just a w-nk fest! 3weeks of nationalistic pride.Many atheletes drug cheats.Host nations spending billions of dollars(sometimes they do not have,china excluded)displacing poor people from their homes to make way for new stadiums and villages.................all for what?Thank heavens the "premier league starts up again soon.

just a w-nk fest! 3weeks of nationalistic pride.Many atheletes drug cheats.Host nations spending billions of dollars(sometimes they do not have,china excluded)displacing poor people from their homes to make way for new stadiums and villages.................all for what?Thank heavens the "premier league starts up again soon.

You obviously hate the games judging by your comments......

I'm not the greatest fan either, however, a century old tradition is being continued and compared to the Premier league the games are by far superior.....

What am I talking here, the first games happened in 776 BC.....

Is there any bigger sporting event on this planet ? I guess not.......

I could not care less about the Olympic games, or sports in general.

I love Olympic Games, mostly Athletic, Gym, Fencing, swimming, rowing, ahhh, what a beautiful show. And I want to believe still clean people

Sorry for the bad broadcasting of the games in Thailand

just a w-nk fest! 3weeks of nationalistic pride.Many atheletes drug cheats.Host nations spending billions of dollars(sometimes they do not have,china excluded)displacing poor people from their homes to make way for new stadiums and villages.................all for what?Thank heavens the "premier league starts up again soon.

You obviously hate the games judging by your comments......

I'm not the greatest fan either, however, a century old tradition is being continued and compared to the Premier league the games are by far superior.....

What am I talking here, the first games happened in 776 BC.....

Is there any bigger sporting event on this planet ? I guess not.......

very true but at what cost to others,together with much chest thumping,testosterone,and whats the point if people are going to cheat by using drugs.

I enjoy many sports, but as far as the Olympics go, maybe one or two events are interesting but generally zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......boring

Having returned from a visit to China last week i can say that many chinese are pretty piss-d off about all the disruption being caused to there lifes.

Olympic Games is dated - should be renamed Politic Games

Clearly with all the athletes probable drug cheats it indicates that the main coporates such as VISA, Omega, and the many others postively condone drug taking. What an example to young children ! If they had any morals they would withdraw their sponsership and than the vast sums of money paid to these mutants would dry up and perhaps we could get back to physicaly fit real human beings competing against themselves on a level playing field.

Alternatively open it up to all and everything and drop this hypocrisy that most organisations and countries have in giving lip service to drug detection. It's worth billions to all interested parties mutants, companies and countries alike so guess there will be no change.

Having returned from a visit to China last week i can say that many chinese are pretty piss-d off about all the disruption being caused to there lifes.

Olympic Games is dated - should be renamed Politic Games

could n't agree more!

all that money spent on the games could have gone to fixing up the lives of the poor people decimated by the recent earthquake................i bet thousands stil dont have a roof over their heads,running water or food.Corrupt govt.and look what they are doing in Africa,dont believe you can separate politics and sport,Beiging.and how corrupt is the olympic organisation anyway.

Complete waste of money and boooooooring. And a shame about all the Hutongs that got torn down in Beijing. Oh, and as far as I am concerned every medal winner is a doper that managed to get away with it.

...agreed completely.

or maybe 95% - 5% goes to alpine skiing and icehockey - Winter Olympics, you know.

Don't understand why the Thais boykott it and never show it on TV??

Medals? Who cares.

Men's swimming events. Men's gymnastics. Oh yeah.

For people who like sport, the level of interest one has in the Olympics (or other international sporting events) is somewhat related to how competitve your country is. Aussies like swimming (and couldn't care less about ice hockey), Finns like the javelin, etc. Speaking of football, English interest in Euro 2008 waned (to put it mildly) once England failed to qualify.

As for the cost, a lot of "little people" benefit as well as corporations. All that construction means jobs. Not to mention all the vendors selling everything from food to t-shirts and support staff for the games. The Olympics are a stage for a country/city to show off to the world. IF all goes according to plan, money coming in from attendees and tourism after the event will offset the cost of putting on the event.

Medals? Who cares.

Men's swimming events. Men's gymnastics. Oh yeah.

Is synchronized swimming a Olympic sport?

If not I will boycott.

Utter rubbish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I could not care less about the Olympic games, or sports in general.

yippee! i thought i was the only one- olympics schmolympics...

and for that matter football schmootball.

I'm digging on the opening ceremony right now. Regardless of the events, I dig all the different outfits and flags. I used to really get into the events, both Winter and Summer when I was younger, but don't follow them much anymore. Opening ceremony is probably the only time most people on the planet get to see so many people from so many countries at one time, so I like it, for what it's worth. How often do you get to see the flags of Vanuatu, Turkhmenistan, etc.? I guess once every 4 years is enough, though.

ooh, snap! Chinese Taipei (Taiwan to you and me) just walked in and they ain't been detained yet. The Africans have the best outfits by far, of course!

The Ukraine has some seriously hot women on their crew.

Of course the Chinese women carrying the names of each country in front their contingent are stunning.

for me it is a little boring, but a like the diving.... why ?... i do not know

Of course the Chinese women carrying the names of each country in front their contingent are stunning.

Well having just watched the opening ceremony I must say it is pretty impressive .....set's a high standard for the UK to follow.

However. I have it on good authority that for sheer spectacle the UK will put it in the shade. Don't tell anyone but the highlight will involve Des O'connor 6 packs of sparklers and some sticky back plastic. (proper fireworks not allowed due to Health & safety regs)

TBWG

Just saw Karzai (Pakistan) in the stands, looking a bit twitchy. Understandable, I guess.

UK the most boring so far, looked like British Airways ticket agents. Don't worry Brits, the Canadians' outfits were easily the worst so far, throwback to the '80s, not the good '80s.

Putin looked Zen, I'd like to get a look at his betting pad, methinks he's got the inside scoop.

The Americans wore some goofy white caps, looked okay though, f'ing huge contingent, but of course we had to see Shrub, guess I can handle it. The American Samoan team looked well fed.

Well the UK's off the hook, there've been plenty of blander outfits than theirs now.

On Channel 3 UBC, you can switch to the English language and hear no commentary - just the speakers in the stadium - excellent! I hope they do that for the whole games. Nothing worse than all those "Awww - hawww"s every 10 seconds.

watched it on south african satelite in PFC in chaweng ,

have to say that it was the best opening ceremony i have ever seen in my life.

stunning!

how bad will england look in 4 years with our bunch of out-of-tune school kids

and street fighting display...mmmmm

The Ukraine has some seriously hot women on their crew.

The woman carrying the Syrian flag was jaw-dropping beautiful. I need to find out what event she's in.

Just saw Karzai (Pakistan) in the stands, looking a bit twitchy. Understandable, I guess.

Karzai is from Afghanistan. Do you mean Musharraf? Both of them have reason to look twitchy I'm sure.

You're right, my bad, Afghanistan, but it was Karzai, without his usual groovy hat.