The big question is who is going to be writing the official Olympic song and who is going to be singing it? And will the BBC or ITV turn it into some reality singing competition?
@zx West Ham are a big enough club to deserve it, in fact the Spurs were going to make their own stadium anyway, they're just plain greedy. And that's as far as I will go, I don't really care what else you have to say
Australia is currently projected to come 8th, will we fulfill our goal of coming top 5?
Reporters say that the Swimming, Cycling and Rowing team will need to improve for Australia to be top 5. There are too many 2nds and 3rds and not enough 1sts.
Athletes/Teams/Sports to watch out for:
James Magnussen (Swimming) Sally Pears (Athletics) Anna Mears (Cycling) Michael Watt (Long Jump) Matthew Mitcham (Diving) Lauren Mitchell (Gymnastics) Hockeyroos (Hockey) Diamonds (Netball) Australian BMX Team
Very pessimistic in Aussie sport at the moment, Cadel Evans screwed up in Le Tour de France, Aussies failed at Wimbledon. Not looking forward to the Olympics
Quite a bit of controversy coming from the Swimming team now and then, lol. Australia I think will do well, but not as good as Beijing, Sydney and Melbourne - I'm predicting 7th Place, 5-6 if lucky.
I've added important websites at the top of this page. Last edited:
Oh the Swimming team was ridiculous! There was that week where the AIS had the Whooping Cough? There was another week the press were discussing how James Magnussen couldn't go to some training camp because of the flu (omg who cares?!), then that guns thing. Eugh!
And don't forget the Rowing squabbles we're always getting!
That's why its better to follow the obsure sports for Australians. You have little chance of medalling so if someone days its a pleasant surprise AND you don't hear about them ad nauseum so you don't end up not caring. Bring on:
Rhythmic Gymnastics Archery Synchronised Swimming Mountain Biking Judo Wrestling Modern Pentathlon Fencing
1. China 2. USA 3. Russia 4. Germany 5. UK/Great Britain (what am I meant to be calling them ) 6. Australia 7. Italy 8. South Korea 9. France 10. Canada *
Just exactly is the go with Great Britain and United Kingdom when do I use what and why the difference.
For what it's worth, I found the Opening Ceremony to be disjointed. While I understood the theme I felt there was no unifying link between each segment. I also felt the performers weren't as polished as previous ceremonies. I also thought it felt more like a closing ceremony than an opening ceremony. Loved the industrial revolution part. I til enjoyed it all though. Last edited:
While I don't understand when to use what, United Kingdom refers to the entire country (so including Northern Ireland), and Great Britain refers to the main island, sans NI. I think.
What Jinxie said. The confusion is that the whole of the UK competes in the Olympics as one country (as it should do) but for some reason they refer to themselves as Great Britain.
I thought GB was blaming every country for them not winning the road race. The way I read the comment is that all the countries colluded to prevent GB from winning, cause their philosphy was 'We will race not to win, but to stop GB from winning' OK sore loser, what ever.
Lots of negativity surrounding the games so far. Dunno whether the media is portraying it like that, but a few of the Aussie team have just not had good start. (I'm looking at the Basketball and Swimming Teams ). Like BB said, the obscure sports are more interesting
Also, there is the incident of organisers hiring troops and students to fill up stadium seats, as apparent corporate reserved seats are empty, which has caused a lot of anger to those who want to really watch.
Whether the media is trying portraying these Olympic Games in a negative view (it is ) or not, there are a lot of criticising, and less emphasis on the actual sports. Bring back the true meaning of the Olympics, and make it less commercialised.
I don't mean to rebuke you Trav, but I think the opposing arguments are just as valid:
A lot of the negativity is due to our high expectations, which is as per normal for us Aussies, especially as a country with a huge sport culture. I agree we definitely are being too negative but we all need a whinge and people will definitely look to the positive by the games end.
The empty seats debacle is especially tough, as people have paid so much of their hard-earned money trying to watch these Olympics and have put so much effort into trying to get seats, and to see that there are empty seats would be a huge outrage to many. I think the blame goes to the very terrible ticketing system that the UK had in place.
It's only Day 3, so let's see what happens from now. Let's go Australia!
I agree I loved the couple of years where SBS had the rights to show what I call the fringe events. That's where I learnt the rules of handball from and it was great to see the other events that contained Australians but don't rate well.
@anton (5th comment up) - That is true, I never looked at it in that perspective. Hope the Aussies are more successful at the track and field events. Go Australia!
Boo to everyone with Foxtel, I have sh!tty Channel 9. Even Channel 7 did it way better in Beijing.
The only real disappointment so far is the 4 X 100m Men's relay in Swimming, and that just caused most of the other swimming events to spiral down but in reality, we're actually doing okay. We really should be sitting at about 2-5 Gold medals though.
Also very annoyed at the dominance by the Chinese.
I have a question in regards to the opening ceremony.
During the OC they did a thing on the evolution of British music over the years. They played The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen, Prodigy. Who else did they feature in this segment?
I am convinced that The Eurythmics were included but a mate says they were not. I have 50 bucks riding on it so any help would be appreciated.
Also was anyone surprised that Oasis, Spice Girls, Robbie Williams/Take That and more recently Adele were left out. They are internationally huge and definitely bigger than the artists they featured from the past 20 years.
Did anyone see Usain Bolt's race? And any other events.
