Well this post (don't worry!) doesn't have any tennis content (well one or two references but that's it) but it more about some of my thoughts about the Olympics, which are well under way now, as the opening ceremony was on Friday night last week. And after a few hitches the main one being the controversy over the poor organisation of the security for the Olympic games, with 4GS making a muck of it, by insufficiently training enough staff, and playing the wrong national anthem for a Korean football team, and the organisers inability to spell weightlifitng properly, its all finally come together.
And in regards to the opening ceremony for me it was definitely something of mixed bag, on one hand it was a very impressive visual spectacle, with the fireworks of the Olympic signs for example and the new stadium is quite stunning, but on the other hand we were subjected to the some cringeworthy dancers, doing their routines, like it was something out of musical. Not to take away from their talents in any way but I'm just not a fan of razzamataz in general, it was almost like being forced to watch the Oscars ceremony as well! (which for the Oscars I could use the technical term for razzamataz, which is bullshit!).
There was also the film directed by Danny Boyle, which I caught brief glimpses of, but again my attention dithered from it. So suffice to say that I didn't watch a great deal of it, and spent most of my time channel hopping between Coming to America on Film4 and DVDs of Peep Show (as I've been on a bit of an obssessive Peep Show kick lately!). Danny Boyle also used the electronic music group Underworld as the musical directors, who had composed some original pieces of music for the ceremony (they most notably did the song "Born Slippy"for Danny Boyle's Trainspotting).
However one thing I was fairly impressed with was the nations flagbearer part of the ceremony, as it was interesting to see the different nations walk onto the Olympic stadium, holding their nations flags, and yep I will briefly mention a few tennis players such as Novak Djokovic (of Serbia), Agnieszka Radwanska (of Poland), and Maria Sharapova (of America.... sorry Russia!) who were proudly carrying their nations flags. Djokovic particularly looked proud to hold his nations flag, and I found his expression quite amusing as he seemed to be rejoicing to the heavens, but it was great to see the Serb being as patriotic as he was, as he is rather proud. And although I didn't see it, Chris Hoy, the Olympic gold medal cyclist, was the flag bearer for Great Britain (who came on last) who apparently was very emotional, which you can understand. Although some of the choices of songs for the nations parade were better than others, with the Pet Shop Boys "West end girls", David Bowie's "Heroes", the Bee Gees "Staying alive", and U2's "Beautiful Day", some of which were pretty suitable, but others were puzzling.
As for the games so far well, I haven't been watching too much (apart from the tennis of course!), but its a shame so far that Great Britain have hardly won any medals, as so far there has only been two, with Lizzie Armistead winning the silver medal in cycling, and Rebecca Adlington who won the bronze medal in the 400m freestyle swimming (who previously won the Olympic gold in Beijing). But it is still early days and there are plenty of sports on the go, with China who are in the lead at the mo with 12 olympic medals so far, 6 gold, 4 silver, and 2 bronze, with the USA in 2nd place with 11 medals.
In fact as an update tonight Great Britain won another medal, this time it was in gymnastics, as the GB team won the bronze medal, although there was a bit of controversy over the decisions, as Japan, who were initially ranked in 4th place, allowed GB to have the silver medal. But the Japanese team appealed the decision to the officials, as they felt they were marked harshly for their result, mainly due to one of their team's performance on the pommel horse (who had a dodgy dismount!), and they ended up securing the silver medal, which relegated Great Britain to 3rd place, and the Bronze medal. Regardless of the decision, it was a terrific effort from the British team, who for the first time in 90 years managed to win a medal for Great Britain in the Olympics for gymnastics.
And I probably should make a bit of an effort in watching some of the other sports as the table tennis can be really good to watch, especially the players reactions are so lightning quick, although I can't get over just how small the tables look on TV! The judo as well looks quite good, the swimming, the heptahalon, which is a fav to watch as it incorporates different trials such as the long jump, the shot put, and the 100 metre hurdles, to name a few. And of course there is also the volleyball, which if you are guy, isn't too bad to watch, especially as you see some nice looking girls in skimpy outfits hitting a volley ball over the high net (again perv!).
So it is early days in the Olympics so far, and in my other blog I will keep my eyes peeled on the tennis, naturally more than any sport (wonder why?????). And here's hoping that GB win a few more medals throughout the games, as well as hopefully a few golds before its all over with. And no doubt the British media will be all over it when they do win a gold, its bound to happen, as its usually overkill, with a great achievement they advertise the fact to death. Did you know we just won the Olympic gold in swimming and rowing??? We did! We did! And in fact let's tell you again, just in case you missed the last 18 times we told you!
Anyway my cynicism aside, I will keep an eye on the games and see if there are any interesting developments, which I'm sure there will be.
Sooooo on that note that's it!
No comments:
Post a Comment