London 2012 Olympics were 'absolutely fabulous', says IOC chief

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The president of the International Olympic Committee has hailed the London 2012 Games as "absolutely fabulous" and says they "refreshed" the Olympic movement.

As London 2012 executives and Team GB officials appealed to the government and the media to capitalise on a transformative moment for British sport, Jacques Rogge also challenged the UK to "continue to surf the wave" and invest in sport.

Rogge picked out Usain Bolt's "double treble", Ben Ainslie's fourth consecutive gold medal, David Rudisha's world record in the 800m and Michael Phelps's 19th gold medal as among the highlights. But he added: "If I had to take one, a sentimental one, it is definitely the tears of Chris Hoy. I think that was the defining moment of the Games."

Asked for his moment of the Games, London 2012 chairman Lord Coe paid tribute to the public: "The British people have day after day filled our stadiums and turned them into theatres of sport. That has been the defining part of this two-week experience."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/12/london-2012-olympics-absolutely-fabulous

[LynneSin]

1. Romney is a douchebag

I just like any excuse to post that

[MrsBrady]

2. do you really need an excuse?

you made me laugh out loud

[indepat]

3. Keep these posts coming in the wake of Herr Ryan being selected as a running mate

[LynneSin]

11. Ryan is an enemabag

[Panasonic]

20. no. Got something better - Tamponbag

just... fits... perfectly...

[part man all 86]

5. It's a win win! Win for olympics and a win for you calling The Douchebag himself a Romney.

[itsrobert]

4. Other than the opening ceremonies

Let's hope the closing can do better. But with a lineup featuring the Spice Girls, I doubt it.

[Stella_Artois]

8. The opening ceremony was fantastic

Didn't watch the butchered US version though.

[T_i_B]

19. Closing ceremony was as terrible....

....as the opening ceremony was outstanding.

As to the games themselves. Iremain firmly of the viewpoint that hosting the Olympics is the ultimate public sector white elephant project and I am still a grim old sourpuss who wishes that another country had been saddled with that millstone.

[tularetom]

6. The games may have been great but NBC's coverage sucked

I turned on last night to see the mens 4x100 and womens 4x400 relays and the finals of the mens platform diving and spent the entire first hour listening to douchebag Tom Brokaw telling me about how brave Londoners were during the early years of WWII.

I'm not denying the courage of those who lived through those horrible months in fact I'm in awe of them but I didn't turn on the Olympics to see a WWII documentary especially one narrated by an asshole who sounds like he is drunk.

On earlier nights, before getting to see any action we were treated to a 30 minute interview with Michael Phelps and a Today show type feature about British nobility, peerage and coats of arms. I even saw Bush's idiot daughter once, not to mention Matt Lauer, Al Roker and the other dildos from Today.

Considering that the evening coverage ran from 8 to midnight here on the west coast and the fact that I get up every morning at 4 AM, I'm just glad it's over. If they would have provided some idea of what events would be aired at what times, I could have arranged my sleep schedules but NBC was incapable of providing even an approximate time line for their coverage.

I'm looking forward to the 2016 games which will at least be a lot closer to my time zone and hoping that the IOC awards the TV contract to some other network besides NBC.

[alp227]

7. You could've watched the much better foreign (like BBC) coverage streaming online.

Here's a stream of BBC One: http://tvpc.com/Channel.php?ChannelID=3

[LynneSin]

12. I tried watching the Men's Basketball finals

It wasn't so much during the game, it was about the same you could expect from a regular basketball game.

But during the awards ceremony, instead of just letting the announcer at the stadium speak, the NBC folks just yip yip yip over the ceremony repeating the same tired trivia they talked about during the game and probably previous games too.

[caveat_imperator]

17. "hoping that the IOC awards the TV contract to some other network besides NBC."

Same here.

[Panasonic]

21. I would love to see it go to someone who specializes on putting together live coverage

NO MATTER what time it is over there.

In this case, Rio. It is 1 hour ahead of EST for 2016 Summer Olympics. If it's NBC's last, then there's no reason to renew based on poor performances and not because they could carry Rio live.

Sochi is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

[primavera]

24. Wouldn't that be nice

But I gather that NBC has a virtual lock on the coverage, they've been providing exclusive US "coverage" for as long as I can remember.

[primavera]

23. Hear, hear

I had no idea that the Olympics had been scaled back to just gymnastics, swimming, running, and volleyball. And, going by NBC's coverage, apparently only US athletes participated. In their defense, though, with all of the commercials, Cosmo photo layouts of the "Dream Team," flashbacks to the athletes' childhoods, and inane interviews, there really wasn't much time left to show actual athletic events. Where did they find these lame reporters and their asinine questions? "So just what were you thinking when you were there on the starting block?" I kept longing to hear one of the athletes reply: "Um, I was hoping I'd win? What do you think I was thinking, you stupid dipshit?"

[rdmtimp]

26. Sorry to disappoint but.....

NBC has them locked up to 2020.


http://www.adweek.com/news/television/update-nbc-bids-438-billion-olympic-gold-132319

[Earth_First]

9. These two women agree:

[FirstLight]

14. THat's exactly who I thought of when I saw that quote!

Edina & Patsy ROCK

[susanna]

16. Me too...

Edina and Patsy should get a gold medal, just for sheer awesomeness.

[DJ13]

10. The Olympics were chain smoking alcoholics?

[DonCoquixote]

13. fabulous =

"The games did not freak us out like China, nor did we have to worry about the pollution, traffic, or getting imprisoned."

[geek tragedy]

15. Ab Fab reference?

Smashing, darling!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

25. I think it's time for an AbFab re-run marathon. nt

[triplepoint]

18. yeah right....

[Missycim]

22. IMHO

They could have had a minute of silence for those murdered Israeli athletes but other then that it was good.