't do that, it seems to have done it all rather well, even the weather behaved itself... most odd...and now, we just have to pay for it all.. oh well, we shall have a nice cup of tea and worry about that later :)
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?
Quote from: swiftus27 on August 12, 2012, 12:25:06 AM
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 :)
Quote from: SAC on August 12, 2012, 12:09:35 AM
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.
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)
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.
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.
Quote from: LemonButt on August 12, 2012, 08:44:29 PM
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. :P (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! ;D
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.
Eric Idle
Period
I was afraid that Monty Python would be left out of the Olympics. Thank you UK!
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 ;D
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
Ouch !!