XXXth Olympiad - London

[Dorian Thompson]

I miss Nastia Liukin.

She would have made the team if she hadn't been so naive as to think she could start her comeback training last October after not having competed for three years. I don't know why her dad or someone didn't set her straight or encourage her to start training sooner. She still had her form at trials, but no stamina. If she'd had another six months she'd have been good to go, but she didn't have another six months. You can't put her on the the team for sentimental reasons and expect to win. Sad, but those are the breaks. She'll always be the most graceful AA winner the US has ever had.

It's rocking the way Gabby Douglas has come on and had the meet of her life at trials but, if it comes down to her and Wieber for the AA, I'm still going with Wieber for the totality of her work the past 2 seasons. That balance beam is going to lower Gabby's totals when the heat is on. She just can't seem to stop the wobbles, and has fallen from time to time. In team finals, they'll put Kyla Ross on beam in her place, but nowhere to hide in the AA competition. Jordyn Wieber has ice water in her veins when she's competing. She has the perfect mentality for a gymnast.

Or Larissa Iordache from Romania could beat them both. She's another gymast who has really, REALLY come on in the past year. Victoria Komova from Russia was the girl nipping at Jordyn's heels at Worlds in '11, but the worst possible thing has happened to her that can happen to any female gymnast right before the olympics--she's had a huge growth spurt during the past six months. More and more female gymnasts are getting back to competing in their 20s, but they all have a growth spurt at some point when puberty finally catches them and they always have huge problems during that time until they relearn their skills with their new body length and weight.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Fantastic opening ceremony. Loved the James Bond skit, and even Mr Bean. Now bring on the games.

 

[Dar70]

Best opening ceremony I can remember. Well done.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

That was very, very enjoyable. I had my doubts that they would do anything to top Beijing or even Vancouver, but Danny Boyle played to the strengths of the British identity and popular culture especially in the first half, there were some great celebrity cameo moments (The Queen! And Bond! And Kenneth Branagh as Isambard Kingdom Brunel!), a good helping of humour throughout, some decent music acts, and even in what was essentially an extended jukebox dance sequence, a fun time was to be had - all pulled off with very few serious hitches. All great stuff, and it's set a very interesting tone for what should be a very enjoyable Games.

On the other hand, traditionally the Closing Ceremony is the lighter-hearted one of the ceremonies, where people get down and party. Given the tone of the opening ceremony, I'm already looking forward to the end.

Anyway, that's the fun over with. Now for the actual sports stuff.

 

[Holdfast]

... Danny Boyle played to the strengths of the British identity and popular culture...

Absolutely. I posted this in a Misc thread, but I suppose it fits more in this one:

I usually get very bored at these kind of big set piece opening/closing ceremonies, but this one was superbly done. Danny Boyle deserves some serious honour in the New Year List for balancing so many competing interests: politically balanced with enough nods to their respective pet causes to please both the right and the left; enough in-jokes, irony and tongue-in-cheek humour to please the cynics; enough TV special effects and video razmatazz to please a global TV audience not used to that kind of graphic overlay on this kind of ceremony; enough technical wizardry to please the stadium audience; and simple flag-waving jingoism, emotional set-pieces, symbolism, and cracking soundtrack to please anyone not already mentioned above.

And of course, to paraphrase Frasier Crane, because no show is perfect if it doesn't have an imperfection you can complain about, we even got a slight backing track error at the start of Hey Jude. What more can you ask for?

Great job all round; fabulous start. Makes you proud to be British; only we would dare to poke so much fun at the Olympics and its pompous ceremonies while still managing to balance that light-heartedness of approach with an understanding of what it really should be emotionally about. Nicely done indeed.

It struck a very, very British balance between good humour, emotional symbolism (the voluntary ceding of the honour of lighting the cauldron from one successful generation of athletes to the aspiring next one), and pride that was just the right side of arrogance (the jokes really were more for us than the international audience, and that's no bad thing; it's our turn to host the party so we get to pick the theme!)

And yes, now to look forward to the sports!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I have to admit that I nearly choked up when Tim Berners-Lee and Muhammad Ali made their appearances. And yes, the lighting of the cauldron was a very unique and (IMO) appropriate take on the ceremony.

I'm going to watch the whole thing again on iPlayer, I think. Most of this evening was spent staring at a Twitter feed.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Fantastic opening ceremony. Loved the James Bond skit, and even Mr Bean. Now bring on the games.

