Sir Rols

Coates is starting to get a bit more upbeat about Australia's chances next year:

How many GamesBidders could pass Beijing's new hostess test?

Where's the poll buttons? Personally, i still think Vancouver's is insipid and uninspired, but it's not actively ugly and grotesque like London's. It's now only the second worst logo of all time, but there's a lot of daylight between it and the last placer.

This is getting ridiculous. I bet the BC Premier is now wishing he had access to the same sort of crowd-control resources the Chinese have!

How the hell could protesters even get close to the Premier's office? Talk about shoddy security!

Now they're after African language speakers and some more for the smaller Euro languages:

Hmmm. Do any of these counter-events get much attention. Didn't the old Soviet bloc used to organise Spartakiads between the world wars, and didn't Barcelona stage a "Workers games" in 1936 in opposition to the Berlin Games?

Hmmm. Do any of these counter-events get much attention. Didn't the old Soviet bloc used to organise Spartakiads between the world wars, and didn't Barcelona stage a "Workers games" in 1936 in opposition to the Berlin Games?

And so the war of words continues ... and hots up. Sorry, but I think both sides are playing politics with this.

Well, it looks like not everyone in Taiwan agrees wioth the president either:

My sentiments exactly. Athens was a special occasion _ the games were coming home _ and it was fitting that the relay take in past (and some possible future) hosts. And as you said, it would have been a tiny relay if it only went from Olympia then around Greece before coming to Athens. Now that's been done, why do we need to repeat it? It makes more sense for the relay to make a statement of bringing Olympism to the wider region where the games are being held, rather than another jet-setting tour including cities and countries that have already hosted the flame on multiple occasions.

The way I see it, the games are the international thing, it's what everyone focusses on and watches. The relay is more the pre-event marketing _ it's not like it gets breathless day-to-day coverage in anything but the host country press (and even then, in a long relay, the coverage starts to lose interest unless they have a exceptionall phot-worthy stop of some fairly high-profile torch bearer has their go). It's more a thing for the host country to start getting their excitement and anticipation levels up before the main event. Coverage in the rest of the world will probaably spike for events like Everest or Taiwan, but be ignored much beyond that. When the torch comes to Canberra, for example, it's unlikely to get huge coverage. There'll be mentions, yes, but probably far less than the state-of-health of some expected local medal winner or complaints about team selections etc. Anyway, it probably means more to the people in the likes of Vietnam, Malaysia, Pakistan (well, we've seen the reactionof Zainhasan) and the like that the torch is going through these countries when they've never experienced it before. Take Australia again _ this will be our third consecutive with our hands on the torch _ a bit of "been there, done that", and no way it could live up to the excitement and hype of the 200 relay anyway. Maybe I'm just generally grumpy today _ I seem to be picking a few arguments today!

But is it tradition? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's only happened once, for Athens. Sydney's, for example, made a point of being a very Oceanian relay rather than go to every continent. Sure, it's an event for the world, and the world's athletes will be there and we'll all be watching, but it's usually a far bigger deal for the host and then the host's region. If each games was more about being part of the world rather than the hiost country country or region, why are we so onsessed with hopes that Africa or South America get them soon _ it wouldn't matter then, whoever's hosting them could be said to also be hosting them on Africa's or South America's behalf.

First the torch _ lovely design! I love the colour, like the cloud embossing, like the paper roll concept. It just screams China! Indeed, I'm very impressed with all the "look of the games" and design work for Beijing so far. Thee relay? I also agree with CAF. I'm just not in favour of all this continent hopping (and especially with such short and seemingly random stops this time). For Athens it was fair enough, it was a statement about the history of the games, but this time, enough already! This is an Asian games, it should have been confined to a land route across Asia.

Exactly. You can include the Universiads in that. And often not even the host country pays attention.

Exactly, it's just a TORCH guys, and a pumped-up pre-Olympics pep rally to gee up the locals. It's not the unveiling of the world's greatest work of art and a sacred pilgrimage to bring peace to the world. Geez, I must be grumpy and curmudgeonly today!

Looks like the idea's going ahead: Just what the world needs in inter-summer games years, another event to fight for sponsorship dollars with the Winter Games, World Cup and Commonwealth Games.

That's the problem with all the suggestions and predictions I'm hearing about the relay _ it seems more like a parade of triumphalism and statememnt of ownership across the likes of Tibet, Taiwan etc than bringingn the flame of Olympism to the masses. I expect Verbruggen's right _ we ain't seen nothing yet!

Yeah, Everest's still number one. But there's a possibility that Aconcagua may be surpassed as the Americas number one: Ojos del Salado versus Aconcagua

Hmmm, It doesn't seem to be settled yet. Taiwan is denying an agreement has been reached:

Hmmm. The rebel province has fallen into line ....

No, it's not you, it's a pure comedy of errors!! Okay, here's my guess. This minister for Hindustan probably doesn't know that Delhi is already hosting the games, at most thinks that India is hosting and that the domestic cities can bid, has no idea about how sports bidding works, and is trying to play to a home audience in Hyderbad. The journo who wrote the story obviously has even less idea of sports, bidding and what's what. Either that, or someone on the paper accidently placed as file story from five years ago on the editorial desk.

I posted this on the Asian Games thread as well, but it is also highly relevant here: This really striked me as weird. Cricket-mad India is not going to offer cricket at Delhi 2010, yet it will be contested in Guangzhou?!?!

Whatever happened to the idea India was floating of holding a Commonwealth Winter Games in 2014 as well?