The Olympics thread

[I Bent My Wookie]

18 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

Not a single Daft Punk song during the entire thing. Outrageous.

Here's a bunch of famous songs from the EU... That we could afford the rights to. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 minutes ago, I Bent My Wookie said:

Here's a bunch of famous songs from the EU... That we could afford the rights to. 

Tbf they started that segment with Europe’s The Final Countdown so probably blew the budget on that.

Room for Lady Gaga but not Mylène Farmer, Zaz, Vanessa Paradis or Phoenix either. Booo

[Jazzy G]

On 7/24/2021 at 9:29 AM, SuperBacon said:

Ecuador with their second ever gold medal, in the Mens Road Race. Lovely stuff and an absolutely brutal (but pretty) route.

By the way, didn't realise this, wanting to watch the Handball (OK Beach Volleyball) over breakfast. Suppose I better sign up to Discovery +

That's a bit crap. I always thought there was an agreement that it had to be free to air. 

[I Bent My Wookie]

Making the decision in the morning to buy Discovery + just as there's nothing really to watch until Celtic start their league campaign and it's £4 a month until the end of the year if I purchase this month. 

[Chest Rockwell]

 I think they did a decent job of the opening ceremony, apart from fucking Imagine, which I was thankfully able to fast forward because I was on a bit of a delay due to putting the kids to bed.

Best team outfits goes to Philippines from what I saw. Best individual attire was the flag bearer for Tajikistan.

[The Gaffer]

Gojira playing in a giant fucking advent calendar. Bien joué, Paris.

 

[Weezenal]

Thought it was a bit of a shambles overall, overly ambitious but underprepared. I think they could have shaved off 20 hours as that was how long it felt.

Last 10 minutes saved it from being a total disaster. 

[Scratch]

The opening ceremony was doomed the minute they decided to do what they did. Opening ceremonies always bring that sense of being an absolute spectacle for those in attendance that you can get a decent sense of involvement from by watching it at home along with the rest of the world, given it’s contained within a venue.

The boats with the athletes on seemed so sparse and the artistic parts in between were so spread out it lost all sense of occasion. Every time someone came on to fanny about on the bridge, you just knew those in attendance were basically watching nothing.

In contrast, the parts they wanted everyone there to see, like that horse galloping along the river, went on forever.

It'll be remembered, but not for the reasons they’d have wanted.

[lanky316]

The concept was better than usual to me, the idea of interspersing the awful parade of nations in the skits and storytelling rather than having you sit through hours of hit and miss routines before making you sit through hours of people walking around in a circle was something I could get behind and not something they could really do in a normal stadium setting. The problem was the set pieces being all over the place and the logistics of it all made some bits even more drawn out and especially later in the night even more infuriating. Things like the horse galloping, yeah it looked cool and I was impressed.... quarter of an hour later I'd lost interest. The torch relay of the four Americans standing in a boat looking more and more uncomfortable as it went on longer and longer.

In isolation, I think the sequence which went from Les Miserables, to the beheading of Marie Antoinette, to heavy metal show on the outside of the building while the ship sailed past was fantastic and a definite stand out that's up there with one of the best sequences I've ever seen in a ceremony, sadly it was surrounded by lots of waiting and an event that ended up seeming longer and more drawn out than even these things usually seem to be.

[wordsfromlee]

They couldn't even raise the Olympic flag the right way round

[Lorne Malvo]

I wish there was a feed that just showed the final/medal event of each sport. Can't be arsed for weeks of the BBCs obsession with swimming and indoor cycling events.

[WyattSheepMask]

Gojira bringing the fire while Lady GaGa brought some feathers and one lad falling on his arse

[MVP RULZ]

7 minutes ago, lanky316 said:

The torch relay of the four Americans standing in a boat looking more and more uncomfortable as it went on longer and longer.

The whole thing sounded better on paper then in execution

Watching it in person must have been incredibly dull with half the stuff not even happening near you at the boats going past got boring quickly.

The ending was magnificent and at least saved it from being a total disaster but it was just so needlessly long.

[lanky316]

They'd made such a big deal over the others I'd completely forgotten Rafa Nadal was there.... 

[Weezenal]

Who was the white woman in the boat? Don't think the announcers knew either.