These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
There must have been two opening ceremonies then, because certainly the one I saw (possible the rehearsal as it was raining) was pisspoor, pretentious and boring? Cant think why you liked it?
I could do the first half lap in the Velodrome in the Cycling when they are playing cat and mouse and going dead slow but after that I would be screwed 🤷🏻♂️
These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
The opening and closing ceremonies were the worst I've seen. The sport, the venues and the backdrops were awesome.
I understand the criticism of the opening ceremony, but for me it was a brave and creative call not to confine things to a stadium, especially with drums and dancing and stuff followed by the almost endless parade of countries. And trying to utilise the whole city was a harder call than just a stadium and I think took a lot of courage from the organisers to risk so much, no rehearsal and tons of rain could have ruined it, but for me it worked.
These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
There must have been two opening ceremonies then, because certainly the one I saw (possible the rehearsal as it was raining) was pisspoor, pretentious and boring? Cant think why you liked it?
One major reason was it was different to every opening ceremony I have seen in the past, so it can be argued it was the best non stadium opening there has ever been. In terms of detail, well one feature I liked was interspersing the introduction of the teams with events. I have also been to Paris, love the place (despite the food) so I possibly related to it more. I wonder if the Americans will revert to a stadium opening, or try to imitate Paris with a backdrop of freeways, the Hollywood sign, film studios and fast food outlets. In four years technology will have advanced so much each of us might have a personalised ceremony experienced on headsets.
These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
There must have been two opening ceremonies then, because certainly the one I saw (possible the rehearsal as it was raining) was pisspoor, pretentious and boring? Cant think why you liked it?
One major reason was it was different to every opening ceremony I have seen in the past, so it can be argued it was the best non stadium opening there has ever been. In terms of detail, well one feature I liked was interspersing the introduction of the teams with events. I have also been to Paris, love the place (despite the food) so I possibly related to it more. I wonder if the Americans will revert to a stadium opening, or try to imitate Paris with a backdrop of freeways, the Hollywood sign, film studios and fast food outlets. In four years technology will have advanced so much each of us might have a personalised ceremony experienced on headsets.
Agreed it was different but by no means was it any good, there may be a good reason why this type of opening has been rejected by every other host city. Oh and by the way, caught a little bit of snobbery on your lips there.
The most memorable opening ceremony moment was probably from the USA, by the way, with the arrow fired to light the flame.
I'm particularly impressed by the men who reckon they could get to Olympic standard in football in 4 years, given that it involves being under 23 at the time of the tournament. That would be great, but there's a minor difficulty...
I'm particularly impressed by the men who reckon they could get to Olympic standard in football in 4 years, given that it involves being under 23 at the time of the tournament. That would be great, but there's a minor difficulty...
Think you’re allowed a couple of over age players - maybe that’s what they’re aiming for!
These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
There must have been two opening ceremonies then, because certainly the one I saw (possible the rehearsal as it was raining) was pisspoor, pretentious and boring? Cant think why you liked it?
One major reason was it was different to every opening ceremony I have seen in the past, so it can be argued it was the best non stadium opening there has ever been. In terms of detail, well one feature I liked was interspersing the introduction of the teams with events. I have also been to Paris, love the place (despite the food) so I possibly related to it more. I wonder if the Americans will revert to a stadium opening, or try to imitate Paris with a backdrop of freeways, the Hollywood sign, film studios and fast food outlets. In four years technology will have advanced so much each of us might have a personalised ceremony experienced on headsets.
Agreed it was different but by no means was it any good, there may be a good reason why this type of opening has been rejected by every other host city. Oh and by the way, caught a little bit of snobbery on your lips there.
The most memorable opening ceremony moment was probably from the USA, by the way, with the arrow fired to light the flame.
These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
The opening and closing ceremonies were the worst I've seen. The sport, the venues and the backdrops were awesome.
Agreed, the closing ceremony somehow took over 3 hours, yet hardly anything happened. That centrepiece section where the alien came down and they built the rings took forever, while the musical bit was completely overshadowed by what the LA section provided. When by far the most memorable part of the evening was the LA section, and Tom Cruise abseiling down, something is wrong.
Even the US filmed section seemed overlong, normally you would expect more of that to be in the stadium, so that all the Paris athletes and spectators could enjoy it, rather than having all the bands performing on Venice Beach on screen.
I did like the extinguishing of the flame, that was a nice moment.
These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
There must have been two opening ceremonies then, because certainly the one I saw (possible the rehearsal as it was raining) was pisspoor, pretentious and boring? Cant think why you liked it?
One major reason was it was different to every opening ceremony I have seen in the past, so it can be argued it was the best non stadium opening there has ever been. In terms of detail, well one feature I liked was interspersing the introduction of the teams with events. I have also been to Paris, love the place (despite the food) so I possibly related to it more. I wonder if the Americans will revert to a stadium opening, or try to imitate Paris with a backdrop of freeways, the Hollywood sign, film studios and fast food outlets. In four years technology will have advanced so much each of us might have a personalised ceremony experienced on headsets.
Agreed it was different but by no means was it any good, there may be a good reason why this type of opening has been rejected by every other host city. Oh and by the way, caught a little bit of snobbery on your lips there.
The most memorable opening ceremony moment was probably from the USA, by the way, with the arrow fired to light the flame.
Not that memorable seeing as it was in Barcelona. And it missed, you can see the flaming arrow go past the target.
The 84 Los Angeles Olympics had the Jet Pack man.
The 96 Atlanta Olympics had Muhammad Ali lighting the flame
Bit odd to have the LA segment all filmed in LA, rather than in front of the athletes in Paris.
Didn’t have enough control over it, and Venice Beach, well why not
But it meant a long section of the ceremony with all the athletes in Paris stuck watching music on big screens
When they finally returned to the stadium (after midnight) most of the athletes had wandered off and the stadium was half full. The last singer did it her way in front of an emptying house.
Bit odd to have the LA segment all filmed in LA, rather than in front of the athletes in Paris.
Didn’t have enough control over it, and Venice Beach, well why not
But it meant a long section of the ceremony with all the athletes in Paris stuck watching music on big screens
When they finally returned to the stadium (after midnight) most of the athletes had wandered off and the stadium was half full. The last singer did it her way in front of an emptying house.
I had wondered about that. Tom Cruise leaving the stadium did feel like the end of a very long evening, even if it wasn't!
Ive always thought the medal scoring system to be poor in that realistically only golds count for anything. If you were to give 3 pts for a gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze this is what the final medal table would look like:
The Olympics brought back some good memories of London 2012 for me. I think the French public bought into it and helped their competitors as we did when we were hosts. Looking forward to 2028.
Ive always thought the medal scoring system to be poor in that realistically only golds count for anything. If you were to give 3 pts for a gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze this is what the final medal table would look like:
Some people need to read the script. The whole intent was to take the city, not just the stadia to the athletes and involve the city and its people with the Olympic experience. Hesitant at first they ultimately hugely embraced it matching attendance records on a par with London.
It is what sport is supposed to be about in breaking down barriers between and engaging with people. In France that is no small task.
Yes the style was different, you don’t rush the French at anything. Go to a restaurant for Sunday lunch you can be there for 3-4 hours. Live with it. Maybe they have it right maybe they don’t. C’est la vie! Though as with the opening and closing ceremonies it got lost along the way a few times they delivered an excellent “ sensational games” not least due to doubling their own usual medal count.
They added some really nice touches with the Champions Arena where people could interact with medal winners.
I think team GB & NI did a very good job. They did probably leave anything up to 10 medals out there whether that is just down to the way of sport being sport or a move away from the Brailsford theory of marginal gains only they can know. It did seem like an awful lot athletes had had a really difficult preceding 12 months while a significant number delivered personal bests only to find it just wasn’t quite good enough.
There will need to be a review of Lottery funding but in an upward trend. These games are only going to get harder and harder. If we are going to continue to compete then people will continue to need to be empowered.
It was pleasing to see King Charles lll acknowledge the worthy success of Commonwealth Athletes. He was no doubt able to reflect on the emblazoning of the Union Jack across the medal ceremonies for UK & NI, Australia, New Zealand where as Head of State and indeed of Canada, Jamaica, St Lucia and Grenada (a collective population of circa 140mn) he saw his subjects bring home 175 medals including 53 Gold.
These Olympics have been excellent. Certainly on a par with London, with the extra glory of a great opening ceremony not confined to the stadium. For me the finish to the triathlon, with a local to me mixed race competitor winning was the most thrilling event, it was very relatable.
