Posted on 08/12/2012 7:03:42 PM PDT by the scotsman
'The London 2012 Olympics have ended with a spectacular musical closing ceremony and the official handover to the next host city, Rio de Janeiro.
The three-hour show featured some of the biggest names of British pop from decades past, including the Spice Girls, George Michael and Elbow. Games chief Lord Coe said: "When our time came - Britain, we did it right."
The official Games flag was handed to the mayor of Rio before the flame at the Olympic Stadium was extinguished.
President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, who declared the Games of the 30th Olympiad closed just before midnight, said: "We will never forget the smiles, the kindness and the support of the wonderful volunteers, the much-needed heroes of these Games. "You, the spectators and the public, provided the soundtrack for these Games. "Your enthusiastic cheers energised its competitors and brought a festive spirit to every Olympic venue."
At the close of the ceremony, watched in the stadium by the 10,000 athletes and 80,000 spectators, the flame was extinguished in dramatic fashion. Each nation will receive one of the cauldron's 204 petals.
As fireworks went off above the east London stadium, the Who performed My Generation and the venue became a sea of red, white and blue confetti.
The finale, which began with Big Ben chiming, paid tribute to UK music, fashion and culture.'
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Both opening and closing...just bizarre.
Produced by perverts to appeal to perverts. Awful.
If you think the Holy Grail wasn’t anti-Catholic, then you may think The Life of Brian was a celebration of palestinian “culture”.
Seriously, MP had a Catholic burr under their saddle. Some of it may have been funny but it leaves a bitter taste after a bit of reflection.
weren’t they from Michigan?
How can anyone ever take the UK seriously after that! A great Nation is now a big joke. Keep dancing to the end.
Was it really?
I could not force myself past the first ten minutes.
I may be one of the last posters on this thread, except for Hawaii of course, just now watching the Rio segment, will be quite interesting to see what kind of opening ceremony they come up with, most likely a “Super Carnivale” is my guess.
But I am grateful to the powers that be that Obama was told to take a hike with his Chicago offering, can anyone image what they would have done?
What a Great Fire rendition and the stockyards for a stage?
Gotta give Britain praise for security at the least, they had somewhat good weather, and the stadiums and events seemed to be of high quality workmanship. At least they had none of the Chinese “smog” or polluted fog.
10,000 athletes from around the world, and no Chick-fil-a?
-PJ
I thought GB did a fine job of the Olympics...for the most part the weather was fine, the facilities were wonderful, especially the pools, and the ceremonies well that was ok, the fire works was great. The security was good, not problems and only one athlete was caught using drugs..Not bad on the whole...
During the olympics they kept telling us that drugs are bad, whilst during the closing cermony they showed us WHY drugs are bad. :P
Best description yet!
London 2012 was a great olympics, on and off the track.
As another poster has said, we in Britain put on a great games with some fantastic athletics/sports. We performed incredibly as a nation winning almost 30 golds and coming 3rd in the medal table (depending on how you measure it).
The security was successful. No terrorist attack, not trouble at all.
Yet people here STILL bitch and moan and tell me Britain’s ‘circling the drain’. Crap. London 2012 is proof of the opposite, that Britain is STILL a great Britain and can lead the world. Britain has just out on a great Olympic Games that has enthralled the world.
London 2012 was a great Olympics, the best in years. As great as 1984. Better than 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.
So sit down, put your feet up, STFU and stop bitchin’.
Because people like you, Americans like you, who said Romney would be right, that the UK couldnt run a great Olympics, that the British people wouldnt get behind the Olympics, that the Games wouldnt be great, were WRONG.
WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.
We did it.
And then some.
Spot on.
Yawn.
See my reply to Robe and others.
Hope you’re looking forward to the traditional slow start and then post-christmas surge :)
They missed such an opportunity.
I saw part of it in a reataurant with the sound off. Worst dancing I have ever seen. And the whole thing was simply wierd.
I watched a few minutes of some dancers-musicians banging garbage cans and I turned it off.
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