What an Olympic farce!

[TWINKLE]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=557774&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

The Olympic Games started in Athens and that's where they should take place EVERY 4 years.

Discuss...............

[Gluestick]

Agreed.

And the competitors should prove their ability by competing in a wide range of events to test their speed, stamina, ability to lift and throw significant weights, like the original olympiads.

Simply running 100 metres in record time proves nothing.

Daley Thompson proved how great he was in the TV prog Superstars.

More like him, please.

 

[Deimos]

http://newsbiscuit.com/article/2012-olympic-organisers-confident-of-fiasco-249

Something I found funny (and who knows how true).

Ian

[TWINKLE]

[:D]

Daley Thompson! 

Now that was a man who made a difference and inspired a whole generation!

I'm surprised there aren't more posts on the Olympic subject - I felt sure Ron would have made an appearance and enthralled us with his font of knowledge on something that is probably being disscussed daily  on the BBC and Sky channels.

[Pierre ZFP]

What I find odd is the supposed 'Ancient' ceremony of the flame. It was dreamt up by Dr Goebbels for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, encouraging the idea that Germans were descended from the 'pure' Aryan race and also there was a connection with the Spartans complete with pseudo religious rubbish and war-like behaviour. Not a very long or noble pedigree for the flame I think.

[Gluestick]

Highly appropiate then, Pierre that this nonsensical ceremony was highjacked by the usual "Rent A Crowd" of celebs and sycophants, like so much of "Sport" today, which as we know is big business masquerading as athletic activities.

After your startling revelation, Pierre, I must therefore express surprise that Max Mosley wasn't leading the pack in London!

Apposite; highly apposite!

[:P]

[Pierre ZFP]

Exactly what I was thinking! 

I remember taking a tour of the original Olympic stadium in 1986.  A brilliant tour guide (she was a professor at Athens Uni doing a summer job).  The whole of our group was amazed when she said the flame thing had only been going 50 years (at the time)

[Cat]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

What I find odd is the supposed 'Ancient' ceremony of the flame. It was dreamt up by Dr Goebbels for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, encouraging the idea that Germans were descended from the 'pure' Aryan race and also there was a connection with the Spartans complete with pseudo religious rubbish and war-like behaviour. Not a very long or noble pedigree for the flame I think.

[/quote]

Sorry Pierre, but this was on the news yesterday, the Olympic flame was first lit at the opening ceremony of the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. It was the torch relay that was introduced for the Berlin Olympics in '36.

I'll get me anorak [:$]

[Gluestick]

Wearing my anaorak and wooly hat, Cathy..........

The origin of the flame was a representation of Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus.

The flame was kept burning throughout the original Greek olympiad.

It was resurrected as you say at the Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam in 1928.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Flame

I'm now off train spotting!

 

[Cat]

These make interesting reading, the shot list used from yesterday's relay in Paris, as broadcast on Chinese TV http://intl.2008.cctv.com/html/article/20080408/155831.shtml  so no protests there then [Www]

The Official Television Signal Handbook from CCTV http://www.cctv.com/2008/xh_english.html  .  Some touching phrases..

The production of the official television signal must follow the principles of Olympic Charter, apply television production techniques as professionally as possible and exhibit the sense of pleasure and holiness brought by the Olympic spirit in the form of passing the torch from one hand to another...

Approval: All the pictures, soundtrack, and scripts must be examined and approved by the authorized personnel from BOCOG. (The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad)

[Gluestick]

Most interesting, Cathy.

And it simply reinforces the reality that for China, the Olympiad is simply an excellent opportunity to try and sanitise their awful image, as they seek to gloss over the various human rights abuses and emerge as good guys whilst the set out to destroy the West's industries and take over the globe!

As with so many nations previously, such as Soviet Russia and pre-war Germany, it's all about propaganda, not sport.

And when Kelly Holmes was defending althletes who were desperate to attend and compete, the corollary of her impassioned pleas were in fact that these athletes wanted their shot at huge commercial sponsorship deals and millionairedom!

 

[raindog]

Nobody's mentioned the French police kicking and hitting photographers and ripping Tibetan flags from people's hands.

Unbelievable.

[Clair]

[quote user="raindog"]Nobody's mentioned the French police kicking and hitting photographers and ripping Tibetan flags from people's hands.[/quote]

That was mentioned at length on the FR2 French lunchtime news today: http://sport.france2.fr/jo/41774622-fr.php#para41856974

The Interior Minister (Michèle Alliot-Marie) said that "the police had not been given orders to remove Thibetan flags... an internal inquest will be open to ascertain the conditions under which this happened..."

