Official Olympics 2012 Thread

[The Fish 10832]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19238284

 

World reaction

 

David Segal, New York Times: "The Games have hit this country like an extra-strength dose of a mood-enhancing drug. The question being asked here now is whether this national euphoria can last or, better yet, lead the country out of its recent economically driven malaise. Perhaps, as one writer for The Guardian wrote, the Games will 'mark the end of Britain's age of decline'."

Philip Hersh, Chicago Tribune: "In summing up London 2012, the temptation is to deliver a panegyric. Such a discourse, filled with lofty expressions of praise, would reflect the ancient roots of the 17-day festival that ended here Sunday. The praise also would reflect accurately how London performed in its third go-around as an Olympic Summer Games host. Brits no longer have an empire on which the sun never sets. But they managed to keep it shining on these Olympics most of the time after having endured months of ceaseless rain. God apparently was interested in saving more than the Queen, who made a sky diving entry to the opening ceremony."

Anthony Faiola, Washington Post: "Urged on by massive home crowds and a cheerleading press that defied predictions of Olympic cynicism, British athletes ran, cycled and rowed their way to their highest medal count since Britannia ruled the seas in 1908. At these Games, the United States and China might be coming home with more gold, but this country of 62 million roughly the size of Michigan reminded itself of its uncanny ability to punch above its weight."

Lisa Dillman, LA Times: "Little went wrong for the organisers, who had dealt with a steady dose of gloom in the run-up to the Olympics, pessimistic predictions of gridlock and transport nightmares. Those fears never quite materialized. Not only that, but Britain was treated to a hugely successful series of performances by its athletes."

Greg Baum, Sydney Morning Herald: "London, you didn't half do a decent job. These Olympics had Sydney's vibrancy, Athens's panache, Beijing's efficiency, and added British know-how and drollery. With apologies to Sydney, they might just represent a new PB [personal best] for the Olympics. They were superbly organised. The Olympic Park's setting, in one of Britain's poorest boroughs, proved inspired. Some Olympic sites become wasteland after the Games. This one began as wasteland and is now full of possibilities."

The Australian: "As awful as it is to admit, London 2012 was bigger, slicker, almost as friendly and more thoughtfully planned than Sydney in terms of the legacy it will leave the host city. As the post-mortems begin on how London compares with other Games in terms of crowd numbers, finances, sporting excellence and that beast of many faces called "legacy", there is one simple indication of the success of the past two weeks. That is the feeling of surprise among ordinary Londoners and people close to the Games that after all that anticipation and all their doubts, they had pulled it off so well. It is not a sense of 'We told you so', more one of 'My god, we actually did it!'"

David Leggat, New Zealand Herald: "Hats off to the Lord Coe and his Locog planning chums. They can put their feet up knowing London did itself, and the Olympics, proud. If you are of a nit-picky disposition, you could take issue here and there, but there will always be hiccups no matter how well laid the plans for an event of this scale. Standing at Stratford train station, beside the entrance to the Olympic Park, for 40 minutes in the rain is not inclined to lead one to magnanimous thoughts. But these were good Games. Security was solid and much of the sport was terrific."

Times of India: "At the end of a three-hour ceremony, the Olympic flame was ceremoniously extinguished, marking the end of the 17-day sporting extravaganza which saw many Olympic and world record being re-written and many new heroes emerging. US and China predictably emerged as the powerhouses by taking the first and second spots in the medals tally while hosts Britain produced their best-ever show to take the third position."

China Daily: "Despite concerns about the creaky transport system and a shortfall of private security guards, which forced the government to call in thousands of extra troops to help screen visitors, the Games have passed by fairly trouble-free. A furore over empty seats at several Olympic venues blew over, especially once the track and field showcase kicked in and drew capacity crowds for virtually every session. Even the weather improved as the Games wore on. Bright sunshine has graced the closing weekend of a festival that has helped to lift spirits in Britain."

UK reaction

 

Bernadette McNulty, Daily Telegraph: "Not to take anything away from the jaw dropping sportsmanship and flawless organisation of these Olympics but I think some of the incredible atmosphere of these games has been down to the British love of and skill at enjoying a party. We brought our festival spirit en mass to Stratford to turn it into a kind of Glastonbury of sport."

Cahal Milmo and Jerome Taylor, The Independent: "After 16 days of sporting heroism which made London the centre of the world, the curtain fell on the Olympics last night with a display of exuberant - at times anarchic - revelry that had but one message: 'Goodbye world, we hope you had as good a time as we did. Now let's dance.'"

