Olympic mess up count

every f*** up in our great nation involves a jock. It's time we granted their wish and cut them off

no rush im sure there will be scores to post about by the end of tomorrow night

xmoney - the scots failed, again, try and blame the english... it wouldn't have happened at wembley

no 3. welsh international joe allen listed as engish in tonight's programme

carrot - joe allen is rumoured to have requested that change

why's everyone assuming the wrong Korean flag was a mistake?

i'm not clyde..... of all the countries to do it to! hahahaha

and of all the flags to get it mixed up with!!!

Brilliant first two Racing Cert - I think your list be extremely long in 2 weeks time.

here's a good one , beckham delivered a petition to downing street today thae headlines being david beckham and stars , so he's finally got the message then

its the beckham olympics

archery held behind closed doors, people still queing for tickets to watch the football after the games finished,culture secetary jeremy (*ellend) hunt's bell broke.

Some from last night:

Two number 6 balloons didn't pop during the final countdown in the stadium.

Olympic flag wrapped round pole whilst Union Jack flew proudly.

Macca's pre-recorded bit of Hey Jude started a couple of bars before he did.

what a shame for Paul to make the playback that obvious

Olympic flag wrapped round pole whilst Union Jack flew proudly.


yeah i noticed that

i thought ali was in no fit state to be there

Ali can't go down as a mess up but it was a shocker to have him there in that state.

Amateur hour par excellence in the Road Race.  Nobody thought to speak to the Tour De France about how cycle racing should be presented.  No time gaps, no idea of who was in the break-aways.

Nicely topped off by the comm excitedly calling home a sprint for 4th place when at least 30 riders had already finished.

Joke coverage.

No mention here of the Old Trafford ticket office being unable to process tickets for a period of time shortly before the GB vs Senegal match...

Just in from the Road Race thread - I see BF didn't have the winner in the market until about 45 secs from the end

This event will be bettered along the way, but that's a cracking marker laid down on the first full day.

1000,s Empty seats on the opening day prompts investigation

free tickets to sponsors---hundreds not showing up

^ Yes, every event I've watched thus far (including the opening ceremony) there have been empty seats.  Gymnastics apparently impossible to obtain tickets due to demand, seating half empty this afternoon, scandal!

The seating is a big mess up indeed.  I feel the same way having applied for thousands of pounds worth and getting feck all.

Spotted another mess-up last night.  GB women went 1-0 up in the footie, but the on screen score initially said 1-0 to Cameroon.

Kept running out of official and Day 1 programmes at the rowing.  Catering and bar staff not completely on the ball - hour long wait for food, no bottled water in the bars - queues for water fountains longer than Ron Jeremy's appendage, no alcohol before 9:30 (at least put up a sign).  Hopefully just teething problems as staff were super friendly and eager and venue was awesome.  A big thumbs up for the Army guys and lasses too - way better than some heavy handed G4S goons.

security doing well

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1674352/Mystery-woman-gatecrashed-India-march-past-at-open

LONDON (Reuters) - A mystery woman gatecrashed India's athletes' parade at the Olympic opening ceremony, Indian officials said on Sunday as they demanded answers from organisers about the apparent lack of security.

TheVis

29 Jul 12 09:13
Joined:

10 Feb 11
| Topic/replies: 8,354 | Blogger: TheVis's blog

The seating is a big mess up indeed.  I feel the same way having applied for thousands of pounds worth and getting feck all.

Just out of curiosity The Vis, how did you pay for your tickets? I did exactly the same as you, paying by cheque, and also got nothing. I didn't bother in the subsequent draws because I don't have a visa card and there were no other means of payment available, a pretty fundamental philosophical problem for the Olympics if you ask me, but Coe et al know better.

What a negative bunch try saying something positive you bunch of plonkers. Its amazing. You cannot expect everything to be perfect. Its the biggest sporting event in the world and problems can occur all issues that have been mentioned are pretty minor.By the way the Olympic "organisers" are just that (Korean Flag isssue)they are not necessarily British.

