Friday, August 08, 2008

Olympic fun

Well, the Chinese certainly know how to put on a show don't they? 5 or 6 major performances, each with more than 1000 people in and perfectly choreographed. The opening ceremony was absolutely phenomenal. Watching the athletes parade in was fun... for a while. The vexillologist* in me enjoyed working out which country was which before they were announced. I can't imagine it was fun for the first countries to stand around for 2 hours while the rest came in!

The bar has certainly been set high for London in 2012. Somehow I don't think we'll be employing 10,000 people for 2 years just for the opening ceremony. The transformation of the city also seems very impressive: Beijing has spent £20bn on the Games; we're planning on £9bn with rather more modest redevelopment, but hopefully better legacy after the Games are over.

One piece of Olympic trivia for you: Great Britain is the only country to have won a gold medal at every Summer Olympic Games, since their reformation in 1896.

* Today's word of the day on iGoogle. It means a studier of flags!

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