With just over a week to go I thought it might be a good idea to start an Olympics thread, especially now that athletes and media are starting to arrive in Rio and finding out about the condition of their facilities.

What are your thoughts on this upcoming Olympics? Any plans to watch it? Are you boycotting it?

I'll probably watch fencing now that NBC is streaming it (Fun fact, a few years ago in a college tournament I was up against one of the guys now on the USA team, he beat the ever-loving snot out of me.) Anything else I'll watch if it's on at a bar or something but nothing I'll go out of my way for.

I remember some parts of the 2012 opening ceremony were pretty weird/bad and I had a fun time making fun of them with my British friend in a bar at the time, maybe something like that will happen again.

But yeah all the shitty (hah) facilities are something else, sounds like this is even worse than Sochi.

I don't rally care for the summer games much but I may watch some of the water sports to see if a swimmer starts puking or pulls up to wipe a floating turd off their face. Hopefully it goes well but Brazil probably shouldn't have gotten this, it could spend its money much better than on this fiasco.

In honor of the new Olympics, let's remember the wonderful hotel conditions of the Sochi Olympics two-and-a-half years ago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wor ... periences/

Yeah, this has been on the news here obviously. I think it's a bit of a blow-up, though - more Australians are arriving and most are saying that as long as it has a bed and some modicum of a shower, they're going to be okay.

I don't mind the Olympic games because I get to watch sports I wouldn't watch otherwise. Unfortunately Rio is in a bad time zone for us (what isn't?) so I won't get to watch much of it. Plus with uni and work commitments it'll be far less likely I'll watch a lot of it. I'll try to watch what I can.

I hope Australia gets a decent medal tally. Apparently we did quite poorly in London so here's a good chance to redeem ourselves.

I tend to go through the same cycle every year where at the start of the olympics I hate it and hope it crashes and burns, and by the end of it I'm madly rooting for oz. Think we'll do fairly well as per usual. There's a half decent chance that it actually will crash and burn this year.. well, here's hoping. It is a pretty indulgent and wanky deal, and most of the sports are rather boring.

I guess I'll pay attention to the football tournament. As for my country, we'll at most win two or three medals, as always.

Man, all their towns and villages have names like Bangakangaroo or whatever, nothing should surprise you anymore.

For me its a Little better time zone but I wont have so much time either.

I was not a Madrid 2016 supporter but I am sure that the facilities in Spain would have been much better.

I'd prefer it if football was removed from the Olympics. Some weird U-23 tournament with a few above that age, different coaches than for those countries real teams, alot of players who get asked turn it down or their clubs stops them from participating. Not to mention that some countries, like the UK, don't even exist in the regular football world but are usually split into England, Wales, and so on, but have a unified team in the Olympics.

I believe quite few people interested in football even remember winners of the Olympic football tournament from various years.

The Olympics should be about the best athletes in the various sports competing and being highly motivated to be there. So when football becomes some pointless thing of players who are regularly not even close to being in their national team, just remove it.

I really get your point, but still as a football fan it can be enjoyable for what it is.

Apart from what's already been discussed, there's also some talk about how having so many visitors to the area from so many countries can be the perfect way to disseminate the Zika virus across the globe. Granted that a lot of factors have to fall into place for any real reservoir of infection to be established anywhere else, but I wonder if individual cases will crop up here and there in the time period after the whole Olympics ends and the visitors return to their home countries.

Another article about the 'shitty' conditions. This reminds me more and more of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games more and more.

As far as watching the Olympics, I am guilty of enjoying it. Other than Turin, I've been watching each one since Lillehammer 1994. I don't really care for the team sports too much, but I do enjoy watching the weightlifting, wrestling, and diving. They're all activities I've done before, so that adds to my enjoyment of them. I'll probably catch the rugby, just because it's also a sport I enjoy personally and it's new to the Olympics. Beyond that I'll probably catch the gymnastics, some athletics, canoeing and rowing. Oh, and the Opening Ceremony is usually entertaining, too. Though none of them recently compare to Beijing's in 2008.

I usually watch the Olympics casually, but I'll likely be watching these as much as I can. The prospect of this being a complete disaster for the ages is simply too good to pass up.

