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The Opening Ceremony: Let's Party!!


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(edited)

Yeah they do tend to overdo the openings. I'm just curious to see what the cauldron will be like this time. It's going to take a lot to outdo the London one. Theirs were spectacular; all the individual flames of the nations coming together to form one giant one:

Here's a link if you don't remember:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei54TO1VBlM

Edited by madhacker
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On 6/29/2016 at 0:45 AM, Quilt Fairy said:

I understand Rio is scaling back the opening ceremony due to budget constraints. Personally, I think they've grown too bloated over the years. I know all I want to see is the parade of athletes and maybe one number celebrating the culture of the country.  

C'mon! If there's one country where I want to see a big, useless spectacle with the pretty, pretty people, it's Brazil.

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On 7/6/2016 at 7:24 AM, ketchuplover said:

I think they should allow the minute of silence for the victims of the nuclear bombings.  Feelings be damned!

I don't understand.  What nuclear bombings?  You mean, in Japan during World War II?  What does that have to do with Brazil, or with anything having to do with the 2016 Olympics?

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(edited)
On 7/8/2016 at 11:43 AM, ketchuplover said:

Japan wanted a minute of silence and the IOC turned down their request saying it was a criticism of the United States.

It makes no sense that Japan wanted it for the RIO Olympics, unless you meant that Japan requested it for Tokyo in 2020.  And yes, it would have been a criticism of the United States.  That would have been like asking for a moment of silence in London for the victims of Pearl Harbor -- you really think Japan wouldn't have been insulted by such a request?

Edited by legaleagle53
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The IOC usually avoids politics at all cost. They were not happy at all with the Salt Lake City opening ceremony being turned into a 9/11 memorial, for example, and they only let London have a minute's silence for the 7/7 victims because the attacks were the day after they won the games.

Plus Tokyo already did a nuclear bomb tribute the first time they hosted - the guy who lit the cauldron in 1964 was born in Hiroshima the day it was bombed.

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For me, nothing will ever top Muhammad Ali lighting the torch in 1996. That one gave me chills.

NBC won't air the opening ceremony live this year (they haven't aired it live since '96). It's only delayed by an hour, but I'm just a wee bit puzzled because I figured since Rio and the US East Coast are so close in time zones, that NBC would be thrilled to air everything live. 

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/olympics/NBC_wont_broadcast_Rio_Olympics_opening_ceremonies_live.html

They're marching after Zimbabwe and before Brazil. Here's the full order. (Usually the independent teams march alphabetically under the local translation for "Independent Olympic Athletes", but I guess they set the order when it still looked like they'd be having independent Russian athletes too and they wanted to split the two groups up. This is the first time they've marched second-last since Timor-Leste's athletes in Sydney.)

(edited)

Apparently NBC is complaining that USA is entering the stadium too early in the parade of nations- the first list has them under the Portuguese name of Estados Unidos and the network is worried that US viewers will tune out and miss out on $$$ valuable commercial time before they they even get to Franca on the list. So they're asking to get moved to the place where the English version of country name would fall ie. close to the end of the parade.

eta- Kuwait's Olympic Committee is currently under suspension by the IOC (human rights abuses and lack of institutional autonomy) and they've got a handful of athletes, mostly in shooting and fencing, who had already qualified for the Olympics before the suspension was announced and the IOC offered them a chance to compete under the Olympic flag. Since there is apparently some sort of threat from the Kuwaiti government if they do, they may or may not be present. I can understand wanting to no co-mingle them with Team Refugee because of a dilution of the Team Refugee message.  (It's also why the Olympic flag is shown next to Kuwait in the wiki article and not the Kuwaiti flag. )

Edited by selkie
8 hours ago, selkie said:

Apparently NBC is complaining that USA is entering the stadium too early in the parade of nations- the first list has them under the Portuguese name of Estados Unidos and the network is worried that US viewers will tune out and miss out on $$$ valuable commercial time before they they even get to Franca on the list. So they're asking to get moved to the place where the English version of country name would fall ie. close to the end of the parade.

It's stuff like this that makes me hate NBC (or whichever network might have been airing the games).  Why should we upset the order of things in the host country's language just to make an advertising buck or two?

