Olympic Hypocrisy

[callmemadam]

Outrage in the British media over the news that this cute little girl was not singing but miming at the opening of the Games in Beijing. Well, shock horror. How about the news that the chap seen here lighting the beacon at Wembley in 1948 was picked for his good looks? The organizer of the Torch Relay, Commander Collins, also specified that the beacon lighter should be blond! And this was how long after the 1936 Olympics? Collins gave strict instructions that the first man to pick up the torch when it arrived at Dover should not be bald or have a paunch. Oh, and drugs were available, too.

I learned this and much more from A Very British Olympics on BBC4 yesterday evening. Talk about Make Do and Mend; the male British athletes were kitted out by Simpsons but the women had to make their own vests and shorts. It was surprising to see so many people who had actually taken part in the games, people who must have been at least eighty yet were astonishingly well preserved. Does sport keep you young or is it the longevity gene which makes you good at sport?

Comments

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

The thing that upset me about the little girl was that the one who was dumped was considered perfectly acceptable right up until the last minute, and that her voice was still used. If they'd decided to substitute the other girl earlier on and let her do her own singing too, I probably wouldn't have such a problem with it.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying I approve of it, just that there's nothing new under the sun.

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

And let's not even talk about the mass official cheating that went on at the 1908 games. And every other games. Anyway, the Olympics are rubbish; a bad day on Eurosport extended over a fortnight. I am planning to be in some other country during August 2012.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Heh, my attitude to the 2012 olympics is that of the Daily Express in 1948: it's a waste of money. I'm also seething that the Beeb can find all this money for Beijing, even sending over whole news teams and Huw Edwards, but they won't even bid for the cricket.

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

Oh, but cricket takes up so many valuable hours of airtime, don't you know ... like all those hours during the day when BBC3 and BBC4 AREN'T ON!!! Imbeciles. I want my TV tax - sorry, 'licence fee' that is 'the BBC's unique funding'... no it isn't, lots of things are tax-funded, dimwits - back. With interest.

Don't even get me started on their feeble attempts at showing Rugby League.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Oh how I wish I could watch a decent amount of cricket on the telly again!

I like the Olympics, but I'm a bit of a NIMBY about them: I can see 2012 being hellish. Bath's overrun with tourists in the summer as it is, and being direct from London by train it'll be even worse then. (Don't know why I'm grumbling - at least I don't live in London...)

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Seconded, thirded...
I am seriously thinking that if I ever manage to move I will give up my anti-Murdoch principles (ouch!) and get Sky *just for the cricket*. I love it so much.

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

So do I, but eeek, the cost! My b-i-l got Sky Sports just so he could follow Wolves in the Premiership. It was awfully expensive (and they got beat every week anyway), and was promptly cancelled on relegation. They also have a nasty habit of shifting the sport you want to watch onto some channel that isn't in the package you paid for ...

Sunday afternoons have never been the same since the JPL stopped being on BBC 2. O my Laker and my Benaud long ago!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Murdoch is EEEVIL personified. I know their tricks: they start you off with an offer and very soon change it so you're paying twice as much.

Or in my case, my Barrington and May...

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

Well, I was meaning commentators, so my Barrington and May equivalent would have been Simmons and Bond. And Lever. And Engineer, Lloyd CH, Lloyd D, Pilling, Hayes, Wood, Shuttleworth and Hughes. By, we had a great team in them days.