With a stunning Opening Ceremony complete, it's time for the Olympic action to begin proper. There are a lot of sports on the schedule for this first official day of action, as plenty of the athletes get their first attempts to show what they can do. A brief overview - Archery, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Cycling, Dressage, Fencing, Football, Artistic Gymnastics, Handball, Judo, Rowing, Shooting, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball, Weightlifting. Take your pick - what will you be watching first?
London 2012, Day 1
Published by Christine Blachford on
In GB watch, our men's team have been knocked out of archery by Ukraine. Good start!!
Good morning. #crossposting
Men's Cycling Road Race is GO.
So, at the moment, I have swimming on the iPad, BBC 1 on the TV on mute, and practice on the iPhone. Phew!
Rowers always seem crazy puffed at the end of a race. I wonder if there's another sport where people look quite so dead!
I have comments & FP3 (with sound) on LT, cycling on monitor, then another Olympic sport soon on the TV (as chosen by Alli)
In this individual medley thing, Phelps won his heat but was well slow so that he's actually only qualified eighth and will be in an outside lane. Will he even be able to find it?
Interestingly, BBC1 just switched to the swimming, showing the heats I've just watched. I wonder if they always planned to do that or have done it because there's a story there now.
Have to check in on the tennis today too, see if we can spot Amy and Lou in the crowd :)
i think my thumb is going to have an olympic event of its own over the next 16 days, 9 channels showing all different sports, swimming rowing, basketball, cycling, beach volleyball, badminton on now, its all happening, its like a permanent flick through the stations. dont know what to watch.
phelps from lane 8,makes it interesting for the final tonight.
Hard to complain about too much coverage but still, it's TOO MUCH! :)
So, which events are people at, so we can try to crowd-spot them?
Too much coverage is BBC putting 24 new Olympic channels on Sky and repeating them all in HD too.
I like that some of the oars of the rowers have the flag on. That's useful.
Wait till the sailing, the spinnakers (big downwind sails) should be huge flags :)
Swimming commentators having a go at people that have tickets and haven't turned up. Quite a lot of empty seats.
Oooh!
(Athens) http://www.kospictures.com/ImageThumbs/517-5685/3/517-5685_Athens_18_08_2004_Olympic_Games_2004_49er____.jpg
First football match at Hampden in Glasgow had 10-15,000 people in a 50,000 seat stadium. 30,000 tickets were meant to go to schools and youth organisations but the distribution got screwed up. Maybe G4S were doing it
Birdseye view of every Olympic stadium since 1896. I had no idea one stadium had held two Olympics. Bet Amy knew that
http://mashable.com/2012/07/27/olympic-stadium-aerial-view/#78257Athens-Greece--1896
Good photos: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/07/london-2012-the-opening-ceremony/
Any clues where the flame has moved to?
There is no timing data (etc) on the cycling.
Cycling crash
No Brits involved
Little coming together mid peloton - looks like minor scrapes / bumps and bruises only.
cheers thats interesting looking back at all the old olympic stadiums. funnily enough its half time of a football match im watching right now from the mcg, which was the main stadium for the 1956 olympic games, also for the 2006 commonwealth games too.
Hi I'm watching the cycling but there's a long way to go so I may channel-hop or get other feeds up.
The medals table is agogo: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/medals/countries
Archery medals were won yesterday. Do they not count until the ceremony has taken place?
That would make sense. You can't count it until it's around your neck.
Allows times for stewards to decide penalties after the race too
Love Frank's attitude. The team has 9 times as many points as they finished last season and all he is looking at is how far behind the leaders they are. #properracer
Wrong thread. Sorry
Not the first, won't be the last :)
Swimming done for now, back at 7:30pm.
I thought was just a ranking event, hence why they didn't let anyone in
make that 4 am here, might try and still be up for it, shame the finals of the swimming and athletics, and probably most of the other events will be on very early in the morning here.
Just caught a glimpse of the accident in the cycling. Bundle!
i truly cannot cope with the amount of choice available today. i feels like living in back to the future II. where's biff?
I can rap you on the head with my knuckles if that would help.
it would complete the experience.
