Olympic Conclusions

[locksmith]

How were your olympics?
 
While I don't follow any of the sports featured, I found myself drawn in and "dipping in" here and there to watch a little. Our village had a giant screen in the park on the middle Saturday and I spent a couple of hours there with a beer or two in the sunshine.
As far as I can tell it was a strange couple of weeks where everyone was sharing some love 
It was feared that traffic would affect us around Ebbsfleet station but it didn't.
 
I really enjoyed the spectacle of the opening and closing ceremonies but why on earth was George Michael allowed to do his latest single that not very many people would have known!!!!
 
 
 
Now bring on the new footie season... 

[DryRob]

Quality and wish I'd seen more of it but had to work, I'm going to try and get tickets when it's in Europe next. Spent most of the time asking myself "how the hell are they doing that?".

[Lawrence]

It was much better and more entertaining than I thought it'd be, even the traffic on the way into work (A12 past the Olympic park) was pretty much non-existant... much busier today than any day in the last two weeks.  Glad to see we did pretty well too 

[BBROWN1664]

I went to Turkey halfway through to avoid it all and have managed to do just that apart from having to check the medal tallies on interweb for the mrs.

[Grahamm]

How were your olympics?

I spent half of them surfing and biking around North Devon, so all in all pretty good!

[SteveH41]

Money could have been better spent...............

[richfzs]

Yes, it was a lot of money, but its bought a sense of achievement to the country, a sense of pride, showed that we can still do things well, showed us in a good light to the rest of the world, and the list goes on.

I think it starts look almost cheap, mesself.

[Hodge]

Yes, it was a lot of money, but its bought a sense of achievement to the country, a sense of pride, showed that we can still do things well, showed us in a good light to the rest of the world, and the list goes on.

I think it starts look almost cheap, mesself.

You are quite correct. The majority of the money came from the Lottery and Corporate sponsorship and less than £1 from each taxpayer.

I was concerned that the constant ramming of the Olympics down the nation's throat for the last 7 years would have a detrimental effect but I'm pleased to say it has been a great success and one I'm pleased to have participated in.

[phil on a fazer]

Yes, it was a lot of money, but its bought a sense of achievement to the country, a sense of pride, showed that we can still do things well, showed us in a good light to the rest of the world, and the list goes on.

I think it starts look almost cheap, mesself.

i also i agree, i loved the games from start to finish and think team GB did us proud. I think the games came at the right time for the UK, its put some hope and pride back into the place. 

[pete786.u]

Thoroughly enjoyed it,  great advert for GB. The crowds in the different venues were fantastic, wish I`d got some tickets now. Pity we are now back to crap TV

[Grahamm]

Pity we are now back to crap TV

But at least there's some News on TV again now!

I liked the picture on the front of Private Eye recently: "And in other news, Aliens have invaded the Earth"

[DILLIGAFF]

I also found myself converted from a cynical moaner to an Olympics addict.
Apart from the empty seats I could not find any fault at all with the whole show and I am amazed that it all went so smoothly.


Now, sadly, after such a superabundance of sporting variety we must return to the standard TV sport coverage......... football.

[Rusty]

I deliberately avoided the whole thing, just not my cuppa tea. Congratulations are due however, to those athlete's that did us proud, and who have shown young British kids that they too can become a national hero without the aid of Simon Cowell.  It takes guts, dedication, hard work, and team spirit to make the grade, but those qualities will carry through in later life - great role models!


Now back to football. Unprincipled, spoiled, spitting, whingeing cry babies on megabucks for poor performances.

[ozpom]

I miss it  The BBC's online coverage was great - I got to watch all sorts of sports I'd never managed to see before (archery, BMX, water polo etc.) and I could watch what I wanted when I wanted I've now been living in the host country for two Olympics - Sydney and London - which is a rare privilege. There's nothing like being in the same timezone and seeing things properly Live. The online technology has come a long way since 2000.

The opening and closing ceremonies were good - very professional and nothing went obviously wrong - but I found two things disappointing:

1. The overall feeling I got was that GB is living in the past. Yes, we've got an amazing history (the bits that don't involve invading and exploiting other countries  ) but we've got an amazing Now as well, and where was it? A couple of kids texting each other in the opening ceremony and Taio Cruz, Tinchy Strider, Jessie J and (shudder) One Direction in the closing ceremony. Even Dizzie Rascal, Muse, Elbow and the Kaiser Chiefs have been around for a fair while (in pop music terms). I know they wanted to use people and images that everyone overseas would recognise but it would have been good if they could have made more of what we've got to offer the modern world right now.

2. I expect this will re-open the usual can of worms but why was nothing made of the ethnic diversity of Britain? All I saw was the Indian drummers around Eric Idle and that lasted a couple of minutes. The rest of the time you were lucky to see a slightly dark-skinned dancer as the camera flew past them. At least we had Dizzie, Taio and Tinchy but I doubt they were chosen because of their ethnic background. Like it or not, Britain is ethnically diverse but neither ceremony was which was a pity.

Discuss 

[Rusty]

I expect this will re-open the usual can of worms but why was nothing made of the ethnic diversity of Britain? Discuss 

I think the athlete's themselves reflected the ethnic diversity of today's Britain.


