London 2012 Olympic Cauldron...

[Lord David]

Imagine if it stopped in a cone shape? That would have been better than the expected result anyways!

[paul]

I saw one petal was missing from its stem, was it lost or fell off ?

[paul]

The missing hood is in the far left of this shot.

[Kenadian]

Ah...a missing petal = Cauldron FAIL. LOL.

Welcome back to the Commonwealth, UK.

[Lord David]

Blame the children, they're the ones who supposedly screwed them on. I guess one little bugger ran off with his.

[Ikarus360]

I feel bad for the nation which won't get it's petal

Aw well, they can always make a replacement.

[FDLondon]

I saw one petal was missing from its stem, was it lost or fell off ?

I wonder if they handed them out to the delegations beforehand and one country forgot to bring theirs to the Stadium?

It is gorgeous when you see it up-close. We were lucky enough to be able to hang around next to it after the Ceremony last night and take pics. It is a massive shame that it will be in the Stadium and not available to others. You'd have thought there would be somewhere suitable; while we were walking through the Park to/from Eton Manor last week, there was a concrete plinth being chipped away by a digger on the other side of one of the Stadium bridges. We'd speculated that it might be where a cauldron would go but it appears not.

[kinetic]

As a piece of attrative design, this cauldron really only works from its dead-center looking bottom-up.

So that's to say that it dosen't work.

From every other angle, it looks like a bunch of tightly packed trees in the winter whose tops are on fire.

Oh no, I disagree, you have to see it from the side - it's terrific. (Not, of course, that you can see it, as it's in the stadium.) Seeing the TV coverage of the ceremony and cauldron, compared with the reality in the stadium, has reminded me of how TV can, you know, not always tell the truth.

NY20?? - great photos, what's the source?

[Kenadian]

Or it may have simply been that there are 205 (or even more) stems in place, just in case an extra country or NOC popped up (or dropped out).

My god...imagine if there had been a boycott!

[JimmyJoe]

I saw one petal was missing from its stem, was it lost or fell off ?

That photograph is from a test not the opening ceremony.

[nobase2010]

The petals reminds me of the hats that the medal bearer has on.

[SkiFreak]

So CTV is now reporting, and comparing to Vancouver, the non-accessible cauldron in the stadium. Still plans to move it or is it stuck in the stadium?

[Athensfan]

The Paralympics will have the damaged petals.

This is not funny.

[SkiFreak]

So CTV is now reporting, and comparing to Vancouver, the non-accessible cauldron in the stadium. Still plans to move it or is it stuck in the stadium?

So now CTV reported that each participating nation will get to take their petal home after the games. So... London won't have a permanent cauldron attraction after these games.

[Athensfan]

Cauldron's Flame To Be Seen Across Olympic Park

So the Cauldron and it's flame will be seen by those outside, as well as most of the audience inside London's Olympic Stadium.

Now that we have seen, across Olympic Park, the distant video and still images of the Cauldron being tested in the early hours of Friday morning London time, this finally puts to rest that earlier incorrect and alleged ATR report written by an "unknown" person wrongly alleging a senior and widely respected IOC Member had released information about the Cauldron, including that it would only be "seen by those inside the Stadium."

That IOC Member's integrity and reputation rightly remains intact.

It should be noted that it appears not who posted this false report in this thread is at fault, but whoeover made up the original story.

Enjoy the Games guys, wherever you are !

I think it's worth reflecting on the above statement since those of us who questioned it were somewhat brusquely dismissed.

[paul92]

So now CTV reported that each participating nation will get to take their petal home after the games. So... London won't have a permanent cauldron attraction after these games.

That does seem like a shame but a very nice gesture for the other countries.

When the park reopens after the Olympics there will be a London 2012 Olympic Museum built and I'm sure they will have enough things to fill it.

[4seasonscentre]

The Canadian media is covering the Pedal-Gate controversy. (If that term takes off, you saw it here first!)

Some Londoners find it "exclusive" that only track and field ticket holders will get to see it. The organizers should have seen this coming. People complained in Vancouver that a fence was in the way.

Boris was on TV insisting that it was accessible through TV :-P That is bad damage control!

One solution would have been to have a separate cauldron (like the ones lit during the torch relay) lit before going into the stadium, perhaps in the Olympic Park or at a landmark like Tower Bridge.

[paul]

The same story is being covered on every news network, cable and local her in the US.

If the cauldron was planned to only be viewed inside the stadium then dismantled and distributed to each participating nation (which is a wonderful idea) then why not have just gone ahead and made a second couldron that could;

1. Be positioned outside the stadium for everyone to experience during the games

2. Be left permanently in the park as a legacy to London and the 30th Olympiad

[willwalk]

I think people have got used to seeing the cauldron on top for a long period of time, they aren't used to the idea of a indoor cauldron. But in the event of climate change indoor cauldrons may well be more common in future games.

I don't care if the cauldron is at the top or indoors but I'm rather surprised the London 2012 organisers didn't stick to its original plans for the cauldron. Maybe they didn't want to alienate old timers by choosing to install the cauldron inside and maybe they wanted to keep the 1948 memories alive.

I liken the 2012 london stadium and tower as a modern version of Montreal 1976 stadium and tower.

[4seasonscentre]

CTV News: There were more Queen sightings than there were Cauldron sightings!

They also did a segment where the reporter managed to get a glimpse beneath a stairwell and through a crack.

[Athensfan]

The private cauldron is too exclusive. Two cauldrons seems weird. I didn't like it in Vancouver at all.

There needs to be one tall one.

[NY20??]

NY20?? - great photos, what's the source?

They were posted on Tumblr.

[walei]

Wouldn't it be cool if the stems from the pedal moves around like a laser light show? I know it's too much work and probably hard to pull off but that would make this cauldron even more spectacular.

[Sir Rols]

I would've liked it if they could't have had a few petals from the cauldron go out to each venue somewhere after the lighting, perhaps as each competition starts, with the majority still as the centrepiece in the stadium - and then all re-united at the closing before being extinguished. I sorta originally thought of it like a dandelion as it was rising up anyway - that would have fitted - with the individual stalks then eventually settling around the world to symbolically seed Olympism around the world.

Whatever happened to the "painting" they did in Beijing with the athlete's footprints?

[Olympian2004]

If I were the organisers, I would get out some of those community cauldrons that they lit at the end of each torch relay day, put them at various locations in the Olympic Park and light them. Yes, it would be a weak solution but at least it would give visitors the chance to get a picture of the Olympic Flame.

By the way, German TV channel ARD just showed a live bottom-up picture of the cauldron - and it seemed to me that it's already relocated to the southern end because one couldn't see the ring for the wires anymore above it but a part of the wires themselves.