The Olympics

Quote by GnV
Jed, "a terrible attitude" was meant to express nothing more than regret at not feeling able to be totally awe-struck when so much of the Country, indeed internationally, there was much acclaim for what was about to unfold.
I think you expressed a similar feeling, albeit in a different way, in your opening post:
I just think 15 billion quid could have been better spent on improving the UK and that we wont benefit in viewing them just because they are here.

Quote by Trevaunance
Thanks for posting the medal table, I must be honest I knew China were first followed by GB, however I didn't know any facts nor have I, in all honesty, taken the time to look.
I have watched some events but to me I think the hardest thing is understanding the classifications and who can compete fairly with who.
Just one point. TeamGB have not won any more medals since the closing ceremony of the Olympics. ParalympicGB however are doing very well.

I am lucky as I said earlier, I have been able to watch almost every televised event, I still maintain that it would have been better for Britain not to have incurred the expense of hosting the games but for the athletes sake I am glad we did.
I would be happy to stick my neck out and say that I expect us to do even better in 4 years time when the games are hosted in Rio, I believe we will get even more medals without the home advantage.
I also believe we have hosted one of the best Olympics and paralympics ever.
The final result for TeamGB is 114 Medals, (11 above our target) of which 32 are Gold, but more importantly the whole team did us proud even those that didn't get medals for themselves and so did the volunteers that made it happen (many of them disabled themselves) and the spectators that supported them and supported other nations when TeamGB were not involved.
I still think the billions could have been better spent but so glad that at least having spent it Britain gave us value for money.
Incidently many world records were broken and many of those records were previously set by able bodied people.
And all this in a week when Christiano Ronaldo has asked for a pay increase to half a million pounds a week because taxes have gone up where he works

Quote by MidsCouple24
Oh and talking of classifications, channel 4 did a brilliant job with that, they have one of the presenters (who is disabled) taking us through the classifications and how they effect people and how they categorise each disability just before going to the live event and additionally have an expert on hand (normally a former paraolympian from that particular sport) to explain the specific difficulty each athlete will experience in that event due to thier particular disability and where applicable demonstrate and explain any specialist equipment that they would be using, for example what the problems of having an upper limb missing in the butterfly stroke actually are and how that compares with say someone in the same event who has all limbs but cerabel pausey or how that incredible archer from the USA can use a bow without any arms and be so accurate.

Quote by GnV
Oh and talking of classifications, channel 4 did a brilliant job with that, they have one of the presenters (who is disabled) taking us through the classifications and how they effect people and how they categorise each disability just before going to the live event and additionally have an expert on hand (normally a former paraolympian from that particular sport) to explain the specific difficulty each athlete will experience in that event due to thier particular disability and where applicable demonstrate and explain any specialist equipment that they would be using, for example what the problems of having an upper limb missing in the butterfly stroke actually are and how that compares with say someone in the same event who has all limbs but cerabel pausey or how that incredible archer from the USA can use a bow without any arms and be so accurate.

Quote by HnS
So to provide just over 10,000 G4S security people, refuse to call them staff, across all the Olympic venues they were going to get £284m.
Even now they can't advise how many they will eventually have trained and accredited, with 4,200 people "working on the ground" and expected that at least 7,000 will be inplace eventually, however they'll still 'pocket' their £57m management fee - well they'll have to given it's likely to cost them £35m to £50m to pay for the 3,500 extra military personnel and Police.
Not bad, make a monumental 'cock up' and still come out at least £7m in front.

Anyone like to guess where this statement comes from ?
We are proud of our distinctive culture and strong values that are cascaded through the organisation. These values guide how we conduct our business and help to develop positive relationships with all stakeholders.
Our values
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Expertise – we develop and demonstrate our expertise through our innovative and leading-edge approach to creating and delivering the right solution.
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Each of our values has a senior executive ‘champion’ within the Group who is responsible for ensuring that it is embedded into the way G4S conducts its business throughout the world.

Thankfully the decision on whether G4S will be given contracts to operate any more prisons in England and Wales has been put back until the autumn, though any thoughts that this might be to allow people to forget their Olympics 'cock up' are obviously cynical.