London 2012: Row after NBC drop opening ceremony '7/7 tribute' - The Guardian
The US broadcaster NBC is facing growing criticism after editing their delayed coverage of the London 2012 opening ceremony to replace the "memorial wall" tribute section with a Ryan Seacrest interview with Michael Phelps.
NBC, exclusive holders of the US rights to the Games, chose to broadcast the entire ceremony on a time-delay to maximise primetime advertising revenue, and were further criticised for refusing to provide a live online stream.
NBC's broadcast, which began as the live ceremony was finishing in London, left out sections including the reflective moment when the Scottish singer Emeli Sandé sang Abide with Me.
The section included images of loved ones lost by those in the stadium, and was also widely interpreted as a tribute to the 52 victims of the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London in 2005.
On the BBC's coverage, commentator Hazel Irvine said: "The excitement of that moment in Singapore seven years ago when London won the Games was tempered with great sorrow the very next day, with the events on 7 July."
However NBC instead cut away in order to show Seacrest, the host of American Idol, interview Phelps.
Criticism of NBC's handling of the broadcast rights comes after it revealed its advertising income from the event has passed $1bn (£630m). It earned $850m from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In reaction to complaints over the lack of a live stream from the ceremony, NBC said: "We are live streaming every sporting event, all 32 sports and all 302 medals … The opening and closing ceremonies, however, are entertainment spectacles.
"Our award-winning production team will present them on a medium that best demonstrates their grandeur and majesty, and at a time when friends and family are able to gather together to watch, which is in primetime."
Media reaction to London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony - BBC News
The London 2012 Olympic Games began last night with an opening ceremony watched by 62,000 people in the stadium and an estimated global television audience of one billion.
The show featured British celebrities and sportspeople, including David Beckham and Bradley Wiggins, screen characters Mr Bean and James Bond - and even a surprise acting debut from the Queen herself.
So what did commentators and pundits from across the UK and the world think of director Danny Boyle's celebration of British culture?
UK reaction
Simon Barnes, The Times:
"London turned down the option to celebrate giants and supermen and power and might and chose instead to celebrate people... Humour, above all things, humanises and there were elements of self-mockery that suggested that we could make this the humorous Games; the Games of humorous humanity in a land in which a joke and a grumble are never far away, and often enough one and the same thing."
Harvey Goldsmith, Music Promoter:
"I actually went to last dress rehearsal, and watched it live and then watched it last night. And strangely enough I was quite looking forward to watching it on TV, but the live experience was extraordinary... there was so much going on it was hard to pick it up on TV, so you lost a lot of that element which was a shame because in the actual stadium it was amazing."
Richard Williams, The Guardian:
"For four years, following Beijing was thought to be the most thankless task in show business. Danny Boyle made it happen. He made the stadium seem bigger than it is, as big as the world. He gave a party, full of jokes and warmth and noise and drama, and he got the Olympics started."
Historian Tim Stanley, Telegraph Blog:
"So after all of this, what is Britain? A country that can still put on a show, that has many identities, that is culturally rich, that has a battered landscape, that lost a lot when the factories were first built, that has patches of God still found lying about, that is intensely proud of what it got right (free healthcare, women's votes), but not too comfortable about what it got wrong (empire was never mentioned). It is a mess. A jolly wonderful mess. We're good at those."
Rick Dewsbury and Ian Garland, Daily Mail:
"There was no doubting the night's biggest star, local boy David Beckham, who transported the flame by speedboat under Tower Bridge to the stadium. It was the coolest moment of an amazing show and an estimated television audience of one billion tuned in worldwide."
Former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley, The Times:
"Presumably he hoped to capture the ethos of the whole host nation. But it is hard to feel romantic, or even sentimental, about anything as amorphous as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And it is near impossible to identify characteristics that are common to the Cotswolds and the Gorbals, the Falls Road and the Brecon Beacons without taking refuge in references to 'this happy breed' — a bogus description of the English written by Shakespeare before the kingdoms were united."
Arlene Phillips, Commonwealth Games choreographer:
"I wished I had seen it live because I found the camera shots sometimes focusing on quite small moments which were exciting, but it didn't make your heart pound. And of course, there were some amazing things to see. I didn't feel I got it all as a viewer... But I also thought after the ceremony Danny Boyle should be running the country because this was a people's ceremony."
Andrew Gilligan, The Telegraph
"The NHS segment in particular underlined how surprisingly parochial this ceremony was. The idea of the Health Service as a beacon for the world is, bluntly, a national self-delusion."
World reaction
Sarah Lyall, The New York Times:
"Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is... It was neither a nostalgic sweep through the past nor a bold vision of a brave new future. Rather, it was a sometimes slightly insane portrait of a country that has changed almost beyond measure since the last time it hosted the Games, in the grim postwar summer of 1948."
