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The Olympics

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Butts

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I was disappointed with the torch route - looked from initial information as if it'd go past my house but it seems it'll spend most of its time on a lorry - in Keighley there's only about a mile of actual running - it arrives from Bradford "in convoy" and then departs for Skipton the same way.

I thought about volunteering for the Olympics until I found out I'd have to carry around a McDonalds logo.

McDonalds and Coca Cola seem very odd organisations for the world of sport to want to be associated with.

Carling Cup....Tennants Cup....spring to mind.

Don't imagine ethics are involved its a purely financial consideration:oops:
 
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SS4

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McDonalds and Coca Cola seem very odd organisations for the world of sport to want to be associated with.

Don't forget that well known sporting brand Cadbury. Admittedly their business practices are probably better than those two.
 

Deerfold

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Don't forget that well known sporting brand Cadbury. Admittedly their business practices are probably better than those two.

Now part of Kraft of course.

Not a fan of Cadbury - they took over Green and Blacks and shortly afterwards cut a few corners to save money meaning I could no longer eat most of their products.
 

Butts

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Now part of Kraft of course.

Not a fan of Cadbury - they took over Green and Blacks and shortly afterwards cut a few corners to save money meaning I could no longer eat most of their products.

Are Creme Eggs smaller than they used to be or are my hands bigger - a great philisophical question of our times:p
 

Schnellzug

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I never once said anybody should get excited. I said we should be mildly proud that we are hosting such an event.
Excited is if you intend to go round London flag waving and singing and going to watch any events etc etc. What i said is so far removed from that.
You only get excited if you love the Olympics. Some people dont. I never tell anybody they should love the Olympics, so I have never told anybody they should get excited.

Also, where have people been told they should be getting excited? I havent seen this anywhere. .

I wish you could see our local paper, nearly every day. There's nearly always some drivel (like the drivel I quoted above) from Lord Coe and the local Council wibbling on in just those words.
 

Deerfold

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Are Creme Eggs smaller than they used to be or are my hands bigger - a great philisophical question of our times:p

Many chocolate bars have a cycle - they slowly get smaller and stay the same price. Then they get bigger (usually with a *new bigger bar* slash on them) with a price rise.

I suspect if this happens with creme eggs it'll happpen during the off season.

My dad used to be a grocer and I was a mildly obsessive child...
 

90019

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I never once said anybody should get excited. I said we should be mildly proud that we are hosting such an event.
Excited is if you intend to go round London flag waving and singing and going to watch any events etc etc. What i said is so far removed from that.
You only get excited if you love the Olympics. Some people dont. I never tell anybody they should love the Olympics, so I have never told anybody they should get excited.
Excited was an example. Proud is just as bad.

Why exactly should I be proud of something that I have no interest in? Because you are?

Also, where have people been told they should be getting excited?

I have been told by quite a few people that I should be excited about the Olympics.
 

Trog

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The sooner it is over with the better.

All that money wasted just so Tony Blair could spend a day grandstanding on the telly.
 

Schnellzug

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The sooner it is over with the better.

All that money wasted just so Tony Blair could spend a day grandstanding on the telly.

Actually, yes, it did backfire a bit, didn't it. This was Tony's big Prestige project; he Brought the Olympics to Britian, and he hoped, obviously, to be able to bask in the glory.
... Sadly, it didn't really work as a vote winner, did it. And now David "Cameron" is basking in all the glory. There's a lesson there, perhaps.
 

ACE1888

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Must be an 'age' thing, 'when I was a Lad' etc, the 'Olympics' were one of the true great sporting events in the world, you knew all the 'big names' in most sports, but these days I don't know bu**er all about it :oops: Still whatever the money spent on it, I do hope it's successful and the buildings etc have a long and sustained future following it. Boris Johnson as Mayor of London was a stroke of genius, what an entertainer the Man is!:lol:
 

Deerfold

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Still whatever the money spent on it, I do hope it's successful and the buildings etc have a long and sustained future following it.

