# Rio 2016



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

the athletes' village is open
the picture from his window
he's 19 years of age
this is his first olympics

.













.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

I don't know about these Olympic Games. It doesn't look like Rio is anywhere near ready to host them.

The Australians moved into their quarters and there were two fires. The smoke alarms didn't work and while they were out of the rooms, the rooms were looted.

One of the viewing platforms collapsed, and the swimming areas in the ocean are full of garbage and sewage. Security isn't the best.

The new transit system wasn't completed and ends short of where it was supposed to. They are going to have to use buses to move people from that point on.

I am thinking this scenario happens a lot in Olympic game venues, and perhaps they need more lead time to make sure everything gets done.

Brazil organizers are also complaining that the Olympic committee is holding the purse strings tight and won't pay for some things.

And then there are the Russians and the doping problems.

I hope it goes well despite the problems, but as I started with...........I don't know about these games.

I have for awhile thought the Olympic Games should be held in the same location.........probably where they started in Greece, and the world should contribute to the cost and upkeep. It would be an economic boom to Greece every 4 years if the costs were static and the infrastructure was already in place.

The Games are a huge one time cost and past Olympic Game sites have been left to deteriorate.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=past...qxuaDOAhWp1IMKHZUaBIYQsAQIRA&biw=1536&bih=764


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

^^


it's true that Rio looks nasty

olympic startups always look like wrecks waiting to happen but rio is more alarming than its predecessors

sags have you heard about the money-saving proposal for a permanent greek summer olympics installation. The idea is to scale down the games hugely & locate them permanently at Olympia in the peloponnese, their original site more than 2000 years ago.

proponents of the idea say this would provide greece with a stable new industry (check), spare the rest of the world from quadrennial hysterics (check) & still give deserving youth a competition summit (check.)

the young photographer has trained intensively in his sport since the age of 11. He's travelled the world on canada's junior team, never coming home without a medal. In school, he's a top student with top marks. 

canada needs young heros. Now that our teams are arriving to the olympic village, let's get behind them & cheer them on.


EDIT - hey sags you edited your post to add the very same thought about Olympia in greece! the key aspects would be greener summer olympics, less showmanship, stricter anti-doping procedures
.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

*arriving to the village*

.













.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Yes, I agree that the time has come to give the games a permanent home and Greece would be an ideal location.

The world's athletes should have the confidence they will be competing in a safe and desirable environment.

A permanent home would remove a lot of the power from the Olympic Committee members (and also the likelihood of corruption with it), and that would be a good thing.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Cool humble.............do you know these athletes ?


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

My son was a very good athlete. He excelled at hockey and baseball and won numerous championships in Ontario.

But despite the natural talent, he lacked the personal drive and commitment that top level athletes must have.

Congrats to these fine athletes. They have no doubt the talent but also the determination to succeed, and the willingness to "put the work in" every day to get better.

That today is a rare combination, that separates "very good" from "world class".


----------



## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

I like that the Olympics are held in different cities each time. It allows those cities to showcase themselves for the world and to recover some of the cost of constructing infrastructure. 

It wouldn't be the Summer olympics without cost over-runs, missed deadlines and security concerns.  

Young Canadians have dedicated years to realize the dream of competing in an Olympic Games. Let's cheer them on.


----------



## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Today we did parasailing in Grand Bend with 5 Brazilians... they said that now, in Rio unbelievable mess and they took vacation to Canada during Olympics on purpose... I asked them about Zika , they replied that Zika is bad , but Olympics much worse


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

How did you like Grand Bend Gibor ?

Nice thing about living in London is we are only an hour from Grand Bend and other beaches on Lake Huron and an hour from beaches on Lake Erie.

If you haven't been..........Turkey Point on Lake Erie is a nice beach. Crystal clear water, sloping shallow beach. You can rent sea doo there.

Port Dover on Lake Erie.............for the perch dinners.............