Councillor , the number of people on here ( like myself and family ) who applied for tickets early on and got zilch is worrying .  We applied for tickets for the first ( current ) week , among them --swimming , equestrian , tennis , archery .  All of these events in the first 2 days are poorly attended relatively speaking , so who got the tickets ?

Only person I know with equestrian tickets is in the business , probably got them via connections --and is not using them .  But who is going to fly from Ireland to London to use those tickets at short notice .  Everybody needs a plan , those selling ( or not selling ) the tickets obviously have not a clue !

Well its not the fault of the organisers if people dont take up seats that have been pre allocated . How do you police that!!!!!

At least they are going to attempt to address the problem. This type of thing always happens. Havnt we all been offered tickets to sporting events that people dont want??? The Olympiv Officials are allocated tickets as are sponsors but half the time they dont turn up because they are being entertained elsewhere or are sightseeing which they find more entertaining. The real enthusiasts suffer which I can sympathise with but thats how it is. At least they are going to attempt to do something about it.

Councillor , the only people who will benefit from them "sorting it out " live in / around London . The rest of us have been aked to "buy into " the Olympic thing , but it became impractical for anyone living far from London .  So the event will become more and more about London , rather than the UK .  But its UK billions that have been spent , not London billions .

some of this is unbelievably petty.

flag not flowing beautifully, TV coverage giving wrong score for a few seconds, commentator slip ups in a total carnage race, empty seat counting in best attended Olympics ever. 

this thread is clearly showing how well its going, largely.

people even expected a city used to handling 4 million workers, couldnt get 100,000 sports fans home in time without breaking.  it is moaners annoyed a party is going on.

Kelly if you are that enthusiastic. Get on the phone or on line and see what can be done instead of wasting time on here. Good luck!!!!

a £11 billion party

IOC the cake---public the crumbs

The rest of us have been aked to "buy into " the Olympic thing , but it became impractical for anyone living far from London .  So the event will become more and more about London , rather than the UK .  But its UK billions that have been spent , not London billions .

this limpwrister is the worst yet.

who has pressured anyone in uk to get into it.  people can ignore it if they want.  people swamped internet sites for tickets because UK is the most enthusiastic, life affirming nation on earth that make the Aussies enthusiasm for sport seem low key.

most places in UK can get into london within 4 hours, if they other locations dont suit.  I live more than 4 hours away from a cinema.

London has had council tax up to pay their share, they get the disruption to roads, there is a second side to all of this "woe is my irish ass" nonsense.

London is the host city.  If Larne wanted to bid, they should have done.

get a grip.  big time.

Ronnie , over a million turned out yesterday for the road race , proves that there is a huge audience for the Olympics even if most of us dont ride bikes regularly .

The gripe is that the organisers so far admit they have fallen down in respect of making tickets available to genuine applications .  Hopefully they will sort something out , but everybody does not live in London !

hav u seen the hotel prices--RIP OFF

Ronnie , guess you are a little Englander !  South east rules !

At least we have the golf courses to fall back on !

Kelly thats a poor response/. Read thIs thread . they are going to do something about it. gIVE THEM A CHANCE . tHEY DID NOT ANTICIPATE THE NON UPTAKE OF TICKETS THROUGH SPONSORS AND oLYMPIC OFFICIALS

indeed they did, kelly.  the world watched in amazement.  i saw some fool called YOMAMA, said on your other thread "sport and the british dont mix".  there is not a nation alive more eager to watch sport, from grand prix to wimbledon, it is the UK event that gets the biggest crowds in almost any sport you care to mention.

of course the sponsors get in the way of the olympics.  but half the time those complaining about the cost of the olympics then dont want sponsors and want cheaper tickets.

the comments on this thread are a connection from those that nitpick, those that want to moan, and those that live in nana land. 

i guess they are of the political persuasion that believe wealth is created by government spending productive elelments of the economy's money and the printing press.  a psychotic nation, spoilt by their mamas and want more more more.

