Olympic Update: Opening Ceremonies
The Olympics are now officially open as LOCOG saw their years of work come to a head with the Opening Ceremonies kicking off the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Opening Ceremonies in every Olympics are a way for the host country to show off their culture. It is a chance to show the world what the host country is all about and show the world what they should be thinking about this country. For London it was a time to reflect the United Kingdom as a whole but also to showcase London as one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world. London has a storied tradition at the Olympics as they have now become the first city to host three times. Their first shot was at the 1908 Olympics when they played savior to the Olympic Games. Rome was forced to drop out of the hosting duties when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 1906. With Rome unable to host London took over and threw together an entire Olympic Games in 2 years with no budget. They threw a great Olympics and saved the then fledgling sports showcase from missing the rotation. Then in 1948 London was once again in the savior of the Olympics after years of war. With World War II ending only three years earlier the world was in a rough spot and the Olympics had missed the last two rotations. London was given the opportunity to bring back some normalcy to the world and they did just that providing a distraction from the problems of the world. They did this with no budget and while still rationing food to try to get back to a time before war. Now it was London’s turn once again to try to provide a distraction for the world and for themselves after a rough few years. With the world in turmoil thanks to the economic downturn all eyes turn to London to try to provide a distraction once again. As the Opening Ceremonies closed the fans were treated to a great spectacle of history and sport together. The Olympics kicked off in a great way as they took the first step to a successful Olympics. There will be the ups and downs of every Olympics with glitches and problems all around but some of the best stories in sports coming out.
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Beijing 2008 Totals |
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|
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
| USA |
36 |
38 |
36 |
110 |
| China |
51 |
21 |
28 |
100 |
| Russia |
23 |
21 |
28 |
72 |
| Great Britain |
19 |
13 |
15 |
47 |
| Australia |
14 |
15 |
17 |
46 |
| Germany |
16 |
10 |
15 |
41 |
| France |
7 |
16 |
18 |
41 |
| South Korea |
13 |
10 |
8 |
31 |
| Italy |
8 |
9 |
10 |
27 |
| Japan |
9 |
6 |
10 |
25 |
Day 1 Medal Events
Archery:
Men’s Bronze Medal Match (12:33 pm)
Men’s Gold Medal Match (1:01 pm)
Cycling:
Men’s Road Race (5:00 am)
Fencing:
Women’s Individual Foil Bronze Medal Match (2:10 pm)
Women’s Individual Foil Gold Medal Match (2:40 pm)
Judo:
Men’s 60kg Bronze Medal Match (9:28 am)
Men’s 60kg Gold Medal Match (11:10 am)
Women’s 48kg Bronze Medal Match (9:00 am)
Women’s 48kg Gold Medal Match (11:00 am)
Shooting:
Women’s 10m Air Rifle Final (6:00 am)
Men’s 10m Air Pistol Final (10:30 am)
Swimming:
Men’s 400m Individual Medley Finals (2:30 pm)
Men’s 400m Freestyle (2:48 pm)
Women’s 400m Individual Medley (3:09 pm)
Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (3:40 pm)
Weightlifting:
Women’s 48kg Finals (10:30 am)
The Sport Addiction 