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  1. #1
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    Who's Looking Forward to the Olympics?

    The Olympic Park is within walking distance from me, so I may be able to see the torch arrive.

    Who -on both sides of the Atlantic- are interested in the Games?

  2. #2
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    no!the olympics is treated like a big fluffy bunny to be drooled over.the ioc is a money grabbing hard nosed outfit that takes back handers.
    a raft of minority sports that most people know nothing or care about.

  3. #3
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    I shall be getting up relatively early on Sunday morning as the Olympic flame is passing near to where I live.

    Minority sports or not I shall be cheering on the G.B. team in every event as in these times of austerity we need every ounce of gold, silver or bronze we can lay our hands on ... LOL ...

    X

  4. #4
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    NBC has totally ruined the Olympics for me. Cutting away from events in the middle of broadcasts. Intentionally scheduling some of my favorite events on their cable affiliates [[basketball, boxing). Tape delaying events until after the results have been reported for hours. I'm not interested in them as much as I used to be. I will be watching Michael Phelps because I want to see his encore for 2008. I will also watch the women's diving because I love women divers; don't ask why, because I don't know. Beyond that, some gymnastics and some track but not much else.

  5. #5
    smark21 Guest
    And let’s not forget NBC shoving sob stories down our throats. Seems like every athlete profile they do has to feature some dead friend or family member. I appreciate some of the sports and the work the athletes put into it, but really the Olympics are a big corporate greed fest that usually sets a host city/host nation into debt and leaves them with a bunch of athletic facilities that can never be used again.

  6. #6
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    Yeah, those features are mind numbing. Especially when Costas is hosting the broadcast. It's like they know they spent so much money, so they have to fill up the space somehow. With broadcasts being made on pay outlets, they put a lot of stuff there, so it's not enough to fill the network schedule.

    I'm pissed at the absence of boxing more than anything else because I used to watch the Olympic boxing team closely growing up. The '76 team was the greatest ever.

  7. #7
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    There's now the ridiculous threat that spectators who wear the wrong brand of clothing will be barred. Sebastian Coe indicated that supporters who innocently turn up in Pepsi T-shirts are likely to be turned away because the logos would upset games sponsor Coca Cola, and those wearing Nike trainers face a ban because Adidas are backing the game.

    The G4S debacle caused by them not being able to employ enough security guards could be a blessing in disguise. It's the 40th anniversary of the massacre of Israeli athletes in the Munich Olympics, and with the killing of Israeli students in a car-bomb attack in Bulgaria this week, I feel happier with the army taking a greater role than a security company. At least in the Ancient Olympics all hostilities were suspended during the course of the Games. Human nature hasn't come very far since then, has it?

    I shall be glad when the games actually start next week. I'm looking forward to the track and field events, particularly the middle-distance races.

  8. #8
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    How is the weather?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by ralpht View Post
    How is the weather?
    Like it normally is. Rain, rain and more rain! Bring your brolly's!

  10. #10
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    I've been watching the golf tourney, John, and the weather looks pretty good today.

  11. #11
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    I can only think that the weather man is on vacation today and the sun slipped through without him knowing.

    LOL

  12. #12
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    I too can do without the sobbing backstories..... On the other hand, I grew up watching Wide World of Sports religiously with family and friends. My grandmother and I would bet Ritz crackers on Curling for chrissakes.......

    I try to get the girls to expand their zones every Olympic season. Table Tennis was a big draw in my house the last time.

    Hope the Olympic Singers make a comeback.....hint hint.

  13. #13
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    Just got home from watching the torch being carried through Ilford town centre .. here it is being carried past "Maguires Irish Bar" ..

    Roger
    Attached Images Attached Images  

  14. #14
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    It's looking good Roger

    It gets to the City of London on Thursday.

  15. #15
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    ...and it seems, throughout its relay, that 95% of the UK population have needed to travel for no more than an hour, to watch it pass....

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    Can't wait!

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by westgrandboulevard View Post
    ...and it seems, throughout its relay, that 95% of the UK population have needed to travel for no more than an hour, to watch it pass....
    ...and was you in the 95%?

  18. #18
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    ...yes,luckily ,it went through our town centre, and also past the top of the road from our business, five minutes walk from both....

    ...and, at one point, a friend of ours was holding the torch! Went round to his home later and held it aloft....

  19. #19
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    I remember standing in the rain with my son on Calvert St. in Baltimore, watching the torch as it passed through on it's way to Atlanta.

  20. #20
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    Congratulations to Bradley Wiggins on becoming the first Briton to win the Tour De France in its 109 years history, Chris Froome for coming second, and Mark Cavendish for winning the final stage for the 4th year running. I'm really looking forward to events in the Olympic velodrome now.

  21. #21
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    I hope you're not planning to travel to see any of the Olympics by car! Cos the race will be over by the time you get there.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Oz View Post

    I'm pissed at the absence of boxing more than anything else because I used to watch the Olympic boxing team closely growing up. The '76 team was the greatest ever.
    I thought there was boxing. Didn't the US enter a team?

  23. #23
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    The Olympics have always been a big deal in my family. I'm actually considering buying a tv. If not, I'll be watching on my breaks at work.

  24. #24
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    Whoo Hoo...the torch is now in Islington and on it's way to the City of London.

  25. #25
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    I got there only to realise I forgot my camera! LOLOL

    The streets were packed solid and it was good to see so many people interested.

  26. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by theboyfromxtown View Post
    I got there only to realise I forgot my camera! LOLOL

    The streets were packed solid and it was good to see so many people interested.
    boyfromxtown .. did you watch the episode of "Eastenders" the other night when the Torch made its way through Walford? No one there had a camera either!!

    Roger

  27. #27
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    lol I saw that bit of Eastenders on the news!

  28. #28
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    They've closed my bus stop until further notice for security checks. It must be a ploy to get me to exercise!

  29. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by smark21 View Post
    really the Olympics are a big corporate greed fest that usually sets a host city/host nation into debt and leaves them with a bunch of athletic facilities that can never be used again.

    So true, smark.

    Last edited by phil; 07-26-2012 at 03:52 PM.

  30. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by 144man View Post
    They've closed my bus stop until further notice for security checks. It must be a ploy to get me to exercise!
    LOLOLOL


    However, as much as I am caught up in the excitement, I know smark21 is right!

  31. #31
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    I'm just as cynical, but I'm not going to let that stop me enjoying a once-in-lifetime experience.

  32. #32
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    There's been a lot wrong with the preparations and handling of the Olympics, but the opening show made it all unimportant. Danny Boyle and his team reminded us we can get something right, in a bit way.

  33. #33
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    I'm looking forward to the games. I was disappointed with the opening ceremony, but that't ok. Let the games begin.

  34. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by 144man View Post
    Congratulations to Bradley Wiggins on becoming the first Briton to win the Tour De France in its 109 years history, Chris Froome for coming second, and Mark Cavendish for winning the final stage for the 4th year running. I'm really looking forward to events in the Olympic velodrome now.
    ...shame they couldn't repeat that success today!!! ...we had such high hopes............................................. .!


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    I like a ton of events in the Olympics, moreso the Summer......but some of the cycling events like their skating counterparts.....where the athletes cruise around the track, ad infinitum, until the last lap or two, where they jackrabbit it in.....remind me of NCAA basketball, during the 4-corners days, where the final score would be 6 - 2.....not too my liking.

  36. #36
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    I am in no way a sports kind of guy, but there is something about the Olympics that I love. I enjoy watching everything. I do try to catch the swimming events when they are on.

    I'm not happy with the way NBC has been broadcasting it all. Every other country in this world is either showing things live or without commercials breaks, but somehow NBC has to find a way to squeeze a damn commercial in the middle of something. It's frustrating and annoying. They should lose the airing rights after this. I think ABC or CBS would handle the broadcasts much better. I understand not everything can be shown live since there are so many things going on, but at least show the big, important events live instead of tape delay while everyone else has seen it live. It's disappointing and just shows why NBC comes in fourth among all of the networks.

  37. #37
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    Brad. We here in the UK, can go on the BBC website to see LIVE those events that are not shown on one of the BBC channels. Why don't you try that. BBC has NO commercials.

  38. #38
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    ...I notice on Virgin ...that there are nearly 50 new BBC Olympics channels ...from channel 550 onwards ...so not one aspect of this Olympics will be missed...!!!