Louis Smith in tears after qualifying for the pommel horse final. Bless.
#TeamGB into the gym-team-final - everyone were soo happy :D
Watching the rowing on BBC1
This must be a heat, the GB guy is smoking the other 4
I love the camera angle on the rowing start: http://mrschristine.posterous.com/olympics-a-view-from-the-start
That's a long way.
I am confused by the cycling - is it a team thing? I thought it was individual but they were saying the team are essentially working to get Mark Cavendish to win? Seems odd.
I've now switched over to watch some tennis :)
and say I do, jankovic has a really nasty slip...
The teams work to get their chosen rider to the finish line, lots of tactics involved. It means the team can do all the work early and Cavendish can sit in behind them following them. But often there's a 'breakaway' of individuals or small groups off the front which works to build a gap to the field and hope to carry it to the finish - or to make the field work hard and get tired out so their team can come through to win. Peloton is catching up I think, I've just started focussing again after F1 (although I have to go out briefly at some point).
There's an individual time trial in a few days.
I'm back to the cycling as well, but I've got no idea of any of the timings / gaps, but then do any of the teams / riders?
The motorbikes get so close
There's no radio for this event, the riders don't seem to like it. The lack of timing on the screen is really annoying after watching the Tour de France where they kept info coming all the time.
There's a long way to go yet, another lap here I think then an hour's riding back to London.
I know there is no radio, but they were talking about lack of times on our screens. I am constantly looking in the topL of the screen for a graphic.
yeah its like the tour de france, the teams choose who they think is their best chance to win and the rest are just trying to do their part to make the number 1 rider the winner.
I feel bad for the people doing all this cycling and not getting the chance to win!
Cav rode for Wiggo in the Tdf, he's now repaying the favour.
Ah, that is fair then.
I keep looking at the jerseys trying to work out who the riders are from the regular TdF colourings, and struggling.
yeah i know but its a team sport, like rubens moving aside for schumacher or coulthard moving aside for mika hakinnen. in the tour de france froome was the strongest rider but because the team was set up for wiggins to win there were times where froome had to hold himself back so he didnt pull away from wiggins, i guess they know it when they sign on.
I think Maurice Hamilton is commentating the volleyball.
Part of me wishes I'd paid more attention to the Tour de France now, but it goes on for so long!
It is a good watch of all the green countryside flying by - plus all the cycling of course. Might have been a bit much to dedicate every afternoon for 3 more weeks to more sport! But there is always next year.
Definitely enough to deal with this year already :)
I tried to watch the ITV highlights on ITV Player, I still haven't got around to 3 or 4 days worth. Lots to see..
I'm watching this handball (on computer, cycling on TV), can't help but feel we should have done more of this in goalkeeper training.
its alot easier here, it starts at 9 pm and finished around 12:30- 1:30 am every night so its alot easier to follow. one of the benefits of the time zone
"chess on wheels"
every olympics i see the handball and it looks such a good sport, i wish it was played here in australia, i wouldnt mind playing it myself, its pretty big in europe but unfortunately not here.
I've just taught myself what the difference between the volleyball team and their different coloured player is :)
It seems to have missed GB too! Seen its popularity in central Europe, in fact I used to talk to a couple of (amateur) handball players a few years back from Germany.
Also seems more aggressive than I would have thought.
The GBR women aren't playing badly atm (despite being far below the standard - auto qualification)
New rowing record for the NZ team - http://www.london2012.com/news/articles/world-best-time-for-new-zealand-duo.html
it seems like a cross between soccer and basketball but with alot more body checking and bumping, it seems fast paced and exciting to watch and play so i have no idea why it hasnt taken off here.
Fans of extreme sports, I've found Ed Leigh commentating on the Beach Volleyball. #Random
I'm struggling to think of why too. It's very enjoyable to watch.
Oo yey - graphic on the cycling.
: at the cycling. TeamGB have left themselves a task. Run in toward LDN now.
I like the chaps standing on the traffic islands and waving warning flags. I could do that.
Gap is at 1min (dunno how far we have left). Time to go big or go home!
