Poll: Olympics - your opinion (Poll please!)

[Lunatic Dreyfus]

Thought it'd be jolly good, turned out excellent.

Some of the settings for the venues were inspired. The beach-volley ball arena looked amazing and so did the horsey venue at Greenwich. In person I wasn't so taken with the Stadium, but the atmosphere inside was unlike anything I've ever experienced.

On telly, the rest of London looked splendid in HD. The crowds at the free events blew me away (just wish The Cav could've won). Overall, Britain has nowt to be ashamed of. We did a superb job.

 

[rogan]

As a londoner i was expecting it to be rubbish and for me to hate every minute of it but i really really enjoyed almost all aspects of it

 

[semi-pro waster]

Oh and Seb Coe as legacy director? Yeah, let him bury all the things that went wrong...
That's some great cronyism right there.

There wasn't an awful lot that went wrong in comparison to what went right if we're being fair about it. That said if the position of legacy director is akin to leaving a legacy for future generations in a time capsule and that means we can leave Lord Coe in a glass case out of the way then I'm all for it.

Snipped for space...
All of the above is a relative drop in the ocean compared to what was spent of the logistics of the actual games themselves but I feel the point still stands that we seem to have spent our way to success just as much as anything.

I agree that lots of money has been spent on supporting British sport but that it's necessary if we want to succeed - individual talent will go so far but where it's allied to a proper supporting programme and network then you can take it so much further. I'm sure there will always be exceptions and some people who can still achieve in their sport without a good level of support but they're much rarer and it's not a way to gain consistent success if you're always relying on exceptional performances.

There have been some sports or individuals where funding has been cut or removed entirely I believe but again it's a necessary part of the process to ensure that funding can be directed to where it is most likely to make a positive difference.

 

[Freefaller]

I have to say that I am a bit bored of the pro and anti Olympic evangelists. I think most of the people I know are more in the ambivalent mindset than ultra pro or against it. That, I can deal with... but having all the "it's the best thing ever!!!!111" to the "**** this ****" was getting dull.

 

[Kenai]

I agree that lots of money has been spent on supporting British sport but that it's necessary if we want to succeed - individual talent will go so far but where it's allied to a proper supporting programme and network then you can take it so much further. I'm sure there will always be exceptions and some people who can still achieve in their sport without a good level of support but they're much rarer and it's not a way to gain consistent success if you're always relying on exceptional performances.

There have been some sports or individuals where funding has been cut or removed entirely I believe but again it's a necessary part of the process to ensure that funding can be directed to where it is most likely to make a positive difference.

I'm not implying it's a bad thing - just that it's not at all surprising that we've seen more success following the decision to throw four times as much money at it as we used to. I think having the games here has helped elevate our success slightly but the overriding factor was the increased money IMO.

Hence why I think the message people should really be taking away is that of 'Throw enough money at something and you'll probably win'

Having said it's not a bad thing - it does take a small element of the shine off of things though, knowing we've more than likely beaten a lot of competitors not necessarily through superior talent, but merely because we could throw the resources at them. It's for these sort of reasons I was quite interested to look at the medal haul vs GDP stats that were put together, as it paints an interesting picture of which countries are over or under achieving for their relative 'financial ability'.

 

[lee32uk]

I watched about 10 minutes in total so i cant really comment

 

[bsoltan]

I hadn't really thought about it till the opening ceremony. I knew it was going to be happening but I was fairly indifferent, I'm sure I would've watched some but I wasn't going to go out of my way for it.

However while watching the ceremony I got the feeling that it is a good thing, pretty awesome to see the best athletes from around the world competing against each other and striving for success.

I had thought London would be really busy but I went at the beginning of August and it wasn't any worse than normal, I didn't go for anything Olympic related but did go past a few of the venues and it was nice to see so many volunteers.

A family member had a spare ticket which they offered me and I went for the quarter finals of the men's boxing. I was very impressed with the ExCel arena and how slick the whole thing was from security to the athletes coming on and going off. Watching it (live) didn't fill me with any excitement though and I would've probably been more happy watching it at home, but there we go.

The media and BBC coverage have dramatised it in a way that has made it very exciting to watch. I just hope that this wasn't a one-off for London 2012 and they can repeat this for Rio 2016 and others down the line.

It hasn't inspired myself or anyone I know to do anything extraordinary, but then it isn't aimed at me, or my generation.

So when I did think about it I thought it would be good, turned out to be excellent.

 

[One]

I thought it would be terrible. I had no interest in many of the events, I thought it was a massive waste of money and I was certain there would be a terrorist attack.

How wrong I was, I found myself captivated by sports I hadn't even heard of before and massive pride in our countries Olympians and I think it was a total success.

Had we not done so well though I think there would be a tremendous shift in public opinion so we really only have Team GB to thank for the Olympics' success.

 

[KaHn]

Can I have an option for;

"Didn't watch any of it"

Please.

Thanks,

KaHn

 

[robgmun]

I thought the opening and closing were going to be shockingly bad, in the end they were better then expected but over all i would say they were average. The first 30mins of the opening was verging on the very good and i was suitably impressed. But then it turned to crap soon after. The closing was much better then expected apart from a few bum notes.

The sports them selves was great but then that to do with the athletes and would be great no matter how badly organized it is, because the athletes are professionals and would just get on with it.

 

[TurnipHead]

Thought it would be average. Was brilliant. Best games ever.

 

[robgmun]

Holy crap, stockhausen liked something, it must be good!

Seeing how left-wing the opening was he must have creamed all over the TV, especially with the dedication to the NHS and all the disabled and minorites with barely a able-bodied white face about

 

[Pixel]

I didn't watch it.

 

[lemonkettaz]

Thought it would be average, couldnt get enough of it by the end

 

[ots3go]

I was expecting a complete mess...

Glad it was excellent. .

 

[Alps]

Was expecting good, wasn't let down. My elderly mother who doesn't like sports got engaged and was coming up to our's to watch in 3D on bbc hd channel, another new experience for her. Excellent on all fronts, especally the support shown by spectator's / public.

We stilll have the paralympics, starting on 29th to go.

 

[G-MAN2004]

I wasn't really interested before (fed up of hearing about it), then it started and it was awesome. Just a shame they have the closing ceremony before the paralympics.

Look at all those miserable people voting it as rubbish!

 

[Mr Jack]

I thought it would be rubbish. I expected a string of problems and TeamGB to fail to deliver on expectations; instead from the first moments of Boyle's brilliant opening ceremony onwards it was extremely competently delivered, logistically well up to job and TeamGB performed brilliantly.

Well done, London. Well done, UK. Well done all the volunteers and organisers.

 

[Blue160]

I wasn't that fussed beforehand, but the games were fantastic.

GB performing so well helped, and the atmosphere and organisation were great. I even enjoyed the opening and closing ceromonies.

 

[ElliorR]

My problem was never to do with the actual sporting side, it was with the cost in this recession.

I really enjoyed the sports side.