<p>^^The guy carrying the German flag was Dirk Nowitzki, who is the star center for the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA:</p>
<p>[NBA.com</a> : Dirk Nowitzki Info Page](<a href=“http://www.nba.com/playerfile/dirk_nowitzki/]NBA.com”>http://www.nba.com/playerfile/dirk_nowitzki/)</p>
<p>Simply stunning. They should just retire the gold medal for opening ceremonies right now. </p>
<p>The “cheerleaders” didn’t bother me except that I kept thinking, after about two hours or so, “From what fathomless reserve are they summoning all that energy?”</p>
<p>
Sad to say, cottonwood, I doubt we’ll have to worry about it. The preliminary voting is going on now, and the US is not doing well. An unintended consequence of political fallout. Unless something drastically changes in the next year, looks like it’s going to be Spain, Brazil, or Japan.</p>
<p>Nowitzki’s rings surprised me. He doesn’t seem like the rah-rah type.</p>
<p>The biggest cheer at our house came for Manu Ginobili of the SA Spurs, carrying the flag for Argentina.</p>
<p>I heard on the Today show yesterday morning that Tom Brokaw called the Ralph Lauren people and asked that instead of the warm-up suits USA often wears that they design something nicer to help bolster the US’s image. I thought that was odd.</p>
<p>Oh, and agree that those jackets on the Hungary women were horrible. I don’t know what the designer was thinking.</p>
<p>I heard that the cheerleaders were jumping and such in -heels-, which I did not notice at all so my respect went up a lot for them after finding that out.</p>
<p>S2 says nbcolympics.com has been having video of almost everything. He is anxoiusly awaiting Telemundo coverage later today so he can work on his Spanish listening! :0</p>
<p>After watching a lot of today’s coverage (in between installing the balusters on the new deck), I think NBC is doing a great job. Lots of sports, not much jumping back and forth, and a light dose of features stories. The HD broadcast is MUCH nicer than the regular-cable quality of CBC, too.</p>
<p>One of my favorite things to watch is on this morning, the swimming relays. They’re always so much fun.</p>
<p>We’ve switched back and forth between NBC and CBC, depending what’s on. And this morning I’d rather watch swimming than David Gregory on Meet the Press! I think NBC is doing a pretty good job, too, although they apparently have people in the western part of the country annoyed because they are getting everything on tape delay and not live like the rest of the country is.</p>
<p>washdad, CBC also has an HD broadcast but you probably can’t get it if you aren’t a subscriber.</p>
<p>CBC HD – not available here on the Comcast service.</p>
<p>I loved watching the three women who won medals in the saber. The silver medalist looked like she would like to have another chance at the gold medalist – no padding, no dulled edges. A very unhappy-looking young woman.</p>
<p>I was so thrilled/scared when they raised up that last Chinese Olympian carrying the final torch like Peter Pan…and had him do that gorgeous pantomime of running at the top of the stadium…that I stood up and cheered like a fool. THAT was thrilling! I thought opening ceremonies were very beautiful on an artistic level.<br>
On another note, a teacher of our son’s raised in Taiwan, was disappointed that her country’s team opted not to carry their flag in the opening ceremony parade…</p>
<p>What I noticed about the girls in white skirts was that they were jumping up and down and waving their arms in enthusiasm–in that heat–for that duration!</p>
<p>I noticed the same thing when the children left the floor with a deliberate display of wild enthusiasm.</p>
<p>Who cares about the outfits? It’s so unusual for the Chinese to intentionally display so much outward emotion–especially American style enthusiasm. And it worked. The entry of the the athletes was more festive.</p>
<p>An in-depth art/film critique of the meaning behind the ceremony vignettes would be very very interesting. Anyone know a qualified critic?</p>
<p>All the young Chinese I’ve talked to are in shock–not by the extravagance–but by the underlying meanings of the ceremony. One young man, in line to get a passport from a western country in a few years, declared he won’t give up his Chinese passport after seeing that performance art. I’m sure that was the emotion the PRC was hoping for.</p>