<23km to go: group of 33 - 57s - Peloton (with TeamGB).
GER are helping on the front with TeamGB. The chase is on.
<20km to go = ~21mins: Gap at 51s
Woah, crash into the barriers
Group looks to be splintering as they all start thinking about themselves.
The comms haven't spotted it.
Slow sharp corner, they went in too fast
crunch. watch your head mate.
Oops - I'm watching on delay then.
Bleeding elbow.
Fab was looking a fav from that group.
yeah his back tyre slid out abit coming around the corner, then cruch head first into the barrier, lucky he didnt hurt his neck.
Wait for them to try and bring in HANS devices or similar.
@emmastonier Now that was immense! #olympics2012 www.twitpic.com/acqi78
ha i like it
Waht we want to see is the cars being pulled from between the group and the petoton = gap is being closed enough
56s :(
7km to go
Vino is a very good rider - shouldn't be messed with.
Good attack. Surely the rest of the front group will catch even if the main peloton doesn't.
4.5km, 53s back to TeamGB
They left it way too late.
Took their eyes off the ball this morning and let them away.
Vino is a clever rider, so my money's on him of the 2.
here they come
I definitely don't understand the cycling at all :)
Neither do the GB riders by the looks of it.
Vinokourov! Great finish. Really thought the 2nd group would catch them again.
hehehe.
Normally the main field works together in the last 20km to close the gap, I can't see why they didn't.
I don't know why he's saying that last bunch was for 4th.
I am pleased for Vino - he has riden v well in the TdF in the past, but never got too far in the results.
yeah they were coming quick but left it way too late, it was a strange end to the race.
He's retiring (again) soon isn't he?
Might do now ;)
BBC must be loving everyone calling GB Team Sky.
I wanted to hear the interview with Vino
Good job they just played it then?
I'm not on the real channels, but the cycling channel and it got cut.
BBC1 has a producer or someone playing out over Jake and Sue, now over a promo.. and Sue's mic wasn't on anyway
Just switched and used live rewind - see it now, all sorted.
just flicked over to the equestrian,, wont do that again......
:) I don't see the appeal of it.
or even have any idea of whats going on, some horse prancing around the place, cant even see a number or a bookie anywhere
when did bow and arrow firing devices become so technical?
first time ive ever heard the kazakhstan national anthem
I definitely thought it might be more Robin Hood style.
Ooof, a Swedish player just turned her ankle at the handball. Stretcher is out.
Taking a break to go present-hunting one last time, see you in a couple of hours.
Byhee
Current viewing position: http://t.co/OdHYzGtz
lords looks different with archery being played on it, a bit of a different crowd to the usual lords crowd too
Just switched over (HT at handball), you couldn't tell there will be a Test match in just a few weeks time.
@MarkCavendish: Gutted. After 250km, less than a minute to 20guys. My guys were INCREDIBLE & there was nothing more we could do. Victims of our own success.
I quite like that the archery can come down to the very last arrow.
Can't help but feel the performances of McIlroy and Wozniacki wouldn't have plummeted had they not insisted on watching each other play religiously.
Swimming finals now. looking forward to these.
GB Womens Handball on soon! .. not a good day for Badminton - we lost in the Mixed to the Russians, should have won really, we now probably need to beat the worlds champs to progress, and also beat the Germans early tomorrow (8:30am) ... also, not good in the Cycling... GB vs The World...
I saw a Brit lady get through her match. Susan somebody,
Yeh, Susan Egelstaff good solid match... the next match in the group will be a tougher prospect though...
Is the Thorpedo a BBC pundit this time around?
I believe so. I've seen him on my TV loads today!
I wasn't sure whether he was going to run off to the Aussie TV at the drop of the hat :)
Yay Mark Foster!
wahay... GB handball!! going to be good when I go on wed / thurs. .. can't wait!
I have been hearing about the handball all day. Will have to check it out.
hmm.. i think montenegro might be quite handy... (sorry for the pun)
Hehe.
Lochte versus Phelps. A great final to start with.
Those names for intros were fun :)
2 lengths of each Fly, Back, Breast, Crawl then.
