What did you do when the Olympic Torch passed by?

[Flyfisher]

Never mind the athletes, the commentators are sometimes equally affected as well, e.g. John Inverdale, after talking to the British men's double sculls pair who were distraught about 'only' taking the silver medal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19124776

It's not the winning, but the taking part . . . yeah, right.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Well, despite the naysayers' doubts, I have to say this is turning out to be a spiffing Olympics!

Great venues, great crowds, great athletes. Even the transport system is holding up!

Seeing the crowds stay in the pouring rain to cheer home all the womens marathon runners was definitely Olympic spirit.

One of the surprises is just *how* much the crowds are getting behind the games. And yesterday was a truly spectacular Saturday.

 

[MatthewC]

Well, despite the naysayers' doubts, I have to say this is turning out to be a spiffing Olympics!

Great venues, great crowds, great athletes. Even the transport system is holding up!

Seeing the crowds stay in the pouring rain to cheer home all the womens marathon runners was definitely Olympic spirit.

One of the surprises is just *how* much the crowds are getting behind the games. And yesterday was a truly spectacular Saturday.

Absolutely. I suffered a nasty experience at the dentist on Friday so had to spend the whole of yesterday just sat on the sofa in front of the TV feeling sorry for myself - by the end of the day I was feeling much better!

 

[Nigel Watts]

We are currently third in the medal table. I'm not knocking it, but the following tables are also interesting:

Medals per capita:

http://www.medalspercapita.com/

Medals per £ of GDP

http://simon.forsyth.net/olympicsGDP2012.html

In both we are beating the Americans and the Chinese, but we are far from being top. India comes bottom in both - something I am trying not to mention too much when my wife is in earshot. I am not sure why this should be so.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Interesting Nigel - but subject to the statistical difficulties of small sample sizes. A poor country that produces a couple of "flukey" winners (maybe Biff's Bhutanese archers) could look very "good" but you can'tnecessarily extrapolate those results to larger sample sizes.

Might be easier to plot this as a distribution curve and then look for significant outliers outside of an assumed line of correlation.

If I wasn't glued to the screen I might find a couple of minutes to do it!

 

[LadyArowana]

India comes bottom in both - something I am trying not to mention too much when my wife is in earshot. I am not sure why this should be so.

It's because you are a wise and sensible man who knows that comments likely to upset the lady of the house are best avoided.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

India comes bottom in both - something I am trying not to mention too much when my wife is in earshot. I am not sure why this should be so.

It's because you are a wise and sensible man who knows that comments likely to upset the lady of the house are best avoided.

So that's where I've been going wrong!

 

[Nigel Watts]

China didn't compete in the Olympics between 1952 and 1980. In 1980 the US boycotted the games and in 1984 the Soviet Union and some of its satellites reciprocated. 1988 is therefore the earliest we can sensibly go back to look at medal trends involving the US, China and the former Soviet bloc.

In 1988, the Soviets came top with 55 gold medals, East Germany was second with 37, USA was third with 36 and West Germany was fourth with 11. China and UK both got 5, finishing 11th and 12th respectively. The US is still performing at its historic levels, but Russia and East Germany have fallen well back (East Germany especially). China has risen spectacularly.

The old Soviet Union and East Germany were centrally controlled dictatorships which saw huge propaganda value in winning Olympic medals, and present day China seems to be in the same mould. That these countries performances have waxed and waned so much in is perhaps not so surprising given their political changes, but the UK's improvement cannot be so easily explained.

 

[biffvernon]

 

[Flyfisher]

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Biff - go and stand in the period corner.

You've become a period parody of the period pub bore. We get you don't like the Olympics (or much else). Honest, we really do.

:roll:

 

[biffvernon]

Oh, did you sleep through the party last night? It was great.

Brian May, PhD, CBE, added a little anti-hunting gesture. Good bloke.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I've never watched the Olympics before ( and in fact have only had TV for two years, and rarely watch it), so a lot of the names you lot mention are unfamiliar. But I surprised myself with actually enjoying all the events I watched - gym, running, shooting, swimming, diving, cycling and horse-dancing. You couldn't get a person who hates the notion of watching sport more than me, so the fact I enjoyed it proves it must have been pretty good.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Well, it all seemed to pass off rather smoothly, didn't it?

8)

 

[philpjuk100]

Yup,great concert,Freddie Mercury,Daltry,waterloo sunset,m-my generation,so many highlights,even Boris dancing!

 

[biffvernon]

Well, it all seemed to pass off rather smoothly, didn't it?

8)

Yes, probably. Of course if it didn't we wouldn't have been told. :tinhat:

 

[Lime]

Well, it all seemed to pass off rather smoothly, didn't it?

8)

And quickly too thank heavens.

 

[Flyfisher]

Well, it all seemed to pass off rather smoothly, didn't it?

8)

Yes, probably. Of course if it didn't we wouldn't have been told. :tinhat:

You have more faith than me about the ability of the powers that be to cover things up when they go wrong.

 

[AMc]

I wasn't that bothered and was even more apathetic towards it when we failed to get any tickets for the Olympic Park events.
But when I got some football tickets for Manchester I took a slightly more positive view.
Then the torch parade and the activities at my daughter's primary school improved my attitude towards it.
The opening ceremony was excellent fun.
I ended up being gripped by road, track and BMX cycling, then swimming, running and all sorts of other events I'd never really minded about before.
The closing ceremony wasn't a patch on the opening but was still an excellent celebration.

I loved the London Olympics, I can't believe how amazingly well TeamGB did and I was impressed with the performances and sportsmanship of the competitors. I'm a tiny bit sad that it's ended but I'm hoping for a great Paralympics now

 

[tobydog]

I too now have a void in my life that I need to fill again. Oh yes, note to self. Must rebuild plinth wall void :roll: .

I parked any negativity I might have had and got totally consumed by it. I was on holiday for the first week and the TV was never off. At the age of 50 this was the first Olympics I've ever watched properly all the way through. Apart from the badminton baddies I agree that the performances and sportmanship was top notch. I was a little confused yesterday though when one of the Spanish basketball finalists was penalised for an unsportsmanlike foul :? . Two free throws and the US kept possession afterwards. I've watched regional basketball for several years now and I've never seen that one before. I learnt so much and not a single false start under the new rules from what I saw.

Brilliant