Anthony Faiola, The Washington Post:
"If the opening ceremonies of the London Games sometimes seemed like the world's biggest inside joke, the message from Britain resonated loud and clear: We may not always be your cup of tea, but you know - and so often love - our culture nonetheless. The themes showcased Britain, past, present and future, capturing the mind-set of a nation seeking to redefine itself through these Games after nearly a century of managed decline. A great empire, gone. Military might, ebbing. Sense of humour, very much intact... For an audience across the Atlantic, it seemed like the rock-and-roll Olympics, an event celebrating the shared culture of the English-speaking world — so much of it thanks to these relatively tiny isles."
The display "reminded a billion viewers of the best contributions that Britain has given to the world for over a century: its sense of humour, its music, and of course sport".
Greg Baum, The Sydney Morning Herald:
"Boyle's vivid and vibrant pageant set the tone for these Games and perhaps even a new direction for the Olympic movement. Rio has a hard act to follow, which won't deter it at all... His show did not take itself too seriously, but was never trivial. It was irreverent, but never disrespectful. It was clever, but did not outsmart itself. It was at once subversive and sublime. This is a country of royals and aristocrats, but Boyle's show rejoiced in the commoner."
Farayi Mungazi, BBC African Service, speaking on BBC Radio 4:
"Well, the London Olympics are of particular interest to Africa, simply because of Britain's colonial past on the continent... There was plenty of reaction on Twitter, and most of it very very positive. For instance, Ghana Web - Ghana's biggest website - called it "bloody brilliant", and one of Nigeria's most respected sports journalists tweeted that there are some things money can't buy, like the swell of pride in the chest of every British citizen. And the last comment from a Kenyan journalist I know personally says Beijing was nice, too technical, but London was more human...
"I think there were a lot of things that many people would not have understood... I imagine there were a lot of people who would have wondered at all the hospital beds and thought 'What on earth is going on?'"
Zhuang Chen, BBC Chinese Service, on Radio 4:
"Reaction from China is quite positive in general because it was broadcast live... it has become a very hot topic on China's vibrant cyber sphere. The Chinese official Wang Ning, director of the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, said he would give 90 out of 100 marks to Britain, which is quite high. He liked the innovative ways to illustrate British culture, its influence and also its new image. But the downside to that - the TV cut-aways during the show might compromise the experience of the live audience inside the stadium... And also talked about by Chinese audiences was the human side of the opening ceremony, which was not that illustrated four years ago at Beijing."
Anastasia Uspenskaya, BBC Russian Service, on Radio 4:
"There is a lot of interest in Russia, of course... almost all of the Russian media says London was in a very unlucky situation because it had the Olympics straight after Beijing - so it was an extremely difficult task to try and beat the Beijing ceremony and actually they didn't succeed. But there is one thing Russian media likes more about London opening - it's that unlike the robotic Beijing show, last night's performance was what they call elegantly chaotic - which is quite an English thing."
London did a "spectacular job"... Boyle "succeeded in defining Britishness in a surreal, moving and for some, confounding affair because of the jumble of ideas and an effort to tell a thousand small stories, which may not have been understood fully by the international audience."
"London presented a vibrant picture of Great Britain's rich heritage and culture as a colourful opening ceremony marked the inauguration of the 30th Olympic Games at the spunky Olympic stadium on Friday night."
"Kaleidoscopic pageant sets London Games rolling: Britain's Queen Elizabeth declared the London Olympics open after playing a cameo role in a dazzling ceremony designed to highlight the grandeur and eccentricities of the nation that invented modern sport."
"Children's voices intertwining from the four corners of her United Kingdom ushered in an exuberant historical pageant of meadows, steel mills and megapixels."
Twitter reaction
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch: "London Olympic opening surprisingly great, even if a little too politically correct. Danny Boyle a creative genius."
Television presenters Ant and Dec: "You can't not be proud to be British tonight. A triumph. Hats off to @DannyBoyleFilm. D x #OlympicsOpeningCeremony #proudtobebritish"
Runner Paula Radcliffe: "Nobody does it like Britain - nobody! @bbcsport #london2012. Welcome the world."
Singer-songwriter Billy Bragg: "Impressive though #openingceremony in Beijing was, they didn't have any great pop music to play, did they?"
Historian Tom Holland: "Shakespeare. Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Nimrod. Lots of Victorians in top hats. The Industrial Revolution. If only sport was always like this."
Speaker's wife Sally Bercow: ":-))) this is so fabulous! Give Danny Boyle a knighthood now. We're all dancing round like mad things (except Mr B obvs #decorum"
Conservative MP Aidan Burley: "The most leftie opening ceremony I have ever seen - more than Beijing, the capital of a communist state! Welfare tribute next?"
And: "Thank God the athletes have arrived! Now we can move on from leftie multi-cultural crap. Bring back red arrows, Shakespeare and the Stones!"