Hello again all!
Watching the swimming. Phelps isn;t winning!
just had a couple of hours sleep, set my alarm in time for the swimming finals.might be some wierd sleep patterns over the next couple of weeks
swimmer's don't mess around. walk out, clothes off, swim. no gridwalk chatter for them.
Pretty close though!
Actually, after that turn, he's miles ahead!
lochte looking good but phelps is still a chance
Phelps is a long way back, but he doesn't like back so much ...
great graphics.
oh the world record line is back
Well done to the guys running along with the WR-rope.
what an effort!
Shocker!
:)
Wow! Big wow!
And no medal for Phelps :O
I love that Clare Balding has papers and notebooks everywhere. Lady does her research :)
If MrC is around, sorry for talking too much maths before ;)
yo!
Did you scare him with numbers?
I think as it's a saturday night and the olympics is on, this definitely means i should order a pizza.
I think it's a requirement!
Usually I get perfect pizza, but I fancy a change so I'm going for dominos!
I was inventing ways to spice up Quali that involved a lot of counting ;)
I've just done us home-made with dough from my breakmaker :)
That sounds gooooooooood.
Ace!
go on!!
so close to the world record.
Not today's, but this is how they turn out :) http://t.co/Wf6kZNFN
woah!!
handball is 14-8 to Montenegro... seeing as we have only had a team for.. 2 years.. not too bad!
Would say though that today's were better ;)
it sounds like a great idea for a guest post....
.... So long as you'd read it :P
i'll always read guest posts. can't promise i'll understand maths tho.
Wow, this 400m is close!
I'll use lots of little words - already started a document.
could be a world record
*hugs*
All this gliding is robbing us of records!!
If everyone splashes so much after winning they'll be running out of water in the pool before long.
No running or bombing or splashing.
Evening, I was out for longer than I'd planned. As soon as I switched on the TV I saw an Olympic Record.
This is the first medals ceremony I've seen so far.
Your football-skills strike again.
Same here
Have to say those podia look average.
I'm no Steven
Well that is true - he'd've brought a WR.
That pizza was lovely! I can't believe how quickly it turned up.
come on stephanie rice, needs to be up there early as she is a quick free styler
Hehe, i like how it says Ye S.
Yes!
:)
Yes is storming away!
World record!!
World record!!!
World Record!
yes.... its a world record
i like how our exclamation marks make a sideways podium, appropriate really
Thought Hannah Miley could have done a bit more but she didn't look massively confident at the start. Home pressure not always am advantage, I think.
she's 16!
the chinese are looking like bieng the strong swimming nation now (lets hope they are not on the needle again)
I wonder what our first medal will be.
what do you mean, no one gave danny boyle a medal?!
Last time it was Nicole Cook in the road cycling (W), and she goes tomorrow.
This men's 100m breaststroke field is stacked with talent, that list of achievements he was reading out... champion, champion, champion..
new olympic record, nice :)
Olympic Record! And he led most of the way.. but everyone else was very close
walking in with big headphones on is super rude.
With your home crowd cheering you on!
phelps guy did that earlier. karma offered him 4th in return ;)
That was close!
here we go, first relay final, aussies are a chance but the dutch and the americans will be strong
ah, china to win this one...
It's be fun if they had to pass a baton like the other relay.
come on great swim kate
gb 3rd!! Goooo!!
yessssssss come on
Bronzey position atm :)
the dutch are flying
cheats
come on
That was a fun race
olympic record again!
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
gold
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
woah swim faster everyone
where did the Dutch come from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2t02
great badders match going on now!
@London2012: Gold, silver + bronze in #Fencing for Italy: a triple-combo in the women's Individual Foil http://l2012.cm/MM0ZQV #London2012
I'm going to have to call it a day on the sport. Great first day, though, thanks for the fabbo comments people. More tomorrow!
:) I'm yet to look to see when my day starts
For peeps planning ahead: http://www.london2012.com/schedule-and-results/day=29-july/all-day.html
yeah me too, 6 am here had a bit of sleep before but thats it for now. sleep time
I've been channel hopping but mainly on the BBC1 recap of the day, they're spending a long time on each event.
