You can’t help but judge people who aren’t taking an interest in the Olympics. My partner got a telling off from his mother recently when he declared “I’m not watching that rubbish” when asked if he’ll be watching the Opening Ceremony. He did – and even though he went to bed early, he enjoyed what he saw.
There’s something infectious about an event such as this and I’m really trying to put my finger on it, and there a a few people who are in a special club where they can and will proudly say “I was there”.
I unfortunately wasn’t there. I got so disgruntled at the ticketing process, that I wasn’t awarded anything that I totally gave up on the whole thing. for a long time, the Olympics was an event for the Rich, Famous and Privileged. Suffice to say: I was wrong.
I’ve not only discovered that I quite enjoy badminton, fencing and the gymnastics, but I’ve also discovered this along with a few million people who are tweeting and updating Facebook, proudly saying “I’ve never watched so much sport in all my life”.
The BBC really has to be congratulated – The first week of the Greatest Show on Earth has been broadcast in the best possible way. HD, Super-HD, 3D and across the terrestrial and with additional 24 dedicated channels in both HD and SD. Now that’s impressive – I bet it cost a pretty penny too. Do you know what? WHO CARES. I read that the Opening Ceremony was watched by 27 million people and it cost £27m to produce. Well, suffice to say, that was the best £1 I’ve ever spent.
But, back to Sport – today Team GB or Team GB and NI as some people are insisting it’s called as apparently Northern Ireland could be “forgotten” – whatever.
So who is out to ruin the greatest show on Earth. So far the person or groups responsible for this are:
NBC – Whose coverage is SHOCKING. They aren’t showing the events live, and in a world of instant news and social networking, people are finding out that Phelps has recently won his 20th Olympic medal.
4 Pairs of badminton Doubles from South Korea, china and Indonesia were disqualified for “not using one’s best efforts to win” – their justification is that the Round-Robin (rather than Knockout) format of the game meant that by loosing in the round, they would be put against an easier team and therefore could get a better placing. Personally I don’t understand that bit, but nevertheless, that’s pretty disgraceful.
All the sponsors and Olympic partners – basically they were given a ton of tickets to most, if not all, of the events and when I turn on my TV, what do I see? Lots of empty seats – The Greatest show on earth and some twat from Visa couldn’t be arsed to turn up, or pass their ticket onto someone who could. Frankly, the ticketing is STILL a shambles.
The Welsh Players of the England Football team – according to a recent report, they’ve been revolting and have not been singing the National Anthem – now, I’m not a massive Royalist, but the Olympic spirit is about putting aside politics – this is why North and South Korea can play Table Tennis and no one gets shot. The National Anthem is the national Anthem of Great Britain (and maybe Northern Ireland) and they should sing it, if that’s who they are playing against – if they refuse to, then I’d rather they didn’t play.
THAT internet Troll. Yes, you’ve read about him, he can’t seem to grow up. After tweeting Tom Daley and saying that he let his recently deceased father down, it sparked a massive uproar. He was arrested and cautioned pending further investigation – I’m sure, the death threats that he sent another tweeter who reacted to the Tom Daley tweet might have something to do about it.
So the first week has been a resounding successes, there have been a few incidents, but all in all, I think that the Olympic Committee have been trying to do the best job possible – I hope over the next week, the quality is the same.. Come on Team GB – You’re all amazing and the entire country is behind you… Apart from those who really miss their regularly scheduled programming 🙂
One final thought as this first week, comes to a close – lets just show our appreciation for Fencing champion for Venezuela, Ruben Limardo Gascon who won gold and travelled back to the Olympic Village by tube. Legend.