EYES ON LONDON: Swimming and excited Olympic fans - The Guardian
The Associated Press= LONDON (AP) — Around the 2012 Olympics and its host city with journalists from The Associated Press bringing the flavor and details of the games to you:
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AND FROM THE TV END ...
This from AP Television Writer David Bauder just now:
"An opening ceremony from the mother country with a Beatle, a queen and Mr. Bean proved irresistible for viewers in the United States, with a record-setting 40.7 million people watching NBC's first night of summer Olympics coverage. The Nielsen company said Saturday that London's opener was the most-watched opening ceremony of any summer or winter Olympics. It topped the previous mark of 39.8 million people who watched the 1996 Atlanta Olympics begin, and the 34.9 million who watched the colorful first night from Beijing four years ago."
— David Bauder — Twitter http://twitter.com/dbauder
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RING TONE
Everyone's warned to silence mobile phones at press conferences with medal winners. So where was that rap tune coming from at Ryan Lochte's news conference after he won gold in the men's 400 meter individual medley?
From Lochte's mobile.
The ringtone? "I have a lot of them," Lochte said. "Probably something from Lil Wayne."
Steve Futterman of CBS, whose question was interrupted, cracked, "If you win a gold, you get to leave your phone on."
— Warren Levinson — Twitter http://twitter.com/warrenlevinson
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PHELPS: MOVIN' ON
Perhaps the most stunning outcome of the day was Olympic golden boy Michael Phelps finishing fourth and out of the medal hunt in the 400 IM.
Phelps is trying to turn the page, and do it quickly because he has a busy slate at these London games.
He tweets: "Not pleased with my race tonight at all... But tom is a new day! And a new race!!"
— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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PHELPS: MOVIN' ON
Perhaps the most stunning outcome of the day was Olympic golden boy Michael Phelps finishing fourth and out of the medal hunt in the 400 IM.
Phelps is trying to turn the page, and do it quickly because he has a busy slate at these London games.
He tweets: "Not pleased with my race tonight at all... But tom is a new day! And a new race!!"
— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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BIRTHDAY CARD
Megan Rapinoe's goal celebration was an ad hoc birthday card.
After she scored for the U.S. women's soccer team in the first half of Saturday's 3-0 win over Colombia, Rapinoe reached into her sock and pulled out a note that read: "Happy B-day Kreigy. We love you." Rapinoe raced to the sideline and held the note up to the fans.
Ali Krieger, who turned 28 Saturday, is missing these Olympics after blowing out her knee during a qualifying match in January.
"It's a nice little ode to her," Rapinoe said.
But couldn't Rapinoe have spelled her teammate's nickname a little better? "Did I put the 'ei' wrong?" she said, laughing. "That's how it's spelled in my phone."
— Joseph White — Twitter http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP
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GET YER WENLOCKS HERE
The massive shopping mall adjacent to Olympic Park isn't the only spot for consumerism.
Within the park, there are a handful of stores featuring all kinds of "London 2012" and Olympic gear, some of which was available at the main stadium during the opening ceremonies Friday night.
T-shirts of all shapes and sizes cost about 25 pounds ($38), whereas novelties like banks and stuffed toys go for 6 to 12 pounds ($9-18). Most items feature the Olympic rings, the London 2012 logo or London Olympics mascots Wenlock and Mandeville. There is an offering of higher-end items, including signed photographs and commemorative coins and pins.
Visa, only, though if you are using a credit card (it's a global sponsor). Pounds are welcome.
The Royal Mail also has its fair share of Olympics material, including commemorative stamps, postcards and coins. On Friday, many people sought postmarks featuring the date of the opening ceremonies and the mail service organized to provided a special ink postmark for that very reason.
The demand didn't seem as high as the Beijing Olympics, when the opening of the games provided a unique date: 08-08-08.
See another photo of Wenlock — various Wenlocks, actually — here: http://pic.twitter.com/wASEY5lg
— Lou Ferrara — Twitter http://twitter.com/louferrarald
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VATICAN'S OLYMPIC SPIRIT
Even the Vatican is getting into the Olympic spirit.
The official Vatican newspaper ran a glowing review of Friday's opening ceremony and published an op-ed piece by the British ambassador to the Holy See. The subject: his family connection to Eric Liddell, one of the most memorable Olympians of all time.
Liddell was famously depicted in the 1981 film "Chariots of Fire." He was a Scottish missionary who pulled out of the 100 heat at the 1924 Olympics because it took place on a Sunday. He went on to win gold in the 400.
In the L'Osservatore Romano piece, Ambassador Nigel Baker recalled how his great uncle Noel was serving in China in the Welsh Regiment of the British Army in the early 1930s when he met Liddell, who was then working for the London Missionary Society.
As Baker recounted it, Great Uncle Noel — a fairly accomplished 400-meter runner — was preparing for an Army race the following day when an "ungainly redheaded man joined him and asked in a broad Scottish accent if he might run alongside."
