Day 2 - Late nights and early finishes.

July 28th

So today's the day that we finally have some metres to measure, six events in the aquatic centre will be giving us our first data.

You'll find that at the bottom, a couple of thoughts first:

Opening Ceremony

£27 million for THAT? 

REALLY?

Have a long list of everything wrong with Frankie Danny Boyle's opening ceremony:

1. J.K. Rowling isn't the world's greatest public orator.

2. Where exactly was The Doctor?

3. Erm...

4. ....that's it. That's all I've got.

Bear in mind that I've not been swept up with love for this event (The torch relay passed right outside my bedroom window and I didn't bother getting up to see it). 

Bear further that I was listening to the opening rather than watching (I've been hitting YouTube fairly hard since last night to get the full picture).

At the risk of Goldilocks turning up to steal our porridge bear also that I despise pageantry in general and choreographed attempts to twist emotion especially and it doesn't change a damn thing.

Danny and his cast of dancing Nurses, adorable moppets, farmyard animals and all the rest got right to me and wrought out just the kind of feelings I think he was aiming for. That was a brilliant display of (some of) what we as a country can be proud of. 

Sure some are complaining about certain aspects being missed out but remember just how much history we have. Boyle had one evening not to sell Britain to the world but to tell the world about Britain and he did it wonderfully.

This wasn't a display of flexing and posing a la Beijing to impress all the world's smaller nations with how virile we are. They know. Many of them have had dealings with us in the past one way or another. This instead was a showing of how we can have a good time not by laughing at ourselves but by getting others to laugh along with us.

Bravo Sir Danny Boyle.

Bravo.

Early Finishes

Do you know how many Gold medals have been won today?

Come on, off the top of your head, no Wiki for you.

It's ten. The very first day after the opening ceremony and ten events are already done and dusted.

Every one of these medals will be the culmination of years of training and a cause of great joy for the new champions so congratulations are in order and utterly merited.

For some of these athletes though such as the new Women's -48kg Olympic Gold Medalist Sarah Menezes it's also the end of her games.

I find it hard to imagine what that must feel like. When most of us are just getting over our hangovers from last night you haven't only started to perform you've also finished. Your 4 years of effort have either been rewarded or left unfulfilled, either way you're now basically on holiday.

I can well imagine Sarah or her male counterpart Arsen Galstyan strapping on their medal tonight and bowling into the Olympic village to strut around and take the adulation, (go for it, you've earned it) but after that?

Do you stay around and make an early start on the mountain of condoms we've provided? Try and sneak in to as many other events as possible to cheer on your countrywomen or perhaps try and get as much London sightseeing done as possible over the next fortnight?

I find it impossible to imagine the mindsets of elite athletes; their determination and drive is so alien to a person like myself that I can't even guess at a common ground that would allow me an inkling of how they must feel in such a situation. I just think it's interesting. All that build up, all that hype and sweat and blood and tears and you're done and dusted before most have even began.

Well I hope they're all satisfied is all. If they were reading this I would hope that even if they didn't get onto a podium today they did manage to be proud of how they performed and satisfied with what they give. Even if their two weeks work is done on the first day without a bit of metal to show for it I hope they ALL know that they are amazing.

Except you know, the cheats. Fuck those guys.

The Numbers

All that aside though, we here are just interested in (a very arbitrary selection of) numbers.

A nice easy start today with only the swimming pool providing us with results.

Six events today producing 4 podiums evenly split between the women and the men and it has given us.....Drumroll please!

Women total: 32,600m

Men total: 37,600m

Total total: 70,200m

HOLY SHIT that's a lot! I'm not sure what I was expecting but that is a huge amount. That's enough to swim the English Channel twice with 6km to spare.

That's from one days worth of short course swimming in the pool. May have to rethink how big the numbers on this get.

Anyway, day 2 is done and dusted. Join us tomorrow when we'll have more action from the pool.

R

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