Let the games begin! Celebrate the world's greatest sporting event right here...
Another 4 year wait is now over, and the 2012 Summer Olympics are about to start.
Which athletes are you going to be watching out for?
Which from your home country are expected to win medals?
If you're lucky enough to have tickets to any of the events we'd love to hear about it. Don't forget to add a link to any olympic blog entries you publish!
Reply to this Less than 24 hours ago to my favourite sporting event in the world!
Wonder if we'll have any bloggers attending the Opening Ceremony - supposedly there are still tickets left for sale. I attended the Beijing Opening in 2008 and there were no tickets available months out from the Games, it was the hottest ticket in town!
Reply to this Some Olympic trivia*;
- 906 medals to be contested by 10,500 athletes from 204 countries.
- Percentage of actual gold in every gold medal: 1.34
(with the rest consisting of copper)
- Runner Guor Marial, a Sudanese refugee without a passport, is the first athlete in Olympic history to represent no nation.
- Number of images captured per second by the photo finish camera on the athletics track: 2000
- Oldest athlete at the London Olympics: 71 year old Japanese equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu.
- Number of accredited media: 21,000
- Number of women in the US team: 269 - outnumbering men (261) for the first time at an Olympics.
Think you've got what it takes to be the Olympic Trivia Meister?
Post your question to kick off the first round!
*
nzherald.co.nz[Edited: 2012 Jul 27 13:11 - Jo Trouble:16935 ]
Reply to this The talk among the news media is that the American women are looking very strong this year. I hope that is true. We will be watching.
Reply to this My pick is for Sir Steve Redgrave to be involved in the lighting of the cauldron. No other endurance athlete in history has won a gold medal at 5 consecutive Olympics (1984-2000) - and I witnessed his 1992 win in Barcelona and also his record breaking victory at 2000 in Sydney.
Reply to this All I have seen of the olympics is...
edit: a video of Mr Bean and Chariots of Fire - that was removed from youtube by the IOC soon after I saw it.
[Edited: 2012 Jul 28 15:41 - Ali:1 ]
Reply to this Well, I was not quite correct. Sir Steve Redgrave brought the flame into the stadium - and he was the only Olympian to run with it within the stadium. The flame was lit by seven aspiring athletes as nominated by seven of Team GB's greatest Olympians.
[Edited: 2012 Jul 28 04:10 - The Travel Camel:11053 ]
Reply to this
In response to: Msg #159260
Didn't think it would take very long for that to appear on Youtube :-)
I loved the way the torch was lit, and the idea of using the copper petals - one for each participating country.
Reply to this I loved the way the torch was lit, and the idea of using the copper petals - one for each participating country.
Agree, I thought that both this and the industrial age were two of the strongest segments of the ceremony.
Reply to this Mr Bean is with us no longer.....
"This video contains content from International Olympic Committee, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."
Reply to this All I have seen of the olympics is...
All I have seen of the London Olympics is a question from a FaceBook group I am a member of about relationship psychology, asking its members, if we are checking our sexy athletes in the London Olympics. I told them, I am not but a least got a laugh out of the question.
I know the owner of the page from another site and she really knows what she is talking about where relationship psychology is concerned, and is a serious, qualified, experienced, cutting edge psychologist and relationship therapist. I suppose, these questions are designed to get people visiting her page and site, even if they are not too interested in psychology. If she starts her own FaceBook page about the Olympics, I don't think I will subscribe though. 😉
Reply to this I went to the Olympic torch relay (thanks for posting my blog The Travel Camel). It was a great atmosphere.
Yesterday I went to see the Olympic water polo & will be blogging it soon! - it was fantastic!
Olympic Torch Relay
JHG
[Edited: 2012 Jul 30 19:58 - The Travel Camel:11053 - Edited link]
Reply to this Look forward to more of your blogs! The official Olympic ticket site refreshes tickets every night so you may get lucky if you keep checking it for more tickets.
I've attended three games as spectator (Barcelona, Sydney, Beijing) and the atmosphere of an Olympic Games is unmatched by any other sporting event.
Some of my favourite Olympic moments have not involved Australians (Carl Lewis's gold medal relay and Derek Redmond hobbling across the line in Barcelona, Stephen Redgrave's record breaking gold medal at his 5th consecutive Olympics in Sydney, and Matthias Steiner's emotional win in tribute to his late wife in Beijing to name just a few). The Olympics isn't necessarily about supporting one's own nation, but celebrating the best in the world.
I've been awake since 0330 in the morning watching the games, need to catch a quick nap before continuing on with the rest of my day!
PS: I edited your post to include the direct link.
[Edited: 2012 Jul 30 20:07 - The Travel Camel:11053 ]
Reply to this Shane,
With your history of attending past Olympic events it is surprising you did not attend in London. ?? Will you be heading to Rio De Janero?
I assume you prefer summer olympic sports over winter? Do you have desires to attend a Winter Olympics?
MJ
Reply to this I doubt I'll attend more Games, mostly due to the expense, less due to desire. After Barcelona and Sydney I knew I wanted to see another Olympic Games, but did not feel that way after Beijing.
The reason was that Barcelona was the first and it was full of excitement and awe. The atmosphere at Sydney was the best (apart from the Athletics where the other two were better), and the stadia at Beijing were easily the most magnificent. I love attending Opening Ceremonies (I attended all three) but knew after Beijing it was a Ceremony that would not be beaten in my lifetime (a view I still hold). So combining all these memories, I thought to myself, I'm not sure what more I want to see considering the cost of doing so.
I intend to see a winter games - either Russia in 2014 or South Korea in 2018.
In case you haven't read them, here are my blogs from Beijing:
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Passion and the Power Reply to this 