The two did a few laps together. "You're not bad," the redhead said. "Tomorrow I'll be first and you'll be second."
Great Uncle Noel was a bit put off by the remark. He realized the following day at race time that he had not only warmed up with Liddell but would be competing against him.
"Liddell smiled, and acknowledged my great uncle," Baker wrote. "The gun fired. The athletes set off. Eric Liddell finished first. Great Uncle Noel second."
—Nicole Winfield — Twitter http://twitter.com/nwinfield
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STANDING WATCH IN WEYMOUTH
The sailors aboard the dinghies, skiffs, keelboats and sailboards that will dash across Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbor in the Olympic regatta will be protected by a security force ranging from police on personal watercraft to the Royal Navy's HMS Bulwark.
The HMS Bulwark, a landing platform dock assault ship, lurks a few miles out on the English Channel, serving as a floating command center for the miltary-police-civilian security effort. The ship's crew is monitoring commercial shipping, fishing boats and marine radio channels. It keeps a helicopter in the air at all times.
There were practice races Saturday in the Finn, Star and women's match racing classes. The regatta starts Sunday with two races in the Finn and Star classes and round-robin races in women's match racing.
British star Ben Ainslie, going for his fourth straight Olympic gold medal, appeared unhappy about something as he headed to shore. In December, his outburst at a TV cameraman got him disqualified from the world championships in Australia.
— Bernie Wilson — Twitter http://twitter.com/berniewilson
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SECRET PAIN, SECRET JOY
After Anthony Ogogo won his opening bout over the Dominican Republic's Junior Castillo, the British middleweight revealed his mother went into hospital six weeks ago after brain hemorrhage left her in a coma. Ogogo says his mother is doing "really well," and she's just down the hall at the hospital from her oldest daughter, who went into labor on her second child shortly before Ogogo's bout.
"Hopefully I'll get out of here and find out I have a new niece or nephew," he says.
— Greg Beacham — Twitter http://twitter.com/gregbeacham
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LUCKY SEVEN HOPES
Jorgen Persson hopes the seventh time is lucky.
The Swede is one of three players to have appeared in every Olympic table tennis tournament, beginning with the first one in 1988. But he's yet to win a medal. He advanced to the second round on Saturday, defeating Segun Toriola of Nigeria 4-1.
That's a perfect start for a guy who's lost twice in the Olympic semifinals in 2000 and 2008 — and then lost both bronze medal games.
"When you have these two opportunities to reach finals and lose — tough moments. ... This is my last chance. I will not get any more chances."
Persson has said that several times. "This is definitely the last," he repeated. "Rio is too far away."
— Stephen Wade — Twitter http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP
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AQUATIC INTERLUDE
"That piece of cardboard in your hands won't be worth anything in two hours. Just remember that. Worth nothing!" — a man outside the aquatics center trying to get someone to sell him one of their prized tickets. He was right, but what a ride unfolded minutes later: In the first big showdown of the games, the U.S.'s Ryan Lochte won the 400 individual medley, and teammate Michael Phelps came in fourth.
— Tim Dahlberg — Twitter http://twitter.com/timdahlberg
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TEXTBOOK SWIMMING
Eric "the Eel" Moussambani made being bad at the Olympics good. Or cool, anyway.
Jackson Niyomugabo will continue the tradition of unlikely Olympic swimmers when the Rwandan competes in the 50-meter freestyle this week in London. He learned his sport from a French textbook and by watching meets on TV because he didn't have a coach.
"The Eel" gained worldwide fame by struggling in the 100 free at the Sydney Olympics. While he honed his skills back home in Equatorial Guinea in a hotel swimming pool and sometimes a river, Niyomugabo trains in Lake Kivu, the shimmering body of water that separates Rwanda from Congo.
His most precious tool is easily the book titled "The Secrets of Swimming Development."
And although it's in French, and Niyomugabo doesn't read French, he compares the illustrations in it with what he sees on television and goes from there.
"My main coach all my life has been this book," says the 24-year-old Niyomugabo, a two-time Olympian. "It was an extremely difficult way to learn. I would sit for hours ... staring at the TV."
But a lack of coach hasn't stopped him. He swam in Beijing, where he didn't make it past the preliminaries but has higher hopes this time. Way higher.
"I want to win a medal this time," he says. "And why not?"
— Gerald Imray — Twitter http://twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP
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QUITE A VIEW
Early in these games, one of the most popular places in Olympic Park has been atop a grassy hill where the Olympic rings stand and overlook the park. It's a breathtaking view, and there were long lines throughout the day Saturday as visitors scaled the hill to get their pictures taken under the rings.
"It's spectacular," says Karen Kennedy, who came from Chicago with her teenage sons Stratford and Robert. "It's just a shock that this oasis is here in a bustling urban area."
