The Afterword

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  2. Possibly the worst opening ceremony ever – you’ve seen one group of people waving to the crowds from boats, you’ve seen them all.

    Will be ripping the piss out of my French BIL about this for the next four years at least

    • I saw about a minute while channel hopping (metal guitarists playing on platforms extended from castle windows while a mezzo delivered the Habanera from Carmen if that fixes it in anyone’s mind), but Twitter reaction has been pretty much universally negative. Mind you, I still haven’t seen the London 2012 opening ceremony. I was at an Inspiral Carpets gig in Brighton that night instead. The gig was excellent though.

          • Can’t help but feel that the 2012 ceremony sticks in the memory for no better reason than it was ..hoo-rah.. ..British and we got it. Im sure vast parts of the global viewing public were left deeply confused by cloth capped dancers marching up and down grassy hillocks, and especially the NHS sequence.

            Last night’s effort was ok though there were long periods when nothing much happened. And the constant rain didn’t help.

  8. Canadian women’s football team in trouble for flying drones over opponent’s practice areas. They won it in 2021(“2020 Olympics”) and this may have been going on for some time

  16. I got up specially to watch it and very quickly started flicking through the dial to see what else was on. I came across the girls softball Little League World Series and that was a lot more entertaining. The girls apparently fill out questionaires about themselves and when they come up to bat they put little facts about the players on the screen. One 12yo endeared herself to me by listing as her favourite band as “The Beatles” Another listed her favourite sportsperson as “Myself.”

  18. As always, the ceremony was far too long and a little bit bonkers. I could have done with a lot less “meaningful” dancing and a few more close-ups of the faces of the athletes, coaches, etc. on the boats who appeared to be having the time of their lives. Yes, I get the “you’ve seen one boatload, you’ve seen them all” idea, but I thought the obvious joy and excitement on display, particularly from the countries with tiny teams, was actually quite moving.

    The other highlights: the robot horse on the river was majestic and dramatic, and the lasers on the Tower were magnificent.

    But I can’t help thinking that the producer/organiser was probably wishing it was all held in a stadium beneath a closed roof. After the third hour, the sound of torrential rain hitting the microphones was driving me insane.

  19. I watched Eurosport’s coverage of it. Nick Mullins & Catherine Downes had a real lightness of touch about their commentary, they liked the way the inserts broke up the procession, and noted that the dance numbers were used as a diversion from the disembarking athletes. Being tennis commentators, they particularly liked Rafa’s appearance & then joked that Serena had got dressed up & health & safety ruined it by insisting she wore a life jacket. The end section was very impressive & Mullins loved the balloon cauldron.
    I then switched to bbc & saw Rebecca Adlington moaning it wasn’t very good.

  22. Great reader’s comment re the ceremony up in today’s Times

    “US$190 million for that? For an extra US$50 million, they ould
    Have had Michelle Mone float down the Seine in her yacht.”

    • Forget Sinatra in From Here to Eternity. Forget Elvis’s 1968 Special. Forget Messi’s World Cup…. This will go down as the ultimate triumphant comeback. Four years without daring or even being physically able to sing in public, as a cruel rare disease ravaged her throat and her whole body (that documentary is harrowing to the max). She could have taken the safest path, perhaps by reappearing unannounced in some second-division Catskills supper club on a Tuesday night, just in case, to test the waters and see how it went. But no. She decided to do it standing alone (well, apart from the wet accompanist beside her) halfway up the Eiffel tower, with the whole of Paris laid out before her and a worldwide audience of squillions watching and, most of all, listening to her. And everything an effective and affecting vocal is supposed to have is right here: the technique, the heart and the soul, and also the years of struggle and loss and the refusal to let go.

      And it may not just be the greatest ever comeback. How about we accept this as a strong candidate for the greatest ever cover version?

      I’d never had much time for her before that documentary and now this performance. While admiring her obvious vocal virtuosity (only a cloth-eared fool wouldn’t), I’d written her off as yet another annoying, up-herself, over-melismatic diva (hi, Mariah!). I was wrong.

    • Yes! I almost switched the thing off thinking it was over. Then, Celine started to sing. There was more passion, desire, hope in her three or four minutes than all the rest of it.

      • Well said. I didn’t like the song but damn she can really hold a note, and with none of the over-the-top melismas/melisma-ing that the Young seem to think is the sign of a good singer.

        To paraphrase Hepworth and Ellen on a recent Word in Your Ear, she served the song, rather than using it to go “LOOK AT ME!”

        • I thought you guys were snarking her performance. Then I listened. OK, not my favoured style of song, but phenomenal control and power. The only other person with that sort of technique would be Sinead. And she’s dead.

          • A year ago today apparently. The big story In the Irish press these last few days is how the O’Connor family forced Dublin Wax Museum to remove a wax effigy of SOC that looked more like Ian Duncan Smith

            • “I thought you guys were snarking her performance.”

              A while back, I posted a piece about the worst vocal performance in history. That wasn’t snark, either. This is one of the greatest, and that it’s had such a limited show of hands from the Afterword is kind of telling. The snark you saw was a boojum. Again.

              • ‘…that it’s had such a limited show of hands from the Afterword is kind of telling.’ Just a hint of snark there, maybe?

                But yes, it’s a sensational and moving performance, judging by the few seconds I was able to listen to while over-excited news anchors, AI bots and reactors weren’t trampling all over it. The video above is private, whatever that means.

                • Tell you what, Mike. Look up a definition of snark. Let me do it for you: “an attitude or expression of mocking irreverence and sarcasm”. My words you quote contain no trace of snark. It’s plain language with no “clever” subtext, devoid of sarcasm, meant to be read at face value, like this comment, which also has nothing snide about it.
                  But when I post a comment about a jaw-droppingly great performance from Celine Dion, I get suspected of snark. When I say that it’s telling that mine was the only lead comment to even mention it, and it received just three supporting opinions, I mean just that. It’s telling because there is a fair amount of snark in many comments about the opening ceremony. Which is okay, I suppose, just not called out.

                  That video has been pulled, there may be others.

                  • I must have my sarcasm meter recalibrated. I have no idea what retro was talking about, but why do you think his comment is aimed at you? ‘You guys’ includes three other people as well as you, all of whose comments were entirely unambiguous anyway.

                  • I agree with thep, if that helps. Saucepot + Archeryweapons = Waldorf + Statler; we all know. And that’s fine. It just gets odd when they pull back the Yarwood curtain, to mix my meta.

                    • Maybe it’s time for the voice of reason whilst HP & AV have their love-in….

                      I’d rather place my penis in a blender than listen to Celine Dion. Bless her and all her anxieties and failures but that “Olympic” performance was so overblown and over the top she’s still in orbit somewhere beyond Pluto. No snarkiness here, just The Truth According To Wrongness.

                    • Ooh, you may have trouble if you ever want to enter Canada if the immigration people read this board

  27. BBC coverage this morning had some French guy sat at the cafe studio no idea who he was but he told a humorous story of how some old French woman spat at him yesterday for speaking English … how we laughed.

  28. I’m no diving expert, but on one dive just now one of the judges scored it 4.5 and another judged it 8.0. I understand that they don’t count a couple of scores but how can they be so far apart?

    That aside, the Chinese pair are head and shoulders above the rest.

    • I always have trouble with anything relying on judges’ scores…diving, boxing, skating and so on…seems terribly open to abuse. Not to mention the Dressage…don’t mention the Dressage..

  32. I know we generally feel like sporting under-achievers but in recent Olympics the GB team has done really, really well given our size. 4th last time, 2nd in Rio. No reason why we can’t get another good haul this time.

    • It’s what lottery money has done. Lots of investment in UK sport.

      Personally I have somewhat lost interest in the Olympics. Having tennis and golf in it for me is not right. It should be the pinnacle of your particular sport, not just the next event on your calendar. I used to enjoy the athletics, but I don’t believe the sport is clean at all, probably never was

      Having said that, it is good for some minority sports to have their day in the sun. I preferred it when the Olympics was for amateur sports people.

      I normally find opening ceremonies incredibly tedious and was at work when this one was on anyway so I saw not one second of it.

  35. A judo bronze for Sweden’s Tara Babulfath to kick things off, hurray!
    But to temper your expectations I can tell you that the Swedish Olympic Committee is hoping for ten medals in total this time – one more than during the last Olympics…

  36. Watching the surfing on Eurosport. Quite pleasant viewing with a nice glass of Pino Grigio. We wondered how they were going to judge the surfers and it seems fairly sensible. This is our first time watching surfing but we are now, of course, experts.

  37. Thought it would be interesting to watch some shooting. I was wrong.

    Enjoyed the Rugby 7’s but maintain a smaller pitch would make it much better.

    I’m going to hell because I laughed out loud when the US cycling coach fell over whilst trying to get his rider back on her bike.

    Will the BBC be showing any actual sport or will it just be people talking about it?

      • In fairness to the BBC, its all-talk rather than all-sport coverage is severely limited by constraints on the amount of live action it can show.

        `
        Hard not to feel sympathy for the Beeb. It’s not only criticized by people who don’t want to pay the license fee, but also those who think that they pay too much for “talent” (they very often do). Then there are the pols from all main parties who accuse it of political bias.

        Add in the constant carping of the media (much of it from titles/channels that are owned by one R. Murdoch), and it’s a wonder they manage to do anything at all

        • At the 2016 games in Rio, Aunty showed what was possible in terms of coverage. Via the red button or iPlayer, they provided feeds on every sport that could be watched live or after the event. While their main broadcast coverage was still dominated by talk it didn’t matter because it was always possible to find actual sport taking place.

          The Tory’s determination to emasculate the Beeb has deliberately left them unable to match the big money bids from Sky or Disney. The viewing public gets less as a consequence, and more often than not, the blame. Forcing the BBC to publish earnings (unlike any of their competitors) was a key part of that strategy as it allowed the tabloids to carp on about payment levels with absolutely zero to compare it against; expectations that it would unseat Lineker proved inaccurate but it sustains an afterlife for blowhards to complain about him.

          I’m fortunate that I can afford Sky and so have access to the Eurosport coverage and Disney’s (theoretical) equivalent of what the BBC managed back in 2016 which they are providing via Discovery+. The interface is slow, clunky and as clear as mud.

          I’m hopeful that the Labour gov’t will restore the BBC’s funding to a point where they can adequately support events like the Olympics. I can’t think of a better event for a public service broadcaster bring out from behind a paywall.

          • Problem is that the Tories have left Labour with such a shit show to sort out, I cannot begin to imagine where they might find spare budget to keep the Beeb as it is – never mind bring it back to its best.

            All of which leaves SKS et al faced with having to increase a license fee that more and more viewers are either unable or unwilling to pay.

            Whether we like it or not, one of the reasons for people’s dissatisfaction with the license fee is the amount the Beeb pays for talent. As a publicly funded body, the broadcaster is quite rightly accountable for the fees it pays.

            The quandary here is whether the Beeb should be trying to keep up with the commercial stations. While I enjoy the Boy Lineacre’s hosting of MOTD, the show is a monopoly that has been going for sixty years. As a result, it is not likely to see a dramatic decrease in its audience numbers if his contract is not renewed.

            The thing that gets lost in all the shouting about value for money is the cachet and soft power that the BBC – like the Royal family – gives the UK as a whole.

            The Beeb’s coverage of Brenda’s funeral a couple of. years back was a classic example. People in countries all over the world tuned in and spent hour after hour watching one Great British institution commemorate another Great British institution.

            When you compare the millions of dollars that advertisers pay for a 30-second spot at the Super Bowl, that adds up to the sort positive publicity you cannot put a price on.

            • How much does the BBC spend on sending hundreds to Glastonbury? Most of them to tell us how “amazing” it is to be there. They also spend a lot on Wimbledon and over pay for MOTD rights when most want to watch games live these days. Main problem though was a decision a few years back to offer Olympics to highest bidder rather than having all of it on FTA television. Over here the equivalent CBC has lots of coverage but various paid cable sports channels also have coverage, so it’s similar. In the US NBC have the rights, but they hide some things behind a paywall and also delay coverage to get maximum advertising revenue in peak time. Appalling actually

            • The problem with the BBC being accountable is who to. The real answer is the BBC Board but the tabloids did the Tories bidding and pounded the BBC salaries tables as hard as they could, so that Joe Public could mostly express their outrage given a set of numbers in a total vacuum.

