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Post 13 Aug 2012, 12:31 am

I enjoyed the Olympics a lot. It's nice to get to see all these obscure sports that never normally get a look in, and to find myself really enjoying them. The Beeb did an excellent job with the coverage as well. I'm eternally surprised that Michael Johnson hasn't been snapped up by one of the US networks yet, he's one of the best sports analysts on TV.

Must say I didn't see what all the fuss with beach volleyball is about though. Yes, they wear bikinis, but once you get past that fact the sport itself is really tedious. It's great fun to play, but not so great to watch. In proper volleyball there are more players and they can be more mobile round the court because they're not running on sand, which results in much longer, more interesting rallies. The women are every bit as sexy too, and there are more of them ! Beach volleyball is really sluggish and rarely sees more than about half a dozen touches of the ball per point.

That said, I did like the way they kept playing the Benny Hill themetune between games ;)
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Post 13 Aug 2012, 5:33 am

sass
The Beeb did an excellent job with the coverage as well

never saw any British coverage, but there were a couple of editorials in CDN newspapers about the tone of the coverage. Namely that it was over the top jingoism.
Did it feel that way to you?
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Post 13 Aug 2012, 7:19 am

Any thoughts on the Closing Ceremonies? We watched the whole thing, start-to-finish, uninterrupted (Yle comes through), ending at ~2:10am, Helsinki time. In my humble opinion, they were a total mess. An embarrassment, I would even venture to say, to the British, which is unfortunate after London staged a very successful and apparently well-managed Games.
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Post 13 Aug 2012, 8:33 am

Ah well, over here it seems to have been fairly well received. It wasn't as good as the Opening, but both of them had a chaotic, slightly 'dischordant' aspect, with some idiosyncracies that Brits would not feel embarassed by at all. I'm sure many foreign viewers would wonder why on earth a short fat Batman and lanky Robin running from an exploded three-wheeled car (a yellow Reliant Robin van) was in there. But it did have meaning to us.

I wasn't looking forward to the Spice Girls and Take That parts, but it was quite good to see Lennon referenced (after McCartney's flat performance two weeks ago), the remnants of The Who belt out a few, and to have Muse play only for Queen to upstage them (I like both bands, but it's clear where Muse got a lot of their inspiration).

It was joyful, chaotic and mainly more relaxed that the Opening, which suits what it is. Rio had a nice section (a little hammy, but hey) although it was predictable that there would be Samba, some nod to the natives and Pele.

If you want regimented spectacle, with no self-deprecation, then I would point you to Beijing (and many other previous games ceremonies).

Anyway, the best bits are the celebrating athletes. Irish backflips, Ukrainian folk dancing, 'thanks mom' signs... People letting their hair down after intense competition and enjoying the music and the farewells.
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Post 19 Aug 2012, 10:58 am

never saw any British coverage, but there were a couple of editorials in CDN newspapers about the tone of the coverage. Namely that it was over the top jingoism.
Did it feel that way to you?


Sorry for the late reply Ricky, I've been away for a few days.

Yes, there was an element of that. It was annoying but ultimately to be expected, and I could live with it. They compensated for the excessive cheerleading though by providing some really excellent coverage of the action, including full coverage of each and every sport, with enthusiastic experts drafted in alongside experienced sports journalists to give a nice balance in the commentary teams. I wouldn't exactly say that jingoism is the right word anyway, that term has too many negative connotations. The British press did go crazy with support for 'Team GB' but that didn't ever cross the line into actively wanting the opponents to lose or boasting about our superiority. It was a bit much, but ultimately it was pretty harmless stuff.
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Post 28 Aug 2012, 8:16 pm

It's been said already but I couldn't agree more, the UK got it right! What a wonderful Olympics! NBC coverage could have been better but that's on US.
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Post 03 Sep 2012, 12:56 pm

Has anybody caught any of the Paralympics yet ? Must say I've not really been watching, but I have seen bits and pieces of it. If the objective is to present inspiring stories that show disabled people in a positive light then they really need to reconsider some of the sports. It's unfortunate, but some of them are just hilariously absurd. Sitting down volleyball looks like it might be a whole lot of fun to play when you're drunk, but as a serious spectator sport it just makes me want to crack up laughing. And there's another sport I saw that I don't know the name of which is even more preposterous. It involves two teams of three blind people playing on a court that's a little bigger than a tennis court with a goal at either end that runs the full width. The game seems to be to pick up the ball and throw it as hard as they can at the other end while the three guys on the other team, who can't see a thing, aimlessly throw themselves around in the vain hope of blindly intercepting it to stop a goal being scored. How the hell is that a sport ? Stick a blindfold on me and I'm quite sure I could be every bit as good as any of the guys who are playing it in the Paralympics. It has fantastic comedy value, but is this really the image the Paralympics wants to convey ?

I also found Oscar Pistorius' outburst quite interesting. After spending the past few years swearing blind that his own blades don't offer any kind of competitive advantage so that he couold be allowed into the Olympics, as soon as somebody beats him by using longer blades he starts protesting about how unfair it is and how it's not a level playing field. I think it's time to grasp the nettle with this stuff. Prosthetic technology is advancing at such a rate that artificial limbs are either close to or already surpassing real legs in terms of the advantage they give to runners. Pistorius is an inspiration to millions and a heartwarming story of triumph over adversity, but he should never have been allowed into the Olympics.
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Post 10 Sep 2012, 5:19 am

I thought the objective of the Paralympics was to give disabled people opportunities to compete at the highest level they can, and inspire others who may otherwise feel that disability means they can't do sports. As much as it's good to also have a message to abled bodied people, I don't think we are the main point of the exercise.

While sitting volleyball and goalball (the other sport you described), may be strange to watch, it's not like there aren't some dumb Olympic sports out there (synchronised swimming? dressage?). But both of the paralympic events are sports of a kind, and do take some skill to perform as well as to excel in.

On the other hand, you have some amazing spectacle, such as the wheelchair rugby and basketball, and the blade runners on the track.

As far as Pistorius is concerned, he has a bit of a point, but was also clearly reacting badly to losing a race he expected to win easily. He has not claimed that blades can't help him against able bodied athletes - just that the length he uses do not - and I don't oppose him being in the Olympics. However, rules differ between the two, and he could have used different blades last week had he wanted to (I get that it may not be easy to switch quickly).

Anyway, it's all over now. The GB teams from both Games are about to go on a victory parade and they have exceeded expectations and given us a massive boost (not that it is yet clear if there will be any economic benefit, or how far the lagacy will go to helping sports in the UK). It has been amazing just to be in the same country as the Olympics, even if I didn't get to see any of it live (pretty much a sellout apart from the football).