Bit of a squeeze tomorrow with the F1 and then out to see family. How on earth will we cope when we have to go to work?
Olympics Tonight on BBC1 is a decent review of the day, bit of highlights, bit of live stuff right now with beach volleyball (crazy that this is live at 11pm). Unsure why they asked McEnroe, Holmes and Johnson to review the cycling though as they didn't seem to understand it.
And then McEnroe suggested that Phelps should concentrate more when he's not on the court ;)
I quite like some stuff still being on at this time. Was a surprise to get home from work and see I can still watch some boxing.
I also don't understand why the BBC News spent half its airtime telling us what has happened in the sports, that's the job of the sports coverage.
Ha I missed that :)
Yeah me too, I thought maybe they'd just do the indoor events for noise reasons or something.. though I suppose the various Palaces etc don't mind for a few days.
Basketball on 301, AUS beating GBR but GB still scoring
I'm confused why the Serbian boxer's coach has a Montenegrin jacket on? Are they still best friends and helping each other out?
I almost tear-up when I see Lewis Smith's quali on the pommel, and then his reaction to his score :')
Australia won.
The sport keeps coming. Brazil v Turkey, women's volleyball.
Commentary from a certain J Legard.
This set is very close. 25 - 26 and you have to be 2 points clear to win. Ooh Turkey got it to draw sets 2 - 2.
just checked into the comments. there's still sport past midnight? wow.
*turns on tv*
if you have 304, it's there too, but in HD.
That doesn't seem to work very well with my box, it goes black screen now and then.
damn. needs a strong signal. freeview wasn't meant to handle quite so much hd :)
Love that it basically goes from first thing in the morning until late at night whenever the last game finishes. Even though it is 16 days there's a lot to fit in I suppose.
Definitely don't have a strong signal. :) I keep losing channels.
legard commentating on his own, sounds like a recipe for disaster, but he's doing ok.
Seems suited to it
match point
some terrible serving from turkey.
I thought the Turks would win that
Seems to be what let them down
quite a few people still in the area. crazy!
*arena
Busy night bus :)
standing room only
On the ground report: first day was very long but good, it's 1am and I'm just getting to bed, getting up at 6.55 for the 9.30am session of gymnastics, I'm hoping that the travel times/arrival recommendation is grossly overstated and I never have to get up before 7 again. Ever.
Oh and I also have little to zero idea of what happened In other sports today. You miss a lot of Olympics at the Olympics.
heheheeh!! sleep well amy :)
Ooh I've just got an email from the nz Olympic committee with the day one round up of our athletes. These will be handy for staying in the loop of what my team has been up to.
That's not much sleep after a busy day! Gymnastics was one of the venues with gaps in the crowd so it might not be hard to get in.
Tons happened, I've been watching for hours and I feel like I missed a lot. Such a packed day of events!
We've already had 12 medal events. The first one was a Chinese win in shooting. Lots of swimming: Phelps lost. Records set. Cycling: GB lost and the BBC is treating it like a funeral.
China leads the medal table - http://www.london2012.com/medals/medal-count/
My first day at the Olympics was spent at the tennis too. Started off on the hill, with a flash mob dance act and the Pet Shop Boys performing; then all the Centre Court action, with S Williams dominating even if the crowd were distracted by Michelle Obama, Federer nearly being knocked out and then GB athlete Keathavong nearly getting through. Finished with me being quoted in the BBC top news story about empty seats and spending an hour chatting (in a group) about Olympic stuff on the BBC World Service. that's an eventful first day!!!!!
that certainly is! more to come?
Very busy! Sounds like fun
yes. 6 more events to do. Next one is Beach Volleyball. That gives me 3.5 days to watch more than one sport!!!! :-)
:)
I after my first day at the olympics, super long but a wonderful experience, disappointed at the lack of people but I shall take full advantage to no queues for courts etc. However if they could release more tickets for the tennis on days I'm not going that would be great. Quite fancy a week at Wimbledon, not just 2 days :)
Can't believe the Murray bros lost their match tho!