London 2012 Olympics

What’s going on in here? Is nobody watching the London 2012 Olympics? Or is everyone too busy watching it to talk about it?!..Yes, that must be the case! :stuck_out_tongue:

I wonder if anyone on here actually has tickets to any of the events? Or has already been to an event? Share your story with us!..It’s the freaking Olympics!

What events are you interested in? Any that you’re going to be following or have been? I’m particularly interested in the badminton events, it’s just a shame the Team GB Mixed Doubles Team: Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier have lost both matches they’ve played so far, and they’re playing today against the Chinese team: Nan Zhang and Yunlei Zhao, so they’re going to get beaten again, unfortunately.

…I mean…-Coughs- COME ON TEAM GB!

Heh. :blush:

I watch whenever I can. I’m a big fan of Olympia, always have been.

My favorite sport is Tennis, as always. Normally, it’d be followed by Football, but as the majority of pros have abandoned their teams, like they always do for the Olympics, I’m not all that keen on it, though I still watch if I know at least a few players.

I watch all events except for beach volleyball, shooting, hockey, women’s football (yes, don’t like it even if I’m female) and swim gymnastics.

I’m too busy in the swimming pool with work cough so I only watch the highlights. The italian highlights in TV, and the dutch highlights on the internet :smiley:

I’m really looking forward to the athletics, but I’ve fond myself gripped by a few unexpected events already. I’ve been enjoying handball and water polo, neither or which I’ve ever seen before, and volleyball, which I played at school. And we watched the opening ceremony, where Sir Tim Berners-Lee made a surprise appearance.

@TechnoBear, it’s the same for me! I’m watching events I’d never thought I’d take an interest in.

Berners-Lee’s appearance was absolutely stunning. I really liked the entire ceremony. It was the first Olympic ceremony I’ve watched because I usually don’t like those types of events, but I was completely surprised at how beautifully it had all been done, especially watching how the Olympic rings came to life was great.

None of my friends liked the ceremony, though. I haven’t a clue why. :frowning:

@kohoutek - We didn’t intend to watch the ceremony, but just happened to catch the start of it and ended up watching right through, and like you, we were surprised by how much we enjoyed it. I loved the joke with the Queen’s entrance, and thought she was a good sport to go along with it. We’ve just been discussing it with two elderly friends, and they hated the whole thing and thought the Queen was the worst bit of it. :frowning: There’s no accounting for taste - and I suppose it would be a very boring world if we were all the same. :slight_smile:

I’m loving it - and watching it as I type!
I really love the fact that Fencing has got such good coverage on the BBC for once. Its also amazing to see people I know on a day to day basis in Team GB as well as refereeing, officiating and volunteering :slight_smile:

I have seen at least 20 friends so far!

olympics are the most hot games ever…

I watched a recording of the opening ceremony on TV on Sunday, it gets a Hell Yeah! from me, the couldron design and it’s lighting will take some beating by Brazil (hosts of the 2016 Summer games), I’ve ordered the music from the ceremony on CD. I wish I’d seen it in 3D (apparently a lot of BBC’s HD coverage is in 3D). The forging of the rings was really good. They even sneaked a bit of comedy in there with Mr Bean, I didn’t know that Mr Bean was popular outside of the UK.

Been watching bits of events here and there.

Mike, I do think you probably could have been competing there if you were at your peak.

German friends? Perhaps they don’t have your own exceptionally good taste and appreciation of Great Britishness and humour. :cool:

@Robert, yes, German friends. I’m not exactly sure why, it just didn’t excite. Two reasons I’ve heard was that it lacked fantasy and resembled musicals too much.

I take a strong disliking to musicals and didn’t feel it resembled a musical at all. Well, yes, there was lots of music and references to Britain’s achievements in that respect, obviously, but that’s about it, and I understood why they brought in the Pop Culture.

As for the fantasy comment, I don’t even know what that means. I thought it was full of it.

What gives, my mom loved it. :smiley:

@SpacePhoenix, Mr. Bean is extremely popular in quite a few countries (and continents). He’s very popular over here in Germany and is a mandatory programme on Christmas Eve in a lot of households, almost as mandatory as “Dinner for One” on New Year’s Eve. And the good thing is that there isn’t even a language barrier for Mr. Bean. :smiley:

Fantasy, it had the Queen and James Bond acting and doing stunts together that was pretty much fantasy, it was packed with fantasy. Maybe not what they are mainly used to though regarding myths. Obviously ceremonies like that have to have a musical themed element and be flamboyant and digestible because of the international audience.

Well, at least both you and your mother have good taste. :lympics:

I saw only swimming events

Funny you should say that Robert, I was tipped to go to Beijing but life doesn’t always turn out the way it’s planned :frowning:
Not to worry as I turn Veteran in a couple of years and get to embark on a whole new National/European/World circuit!

Which sport? I didn’t know you were a famous sportsman. :slight_smile:

I’m not really convinced by the kind of things put on show in these ceremonies—the whole showcase your country idea. Seems a bit self indulgent to me. Anyhow, as they go, this one was OK, although I and my family/friends agree that the queen was a bit of an embarrassment—sitting there like a sour old puss through the show, even caught picking at her nails as the British team marched in. Jeesh! What’s her problem? It was incredible that she couldn’t crack a smile or something for such a gigantic national event. :nono:

(Even in the Bond clip, she portrayed herself badly by being so rude to Bond when he came into the room. The whole thing did her no favors, IMHO. The corgies were cute, though.)

The moment I always look for is the lighting of the flame. It wasn’t too bad this time, but nothing will ever beat the Barcelona lighting. That’s one of the great TV moments in history, IMHO.

Yeah, I don’t like him much, but I admit his routine in the ceremony was pretty funny. (At least there was something live about the LSO performance. :stuck_out_tongue: )

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see a lot of the games here, as it takes place in the wee hours for us (so I just flick on the TV for a few minutes if I get up for a wee).

I’ve been watching it every now and again for some of the sports I like. They have more sports on it than I ever knew existed!

The GB womans football team have been great, scored some excellent goals and plenty raw effort without any of the diving and histrionics that mars pro football a lot of the time. Was surprisingly impressed with the opening ceremony, good to see a wry sense of humour used in what is normally a very formal event.

My country team have no good result in the Olympic London, but we guest the result previously.

I was an international fencer TB. Competed as a sabreur for many years until family life and reality kicked in!