David Pilditch, Daily Express: "A Great British celebration crowned a magnificent fortnight which has put a proud host nation on top of the world. Our greatest team of athletes led from the front, winning an astonishing 29 gold medals - Britain's biggest haul in more than 100 years. But it was ordinary British people who turned London 2012 into an unprecedented spectacle with their passion and generosity of spirit."

Jan Moir, Daily Mail: "In the chaos of the opening numbers, where vehicles covered with newsprint drove around the track for no good reason and Timothy Spall dressed up as Churchill and shouted at everyone, viewers could be forgiven for wondering, did this really represent the country we fell in love with all over again during London 2012?"

Richard Williams, Guardian: "So much about the reality of London 2012 seemed surprising, even unprecedented. Some of us had thought Britain probably retained the capacity to host another Austerity Games, with a small budget and reduced expectations, like the one in 1948, but harboured doubts about what we might accomplish with the temptation of unlimited resources. Such fears now seem small-minded in the light of an event that began with an explosion of goodwill and never lost its capacity to charm and to amaze."

Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator: "Normally, government chokes the life out of any arts project it takes on and I'd expected the Olympic Stadium ceremonies to be the Millennium Dome Live. How wrong I was. The gathering of the thousands of athletes reprised the theme of the opening ceremony: that this is about people, not a massive Chinese-style display of state power."

Politics

 

A White House spokesman said: "President Obama called Prime Minister Cameron today to congratulate him and the people of the United Kingdom and London on an extremely successful Olympic games, which speaks to the character and spirit of our close ally. Both leaders commended the exceptional performances by both the Olympic teams of the United States and Great Britain and noted how proud we all are of them. The president thanked the prime minister for hosting so many US athletes and fans and for the extremely warm welcome shown to First Lady Michelle Obama."

Russian ambassador to the UK, Aleksander Yakovenko, speaking to news channel Rossiya 24, said: "Our opinion is that there were more pluses than minuses in the Games and their organisation, and the assessments given by President Putin when he was here in London and took part in a number of events still stand. In a word, it was not bad. What impressed everyone, what was really moving, was of course the work of volunteers. They were very welcoming, very professional, and always tried to help literally everyone throughout the city."

Twitter

 

Former Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe: "Can't believe it's all over. This has been one of the greatest Olympic Games. Well done to all the volunteers and athletes."

Tom Newton Dunn, political editor at the Sun newspaper: "The lights are going out all over East London, we will not see them lit again. But we will always remember the greatest ever Olympics."

Comedian David Schneider: "Well, I've never felt such simple pride in being British. Team GB! Locog! Sir Daniel Boyle! London! You put on one hell of a meeting!"

Piers Morgan, CNN broadcaster: "What a Games! Congrats to everyone involved - athletes, police, volunteers, armed forces, and yes, even the politicians. #PrideOfBritain"

Comedian Simon Pegg: "What a brilliant and inspiring couple of weeks. Well done to everyone involved, competitors, organisers, volunteers. Nowt but love for ya.xx"

Neil McCormick, Daily Telegraph music critic: "Blur, The Specials & New Order played a gig in London tonight. Meanwhile the Olympics put on a Best of British with Jessie J & Take That."

Comedian and broadcaster Stephen Fry: "Waaaaah - sobbing like a baby. Dear oh dear. Seb for next president of the IOC. If not General Secretary of the UN #2012closingceremony."

Commons Speaker's wife Sally Bercow: "Terrific fortnight cheering #teamGB & developing #armchairexpertise in all Olympic sports. Above all, your Twitter commentary made it! Thx x"

[Meenzer 15484]

 

Disqualified and stripped of gold due to drug fiendery. Who knew?!

[Meenzer 15484]

http://www.bbc.co.uk...litics-19238284

 

Jan Moir capturing the zeitgeist perfectly as ever.

[The Fish 10832]

Jan Moir capturing the zeitgeist perfectly as ever.

Typical of that rag, but what can you do?

[Meenzer 15484]

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourbeeb/alex-macpherson/after-olympic-feast-can-bbc-sport-really-return-to-diet-of-football-football

 

Stating the obvious in many ways I suppose, but still basically spot on. What price the return of Grandstand?

[Happy Face 29]

Should have had Hot Chip, Mumford, Coldplay, Pj Harvey, The XX, Adele, Katy B, Dizzee Rascal, Florence & The Machine, Kasabian, Estelle, Arctic Monkeys, Leona Lewis, Calvin Harris, Snow Patrol.....etc.

