Paris 2024

Well indeed

Their desire to appear green has robbed the Games of a vital symbol.

They knocked it up in half an hour yesterday.

Definitely some sort of technical hitch for Tom Cruise. I wonder when he was trying to open on his leg on the way down.

Found much of went in inside the stadium very meh. They spent all that time assembling the rings and then didn't even bother to really illuminate them in any special way? Could hardly see them against the crowd in the wide shots.

I might be in the minority but I enjoyed the LA bit. RHCPs, Billie, Snoop and Dre are all very much my bag.

It wasn't all bad. There were a few elements that I liked.

From last night, the stage design with the abstract representation of the continents was aesthetically interesting and something I hadn't seen before

From the opening ceremony, I liked the rising of the statues from the Seine. Admittedly I hadn't heard of most of them other than the fascinating Olympe de Gouse and Simone Veil. But that didn't take away the powerful image of reclaiming the spotlight for women who had influence over the development of politics, philosophy, science and culture in French history.

But overall both ceremonies lacked clear vision and focus which was a shame. And the sound issues that dogged both events really only served to disconnect the TV audience from what was going on.

Speeches should be kept to 90 seconds each at most. And we must have a proper presence of the flame at the heart of the ceremony.

I thought the closing ceremony started well. It seemed to have some kind of structure which was lacking for the opening ceremony, but the whole thing dragged on a LOT. And I had paused my tv and was watching much of it on x1.5 and sometimes x2. Thank goodness for Andrew Cotter and Hazel Irvine in the commentary booth.

The aliens/acrobats/rings were quite interesting at x2.0, but the visual image of the coming together of the Olympic rings was spoiled when the camera panned to four of them in place with one still firmly on the ground with people doing headstands on it.

I liked the stage, but it's a shame it was under-used in the end. Tom Cruise doing his thing and the pre-record of him flying to LA with the rings on the Hollywood sign, and then to be beach worked well, but not having their famous performers performing in the Olympic Arena meant that part fell flat. I like all of the performers they had, but there was nothing special about it.

I thought our closing ceremony was a bit of a mess, and I'm not exactly the biggest Spice Girls fan, but I still remember the sheer joy on the faces of the athletes who got to see an in person performance by a group who were presumably featuring heavily in posters on bedroom walls when they were eight.

I have mixed views on the flame. No-one is kidding themselves that the flame is eternal, or that the gas fired ones don't have lighters in them, and I loved the idea of having the flame somewhere open to the public, but it felt disconnected from the actual event, and I missed seeing it in the background during the athletics. The sheer distance from the official flame and the action was a problem for the flow both ceremonies. I cried when the London one went out, and been fairly emotional for others, but was indifferent this time. Perhaps if they had a smaller version of it in the arena it would have had more impact.

But Paris looked magnificent, the sport was all excellent and well done to everyone who took part. A recent poll claims that 27% of British adults think if they started training now they could qualify for the LA games. I'm not convinced I've got it in me, but I'd be keen to hear from anyone here who plans on giving it a go.

I was at the 2012 Opening Ceremony so loved the reveal of the flame but yes it wasn't visible unless you were in the stadium which was an issue. Conversely the Paris flame was mostly forgotten about after the Opening Ceremony as it wasn't in the background for the athletics like they usually are.

The London closing ceremony was fine, much more conventional than the Opening and hampered by Bowie and Bush not appearing to sing their songs and allowing George Michael to sing a new song but far better than the Paris one.

I am a massive George Michael fan, but it was such an obvious mistake (apparently he made it a condition of his appearance) for him to sing a new song. It was the wrong vibe for the evening, which should have been strictly greatest singalong party hits only. Of which he has many.

It wasn't yet public (or maybe just rumours?), but Bowie was too ill to appear, and it felt like a downer at the time, but they still made a show of it, with the super-models doing their cat-walk thing along runways between the athletes to "Fashion", which IMO was better than a generic pre-recorded performance on a screen. I don't think anyone really expected Bush to turn up, but again they were able to make it into something visually interesting.

But for balance - Russel Brand was involved. Even at the time it seemed like a bit iffy, and something most of us promptly pretended hadn't happened.

I was waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for Daft Punk. But no. 😑

I thought that was just Tom controlling his descent.

Not necessarily. You absolutely could be right, but that’s just what I thought at the time.

It is dreadful that C4 are showing adverts through the opening ceremony

Just feels wrong to have the interruptions

No use of the Seine thus far. The athletes are processing down the Champs Elysee onto the Place de la Concorde. All very efficient thus far