Sport 2012 London Olympics

[Smitty]

Let's talk about the real issues behind the Olympics, which doesn't include the sport:

http://www.guardian....pic-torch-route

The London 2012 Olympic torch relay is following a path that inflames

Ambush marketing on the Olympic torch route seems to rank somewhere between running a Ponzi scheme and terrorism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/aug/26/ioc-london-2012-olympic-games

London's Olympic rings start losing their halo effect

Draconian laws for 2012 Games protect sponsors' rights but the small print exposes threats to our civil liberties

[Sng]

Can we have two London 2012 threads? One for those who just like sport and competition so want to talk about and follow that? And another for the people who don't like sport who just like to moan in threads.

[Smitty]

Can we have two London 2012 threads? One for those who just like sport and competition so want to talk about and follow that? And another for the people who don't like sport who just like to moan in threads.

Oh I see, so criticising the Olympics and liking sport are totally exclusive, are they?

The way the IOC, like FIFA, gets to dictate local laws is just incredible. The cost of the games is absolutely staggering. There's still no convincing legacy for a lot of the infrastructure.

[DeadRussian]

Can we have two London 2012 threads? One for those who just like sport and competition so want to talk about and follow that? And another for the people who don't like sport who just like to moan in threads.

And another thread for just yourself to post pictures of yourself waving a tiny union flag along with each and every sport. Nobody will be allowed to ruin this thread by quoting FACTS and STATISTICS.

[Comrade]

I hate sport. It's the world's most pointless endeavour practiced by the world's most boring people. I simply couldn't give a shit about who can run the fastest in the world, or row a boat the fastest, or do a weird jump the highest. I despair that so many people do waste their lives on such rubbish.

But I am 100% behind the Olympics. I love big events. I love the idea that we can promote the UK positively on the world stage. It's great that that whole area of London is getting regenerated. I'm genuinely looking forward to the opening and closing ceremonies. I just really like it when the whole country is geared towards something like this.

Also, politically, it's amazing. Everyone left-wing should be entirely in favour of the Olympics, as they're a huge Keynesian project that the Tories can't get out of. In this time of economic turmoil, giant, expensive projects are exactly what we should be doing to boost the economy. Sure, I'd prefer it if they were building schools and hospitals with that money, but I'll take what we can get. The Olympics are Ken Livingston's socialist time-bomb and I can't wait.

[Art Vandelay]

I've been doing quite a bit of reading about the logistics of putting the whole thing together and it really is extraordinary. We fall over ourselves to unconditionally praise the latest monstrosity Dubai or Malaysia cooks up, but fail to give credit to such a fantastic development right on our door step. Some of the thought processes that have gone into the design and building of the Olympic areas are just incredible. I wish I'd had more faith in us when we first won the bid.

[Graham S]

The Olympic Park is looking good. The middle bits are still a building site, but the venues look terrific. Even the aquatic centre's massive temporary seats don't look too bad now they've been clad. I still dont like the Kapoor tower, and the stadium could do with its Bhopal wrap. Wandering around the park this summer is going to be smashing. It seems a bit odd being shepherded through a shopping mall to get here, but at least it's a swanky one. I walked through something similar to get into the Louvre last week, so it's not unprecedentedly embarrassing, and it beats arriving at some restaurant-less wasteland.

The velodrome is a real highlight of the park. It looks amazing. Sightlines and seats and acoustics are great. Bit hot, but thats to suit the rider's needs. Concession stands have been fine: a little expensive, but not painfully so. The racing has been exciting. And there's plenty of incidental stuff to watch, as the riders and their teams prepare in the middle, in full view of everyone. And the staff all seem happy and well up for it. Roll on summer.

[gizmo1990]

I hate sport. It's the world's most pointless endeavour practiced by the world's most boring people. I simply couldn't give a shit about who can run the fastest in the world, or row a boat the fastest, or do a weird jump the highest. I despair that so many people do waste their lives on such rubbish.

But I am 100% behind the Olympics. I love big events. I love the idea that we can promote the UK positively on the world stage. It's great that that whole area of London is getting regenerated. I'm genuinely looking forward to the opening and closing ceremonies. I just really like it when the whole country is geared towards something like this.

Also, politically, it's amazing. Everyone left-wing should be entirely in favour of the Olympics, as they're a huge Keynesian project that the Tories can't get out of. In this time of economic turmoil, giant, expensive projects are exactly what we should be doing to boost the economy. Sure, I'd prefer it if they were building schools and hospitals with that money, but I'll take what we can get. The Olympics are Ken Livingston's socialist time-bomb and I can't wait.

