The 2012 London Summer Olympic Games

[PotomacCyclist]

A planned stunt bike sequence has been cut from the Opening Ceremony because of time constraints.

http://news.yahoo.com/london-shortening-olympic-ceremony-end-time-160428991–oly.html

[Mark Blacknell]

And that, my friend,will be but the first of many many disappointments related to the Olympics. The sporting competitions themselves? I’m foursquare in favor of. The Olympics(TM), as presented by the IOC and other governing bodies? Is absolutely appalling.

[PotomacCyclist]

The Olympic Games are a bit overproduced and too expensive. But the fact remains that the Games represent the top level of competition in many sports. And even though the Olympics aren’t really an effective means of solving international and ethnic conflicts around the world, just the fact that the Games exist is a positive. For two weeks, individuals and teams from around the globe can compete on the track, on the courts, on the fields, in stadiums, in the water and on the roads, instead of through the deadlier means of guns, tanks, bombs, etc.

Even though professional superstars now play in the Games, many of the top stars will be in sports that don’t usually get much media coverage. I like the fact that basketball or football isn’t the focus for once. Well, except for ESPN. Since they don’t have Olympics rights, they tend to downplay many of the Olympic events, except for the biggest ones. I say this as a fan of some of the big team sports like baseball and football (although I’m not really a hardcore football fan these days).

[mstone]

It’s a sporting event, nothing more. Anything about peace and justice is self aggrandizement and self promotion. That anyone still buys it after the nazi games and the stack of corruption scandals boggles my mind.

[PotomacCyclist]

To each his own, I guess. It’s imperfect but so are many things in life, including most sports. Despite all the doping scandals in various sports, from baseball to cycling and track and field, many people still view them as legitimate — though tainted — competitions. Many don’t and that’s their right. Sometimes good things arise from imperfect processes or in spite of them.

And sometimes people dismiss activities and events completely because of some problems or bad actors. That’s actually the case with many critics of cycling. They see one irresponsible cyclist and then they think that all cyclists are evil criminals, when everyone here knows better.

[mstone]

The sport part is perfectly legitimate. It’s the idea that it’s more than entertainment is the bogus part.

[PotomacCyclist]

You’re entitled to your opinion but I don’t see the point in debating an unproveable point. Are you going to turn this into an Olympics protest thread? I thought it would be nice to have a thread to discuss the Summer Olympics, whether it’s the cycling events or non-cycling events. You can view this as Olympics propaganda or not, but I really am not getting paid by the USOC or the IOC. I’m simply a fan of the Olympic Games. Believe it or not, many others are too, and not just because it’s another sporting event.

[creadinger]

The big picture stuff like peace on earth you mentioned and the other macro-scale stuff doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I don’t see where people get that. But a lot of people get inspiration out of the personal, micro-scale stories of individual athletes overcoming long odds to just be at the games etc. The human stories. That’s the part that I think really is larger than the sports themselves. I suppose the same stories usually apply to pro-sports as well but for the most part Olympic athletes are amateur or semi-pro at best. That means they do it for the love of the game, which means a lot to people……. And NBC knows that so they do a lot of marketing of human stories to get more people interested.

[PotomacCyclist]

Different perspectives. I know I won’t convince any of the detractors here, but that “other stuff” is there. As I mentioned, I don’t believe the Olympics brings world peace. It’s a small piece of the puzzle. Perhaps not a major one and not a significant one, but just the idea that it even exists is something. Again, if you don’t believe in this, a debate isn’t going to convince anyone.

It’s sort of like how I keep reading on other sites that CaBi can’t be used to run errands. I’m always surprised by that because I thought I had been doing just that for the last year and a half. It’s the approach that if one doesn’t think something exists or isn’t possible, then it must not be possible.

[PotomacCyclist]

First cycling event airs tomorrow (Saturday) on the main NBC channel.

5 to 11 am (AM not PM!), Men’s road cycling race, NBC

---

For swimming fans, the Saturday primetime broadcast features the finals of the men’s and women’s 400m IM events. The men’s competition should include a head-to-head matchup between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. This is one of the featured individual rivalries at these Games.

