Arriving off the train from Xi'an we wondered over to the mountain bike course to scalp some tickets to the Women's mountain bike race. No Brits involved but it was an enjoyable couple of hours sitting in the woods. Later that evening we went to the Hockey final. The Germans were out in force and created an amazing atmosphere -so much so that the paid 'cheerers' (volunteers paid to cheer for both sides) had nothing to do! We saw the medal ceremony, which was a great demonstration in 'white man' -ness as all the 6 people giving out the medals and flowers were old white men who had some important jobs in the International Olympic Committee or other National Olympic Committees. I do find it rather embarrassing.
Another early morning start for the men's marathon (wow, how do they run so fast after 25 miles of running so fast?) and then it was time to prepare for the evening. Rather disappointing compared to the opening ceremony, and somewhat embarrassing as a Brit (i received several messages from Chinese friends wondering what our 8 minutes was all about). I have to say, when there is a huge stadium, why do we bring 1 bus and about 15 people and 2 unknown singers? Why does the only person anyone recognised (Beckham) only have a 15 second role and how is anyone expected to actually see the tiny little lit-up landscape of London on the side of the bus, or supposed to get the whole umbrella-and-rain thing?
One hopes that in 4 years time LOCOG have done some research about what people know or think about Britain and do not confuse people even more than the Chinese confuse people (since most people know little about Chinese history or culture). If they focus on comedy and rain and sports, they might just be laughed at so much, no-one will care about the sports! I know we cannot spend 100m USD (well, times 7 since we are at least 7 times more expensive than the Chinese) on an opening ceremony, but surely we can do better than the whole bus thing! Anyway, at least people might remember what we did (even if for bad reasons)!
The medal ceremonies (luck marathon runners with theirs in the closing ceremony!) are quite interesting to watch in person. Even during the athletics the whole stadium comes to a standstill; all the other events stop, all the judges, security and spectators (of course) turn to watch the flag raising and listen to the anthem. To be honest it was only watching that, that i finally actually believed that there is some purpose to the Olympics. That, despite the competition between nations, it really is about individuals working incredibly hard to do things others just cannot do.
It is a triumph of the human spirit and ability. It is a celebration and recognition of this. It is about co-operation and friendship amongst the competition. And that is something worth continuing, and something that will be great in London!
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