London 2012 Olympics Thread

[Silent Hunter]

Before I opened this thread, I had never seen or heard anybody not working in the media claim that he has ever watched an Olympic opening ceremony. I swear that this is true. (And I know that quite a lot of people do, though less than the actual competitions. It's just that I would have idly wondered who these people are, would I actually care.)

Really? I know their claims of "2 billion people watched this" are grossly inflated, but it's still a lot of people that do.

I remember that the Austrian commentator said twice that 4 Bio. people would watch this.

I don't think that 4 Bio. people even have a TV ...

23 million watched it on average in the UK - highest thing of the year so far and one of the highest in British TV history.

[Insula Dei]

Hahaha, Vinokourov is just a legend. I love how the BBC etc. seem to be completely shocked by his doping history while missing out on the much bigger question of what exactly Uran and Vino were discussing so intensely right before Uran lost the sprint in the most idiotic way imaginable. (And remember that this would hardly be the first time for Vinokourov to buy a race, though it may be the first time someon thought it fit to sell an Olympic Gold medal.)

Still, Cavendish lost and that's what matters.

[BaldEagle1991]

Man I feel pretty bad for Jordyn Weiber not making it to the All-Around. Considering she's the all-star favorite.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Man I feel pretty bad for Jordyn Weiber not making it to the All-Around. Considering she's the all-star favorite.

Everyone except Aly Raisman kinda flopped on the floor exercises.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Strange.

American hated, Canadians, British and Australians liked.

commentary and editing makes a big difference
http://www.examiner.com/article/nbc-commentary-of-the-london-olympics-opening-ceremony-deemed-offensive

still, some of it was quite beautiful. The very beginning and ending were beautiful and fit together well with the Jerusalem/Caliban's Dream theme.

Man I feel pretty bad for Jordyn Weiber not making it to the All-Around. Considering she's the all-star favorite.

Everyone except Aly Raisman kinda flopped on the floor exercises.

Yeah, Raisman was the only one of the American's whose floor routine I found engaging. The Russians were great on that, unsurprisingly.

[MaxQue]

Wow.

Here, there was only one criticism of the ceremony by the commentators and it was about the Chilean flagbearer, which had previously been suspended 2 years for doping.
Appointing her flagbearer is a dubious decision, yes.

At the same time, we are picky in the commentators in French Canada. Three people. An host, which is mainly in the factual and gives facts about the parts, introduce them and say the facts (X country has that much athletes), a commentator (the venerable Richard Garneau, which does that since the Rome Olympics, in 1960), mainly commenting the athletes and one well-known athlete (this time was Alexandre Bilodeau, gold medalist in acrobatic skiing at Vancouver).

Same hosts at the last Winter Games, except than the athlete was Alexandre Despatie, diver.
That time, the English Canada had Catriona Le May-Doan, a former speed staker, which, in a discrete way, left during the ceremony the studio to be one of the 4 flame-lighters.

[BaldEagle1991]

Man I feel pretty bad for Jordyn Weiber not making it to the All-Around. Considering she's the all-star favorite.

Everyone except Aly Raisman kinda flopped on the floor exercises.

I agree with ya there, but man they were pretty good, it's just that damn floor. I assume Aly Raisman knows it's dark secrets.

[Hatman 🍁]

acrobatic skiing

Freestyle skiing.

[MaxQue]

acrobatic skiing

Freestyle skiing.

It's called Ski Acrobatique for both freestyle and acrobatic in French, hence the confusion.

[Platypus]

Aka Aerial skiing in Australia :/

Currently watching the slalom canoeing. Excellent course this year.

I'm house sitting for my auntie and uncle, who have pay tv, which is usuallypretty much a waste of money but for the olympics is excellent, because it means I have 9 channels of coverage. At the moment there's the Canoeing on free-to-air channel 9, and on the foxtel stations, the weightlifting, canoeing, equestrian eventing, boxing, tennis, table tennis, hockey, and beach volleyball. They claim that every gold medal will be shown live and in full in 'the world's best coverage'. It's certainly pretty handy.

[Platypus]

Half a second to go in the women's basketball match between France and Australia, Aussies down by three after a big comeback, take the lead when the French miss a shot from the line and Belinda Snell takes a three pointer from the other side of tge court. The olympics have arrived!

edit: France win in overtime

[argentarius]

Apparently this year we're heavily favoured in some women's boxing event. Hopefully we can get a gold without drugs this time.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I've quite liked watching a few Judo matches. I've no idea what the rules are, but it's thrilling enough.

[Platypus]

Men's Team gymnastics sees gold to China, despite only just qualifying for the final, a silver to Great Britain, who haven't won a medal in the event for a century, and bronze to Ukraine, who push Japan out of the medals on the last apparatus. USA, top qualifiers, came 5th.

[Platypus]

Japan launch a protest, an element gets bumped up in difficulty score, and they end up in second. Britain still medal, Ukraine pushed out, and stoically filthy about it.

[argentarius]

Wow 200m no medal for Lochte.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Japan launch a protest, an element gets bumped up in difficulty score, and they end up in second. Britain still medal, Ukraine pushed out, and stoically filthy about it.

That japanese gymnist did NOT do a handstand. I don't care what the judges say.

[argentarius]

So many swimming upsets. BBC commentators wondering how Missy Franklin was going in this race, and she wins it.

[minionofmidas]

Before I opened this thread, I had never seen or heard anybody not working in the media claim that he has ever watched an Olympic opening ceremony. I swear that this is true. (And I know that quite a lot of people do, though less than the actual competitions. It's just that I would have idly wondered who these people are, would I actually care.)

Really? I know their claims of "2 billion people watched this" are grossly inflated, but it's still a lot of people that do.

I remember that the Austrian commentator said twice that 4 Bio. people would watch this.

I don't think that 4 Bio. people even have a TV ...

1 billion app watched it worldwide, not much more than half as many as 4 years ago. That includes people switching through all the channels while it was going on. App. 4.5 bio people worldwide have access to television. Less than 8 million watched it in Germany. Again, that includes people switching through channels. The average number watching at any given moment would have been maybe 250-300 million worldwide. (The reason for the decline is of course that 4 years ago, the ceremony was held in the world's largest country and showing at primetime for where the bulk of the world's population is located.)

[minionofmidas]

Lol, the hilarious days-long search for a medal apparently just ended. BILD's faith in Germany is restored. -_-

[Platypus]

Point of interest, 37 countries have already medalled, which is a great start for this games' aim to have the most ever medalling nations. Point of nyah nyah, no British golds. Point of frump: Australia is either third or fourth in the pool, depending on how you count.

[Yelnoc]

Point of interest, 37 countries have already medalled, which is a great start for this games' aim to have the most ever medalling nations. Point of nyah nyah, no British golds. Point of frump: Australia is either third or fourth in the pool, depending on how you count.

Huh, Google tells me North Korea is 4th.

[argentarius]

Point of interest, 37 countries have already medalled, which is a great start for this games' aim to have the most ever medalling nations. Point of nyah nyah, no British golds. Point of frump: Australia is either third or fourth in the pool, depending on how you count.

Huh, Google tells me North Korea is 4th.

That they are. They have a superb weightlifter.

[Hatman 🍁]

So many swimming upsets. BBC commentators wondering how Missy Franklin was going in this race, and she wins it.

Apparently she is 100% ethnically Canadian. That is, both of her parents were born here.

[Andrea]

The poor Korean girl in the Epée (fencing) semi-final drama is surely the image of Day III.
A second can last forever...