1) I want some of whatever Danny Boyle had when producing the opening ceremonies. Hunter Thompson has nothing on a guy who conceives hundreds of Mary Poppins defeating a 100 foot Lord Voldemort, depicting a literal industrial revolution, a tribute to the National health Service, fireworks to Pink Floyd's dark side of the moon, and convincing the queen of England to do a skit with a fictional character and out-act Daniel Craig in the process, all while Kenneth Branaugh wanders around a stadium like a blissed out Hobbit!
2) The Olympic men's road bike race was kind of anticlimactic. The course looked dull and treacherous at the same time, NBC didn't even go with the announcers from the tour de France, a washed up ex-doper won, and the vaunted English team (most of whom ride for BSkyB) couldn't figure out what to do without other team helping them. Even the announcers noted that unlike the Tour, "collusion with other teams was strictly prohibited."
3) The women's race was better and listening to several hundred thousand fans at the end chanting "Lizzie, Lizzie.." as the Brit rode to a silver was pretty cool.
4) My Olympic moments:
a) One of the USA women's basketball assistant coach is Doug Bruno, long-time women's coach for DePaul who was also one of my coaches for my senior year of high school basketball. His son was also one of my students. That mostly makes me feel old.
b) I have run most of the marathon course (the part along the Thames embarkment)at different times. The course was changed from both the original proposal, the London marathon, and the tradition of ending in the Olympic stadium. It appears it was done to be more tv friendly and go by as many historical places and monuments as possible. That mostly makes me sad.
5) Synchronized anything is kind of silly.
By contrast, the cycling time trial rocks. What lesson to draw from the fact that solo competition makes for better sport? Small dealers and worthy men, anybody?
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