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Opening ceremony in Rio is today. Yesterday had the first few Soccer matches of the games. Watched the Japan vs Nigeria game...despite a spirited comeback, Japan lost 4 - 5 due to giving up a couple penalty goals. Normally I'm not a big soccer fan (or sports fan in general) but I find myself interested in almost everything for two weeks every couple years. Nothing going on today except for the opening ceremony I think...tomorrow's a big day with lots of stuff going on.

So far, the Rio games have the makings of being a total disaster as far as infrastructure and sanitation goes, let's hope they get things fixed and cleaned up before it's too late. I feel sorry for the athletes going into the water if they don't manage to clean up all the raw sewage. There are going to be a lot of very sick people...

There is a fun side going on called "Who's been robbed more" to determine which country the Rio thinks are the richest, the Australians are in the lead.

Anyone outside the UK seen the BBC trailer for the Games? Lots of fun animated animals.

YouTube link here.



That's the link both ways, so one or the other ought to work.

I just worked out a few minutes ago that the high jumper is a maned wolf a.k.a. "foxes on stilts".

Half an hour until the opening ceremony, here's hoping all goes well.

First US Gold Medal -- Shooting!

WV Athletic Wins First Gold Medal of Olympics

One thing I like about the Olympics is I watch sports I never see normally. Handball is actually a very fast-paced sport and is interesting to watch.

Same here. Out of curiosity, I tried out the live-stream for Kayak/Canoe Slalom, and holy shit is that intense. That sport looks incredibly difficult.

Guardsman Bass wrote:Same here. Out of curiosity, I tried out the live-stream for Kayak/Canoe Slalom, and holy shit is that intense. That sport looks incredibly difficult.

Especially when the boat dives into a swirl of white water and it's not immediately clear where/when/if it'll bob up again...

... with or without its means of propulsion.

Mr Bean wrote:There is a fun side going on called "Who's been robbed more" to determine which country the Rio thinks are the richest, the Australians are in the lead.

Interesting factoid: Anticipating that there would be theft and such in the Olympic Village, the Australian government has poured millions into funding to make sure that Australian athletes are the easiest from which to steal. The "who lost the most stuff to foreigners" medal shall be in Australia forevermore!

LadyTevar wrote:First US Gold Medal -- Shooting!

Insert joke here.

Guardsman Bass wrote:Same here. Out of curiosity, I tried out the live-stream for Kayak/Canoe Slalom, and holy shit is that intense. That sport looks incredibly difficult.

It's one of those sports I'm glad they added to the Games. Like in the Winter Olympics they added snowboarding, which is a fun sport to watch. I'm glad it's not just the "old fashioned" sports.

This video sums up how Team GB is doing so far:

Link

What a difference a day makes- from a bust yesterday to nailing it today!

Rugby sevens was fun to watch, but god damn Britain, you really shit the bed against the Fijians (and you didn't have the excuse of being intimidated by an awesome haka). That silver medal is going to taste bitter for awhile.

Fiji deserved it. First medal EVER and it happens to be gold. They needed it more than Britain.

As a consolation, two more golds in rowing this afternoon — now up to 4th place in the medals table.

Team USA is positively owning the pool. Phelps, Ledecky, Dirado, Murphy... An embarrassment of riches. Phelps is a damned freak of nature. IOC should check his DNA for dolphin.

Sad commentary on modern sports, but Phelps is being SO amazing I'm wondering if they should drug test him more often.

Balrog wrote:Rugby sevens was fun to watch, but god damn Britain, you really shit the bed against the Fijians (and you didn't have the excuse of being intimidated by an awesome haka). That silver medal is going to taste bitter for awhile.

Not really - Fiji are world champions at the sport and were red hot favourites. Had GB won, it would have been an enormous upset. They'll be very happy with the silver; it wasn't expected.

A Singaporean manage to beat Phelps.

The other competitors are wearing him down. No, seriously, the dude is doing back-to-back races in the Olympics. He looks exhausted.

Broomstick wrote:The other competitors are wearing him down. No, seriously, the dude is doing back-to-back races in the Olympics. He looks exhausted.

True. And Phelps is pretty old as a swimmer.

I see the fine British tradition of winning whilst sitting down continues. Nearly spat pimms across the room when I saw TGB were third in the table.

Anyone know what the bet with the Aussies is this year?

Hillary wrote:

Balrog wrote:Rugby sevens was fun to watch, but god damn Britain, you really shit the bed against the Fijians (and you didn't have the excuse of being intimidated by an awesome haka). That silver medal is going to taste bitter for awhile.

Not really - Fiji are world champions at the sport and were red hot favourites. Had GB won, it would have been an enormous upset. They'll be very happy with the silver; it wasn't expected.

Given that GB actually defeated New Zealand on the way to that silver, I'd say they did pretty damn well

Justin Rose just nabbed a gold in the worlds most boring sport as well. I'm genuinely amazed how well GB are doing now.

2nd in the table now. I honestly thought after 2012 it would ease off and we'd return to midtable.

Lottery funding for sport, Traffic cone hotlines and rail privatisation... In the deep dark future...what will John Major be remembered for?

Crime may be a lasting impact of Rio. The Australian team was robbed when their building had a fake fire alarm forcing them to evacuate, and now Ryan Lochte and 3 other swimmers were robbed at gunpoint by people posing as police.

Well, that and the green water in the diving pool. Eww...