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Back to Rio........I hope it isn't as bad as is being reported.


----------



## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Some toilets won't work. Some venues will be incomplete. Athletes will complain about bus rides and delays. There will be traffic jams. Cameras will be jammed into newly constructed rooms to find signs of error. The press will report poor ticket sales for some events. 

None of it will matter. We'll watch the opening ceremonies - the excited athletes, the dancing children, the cheering crowd - we'll forget about the problems and fall in love with the Brazilian people all over again. It's the Olympic formula.


----------



## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

sags said:


> How did you like Grand Bend Gibor ?
> 
> Nice thing about living in London is we are only an hour from Grand Bend and other beaches on Lake Huron and an hour from beaches on Lake Erie.
> 
> ...


We've been many times at Long Point, Rock Point and Turkey point (the latest didn't like at all)... Generaly Grand Bend and Pinery are much better than Erie's parks... But for Grand Bend we need to drive more than 2 hours , that's a bit long for day trip.... for Erie's a bit less time... 
P.S. General problem with both lakes ... you never know what water temperature can be


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

True and you have to be really careful of the undertow at Long Point, Port Stanley and Port Rowan beaches..........all Lake Erie beaches actually.

My preference is Lake Huron, which has beautiful beaches from Ipperwash, Grand Bend, and the best one at Port Elgin............

For other things to do while there, like restaurants.........Grand Bend tops the list I think.

If you like cottage country, I can give you a link to a beautiful place that few people know about.

I spent a lifetime there since I was a young boy and my grandfather had a cottage on the lake. I had a trailer located there for 14 years.

Check out their website. It is about 3 hours north of the Toronto area and you can rent a cabin, bunkie, boats and explore for miles and miles of safe, calm water.

And if you like fishing, they stocked the lake with yellow pickerel years ago and the lake is full of small mouth bass.

If you like to ATV or snowmobile there is a trail right there.

There are bears, wolves, moose and other wildlife in the area and sometimes a person can catch a glimpse of one.

You can get a bunkie for $80-$100 or pitch a tent if you want to stay overnight,enjoy a campfire, listen to the loons, and be amazed at the billions of stars in the dark sky.

I was up with a buddy one time and he didn't believe how dark it could be, so I stopped on the cottage road in and let him out of the car.

I turned off all the lights and inched forward a little bit. He couldn't see the hand in front of his face.........but the stars look like they are hanging in the sky.

http://www.harrislakemarina.com/


----------



## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Thanks for the link ..looks interesting  , esp. cottage (too old for tents ) ... did you stay in cottage?
Also wanted to ask you .... we want to combine one weekend trip Grand Band + London/Stratford... Which place London or Stratford prettier to spend evening?


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

We had a trailer so we didn't stay in cottages. A full cottage has a built in washroom. Bunkies are small cottages with bathrooms a few steps away.

Two of the cottages and both bunkies are located right beside the water and have decks to sit on. One cottage has a screened in porch.

You can fish right off the dock beside the cottages or rent a boat. Some people rent a paddle boat as the cottages are set up on a small back bay of the lake.

They have BBQs and firepits, but you would need to check to see what you need to bring..........towels, linens etc.

London has a big city feel to it, and there is lots to do. A section called Richmond Row has several blocks of restaurants and bars. There are often festivals downtown.

Stratford is a lovely smaller city. It is home to the Shakespearean Festival so it is very tourist oriented with lots of small shops, restaurants and is a pretty town.

For a quick visit, I would recommend Stratford and just up the road is the village of Shakespeare which has a few antique shops.


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

In all the years I went up north, I saw lots of bears but only one peek at a moose checking us out when we stopped on the ATV trail.

My dad took some German friends who were visiting and were camera buffs, and he took them out in the boat. They stopped at a spot where my grandfathers cottage was.

Within 10 minutes, two moose wandered down to the lake for a drink and the Germans were ecstatic......snapping pictures.