Great stuff! Have a +1!

[Asura]

I've been doing quite a bit of reading about the logistics of putting the whole thing together and it really is extraordinary. We fall over ourselves to unconditionally praise the latest monstrosity Dubai or Malaysia cooks up, but fail to give credit to such a fantastic development right on our door step. Some of the thought processes that have gone into the design and building of the Olympic areas are just incredible. I wish I'd had more faith in us when we first won the bid.

I think the Millennium Dome project and the delays over Wembley seriously affected the British public's belief in our country to build something epic, then seeing the Chinese effort if anything made that worse, as their facilities and opening ceremony were so amazing (miming little girl and goose-stepping military end to the procession aside).

[Xevious]

Also, politically, it's amazing. Everyone left-wing should be entirely in favour of the Olympics, as they're a huge Keynesian project that the Tories can't get out of. In this time of economic turmoil, giant, expensive projects are exactly what we should be doing to boost the economy. Sure, I'd prefer it if they were building schools and hospitals with that money, but I'll take what we can get.

Of course, the canteen for athletes is going to become a school after the Olympics, and there's been significant spend on nearby hospitals approved in relation to the games.

[DjSatansfur3h]

Given all the money sloshing about, exuberant ticket prices and how much big business is going to be coining it in, how come they are looking for volunteers to help staff the games.

Especially given that, y'know, im sure theres plenty out there who could do with the moola and a "job" right now?

[Sng]

Oh I see, so criticising the Olympics and liking sport are totally exclusive, are they?

Well they're two different topics which is why I think there should be two threads. One for the games and one for the moany lot who just like to moan.

[JohnC]

Stop moaning Soong.

[grounded_dreams]

Video from yesterdays Diving Olympic test event:

[Transient Curse]

People should wait to start clapping until the divers surface.

[bingowings]

Well they're two different topics which is why I think there should be two threads. One for the games and one for the moany lot who just like to moan.

fucking well start one then.

[MrPogo]

Given all the money sloshing about, exuberant ticket prices and how much big business is going to be coining it in, how come they are looking for volunteers to help staff the games.

Especially given that, y'know, im sure theres plenty out there who could do with the moola and a "job" right now?

That almost seems to be the norm for big one off events. I'm sure most of the F1 marshalls are volunteers, as are most of the staff at music festivals, marshalls at ironman races etc etc. The big business and corporations only seem to want to give the money to other big corporations.

[Graham S]

Diving (10m platform women's final) a bit dull. Punctuated crowd silence demanded, no informative commentary so as not to influence the judges (in the Olympics the crowd will have radio headsets, but not here). Often a collective intake of breath as fragile heads pass within feet of concrete platform. This is a real risk: the British woman competing tonight scalped herself a year ago and fell into the pool, unconscious and not breathing, until her husband, coach and fellow diver pulled her out and brought her around, and she later had the top of her head sewn back on. They penalise divers who get too close to encourage safe diving.

The aesthetics of the aquatic centre are severely compromised by the temporary seating, both inside and out. The beautiful curve of the ceiling remains, but the whale-like form of the building is buried behind the cheap ramps of seats. As I understand it, costs were cut here and I can't believe this comes close to the original vision. Given the prominent position of the aquatics centre, this looks like a major mistake. On the plus side, when the Olympics has packed up and gone home we'll be left with a terrific leisure centre.

And from a spectator point of view, the temporary seats are great. We grabbed seats in the gods level with the 10m platform right at the end. Come the swimming, those seats are likely to be in the cheapest category, but they still offer fine views of the swimming pool. I can't really speak for the atmosphere and acoustics, as diving is much less of an exciting crowd pleaser than a swimming final (a British winner might go some way to change that). When the most excitement is coming from audience members spotting themselves on the big screen, there's no chance of raising the roof.

These test events have been very enjoyable. Appetite whetted. Signs promising.

[Timbuktu]

I was at semi-final event in the morning and really quite enjoyed it. It wasn't full, but the atmosphere was pretty good except when some guy wolf whistled as one of the the divers was preparing for an armstand dive.

Quite happy to see Chen Ruolin, I'm guessing she won? Consistently good, no one seem to come close in the semi. The two British divers got great reception especially Gladding who came back from injuries as described in the post above. On the other hand, I was quite disappointed when Powell completely flopped her final dive and went from 3rd to 17th (i think).

I guess nothing in the Olympic Park is going to be as spectacular as Beijing. The grounds were still quite messy and I'm hoping things will look better when they put a wrap on things. Having the temporary seating is a bit of a shame for the Aquatic centre, but imagining those gone and replaced with glazing, it would be a very good venue indeed.

