Rio Olympics Day 0: Pre Opening Week

[GirlySports]

Some news items:

- Sailing starting dock collapsed

- Russians have arrived in Rio but this week have to apply each athlete to it's specific sports federation to get acceptance

- Women's soccer begins Wednesday with Canada vs Australia. It's on NBCSN but I don't see a Canadian channel listing for it yet.

- Did you hear about the Australians? Fire started by worker throwing a lit cigarette into a pile of trash. Fire alarms not activated.Athletes leave when they smell smoke. When they leave team uniforms and laptop stolen - other communications devices "rifled through". No CCTV in the village. No security.

- Steve Armitage has a heart problem and won't be able to call the swimming and diving. Elliot Freidman will take his place on CBC.

- and Americans being Americans. Despite occurring in a location that is only one hour ahead of the Eastern Time Zone (where the ceremony will begin at 7:00 p.m. ET), NBC confirmed that it would continue its practice of tape delaying the opening ceremony broadcast for the United States audience; the broadcast will begin at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, resulting in the ceremony airing on a one-hour delay on the east coast, and a four-hour delay on the west. NBC had also made a request to the IOC for the Parade of Nations to be conducted in English alphabetical order rather than Portuguese, stating that it would affect viewership if the U.S. team, referred to as "Estados Unidos" in Portuguese, entered too soon. The IOC denied this change, as it runs contrary to the requirement that countries enter in the alphabetical order of the language of the host country.

[CMPunk]

What? You're not using our super popular Olympic forum?

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/forumdisplay.php?f=50

This Olympics is going to be a disaster.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CMPunk

What? You're not using our super popular Olympic forum?

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/forumdisplay.php?f=50

This Olympics is going to be a disaster.

Finally! Some entertainment from the Olympics!

[Mango]

Canada vs Australia will be on CBC. The pre-match gets under way at 11:30 am Calgary time on Wednesday. CBC will have all of the Canadian women's soccer matches.

[undercoverbrother]

Canadian women has a decent shot of a medal in 7's.

[activeStick]

Havent verified it but my friend was telling me that Rio so far has been a real gong show... the water where the athletes are supposed to swim has dead fish floating on the yop due to contamination?! Is this true?!

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

[hockey.modern]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Havent verified it but my friend was telling me that Rio so far has been a real gong show... the water where the athletes are supposed to swim has dead fish floating on the yop due to contamination?! Is this true?!

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

Rio 2016: Swimmers need to ingest only three teaspoons of water to be almost certain of contracting a virus

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/o...-a7165866.html

[Locke]

Originally Posted by hockey.modern

Rio 2016: Swimmers need to ingest only three teaspoons of water to be almost certain of contracting a virus

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/o...-a7165866.html

I'd tell them where they could shove their medal.

[CroFlames]

Yeah they had problems with the World Cup, but it wasn't a "disaster" (organizationally speaking, of course. The semi final was an epic disaster).

Why are the Olmypics so crappy compared to the World Cup? The IOC has money, don't they?

[Senator Clay Davis]

The IOC doesn't pay for the Olympics, the cities stupid enough to bid on the Olympics get to eat the entire budget. Brazil is predictably broke from the World Cup, and has it's own political turmoil ongoing, so it's no shocker this is shaping up to be the worst Olympics ever. I'm sure what we see on TV will be carefully monitored to ensure we only see the good things, but I'm sure there will be horror stories aplenty from the athletes that will be coming out.

[GirlySports]

Brazil was rich when it won the bid in 2009 and the presentation was spectacular.
Two corrupt presidents later...

[Senator Clay Davis]

Brazil was part of BRIC block of emerging economic powers. Russia hosted an Olympics and is in the gutter financially, Brazil hosted one and is in the gutter financially, China is about to host another.....India probably wants no part of that ####.

[GirlySports]

Russia didnt need to spend a bazillion dollars on a winter olympics. That's their own fault.
Vancouver and London Olympics were fine. I'm sure the Pyeongchang and Toyko Olympics will be fine too (although the Tokyo mayor recently resigned due to corruption)

[polak]

Vancouver was a winter games. Far cheaper.

[flames_fan_down_under]

I am still impressed with the job Vancouver did with the Olympics. The Olympic Village is a really desirable place to live in the city with a lot of great restaurants in the area. The Oval in Richmond is a wonderful sports complex and so is the Hillcrest Rec Centre.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by polak

Vancouver was a winter games. Far cheaper.

Sochi was a winter games too! Vancouver spend 6 Billion Canadian. Sochi spent 51 billion US!
Add to that Vancouver's facilities are re-usuable. Sochi's are not.

[mrkajz44]

This is the first time in a long time that I am not looking forward to the Olympics. My reaction was basically, "huh? they are happening already?"

It's really a shame because I usually love the Olympics and glue myself to the TV for 2 weeks, but the desire just isn't there this time. Not sure if this is just related to all the Rio stuff or what - but it almost bums me out!

[getbak]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Yeah they had problems with the World Cup, but it wasn't a "disaster" (organizationally speaking, of course. The semi final was an epic disaster).

Why are the Olmypics so crappy compared to the World Cup? The IOC has money, don't they?

The scale of the Olympics is so much larger.

The World Cup is a single sport with 32 competing teams (23 players per team -- 736 total athletes). There were a total of 64 games played over 32 days in 12 stadiums in 12 different cities throughout the country.

Looking at the Olympics, the Men's soccer tournament alone is half the size of the World Cup. The Women's event is slightly smaller, but the total requirements for just soccer at the Olympics is almost as much as the World Cup -- and soccer isn't that big of a deal at the Olympics.


Overall, the Olympics this year is just over 2 weeks long and features 306 medal events in 28 sports, played at 34 different venues (18 existing, 9 new, and 7 temporary). Except for some of the soccer stadiums, all of the venues are in the Rio area. There are expected to be over 11,000 athletes from 207 nations in the Olympics. All of those athletes come with trainers and coaches. All of those countries have media and dignitaries that need to be accommodated.

The Olympics is like hosting two dozen major athletic competitions simultaneously in a small area over a short period of time.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by flames_fan_down_under

I am still impressed with the job Vancouver did with the Olympics. The Olympic Village is a really desirable place to live in the city with a lot of great restaurants in the area. The Oval in Richmond is a wonderful sports complex and so is the Hillcrest Rec Centre.

I heard from many people, especially friends in Richmond, that the Olympic village is actually a disaster. The accommodations were built so hastily, every single unit leaks and has had major issues.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Brazil was rich when it won the bid in 2009 and the presentation was spectacular.
Two corrupt presidents later...

GDP Growth Rate for Brazil.
2010: 7.6%
2011: 3.9%
2012: 1.7%
2013: 2.7%
2014: 0.1%
2015: -3.1%
2016: -3.2%

yikes....