The Official Olympic Thread

[dom9]

The tickets are sold, the venues are built, and there's one year to go.

I'm quite looking forward to it actually.

It's pretty amazing that the venues are built. People are quick to moan when things go pear shaped (Millenium Dome), but fair play to the organisers on this.

Anyway, I like this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-14298797

[Rich]

Boris amused me in the 1 year to go program.

[dom9]

Yeah, he's good value.

[dom9]

This is cool to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-14310777

17,500 seater swimming complex.

[Liverpool]

Nine billion pounds of taxpayers money wasted. London businesses will struggle whilst the games are compared to normal times.

Blatter and his mates get loads of free tickets whilst, lots of people were excluded in the ticket sales.

Apart from some rubbish football, the rest of the country is excluded from the event.

[dom9]

You sound almost as bitter as an Evertonian.

[CJ]

have we won any medals yet?

[captainfog]

Sweaty men grappling each other FTW!

[Alex]

Will there be an "Unofficial" Olympic thread? You know, to cash in on the dodgy merchandise.

[RichC]

German MP suggests moving the olympics if the riots continue, not a real shock this

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/12082011/58/london-2012-german-mp-wants-olympics-moved-riots-continue.html

Olympic officials should consider moving the London 2012 Olympics if the riots and looting of the past days in the capital continue according to German member of parliament Manuel Hoeferlin.

London has been hit by a wave of violence since Saturday with thousands of masked youths rioting, looting and torching buildings, a year before the Games.

The riots started following a peaceful protest after a man had been fatally shot by police two days earlier.

"Games cannot be changed from one day to the next. So I say that if the situation remains like that then we have to think early enough about changing the location," said Hoeferlin, a member of parliament in the ruling centre-right coalition.

"If under normal circumstances you need such a large number of police to control such violence, then how will it be at Games time when you have so many visitors," Hoeferlin said.

"How would it look? I have trouble imagining it. If the Games were held today it is is something I cannot imagine," he said.

Games organisers and the International Olympic Committee have insisted the violence would neither affect preparations for the Games nor the city's image ahead of the world's biggest multi-sports event.

"I have only expressed what many people were thinking at the start of the week," Hoeferlin, a member of the Free Democrats (FDP), junior coalition partners to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, said.

"Can a great event like the Games take place there next year under such conditions?"

He said Germany or even several countries could take over hosting the Olympics.

"Germany obviously has very good infrastructure, especially from the 2006 men's and 2011 women's football World Cups and we have very good sports venues overall," said Hoeferlin.

The riots were not confined to London and spread to several other major cities though it has eased in the past 24 hours.

"If the situation is contained then the Olympics can be staged there. That can happen," he said.

"The difficulty is time and that is why I said it now because if you take that decision too late then the Games could end up being postponed."

Germany has not staged an Olympics since the 1972 Munich Games and only days ago quietly marked the 75th anniversary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics which were overshadowed by the then ruling Nazi regime.

Last month Munich failed in its bid to host the 2018 winter Games.

[Muddled]

I was going to go watch the women's beach volleyball.

However, I've just seen GBR team member Lucy Boulton ...

It's not how I imagined it.

[Gibbo]

Ill be watching the football
the boxing
and maybe the odd martial arts.

The rest is a bit meh

[dom9]

If you like architecture, and if you like stadium architecture (I'm a bit of a stdium geek ), then this is worth a watch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15116027

[dom9]

West Ham are gonna have a huge task to make this into a half decent football stadium.

[dom9]

How can you watch a football match from this view?