Beijing Olympics - 08.08.08

also it cost 2mil

I see we haven't ditched the embarrasingly gooseberry fool logo then?

I know it's just a logo, but LOOK AT IT!!



And I agree with Extralife. It looked like a bunchof pissed up teenie-boppers on a night out in Peckham. Noice!

I know this may sound odd but it really does annoy me when people constantly talk about the cost of the games. Sure we don't want to waste money in London but we bid for the games and its a chance to show London to the world and make an area of the city nicer as a result. We are in danger of showing the world that we have become a bunch of whingeing penny pincher's who ask for things but then instantly bemoan how much it costs.

Peter Crisp wrote:We are in danger of showing the world that we have become a bunch of whingeing penny pincher's who ask for things but then instantly bemoan how much it costs.

In fairness, that's exactly what we are.

Extralife wrote:Beijing - colourful and beautiful celebration of thousands of years of history.

London - a girl from X-Factor and David Beckham kicking a football off the top of a bus, surounded by a gang of hoodies rolling around on the floor.



I guess that really puts British 'culture' into perspective.

No it doesn't put it into "perspective" - it shows how different it is from chinese culture

I'd hate it if we had the same culture as china. I genuinely like British culture. We are now known for our cultur. Some people hate it and some like it. I like it and I certainly wouldn't want us to host the olympics in a fashion that didn't reflect Britain's true culture.

British.

Good point, noted, edited.

No problem, fella.

I saw I picture of that taekwondo guy kicking that referee in the face earlier and found it pretty funny. I also found it funny that the paper referred to the World Taekwondo Federation as WTF.

Extralife wrote:Beijing - colourful and beautiful celebration of thousands of years of history.

London - a girl from X-Factor and David Beckham kicking a football off the top of a bus, surounded by a gang of hoodies rolling around on the floor.



I guess that really puts British 'culture' into perspective.

Utter, utter bollocks. Thousands of chinese people doing exactly as they are told, (or its the salt mines for you...). Then Jimmy Page belting out 'whole lot o' love' from the top of a london bus. I'd be the first to complain if we piss it up but 'our' eight minutes just blew away the whole of the rest of the closing ceremony big style.

The whole chinese presentation, (choreographed to death), has played exactly into our hands. 'All' we have to do is stress democracy, individualism, mavervik freedom and humour. I want to see Johnny Lydon singing 'God Save the Queen' whilst surrounded by dancers all dressed by Vivienne Westwood. I want to see the best of british music belting it out loud. I want to see the best of our technology celebrated to the max. in stadia designed by our best architects.

(I do not want to see morris dancers, pearly kings and queens, sodding beefeaters etc etc.)

Stop strawberry floating moaning and appreciate what huge talent this country has got.

And that logo - its excellent - despite what the popular press told you to believe !!

closer wrote:Utter, utter bollocks. Thousands of chinese people doing exactly as they are told, (or its the salt mines for you...). Then Jimmy Page belting out 'whole lot o' love' from the top of a london bus. I'd be the first to complain if we piss it up but 'our' eight minutes just blew away the whole of the rest of the closing ceremony big style.

The whole chinese presentation, (choreographed to death), has played exactly into our hands. 'All' we have to do is stress democracy, individualism, mavervik freedom and humour. I want to see Johnny Lydon singing 'God Save the Queen' whilst surrounded by dancers all dressed by Vivienne Westwood. I want to see the best of british music belting it out loud. I want to see the best of our technology celebrated to the max. in stadia designed by our best architects.

(I do not want to see morris dancers, pearly kings and queens, sodding beefeaters etc etc.)

Stop strawberry floating moaning and appreciate what huge talent this country has got.

Absolutely agree with all of this.

And that logo - its excellent - despite what the popular press told you to believe !!

Cuttooth wrote:

closer wrote:Utter, utter ********. Thousands of chinese people doing exactly as they are told, (or its the salt mines for you...). Then Jimmy Page belting out 'whole lot o' love' from the top of a london bus. I'd be the first to complain if we piss it up but 'our' eight minutes just blew away the whole of the rest of the closing ceremony big style.

The whole chinese presentation, (choreographed to death), has played exactly into our hands. 'All' we have to do is stress democracy, individualism, mavervik freedom and humour. I want to see Johnny Lydon singing 'God Save the Queen' whilst surrounded by dancers all dressed by Vivienne Westwood. I want to see the best of british music belting it out loud. I want to see the best of our technology celebrated to the max. in stadia designed by our best architects.

(I do not want to see morris dancers, pearly kings and queens, sodding beefeaters etc etc.)

Stop ******* moaning and appreciate what huge talent this country has got.

Absolutely agree with all of this.

Its still excellent - as will become apparent over the next four years - trust me !

And that logo - its excellent - despite what the popular press told you to believe !!

closer wrote:

Extralife wrote:Beijing - colourful and beautiful celebration of thousands of years of history.

London - a girl from X-Factor and David Beckham kicking a football off the top of a bus, surounded by a gang of hoodies rolling around on the floor.



I guess that really puts British 'culture' into perspective.

