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The Opening Ceremony: Let's Party!!

Meredith Quill

By Meredith Quill
in 2016 Olympics

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chitowngirl
chitowngirl

Sigh, I'm old, I remember Mark Spitz swimming and Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon.

ExplainItAgain
ExplainItAgain

I guess I'm weird, but we (US) see enough of our athletes, I watch the parade to see the athletes from all the other nations!

Shaynaa
Shaynaa

Wow, how big of NBC to not overlook Micronesia.  They should get a medal.  Just ask them.

Quilt Fairy

Quilt Fairy

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.  

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AimingforYoko

AimingforYoko

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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Moose135

Moose135

On 6/29/2016 at 7:43 PM, madhacker said:

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:

For me, nothing will top Barcelona...

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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

Sadly, the one Olympics where the torch's final lap isn't available on Youtube (literally, the ONE Olympics; even freaking Helsinki's is there) is Atlanta. You'd think they'd have at least uploaded it after Muhammad Ali died, but no. All it has are like documentaries that only show little clips of it. NBC are bastards.

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Rick Kitchen

Rick Kitchen

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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legaleagle53

legaleagle53

(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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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

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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Minneapple

Minneapple

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

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Good Queen Jane

Good Queen Jane

I can understand (almost) the reasoning for not broadcasting the Opening Ceremony live (It's not an sport where there is a result which will get out; they want to show it in prime time) but why delay the streaming of it? Isn't the point of streaming is that it's LIVE?

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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

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.)

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selkie

selkie

(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
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MyAimIsTrue

MyAimIsTrue

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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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

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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Mittengirl

Mittengirl

With the way things have been in the world in the last few months, I am sort of relieved that NBC is using tape delay.  I think I would otherwise be holding my breath waiting for something terrible to happen.  At least this way it won't happen live.  But if they break in with a special report, I may pass out.

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SnideAsides

SnideAsides

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?

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Arynm

Arynm

I have a hard time believing that a sponsor would not let Pele out of any obligations he might of had so he can light the cauldron. It would really be a shame if he had to miss it.

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CindyBee

CindyBee

After thinking about it, I'm just going to go with the taped NBC coverage than watching a live stream.   Just have to stay off twitter so I'm not spoiled on anything.

Hope everyone enjoys the ceremony and it goes off without any incident.

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legaleagle53

legaleagle53

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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mightysparrow

mightysparrow

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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Daisy

Daisy

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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Daisy

Daisy

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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Fostersmom

Fostersmom

I know they are a bunch of strangers, but could the US team look anymore like strangers? Damn! Unless a camera is on them, they are all siting staring at a phone not even trying to act like they want to know their neighbor. Hell, make them do the first day of school get to know the person next to you thing!

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mightysparrow

mightysparrow

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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Daisy

Daisy

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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ExplainItAgain

ExplainItAgain

(edited)
2 minutes ago, galaxygirl76 said:

NBC, I'm bored.

Yeah, can we get this show on the road? We're already behind, man!

EDIT: Seriously, how much Botox does Costas have? Even so, he still hasn't aged much.

Edited by ExplainItAgain
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