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Agreed. It's not like the IOC is opposed to it (China and Taiwan usually enter under C and T even though they use "People's Republic of China" and "Chinese Taipei" as their names; FYROM has entered under M for "Macedonia" at least once), but... if you're going to do it for the US, then surely the UK and Russia and China and Germany and France and Australia will be asking next, you know?

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Spoilers from the final rehearsals are starting to leak.

Spoiler

One Australian journalist was preparing a report outside Maracana Stadium and saw what appeared to be a giant mosquito prop, which... I think is supposed to be Rio's attempt at the sort of self-deprecation we got with Vancouver's cauldron and Sochi's Olympic ring malfunctions, but just seems kind of ill-advised?

8 minutes ago, Shaynaa said:

Am I allowed to ask for a link to a livestream?  I don't want to wait for NBC or deal with their editing stuff out.

I don't blame you -- and let's not forget Bob Costas's annoying habit of blathering on about trivia while I'm trying to focus on the athletes during the Parade of Nations.

In fact, is it too early to start saying, "Shut up, Bob!"?

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I used to love Bob Costas and I still admire him for his knowledge of sport and his enthusiasm for it.  The problem is that NBC has decided that presenters should be the stars, not the athletes.  Bob has read too much of his ow press and it's gone to his head.  It's nice that he knows so much Olympic trivia but he doesn't have to tell us ALL of it.  

Personally, I'd love more Bryant Gumble.  I've always thought that Bob Costas is a Bryant Gumble wannabe.

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5 minutes ago, mightysparrow said:

I used to love Bob Costas and I still admire him for his knowledge of sport and his enthusiasm for it.  The problem is that NBC has decided that presenters should be the stars, not the athletes.  Bob has read too much of his ow press and it's gone to his head.  It's nice that he knows so much Olympic trivia but he doesn't have to tell us ALL of it.  

Personally, I'd love more Bryant Gumble.  I've always thought that Bob Costas is a Bryant Gumble wannabe.

5 minutes ago, mightysparrow said:

I used to love Bob Costas and I still admire him for his knowledge of sport and his enthusiasm for it.  The problem is that NBC has decided that presenters should be the stars, not the athletes.  Bob has read too much of his ow press and it's gone to his head.  It's nice that he knows so much Olympic trivia but he doesn't have to tell us ALL of it.  

Personally, I'd love more Bryant Gumble.  I've always thought that Bob Costas is a Bryant Gumble wannabe.

 

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I have no idea what happened with that post - sorry. i was going to say i can't lie, I do like the NBC fluff (they used to do it amazing). so it was always a treat. for actual "sports - I always do CBC/BBC because i like to know who else is competing - I find more and more (London was really noticable) - NBC focuses so much on the United States, and then local person, and maybe someone to make a bit of a story, you forget who is involved. 

Since I can only watch online, i can't really quibble where i get my Olympic fix. 

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1 minute ago, Daisy said:

I have no idea what happened with that post - sorry. i was going to say i can't lie, I do like the NBC fluff (they used to do it amazing). so it was always a treat. for actual "sports - I always do CBC/BBC because i like to know who else is competing - I find more and more (London was really noticable) - NBC focuses so much on the United States, and then local person, and maybe someone to make a bit of a story, you forget who is involved. 

Since I can only watch online, i can't really quibble where i get my Olympic fix. 

I like the fluff too.  I'm in Canada and have to admit that sometimes I switch from CBC to NBC just to get a little glitz.  But if I want to remember that the Olympics isn't just a USA sporting contest, I have to come back home.

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2 minutes ago, mightysparrow said:

I like the fluff too.  I'm in Canada and have to admit that sometimes I switch from CBC to NBC just to get a little glitz.  But if I want to remember that the Olympics isn't just a USA sporting contest, I have to come back home.

Exactly. usually what I do, is watch CBC in the morning, get the lay of the land (who actually competed etc). then watch the NBC in the evening, to get my fluff/glitz and see how they've edited it down. it's usually harder for them when there is no serious time difference.

Ah...Costas. How I like/don't like you.  "a shout out to my homies." (sigh)

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