Otherwise I don't think anything should be 'made' of it, to what end? The nation recently celebrated the anniversary of the head of state yet if you examine the crowd scenes you wouldn't think that Britain was an ethnically diverse nation. Wouldn't want to 'make' something of that either.

[richfzs]

Now back to football. Unprincipled, spoiled, spitting, whingeing cry babies on megabucks for poor performances.

Couldn't agree more mate. The footballers could learn a lot from many sports over the last few weeks, with their bolshie attitudes, and their rolling around on the floor "Ref, he looked at me wrong, look I'm holding my shin, ow it hurts". Just a few examples:-

a) American sprinter in the 4*400 - broke his leg at the 200m point, but finished his leg quick enough for them to qualify for the final
b) Tony Martin in the Tour de France, broke his wrist but rode another few days before retiring
c) I forget his name, another rider in the TdF, crashed heavily, but completed the stage (around 25km) before saying he thought he should go to hospital - where they told him he'd broken his hip.
d) The grief they get away with dishing out to the referees - any other sport they'd be sent off immediately. Compare with RugbyU, where the ref is "Sir" and even if a wrong call is made, there is no back chat at all - and not even much complaint after the game is complete, just an acceptance thats how it is.

The footballers deserve no respect at all, and are definitely no role models.

[ozpom]

I don't think anything should be 'made' of it, to what end?

To show the world that we're aware of it and glad of it. The opening ceremony was meant to be a celebration of all that's good about Britain and I found it disappointing that that wasn't included.

And I agree that the Team GB athletes reflect it, but that all happened after the opening ceremony.

[Rusty]

To show the world that we're aware of it and glad of it.

We?


Perhaps we should also have celebrated how wonderful it is to be in the EU?  Or replaced the Union flags with Brussels star circles and had our MP's march along waving them as examples of personal integrity and trustworthyness? The whole thing was political propaganda, stage managed confection, total bollox intended to project an image of a Britain that doesn't actually exist.


The athletes did well, but they were and are being used as political pawns.

[DryRob]

I think the balance was about right when you consider most of the topics covered in the opening ceremony were a celebration of Britian's contributions to the world and most of those happened prior WWII while Britain had a predominantly white population. I remember seeing one of the industrialists was black and thinking, "fairly unlikely there would have been a rich black guy in the days women didn't even have the vote".
 
Wasn't there a section that represented the mass immigration of West Indian workers after the war period? Then there was the kids who lit the cauldron, they weren't all white.
 
I don't think positive discrimination to over express our diverse ethnic community would have done anything more than scream "we're not racist here, honest" and what's the point of that?

[locksmith]

To me it is a celebration of success acheived through bloody hard work.
Not political, not black and white.

[Rusty]

I don't think positive discrimination to over express our diverse ethnic community would have done anything more than scream "we're not racist here, honest" and what's the point of that?

That's what I mean.

The achievements of the athletes of whatever ethnic background are the result of their own drive and determination, of singular hard work and dedication to their sport. Let's not take all that away from them as individuals and pretend that they managed it because of how diverse Britain is today, which is what the politicians are trying to say. Also, pandering to minorities is getting old, in my view it serves to highlight a perceived difference rather than treating everyone the same.

And finally, the 'elephant in the room' for all those that would foist the diversity mantra upon us was the lack of burqua clad British flag bearers - You'll see that when hell freezes over.  So as we celebrate the achievements of the brightest and best of our young athletes at home, also spare a thought for the brightest and best of our young people in the armed forces, currently overseas fighting and dying for the rights of immigrants to come here and hate us.

The fireworks were nice, and as they lit up the London skyline in their multi million pound splendour I'm sure the tens of thousands of unfortunates sleeping in doorways had an excellent view.

[DILLIGAFF]

...................and don't forget the brilliant Gemma Gibbons who fought on in the judo WITH A BROKEN THUMB and won a Silver medal.


On the news this morning some poofie fotballer has pulled out because he had "a bruised thigh". Great example to British youth.

[alan sherman]

Ozpom - the opening ceremony was massively diverse!  The actors of various skin colours playing parts that would have been white at the time, the whole section about the immigrant workforce to rebuild after the war.  The the section about teenagers appears to be about teenagers in that particular part of London (this made me laugh actually as I got a message from the Brazilian side of the family asking where the English kids were!).  Add in the volunteers and flag carriers of various backgrounds (including a lot of head scarves but no burka that I saw) there was a pretty obvious mix of people through the games. 


The closing ceremony was a different thing though.  Actually it celebrated our tolerance of drug addicts..... ;o) 
The indian dancers around Eric Idle was a bit odd though.  And the whole closing ceremony was a bit under-par compared to the rest of the event.  So lets remember the athletes instead hey?

[JZS 600]

Anyone tuning in for the Paralympics 

[Grahamm]

...................and don't forget the brilliant Gemma Gibbons who fought on in the judo WITH A BROKEN THUMB and won a Silver medal.


On the news this morning some poofie fotballer has pulled out because he had "a bruised thigh". Great example to British youth.

I've just seen this on Facebook: