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Who is the star of Beijing 08

  • China's Table Tennis team - 4 out of 4 golds

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Tirunesh Dibaba - 2 golds - Women's 5,000 & 10,000 meters

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Kenenisa Bekele - 2 golds - Men's 5,000 & 10,000 meters

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    66
  • Poll closed .
I really hope by the time it gets to London 2012 they'll cut down on the over long parade of athletes.

Yikes. :eek: How many hours of waving and smiling? It gets old.

Mind you I think that is part of London's cunning plan. The stadium's going to be so small they won't be able to fit everyone in at the same time.
:p

Well done to Beijing though. Spectacularly done. Certainly delivered the fireworks.
 
That opening ceremony was epic. The type of disciplined and controlled performance that only a one party, jackboot wearing police state could achieve. The introduction of the team from Chinese Taipei raised a smile.

The only thing that let it down was the BBCs concerted effort to talk over commentate throughout. Shut up Huw, I don't need to be told how spectacular it all is! :mad:
 
The only thing that let it down was the BBCs concerted effort to talk over commentate throughout. Shut up Huw, I don't need to be told how spectacular it all is! :mad:

Agreed. The commentary was dire. Mostly sounded like they were reading from a script.

They should get Terry Wogan to do the voice over… with a nice bottle of whiskey to keep him company as they do for EuroVision.
:D.
 
NBC coverage is absolute crap! Way too many commercials. :mad:

and too many politics, this isn't world news tonight. and a day late. it's like the rest of the kids in the city ate great cake and you had to eat it stale, hard and unsure if it was good the next day.

the ioc should look into revoking nbc's license.
 
Best ever ceremony.

Can't argue with that.

Thanks for putting the MR Olympic logo in the opening post DoctorQ, looks really good.

And is kind of nice that one of the first gold medal of the games went to China in the women's 48kg weightlifting.
 
That was a spectacular opening ceremony. I got to watch it all the way over here in Oregon on the television with a group of my friends all gathered together. It was certainly interesting watching the opening ceremony tape-delayed while I had my MacBook Pro open, watching some of the events live. Props to NBC for making so much coverage available online, though I'm disappointed that not everything is going to be made available. I'm especially disappointed that there will be no boxing online. I have not got cable, so the Internet is my only option for watching at home.

It was especially fun to watch Rebecca Ward do so well in women's sabre, especially that thrilling 15-14 victory over Azza Besbes of Tunisia. I have a friend who's into fencing and has sparred with her a few times, so he and I were going a little nuts to see her do so well.
 
That was a spectacular opening ceremony. I got to watch it all the way over here in Oregon on the television with a group of my friends all gathered together. It was certainly interesting watching the opening ceremony tape-delayed while I had my MacBook Pro open, watching some of the events live. Props to NBC for making so much coverage available online, though I'm disappointed that not everything is going to be made available. I'm especially disappointed that there will be no boxing online. I have not got cable, so the Internet is my only option for watching at home.

It was especially fun to watch Rebecca Ward do so well in women's sabre, especially that thrilling 15-14 victory over Azza Besbes of Tunisia. I have a friend who's into fencing and has sparred with her a few times, so he and I were going a little nuts to see her do so well.

So cool to watch an event when you know the person competing.
 
The hordes and hordes of identically dressed, identically choreographed performers still gave me shivers. I'm not convinced of the symbolism there.

Still, an innovative and impressive show, nonetheless. For 2012, I would like to see Team GB enter the stadium in a hot-air balloon (or spitfires?), and to start with a giant teacup revolving in the middle. That'll show them.
 
Well apparently I won't be able to watch any of the online video coverage because I have a Power PC Mac, and not an intel one.

Grrrr....

To whoever said cut down on the parade of athletes: No way! That would be against the olympic ideal. These athletes have a right to march into the stadium, proudly representing their country, no matter how small. It may be long and boring to watch but it's necessary.
 
To whoever said cut down on the parade of athletes: No way! That would be against the olympic ideal. These athletes have a right to march into the stadium, proudly representing their country, no matter how small. It may be long and boring to watch but it's necessary.

Oh do simmer down… :rolleyes:
I was not being serious.
Besides… those hours and hours of dull marching and tramping earns the IOC lots of cash in TV fees. They'll never kill that cash cow.
;)

PS. That Olympic ideal you mention died a very long time ago… if it ever existed.
 
Oh do simmer down… :rolleyes:
I was not being serious.
Besides… those hours and hours of dull marching and tramping earns the IOC lots of cash in TV fees. They'll never kill that cash cow.
;)

PS. That Olympic ideal you mention died a very long time ago… if it ever existed.

I'm not wanting to start a flame war so this will be the last of it, but can I just say that the entire point of an ideal is that it is something you recognize as unobtainable, yet strive for anyway? The Ideal is certainly not dead. Dormant and struggling, perhaps, but not dead.

Anyway, back to your normal olympic discussion...
 
All us Brits now that the stadium wont be ready in time for 2012, so the opening ceremony will no doubt involve lots and lots of tea. And rain. Lots of rain! :p
 
Does anyone know a score card exits for all Olympics games, or something I can keep track of all the games/Schedules? Just cause I won't be around a computer all the time to keep track.
 
I missed the opening and I would love to see the whole thing uninterrupted, preferably in full screen with decent quality if not HD. I looked on NBColympics.com and their silverlight video player under 'as seen on tv' to find the "Opening Ceremony Sights and Sounds" but it seems like it is cut down and not the whole thing. Is that just because of the commercial breaks or is there a fuller version somewhere? Also, can that player go full screen? I haven't been able to get it to yet.
 
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