London 2012 Olympics & Paralympics

[Mokong]

That is a really good idea, every country should do that, no matter how many or few Golds they got... or maybe even go as far as Bronze and SIlver too

 

EDIT:

 

And there you go, someone painted a local postbox Bronze in honor of a local boxer that got a Bronze medal.... Royal mail however plan to repaint it red...BOOOOOOO

 

Also in same article someone else was arressted on vandalism charges after painting a postbox Gold in Hampshire in protest over Royalmail painting one Gold for sailor Ben Ainsle in Cornwall where he grew up instead of one in Hampshire where Ben currently lives.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-19268691

[MoogleViper]

Did nobody from Manchester/Cheshire/Liverpool get a gold?

 

Due to all the people in tracksuits, they didn't realise it was a sporting event, and just assumed it was a fashion show.

[Mokong]

Usain Bolt is considering switching to the Long Jump event for Rio 2016

 

http://www.rte.ie/sport/athletics/2012/0822/334538-usain-bolt-i-will-compete-in-rio-2016/

 

I think it would be awesome especially if he can go and boss the gold medals in a different event.

 

But I was thinking it would be so much "cooler" if he would switch to....BOBSLEDING in the Winter Olympics

 

And afterwards we could then have a sequel to "Cool Runnings" - Cool Runnings 2: Lighting on Ice

They could draft in Blake, Carter and Frater from the Relay team too...

 

Cause after all "Sprinters make the best Bobsledders" :wink:

[Retro_Link]

Yeah he mentioned that on the Johnathon Ross show on Saturday... was a good watch, I'm sure it'll be on the ITVPalyer. Jess Ennis and Tom Daley were also on. He said he doesn't fancy the training 400m involves.

 

I guess maybe he's trying to emulate Carl Lewis?

Did Carl Lewis do both Track & Field events at the same games though! Apparently Carl Lewis did at one stage consider doing the quadruple of 100, 200, 400 and Long Jump!

[Mokong]

Righty I've just gotten these temp boards ready for the upcoming London 2012 Paralympic Games

 

I've created new threads for Paralympics sports that have no Olympic eqivuivalent (Boccia, Goalball & Wheelchair Rugby) and bumped up the threads of sports that did have an Olympic equivalent, so we have a thread for each of the 21 Paralympic Sports now.

 

The Opening Ceremony starts at I think 8.30pm on Wednesday the 29th of August.

 

 

I've admittidly not really ever paid much attention to the Paralympics in previous Olympic years but this year there seems to be a greater media buzz about it and there is certianly going to be a LOT more TV coverage of them this year then we have ever had before (probably because they are in London...is part of the "contract" for hosting the games that local TV station(s) has to provide full coverage of the Paralympics?)

[Mokong]

24 Hours till the Paralympic Opening Ceremony, finding myself getting fairly hyped for this too

 

Just found this video

 

[Ramar]

Paralympics Opening Ceremony tonight, can be watched on Channel4.com. However it's piss poor compared to the BBC's website and coverage.

 

Already told me my internet was insufficient, I'm running just under 20mb at the minute.

[Mokong]

Well I'm watching on Channel 4 on the TV at the moment, bout 5 mins now till it starts.

 

Looking forward to seeing how the opening ceremony differs from the Olympic one...did Danny Boyle do this one too?

 

EDIT:

 

This story currently on about the girl who lost her legs in the London 7/7 attack and now competing in the Paralympics is very inspiring. What a way to take such a horrible tragic event and make some kind of positive out of it

 

EDIT2

 

Stephen Hawking opening the Opening Ceremony was pretty cool... had wondered if he might light the cauldron actually...guess not now...wonder will they copy the Olympic one and get several teens who are expected to compete at the Rio 2016 Paralympics?

Edited August 29, 2012 by Mokong

[Mokong]

Come on guys, I know I'm not the only one watching the Paralympics here...where's the discussion gone

[Retro_Link]

I think I find it quite difficult to fully get behind the Paralympics because I have a hard time believing [isn't quite the right word] that the competitions are truely fair.

 

Yes there are a number if different categories for each event, and competitors have to conform to certain groupings and classifications... but even within those there still seems to be quite a bit of difference between entrants.

 

I watched a Womens 200m Cerebal Palsy sprint final tonight for example, and the Chinese woman who won, won by quite a distance (it wasn't a close race) and we came in 4th... but how do you know the Chinese woman's isn't suffering from it less than the other athletes?

 

There was a Mens 100m race where the guy who won already seemed to have 5m on his competitors out of the blocks!