Councillor , have you any idea of the logistics ( and cost ) involved in getting tickets and accomodation sorted out at short notice ?  Those of us who have been sidelined by incompetent organisation have a legitimate gripe .  It is not helped by unsympathetic "little Londoner" posts .

I'm all right jack ?

whack out your debit card and get travelling.  if it aint worth the effort, let someone else have the ticket. 

if you dont have the funds, dont blame the sponsors.  they help fund the games, the cost would be higher without them.

what do you want?  mummy government to sort it out for you?  get you childcare?  talk to your boss to let you have time off?  pay for it from other taxpayer funds?

the olympics is a TV event

end of thread

it is not end of thread, because millions of people are not watching it on TV, they are on the streets waiting for the cyclist to drive past.

90% of Britain got out to watch the flame, with little TV coverage.  TV were shocked at the impact.

the athletes train hour after hour, with little TV exposure.

4billion watch on TV because 4billion cant get to the games.

people live in the country it is in, and have tickets priced about 1/5 of the average weekly wage.  and moan.

dream on

watch it on your iPad if you dont like TV you daft creature.  i think it is free.

it always goes to free TV stateside, from what people on here are moaning about BBC, it obviously hasnt sold out to the highest bidder like Prem football or Formula One, which is on Sky as I understand.  As would the Olympics if it was run by TV.

it beams around TV to 4 billion because the world loves sport and Olympics is the biggest show in town.

when else does US get a chance to take on China.  I am loving it all, and glad London has a chance to show the world its great people.

xmoneyx moaning about "TV" like some paranoid guy from the 1950s and people complaining about flags not flying and wrong scores can do one.

I would like to see what Bernie Ecclestone would do if UK government put Formula One on any protected, must be free, list.

I think Olympics was biggest show on earth when Jesse Owen gave his up yours to the Nazi Socialist swine, before any TV. 

I dont know how much of the Soviet population has TVs in 1980, or indeed Chinese in 2008, I think it was all taken as the most important sporting event ever regardless of BBC coverage.

The Olympics is massive.  It is a credit to London, that perhaps uniquely in the whole world, it is the only city bigger than the Olympics, and can carry on regardless as it hits town.

If people want to moan about evil TV, or flags, or commentators they can get a big yankee dump on their heads.  I come on Betfair for sporting enthusiasm, not a bunch of granny whingers and conspiracy theorists.  moan about the price of stamps, or whatever you usually do.

Ronnie , 90% got out to watch the Olympic flame ?  Wise up .  Lots of its journey was during working hours , but maybe nobody works these days .

Logged onto the flame site myself when it was over here .  Put in my post code , no useful information came out ,  Dont think it came near me . Just another example of insufficient care / lack of communication .

For a family of 5 , one visit to one event costs a weekly wage by your account .  Value ? , never mind travel / accomodation / food .  OK if you live near , but otherwise expensive .

Do Man United have to think if the man in the street can afford to pay to travel and buy a ticket to watch a match. Its called business if you cant afford it TOUGH

MUFC a bit of a flawed model, dontcha think ? Funded by millions of pounds of debt and so increased ticket prices for the mugs to pay. Yes, it is business ... get in debt up to your neck then rip people off to pay for it .... yeah sure if the market can stand it then so what ? It's the way of the world ... ripping other people off.

i think this Racing guy has his trousers too high, it is effecting the oxygen to his brain.  he wants to loosen those suspenders.

MUFC does not charge the most in the premiership, it has little to do with the debt.  the debt is a result of yankees with more mouth than sheckels  in their pocket wanting to buy a vanity project to show off to their pals in their sweaty Floridan country club, mixed with paying average players ludicrous wages.   

the Olympic tickets were obviously at affordable prices as they were oversubscribed.  the gaps are a result of sponsors not showing, NOT ticket prices made available. 

kelly obviously is just a whinger, as he is now banging on about he typed his postcode into some website and not finding what he wanted.  enough people could obviously find the torch relay, i saw the massive crowds. 