Also, I am not liking how the rankings are done based on the number of gold medals. Australia is 24th based on Gold medals, but they're actually 9th based on the number of medals, and 10th on the above point system. what do you think? Last edited:
"In what appears to be an attempt to boost the look of Australia's medal count, the top 10 medal table printed in the unnamed newspaper, states 'Aus Zealand' at number nine. It gives a combined total of 27 medals - including four gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze."
TravD I do know that the IOC actually prefers to rank the results by total medals won by a country as opposed to ranking by gold medals won. But the media and for some reason the official page of every Olympics likes to go with Medals because as Nine has shwn, you are only worthy with a gold.
I'll admit I use whatever system makes me happy. So for these Olympics i'm using total tally.
And woo to our 2nd Gold and we are guaranteed a Gold in another Sailing category, as they are know so far ahead.
Yay Sally and Anna. now we are 11th and the team may crack that top 10 that before the games started I thought they wouldn't achieve. Prove me wrong Australia
2 More Gold! Congratulations to all the medal winners last night! We are now 11th, + another guaranteed gold medal today will hopefully put us back in the top 10!
1. USA 2. China 3. United Kingdom 4. Russia 5. Germany 6. Japan 7. France 8. Australia 9. South Korea 10. Italy
The top 10 countries at the moment by total medals:
1. USA 2. China 3. Russia (switched with UK) 4. United Kingdom (switched with Russia) 5. Germany 6. Japan 7. France 8. Australia 9. South Korea 10. Italy
Sadly this doesn't mean anything at all. Yay for Australia winning another gold today. Last edited:
Finally into the Top 10 just, but we are now ahead of not only NZ but pesky surprise package of Kazahkstan or however it's spelt. I've just been calling it Borat to my friends.
Our Olympics campaign for medals is now over! (Unless we could get a Marathon one). Overall I think we put in a rather decent effort, we were never going to do that well. Despite the 'disappointments' I'm really happy with how we did. This Olympics were dominated by the 3 countries in almost every sport. Hopefully we can stay in the top 10.
Some food for thought:
If we however, won all the gold medals we were 'meant' to...:
-Men's 4X100m Freestyle -100m Freestyle -Men's Long Jump -Men's Hockey -Men's Quad Rowing -Few others
...we could be 5th. Also if we replicated exactly all the medals we won in Beijing we would be in the same position.
Men's Hockey & Women's Basketball both won bronze.
Is anyone going to watch the Closing Ceremony tomorrow morning? Apparently the Spice Girls, Adele, Muse, and George Michael, as well as a few other are all performing.
I'll be watching it while getting ready for work, but will also be recording it to enjoy back at my leisure.
so anton - are those 2 swimming events the only 2 we truly appraently failed to win gold in? The way Nine was reacting I thought we were shoe ins for like another 10 golds in the pools. Thanks for answering a question I was going to pose.
In theory our guy still won gold in the Long Jump. he jumped his personal best to win Silver, can't do better than that really LOL
Seebohm could have possibly won her backstroke event and maybe Alicia Coutts could've got an Individual Medley but in reality, we definitely could not have replicated Beijing's success where we won 6 gold.
It was evident in the Swimming Trials and the 2011 Shanghai World Swimming Championships it was obvious we wouldn't do too well. In Shanghai, we won 2 Gold and 10 Silver and 4 Bronze. While that is a great effort, most of the Silver Medallists and Bronze Medallists (such as Stephanie Rice) ran into a bad run of form at the start of this year with injuries and such.
At trials it was even worse with no swimmers (except James Magnussen) swimming a time that was considered 'medal-worthy.'
Finally, everyone had too high expectations, and Swimming Australia in particular was expecting the silver medallists from Shanghai to cause upsets, expecting 'the Aussie fighting spirit' to come through and get gold. Their mistake.
I have no idea why I know this, I don't following Swimming at all Last edited:
Also, how do you personally think the Olympics went this year? Did you have any highlights? Were there any disappointments? Did it live up to its hype? Is/was it the 'best olympics'? Are you looking forward to Rio 2016?
Yeah i watched it, I thought it was great, highlights for me was The Spice Girls, Fatboy Slim, Wonderwall, Ed Sheeran singing Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, John Lennon tribute ,Emeli Sande & Madness performing.
Belarus has lost a Gold Medal in Women's shotput due to doping charges, so NZ receives Gold, Russia Silver, and China Bronze (only change post-Olympics so far)
RANKINGS BASED ON POINTS SYSTEM (Where G=3 S=2 B=1, then if same, ranking based on Official Medal Count)
There's been some pretty exciting events, like the swimming relays and the table tennis this morning. I just wish the ABC would show some of the wheelchair tennis.
I reckon the Paralympics this year are quite thrilling, and much more respectable than the Olympics. Jacqueline Freney, part of the Swimming team, has won 6 Gold medals so far, and our Paralympics team has overtaken the Olympics team's total medals.
But it's sad to see the lack of coverage though. Last edited:
I read somewhere that the host broadcaster for the Paralympics is different to the Olympics and they are only providing the minimum coverage they can with their contract, and international broadcasters can't even use all of that. So it's basically BYO camera. It seems pretty clear now why the ABC is only covering swimming and a few other events that Australians usually do well in.
Yes I think you'll find that Channel 4 is the host broadcaster for the Paralympics (The BBC was for the Olympics). Being a commercial broadcaster they are probably only broadcasting certain events and most likely the ones that they believe the UK will do the best in. Not sure if our ABC has dedicated cameras at certain events but I reckon they've done a pretty good job overall. Last edited:
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