And you guys in the same races, some running with 1arm and a 1/2 arm, some with 1arm, some with no arms!

And you have race starts with some starting in blocks, some crouched, some standing.

 

And it's the same with Swimming and other events.

 

I do enjoy watching it, but when athetes aren't on an even playing field I just find myself questioning it.

[Mokong]

I think I find it quite difficult to fully get behind the Paralympics because I have a hard time believing [isn't quite the right word] that the competitions are truely fair.

 

Yes there are a number if different categories for each event, and competitors have to conform to certain groupings and classifications... but even within those there still seems to be quite a bit of difference between entrants.

 

I watched a Womens 200m Cerebal Palsy sprint final tonight for example, and the Chinese woman who won, won by quite a distance (it wasn't a close race) and we came in 4th... but how do you know the Chinese woman's isn't suffering from it less than the other athletes?

 

There was a Mens 100m race where the guy who won already seemed to have 5m on his competitors out of the blocks!

And you guys in the same races, some running with 1arm and a 1/2 arm, some with 1arm, some with no arms!

And you have race starts with some starting in blocks, some crouched, some standing.

 

And it's the same with Swimming and other events.

 

I do enjoy watching it, but when athetes aren't on an even playing field I just find myself questioning it.

 

 

Kinda get where your coming from there and both agree & disagree

Guess with the "intelectual" impairments it is harder to tell if all are of the same degree and how much of a difference it makes.

 

But I've been surprised by some of the physical abilities displayed which I thought would have given athletes (mainly swimmers) big disadvanatges.

 

Like I said in the swimming thread I watch one final which was won by a girl with No Arms beating other swimmers with both their arms in a 100m Backstroke

 

Just this morning there was a 100m Butterfly heat I was watching (think it was SB8 class) with a girl who had both arms but she was unable to use either the other swimmers could use both arms. But it was the girl with zero arm use that won the race...and by like 8 seconds too.

 

In the swimming I guess no matter what the "disadvantage" might be the best "technique" can still be the deciding factor.

 

That surprised me a lot.

 

 

But on the flip side in the Athletics, last night I watched a Mens 100m race, can't remember the classification but all teh runners had 4 limbs so they were prolly suffering from either (or both) intelecutual or muscular impairments. But most of them ran fine except this one Mexican runner who was just purely outclassed and seemed to be a bit "worse off" (hope that not a bad phrase to use) than the others.

 

And just now as I had posted in the Athletics thread, I watched a guy get lapped twice in the Mens 1500m T46 class (or imparments to upper body).... not sure if this one guy might have also had an impairment in his legs or if he was just that slow.

 

But I found it awesome that he never gave up and even when other runners had finished and he still had 2 laps left he didn't give up and continued to run and finished his race. And dispite taking 11mins 23seconds to finish set himself a new seasonal best in that.

[Retro_Link]

What an Incredible Paralympics Closing Ceremony!!!

 

So sad that's it's all over now, I don't want it to end; but what an fantastic summer of sport at the Olympics/Paralympics it's been, a truely iconic event!

 

London 2012 has been Amazing!!!!

[Mokong]

Indeed, really enjoyed the Closing Ceremony last night, in fact I felt it was much better than the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

 

In the bigger picture it was like the Olympic closing ceremony was an Intermission show and the Paralympic Closing Ceremony was the actual closing of this fantastic summer of sport we just had.

 

The Paralympics itself I was very impressed with, more so than I expected. Probably because this was the first time they've ever been live and had proper coverage. Obviously I've always been aware of them, I might have seen clips on news reports when an Irish Athlete got a medal but this was the first time I've ever followed them properly (and been able to)

 

I really hope this now continues in every Olympic year from now on and doesn't become a once off just cause the event happened in "next door" (from my perspective...at your door step for you guys in the UK)

 

Not to mention how amazing it was to see how high a level the Paralympians compete at dispite their impairments. Inspirtional stuff. I mean when I first saw people swimming with no arms swimming both better and faster than I could... I gotta start getting back into excerise....might take up running...I'll be 32 come Rio 2016...wonder could I reach the A standard required to qualify for the Olympics (don't care if I'd have no hope of a medal...I just wanna be there )

 

 

I'm also feeling very upset at myself now for not being able to go over for either Olympics or Paralympics, with them being so close I should have gone over for a day or two.... lack of funds at the moment though...ggrrrr.

 

EDIT:

 

Just closed the Olympic & Paralympic temp forum...moved this thread here just in case anyone still wanted to post about them

 

EDIT 2:

 

And just uploaded a video blog to my youtube trying to talk about the games