How excited are you about the Olympics?

[Bombot]

If the closing ceremony is as good as the opening ceremony, then something has gone badly wrong with your opening ceremony.

[Private_SeeD]

I'm currently watching the closing ceremony now and wondering how many non-Brits will get the 'Only Fools and Horses' gag at the start, also what was with those crazy, orange haired gymnasts during the guy after One Direction.... Also why did the Olympics decided it would be fun to confuse nearly everyone with calling Prince harry with his birth name, I bet even a small percentage of us British knew that's his actual first name is Henry... and that oasis had to be replaced by a tribute band I found mildly amusing.

[Hrw-Amen]

How do we feel about it now that it has been over for a week? Are we still on a high thinking about how well our team did or has it all sunk into the obscurity of history now that other more serious issues are back in the news and we do not have 24hrs coverage on our televisions? Are we looking forwards to the Paralympics or is that still too far off to have given it any thought yet?

[Dylius]

Personally I still feel quite good about the Olympics - we (the UK) won an awful lot of medals. I'm looking forward to the Paralympics too.

[Chaos and Evil]

we (the UK) won an awful lot of medals.

Wooo, "we" won some shiny medals... and only spent £10bn to win them!
What a great deal in these economically difficult times!

How do we feel about it now that it has been over for a week?

Same as I felt before it started - it was a foolish waste of money that our country could ill afford.

[Hellebore]

It's cliched, but modern sports are the Colosseum of the West, keeping the people occupied.

I detest this 'we' stance that most sports fans take. 'WE' did **** all, THEY did something. This glory by association is pretty pathetic.

Mitchell and Webb said it best.

Hellebore

[Dylius]

It's cliched, but modern sports are the Colosseum of the West, keeping the people occupied.

I detest this 'we' stance that most sports fans take. 'WE' did **** all, THEY did something. This glory by association is pretty pathetic.

Mitchell and Webb said it best.

Hellebore

I don't really appreciate being called pathetic. I'm not a sporty person, and I rarely take an interest in them, but the Olympics really caught my attention. I know I did absolutely nothing to help them, just sat in front of my TV, but I was still impressed by the skill of the athletes, and their motivation to be the best and win medals. Lets face it, there's zero chance that I'm ever going to be a sporting success, but that doesn't mean I can't look at other athletes and think "wow, they're pretty good", in the same way that I'm impressed with amazing new technologies.

By your argument we should have no interest in anything whatsoever, except for the very small area around us.



@Chaos and Evil, maybe you're right, it might have been a waste of money, but I still enjoyed it.

[Chaos and Evil]

@Chaos and Evil, maybe you're right, it might have been a waste of money, but I still enjoyed it.

Ten billion pounds. Much of it put into stadiums which will be pulled down in 4 weeks' time, or publically funded housing developments that have already been sold off to foreign owners at quarter billion pound losses.

Yes, it was a massive waste of money, that should have been spent on things other than "bread and circus" foolishness.

I detest this 'we' stance that most sports fans take. 'WE' did **** all, THEY did something. This glory by association is pretty pathetic.

I can't do aught but agree.

Watching a bunch of (often doped up) athletes spend billions of pounds of public money doing nothing more productive than playing competitive children's games against each other does not make me feel proud of what "we" have achieved, it makes me angry and sad at the foolish profligacy.

[Hellebore]

I don't really appreciate being called pathetic. I'm not a sporty person, and I rarely take an interest in them, but the Olympics really caught my attention. I know I did absolutely nothing to help them, just sat in front of my TV, but I was still impressed by the skill of the athletes, and their motivation to be the best and win medals. Lets face it, there's zero chance that I'm ever going to be a sporting success, but that doesn't mean I can't look at other athletes and think "wow, they're pretty good", in the same way that I'm impressed with amazing new technologies.

By your argument we should have no interest in anything whatsoever, except for the very small area around us.



@Chaos and Evil, maybe you're right, it might have been a waste of money, but I still enjoyed it.

If you read what I said, you'll notice that I said i detest the STANCE most sports fans take, I think it's pretty pathetic. I don't detest you or find you pathetic, I find the notion of 'we won' glory by association pathetic.

So at most if you truly wish to claim 'we' won something, then I find your position on that pathetic, because as Mitchell clearly and eloquently states in the youtube clip I posted, you didn't do anything. But liking sports and enjoying them aren't the same as claiming some kind of personal ownership of a victory by someone else. So unless you truly wish to say the you were involved in people winning gold medals, I don't think your attitude to sports would produce any kind detestation from me.

But when someone says 'we beat you' or 'we won', unless that person was actually involved in winning either by training the winner or performing the victory, they are factually lying and simply claiming a vicarious glory with no substance.

Hellebore

[Meriwether]

I don't see why any of us would care what Hellebore (or anyone else) would think about us.