Utter, utter ********. Thousands of chinese people doing exactly as they are told, (or its the salt mines for you...). Then Jimmy Page belting out 'whole lot o' love' from the top of a london bus. I'd be the first to complain if we piss it up but 'our' eight minutes just blew away the whole of the rest of the closing ceremony big style.

The whole chinese presentation, (choreographed to death), has played exactly into our hands. 'All' we have to do is stress democracy, individualism, mavervik freedom and humour. I want to see Johnny Lydon singing 'God Save the Queen' whilst surrounded by dancers all dressed by Vivienne Westwood. I want to see the best of british music belting it out loud. I want to see the best of our technology celebrated to the max. in stadia designed by our best architects.

(I do not want to see morris dancers, pearly kings and queens, sodding beefeaters etc etc.)

Stop ******* moaning and appreciate what huge talent this country has got.

And that logo - its excellent - despite what the popular press told you to believe !!

I agree with all this too. I was feeling a little uncomfortable the whole Olympics really, but the closing ceremony really summed it up. All the IOC and anyone else inane enough to get on TV to talk about the Olympics have been telling us over the past year is that the sport and politics should be kept apart, yet the Beijing Olympics has been the longest and most exposed political event I've ever seen. The bizarre Cirque Du Soleil in cycle helmets closing ceremony was just the pinacle of over 2 weeks of propoganda.
Focusing on the ceremony alone though, even ignoring the creepy feeling of how many human rights had to be broken to do it all, while it was very flashy, it was rubbish. I guess this applies to pretty much all opening/closing ceremonies, but what the hell is going on in them? Everyone seems to marvel over an hour of lots of funny dressed people doing the same thing, but it just looks like an expensive mess. I could not discern anything even vaguely related to "culture" or "art" that Huw Edwards was having a tommy tank over. In a week or so everyone will have forgotten about any ceremonies, and all people will remember are the handful of incredible athletic achievments. And that, and only that, is what should be honoured in Olympic ceremonies.
Hopefully the London Olympics will be a lot more low key, and as a result retain some sort of dignity. While the bus and the silly dancers was all a bit musical theatre, it at least didn't attempt to reach some divine level of Machiavellian campness I sat through for an hour.
Having said that, our logo is still turd.

The only people who should receive knighthoods from the Olympics are Chris Hoy and Ben Ainslie, whether they should wait till after they retire is another story. Adlington will probably become a Dame at some point in the future, especially if she does well in 2012.

Kelly Holmes became a Dame from winning 2 gold medals. They can't NOT give Adlington the same treatment. That's just wrooong.

Jaxley wrote:Kelly Holmes became a Dame from winning 2 gold medals. They can't NOT give Adlington the same treatment. That's just wrooong.

She's 19, it'd probably be best to wait till she retires otherwise we'll hear being called Dame Adlington in 4 years time. Which would just be weird

Igor wrote:

Cuttooth wrote:Adlington's friend telling the Queen she should be a Dame was cringeworthy.

She shouldn't be a dame for the simple fact that she is so fooking ugly.

Atleast you don't know someone whos shagged it :S

Why, do you?

As much as I find her irritating, Kelly Holmes didn't just win two gold medals. Don't compare her to Rebecca Adlington.

Kelly Holmes joined the Army at 18. She reached the rank of Sergeant, and it was while in the Army that she became the British Army Judo champion. She has:

..."competed in and won an 800 metres, a 3000 metres and a relay race all in a single day"

She has dealt with Clinical Depression and a multitude of injuries over her career.

Her titles include:


1994
Commonwealth Games - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
1500 m gold medal
European Championships - Helsinki, Finland.
1500 m silver medal
IAAF World Cup - London, England.
1500 m bronze medal
European Cup - Birmingham, England.
800 m silver medal
1995
World Championships - Gothenburg, Sweden.
800 m bronze medal
European Cup - Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
800 m gold medal
1996
European Cup - Madrid, Spain.
800 m silver medal
1997
European Cup - Munich, Germany.
1500 m gold medal
1998
Commonwealth Games - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1500 m silver medal
2000
Summer Olympics - Sydney, Australia.
800m bronze medal
2002
European Championships - Munich, Germany.
800 m bronze medal
Commonwealth Games - Manchester, England.
1500m gold medal
2003
World Championships - Paris, France.
800 m silver medal
World Indoor Championships - Birmingham, England.
1500 m silver medal
2004
Summer Olympics - Athens, Greece.
800 m gold medal
1500 m gold medal
In addition to these achievements, Holmes has also won 12 national titles.

Holmes has had to juggle an Athletics career and an Army one. She started when there was no Lottery funding for Athletics. Then, she wins two gold medals at the age of 34.

Kelly Holmes is the first Briton for 84 years to achieve the Olympic middle-distance double.

She has held the British record in the 800m, 1000m and 1500m on numerous occasions, and was the 2004 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Really, Rebecca Adlington doesn't come close. Hoy does though.

^ that

Even if Murray wins the US Open and Hamilton wina the F1, Hoy should still be Sports Personality of the Year