It’s the 8th here, and you know what that means! 8-8-08. OLYMPICS!!!
The topic for all things Olympics!
I am seriously pumped up for this. I’ve been just like sitting in front of the TV with a mascot plushie in my hand and cheering. All my gold medal bets are on my yt channel, so no point in putting it here.
Any sportheads out there?
Oh I am totally excited for the Olympics. I am really excited! My favorite sports that I want to see the competetors play is fencing, diving, swiming, basketball, track,gymnastics, and a whole lot more.
I’m really jazzed to see the opening ceremony. I’m really big on Asian cultures. Especially ancient history and especially Japan and China. I was too young during the Nagano games to take an interest, but this year’s should be amazing.
I’m very happy to see the world is focusing on the Olympics instead of the same old political news for a while.
I am also happy that all of these countries can come together. I know it happens every time but last time the games were on, I was too young to care 
Oh, I have been obsessed with the Olympics since I was a kid. I remember being 8 and waking up earlier than anyone else in the house to watch the Games in Barcelona. Right now I’m already wearing a stack of bracelets I made a few years ago, one in each of the colors of the Olympic rings, and I might paint my nails in the colors later today. One of my life’s dreams is to be an Olympic volunteer someday.
I have Bible study tonight, so I have to tape Opening Ceremonies, but I’ve already got the rest of my night planned: wait until everyone has watched whatever they want to watch, then start the DVR - I’m not going to bed until the last firework has been shot and all the Beijingers head home.
A quick note: Please keep any event spoilers in tags. The West Coast of the US is roughly 15 hours behind Beijing, and some people don’t want to know the winners ahead of time. Xie xie!
[size=84](Xie xie means “Thank you” in Mandarin)[/size]
You’re going to enjoy it 
It was arguably the best opening ceremony ever for the Olympics games. The best I’ve seen in my life, anyway.
My favourite part of the opening ceremony was when [spoil]the people with the lights on them made the dove.[/spoil]
Here in Ohio, we are still watching the march of the countries. They aren’t entering the stadium in alphabetical order. Instead, they go according to the number of strokes in the Chinese character representing each country. I feel sorry for whomever had to figure that out.
I’m in Sydney, so we watched the opening last night from 9.50 pm. There were [spoil] tons of mass dance numbers (all very synchronised!), some high-altitude trapeze acts, and well-timed fireworks all over the city![/spoil] I loved the shot where [spoil]the camera swoops over in aerial view of the city as it tracks/follows the fireworks exploding at the various locations.[/spoil] The music is typically grand and awe-inspiring.
There were a couple of cute kids accompanying the adults in various segments. My favourite was [spoil]the little girl smiling as she sat next to a piano player.[/spoil]
Then there was that long march of the countries. At that hour, my bro and I were so exhausted of waiting for Singapore, Australia and China (which came in that order respectively). Malaysia appeared fairly early. [spoil]Yaoming was the flag bearer for China.[/spoil]
And then the lighting of the torch. Ooh, that was spectacular. The final guy runs along the side of the walls and sets the trail leading to the cauldron alight. The cauldron literally burst into flames and then the ensuing fireworks…it lit up the sky so brightly it was almost like broad daylight.
This is the first time I’ve watched the Olympics opening ceremony. I don’t think I watched Sydney and Athens, and any Olympics before that, I probably wouldn’t remember. The Chinese really pulled out all the stops this time, apparently there was no limit to their budget unlike previous Olympic ceremonies. I can’t imagine how those in Singapore would feel, last night they would have watched the Olympics, tonight they would be witnessing their own National Day Parade (which although pales in comparison in terms of performer numbers and pyrotechnics, is nonetheless still as awe-inspiring).
I just saw the opening ceremonies (recorded). It was so incredible and jaw-dropping 
, I can’t describe it well enough. How do they do that? They work together so perfectly, I wonder how long it took to rehearse that and get it right. It got me astounded all the way through.
I just saw the opening ceremony. I think the words jaw-dropping, perfection, grace, beauty, seemingly effortless, and incredible would best describe it. The entire opening act blew me away.
I agree with everyone here, I was also blown away by the opening! My favourite part was march of countries! I loved seeing all the different flags and cultures.
I said I would stay up all night to watch it on my DVR - it’s 4am here in CA… I loved watching the parade of nations, too - I had some fun with it and put together a sort of red carpet report… I’ll share my opinions later on. Now it’s bedtime.
I totally agree with everything that was put on here. My favorites would have to be the torch and the fireworks.
Wow. A lot of people are into the Olympics. I hadn’t even realised they’d started until a friend of mine a few hours ago mentioned that she’d watched the starting ceremony thing on TV, and thought it was pretty cool.
Sports stuff always goes way over my head. 
Holy cow the opening cerimonies were AMAZING!! I loved the beginning with the 2008 drummers that was cool that they had 2008 for the year 
and the wind and rain where they were in those boxes and moving up and down to make rain and wind symbols. It was cool i was guessing in the middle there were people in the boxes because i thought i saw feet lol
I agree, the Opening Ceremony was absolutely amazing!
I have watched some of the things this week and as usual the UK, all of the competitors managed to drop out of the mens Road Race and we did not qualify in the 400m but I am still enjoying it and looking forward to watching some more tomorrow.
So, like I said, I played Miss Blackwell this morning (lol), and so here is what I came up with. As always, this is subjective: your mileage may vary.
• Best designer costume: United States. You can’t beat Ralph Lauren, plus ascots are involved.
• Best ethnic costume: Lesotho in their camo-ish capes and awesome hats (Honorable mentions: Marshall Islands for their awesome necklaces, Burundi brought funky hats and walking sticks)
• Best combination of the two: Uganda’s use of the blazer jacket over floor-length tunics, topped with floppy hats, Tonga pairing native skirts with blazer jackets
• Best use of national colors (flag): Ukraine - blue blazer jackets trimmed in yellow, white oxford shirts, blue and yellow striped ties, and yellow skirts on the girls and white pants on the guys
• Best use of national colors (non-flag): New Zealand – black and silver polo shirts (they really love that silver fern)
• Best use of flag: Croatia’s use of the coat of arms on the outfits, Kiribati’s shirts basically are the flag
• Maybe they thought too hard about this, or not hard enough: Hungary’s girls are in some really busily-patterned suits (with hats to match)
• Most creative: Kazakhstan’s use of bright orange in their girls’ outfits; Estonia’s blue, orange and green jackets; Sweden’s Chinese-inspired tops for the girls
• Rather overdressed: Poland’s girls. Looked more dressed for a cocktail party.
• Most overused fashion item: blazer jacket (108 countries out of 204). Most overused colors: white and grey. Notable differences: Congo (went for the double breasted); Andorra, Thailand, Slovenia (went shiny). Most overused item number 2: fedora. I’m not rewinding all the way back to count them all.
• Interesting to see: the use of bagpipes and all those chipper Chinese cheerleaders
• In love with their own name: Ecuador has their name on each jacket arm, and each pant leg
• If it’s got your country’s name in it, might as well wear it: Panama hats, Bermuda shorts
• Looks like you just pulled this out of your closet: Micronesia’s Hawaiian shirts
• Things I want in my closet: the outfit of the chipper Chinese cheerleaders (especially the boots), the top worn by the Croatian girls, the dress worn by the Swedish girls, the fan that Laura Bush was using
These opening ceremonies were very disappointing. Congrats to the Chinese for winning the 2008 games. There will most likely be many world records broken at these games.
GO USA!!!
we look like we are in good shape for some medals.