Olympics, who'll be watching?

[1argoholic]

Hands down I get into Olympics. I'll be watchin, I'll be watchin.

[anthonyrussell]

As it's in my country you bet your backside I will be. I've got tickets to hockey and handball. All the best to Canada and all of you, hopefully we put on a good show.

[ArgoRavi]

As it's in my country you bet your backside I will be. I've got tickets to hockey and handball. All the best to Canada and all of you, hopefully we put on a good show.

Those are two sports I wouldn't mind seeing but that Canadian TV never shows (along with men's soccer). I used to get really excited about the Summer Olympics when I was a kid - the '76 Montreal games are the first Summer Olympics I can remember watching - but they don't have quite the appeal to me as they once did. Nevertheless, I am sure that I will be watching at least some of it every day.

[gilthethrill]

Until a few days ago, I was unaware the Olympics were even on...

[1argoholic]

I also love those two sports that we see little of on Canadian tv. Handball is KILLER!!!

The opening ceremonies were GREAT!!! I've always loved British humour and seeing Mr. Bean was funny as hell. Also being an old punk I loved that The Sex Pistols had a good amount of time on the big screen during the music section. Right in from of The Queen. Actually right in the opening five minutes hearing God Save The Queen and then stopping before And Her Facist Regime. Then a wee bit of The Clash.

See Grey Cup 100 could smoke with Danko Jones.

[Will]

I was ready to start beating my head on the wall as I watched the beginning of the ceremonies. So if Toronto ever eventually does get the Olympics, I can expect nothing less than a full-blown tribute to Sick Kids Hospital and O.H.I.P, but I actually started to enjoy it particularly during the part where they were featuring British music. It was nice to hear certain bands like The Specials, The Jam and OMD and the thing with Daniel Craig and the Queen was neat too. But, I bet Sid Vicious is rolling in his grave knowing that Sex Pistols music was used in the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic games!

[anthonyrussell]

I was ready to start beating my head on the wall as I watched the beginning of the ceremonies. So if Toronto ever eventually does get the Olympics, I can expect nothing less than a full-blown tribute to Sick Kids Hospital and O.H.I.P, but I actually started to enjoy it particularly during the part where they were featuring British music. It was nice to hear certain bands like The Specials, The Jam and OMD and the thing with Daniel Craig and the Queen was neat too. But, I bet Sid Vicious is rolling in his grave knowing that Sex Pistols music was used in the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic games!

I don't like the monarchy and quite actively campaign for a British republic but hats off to the old girl. She's 86 years old and can at least laugh at herself. As someone who works for the NHS I was really proud to see it get such recognition. It's not without its problems but it's one of our great triumphs as a country as well. Can only imagine what our American friends made of that.

Overall I think it was a great show that showcased British history and our value as a country in one shot. The bit with Lizzie and Bond was a bit sentimentalist and unnecesary for my liking but still enjoyed it.

[1argoholic]

Well it really is amazing how much British influence we do have in Canada when you watch something like that and recognize so much of it. Although I loved Queen back in the day once punk hit that was it for rock for me. Loved the fact that they didn't hide the past good or bad. I'm sure the Queen wasn't a huge Pistols fan. I was a big Specials fan as well and one of the few albums I still have is one of theirs.
I watched on TSN and then later with my wife a delay on NBC. Man we may live close to the US but we sure think differently in many ways. It seemed like the NBC annoucers were lost with some of it. Why does NBC carry so much delayed Olypmic coverage?

[Will]

Does the Queen even know who the Sex Pistols are/were?

[ArgoRavi]

Well it really is amazing how much British influence we do have in Canada when you watch something like that and recognize so much of it. Although I loved Queen back in the day once punk hit that was it for rock for me. Loved the fact that they didn't hide the past good or bad. I'm sure the Queen wasn't a huge Pistols fan. I was a big Specials fan as well and one of the few albums I still have is one of theirs.
I watched on TSN and then later with my wife a delay on NBC. Man we may live close to the US but we sure think differently in many ways. It seemed like the NBC annoucers were lost with some of it. Why does NBC carry so much delayed Olypmic coverage?