 

Many of them not my cuppa at all, but only 5% of last night had any acts from the last 10 years....and 90% of those that were did karaoke covers of songs from earlier than the last decade.

[Meenzer 15484]

The xx would have been hilarious like. The ultimate "fuck you" to the party vibe.

[McFaul 35]

You may have missed it but i posted a little bit about the poll in L'equipe and the comments of the French cycling Director. After Zac Purchase's seat came off and Hindes' interview after the team event there was a twitter hashtag #GBJOFacts. (JO = Olympic games) which took the piss out of us cheating to win events. It was meant to be humourous but (here comes the power of narrative) started people discussing the performance of team GB, mix that in with the inherent chauvinism of your typical frog and suddenly they were discussing the twitter trend on France TV and openly suggesting we might be cheating. Then a French journalist (wrapped up by now in the developing narrative) basically accuses us of cheating in a question to David Cameron. The poll in L'equipe at this point has 70% of French thinking we cheated in the velodrome. Then the 'piece de resistance' is the Cycling Director on Rue89.com saying that we had taken the Mavic wheels and done something with them with McLaren, thats why we wrapped the wheels up after each race. She then suggests ("maybe i am fantasising") that there was some sort of mechanism inside that used inertia to give us a speed advantage.

 

Utter wankers and thankfully the discussions on this on LeMonde and L'equipe (the latter putting their own opinion on the poll that team GB's cyclists prepared better) were split between uninformed, factually incorrect arguments agreeing with some sort of anglo-saxon conspiracy and informed posters basically saying they were a national disgrace and showed why people around the world think the french are wankers (i'm paraphrasing here). It would be unfair to focus only on that issue though because the majority of the coverage focussed on the sport, the french team and the success of the games. They are, like the Germans, gutted that we absolutely tanked them in the medals table. No matter what people would like to think, the power and impact of success at the olympics does suggest a 'betterness', that explains the reaction, the jealousy of some and the foolish arguments of others who would believe in that 'betterness' if they had won, so have to turn to explanations beyond their own team's performance to explain their why they are not.

 

L'equipe's headline today is Rule Britannia and is about how well we did but the comments section still has people making comments about Hindes and now Tom Daley asking to re-jump because of the flashlights.

Hmm maybe the French just like conspiracy theories and like to fucking moan about fair play. Even when Henry, handled France in to the 2010 World Cup, I remember the french revelling in how righteous they are, by demanding that the game be replayed against Ireland. Socialist cunts. Have any of the french described it as the best games ever then?

[Happy Face 29]

The xx would have been hilarious like. The ultimate "fuck you" to the party vibe.

 

 

I thought they said "olympic values" more than Yuck.

[McFaul 35]

Russian ambassador to the UK, Aleksander Yakovenko, speaking to news channel Rossiya 24, said: "Our opinion is that there were more pluses than minuses in the Games and their organisation, and the assessments given by President Putin when he was here in London and took part in a number of events still stand. In a word, it was not bad.

 

Fuck off man. Come back when you're not chasing dissidents across Europe to poison them you bitter paranoid cunts. They're still a major course of evil in the world these jealous bastards, and I rate Putin as the biggest cunt leader of any big nation since Hitler. Cunts. There is more anti-British sentiment off these bastards than any other country in the world, they hate us more than they hate America. If we are so shit how come half of your oligarch's seek refuge in the UK? I don't see Branson or Mittal with permanent residences in Moscow or St Petersburg. Backward cunts.

[PaddockLad 17218]

http://www.opendemoc...otball-football

 

Stating the obvious in many ways I suppose, but still basically spot on. What price the return of Grandstand?

 

Thing is, most folks only took notice because it was in this country. No one wants to watch the swimming they used to show on Granstand, no one gives that much of a shit, its only because its "in the faces" of your average citizen atm...I'm a sports fan in general and even I wouldnt watch a lot of stuff Granstand showed.

[Park Life 71]

What's been the French reaction to the full event Chez, and Parky what's the kraut thoughts on how it's went?

 

There's been a lot of thinly veiled jealously here...They had a pop at Mo (lot of repetition about him coming to the UK), they complained that we spent so much in athlete preperation, home advantage, winning goes in cycles, one off...the whole menu of little niggles. My mate Karsten who was there for a few days and does promo and sponsorship for the pentathlon could barely contain himself as I took the piss...