To be fair, the torch route was a bit lame. Just more ways for the sponsors to get in on the act. It ended up being more about their buses than the torchbearers. I went out twice to watch it - first time was anti-climax though very generous support - and the second time I managed to watch a friend carry it.

Reagan , the point about ticket allocation and ill functioning websites is that some of your countrymen are being paid well to deliver .  They dont , thats the gripe .

According to our current leader , Lord Coe , the "committee" will be taking steps to rectify errors .  No good to those of us who wanted to be there ( with you ) but found ourselves disenfranchised through no fault of our own .  The only people who will benefit will be those currently close to the action . That probably does not worry you but its a legitimate gripe .   

I'm all right Jack .

Agree with you Kelly, that the tickets has been a farce. Complete farce. Disenfranchised is a great way to sum it up.

We laughed at the Chinese bringing in people off the street to fill seats on the world wide pictures . Now we hear that armed forces personnell will be offered seats in London . Cant quibble with their presence , but is it not all a bit naff ?  After all they are also doing the security ( except for the Indians ) .

Kelly to answer earlier question I applied for tickets using payment from Visa card.

Anyway, back to the thread.   Visa card machines not working at Wembley tonight.  Hungry and thirsty crowd fuming.

Dont see what the problem is with the tickets, there were plenty of ballots and everyone I know who applied with any real determination got something. The only people I know who are whining about getting nothing, when actually questioned, made one application in the first ballot for Athletics tickets, which were massively oversubscribed, and then gave up.

I applied in two different ballots, and got tickets for Boxing, Football, Rowing, Beach Volleyball and Judo. Easy. People who applied in the first ballot and didnt get anything at all had a second ballot only for them.

Its just an excuse to whine imo.

Marychain , I applied along with my 4 children (applied seperately) for non premium events including rowing , tennis , archery , swimming , cycling  , equestrian.  No athletics events .  In total we applied for £2000 plus worth of tickets at varying prices . Took a lot of time and effort co-ordinating the project , plus research into accomodation and travel as it involved 10 adults and 8 children of varying ages from 13 to 6 .

We got not one ticket for any event . Anywhere .

Put a line through the effort  , wrote it down to experience  , and watched people boasting as to how they got £20,000 worth of tickets .  I understood that ALL tickets were non transferable , and any change for whatever reason from the nominated user had to be approved .  Made sense , eliminate the touts , and ensure that the tickets went to individuals who were going to use them themselves .  Guess we were naive , which possibly means believing those running the system .

To watch a half empty tennis event , and rows of empty seats at swimming and equestrian  events made me wonder who got seats ?  Why would you re-apply  , or need to re-apply if there were tickets not sold , why were they not offered subsequently to those who applied initially without the need to go through another time consuming exercise which was likely to prove futile .

It struck me that the organisers only used the initial exercise to guage public demand and see where they could make the most money out of the exercise .  Cynical ? On their part ?

We will never know how the process worked ( or obviously did not work in our case ) , never expect transparency in these situations , and my nepehew who works in a similar sort of scene on a daily basis had warned me that the  London Olympic sales process was likely to be flawed because of initial decisions taken about the process . So we walked away post blanket  rejection .

So the British economy missed our input , holiday type travel plus spend for 18 people  for a week to 10 days .  Guess someone else did make the trips --or maybe they didn't , guaged by the empty seats .  But TV is OK , as long as you turn down the sound to avoid the hype and the incessant talk about medals .  The Olympics is about competing , medal counts etc are incidental .
Wish someone would tell the BBC that , forcibly .

Its just an excuse to whine imo.


