London 2012 Megathread [Part 1]

Just watching the rowing. Whats the deal with the A final and B final?

The NBC commentator on my stream keeps calling Badminton, Bad-mitten. STFU!

First gold medal of the games for Great Britain, well done to Helen and Heather!

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

and how do NI feel about it ? :pac:

There was actually a bit on the Guardian blog about all this about an hour ago:

Team UK?
Earlier I mentioned Northern Ireland, to which David Cameron has been exiled like Napoleon to Elba for the duration of the Games.

Reader Simon Gates asks: “Can anyone explain why it is Team GB not Team UK? Great Britain seems to specifically exclude Northern Ireland, but there are Northern Irish athletes in the team – they don’t compete for Ireland (as they would in rugby for example).” Very true. Rower Alan Campbell – who is just setting off in the single sculls semi-final now – is Northern Irish for example.

I asked Team GB (not all of them) to explain.

A spokesman said the British Olympic Association – aka Team GB – covers Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and UK overseas territories such as the Falklands and Gibraltar. Not all of these are part of the UK. (Northern Ireland, of course, is part of the UK but not part of Great Britain.)

The International Olympic Committee has recognised the British team as “GBR” since 1896. The “Team GB” name is a “concise, functional marketing property … which has developed over three Olympic cycles”. The spokesman added:

All very reasonable. But surely Team UK, although still imperfect, would do a better job than Team GB as a name for the squad, and would be just as good as a "marketing property"?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/london-2012-olympics-blog/2012/aug/01/london-2012-olympics-day-five-live-blog

The whole "Team GB" thing is nothing more than a marketing ploy. Actually finding the term annoying now and its been less than a week, lol!

Is Northern Ireland the only place where athletes would be allowed to compete for 2 different teams? Seems a bit odd if its "team GB and NI" and yet Team Ireland has a good few members from the North.

keano_afc wrote: »

Is Northern Ireland the only place where athletes would be allowed to compete for 2 different teams? Seems a bit odd if its "team GB and NI" and yet Team Ireland has a good few members from the North.

You must surely know why both Ireland and Great Britain have athletes from Northern Ireland. Where have you been living, under a rock?

Annalise out in front after a bad start for her

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Are you watching it? According to this she's in 9th

http://www.london2012.com/sailing/event/laser-radial-women/phase=saw103905/index.html?v=2012-08-01124725Z

No I'm not. I'm getting updates from whoever is manning her Facebook page. She's up to 8th now according to that.

Up to 6th according to the BBC

Update on her FB page:

Annalise is making big gains on this leg only 14 seconds behind the leader now! #killingit

Glad they got banned. Disgraceful behaviour.

Someone said people dont try their best to win in the heats of running, If you lose in the heats you don't qualify, coming 4th and preserving some energy wont give you a better draw in the next round. There's a difference.

The badminton was a disgrace to watch. deliberately hitting serves into the net and hitting shots out..