              There’s a body of (possibly wholly incorrect) thought that GL earns fractionally more than each of Neville, Carragher and Keane individually. Which would suggest, if true, he’s earning about market rate, or possibly short changed. Compared to what McEnroe takes for 2 weeks at Wimbledon he’s getting totally rinsed.

              All sorts of value judgements can be applied, and regularly are. But it’s evident that other sports broadcasters would take him if he every left the BBC, as his stints at BT, Al Jazeera and NBC showed.

              I’m not holding my breath for any real bump in BBC funding – it will be helpful to have a more neutral overseer than quarter wits like Dorries. The soft power aspect you mention is very true and one of the key reasons the Tories wanted them humbled.

              • One of the most flagrant examples of the Beeb’s waste of license payers’ money is its astonishingly exact recreation of a network of WW1-battlefield trenches for the Strictly Come Dancing celebrity boot camp..

                Poor Amanda Abingdon found the pressure of being constantly shelled by enemy howitzers and watching her fellow competitors being picked off by German snipers so distressing she now suffers from PTSD.

    • Best bit for me so far was yesterday when Hazel Irvine was interviewing someone about synchronised jumping into water backwards and two French window cleaners rose up behind them in their gondola and started squeegeeing.

  41. Thought the Mens Sevens final was class stuff from France. And Dupont is the best scrum half I’ve ever seen, maybe the best player ever.
    Tom Pidcock in the mountain biking also excellent.
    Can’t wait for the rowing.

    • Being Welsh I have to say second best, he’s bloody good though! Was right tactic to leave him on bench first half, something I thought baffling at the time. He did quite a lot in the next 7 minutes. Somewhat ridiculous that a scrum reset took about 2 of the 7 minutes though. Surely this can be avoided in Sevens. Camera work/direction was also atrocious. Only thing I have watched so far

    • Yes, that was awful. And it didn’t seem fair, as the commentators said another member of the team had made a mistake earlier.

      As somebody who couldn’t even hang on that bar, let alone move on it, I really felt for him. His turn on the bar just seemed to go wrong again and again, and the pressure must have been awful.

      It made for dramatic TV, but sometimes sport really is a harsh business.

  43. Pidcock was astonishing – he’s an incredible bike rider. Similarly incredible was the Andy Murray/Dan Evans match yesterday and that fantastic last tiebreaker.

    Rugby Sevens has been fun; great to see the French win the men’s gold medal. Watched the USA demolish the GB women this evening. Who even knew there was a USA women’s rugby sevens team?

    And catching the gold medal match between China and South Korea in the women’s archery which came down to the equivalent of a penalty shoot out was surprisingly gripping. I love finding myself hooked by these sports which I won’t even think about again for another four years.

    • The cameras were caught out they didn’t pick him up until he was on the kiwis shoulder. And don’t forget his domestique was nowhere near him in the cycling. Incredible performance.

  49. BMX Freestyle!

    I have a question actually. Do the competitors know what the “course” is going to be like before they get to the Olympics or do they have time to practice on it before hand?

    • Steve Cram (a good commentator) annoyed me by almost saying that she only had to get around to win the Gold. I then had visions of her being overtaken in the home straight, but she held on pretty comfortably

      • The amount of bigging up in today’s papers is truly scary – The Times saying she had the
        potential to be the greatest British athlete ever.

        Poor kid’s only 22. Hope all this hype doesn’t end up sucking the joy out of her love
        of her sport and turning her head as seems to have happened with Emma Raducanu

    • And talking about the “Swedish bloke with a stick”, there’s a terrific piece about Armand Duplantis’s exploits in the Grauniad today [excerpt]:

      “Duplantis has already won his gold medal, his second in a row. Nobody really cares about that part very much. He had to jump four times to win the competition, and it turns out it didn’t really need to do the first two, or the fourth. It’s a little like the bit at the end of Eurovision where the winner gets to play again, except the winner is The Beatles, and the winning song was Octopus’s Garden, and now they’re going to play the whole of Sgt Pepper as an encore.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/05/2024-paris-olympic-games-armand-duplantis-pole-vault-world-record#comments

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