A naive response. Not everyone may have been as lucky as you

Jul 29, 2012 -- 11:48PM, Kelly wrote:

Marychain , I applied along with my 4 children (applied seperately) for non premium events including rowing , tennis , archery , swimming , cycling  , equestrian.  No athletics events .  In total we applied for £2000 plus worth of tickets at varying prices . Took a lot of time and effort co-ordinating the project , plus research into accomodation and travel as it involved 10 adults and 8 children of varying ages from 13 to 6 .We got not one ticket for any event . Anywhere .Put a line through the effort  , wrote it down to experience  , and watched people boasting as to how they got £20,000 worth of tickets .  I understood that ALL tickets were non transferable , and any change for whatever reason from the nominated user had to be approved .  Made sense , eliminate the touts , and ensure that the tickets went to individuals who were going to use them themselves .  Guess we were naive , which possibly means believing those running the system . To watch a half empty tennis event , and rows of empty seats at swimming and equestrian  events made me wonder who got seats ?  Why would you re-apply  , or need to re-apply if there were tickets not sold , why were they not offered subsequently to those who applied initially without the need to go through another time consuming exercise which was likely to prove futile .It struck me that the organisers only used the initial exercise to guage public demand and see where they could make the most money out of the exercise .  Cynical ? On their part ?We will never know how the process worked ( or obviously did not work in our case ) , never expect transparency in these situations , and my nepehew who works in a similar sort of scene on a daily basis had warned me that the  London Olympic sales process was likely to be flawed because of initial decisions taken about the process . So we walked away post blanket  rejection .So the British economy missed our input , holiday type travel plus spend for 18 people  for a week to 10 days .  Guess someone else did make the trips --or maybe they didn't , guaged by the empty seats .  But TV is OK , as long as you turn down the sound to avoid the hype and the incessant talk about medals .  The Olympics is about competing , medal counts etc are incidental .Wish someone would tell the BBC that , forcibly .

Great post Kelly

In the last hour a load of tickets, for various events, have become available. Searching on Olympic Park Venues only, seems like the IOC members are throwing their unwanted back into the pot as they are nearly all the most expensive tickets

Thanks Leemo .  Annoying thing was also that we had vested interests in 2 events involving competition by  my wifes cousin ( generations removed obviously) and a patient of one of my sons . Plus a nephews sister in law is involved daily with one of the most high profile horses at the event . None  confirmed at initial application process time though .

We watch with interest .

There was a second ballot only for unsuccessful applicants from the first ballot. Everyone I know who applied in that ballot got loads of tickets. If you decided not to enter that system that's your decision but its not the fault of the organisers.

Marychain , it begs the question as to why they did not automatically re enter first time applications for the second ballot .  Presumably they wanted to sell tickets , not "not sell "tickets , and they had the opportunity to effectively set up a queueing system from among the initial unsuccessful applicants .  Most sales operations work that way , successfully , but from what I gleaned the Olympic organisers decided to "go it alone " and ignore the professional ticket sellers .

Empty seats proves their system was flawed , for whatever reason , we will never be told  , thats the only guaranteed statement you will get .

Between ourselves and friends I counted up about 20 people who applied for tickets initially , all from Norhtern Ireland , all for a wide variety of sports ,  not one person got any tickets initially .  Statistically that indicates some sort of skew . So you dont go where you are not wanted . On a corollary note , Betfair have still not explained to me why people in Northen Ireland were specifically excluded in writing in terms and conditions from one of their  promotions aimed at UK residents . Maybe those of us with British passports are suffering self delusion . Or more likely Betfair staff involved need more education .

So maybe it was a "post code " lottery ( cant do that Welsh voice ) .

My experience is almost identical to Kelly's - along with my brother we worked out a whole host of events we wanted to go to and stuck in applications totalling about £5000 between us.  From memory I don't think we duplicated on any sessions.  Result zero.  From around the same size of people that Kelly knows my experience was two got tickets and both were to judo sessions.

No doubt we mostly applied for the most popular events but to end up with nothing, if it was a true lottery, beggared belief.

I also gave up right after this first ballot as felt p*ssed off with the whole process.  Maybe I should have stayed the course for ballot 2, but if there were so many tickets available in that round then why the hell did they not go in round 1?