That is the million dollar question. We tend to get much, much better Olympic coverage here in Canada than they do in the U.S. despite the fact that the American networks spend far more money to secure the rights.

[anthonyrussell]

There was a clip in the opening ceremony of the famous (well famous here) lesbian kiss from the now cancelled soap opera Brookside from the early 90s. The Americans cut it out of their coverage but it got seen in Saudi Arabia. Found that interesting.

[ArgoRavi]

There was a clip in the opening ceremony of the famous (well famous here) lesbian kiss from the now cancelled soap opera Brookside from the early 90s. The Americans cut it out of their coverage but it got seen in Saudi Arabia. Found that interesting.

I did see that but I did not know where that kiss was from. Interesting, but not surprising, that NBC cut that from their coverage.

[anthonyrussell]

Considering Danny Boyle dedicated a chunk to socialised medicine, I'm surprised the lesbian kiss was even a concern lol.

It appears Hope Solo is a bit cross at someone from twitter as well.

[matchuk]

i cant get into the summer games like i do winter...but im still gonna watch some racing and swimming....

[Will]

i cant get into the summer games like i do winter...but im still gonna watch some racing and swimming....

I suspect many Canadians are in the same boat as you--I simply don't follow enough of the summer athletes to be able to know who might actually contend for a medal, etc.

[1argoholic]

Problem is so much media attention is all about winter sports. Track is huge in Europe as well as cycling so top Canadians are known more overseas. I ran track and cross country back in highschool so I do enjoy track. I watch it all.

Womens beach volleyball is a must. Anytime you can watch athletic bodies like that in bikinis. Hell Yah!

[anthonyrussell]

General attitude here is "watch what you find, you might enjoy it". Been a big supporter of handball and to see so many people getting into it yesterday was great.

There are some sports that I appreciate are sports and people like them but I just don't get like gymnastics and swimming but the basketball, handball and water polo fan in me is going to have a field day. Also hockey starts today so that'll be awesome.

[1argoholic]

We watch what is put on the tube. So far that's been Canada underachieving as per usual. We used to be good in the pool and have some boxing talent. Three boxers? So far not great in rowing. I guess when you expect your athletes to be full time students, have jobs and train this is what you can expect.
We are now buying tons and tons of Chinese crap that I'm sure helps drive their ecomony and thus allows them to have basically professional paid athletes who just train for a living. A prime example is in curling. They came out of nowhere to become a world curling power.
By the way I avoid Walmart with all their cheap chinese made a year away from the landfil CRAP. I try at all costs to not buy goods from there. I remember when clothing actually said Made In Canada or USA.
My rant.

[Will]

Congratulations to Emelie Heymans and Jennifer Abel on winning bronze in women's synchronized 3m springboard!

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/aquatics/news/article/divers-capture-canada-1st-medal-london-2012.html?cid=rsstsn

[argolio]

I bet Sid Vicious is rolling in his grave knowing that Sex Pistols music was used in the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic games!No one should care. He was a replacement bass player who contributed nothing to their music and was, by all accounts, a terrible musician. And those were his good points.

[Will]

No one should care. He was a replacement bass player who contributed nothing to their music and was, by all accounts, a terrible musician. And those were his good points.

I've always found the Sex Pistols to be nothing exciting, then again I prefer the type of music that punk evolved into.

[1argoholic]

Oh The Pistols were all crap musicians and singers but that's why they were so fun.

[argolio]

They were about image mostly. The guitarist was probably their best musician.

[1argoholic]

Well we're up to four bronze medals. We really don't do much in summer.

[ArgoRavi]

Which of our teams are at the Olympics? I know that our women's soccer and basketball teams are there but are there any others?

[1argoholic]

There are actually more Canadian women then men for the first time ever. Well women finished 5th in team gymnstics today which was the best ever. Not sure we even have teams in volleyball other than beach.

[Will]

Congratulations to the men's rowing 8's on winning a silver medal in their event.

