TorchbearerSydney

Good time to remove the Xmas tree....always looks a bit sad left too long after the Festivities!

It will be like the family that forgets to take down the Christmas tree down.....

Beijing was excellent.

By modern I meant post 1988 (post boycotts) ....my apologies! Yes, there were some bad early ones...

So a crappy venue with temporary stands, and a paltry 20,000 capacity. Brisbane is shaping up to be the worst Games of the modern era.

Barlow Park - what a crappy little venue.

The only change to Brisbane Arena has been it’s location which was announced a few months back to be shifting to the Roma Street Parklands. I will believe it when it is designed, built and swimming is allocated there. There are proposals flying all over the place a the moment- many involving the indoor arena.

Exactly- no great city, and especially a city the size of Brisbane (and its near future at 4-5-6 million) uses a 'bus' network as its transport backbone.

Q: their long electric tram-like vehicles That's called a bus. Perhaps a glorified bus.

Q : there is enough to do there to entertain people outside the Games There is nothing to do there...nothing. There isnt even a 'there'.....have you been ??

Q: They'll have to remove the rings and bring the agitos in The agitos are already on the Arc de Triumph I think....and the Olympic Rings are on the Tour Eiffel....

I did not say it was the OCOGs responsibility to drug test ....we are talking about which one is the most successful Olympic (sporting) Games,.....factors outside an OCOGs control can affect a Games success. That is unfortunate for London- but that is what happened. And the fact that people, 10 percent of the time went to an event, watched a competition and the outcome was later over turned does affect the Olympic experience. I sat through Marian Jones winning 5 medals- and spent thousands for that right to do so......i know what its like. Hypothetically, would a Games with 90 percent of its athletes found as drug cheats could still be called a successful Games?

Q: an unusual metric to use, I’d suggest. The sporting competition and results? That is the Number 1 metric.

Q: can that be attributed to London’s hosting? Not really the point- if you host a sporting event and the sport is so incredibly tainted, your event is affected whether you like it or not. Whether you could have avoided it or not....its just what transpired. You cant claim 'we put on the worlds greatest sporting event'- but the sport results were wrong 10 percent of the time.

The Olympics are primarily a sporting event- and the huge number of positive tests in London (33 for medallists alone) will tarnish its legacy for ever. For 10 percent of the time, the medallists on the victory dais were actually NOT the 'actual' medallists. Paris for me - and its not close.