[Dylius]

OK. I can see where your coming from, and I have no delusions about the actual help I was to the Olympians (i.e. none). I just assumed that post was aimed directly at me as you posted straight after I said "we" won something.

[RevEv]

Watching a bunch of (often doped up) athletes spend billions of pounds of public money doing nothing more productive than playing competitive children's games against each other does not make me feel proud of what "we" have achieved, it makes me angry and sad at the foolish profligacy.

Sorry - where is your evidence of doping - this is just gross generalisation. IIRC only 3 athletes were actually found to be doping, and they were thrown out. The rest seemed to have achieved what they have through sheer hard effort, talent, and commitment. Also most of the arenas for the Olympics will continue to be used for alternative purposes, as they were before the Olympics came to town (Excel, Earls Court, Millennium Stadium are just examples), and many of the rest will be there for later generations. The basketball stadium and the copper box will go, but far more will remain in an area of London that was severely in need of regeneration.

I am looking forward now to the Paralympics and the opportunity to see some truly remarkable athletes in action. I will take inspiration from seeing what they do and see what I can do better as a result.

Of course there will be nay sayers who will pass grumpy judgement on them and say that they should have been drowned at birth or left to die after they became disabled... or is THAT just a gross generalisation.

Rant off!

[EmperorNorton]

Sorry - where is your evidence of doping - this is just gross generalisation. IIRC only 3 athletes were actually found to be doping, and they were thrown out. The rest seemed to have achieved what they have through sheer hard effort, talent, and commitment.

Just like Lance Armstrong.

[Burnthem]

The amount of work that the Olympics generated for the UK construction industry during the last 6 years is in itself worth the £10bn spent. Creating jobs during a recession is a good thing, and in the grand scheme of things 10bn is a drop in the ocean.

[Hrw-Amen]

I am looking forward now to the Paralympics and the opportunity to see some truly remarkable athletes in action. I will take inspiration from seeing what they do and see what I can do better as a result.

Of course there will be nay sayers who will pass grumpy judgement on them and say that they should have been drowned at birth or left to die after they became disabled... or is THAT just a gross generalisation.

Yes there is too much of that. You would not warrant the amount of times I have been told "You can't do that, you are disabled." It is really annoying. Whilst nowhere near the standard of a paralympian I do enjoy swimming but people look at me as though i have two heads when they see me coming along with my walking frame, then as though i have three heads when I overtake them in the fast lane at the pool!

Besides (Small rant.) I hate being called disabled, I am not disabled I am crippled. If I was disabled bits of me would not work, if I am crippled they still work after a fashion which is what they do. It is in the dictionary. I cannot stand all this PC nonsense! (Rant off.)

After seeing the Olympics I have to say I am inspired to get myself a trike conversion kit for my mountain bike. I used to do a lot of cycling until about ten years ago and my bike is still in the shed. I know I would not be much good at it anymore, but I do use an exercise bike so think a trike may at least get me out of the house even if only a short distance. So I guess in a way I have been inspired. It will probably come to nothing as in all honesty I probably don't have the strength in my good leg to carry it round on real ground and slopes, but it is a good dream. And I can still swim faster than most uncrippled people!

[Meriwether]

Just like Lance Armstrong.

...who passed over 500 drug tests, a third of which were unannounced, and has not ever failed one. The "evidence" is all hearsay, and wouldn't stand up to the slightest scrutiny in a court of law, but apparently is good enough for the Dopes at the anti-doping agency.

[Bombot]

Meriwether, I had you down as a rational fellow. You think Lance Armstrong would quit fighting the allegations if he was innocent? Come on.

[Meriwether]

Would you care to challenge the factual accuracy of anything I just posted, or would you prefer to question my rationality (as if my mental state has anything whatsoever with what has or hasn't been proven)?

[RevEv]

Just like Lance Armstrong.

Not proven beyond all reasonable doubt from what I cans see - just Lance Armstrong deciding he had better things to do that challenge the bullying American authorities! Also, who made those accusations - his rivals, who still seem to bear a grudge that he beat caner and then beat them.

This is his statement. I know you'll say 'of course he would say that', but what evidence has been proven against him... nothing!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...425_story.html

Land of the Free - pull the other one!

[Bombot]

Would you care to challenge the factual accuracy of anything I just posted, or would you prefer to question my rationality (as if my mental state has anything whatsoever with what has or hasn't been proven)?

Well, apart from the fact drug testing isn't foolproof, there is this: http://www.cyclismas.com/2012/07/the-legend-of-the-500/

And to complete the picture:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...fiction_203023

But hey, he summoned the energy to win the Tour de France seven times against a field that was doped to the eyeballs and now he just can't be be bothered to fight the charges because everyone's got it in for him...give me a break.

I should add that Flo-Jo managed to get by without failing a drugs test, but no one seriously thinks she was clean, do they?