  39. #39
    smark21 Guest
    Found this review of NBC's coverage of The Olympics, key paragraphs pasted below:

    http://www.avclub.com/articles/july-29-2012,83088/

    Before we sign off for the night, a little history: The golden age of TV coverage of the Olympics was in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, when the games were the province of ABC, during that time when Roone Arledge was redefining, and dissolving, the borders between sportscasting, TV news, and entertainment. ABC helped make stars out of international figures such as Jean-Claude Killy, Olga Korbut, and Nadia Comaneci, and they riveted people to their TV sets, culminating in the blanket coverage of the 1984 Los Angeles summer games, which ate up 180 hours of network time. [[That was more than 100 hours more than the previous titleholder, the 1972 Olympics, which turned into a hard-news event—but was still left in the hands of Arledge’s sports division—when Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage.) NBC, which took over the franchise in the summer of 1988, seemed to be cursed at first, and that year’s Seoul Olympics was a TV dud. [[The network had successfully bid for 1980 summer Olympics—the one that the U.S. boycotted, ultimately leaving them with nothing to cover.)

    But by 1996, NBC had hit upon a commercially winning formula. It amounts to not just dispensing with “live” coverage in the classic ABC/ Arledge sense, but dumbing down the product and playing to American chauvinism: It’s assumed that the viewers have no interest in discovering a new sport they might become enthusiastic about [[the way Olympics coverage of years past got Americans interested in women’s gymnastics and soccer) or rooting for anyone not born in the United States, or even much in sports for its own sake. Everything is reduced to a story, and the focal point of every story is whoever’s American; if somebody else performs an incredible feat at the games, this is relevant only because of however it affects the dreams and rankings of some American. [[Tonight’s coverage of the 400-meter freestyle relay, in which Lochte came up short again, with the French trouncing the Americans, was mainly an excuse to remind everyone how much cooler it felt four years ago, when the Americans kicked the French team’s ass.)

    NBC has always had a handy answer to complaints about the nature of its Olympics coverage: They air the games to get ratings, and they assemble their coverage in a way designed to get as many people as possible to tune in. [[And so what if one can only infer from the results that they think that the highest number of likely viewers are morons.) But how much longer is this going to work? People who actually care about the games have too many other ways to watch them now. The increasing irrelevance of NBC’s packaged coverage became very clear during the opening ceremonies, when Costas and Meredith Viera, who seemed almost proud of their inability to comment on or even comprehend the political, cultural, and historical themes running through Danny Boyle’s pageant, were swamped in real time by all the people mocking them, and having a meaningful discussion about what they were seeing, on Twitter and other social media. But NBC can’t seem to imagine a different way to cover the games, and yet they’ve already paid for the rights to them into the next decade. That curse might be alive and well after all.

  40. #40
    domino Guest
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

  41. #41
    smark21 Guest
    Looks like we got a spammer in our midst.

  42. #42
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    I've reported it.

  43. #43
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    Domino is history. Thanks for the heads-up guys.

  44. #44
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    knocked his spots off

  45. #45
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    How not to write a sports article

    From the Daily Mirror:

    "FENCING

    Richard Kruse has admitted his Olympic dream is over after crashing out of the Men's Individual Foil at the first hurdle."

    That I would have liked to have seen

  46. #46
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    America has taken over the top of the medals table from China. Well done!

  47. #47
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    "A couple of weeks ago I knew nothing about the Olympics. Now I can't wait for next year's".

    [Comedian Frankie Boyle]

  48. #48
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    It took a long time for the USA to overtake China but they did in the end, by quite a bit.

    GB did an awesome job.

    With most Olympics, they begin with mass complaints about how the taxpayers end up funding huge shortfalls and Mitt Romney et al will come over and question whether the host country can do it. And the taxpayers do pick up part of the tab inevitably.

    And there are scandals, tragedies, doping......Bulgarian women who are nearly men, Ben Johnson, bobsledding accidents, badminton games deliberately thrown and for the first time they get disciplined......

    But in the end, people think the Olympics are awesome and they do want them.

    I read about the first complaints from a minority group near Sochi.....more surely to come. It is their time to shine too.

  49. #49
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    Is it true that the Paralympics aren't being shown on US television?

  50. #50
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    the british olympian athletes are sponsored [[mainly) by the national lottery.which is fine by me.500 million quid so far.so its not coming out of tax payers pockets.just their losing stake!

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