Perhaps we'll never find out the real reason behind the empty seats. Am I right in saying Coe at first put it down to the corporates and later to the 'olympic family'. Certainly the balance of the distribution in terms of public/corporate/olympic family looks wrong.

For a country that puts on so many big sporting events and theatres which get packed out, it does rather beg the question whether the expertise in the country, even in a consultative manner, was not used.

The vis and racing cert , guarantee you that there were bean counters involved in the process .  The bottom line was to maximise profitability , not to service the public . Thats what bean counters do.

But the Olympics should be above that , so responsibility devolves to those supposedly in charge . Low mark for those responsible for organising fair ticket sales . Unfortunately its too late to redress the balance , unless we all turn up in battle fatigues .

CASH IS KING

I applied for all manner of random events, fencing, basketball, badminton, you name it. Got knocked back for them all.

Then was given tickets to the athletics finals by someone who works for P&G so it's pretty obvious where the tickets have gone.

marychain1

30 Jul 12 00:21
Joined:

05 Apr 05
| Topic/replies: 16,545 | Blogger: marychain1's blog

There was a second ballot only for unsuccessful applicants from the first ballot. Everyone I know who applied in that ballot got loads of tickets. If you decided not to enter that system that's your decision but its not the fault of the organisers.


I was invited in the second ballot and it stated you could pick tickets for only one session of one event, so how did your friends get loads of tickets, or do you mean multiple tickets for the one event?

Mens cycling road race
- no live updates of gaps to leaders / chase
- right hand drive support cars meant right handed team mechanics not used to hanging out of the left window to do running repairs left handed.

ics - you could apply for a maximum of 3 sessions in the second ballot.

Thinking about it you're right. It was when I failed to get tickets at the second ballot stage I got invited into the third stage where you could only apply for four tickets at one session, just before all tickets went on general sale.

As the facts are beginning to emerge it does look increasingly like those of us who live not near London have got the short end of the stick .

We will accept a suitably worded apology gracefully .

Why has noone mentioned the scandal in fencing last night yet? Don't know who was responsible for operating the clock, but giving the win to the German in SF was a horrible decision.

Just reading about a lovely mess-up from some BF punters in the rowing today.

Whilst our pair were well clear and on for gold in the pairs, the women's double skulls saw GB backed in to 1.01   If the market is correct however, then the backers have an excellent chance of getting out of jail

all eight badminton players accused of trying to lose have been disqualified from women's doubles

Radio 5 presenter said the weightlifting session had been cut in half as not enough people qualified.

Annaglogs , thsoe who set up the rules on the badminton should be hung , drawn , and quartered and their entrails hung out on Tower Bridge .  400 years ago that might just have happened .

They were the real culprits , players should only have been cautioned .

But the officials who sanctioned the rules will no doubt hide behind a cloak of anonymity , as befits most of  used to the activities of those termed political wise .

I disagree Kelly. We've had the same round robin system and rules in football, hockey, etc, for years without a problem. That said, according to Gail Emms, the referees were warned about this potential before it happened. At that point, someone should have nipped it in the bud. No-one comes out of this looking very good, but the players have no grounds for complaint imho.

Players were the culprits for making it so obvious especially after the ref had come out and had a word

Assuming what you say is true , Darlo , surely the rules should have been better framed in those other sports too .  Mentioning soccer is not valid though , those in charge world wide have had their heads in the sand for a long time now .

Liked the hockey system I saw the other night  , GB scored a goal , but video review ( only one allowed ) showed it was technically illegal and it was ( justly ) scrubbed  . But the water polo judges were in the dock yesterday , and I can understand people who feel they have been robbed taking some disruptive action .

Will they make teams not trying in the past retroactive ?  can remember some soccer tournaments which came under scrutiny betting wise , when people did the sums .  Cant believe it is rocket science to devise a system which always rewards endeavour .

Been going on in badminton for years. No sympathy here. Wouldn't class it as an olympic mess up either...