Half of the buildings on the main olympic site will be demolished, sorry I mean recycled.

The largest of the buildings (by square footage) is for corporate hospitality and is not the venue for any games.
 

NY Yankee

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Posted Friday, April 13, 2012 8:29 AM ET

The Associated Press

Kurt Angle has survived steel chairs, low blows and dastardly double-crosses in the choreographed world of pro wrestling.

But Angle couldn't continue on the amateur circuit when his own body betrayed him with a series of injuries that ended his improbable run at making the U.S. team for the London Olympics.

On Thursday, the 1996 Olympic gold medallist and TNA Wrestling star backed out of next week's U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Iowa. The 43-year-old Angle was planning on competing for a spot on the U.S. freestyle team headed to the London Games this summer.

Angle partially tore the MCL in his right knee during training on Monday to finish off the long-shot bid. He also tore his right hamstring during a training session last month.

"I feel like it was a waste of time," Angle said by phone Thursday. "Here I am, at the 11:30 hour, and I get the worst injury I've gotten in the last year. I've had four or five injuries, but I've worked around them. This one, I can't work around.

"There's no way around it."

Angle understood his bid at making the Olympics was viewed with wide-eyed skepticism.

He never cared.

Travelling around the globe for TNA Wrestling, Angle found the closest mat around to the professional ring and pushed himself during training.

The 1996 220-pound freestyle wrestling gold medal winner in the Atlanta Games had scaled back his professional commitments for TNA and dedicated the last year to his Olympic dream.

US Olympic Team coach Zeke Jones advised Angle to withdraw from the U.S trials set for April 21-22 at the University of Iowa.

"We have such incredible, awesome competition, that with my MCL injury, they would have torn me apart," Angle said.

Angle said he will perform for TNA and wrestle Jeff Hardy at its Lockdown pay-per-view event on Sunday.

"In amateur wrestling, I have no control over what's going to happen to me," he said. "My No. 1 priority is TNA Wrestling. With TNA, I can work around my injuries and still have a five-star match."

He's the second high-profile wrestler this month to depart the trials. Cael Sanderson, the 32-year-old Penn State wrestling coach who won gold at the Athens Games eight years ago, said this week that he is also dropping plans to win a spot on the U.S. team.

Angle said he planned to wrestle in Iowa with the hamstring injury, but the MCL was too much overcome. He does not need surgery because the MCL was not completely torn.

"My foot slipped on the mat and my knee turned inward," he said. "I knew right then I was done. I quit practice."

Angle had to get back to the amateur basics, the style that made him a worldwide force in the 1990s that culminated with him on his knees as tears poured down his face when the referee awarded him an overtime decision over Iranian Abbas Jadidi in the 1996 gold-medal match.

Angle had been smarter this time around, training fewer hours and days, and feeling less pressure than in '96 when it was gold medal or bust.

Angle went from the amateur ranks to the WWE and became an instant star for the promotion. Angle was granted his release from his WWE contract in 2006 and signed later that year with TNA.

His injuries ended his shot at making Olympic history. The oldest Olympic wrestler to medal was Chris Campbell, who won bronze at 37 at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Angle turned 43 on Dec. 9.

"I really thought that I had a legitimate shot of at least making the team, or being an Olympic alternate," Angle said. "At 43, no one's ever done it. I had that opportunity.

"I had that shot."

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news/newsid=1230369.html

I'm sure you're familiar with Kurt Angle. There have been many WWE events in the UK. Angle was one of the best WWE wrestlers. He was not the biggest guy, but he was quick and agile. To even compete for a spot in the Olympics at the age of 43 is a remarkable feat.
 

ainsworth74

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That's a shame back when I vaguely followed WWE (actually it was WWF back then) I quite like Kurt Angle.
 