<p>Wondering if anyone caught the women’s single sculls heat with the Belarus rower who had a radio/antenna on her boat. Commentators were discussing the violation, but I had to leave to run errands before I heard the official explanation. Figure there must have been a good reason, but I’m curious as to what that reason turned out to be…</p>
<p>Acclaimed director Zhang Yimou is largely responsible for the artistry of the Opening Ceremonies. Here is a good article which gives some details about the thematic threads throughout the Opening.</p>
<p>[Opening</a> ceremony: the meaning behind the spectacle - News and Features, Olympics - The Independent](<a href=“Opening ceremony: the meaning behind the spectacle | The Independent | The Independent”>Opening ceremony: the meaning behind the spectacle | The Independent | The Independent)</p>
<p>Through nbcolympic.com provided by CountingDown, I was able to get the names of all eight former athletes that carried the Olympic flag. As I thought, they include athletes from the earliest days of the People’s Republic. One was the first woman to break a world record (high jump), another was the first man to break a world record (breast stroke). Politics, of course, always plays a role. (I am not convinced the inclusion of a Tibetan female mountaineer from the 1970s was not a more recent decision).</p>
<p>The first person that became a world champion was not there. Yong Guotuan won the men’s single title in table tennis in 1959 and coached the women to a team title in 1965. He was driven to suicide during the Cultural Revolution. Very tragic.</p>
<p>When we were in China in April we saw an amazing performance on the Li river produced by Zhang Yimou. [Liu</a> San Jie](<a href=“http://yangers.com/Liu_Sanjie.htm]Liu”>http://yangers.com/Liu_Sanjie.htm) It’s neat knowing that the same person did that amazing show for the Olympics.</p>
<p>Funny side story. My daughter has been in China for the past year (finally coming home in 11 days!) and said this morning on the phone that every time she happens to watch the Olympics all they show are the Chinese athletes winning. I told her that we’ve been seeing American wins. I looked at the gold medal count in this mornings paper and China and the US were tied 8 golds each! </p>
<p>She also said that it was pretty cool being in China during the Olmpics because of the pride of the people for their country. On the opening night she sat at an outside bar with friends where they had set up a Big Screen tv to watch the ceremony. Since she couldn’t go to the Olympics itself, that seemed like a not too bad way to watch it.</p>
<p>OK, so I’m watching the Chinese gymnasts right now and am fuming. I wondered why NBC wasn’t talking about the underage gymnasts and now the mention is totally glossed over. What’s the point of having competition passports if the paperwork to get the passport is all forged?</p>
<p>My 13yo, before that story was discussed, said that some of these girls look like they’re 12. Boy, was he right.</p>
<p>^, I believe they’re talking about that on the ‘Other Side to Olympics’ thread and I think the general consensus has been that gymnasts are usually smaller, even US gymnasts are short or something (yes, checked- tallest is 5’3?).
But I should mention that every Chinese person I know ages ridiculously- my cousin came over and every single one of my friends thought she was 15ish- was 26!</p>
<p>ETA: I heard NBC mention that issue when the Chinese came out but I think they supported the team.</p>
<p>On the other hand, now I’m watching the 33 year old German gymnast! And she qualified for the finals on vault. Yay - maybe 20 isn’t the end of the line for gymnasts after all.</p>
<p>^^ Yes! Isn’t the 33 yr old awesome! Oksana something. Did you see the background spot on her? This is her 5th Olympics. She was on the Soviet Union team when she was 16. Her son got leukemia; the Russian hospitals couldn’t help him, so she called a German gymnastics coach she knew who had her bring him to Germany so they treated him (he’s in remission now). The coach got her back into the gym and now she’s back at the Olympics.</p>
<p>(i think it was the soviet union team; whatever russia was back then; they called it the unified team or something; anyway she’s origlly from russia)</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay,
The commentators were discussing how young some of the female Chinese gymnasts (and one in particular) looked. They were trying to be very diplomatic, though.</p>