See the view here: http://yfrog.com/kj5xczzj
—Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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ONE OF THE GUYS
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev attended the Russian women's volleyball match against Britain at Earls Court on Saturday afternoon. Surrounded by dark-suited, earphone-clad secret service, Medvedev even joined the crowd in doing the wave.
It didn't have any impact on the match, but the Russian women won 3-0 anyway.
— Anne M. Peterson — Twitter http://twitter.com/anniempeterson
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POOL: WORLD RECORD
A new world record Saturday night: Ye Shiwen of China sets it on the way to winning Olympic gold in the women's 400 IM.
— Beth Harris — Twitter http://twitter.com/bethharrisap
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CELEB INTERLUDE
AP's Jenna Fryer reports from the streets of London:
Wandering through SoHo after a beach volleyball session where we just missed Sir Paul McCartney, we came upon a large crowd lining both sides of a small alley.
There were people hanging out of windows with cameras. Curious, we joined the crowd.
Rumors circulated that Madonna was about to exit the building, or Jude Law was about to arrive. But when the black sedan pulled up, out popped Keith Urban, followed by wife Nicole Kidman. The crowd pounced on the car, blocking it in on three sides.
"Nicole! Nicole!" people shouted. But she never turned, and they jeered Kidman as she entered the House of St. Barnabas-In-SoHo for the launch of The Omega House. (Not the one from "Animal House," and Doug Marmalard wasn't there. It's the watchmakers' promotional headquarters for the Olympics.)
We asked who else might be arriving, and were told singer Pixie Lot. With that, we headed to dinner. See Kidman's appearance here: http://pic.twitter.com/k96LWDUr
— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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PHOTO OP, FOOD OP
American 16-year-old Ariel Hsing was tickled about reaching the second round in table tennis on Saturday. But meeting Michelle Obama on Friday might have been even better.
"She was really nice," the Californian said of the first lady. "She gave me a hug and we took pictures."
Hsing says she also mugged for photo with Michael Phelps and Kobe Bryant. But meeting Michelle Obama was "the biggest." lAnd, of course, the food.
"The Olympics village is so cool. There is so much food there, which I really like." Spoken like a true teenager.
— Stephen Wade — Twitter http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP
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HAPPY ODDSMAKERS
There were some pretty sad-looking people cycling out of central London after Mark Cavendish failed in his bid to win the men's road race.
But at least one group of Brits must be grinning from ear to ear Saturday: the bookmakers.
I bet (sorry) they took a lot of cash on the misfiring Manx Missile. They must surely have cleaned up Friday night when opening ceremony director Danny Boyle picked seven unknown young athletes to light the Olympic cauldron instead of heavily favored four-minute-miler Roger Bannister.
— Mike Corder — Twitter http://twitter.com/mikecorder
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PRESSURIZED
U.S. women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma on the pressure that comes with a 34-game winning streak in the Olympics: "Some day, maybe it's Monday, maybe Wednesday, maybe Friday, Sunday, who knows, the United States is going to lose in the Olympics. ... I'll be disappointed for those players. But the pressure's there whether you worry about it or not."
— Jon Krawczynski — Twitter http://www.twitter.com/APKrawczynski
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BRITAIN, NOT YANKS
The Olympics opening ceremony dwarfed the Red Sox-Yankees game for viewership in the New York market. The Yankees' 10-3 win Friday night was seen by an average of 335,000 viewers on the YES Network while the Olympics were viewed by an average of 2,634,000 on WNBC, according to YES.
— Ronald Blum — Twitter http://twitter.com/ronaldblum
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LOCHTE, NOT PHELPS
A U.S. win in swimming just now: Ryan Lochte wins United States' first gold of the London Olympics in the 400 IM. Michael Phelps comes in fourth.
— Paul Newberry — Twitter http://twitter.com/pnewberry1963
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'ABSOLUTE BLAST'
"Isn't beach volleyball fun? The crowd has an absolute blast and the players don't take any of it too seriously." — Michael Rothwell from Wimbledon, who was watching beach volleyball with three male friends — all clad in bikini tops and shorts.
See him and his friends here: http://img.ly/llhV
— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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TRAFFIC JAM
The Uruguayan soccer team is looking for a new mode of transport.
It took them about 7 1/2 hours to go by coach from Manchester to London this week — about three hours more than normal.
"There was a lot of traffic and the bus barely moved on the highway. I don't know what happened, I imagine it was a result of the games," says coach Oscar Tabarez.
Uruguay's players then spent three hours on their feet in Friday's opening ceremony, leaving Tabarez to order them to take a nap on Saturday.
— Paul Logothetis — Twitter http://twitter.com/PaulLogoAP
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GUEST APPEARANCE
Paul McCartney made a cameo at Horse Guards Parade, where he watched two matches of Saturday's opening day. He left his seats, though, right before Britain's men's match against Canada began.
