I luv this part of the closing ceremony. seeing all the athletes from all nations come together and party the night away together.

In fairness to China, Greece didnt exactly fill all the stands either. I remember the same moaning on the net and in the media about Athens stands being empty.

the London presentation was a bit of a static mess...somehow. Becks' appearance was just all out stupid.
Leona's vocals were amazing though!

seeing that double decker bus transform was awwwwwwsome!

Ok, so I missed the ceremony until now.


And the first thing I see is Jackie Chan singing. Oh my. I love him, but

lol Jackie Chan gets more weird by the year....

As much as I love him, singing is not his forte.


He could probably out-medal most of the athletes there

the closing ceremony is great... i LOVE the tower and the raising of those ribbon things... very epic.

The closing ceremony is OK, but it's more like a normal gala we Chinese could put together on a regular basis, while I felt the opening ceremony truly transcended what anyone had done before.

Overall a great Olympics, the most memorable one for me, started out by the spectacular opening ceremony. On the athletic front, to be honest, if you ask me to name the achievements I remember the most from previous Olympics I watched, I probably could only give one or two, but this one has more than a few that I should remember for the foreseeable future. Having Phelps and Bolt certainly help, especially with them coming from sprint races in swimming and track and field, pretty much the most popular events in the Games, and we probably will never see an athlete dominate as much either in the water or on land, let alone both at the same time.

But it's more than just them. Gymnastics, in particular on the men side, the individual diving events, rowing, volleyball, even men's basketball game final is one to remember.

It's also more than just athletic achievement. There are a lot of touching human stories that I'll remember as well, like South Africa's Natalie du Toit in 10km swimming and Germany's Matthias Steiner in weightlifting. Those are truly Olympics moments.

Yeah Greece had that same problem.

Did Athens turn in a profit? I read on Wiki (dunno if true) that only the two Los Angeles Olympics had a profit.

I remember reading Athens was in debt after the Olympics.

I don't think China turned in a profit either, considering the estimated total cost is around $50 billion, but this is not a primary concern here.

I highly doubt Athens had a profit.... the stadiums are crap now, so they wasted so much money on things they don't even use now...

Most small countries have the same trouble, they do not have the need for these huge sporting arenas, so after the two weeks, the city starts losing money fast...

I don't think they will turn a profit either, but they have gained so much more potential (for business/money and such) because of these games that they will turn a profit indirectly.

Oh no, lol. Countries as small as Greece can never hope for a profit from the Olympics. Plus, only LA and Atlanta, from what I know, ever turned a profit.


I think Greece's credit rating was actually lowered because of the games.

Beijing can host another Asian Games now, Bird's Nest and the Cube are beauties! God I love the Regional games. Not as massive and grand as the Olympics but pretty much even small countries get a chance at some recognition and training.

Greece's everything was lowered because of the games. Besides their national deficit. Four years later, the games continue to be a disaster for them.

Mostly because LA and Atlanta are big sport cities anyway so they did even need to build so many huge arenas.

Yup, especially LA. But Atlanta also completely sold out. That's why it's the cheap whore of the Olympics, as compared to the other cities, which for the most part are refined courtesans (though I've heard that Barcelona is really easy, if you know what I mean *HINT HINT*).

I'm so sick of fireworks. So sick of them!


I think they stopped being cool at around 1912.


OMG, Beijing's creepy mascots are on the stage. Quick, where are the snipers when you need them?

lol I only saw the mascots on the background (leaving the stage) in this coverage I'm seeing. I want to kick the Panda.

I can say the Channel 7 coverage of the Olympics was terrible. No extra digital channels. Limited internet streaming to just sports like Handball, everything else was replays. Hopefully by 2012, Channel 9 (who own the rights to London) do a better job with providing more stuff for the internet.

I can't believe Channel 7 wasted their Yahoo partnership deal with just replays.

London will hopefully be better, whether i'm living in Australia or not.

MadGez what do you think?

I don't know about Channel 7 in Aus, but the NBC coverage here in the states sucked.... really hope that I see things live next time...

Misty May-Treanor is in this fall's Dancing with the Stars. LOL!

I was going to post the same thing. Channel 7 were pretty pathetic at times. And most people ive spoken to thought the same.

Im 100% sure that Yahoo7 advertised that they would have live streaming and then backed out and just put up replays.

Hopefully Ch 9 takes note of the backlash and can improve.

But getluv - Oz tv has always been years behind other nations in general but Olympics coverage has always been better.