The Official Athens 2004 Olympics Thread

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DaveC

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I just realized we don't have a thread to discuss results and things, so here it is! The Ceremonies just finished and the games have begun!

Give'r!
 
The ceremony was superb. Certainly the best I've seen so far, a true 21st century thing. Here's to the Greeks!
 
Now I probably am very biased, but in all honesty I do think that the sydney opening ceremony was a little better than the Greek one. Here on Australian telly they showed a replay of the entire opening ceremony before the live feed crossed to Athens at 3.30am. Seeing the sydney one again and then seeing a replay of the athens ceremony made me realise that the Sydney one was just superb- especially the lighting of the cauldron- all that fire and water with Cathy Freeman doing the honours!!! and who could forget that amazing tap dogs scene and the opening with the horsemen clad in their driza bones. I really liked the timeline through Greek history- those costumes were just beautiful and I give a big two thumbs up to having DJ Tiesto mixing up the tunes as the athletes arrived in the stadium, I think that was a really progressive move, but what was with Bjork???? even as a big fan of her, I thought that song was rather ordinary. I gotta say though that it did seem a little short, but all in all it was a great opening ceremony.....

Now for the competiton- "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!!!" to the Thorpedo grabbing the gold in the 400m freestyle:wink:
 
1. Barcelona
2. Athens
3. I don't know

^for opening cenemonies...

now, I'm wainting for Tae Kwon Do... :hyper:

and 400 m. for women
 
I only saw the second half of the opening ceremony. I enjoyed it but wished I had a list of the Greek alphabetical order of the nations in the procession.

I dont speak nor read Greek so the order was too difficult for my anal little mind to cope with. :crack:

Does warm the cockles of my oversized mutant heart that the Greeks actually get to hold an Olympics again :hug:
 
I LOVED "Greece through history" parade, and the arrival of teams is always fun (mostly it's a golden opportunity for my sister, mum and I to pick apart everyone's uniforms, :) We agreed that US and Russia take a golden Razzie this year for worst-dressed Olympians.) I agree with OzAurora though, I liked the lighting of cauldron in Sydney much better.

Yay for Thorpie and Grant Hackett taking gold and silver in 400 freestyle, and double yay for Aussie girls winning 4 x 100 freestyle relay! :) Men's 200 freestyle should be very interesting tonight.
 
Uniforms - was it just me or were there a lot of beige pant suits at the ceremony this year?

In the effort to not highjack this thread I will make a frock thread :up:
 
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I am waiting for both mens and womens water polo. . .they won't be on for a couple day though. So, I am fine with swimming until then!

Synchro should be good, too!
 
The opening ceremony was awesome.

As usual Atlanta's ceremonies looked like shit compared to all the others. :der: :der:

I love watching the male swimmers! :drool:
 
I love watching male swimmers, too. I am a swimmer and polo player myself so I have seen and do see many men. . .in speedos and jammers.


Though I have always been against the full boudy and half body suits.
 
MySuicidalTurtle said:
I love watching male swimmers, too. I am a swimmer and polo player myself so I have seen and do see many men. . .in speedos and jammers.


Though I have always been against the full boudy and half body suits.

first :up: for you being from Woodstock. :D I used to live there and I am thinking about moving back there.

second :up: for you being a swimmer and polo player. My ex was a swimmer and water polo player. He taught me a lot about both sports. I have great respect for swimmers and those who play water polo. :yes:
 
Boasting time- I no it is only the second day of competition but already Australia is second on the medal tally- not bad for a country of only 20 million sports nuts:wink:


and what is with all of the hurling at the thorpedo????? I cant wait to see him win again and I am personally looking forward to the 1500m, hopefully Hackett will get to have his day in an event that Thorpey dosnt compete in:)
 
"being from Woodstock"

Aye, I do live here but only have for two years. . .I am a Yankee!


You really wanna move back here?




I loved watching swimming today but volleyball couldn't keep my attention.
 
OzAurora said:
and what is with all of the hurling at the thorpedo?????

Tall poppy syndrome?

I love seeing Thorpey win, although I always feel a bit sorry for Grant Hackett. I'd love to see them go 1 2 in the 200m as well! It'll be great to see him win the 1500 and I hope Craig Stevens gets silver.

As for the women - the relay was brilliant! And I was so excited to hear that Petria Thomas has finally won an individual gold medal, it's so great for her!

