Rio 2016 Olympic Cauldron

[yoshi]

I wonder if they originally planned to have no conventional cauldron, just the kinetic sculpture's movement instead of a flame - then the IOC stepped in & said there had to be a live flame. Would explain why the actual cauldron seems to be a bit of an afterthought - what'll they do at the closing?

[kevzz]

Don't think I can ever forgive Rio for such act of disrespecting the cauldron and the flame. Utter disregard for the tradition and symbol of Olympics. 

[JMarkSnow2012]

3 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Okay, it is a bit odd that it's now not lit at the Maracana, only for it to be lit again (I assume) for the CC so it can be extinguished again. No reason, surely, they couldn't have had a secondary cauldron at the athletics stadium.

One reason- having two cauldrons blazing throughout the Games (one in a stadium and one visible to the masses) would negate the whole "eco-friendly" message.

 

40 minutes ago, LOUIS said:

OK, after Rio and London, the IOC needs to put some ground rules about the flame.  Even for the non purists, this is ridiculous...

The IOC has some ground rules about the flame. Unfortunately, they are ground rules which were fine in the 1960s, but turn the flame into a symnbol of Olympic extravagance and arrogance in the 2010s. London attempted to square eco-friendliness with wide visibility by having live video feeds from the flame; that caused complaints that visitors should have been able to see the actual flame without buying track / field tickets. Therefore Rio (which had the additional challenge that the track & field stadium is isolated from other Olympic facilities, for good Agenda 2020 reasons) moved the flame to a public site in the heart of the city, created specially for the Olympics.

[baron-pierreIV]

1 hour ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

...  would negate the whole "eco-friendly" message.

 

And what about the hundreds of plastic bottles thrown all over the marathon course by the runners?  How "eco-friendly" is that?  

[paul]

7 hours ago, kevzz said:

Exactly. It's such a waste and I wonder how hard can it be to move the cauldron and the sculpture to the athletic stadium? Just very short sighted of the organiser.

...its probably really expensive to move it since it's heavy and 40ft across, maybe it would even need to be dismantled and reassembled. Moving it for athletics would be a luxury that Rio just simply can't afford.

7 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Okay, it is a bit odd that it's now not lit at the Maracana, only for it to be lit again (I assume) for the CC so it can be extinguished again. No reason, surely, they couldn't have had a secondary cauldron at the athletics stadium.

...wait....is the sculpture just gonna hang there without a flame durring soccer?.....no way...they will light it for games I'm sure.

Edited August 15, 2016 by paul

[JMarkSnow2012]

4 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

And what about the hundreds of plastic bottles thrown all over the marathon course by the runners?  How "eco-friendly" is that?  

If they can be recycled or re-used, it's not a problem

[Dylanlip]

24 minutes ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

If they can be recycled or re-used, it's not a problem

Well, that is if they recycle.

https://imgur.com/a/jTk2y

[JMarkSnow2012]

10 minutes ago, Dylanlip said:

Well, that is if they recycle.

https://imgur.com/a/jTk2y

They certainly reuse. You can make all sorts of things with plastic bottles.

[LatinXTC]

6 hours ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

One reason- having two cauldrons blazing throughout the Games (one in a stadium and one visible to the masses) would negate the whole "eco-friendly" message.

Yea the message about an eco-friendly games was thrown out from the start when they bulldozed an entire ecosystem just to build a golf course that will more than likely hardly be used after the games. At least they can turn it into a new ecosystem for crocodiles, capybaras, and whatnot since they have seemingly moved (back?) in to the place lol

[zekekelso]

1 hour ago, LatinXTC said:

Yea the message about an eco-friendly games was thrown out from the start when they bulldozed an entire ecosystem just to build a golf course that will more than likely hardly be used after the games. At least they can turn it into a new ecosystem for crocodiles, capybaras, and whatnot since they have seemingly moved (back?) in to the place lol

Um, it was an ecosystem. It's still an ecosystem. What about it was it so much better before?

[LatinXTC]

7 minutes ago, zekekelso said:

Um, it was an ecosystem. It's still an ecosystem. What about it was it so much better before?

There was more of it.

[zekekelso]

15 minutes ago, LatinXTC said:

There was more of it.

Um, no. 

[Kenadian]

I find this cauldron beautiful and disappointing all at the same time.

 

[Buddy_LeChat]

@Kenadian first time I see it turn. All the time they show it on TV it doesn't move.

 

[baron-pierreIV]

5 hours ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

If they can be recycled or re-used, it's not a problem

The point is, is there a concerted effort to pick up the discarded bottles along the 26+ mile route?   There were many gaps where there were no people there.  

[JMarkSnow2012]

7 hours ago, Buddy_LeChat said:

@Kenadian first time I see it turn. All the time they show it on TV it doesn't move.

 

If you're getting anything like the shot the BBC shows, they just went down to the harbour area at dead of night and filmed it for maybe ten minutes, and they've been showing the same footage on a loop ever since!

[JMarkSnow2012]

12 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

The point is, is there a concerted effort to pick up the discarded bottles along the 26+ mile route?   There were many gaps where there were no people there.  

There may well be an unofficial concerted effort, once all the officials have left.

[baron-pierreIV]

2 hours ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

There may well be an unofficial concerted effort, once all the officials have left.

Or, with the way things are going in Rio, there may not be.  And that's only for like 150 runners.  What about the huge Boston, New York, London,Tokyo, etc., marathons where there are THOUSANDS of runners?  Those are such a mess for the thousands who fancy themselves aspiring Phedippedes when the original one actually died after accomplishing his task.    I mean after 1896-1908, the whole dumb idea should've been discarded or at least tweaked.  

[zekekelso]

Yes, the cups get picked up after a marathon.

[Dylanlip]

So..... football's on now in Maracana (W Semi), and no cauldron: there's no flame. Just the "sculpture" thing, which is not moving (Not running the motor?). So the flame's not visible during ANY sport by ANY spectator. The thing's just... there. What's the point?

[zekekelso]

The flame isn't in the stadium because it is downtown... Where all the people in Rio can come see it, not just those inside one stadium.

[Dylanlip]

If that's the case, have the Closing downtown where the flame is. Oh wait, there's supposed to be "2 flames", remember? One that's visible to streetgoers, and one that's at least visible during sport, which is, you know, the whole point?

[zekekelso]

The whole point of the Olympic flame is to be visible by fan watching a women's football semi-final? Who knew!

 

[baron-pierreIV]

Was just thinking how lucky Rio is so far in that no one has thrown a sneaker at either of the caldera.  That would probably dent those tentacles and maybe cause the whole thing to misalign??  

[zekekelso]

2 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Was just thinking how lucky Rio is so far in that no one has thrown a sneaker at either of the caldera.  That would probably dent those tentacles and maybe cause the whole thing to misalign??  

It's Rio. They would throw a Havaiana and it would just bounce off.