On the way back they spotted a black bear by the waters edge and snapped more pictures.

They left believing Ontario was wild country virtually teeming with wildlife tumbling out of the forest.

My dad said they had seen more in half an hour than he saw in 70 years..............


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I often rent a cottage with my family or friends. It's amazing what you can rent for a few thousand dollars a week (multi-million dollar cottages). And split enough ways, it is a very cost effective vacation.


----------



## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

andrewf said:


> I often rent a cottage with my family or friends. It's amazing what you can rent for a few thousand dollars a week (multi-million dollar cottages). And split enough ways, it is a very cost effective vacation.


We often rented cottages in the past, like 9-10 years ago.... Lately my wife doesn't want to go to cottage, because she doesn't want to cook and don't feel that she is on vacation :upset: . Will try to convince her next years again 
andrew, where do you usually looking for cottages for rent?

btw...about Rio, heard on radio that on golf course there are a lot of snakes, rodents and other animals... they called it Zoo-Golf :biggrin:


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

. . . *training* . . . 


.


----------



## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

How can you not smile?


----------



## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

You can live stream the opening ceremonies here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nkGz2-w6Eg

Also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L7J1LAuTNU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ormb7lWwyM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srVUdT2aWlw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc13QpUO92Y

TV:

CBC
NBC
Highlights:

 A budget that is 12 times smaller than London, 20 times smaller than Beijing;
 An environmental theme (of course);
 Scantily clad women (according to the Daily Mail so make of it what you will). 
 Gisele Bundchen, Pele, Judi Dench, Montenegro, Caetano Veloso, Elza Soares, Gilberto Gil, and transgender model Lea T.

http://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article/rio-2016-olympic-opening-ceremony-what-expect.html


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

for the first time in olympic history a small team of athletes is competing in Rio without a flag, without a country. They are refugees.

they'll enter the stadium tonight for the opening ceremony as a group. 

the New Yorker magazine reports IOC president Thomas Bach as saying:

_“These refugees have no home, no team, no flag, no national anthem. We will offer them a home in the Olympic Village, together with all the athletes of the world. The Olympic anthem will be played in their honor, and the Olympic flag will lead them into the Olympic Stadium.”_

http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/the-refugee-olympians-in-rio


.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

gibor365 said:


> We often rented cottages in the past, like 9-10 years ago.... Lately my wife doesn't want to go to cottage, because she doesn't want to cook and don't feel that she is on vacation :upset: . Will try to convince her next years again
> andrew, where do you usually looking for cottages for rent?
> 
> btw...about Rio, heard on radio that on golf course there are a lot of snakes, rodents and other animals... they called it Zoo-Golf :biggrin:


I can understand that, especially if the way your family works is that dear wife does all the cooking. 

I've gone to places in Kawarthas, Muskokas, Bruce Peninsula, north of Kingston. There are a few websites that specialize in facilitating cottage rentals.


----------



## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Team Canada


----------



## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

It was an excellent opening ceremony, not as extravagant as some recent ceremonies but the focus was where it needed to be - on the athletes. The torch was lit by Vanderlei de Lima, the bronze medal winner in the marathon event at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He was the perfect choice. 

de Lima led the marathon with four miles to go when he was tackled by a spectator.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

not to believe all the reports you hear

the 19-year-old competitor says the athletes' village is fine

"très beau comme village" dit-il


.


----------



## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

Thanks for the pictures Humble. Did you say you know one of the athletes? Keep posting those pics if you can. 

I caught part of the ceremonies last night, and I always enjoy them. Despite the politics and all of the negative things that happen, the spirit of the olympics are in our athletes! I saw the refugees come in, and it is very inspiring when one thinks of it.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

those brazilian ladies sure are forward, like they say.

he's received the first marriage proposal
she'll make pancakes with butter maple sugar for him

other brazilian girls are swooning all over his social media
.


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

olivaw said:


> de Lima led the marathon with four miles to go when he was tackled by a spectator.