They also showed footage of the Chinese "flame bodyguards" (dressed in blue and white) extinguishing the flame when it was being held by a sports personality, and of a very agitated Chinese representative urging the convoy to move on from the Hotel de Ville, where it was expected to make a 30mn stop.

The French industry stands to suffer a massive loss of trade should Sarkozy decide to boycot the opening. My guess is he will find a suitable compromise and attend.

[Maricopa]

IMHO, watching the coverage in London, I thought the behaviour of the Met Police just as heavy handed.[:(]

[Cat]

Unfortunatley, IMO, the Olympic ideal seems to have been swallowed by states guarding their financial interest in the developing markets in China, and in London the vested interest in keeping the coffers open for their own trumpet-blowing Olympic moneyfest in 2012.

Could be wrong though.

[raindog]

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="raindog"]Nobody's mentioned the French police kicking and hitting photographers and ripping Tibetan flags from people's hands.[/quote]

That was mentioned at length on the FR2 French lunchtime news today: http://sport.france2.fr/jo/41774622-fr.php#para41856974

[/quote]

I meant nobody on here Clair [:)]

I've watched it on the box alright.

[Gluestick]

[quote user="Cat"]

Unfortunatley, IMO, the Olympic ideal seems to have been swallowed by states guarding their financial interest in the developing markets in China, and in London the vested interest in keeping the coffers open for their own trumpet-blowing Olympic moneyfest in 2012.

Could be wrong though.

[/quote]

Right on the money, Cathy!

The whole circus has become a cash cow for countries; major multinationals, the organisers, the TV companies and of course the participants.

Over the past 20 years people seem to far too quickly forget the various corruption problems besieging the IOC.

They also happily ignore the Eastern European states exploiting "sport" as a cynical PR exercise.

When a state reaches the point of changing the blood of their competitors hours before each race (East Germany) to obliterate banned substances when thousands of their citizens are dying for want of kidney dialysis, not much more needs saying.

 

[raindog]

[quote user="Maricopa"]IMHO, watching the coverage in London, I thought the behaviour of the Met Police just as heavy handed.[:(][/quote]

Not according to the French news today.

[Benjamin]

[quote user="Gluestick"][quote user="Cat"]

[/quote]

The whole circus has become a cash cow for countries; major multinationals, the organisers, the TV companies and of course the participants.

 

[/quote]

Isn't the East End of London getting rebuilt with a combination of Lottery funding and taxpayers money sometime before 2012? [Www]

[Christine Animal]

I don't like to get into these types of discussions, but to me Human Rights are far more important than games, politics or money, as naive as that may be.  Remembering things the CRS did in mai '68, I wouldn't have liked to face them, but others did yesterday.  I felt proud when I saw them on the news last night.

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2327507

 

[TWINKLE]

If the Olympics really are meant to be a celebration of sports then they would be hosted in Athens.  Only thing is no other countries would make a fortune from the games.  Which brings us back to the fact that apart from the great athletes taking part everyone else concerned is in it for the money.

[Cat]

What is odd is that, officially, no country in recent times has made a direct profit from hosting the games, in monetary terms.  They may have gained a lot in prestige, advertising, regeneration, infrastructure etc, but this is money that on the whole makes a fortune for commercial organisations rather than the state.

The feel-good factor and national pride are of some value, but can't be counted like hard cash.

Or that's the way I see it, anyway.

 

[Benjamin]

This is a report from the Reuters news agency today:

By Marc Jones and Avril Ormsby

LONDON (Reuters) - The cost of building the showpiece aquatics

centre for the 2012 London Olympics has trebled, organisers said on

Tuesday, announcing UK company Balfour Beatty would build the venue.

The centre, designed by Baghdad-born architect Zaha Hadid, caused

controversy when its stingray-shaped roof was scaled down and

redesigned and Olympics minister Tessa Jowell criticised the costs in

2005.

The building will now cost 242 million pounds ($480 million), the

Olympic Delivery Authority said on Tuesday, up from an original 73

million.

A bridge connecting it to the main park will cost another 61 million pounds.

And this is before a sod has been turned.[:P]

Edit:The asterisc word is dos backwards. What's wrong with that?

[woolybananasbrother]

Whilst washing billions down the drain to please someone's ego is a genuine topic of discussion for a forum, I am not sure that so d turning should be.[6]

[Frenchie]

[quote user="Christine Animal"]

I don't like to get into these types of discussions, but to me Human Rights are far more important than games, politics or money, as naive as that may be.  Remembering things the CRS did in mai '68, I wouldn't have liked to face them, but others did yesterday.  I felt proud when I saw them on the news last night.

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2327507

 

[/quote]

I feel  EXACTLY the same..