— Jenna Fryer — Twitter http://twitter.com/jennafryer
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KEEPING IT NATURAL
At the London Olympics in 1908, gold medalists were presented, alongside their medals, with something rather British indeed. The king and queen would present winners with a glass-fronted box of oak leaves from Windsor Castle.
One of those gifts, presented to British wrestler George de Relwyscow, is now on display at the British library as part of an Olympics exhibition. The leaves inside are still intact, but they don't look as lush as they perhaps did on July 25, 1908.
Check it out here: http://www.whosay.com/fergusbell/photos/208240
— Fergus Bell — Twitter http://twitter.com/fergb
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CATCH UP OVER A CUPPA
First Lady Michelle Obama has had a private meeting with Samantha Cameron, wife of Britain's prime minister, after both women attended Friday's Olympic opening ceremony.
Mrs. Obama met with Mrs. Cameron for a cup of tea at Winfield House, the home of the U.S. ambassador to London, set in lavish grounds at leafy Regent's Park.
Aides to the British leader's wife said the two met for a "catch up" for about 45 minutes.
— David Stringer — Twitter http://twitter.com/david-stringer
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TAR HEEL BLUE
The easiest thing to notice upon walking into the gym at the University of East London, where the U.S. men's basketball team is practicing, is the color of the walls.
They are a familiar shade to U.S. college sports fans: the light blue of the North Carolina Tar Heels.
And if you think that would bother U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski, since North Carolina is the chief rival of the Duke team he coaches, then you don't know Coach K very well.
Krzyzewski wants to beat all teams, so no one is any more important than another. It's a mentality he carries into his role with USA Basketball.
"It lends itself to this type of thinking since I've been national coach, because we're supposed to win every game and we want to win every game, so why not prepare that way for each opponent?" Krzyzewski says.
The first one on Sunday is France — coincidentally also known as "Les Bleus."
— Brian Mahoney — http://twitter.com/briancmahoney
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SYRIA'S BALANCING ACT
He's in a delicate position for sure.
The head of Syria's Olympic team at the London Games is choosing his words carefully to describe the ambitions of the country's athletes and the government, whose forces are bombarding his home city of Aleppo.
Maher Khayata said he was worried about his family, trapped in Aleppo during one of the most significant battles of the 17-month uprising in Syria. But he said the army is trying to "protect people and keep them safe."
Three Syrian athletes were competing on the first full day of competition in swimming, shooting and boxing Saturday. Back home, the army pounded Aleppo by helicopters to flush out rebels.
"There are two sides of the dispute," Khayata said. "One of them is fighting to seek power and the other side wants to keep the security of the country."
"I am a sportsman, not a politician. Everyone knows there are armed people and the army that is trying to protect people and keep them safe."
— Barbara Surk — Twitter http://twitter.com/BarbaraSurkAP
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LOUSY SHOPPERS
They might be world-class athletes, but they're apparently lousy shoppers.
A smattering of Olympians have been doing some window shopping at the Westfield Mall on the edge of Olympic Park, rubbing shoulders with thousands of fans and workers at the gleaming consumer's paradise. Only problem: They don't buy anything.
"I am just here to look," Marouane M'rabet, a Tunisian volleyballer, explained apologetically to a sales clerk who had spent the last five minutes rubbing a sample bottle of massage oil onto his forearm.
After he and a teammate walked off, the woman explained the problem.
"They aren't allowed to bring any liquids into the Athletes' Village," she said, a reference to tight security measures at the closed-off complex where the Olympians are housed. "So they never buy anything."
— Paul Haven — Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven
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EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item, and get even more AP updates from the Games here: http://twitter.com/AP-Sports
London 2012 Olympics: Picture special as Games burst into life - Daily Mail
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London 2012 has burst into life at sports venues across the capital and beyond. On another historic day for the country, the nation woke up to a flood of sports hitting their television screens - while hundreds of thousands headed to venues for their first taste of the action.
The Queen, who attended the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, was back at the Olympic Park for a tour - and she popped in to the Aquatics Centre to take in some of the swimming.
Diving in for success: Ryan Lochte of the United States starts the 400m Individual Medley at the Aquatics Centre
Loving it: The Queen and Prince Phillip were shown around the Aquatics Centre by Lord Coe (left)
Watching over: The Queen takes in the sights during a tour of the Olympic Park
Shooting was the first event to take place with the women's 10m air rifle qualifying at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich.
Badminton was next up at Wembley Arena, while there were early British casualties in the archery at Lord's cricket ground.
The men's team of Larry Godfrey, Simon Terry and Alan Wills were beaten 223-212 by their opponents from Ukraine in the bid for a team medal. The home team shot just five maximums in their 24 attempts, compared to their opponents' 11.