Nice to hear we've done well in some of the other sports e.g. diving, road race, shooting etc.

It's amazing that we do so well when we've got such a small population (even if most of us are sports nuts, doesn't make us all GOOD at sports!!)
 
I gotta say that the one bad thing that I have found so far with the Olympics is the shit channel 7 coverage. Yesterday morning I woke up at 7am put the telly on and waited until midday to see the replay of the 400m's race. Knowing that the majority of the population would not of seen the race at the lve time, they waited and waited to show the replay and there were no good highlights of the night before- I think seven is doing a shit job, thank goodness sbs is also there for a bit of a change!!!!!
 
What really chaps my ass is that Canada should be able to do as well if not better than the Australians! We're similar countries, have similar population sizes, etc. But Australia always does terrifically well in medal count while Canada usually gets 10-15. The reason?

Australia's funding of amateur sports beats Canada's by almost 5 to 1.

What's with this? We can't win because we don't have the funding! We could be doing equally as well as Australia if only we had the damn cash to build adequate facilities to support our athletes. Morale among Canadian amateur athletes is so low because they don't feel supported. This needs to change. Hopefully having the Olympics back in 2010 will finally wake the government up and get some money for our athletes.

:mad:
 
DaveC said:

Australia's funding of amateur sports beats Canada's by almost 5 to 1.

We could be doing equally as well as Australia if only we had the damn cash to build adequate facilities to support our athletes.

And if you did that the rest of your cultural activities would be just as fucked as Australias :down:

All the money goes on sport and not much else

sport, sport, sport! :mad:
 
beli said:


And if you did that the rest of your cultural activities would be just as fucked as Australias :down:

All the money goes on sport and not much else

sport, sport, sport! :mad:

This is so true, it is rather sad how much money and attention is given to sport here, but then again it is only certain sports too. I spent my younger years as a swimmer, I was never going to be great, but I was better than average and the amount of support and help that is available to swimmers is phenomenal....I do think that we pay too much attention to sport here but then again things like the Olympics and the fact that our culture is so imbedded in sport makes it hard to get around, maybe the defence budget could be spent on the arts and then things would be a bit more equal.....

and Dave, what about Canada's role in winter sports??? I thouhgt the Canadians always did well in those sports- is there much funding for them???
 
OzAurora said:
and Dave, what about Canada's role in winter sports??? I thouhgt the Canadians always did well in those sports- is there much funding for them???

Winter sports are slightly better - but not by much. At the 2002 Salt Lake City games, we got 6 gold, 3 silver, 8 bronze for 17 medals total.

Funding is a bit higher for winter sports, which is because there is traditionally more of a TV audience for winter Olympics here. The only sport that really gets anywhere close to the funding it needs is Ice Hockey. The reason for that should be obvious, Canada is hockey-mad, especially when it comes to the Olympics. We went ballistic in 2002 when we won the gold...it was incredible...the entire country just stopped and went to the closest TV. Streets were completely empty and people were crammed into Future Shop (our equivalent of Best Buy, don't know if it's anywhere but Canada) just to watch the game on the walls of TV's. It reminded me of September 11th, to be honest, the way everyone just stopped what they were doing to get to the nearest television set.

But enough of my rambling. Point is that our athletes need cash. Bad.
 
MySuicidalTurtle said:
"being from Woodstock"

Aye, I do live here but only have for two years. . .I am a Yankee!


You really wanna move back here?




I loved watching swimming today but volleyball couldn't keep my attention.

You damn Yankee!!!!!!!!!

jk.

I am a native of GA. Born and raised in Marietta. I moved to Woodstock a few years ago then moved to Atlanta to be closer to work. Now I am in the process of buying a home so yeah I am thinking about moving to Woodstock because the home prices are more affordable, it is a pretty there, and I have a lot of friends who have bought homes in the area. :D
 
Who was that who fumbled on the floor? USA woman . . .someone.

I been loving the swimming. I don't care who wins. . .it's fun to watch.


Woodstock is bleh in my opinion but that doens't matter. I am in Towne Lake. . .the Fairways. . .
 
DaveC said:

Winter sports are slightly better - but not by much. At the 2002 Salt Lake City games, we got 6 gold, 3 silver, 8 bronze for 17 medals total.

We might do really well at the summer olympics, but we suck at the winter olympics. I think our total winter olympic medal count is 3. Ever. And one of those was Steven Bradbury, who won the race because everyone fell over.
 
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