I’ve also watched some of the soccer games, which started a couple days ago, before the Opening Ceremony. And I’m not even a soccer fan.

[eminva]

I realize I’m coming to this thread late, but some of you might be a little young to appreciate the political implications of the Olympic games. I was a youth athelete keeping my eye on the stars of Track and Field in the 1970’s. Because of the Cold War, there were very few opportunities for athletes from the west to compete against athletes from behind the Iron Curtain. Virtually none, except for the Olympics. The boycotts of 1980 and 1984 were devastating for many of those athletes.

Things are much different today, and I realize that. Sports is a business and I have no illusions about the lengths some athletes will go to to get an edge (and that is nothing new). But there is a history of sport being politicized, with the athletes bearing the consequences.

Looking forward to getting up early tomorrow!

Liz

[PotomacCyclist]

I was just reading about Cynthia Woodhead, ranked no. 1 in the world in four freestyle swimming events in the late 1970s. She had been expected to have a great run at the 1980 Summer Olympics until the boycott.

http://assets.espn.go.com/oly/summer00/s/boycott/woodhead.html

Rowdy Gaines was also expected to win several Olympic swim medals in 1980. He almost quit the sport after the boycott but came back to have some limited success at the 1984 Games. Many know him as the commentator for NBC’s Olympics swim coverage. Even in 2008, when the topic of the boycott came up, you could see a complete look of despair briefly come across his face. He looked so lost for a moment, until he could regain his composure. Even after all this time, you can still tell that it affected him very deeply. I know there was a lot going on in the world at the time but I think the boycott mostly hurt U.S. athletes, not the Soviets.

Anyway, there are no boycotts this year (except perhaps some tiny country that few people have heard of). Even Great Britain got its act together and decided to enter the Olympic soccer tournament. For various reasons (divided international soccer teams among England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and disputes about professional players in the Olympic tournament), the UK has not been in the Olympic soccer tournament since 1960. They haven’t even tried to qualify since the 1970s. Kind of bizarre, considering how popular the sport is over there. The team is playing under the name of Great Britain, not the UK. They are also going by the abbreviation of Team GB. Sounds like a Formula One racing team.

[PotomacCyclist]

@PotomacCyclist 25748 wrote:

A planned stunt bike sequence has been cut from the Opening Ceremony because of time constraints.

http://news.yahoo.com/london-shortening-olympic-ceremony-end-time-160428991–oly.html

Seems like they managed to fit in the bike sequence after all, I think. There was a nifty scene with dozens of riders on stunt bikes with glowing wing structures on their backs, resembling massive white doves. Impressive visual. Then one of the cyclists was lifted high above the stadium.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9434411/Opening-Ceremony-The-secrets-behind-the-dove-bikes-a-speedometer-and-a-blackout-zone-for-any-breakdowns.html

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1414[/ATTACH]

Earlier in the Opening Ceremony, Bradley Wiggins rang the massive bell to help kick off the ceremony.

***
No spoilers but the men’s cycling road race was completed this morning. If you are a cable/satellite subscriber, you can watch the full replay online. The video does not have any commentary. The relative silence is somewhat strange.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/cycling/mens-road-race.html

[KLizotte]

@PotomacCyclist 26710 wrote:

If you are a cable/satellite subscriber, you can watch the full replay online. The video does not have any commentary. The relative silence is somewhat strange.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/cycling/mens-road-race.html

Hahahaha. At around 3:40 all guys are shown taking a whizz on the side of the road. Do race organizers designate such places ahead of time? I’m sure the spectators weren’t expecting that for their Olympic experience!

Anybody know what the ladies do or do they not have such long races?

The “I’m not stopping” mechanical fix at 1:08:34 is cool.

[5555624]

@KLizotte 26714 wrote:

Anybody know what the ladies do or do they not have such long races?

As I write this, the women’s road race is starting (live). It’s shorter than the men’s road race, as it’s only 140 km.

[Author]

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