Olympics 1st thoughts

[Ameroth]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

who really should, because, hello, freedom of the press is kinda important to your jobs

Why would the media boycott an event sure to make them millions of dollars?

[Mhurron]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

The Olympics are not about drawing crowds and making money with top-ratings.

Sorry, but that's exactly what they're about and have been about nothing but that since the fall of the Soviet Union. Before that, it was West vs. East national chest thumping.

NBC changed the order of the opening ceremonies where the nations walk in so that they could get better ratings. Team USA was shown on the field 'before' they walked in. American channels only ever show the USA team to the point that you can completely forget that there are others competing. On TV, wins are not wins for the individual but for the Nation (the USA has X gold medals ahead of nation Y), at home they are the door to sponsorship riches.

There is nothing noble about the Olympics.

The only thing that the OP seemed to miss is that it is about ratings and money by bringing in viewers of other events that get less coverage on national channels every other year.

[Minimee]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

i just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention. as i first stated this was a thought provoking rant. lol you guys are too much fun. i wasnt putting down the olympians and all of their hard training. i really dont get how riding a horse is an olympic event. the horse is the one that needs strength and training, not the rider. i have rode horses at a very young age 6 or 7 years old. i have been thrown from a horse that obviously didnt want to be ridden. FYI i dont watch football or baseball anymore, both are full of overpaid criminals and crybabys, that wont play unless they get paid millions. what happened to playing because its fun.

i know people have a beef with china about their human rights policies. but the olympics is not the place to protest it. who are we to tell other countries how they should act?

[Caspian]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

who are we to tell other countries how they should act?

better than all the other countries

[Feba]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

i really dont get how riding a horse is an olympic event. the horse is the one that needs strength and training, not the rider.

You are an idiot.

who are we to tell other countries how they should act?

Oh, I don't know, humanity?

Also, the problem isn't even China's absolutely atrocious human rights problems, it's the facts that they didn't agree to the promises they made in order to have the Olympics in the first place.

[Caspian]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

Wait, so you've been riding horses since you were 6 or 7, or you rode a horse once when you were 6 or 7?
Anything in the shape of a sack of potatoes can ride a horse so long as they can stay up, but skillful riding does require talent and athleticism on the part of the rider. If it didn't, barrel racing at the rodeo would just be a horse running in circles around an arena.

I think what gets me even more about the IOC, isn't that they've tolerated China's broken promises, but they've actually made excuses for them. The president of the IOC was telling people that it wasn't smog in Beijing, but rather mist.

[Jarre]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

Sorry to be such a barhumbug, but when you have limited TV channels which play crap, yey olymics, more 24/7 crap i can't stand.

I am not one for watching sports of any type, it bores me shitless. The amount of money that goes into it to build the stadiums etc, think how much government money was spent on this "event" instead of the people that need it in their country.

In teh Uk we have the 2012 olympics we are preapring for. we have a lottery fund that assists charities etc. Guess what? This fund is being used for the olympics and only 25% on charities. Millions of £'s are being spent. they have already wasted £25m on the plannign stage. All of teh building that were originally designed have been drastically cut. The supposed "regeneration of east London, is now being rapidly reduced to just the olympics site, with teh athletes village becoming high end accomodation rather than affordable homes for the underprivalidged as the scheme was supposed to be.

Take into that theat teh cost paid by us the tax payer is very high due tot hem not wanting a "Wembly stadium" so paying more money to make sure its ready on time.

I'm sorry but the Olympics is about money and countries tryign to better themselves, the sports inside are just a minor thing. money could be spent on better more worthwhile things. just my grump.

[Feba]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

To be fair, Jarre, some of that is intended to help the local population by way of bringing in money, jobs, and etc. But yes, most of tax-funded sports stuff is just corporations benefiting from "YEY SPURTS" voters.

[Sabaron]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

Does anyone besides me think that all of the Chinese citizens who appear in the stands have been specially kitted and placed there by the Chinese Government?

I mean... Why would an 8 year old boy be holding a $2000 professional camera? That's just one of the odd things I saw...

[Feba]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

I mean... Why would an 8 year old boy be holding a $2000 professional camera?

Dude, it's China. It's probably a SUNY that cost him less than his lunch.

Does anyone besides me think that all of the Chinese citizens who appear in the stands have been specially kitted and placed there by the Chinese Government?

Placed, I kinda (weakly) doubt, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if China was refusing access to 'undesirables' in order to 'better their image'; like they're doing by disallowing blacks and other races in bars and such in the area.

[Caspian]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

Placed, I kinda (weakly) doubt, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if China was refusing access to 'undesirables' in order to 'better their image'; like they're doing by disallowing blacks and other races in bars and such in the area.

Beijing Olympics: Faking scandal over girl who 'sang' in opening ceremony - Telegraph
thought this was fitting to the quote

[Feba]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

Well, I'm only talking about screwing with the attendees. The idea of China not screwing with the ceremony and events directly is just absurd.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

Placed, I kinda (weakly) doubt, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if China was refusing access to 'undesirables' in order to 'better their image'; like they're doing by disallowing blacks and other races in bars and such in the area.

FYI, they also have banned sweaty cab drivers with stinky cabs from driving during the Olympics. I guess they have quite the reputation in China and since they wanted to put their best foot forward they won't let them drive if they are caught.

"Beijing taxi drivers face a lifestyle makeover before the Olympics that will mean the end of spitting, smoking, weird hairstyles and dangly earrings and the beginning of regular baths.

Under the new regulations, which came into effect yesterday, drivers whose cabs are smelly will be suspended for two days while they undergo rectification and reform guidance, the Beijing News said.

Cabbies who spit or smoke, and female taxi drivers who sport big earrings or radical hairstyles, will also be banned under rules aimed at improving the city’s image ahead of next year’s Olympics.

Beijing’s taxi drivers, who typically earn around 1,500 yuan (US$200) a month, often sleep, eat and smoke in their vehicles.

Many drivers pay no attention to appearances, Yao Kuo, the head of the transportation management office, was quoted as saying.

Their mouths stink of garlic and their bodies smell, making the whole cab foul. It creates a bad impression for the taxi industry."

[CroweMidgard]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

My first thought:

I need to install a moat. Apparently genetically engineered super Chinese atheletes can't swim.

[Jarre]

Re: Olympics 1st thoughts

Does anyone besides me think that all of the Chinese citizens who appear in the stands have been specially kitted and placed there by the Chinese Government?

I mean... Why would an 8 year old boy be holding a $2000 professional camera? That's just one of the odd things I saw...

they did pay people to sit as the venues have not been full. See this BBC article

I quote...

"Chinese officials have admitted that they are concerned about the lack of spectators at some Olympic events. They have hired volunteers, dressed in yellow shirts, to fill up empty venues and improve the atmosphere inside."