The guy who tackled him has a history of interrupting sporting events. In this video, the same man runs onto a Formula 1 racetrack (because god told him to) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpesYL9iNRs

He's running headfirst into cars coming at 257 km/hr. "The end of the world is near", indeed!
https://sports.vice.com/en_uk/article/throwback-thursday-weve-got-a-lunatic-on-the-track


----------



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

British eccentricity is unparalleled ... (well, he's Irish). From the vice article:

The man in question was Neil Horan. Born in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1947, he was ordained in 1973 and found some fame as a "dancing priest", which makes him sound every bit like the character from Father Ted.
...
A skinny man wearing what looked like cheap fancy-dress leprechaun costume and a kilt had made his way on to the track and was running at oncoming cars. He was also carrying a placard; it later transpired that this said: "Read the Bible — the Bible is always right."
...
Next, Horan was arrested by German police in 2006 before he could stage a protest during that year's World Cup. He then appeared on Britain's Got Talent in 2009, performing an Irish jig (the show's producers didn't know who we was), and in 2013 he hung around outside the hospital where Prince George was born, holding a sign proclaiming "Queen Elizabeth is very probably the last monarch of Britain".


----------



## sags (May 15, 2010)

Reminds me of the guy who used to have a sign at NHL hockey games.

One day he was in Boston and held up the sign "Jesus Saves."

Someone else in the crowd held up a sign that said............"Esposito scores on the rebound."


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

such beautiful girls
won the bronze in rio
they dived together in beijing in 2008 & in london 2012

amazingly, all 7 divers on the Rio team are from montreal

.


[video]http://olympics.cbc.ca/video/vod/filion-and-benfeito-interview-ron-maclean.html[/video]


----------



## dubmac (Jan 9, 2011)

Quebeckers earn most of canada's medals for diving. 
I seem to recall that quebeckers have an anomalously high number of pools per household in the country. Likely a connection?


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

^^


it all has something to do with the Pointe Claire diving pool. This is where Alexandre Despatie famously trained, this is where the Olympic coaches gather, this is where all the young divers go to train.

the two young male divers in Rio - Gagné & Riendeau - have been training in the pointe claire facility since their early teens (what am i saying, they're still in their teens)

montreal as a city has something of a specialty in training elite athletes. Several outstanding schools have special academic programs for olympic-bound teens. The youngsters go to school from early in the morning until noon or 1 pm at the latest, then lunch & head off for nearly a full day of training in their gyms, pools, tracks & stadiums.

a number of the best sports physiotherapists are based in montreal & they train year-round, full-time, with the teams. There's a huge training gym that was built for elite national team athletes, located in a historic factory on the Lachine canal.

my own physiotherapist is now a full-time olympic trainer with canada's national ski & track & field teams, so she doesn't have a private practice any longer. She still permits me to to see her for a one-time only appointment if i have an issue, so i've gone down to the lachine canal a couple times.

it's daunting. The athletes look like titans. They are doing things you cannot believe. The loud rock music is deafening. It's a wonder those 19th century red factory brick walls can hold up.

.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

*. . . eine kleine nachtmusik

. . . night practice in rio*

_. . . (video is via the link)_


https://www.instagram.com/p/BI8sHk1ATRL/

.











.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.
youth power at rio.

at 18, Philippe Gagné is totally happy that, out of a field of 27 divers, he made it to the final competition & came in 11th. As they say, look out Tokyo 2020. 

then there's canada newest sweetheart of all, world record-beating Penny Oleksialk, who at 16 is the youngest Olympic gold medallist in history. Will Penny carry the flag at the closing ceremony in rio? will she wear just her gold medal, or all 4 medals she has won in rio?

of course Penny should carry the flag. The modest teen says she'll never wear more than one medal at a time, though. "They clink," she told the national post. "Too messy," she added.

.


----------



## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

.

. . . . . *last outdoor dive of the season*













.


----------