There was a game in football a few years ago where both teams were defending the other's goal because of some bizarre rule where extra time goals counted double. There was obviously the Austria-Germany match in one championships which was more than iffy and I think Peru-Argentina was fixed for a 6-0 win to send Argies through in their own tournament.

There's still the opportunity for teams to lose on purpose to avoid a bigger team, as happened here with the badminton. So it ain't perfect. That's why the players as well as officials were at fault here.

minor mess-up maybe, but roof was taken off just before djokovic vs hewitt (it was on during the previous match). then in the 1st game during that match, it starts to rain and play is suspended.

simple avoidance of this... new draw for semi final.

rules in all olympic disciplines are like they are used in top international competitions, there are no specific olympic rules at all!

bb66, mens tennis has 3 set matches in qualifying and a 5 set final?


A shambles in the mens Pole Vault qualifying trying to work out what they were going to do.  Looked like they just left it up to the athletes in the end.

some judges in athletics were ridiculous, the one taking the baton from Bolt after the world record was a bad joke (it's gonna be used again)

Well there were quite a few others, but I don't want to detract from, what was a very good games.  But not as good as Sydney.

agree, as a whole very good games, don't know why many British here talking it down, matching Sydney for me

the one thing I'm really not sure it worked fine from watching TV pics was the medical treatment of athletes injured in competitions, remember in a steeple heatwhen an etheopian crashed into the last barrier, the SA 4*400 relay start runner who probably broke his collarbone, and today the SA in the marathon as well.

I think the treatment has been ok.

One athlete in the relay broke his leg ...... unlike a horse he wasn't put down ........... and the psychic treatment he received was so good he was able to complete his leg !

its been a superb olympics, yes we have won alot more than we usually do, but the organisation of it all, has been fantastic. Add to that, the crowds have willed every sportsman to do his very best and they have more than done their bit, by doing that.  The one thing, that our great country is brilliant at is running big events. The best ever Olympics - probably.

Did anyone notice what Bolt had to do to get hold of his relay baton in the end? Saw him leaving the stadium finally triumphally holding it up, but not how convinced the judges to leave it to him?

A brilliant cameo of the games in one thread.

Starts with miserabilst, churlish, small-minded nitpickers.

Ends with pride at a fantastic job well done

The lack of posts from the 1st to the 11th, given the thread title, tells its own story!

The baton thing summed up the games for me - Bolt wins(wr), official holds out hand to receive the baton (as is her job) bolt holds it out but jokingly keeps hold of it, offical laughs and lets it go. If that had been the last olympics the offical would have prob chased after him and tried to wrestle the baton from him!

After her Heptathlon win whilst being interviewed by a Yank on Eurosport up popped the legend,'Jessica Ennis (USA)'.

spyker, have a look at this, perhaps you would like to change that last post?

http://www.complex.com/sports/2012/08/video-usain-bolt-fought-two-olympic-officials-for-the-baton-he-carried-during-the-4x100m-race-over-the-weekend

so it's not shown here but explained how he got it back, thx for the link

I didn't know about those afters but seeing that video sums it up even more for me Shiraz - the officials politely ask for it back as is their job. I'm pretty sure that all equipment has to be collected as it has to fit certain regulations - weight, diameter - and prob has an official Olympic stamp. They get the baton off him, see the official stamp (i.e it is an official baton so the record/result stands) and return it to Bolt (possibly as a result of the crowd) so everybody's happy!
I stand by my comment that at Beijing the scenario I describe earlier prob would have happened if Bolt hadn't returned it sharpish. There certainly wouldn't have been vociferous crowd involvement (at Beijing) and I pretty much guarantee that he wouldn't have got the baton back. Prob the same would have happened at most Olympics (certainly any American!) apart form the Sydney games as they have the same healthy disrespect for authority that we do!

just read that judges threatened to DQ JAM if he doesn't return it, but an official returned it later with some excuse (probably as a reaction to the crowd boohing), though I don't believe as the paper says that it was after the victory ceremony.