 

The Germans are a complex and neurotic race and the key to the Euro buffer against American hegemony, but these days they really lack character. If they aren't going to win they lose interest very quickly..They're only interested if they are going to win or are winning, if not they feign disinterest. This is a massive character flaw and imo ridiculously shallow and defensive..Worse than Renton.

[luckyluke 2]

Should have had Hot Chip, Mumford, Coldplay, Pj Harvey, The XX, Adele, Katy B, Dizzee Rascal, Florence & The Machine, Kasabian, Estelle, Arctic Monkeys, Leona Lewis, Calvin Harris, Snow Patrol.....etc.

 

Many of them not my cuppa at all, but only 5% of last night had any acts from the last 10 years....and 90% of those that were did karaoke covers of songs from earlier than the last decade.

 

Exactly. Calvin Harris would have been great.

[Park Life 71]

Fuck off man. Come back when you're not chasing dissidents across Europe to poison them you bitter paranoid cunts. They're still a major course of evil in the world these jealous bastards, and I rate Putin as the biggest cunt leader of any big nation since Hitler. Cunts. There is more anti-British sentiment off these bastards than any other country in the world, they hate us more than they hate America. If we are so shit how come half of your oligarch's seek refuge in the UK? I don't see Branson or Mittal with permanent residences in Moscow or St Petersburg. Backward cunts.

 

The oligarchs are here so they don't get killed or put in prison forever.

[Meenzer 15484]

They had a pop at Mo (lot of repetition about him coming to the UK)

 

From the Germans man. Tell them Poland wants Klose and Podolksi's World Cup goals back then.

[Jan 0]

Did anyone track down those athletes that did a runner? I think they were from Cameroon.

[LoveTheBobby 1]

 

Disqualified and stripped of gold due to drug fiendery. Who knew?!

 

Not to mention the cock and balls .

[Happy Face 29]

Exactly. Calvin Harris would have been great.

 

Exactly. Certainly better than Ray Davies.

 

We showcased London in the year 2012 with a bunch of music by people old enough to have watched it live the last time we had them over 60 years ago.

 

Tragic.

[wykikitoon 20042]

Do they have anthing like the lottery funding that team GB enjoyed on the continent?...I remember Jake Humphrey pointing out Chris Hoy putting special electric "warmers" on his gignatic calves to keep them warm between races, and saying these are the small details that help us succeeed. Is it lack of funding that is holding Fritz and Jean Claude back?....

 

I listened to a 5Live interview with Brailsford in Feb time and he said at the last Olympics the cost of the lottery funding for for each gold model worked out to be something like;

 

£1.5m per medal for Cycling

£3.4m for Atheletics

£4m for Swimming

 

Something like that.

 

Would be interesting to see those figures now.

[Tooj 17]

Canny funny the Germans having a pop at Mo representing us. Have they not watched their national team play football in the last 10 years?

Edited August 13, 2012 by Jonny2J

[Gemmill 44669]

Would seem like cycling is a sport where technique and science/engineering would get you further though. Genetics plays a bigger part in swimming and athletics and money gets you nowhere there.

[wykikitoon 20042]

Would seem like cycling is a sport where technique and science/engineering would get you further though. Genetics plays a bigger part in swimming and athletics and money gets you nowhere there.

 

Things like swimming there is only so much tweaking you can do from "equipment" isnt there? On the track / road / MTB you rely so much on a machine really.

[Park Life 71]

They got McClaren to do the wheels. Class.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

Really glad the Games themselves did the talking, was not a fan of some of the hype beforehand and thought the torch relay was a load of corporate shite to sell tickets to be honest..just my opinion of course. Point is, after all that bollocks, the sport and the events did all the talking. Totally in love with Handball as a sport now like, cracking stuff.

 

One last word on the Beeb. I though the tele coverage was superb, the fact that you could choose sports and channels to watch whole events from start to finish was excellent, meant I didn't have to sit through fucking Equestrian or Dressage (fuck me, seriously). Lots of options. Having said that, only negative for me has been the 5Live coverage. I listen to 5Live a lot, but I thought they were far too 'team positive.' It was just too much for me like, they stopped being objective to be honest and got lost in the patriotism of it all.

[luckyluke 2]

Agree re 5 live, they improved towards the end as the finals and athletics medals came in but for the most part it was just build up to or post mortem of 'Team GB's exploits. I drove from Leeds to Liverpool and back on the first Sunday and didn't hear a word of live commentary.