Got a table? A view of the Table Tennis at the ExCeL centre in east London
Dancing shoes: British duo Sophie Troiano and Natalia Sheppard take part in the Women's Foil Individual at the ExCeL
At the Olympic Park in Stratford, there was swimming at the Aquatics Centre, basketball at the Basketball Arena and handball at the Copper Box.
Elswhere, fans were packed into the stands for the rowing at Eton Dorney near Windsor for a sport that Great Britain has historically excelled at.
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning confirmed their status as gold medal favourites as they stormed into the final of the women's pair in a new Olympic record time.
Roared on by a packed crowd at Eton Dorney, Glover and Stanning won the opening heat of the Olympic regatta in a time of six minutes and 57.29 seconds, beating the previous best by over four seconds.
Basket cases: Canada took on Russia on day one of London 2012 at the Basketball Arena
Judo first: France's Sofiane Milous (R) competes with Japan's Hiroaki Hiraoka at the ExCel
Glover and Stanning controlled the race from the outset, leading the field by a half a length at the 500 metre time-check before pulling smoothly clear to beat the United States crew by a length.
At Horse Guards Parade in central London, the beach volleyball competition got underway with spectators hoping for sunny weather.
That is also right next to the cycling road race that started at 10am - with Mark Cavendish in the hunt for a gold medal.
The ExCel in Docklands, east London, hosted several sports - with fencing, judo, boxing, weightlifting and table tennis all taking place.
Huge draw: The peleton makes it way up The Mall towards Buckingham Palace at the start in the men's road race cycling race
Big crowd: There were around 25,000 at Eton Dorney to cheers on the British rowers
Power game: South Korean gymnast Kim Hee-hoon performs on the parallel bars in the Artistic Gymnastics at the North Greenwich Arena
Meanwhile, London 2012 organisers are investigating why there were noticeable numbers of empty seats at the start of the swimming events on Saturday morning. Every session at the Aquatics Centre is a sell-out but some people had not showed up.
London 2012 communications director Jackie Brock-Doyle said: ;The public have turned up, it looks like they were accredited seating [for officials or media]. We are looking into who should have been sitting there and why they were not.'
Sight for sore eyes: A view of the beach volleyball taking place at Horse Guards Parade in central London
Take that: China's Zhang Lei serves during the women's volleyball at Earls Court in west London
London 2012 opening ceremony wows world media - BBC News
The London 2012 Olympic Games have been officially opened with a spectacular ceremony celebrating British history, social, cultural and industrial achievements.
Film director Danny Boyle, who masterminded the ceremony at the Olympic Stadium in east London, deployed a huge cast including many ordinary Britons as well dramatic special effects.
How was the event viewed around the world?
Asia-Pacific
China's mainstream party-run and state-run media were fairly measured and gracious in their comments on an opening ceremony that, in the minds of many Chinese, was going to be a bit of an anti-climax after director Zhang Yimou's lavish ceremony in 2008.
State-run Xinhua news agency said: "From Shakespeare to Rowling, from the industrial revolution to social networking, the British tried to tell the world - London has had influence and it will continue to influence the world."
Xinhua's Lin Yang said: "With idyllic pastoral scenes, British humour, and fantasy literature, the London Olympics opening ceremony was full of British characteristics. What lay behind these memorable parts were none other than Britain's well-developed cultural and creative industries."
Chen Chenxi, in the Communist Party People's Daily, praised the British for "thrift" and their "distinctive culture and aspirations". Chen commented, "If the Olympics opening ceremony can change from dazzling to being simple without losing warmth and from sumptuous extravagance to being calm but fully creative, it will increasingly return to the core values of the Olympic movement."
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported a "lavish opening ceremony celebrating Britain's rich history and great figures, by turns dramatic, imaginative, humorous and solemn, as thousands of performers weaved the story of the country's past, present and future".
Singapore's Straits Times said: "Britain can make and is making it a grand show. It is not merely scale but also authenticity that makes a spectacular difference."
The Australian daily praised a "glorious pandemonium devoted to London's thriving, chaotic energy, that celebrated everything from punk music to social media and the internet, deliberately revelling in the chaos of Britain's free society and popular culture in an obvious retort to the breathtaking order and intimidating precision and scale of Beijing's ceremony in 2008".
Europe
France's Le Figaro daily said the display "reminded a billion viewers of the best contributions that Britain has given to the world for over a century: its sense of humour, its music, and of course sport".
The German papers also enthused over Boyle's extravaganza. "Fire in these Games" and "Wow, what a show!" said headlines in Bild, while Die Welt said the evening party was "brought alive by lighting technology, fireworks and simple British coolness".
Americas
The Los Angeles Times said the performance was "moving, bizarre, funny and exciting, and often surprisingly dark; certainly it was never dull. It had at times a quality of seeming completely random even as one suspected that repeated viewings would reveal all sorts of connections and echoes and interior rhymes."
