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The London 2012 Olympics - The Events

Not to make this all political, but it's worth pointing out that Mo Farah became a British citizen aged eleven as a refugee from Somalia. Highlights the amazing contributions that asylum seekers and refugees can potentially make to Britain when we adopt a friendly and welcoming asylum policy. :)

As @RachJBurns said on Twitter: "Bloody immigrants, coming over here, winning medals, inspiring us, making us proud" :D
 
Tonight has to be one of the best nights in British sporting history. Absolutely amazing.
 
Just about burst into tears with pride when Mo crossed the line... Incredible night.

Could we finally win a penalty shoot out too?
 
On the subject of "Team GB" I'd say that as our two best sports seem to be Rowing and Cycling I think the term Team is quite appropriate. But that's as far as my view goes, it is after all just a name.



Anyway what I really came on here to say is that as a person that normally doesn't care for sports I'm absolutely loving the Olympics. Last week one of my friends mentioned that he had some spare tickets and I jumped at the chance to go and watch the games. So we spent Tuesday and Yesterday in London (watching Archery) and got the chance to absorb the atmosphere.

Watching the Archery was great fun and I even got to see 4 matches with GB in (sadly 3 of them were defeats). The price was also much more reasonable than I expected; £30 for 4 hours of Archery.

As the price of the train was more than the actual tickets we spent the rest of both days in Hyde Park at "BT London Live". Definitely worth going to if you’re in London as it's a free event with 5 screens showing the different sports along with other entertainment. There were even a few decent concert acts on the Friday which split up the sports nicely. It’s just a pain they don’t let you take food and drink in, although there were water fountains inside.

We were still there when the Men’s Team Pursuit won their Gold and it just made that moment such a special occasion. I recorded the crowd’s reaction and might upload it later.

As I’m going to be in London on the day of the closing ceremony as well I’m hoping to get as close to the stadium as possible. I can’t wait!
 
"Great Britain's Sturridge steps up..."

"And Chelsea's Sturridge misses"

Shame about the football, but still, what a great night for British sport!
 
More gutted about that loss than any loss by the England team ever!

A lot of people (particularly in Scotland) wanted to see this football team fail and I'm sure it'll make their nights.
 
Blaze said:
"Great Britain's Sturridge steps up..."

"And Chelsea's Sturridge misses"

Shame about the football, but still, what a great night for British sport!
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Beat me to it.

I blame Bolton for Sturridge's penalty demise! (As I do for everything)! :p
 
Football shouldn't be in the Olympics anyway, it's stupid. They purposefully have to have rules to make the teams rubbish, because the top players of most countries wouldn't bother turning up if they opened it up to the best players.

Football is the only sport in the world that has its own event that's bigger than the Olympics, so it seems a bit silly having it when football is on telly 24/7 anyway. It should be about showcasing sports that never get public exposure otherwise, like table tennis or long jump!
 
What a fantastic night for British sport! Though a bit sad about the football though, especially that it came down to penalties. And this is coming from a Scot who had some hopes that the GB football team would go far (though I'am sad that the bloody SFA wouldn't let any Scottish players play in the team...)

The trick to win them is to send to the worse players up to take them as history shows us that the best players always miss a penalty, then again I'm rambling on here...

Still, fantastic night for all of us Brits. :)
 
Sam said:
Football shouldn't be in the Olympics anyway, it's stupid. They purposefully have to have rules to make the teams rubbish, because the top players of most countries wouldn't bother turning up if they opened it up to the best players.

Football is the only sport in the world that has its own event that's bigger than the Olympics, so it seems a bit silly having it when football is on telly 24/7 anyway. It should be about showcasing sports that never get public exposure otherwise, like table tennis or long jump!
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The fundamental principle of the Olympics is bringing the world together to compete in a friendly manner. Utilising the most popular sport in the world to capture more people's imaginations globally seems logical to me. Football's popularity is more justification for it being there than anything.
 
Sam said:
Football shouldn't be in the Olympics anyway, it's stupid. They purposefully have to have rules to make the teams rubbish, because the top players of most countries wouldn't bother turning up if they opened it up to the best players.

Football is the only sport in the world that has its own event that's bigger than the Olympics, so it seems a bit silly having it when football is on telly 24/7 anyway. It should be about showcasing sports that never get public exposure otherwise, like table tennis or long jump!
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The Olympics is about every sport coming together, not just showcasing the ones that don't get seen. We see a lot of athletics on the BBC, does that mean that we should scrap track and field? I understand what you are saying about football being huge but that is why the Olympic tournament is an U23 set-up. It acts as a chance for the younger players to get full exposure - the ones who might not be in a World Cup and the ones who don't get watched by many in their respective Under-whatever competitions... The Olympics (due to its qualification system) also showcases countries that may not make the World Cup finals.

On top of this, it's a huge catalyst for the female version of the sport - a 70,000+ crowd for a women's match is unprecedented. However, if women's was included and men's wasn't - it would be unfair and a step back from the gender parity created in these Games.

Basically, yes, football is big - but I see no reason for it not to be there as part of a global celebration of all sports.
 
Sam's right about the football. It's pointless. The world cup and the continental competitions undermine it. It's basically just the under-23s with some senior players, there's not much point, it's just seen as a friendly tournament like the Confederate cup.

And as the GB crowd see even dumber than the average England crowd, I wouldn't be sad to see it go.
 
I'll give them the fact that under 23's is acceptable, but then letting three senior players in completely misses the point entirely.

They should only let younger players compete, and also those that do not have caps for the international sides- giving them a "amateur" status that other sports have.
 
Tom said:
The fundamental principle of the Olympics is bringing the world together to compete in a friendly manner. Utilising the most popular sport in the world to capture more people's imaginations globally seems logical to me. Football's popularity is more justification for it being there than anything.
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But it's definitely not the most popular sport at the Olympics, it isn't mentioned much. Probably because there's only two medals in it, and when it's up against sports like tennis, cycling or the 100 metres, people realise how boring it is to watch in comparison.

In every other sport at the Olympics (except boxing), the greatest players of that sport compete for a gold medal. In football, the winners of the Olympic gold medal aren't even remotely close to the best players in the world. Which makes it a bit of a joke, really.
 
TBH I didn't give a damn about the men's Football. The sport is far too popular as it is and should not be stealing the lime light from all these other great sports. The women's team on the other hand I wanted to see do really well just because they get so little respect normally.
 
Granted the men's tournament is harder to justify - but for the sake of the women's game getting exposure, I think football is justified as an Olympic sport.
 
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