Schnellzug

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Aha! Something else I've just found, yet another way in which we should be so damn grateful for having this Amazing Experience hoisted upon us. The leading local coach tour company, I find, is "Not offering any tours at all during July & August owing to the Intensive Operational Support of the London 2012 Games and the Flaming Olympic Sailing Events." That's right, stuff everyone else, the flaming Games are more important. I'm really sorry to people who think I'm such a Bore for not being grateful to Lord Coe for giving us this Incredible Experience, but how much more of this crap do we have to put up with?
 

Butts

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Aha! Something else I've just found, yet another way in which we should be so damn grateful for having this Amazing Experience hoisted upon us. The leading local coach tour company, I find, is "Not offering any tours at all during July & August owing to the Intensive Operational Support of the London 2012 Games and the Flaming Olympic Sailing Events." That's right, stuff everyone else, the flaming Games are more important. I'm really sorry to people who think I'm such a Bore for not being grateful to Lord Coe for giving us this Incredible Experience, but how much more of this crap do we have to put up with?

I wonder if your forefathers felt the same way in 1908 and 1948 - isn't it wonderful that you are able to express your objections in a public forum with no fear of any negative consequences to yourself or your liberty.:idea:
 

Deerfold

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I wonder if your forefathers felt the same way in 1908 and 1948 - isn't it wonderful that you are able to express your objections in a public forum with no fear of any negative consequences to yourself or your liberty.:idea:

They weren't excuses to sell Coke and McDonalds to us - they were celebrations of the feats of those who pushed themselves to the limit.

I do appreciate the amount of free speech we have, but I'm not quite sure what you're getting at.
 

Butts

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They weren't excuses to sell Coke and McDonalds to us - they were celebrations of the feats of those who pushed themselves to the limit.

I do appreciate the amount of free speech we have, but I'm not quite sure what you're getting at.

That makes two of us..........:oops:

Seriously there are only a handful of Countries in the whole world capable of hosting such a celebration of sport , should we not be thankful we are one of them ?

Would the same fuss be made about sponsors if it was The World Cup - I doubt it somehow :p
 

Deerfold

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That makes two of us..........:oops:

Seriously there are only a handful of Countries in the whole world capable of hosting such a celebration of sport , should we not be thankful we are one of them ?

Would the same fuss be made about sponsors if it was The World Cup - I doubt it somehow :p

If it was costing billions and disrupting the lives of millions and demanding that everyone should be behind it, yes, I suspect it would.
 

Butts

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If it was costing billions and disrupting the lives of millions and demanding that everyone should be behind it, yes, I suspect it would.

If they didn't spend the money on The Olympics it would probably be wasted on something else.

At one time it would have been seen as a sign of National Prestige but I guess all that went out with the age of deference :p
 

MidnightFlyer

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Yes, but I believe people were a lot more welcoming of it in the past. I don't think at this moment in time even half of the population support us having the Olympics, even before the financial meltdown too.

It doesn't help either by having what is frankly a horrific tumour of a logo either, seriously if that's the best someone can do with millions of pounds of funding and equipment then there is something seriously wrong. I welcome the end of August when we can consign it to history.
 

Greenback

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Mrs Greenback, who is a big fan of the Olympics, is now getting fed up of the constant references. With 90 odd days to go, i confidently predict she will be as anti Olympics as me by the time they start.
 

Butts

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Mrs Greenback, who is a big fan of the Olympics, is now getting fed up of the constant references. With 90 odd days to go, i confidently predict she will be as anti Olympics as me by the time they start.

Once it actually starts she will forget all that and enjoy the sight of Usain Bolt or more likely in her case Dai Greene stacking up the medals.

I must admit it is the athletics I really like :p
 

Greenback

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Once it actually starts she will forget all that and enjoy the sight of Usain Bolt or more likely in her case Dai Greene stacking up the medals.

I must admit it is the athletics I really like :p

You ar eprobably right, it is the hype and saturation coverage, rather than the events themselves, that are getting up most people's nostrils!
 
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