yoshi

In general, it's the no-voters who bother to "get the vote out", & the yes-voters who are more likely to stay at home. You only need to look at the electoral system referendum that we had in the UK in 2011. The only time I can see that reversed is in the Scottish vote next year. I really do think that when we get results next week, they won't be what we want to hear.

Whatever, this is part 2 of the Doha 06 OC to make it full: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BFaaQb85jH0

The way things are going, it's more likely that Turkey will be a de facto province of Iran in 2024 than Istanbul hosting the Olympics in 2024...

Yes, it was 2 years ago, but that was rugby union, not league. You (USA) won by the way.

What did you think of the ceremony itself baron? Don't forget that it's only a small sport, so you can't really compare it to rugby union or football world cups.

Rugby league baron, not the rugby that's going to Rio. Less scrums, more running.

Baron, I don't know if it'll be shown, but the US are playing the Cook Islands tonight (in Bristol lol) If it's on TV over there, give it a go - you'll find it's similar to your football minus the padding, & similar to rugby union but with less kicking & more running.

Slightly better than the Olympic logo with the two green bits joining. Still ugly though.

The complete OC of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup in Cardiff: <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NgWVa7kp_Lk?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Waaa, why won't it allow me to embed it??? Still, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NgWVa7kp_Lk

Ah I see, so you take it out of the bottom, put it in the top, then give it to the country & replace it. Seems like giving bits of ceremonial objects to competing countries is the latest trend with this and the London cauldron.

Is the granite curling-stone thing in the top Scotland's one, & all the other ones are in the base?

Is this all about showing off at China? They thought that the only way to beat the Bird's Nest was to get Hadid, so they did, without thinking about where the stadium is going.

They should've picked that 'green' stadium with a garden on the roof. Something that I would imagine Tokyo really needs is green space.

So I guess we could have an all-European candidate phase, perhaps with one 'other' (Toronto?) just like 2012.

Yes, I think it should have stopped them going for 12 & 16. It does nothing more than make USOC look greedy. Had they held off, & gone all in for Chicago 2024, as the first American SOG bid since 96, showing real desire by coming in early, but with humility, & they would've had a really good shot.

It could've been a lot worse, just imagine if someone had been impaled while innocently walking behind the stadium one night

Zeke, the 2010 FIFA world cup happened. Not to mention other sporting events & general development in S Africa since 1997. FYI, I mentioned the 52 years purely to make the point that the US shouldn't expect the Summer Games to come their way every 12 to 20 years just because that's what happened in 1984-96. You had 52 year wait between Summer Games before LA84 (admittedly including WWII, so let's say 1948-84, a 36 year wait even then), & that was in a much less globalised world than the one we're in now, with many more potential hosts (you wouldn't have dreamed of going to China, S America or Africa before 1984). So all I'm saying is that the US shouldn't expect to get a SOG every 20-30 years just because it's the US.

The US have got much more sense than to go for 2024. 2024 is Durban if they want it. Yes, it's 3 games outside Europe. So what? Europe isn't the centre of the world anymore, or at least not as it once was, & I think the IOC just want Africa, & don't care what precedents they have to set, what 'rules' they have to break to get there. Then, Europe (Paris) becomes very hard to turn down for 2028, & only then, in 2032, does N America come back. But, by then, 12 years after Tokyo, the IOC might want to come back to Asia, possibly Shanghai or somewhere like Kuala Lumpur. And I haven't mentioned any challenge from Canada that might bring the games to N America, but not the US, potentially knocking the US out until the 60s. Of course, I'm ignoring the WOGs, but if all the US want is to see the Olympic flag on their soil ASAP, those WOGs, perhaps 2026, might be their best chance. It's also worth remembering that before LA 1984, the US waited 52 years for a summer games. If that was repeated, their next turn would be in 2048.

Gotta love Barcelona. 21 years & 10 Olympic cauldrons later, we're still talking about it. That's what I call an attention grabber.

Ah, it's even better than I thought. Be awesome to see flames coming out of the lattice bit at the top if it was a torch.

If there's only one baton, how does the granite thing work? Is there 70 of them in the base?

Well, I thought it had died, but the Olympic opening ceremony database appears to have come back, Lillehammer & Turin have come up in the last couple of days & I guess that the other WOG OCs will be coming up soon. Great resource for ceremony fans: http://www.olympicceremony.org/

Well, you liked my post, baron, so I can't be that strange

I might be imagining it, but I think I remember a while back, an image appearing here showing the arrow implanted in the field behind the stadium. Either way, it's very well known that the arrow never went in the cauldron, it was never meant to. The actual arrow itself is in the Olympic museum, I presume it'll go on display when it reopens. Goodness knows how you'll light your cauldron in Tokyo, maybe a real Yoshi might be used

Grab this while you can, the whole artistic section of the Beijing 08 OC, without commentary! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vvrp2USH_LY