Well, Brazil's Olympic football team blows as much at tournaments as their main team.

Anybody watching the soccer (football) games yet? It's actually the only sport I enjoy watching so I'm on it right now. USA womens team is looking stellar as to be expected. Caught a bit of the Germany/Ethiopia (I believe) game, man did Germany kill them. And I just caught the end of the mens South Korea/Fiji game. HOLY FUCK. 8-0 just wow Fiji got annihilated.

I just find it really sad that the Olympics used to be (or, at least, seem like) the one part of global society that was pure and noble and friendly and good, basically an embodiment of everything optimistic about humanity, but recently it seems to be a cesspool of corruption and fucked up shit. Unless your country already has the necessary infrastructure to host something on this scale, it seems like Olympic bids always have this enthusiasm about boosting the economy of the host nation but they almost always wind up being huge clusterfucks that waste shitloads of money. Sad state of affairs and I'm not sure what could really be done about it.

I totally agree with you. Olympics are about athletes and not football. I like to watch OG because of the sports I dont usually watch.

I know that in the case of football world cups there needs to be the toughest ever corruption investigation into the circles that decide where tournaments are held, a thorough clean-up of all the corrupt elements, and an introduction of maximum transparency of the bidding and voting process. And giving the 2022 world cup (and all future ones) to a country with basic human rights (which, despite all, even Russia has (emphasis on "basic")). Something similar can be done for the Olympics. Dubai wants to bid for 2028 (I think), and if they cannot prove that they can completely eliminate their slave labour system in the process they should get an Olympic size middle finger so hard in their faces that even their megastructures can't artificially inflate their egos enough to recover.

Pretty sure this is one of those "it was always this bad, we were just too young to notice" situations. Plus there's much more instant coverage these days with modern media. 30+ years ago, awful Olympic village conditions and corruption in the selection process are something we might only hear about in a book published years later.

I don't think it was always this bad for the sole reason that the third world used to be ignored in the bidding process a lot more, if not completely.

Anyone else watching the opening ceremonies?

I am, still waiting for Sepultura to play in it lol.

That was a neat torch lighting.

Overall, I'd say as far as opening ceremonies goes this one was good.

Not available to watch in the U.S.

Damn you, Canadian Twitter!

Ah, perhaps this link will work:
https://streamable.com/fa54

Full ending with fireworks:
https://streamable.com/5rh6

And American Ginny Thrasher wins the first medal!

Gold no less!

USA USA USA

I love the Olympics, and prefer the summer games to winter. I have Tuesday off so I know what I'll be doing then!

I've enjoyed female rugby today, Canada destroyed both Japan and the host team 45-0 and 38-0. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game versus GB. I also liked the female football games.

Also, France can't catch a break this year. Poor guy

Australia tied with Germany 2-2 in women's football. The fact that we got a point against a football powerhouse is a hell of an effort.

Australia is also number one on the medal tally after day one. That won't last but it's nice to see.

I get that there are more popular sports, but TV networks - come on, man! Would it kill ya to put on just one damn handball game? Or maybe some water polo?

With all the bad news, at least the spirit of the event is intact.

Kim Jong Un will probably have her executed by a firing squad comprised of tanks if he sees that picture

Fencing: USA got a silver in men's foil! Still haven't gotten a gold in that category but at least we're more-consistently breaking the ranks of the Italians and French there. Wouldn't surprise me if we end up with a gold in women's sabre since Zagunis is still around to kick ass.

I got the pic from this article.

Germany currently leads 8-0 against Fiji in football.

-edit- 10-0

I agree! I haven't seen any handball yet, which is a shame because that's kind of a cool sport.

The USA defeated Australia in men's basketball 98-88. I can't believe we were even that close to the greatest basketball team in the world. USA didn't try but even when they're not playing well, they end up winning. USA should win gold.

This is one reason I love CBC and the streaming they offer online.

I get my weightlifting and rugby fix all the time!

They ain't showing water polo up there? I swear I've seen like four games on tv and I've barely been paying attention. Just enough attention to know the USA goalie, McQuinn Barrett or whatever, is absolutely fucking awful. I genuinely wonder who he was up against if he's the best they could do.