[1argoholic]

Still wanting to see a highlight of that. Vancouver Island connections as they train on Elk Lake. Rowing is huge hear.

[Will]

Well we're up to four bronze medals. We really don't do much in summer.

I suspect much of the resources go into our winter athletes. Our peak at the Summer Olympics was in 1984 when we won 44 medals, but that was during the Soviet-led boycott.

[1argoholic]

There saying we're ahead of our pace from the last few summer games. One silver and four bronze. Well I guess our athletes also live fairly normal lives unlike some of these countries where your a 24/7 athlete.

[Will]

The most common explanation I hear is that (i) Canada's population just cannot produce the same quality of athletes as USA, Russia or China and (ii) the financial resources provided for our athletes aren't great. The Winter Olympics has received a lot more attention as I pointed out above, but even before the facilities were built in Calgary the country struggled there, it wasn't until after Calgary '88 that we became much more successful at the winter games.

[anthonyrussell]

Just imagine what it's like here. We're hosting the ruddy thing and the fact we don't have about 30 gold medals is causing the media perturbtion. What I am happy about is handball is getting a lot of new fans.

[Will]

There was similar pressure on our athletes in 2010 when the games were in Vancouver. Canada (to that point) had not won a Gold Medal on its home soil. We won silver and bronze medals in both Montreal (1976) and Calgary (1988), but never won a gold medal! We ended up winning the most gold medals out of any country that Olympics so that gave the nation a morale boost.

[1argoholic]

Ok here's a question I have been asking my wife who's got both Scottish and English roots and has been to both a few times. Why for every friggin sporting event it's England against Scotland and at Olympic times it's Great Britain? Why don't we tag along with the US and call it Great North America. haha.

Thankfully Quebec never separated because they've won four of six medals. Quebec your either into sports bigtime or a heavy partying smoker. haha. I actually have met some great people from that province.

[anthonyrussell]

The answer? Britain is technically 3 nations (England, Scotland and Wales) and one territory (Northern Ireland) combined as a union in law. It's why we normally have seperate soccer teams for the 4. There is however only 1 Olympic committee combining the 4 so we're Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the Olympics.

[Will]

The women's rowing 8's won silver.

[1argoholic]

Rowing has been exciting once you get the highlights. Our time aren't great in these parts for live rowing.

[Deerkeeper]

I've been enjoying what I have been seeing so far. I find it really refreshing to finally see other sports that I enjoy rather than being force fed all this professional American crap the Canadian sports media is obsessed with all the time.

The Olympic let down from Vancouver is pretty obvious, but Canada is doing about what I expected. Lots of Canadian gold with a couple of silver linings, but it would be nice if we had actually won something by now. Take the hint Swim Canada. Of particular interest to me - being a paddler myself - was the whitewater canoe and kayak events today. We live in a country that essentially invented canoe/kayak and there wasn't a Canadian to be seen anywhere in that competition. Frustrating.

[1argoholic]

Deerkeeper I know exactly what you mean. One of my good friends who comes to Gey Cup with us from Calgary was a top notch Canadian White water guy back in the day. He has a photo from the front of a magazine with him going off a cliff into serious rapids. I can't remember what happened to him that he wasn't in the Olympics or World Championships. They missed bacause of a war or something I thing the story goes. That would have been a while back as he's around 47 or 48 now.
Anyhow it would be nice to see us on top in something by now.

[anthonyrussell]

Was at the women's hockey yesterday afternoon. I'll tell you this, phenomenal doesn't do it justice. The scale of the Olympic park itself is just amazing. It's big but at the same time you don't feel tired walking around it. There's a ton to see and eat. Most of the food is at airport prices and McDonald's is the only place where you can buy stuff at street prices but there's something for everyone.

The atmosphere at the Riverside Arena, the temporary hockey arena was great and full to the rafters especially with the hosts in action. Weather chopped and changed all over the place from sun to rain and back and forth to the point where my wife put her umbrella up 3 or 4 times due to the rain and got sunburn on her knees.