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation website said: "It was a rocking, rollicking, sometimes quiet and brooding ceremony that touched on pretty much every aspect of British culture and history from medieval times (what, no Battle of Hastings and Magna Carta?) to modern life."
Middle East
Commenting on the appearance of 86 year-old Queen Elizabeth, who declared the Games open, Egypt's Al-Ahram daily said: "Children's voices intertwining from the four corners of her United Kingdom ushered in an exuberant historical pageant of meadows, steel mills and megapixels."
Iranian TV was lukewarm at best, with Press TV describing the ceremony as "a light-hearted take on British history" but wondering whether the Games would be simply a "two-week of adrenalin rush for a country in deep recession with the hangover yet to come". The rolling news channel IRINN reported that the ceremony took place amid "intensive security measures".
Qatar's The Peninsula daily said London did a "spectacular job" making the opening ceremony a "memorable event". Boyle "succeeded in defining Britishness in a surreal, moving and for some, confounding affair because of the jumble of ideas and an effort to tell a thousand small stories, which may not have been understood fully by the international audience."
BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here
London 2012 Olympics: Boris limbers up to join the Tory Olympians - Daily Telegraph
Like Lear, those of us who comment on Westminster – who “talk of court news” – are instinctively drawn to “who loses and who wins, who’s in, who’s out”. But that is not always the best prism. Last week, I asked a Cabinet minister about the Coalition’s political strategy; he replied that the global stakes were now so high that the usual tool-kit of his trade was almost irrelevant: “The economic forces this country is facing are so elemental that, in one sense, what we say and do doesn’t matter. People’s minds will be made up by the storm and its strength.”
It is always startling when those whose profession is power admit their powerlessness. For the most part, the Coalition remains robust in its claim that its plan is working, albeit more slowly than originally hoped, that the deficit is being reduced, that growth will return, and that “Jerusalem” – the imaginative core of the opening ceremony – will become distantly visible once more. Yet, from time to time, the mask falls, and those who govern us admit that the global economic rumblings beneath our feet may yet erupt into something overpoweringly grim.
That is why Danny Boyle’s extravaganza was more than an amazing show: it spoke in the same language of dream and myth, the language of fear and of hope that mediates troubled times. This country is being tested, and there is worse ahead. What is Britain made of? Not the straight lines or regimented conformity of Beijing four years ago, but precisely the opposite. “Eccentricity exists particularly in the English,” wrote Edith Sitwell in her great book on the subject; it is, among other things, an “antidote against Melancholy”. Right on both counts – as Boyle’s production showed triumphantly.
Those who looked for an ideological message in the show were missing the point. Yes, the NHS, the Beveridge Report and immigration were all celebrated. But so what? Since when were those things to be ashamed of? Or did I miss a committee meeting? The ceremony also hailed the achievements of the Armed Forces, the great hymns, the Union. Its thematic power flowed not from politics but the sleepless spirit of innovation and invention: the idea of Britain as a revolutionary nation, whose revolution was not ideological, but scientific, creative and intellectual, its greatest export the fruits of the mind, whether Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or the internet.
As I wrote last week, true Britishness straddles the border between irony and determination. In popular culture, James Bond personifies the audacity, courage and flair of the English individual. The Queen, as the Jubilee celebrations last month showed so vividly, is a living symbol of lifelong service, institutional continuity and personal dignity. And yet, in a moment of epic daring, our 86-year-old sovereign was willing not only to be present but to take part in the performance, apparently leaping from 007’s helicopter. This was campness of the highest order, monarchy as music hall. It was also, one acknowledges only now, incredibly risky - remember the horrors of It’s a Royal Knockout in 1987? Yet it worked like a dream, as exquisite an expression of British self-deprecation as one could possibly imagine. It showed that, if being good at sport matters, then being a good sport matters even more. Among her many other attributes, the Queen is a very good sport indeed.
Meandering, colourful to the point of psychedelia, magical rather than bureaucratic, it might have been mistaken for a glorious mess. But there was, after all, a thread that ran through it. Boyle took as his text the words of Caliban: “Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises.”
So it was, and so it is. A little less than a year ago, the flames fanned by the young were not those of torches but of blazing buildings, as riots tore through cities across England. That is one side of this country, a country where respect and self-respect are sometimes in short supply. But not on Friday night; not in the 70 preceding days as 8,000 bearers carried the Olympic fire over 8,000 miles, witnessed by 14 million cheering spectators; not in the face of Doreen Lawrence, mother of the murdered Stephen, carrying the Olympic flag; and not in the next fortnight of epic athletic performance, as the world watches this proud, extraordinary city: “Infinite London” as its biographer Peter Ackroyd has called it. Be not afeard, indeed.
Errrrr...why no mention of Greenwich Park? A fantastic venue completely overlooked. Poor.
- British, and proud, 28/7/2012 22:18
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