Olympics ( Are you watching?)

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This Summer Olympic games is quite special to me, I grew up in the host borough. It's so wonderful seeing my homeland rewed and an international venue.

I personally I've been watching all swimming and diving

I watched it all day yesterday until the song they play before all the commercials got stuck in my head...

The best part of the opening ceremony was Mr Bean and the countries uniforms for the parade.

I was a little annoyed that there was no Morris Dancing

as for the sports, I'd rather play them then watch them.

I found the ceremony impressive, and I enjoyed the history timeline from pre-Industrial Revolution rural Britain to the Industrial Revolution. Then, it was very nice touch that a disabled choir was singing God Save The Queen. Then there was the NHS/children's lit part.

At the end however a significant segment of the ceremony had a backdrop of British music/film/comedy clips. You can't have a British presentation without this, I guess nothing is more British (hence one of the reasons I feel so disconnected from 'British' as I tend not to be interested in popular culture of any sort).

However at the same time there was a presentation of young people going out, going to a disco, mobile phone flirting and house partying. This was intended as a presentation of modern Britain but how on earth is it particularly British? These scenes must be typical of any country nowadays.

Of course a ceremony is only ever going to be one sided, presenting only positive aspects of a country and culture. But I was thinking it would have been slightly more typically British if the house (a typical British modern house) which featured in this part of the ceremony contained a single, lone bachelor, aged say over 40. A group of vigilantes would harass this man, mistakenly jumping to conclusions he is a paedophile just because he's a lone bachelor. They chase him out of the house and around the stage (at least this would give a kind of athletic element) and attempt to lynch him. In fact have the NHS/children in hospital bed segment after this. In this the harassed man would be injured and end up in hospital, and the nurses while looking after the children tacitly refuse to help the man (wrongheadedly assuming that something is wrong with him because he's a lone bachelor) who tragically dies of his injuries. This wouldn't be a uniquely British scene either, but yet seems more typically British than the mobile phone/flirting/partying bit that was in the ceremony.

Did anyone else notice the love story didn't make any sense. He founds her phone which has she has lost and somehow phones her on her own phone to tell her that he has found her phone. How could he phone her on her phone when he has her phone........

I must admit to being quite dippy for anything Olympic.

I was a Modern Pentathlete as a young man--I competed in the Olympic trials in '88, but did not get one of our three places (le sad). By the time 1992 rolled around, I was no longer in competition.

However, I have participated in a non-athletic role at three Olympics: I was a performer in the "Salute of Youth" at the Opening Ceremonies in Montréal, I was a member of the Canadian government delegation to Atlanta in 1996, and I was a medical volunteer for Vancouver 2010.

I will watch anything in Olympic coverage, though men's gymnastics has a certain special appeal.

I love the Olympics, I have since I was ten when I watched the Moscow games.

I have waited so long for an Olympics to be held in Britain & now it's here I'm too skint to go.

Typical.

I wasn't really planning on watching more than a few events, but we keep getting these monsoons in northern Illinois, and it gets too loud to sleep. So I went downstairs with my brother, who prefers to sleep on the couch [and is nonverbal autistic]. My mom puts on educational television for him most of the time, but he'll watch pretty much the same things that I watch as long as they're not sitcoms or
Spongebob.

Well, I popped in and flipped on the olympics because we have a 24-hour sports channel broadcasting live, and we watched Russia vs China in basketball. My little brother likes basketball, I would assume, since he'll shoot baskets pretty much whenever you show him a ball and a hoop. [And he almost never misses; it's pretty awesome.]

My brother sat stiller for that game than any movie or TV show I've ever tried to watch with him. And when they flipped off for halftime to interview some Jamacain runner he sat still for that too with this big dumb grin on his face.

So I guess I'll watch more than just fencing and taekwondo. [Also, Judo was really cool.]

Women's soccer is so hot. I basically missed anything that would have taken me away from the TV today. Still watching a 4th game.

Rapinoe and Necib are awesome. If USA plays France in the final, I will lose my mind.

Well, whatever the motivation, the Canadian women thank you for your support.