I was quite surprised that people have no idea what the Kapoor's sculpture is; i overheard a few conversations speculating what events it's for. The most upsetting part of the day was being funnelled to the far end of Westfield when we left. Seemed like quite a deliberate attempt to make us get lunch there, which we did.

[Graham S]

Yes, Chen Ruolin won. She had a disappointing dive in round 2 or 3 which put Hu Yadan in front by quite a bit, but going into the last dive she'd pulled it back so there was only 0.2 points separating them, and then went on to comfortably pull ahead on the last dive. The two Chinese divers were clearly superior to the rest of the field

[Timbuktu]

Thanks for that news. Hu Yadan started poorly in the semi but pulled an almost perfect third dive and got herself to second at the end. It helps that she is so small.

Really wish i could have gone to the velodrome, doesn't look like it's gonna happen now.

[Graham S]

The velodrome is terrific. It doesn't have the grandeur of that roof, but it does have the curve of the track and it all just works really nicely, it's quite a lovely place to be if you can ignore the temperature.

I found an animation of the original design for the Aquatic Centre. It's the YouTube video at the foot of the page here

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/2361/hadids-aquatic-centre-grows-wings.html

The end result is a travesty of that from the outside (during the Games at least), but from the inside it's still quite something.

[probeater]

So the olympics are now projected to cost over £24 billion pounds, that's a tenfold increase on the original estimates. I fail to see how this is moral or legal? The olympic legacy we are going to be left with is probably the same as Greece now, a bankrupt country, all for 17 days worth of frivolous entertainment.

At least now the media are openly reporting the dark sides of the olympics, this article is well worth a read

Olympics 2012 security: welcome to lockdown London

London 2012 will see the UK's biggest mobilisation of military and security forces since the second world war and the effects will linger long after the athletes have left

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/mar/12/london-olympics-security-lockdown-london?INTCMP=SRCH

[PaB]

So the olympics are now projected to cost over £24 billion pounds

Where are you getting this number from?

[probeater]

Sky, they seem to be not toeing the government line anymore which is hardly surprising.

[Xevious]

Sky, they seem to be not toeing the government line anymore which is hardly surprising.

You misspelt "they seem to be making things up".

[Spudulis]

Also anyone who makes any kind of claim that it was the Olympics that bought down Greece should be punched in the face for being an idiot. Same for everyone who goes on about our deficit being bigger than Greece's (especially if their surname is Cameron or Osbourne).

For someone who's lived in London for quite a few years the Olympics have already been a massive success as far as I'm concerned. If you can remember what the tube was like before we won the Olympics compared to how it is now it's worth every penny if you ask me.

[RubberJohnny]

This is going around a lot of the tech blogs http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/20/2961956/London-olympics-trademark-law-branding-police

Shortly after London beat New York, Moscow, and Paris for the chance to host the games the British government passed a particularly draconian piece of legislation known as the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act. The law stops companies from aligning themselves with the games if they're not official sponsors, in a similar fashion to advertising restrictions around the Super Bowl.

Where the policy differs, however, is in the scope of the protection it offers sponsors, which goes much further than the obvious examples of words and phrases like "Olympics" or "London 2012." Any advertisement with two offending expressions from a list including "games," "two thousand and twelve," 2012," "twenty-twelve," "London," "medals," "summer," "gold," silver," and, of course, "bronze" would likely be outlawed. Locog, which is in charge of organizing the London Olympics, threatened legal action against an event called the "Great Exhibition 2012" due to its use of "2012," although it later withdrew the complaint.

The law also affects smaller businesses, as well as those of you that are traveling to see the games. Pubs will be prohibited from displaying signs inviting people to "watch the Olympics here," or even to "see the London games here." If Locog follows its guidelines strictly then the IOC could press for criminal charges against visitors posting images of the games to Facebook or Twitter, although it's more likely that the rules are in place to prevent companies from exploiting the images commercially.

You can get a full run-down on the branding protections in place at the Olympics summer sporting event at the source link below.

Utterly bizzare, you'd think they'd be all over social networking and promotion with big events like this, but instead we get weird draconian nonsense to protect the corporate sponsors. Baffling.

[dayte]

It's a ridiculous Guess what game

'Watch some major event that's happening right here... 3 syllables... various activities....ultimate goal is to win bits of metal... see it all right here in our pub!'

[cantonarv]

Can we have two London 2012 threads? One for those who just like sport and competition so want to talk about and follow that? And another for the people who don't like sport who just like to moan in threads.

what you mean is one for Smitty the other for everyone else