Watching it on tv really doesn't do it justice. Just the smiles on everyone's faces and being nice to everyone. To be able to do this in my lifetime is just amazing.

[1argoholic]

I had the winter Olympics very close in Vancouver but didn't go over. Having to hit a ferry even a day trip was going to be costly. Hotels would have been through the roof. I've been watching a ton of Olympics. Right now we're having summer in a big way with temps hitting between 35c and 40c in our part of The Cowichan Valley. Cowichan means The Warm Land in Coast Salish. Every year we wait for summer than it hits hard. Anyhow we're indoors watching Olympics. I'm really not a huge summer guy and it suck to not have ac.
Canada continues to have it's struggles as per usual. We don't seem to have that killer instinct as our friends to the south have.

[anthonyrussell]

Currently watching USA vs Canada women's football. Amazing game, awful refs.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.945653857792.322501.286100551&type=3&l=f56220dff4

There's a link to my photos from Saturday.

[1argoholic]

The Olympic wind is slowly leaving my sails. You can only watch so many Canadian pitty stories and under acheiving moments before you just don't care. I don't expect much else.

[1argoholic]

Canadian boxer gets screwed over. He won both the second and third rounds and ties with a Brit. The British guy had three warning and should have gotten a deduction. Went to tiebreaker format and Brit wins. No crap as it's in England. Canadians appeal.
Big surprise as unknown Canadian High Jumper wins bronze.

[matchuk]

Canadian boxer gets screwed over. He won both the second and third rounds and ties with a Brit. The British guy had three warning and should have gotten a deduction. Went to tiebreaker format and Brit wins. No crap as it's in England. Canadians appeal.
Big surprise as unknown Canadian High Jumper wins bronze.

total bs....i dont even know how to score boxing properly but it was easy to see we won the 2nd and 3rd round....as for the high jumper, great job on his part

[1argoholic]

Bronze the new gold in Canada. haha. They said this on our local Chek News tonight. Also a poll asking if they should have four medals and what would that forth be. Man if they had four medals we'd top the list. How many Canadians finish forth every flippin Olympics.

[Will]

Congratulations to the women's soccer team on winning bronze!

[anthonyrussell]

A Leafs supporting friend of mine travelled from Kent to Coventry to watch that game. Seems to be having a whale of a time

[1argoholic]

Thankfully France doesn't know how to hit that huge net. Congrats to the ladies for some exciting moments at the 2012 Olympics.

[Midnight Blue]

Olympics humour:

So, Volodymyr was walking down the track to his next event, carrying his 20' shaft in his hand, when someone in the stands shouted out to him:

"Hey, are you a pole-vaulter?"

--- "No", he replied ... "I Ukrainian."

[1argoholic]

hahaha. Funny.

[matchuk]

best name at the olympics: destinee hooker....from the usa womens volleyball team

[ArgoRavi]

You had to feel really bad for the 4 X 100 men's relay team today. You also have to give credit to the sprinter who accepted the blame for his mistake which disqualified the team rather than blame the officials.

[Deerkeeper]

You had to feel really bad for the 4 X 100 men's relay team today. You also have to give credit to the sprinter who accepted the blame for his mistake which disqualified the team rather than blame the officials.

There was really no official to blame. It was not a judgment call, Connaughton was clearly on the line. If you watched any of the men's 100 meter qualifying, Asafa Powell actually stepped out of his lane during his first race but it was not ruled a foul because he did not interfere with anyone. On a curve if you step on or over the line, it is considered shorting the distance you have to run, hence the DQ. Brutal; you bet, just like the no false start rule, but those are the rules. It was classy of Jared Connaughton to come out and take responsibility.

Finally got a chance to watch some Handball today, the women's Bronze and Gold medal games. That is a fun game to watch. Managed to learn the basics fairly quickly by watching. If I can say one thing about it, it sure beats the hell out of basketball for entertainment.