There must have been two opening ceremonies then, because certainly the one I saw (possible the rehearsal as it was raining) was pisspoor, pretentious and boring? Cant think why you liked it?
One major reason was it was different to every opening ceremony I have seen in the past, so it can be argued it was the best non stadium opening there has ever been. In terms of detail, well one feature I liked was interspersing the introduction of the teams with events. I have also been to Paris, love the place (despite the food) so I possibly related to it more. I wonder if the Americans will revert to a stadium opening, or try to imitate Paris with a backdrop of freeways, the Hollywood sign, film studios and fast food outlets. In four years technology will have advanced so much each of us might have a personalised ceremony experienced on headsets.
Agreed it was different but by no means was it any good, there may be a good reason why this type of opening has been rejected by every other host city. Oh and by the way, caught a little bit of snobbery on your lips there.
The most memorable opening ceremony moment was probably from the USA, by the way, with the arrow fired to light the flame.
Ive always thought the medal scoring system to be poor in that realistically only golds count for anything. If you were to give 3 pts for a gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze this is what the final medal table would look like:
G
S
B
Pts Total
1
United States
40
44
42
250
2
China
40
27
24
198
3
France
16
26
22
122
4
Great Britain
14
22
29
115
5
Australia
18
19
16
108
6
Japan
20
12
13
97
7
Italy
12
13
15
77
8
Netherlands
15
7
12
71
9
Germany
12
13
8
70
10
South Korea
13
9
10
67
Then why did the USA finish above China?
Oh yeah, more silvers.
Okay, yes used as a tiebreaker but a team who has 15 gold and 0 silvers could be ahead of a team with 14 golds and 70 silvers just feels wrong.
Comments
I could do the first half lap in the Velodrome in the Cycling when they are playing cat and mouse and going dead slow but after that I would be screwed 🤷🏻♂️
And trying to utilise the whole city was a harder call than just a stadium and I think took a lot of courage from the organisers to risk so much, no rehearsal and tons of rain could have ruined it, but for me it worked.
In terms of detail, well one feature I liked was interspersing the introduction of the teams with events.
I have also been to Paris, love the place (despite the food) so I possibly related to it more.
I wonder if the Americans will revert to a stadium opening, or try to imitate Paris with a backdrop of freeways, the Hollywood sign, film studios and fast food outlets. In four years technology will have advanced so much each of us might have a personalised ceremony experienced on headsets.
The most memorable opening ceremony moment was probably from the USA, by the way, with the arrow fired to light the flame.
Even the US filmed section seemed overlong, normally you would expect more of that to be in the stadium, so that all the Paris athletes and spectators could enjoy it, rather than having all the bands performing on Venice Beach on screen.
I did like the extinguishing of the flame, that was a nice moment.
Beijing still top for me, followed by London.
They incinerated the 'doves of peace' they had released earlier in the ceremony.
Oh yeah, more silvers.
It is what sport is supposed to be about in breaking down barriers between and engaging with people. In France that is no small task.
Yes the style was different, you don’t rush the French at anything. Go to a restaurant for Sunday lunch you can be there for 3-4 hours. Live with it. Maybe they have it right maybe they don’t. C’est la vie! Though as with the opening and closing ceremonies it got lost along the way a few times they delivered an excellent “ sensational games” not least due to doubling their own usual medal count.
They added some really nice touches with the Champions Arena where people could interact with medal winners.
I think team GB & NI did a very good job. They did probably leave anything up to 10 medals out there whether that is just down to the way of sport being sport or a move away from the Brailsford theory of marginal gains only they can know. It did seem like an awful lot athletes had had a really difficult preceding 12 months while a significant number delivered personal bests only to find it just wasn’t quite good enough.
There will need to be a review of Lottery funding but in an upward trend. These games are only going to get harder and harder. If we are going to continue to compete then people will continue to need to be empowered.
It was pleasing to see King Charles lll acknowledge the worthy success of Commonwealth Athletes. He was no doubt able to reflect on the emblazoning of the Union Jack across the medal ceremonies for UK & NI, Australia, New Zealand where as Head of State and indeed of Canada, Jamaica, St Lucia and Grenada (a collective population of circa 140mn) he saw his subjects bring home 175 medals including 53 Gold.
Who needs medal tables?