When all of the nightmare monsters were menacing the kids I was really hoping Doctor Who would show up to save them.

 

[Holdfast]

^ there was a TARDIS whoop-whoop-whoop or two at one point in the ceremony as a nod to the Doctor. Can't remember if it was in that segment or not. Probably that one.

I have to admit that I nearly choked up when Tim Berners-Lee and Muhammad Ali made their appearances. And yes, the lighting of the cauldron was a very unique and (IMO) appropriate take on the ceremony.

I'm going to watch the whole thing again on iPlayer, I think. Most of this evening was spent staring at a Twitter feed.

Ali was one of the very few points I didn't like, to be honest. I thought the man looked a bit lost and vulnerable up there, supported by his (presumably) nurse (EDIT: wife, I hear). Made me wonder how much he really grasped about the event. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

Berners-Lee was a great touch. His patch-pocket cream suit was fab, too, but you would expect me to notice that... I liked that whole segment too; some fab music, with a few brave band choices mixed in there while still keeping the exact song choices acceptable enough for the ceremony.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Rather brilliant all round frankly, though I loathe modern-era Atkinson (especially Bean) so that completely fell flat for me.

The first 25 minutes however, the birth of modern industrial Britain was just astonishing. The NHS sequence was both equally daft, touching and, oddly, menacing, and the dance sequence recalling all of those who had died was wonderfully sombre and moving.

Though I am working these olympics, and resenting them greatly because of my shift pattern for the next 6 weeks (many, MANY thanks G4S), I completely teared up at both Team GB entering the stadium and the lighting of that immense and fantastic cauldron.

And fittingly I watched most of it whilst in the Gym


Hugo - 8 days on, 1 day off, 7 days on, 1 day off... mostly 12 hour shifts. Sigh...

 

[Holdfast]

... I completely teared up at both Team GB entering the stadium and the lighting of that immense and fantastic cauldron.

The roar when the entered the stadium was wonderful. And the gold-lined tracksuits were deliciously hubristic, but also cheeky at the same time. Whether pride goeth before a fall or not, it's important to enjoy the moment and the costumes & soundtrack worked brilliantly for that moment.

The cauldron's symbolism was boosted by - for once - Huw Edwards getting the tone of his commentary just right, describing the meaning near-perfectly. After some of the misfires at commentary for big events so far this year (cf the river pageant), it was a nice change for it to be bang on the right emotional message.

Hope the shifts go well!

 

[eastman23]

It was a very nice opening ceremony, Britain. Well done.

I liked the Bond/Queen skit, and my parents and I laughed throughout the entire Atkinson part.

And the lighting of the cauldron was fantastic. I always enjoy seeing what new take on lighting the cauldron people come up with. And at least it worked better than Vancouver's.

 

[SmoothieX]

Not very impressive so far.

Totally awful, turned it off midway through it.

Sorry London, Beijing set a standard you never had a chance to match.

 

[tomalak301]

The Ceremony is still going on (Parade of Nations) for me but from what I saw, there was a lot of boring bits. A lot of these ceremonies are epic and grandiose, but to me they just feel slow and tedious. Looking forward to the cauldren lighting though, which won't be till like Midnight unfortunately.

 

[tomalak301]

The Torch Lighting was spectacular. And then you can't go wrong with Paul McCartney and it ended up being a lovely ceremony.

 

[Kronos]

I know Beijing gets all the love but I actually enjoyed this one a lot more, up there with 2004.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Hahahahahaha

Vino gold!

Who would've thought. Amazing. Spectacular.

Finally Justice, 12 years after getting screwed out of his Olympic victory by Team Telekom.

Grande Vino!

eta: hahahahahah

yesyesyesyes!

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

That was a great race. Well done to Vino.

Also congrats to Stuart O'Grady, as he did so much to push that leading group.

 

[Roger Wilco]

That was a great race. Well done to Vino.

Certainly way better than could have been expected.

 

[Roger Wilco]

I'm still overwhelmed and can't stop smiling. The Olympics can end right now. This is literally the best thing ever.

VIIIIIIINNOOOOO!!!

 

[JRS]

Fantastic opening ceremony. Loved the James Bond skit, and even Mr Bean. Now bring on the games.

I think the opening ceremony was indeed fantastic
And it was also innovative, cinematic, humorous, different and positively British.
The humor worked nicely..and I also liked the more somber parts.

All in all..an wonderful start for the Olympics
Congratulations to UK for the job well done!