[1argoholic]

Oh that womens bronze medal handball game was flat out GREAT. It's like lacrosse without the sticks. We learned about that game in gym back in the day. We called it European Handball because our handball is played in squash courts.
I phoned my buddy in PEI to tell him about their provinces son Connaughton and his screwup. haha. Off to the potato fields for him to never be seen again. The poor guy felt like crap. Brought back to many bad memories. I still remember the day we found out about Ben Johnson as I had a cable guy at my house in Mississauga installing my business telephone line when he heard me swear in shock as I heard the news. Canada was hit in the gut bigtime that day back in 88.

[1argoholic]

Well it's a done deal and bu total medals we finished 13th but 35 countries finished with at least two or more golds. We got one. If the standings went by the point system like it used to we'd be futher down. Gold, Silver and Bronze used to be worth so many points.
All in all I found these Olypmics to be a bit of a disappointment for Canada.

[Will]

Canada matched their medal total from Beijing at 18. Would've been happier with a few more gold and silvers though.

[matchuk]

Canada matched their medal total from Beijing at 18. Would've been happier with a few more gold and silvers though.

well, we did get ripped off in boxing...and shoould at least have had a silver at minimum in womens soccer....not to mention the relay

[Will]

Summer Olympics simply isn't our strength, were in a much better position though than we were after the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 games. Most of our investment goes into winter sports and the resources were set up after the 1988 Calgary games. I guess something similar wasn't done after the 1976 Montreal games.

[1argoholic]

We have so many athletes who do very well in events leading up to the Olympics and for some reason can't come through at this big event. How many athletes did we see crying or saying sorry. We lead in that catagory as well.

[ArgoRavi]

Finally got a chance to watch some Handball today, the women's Bronze and Gold medal games. That is a fun game to watch. Managed to learn the basics fairly quickly by watching. If I can say one thing about it, it sure beats the hell out of basketball for entertainment.

When I saw it the other day, it got me wondering why basketball became so popular in North America but handball never has. I prefer watching handball myself.

[ArgoRavi]

I don't know about the rest of you but I am glad that these Games are finally over. 16+ days just seems like too much. The Montreal Olympics were 12 days long by comparison. I really don't think that they should be any longer than 14 days.

[anthonyrussell]

I was at the women's bronze handball game on Saturday; double OT and just a cracking sporting event. A few photos below

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.948117665302.323552.286100551&type=3&l=2f14c67e7d

[Deerkeeper]

I don't know about the rest of you but I am glad that these Games are finally over. 16+ days just seems like too much. The Montreal Olympics were 12 days long by comparison. I really don't think that they should be any longer than 14 days.

I think they are about right. Any longer and it would definitely be over kill. Two weeks every four years is not much to ask. It's certainly better than the seemingly endless baseball and hockey seasons we have to endure every year.

[Deerkeeper]

I was at the women's bronze handball game on Saturday; double OT and just a cracking sporting event. A few photos below

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.948117665302.323552.286100551&type=3&l=2f14c67e7d

Is that the temporary arena? If I heard correctly, it's being dismantled and shipped to Rio for the 2016 games.

[ArgoRavi]

I think they are about right. Any longer and it would definitely be over kill. Two weeks every four years is not much to ask. It's certainly better than the seemingly endless baseball and hockey seasons we have to endure every year.

I am with you on the hockey especially. There is some Canada/Russia series going on right now and TSN had some bantam all-star game in July. Wasn't Wayne Gretzky himself critical not too long ago about there being no off-season for kids anymore?

[ArgoRavi]

I was aware at the time that the Vancouver opening and closing ceremonies were nothing to write home about but London really has put Vancouver's effort in those areas to shame IMO.

[1argoholic]

THe mens Gold medal final between Fance and Sweden in Handball was killer. This sport is one of the best in my books.

[DanTheFan]

THe mens Gold medal final between Fance and Sweden in Handball was killer. This sport is one of the best in my books.

This Olympics is the first time I can recall watching handball. It seems pretty cool to me.

[anthonyrussell]

Is that the temporary arena? If I heard correctly, it's being dismantled and shipped to Rio for the 2016 games.

Temporary, yes but from what I understand bits are being re-used in a number of places rather than being shipped to Rio.