I went to the second week of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. My main advice is: only attend the events at which gold medals are handed out. Stay away from preliminary rounds.
The excitement of a once every four years prize makes minor sports fun for a day. For example, a weightlifting final I attended turned out to be a blast, almost as much fun as professional wrestling (the weightlifters try to psych each other out, which is fun to watch). This was their moment in the spotlight and they took full advantage of it. In contrast, watching the American basketball team starring Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing win a fairly close basketball quarterfinal match over West Germany 78-67 sounds pretty good in theory, but was actually rather dull.
Are you calling Uwe Blob dull?
ReplyDeletemost of these sports have a world championship every year, so it's not a once every 4 years thing, although the olympic crowd is bigger than the world championship crowd. but your point stands in general. the finals can be exciting.
ReplyDeletein fact, that's how you predict who is the favorite. because those sports are going on every year, not just once in 4 years. so the guy who won in 2011 is more likely to win in 2012 than some random guy.
with wikipedia, it's easy to check around to see who was the world champion 2011 and that will give you an idea for what to expect in london.
Uwe Blab (sp?) looked like the second coming of Kareem for the first 3 minutes, hitting 3 hook shots in a row over Patrick Ewing to start the game and giving coach Bobby Knight a real scare. Then, Jordan and Co. adjusted on defense and Uwe sorted of disappeared for the rest of the game. The Germans had a young Detlef Schrempf, however, and that kept the game from being a blow out.
ReplyDeleteMy wife applied for tickets for all the least popular events, on the basis that they'd be easiest to get. So now we have a couple hundred pounds worth of tickets for 8am wrestling heats at Mile End, ladies' shooting heats, that sort of stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy wife applied for tickets for all the least popular events, on the basis that they'd be easiest to get. So now we have a couple hundred pounds worth of tickets for 8am wrestling heats at Mile End, ladies' shooting heats, that sort of stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou have my sympathies.
Weather makes a difference. My best ticket at the brutally hot Barcelona Games was for the fencing preliminaries-- eight hours in air conditioning! A friend went halfway to Andorra for the kayaking, and that was also blissfully cool.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, synchronized swimming was held within what turned out to be a solar panel. Ouch. And don't even mention the women's marathon... or the noon-hour yachting, viewed from a sidewalk...
And Olympic baseball! Consecutive train mishaps got me to a game 2 1/2 hours late, and I was enraged. Until I learned they'd just begun the fourth inning. They make MLB look like speed dating.
Also, avoid going to games held in the country in which you reside-- you have to deal directly with the Olympic committee there. (I was denied tickets at Atlanta due to a minor error in my application.)
ReplyDeleteGo abroad, and you'll deal with a proper travel agency. Olson handled my Barcelona tickets professionally-- though they were delayed a day due to the Rodney King riots outside their doors!
only seven comments? shall anyone show for the games?
ReplyDeletepity should they not...
I think it was the LA Olympics when the Aussies noticed that the Kiwis had won all their medals while sitting on their backsides.
ReplyDeleteCanoe, Rowing and Equestrian.