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There is something about the parade of the nations that doesn’t make it boring. After all, it is just hordes of people walking in to cheers. The Greek alphabet was extremely confusing and randomized the order to such an extent that it made no sense trying to correlate the English alphabet with the Greek one. I could have sworn that I saw a contingent of Borivali but it turned out to be Bolivia (Ok, bad joke!). Nations we often never hear about walk in proudly with their colorful flags and single-member delegations, making us feel warm and fuzzy deep down. Iraq and Afghanistan got one of the loudest cheers and the Iraqis have kept the cheer going by winning back to back soccer matches. The Greek delegation of course was the biggest and I think anyone remotely interested in any sport was included. But after all it is their Olympics; I bet we would do the same too.
Classic engineering was at display for the lighting of the flame. After the awe-inspiring arrow lighting of the flame at Barcelona, no host has yet managed to supercede that. But the sleek flame at Athens shames the monstrous confusion of steel that I almost see everyday at Atlanta. The suspended flame carriers which came in the stadium before the arrival of the actual flame wonderfully set up the climax.
China has duly got down to the business of accumulating medals and has promptly jumped to the top of the medals tally with an surprising catch of eleven golds already and still counting. US is languishing and not looking really good, the 4×100 swimming relay team and basketball teams disappointing hugely. I hope they realize that the games are not going to last long and catching up with China is going to get increasingly difficult. The games are getting more and more competitive every time and that is the best thing about the Olympics – it is a great leveler.
by Patrix | on Monday, August 16th, 2004 at 11:06 pm | 
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August 17th, 2004 at 6:38 am reply
the reality is that the attitude towards sport also indicates the attitudes towards work and life in general. little wonder why china forges ahead economically and we in the united states are just languishing behind and doing nothing but complaining. past laurels really dont mean much- it is the now and the future that really matters.
August 17th, 2004 at 8:47 am reply
Yeah China has 11 golds, where as US might have clicked around a couple by now. They definitely have some serious catching up to do!! Yesterdays highlights showed they atleast won three…
August 17th, 2004 at 9:04 am reply
yeah, I agree the opening ceremony was the best so far. The greeks have really gone all the way. the best was the history of Greece parade. D
id you see a person from Madras in the Madagascar group? Or a man wearing a bra in Brazil? (I’m just leveling up to ur sense of humor here.)
August 17th, 2004 at 9:50 am reply
maybe you shud write more on the Olympics. It brings good luck. Congrats to Rathore!
August 17th, 2004 at 10:31 am reply
God, why did they have to talk about Anjali Bagwat or our hockey team as medal prospects? Expectations seem to always lead to disappointments. Maybe they should have kept quite about the whole Indian contingent like they did about Rathore and then we would have won the predicted 10 medals. Rathore, awesome man:)
August 17th, 2004 at 10:39 am reply
I thought the audience’s reaction to Iraq and Afghanistan was incredible too.
August 17th, 2004 at 10:53 am reply
This is a common question but I couldn’t help raise it…why India sucks so bad? I mean yeah…we are allowed to suck…but this bad…for sooooo freaking long? Wow. I remember a Jay Leno show during the winter olympics where he said “India has a population of 1 billion people and all they send is ONE guy!?!”…of course its pointless to explain him the amount of snow we get here…but our situation is not so improved with the summer olypics either. And he got his audience to laugh.
August 17th, 2004 at 11:02 am reply
M - It does take a conscious and concentrated effort to churn out medals at the Olympics..US does it bit, it is just that the lion’s share of medals has dwindled…India should really learn from China.
Pseudofreud - one can argue that the track and field events have not yet begun, so the US medals might just come then.
Alpha - If India is gonna win medals everytime I write, then I might be prompted to have Jivhaesque proportions and write tons…and why are you trying to compete with my sense of humor..not gonna work.
Sankalp - I guess we should follow Calvin’s motto..lower we keep our expectations, better our life is. Every time, these bhagwats and hockey team gets their ass kicked royally and we have to hide our faces in shame..But cheers to Rathore and our first individual silver..now someone please win a gold.
Leela - oh yeah..I sorta expected boos for the americans but thankfully everyone was in a good mood.
August 17th, 2004 at 11:39 am reply
I saw the score of the hockey match bt India and S Africa, before I posted the last comment. It was 2-0 against India.The minute I finish bad mouthing them, the Indian team beats their opponents 4-2.If this is what it takes….Go India, u really stink at everything u do;)
August 17th, 2004 at 11:43 am reply
And represented well by the paan chewing Kalmadi holding the olympic torch as if… Can’t translate all the gaalis coming to my mind!
August 17th, 2004 at 11:45 am reply
Sankalp - need a lil kick in the rear, eh?…whatever works for India should be used…remember the stone-throwing and black paint during cricket WC? worked like a charm :)
August 17th, 2004 at 11:55 am reply
Aar - The torch relay in india was a big joke..don’t get me started on that one.
August 17th, 2004 at 12:00 pm reply
its pointless to blame the Indians and say how we suck. Just look at the facilities rendered to train atheletes here vs. India.
i read in the Time magazine that Anjali bhagwat had to pay for her own coach and rathore in one of his interviews after the win complained abt lack of funds for his preparation..poor athletes..
apparently one american dude is helping build a 120 million dollar sports facility in hyd to train indian atheletes for olympics.. sad that US has to do this so that they can have some interesting competition !!!
And then whats the use in investing in sports other than cricket? How much does the govt. support these people? Its just better to study hard and do an MBA. Scenario has to change. Shud learn from China.
August 17th, 2004 at 1:12 pm reply
Alpha…you are right of course but that wasn’t the point. I feel its a Catch 22 situation. People pour money in cricket because thats the only sport that we seem to excel in. On the other hand, we don’t see an improvement in other sports because (as you rightly pointed) of lack of facilities. But my question is if one sport can succeed (cricket)…then whats holding back the others? If we as spectators show half the interest in hockey as we show in cricket…I bet we still could be winning gold medals like we used too. Also, and this is totally personal, I think Indians (in general) are just not sporty people…its not in our blood. Even cricket is a wimpish game compared to the other more famous ones. For the amount of coastline and rivers we have…look at the level of water sports! Sports is about brain and brawn…with special emphasis on brawn and the will to win…as a collective race…we sadly lack in both.
August 17th, 2004 at 1:19 pm reply
The sleek flame and the suspended torch bearers were pretty cool…yup, me too lovin’ it…what after the edge of the seat finish in Men’s Gymnastics, and Rathore’s medal!
August 17th, 2004 at 2:32 pm reply
Alpha, Yogu - I am inclined to agree with Yogu here. If money was the only issue, we should be winning mechanically in cricket every time but we still falter at the last step and are largely unpredictable unlike the Australians. Excellence in sports is largely a public good and the government has to take efforts and invest both time and effort..a single sports victory is said to boost national morale on the level of a military victory. But as Yogu says, will it really matter? We, as a nation still lack the killer instinct and have the “pehle aap” nature ingrained in us..can we ever win a gold?
Spaceman - Men’s gymnatics was really cool and Rathore did finally help us heave a sigh of relief
August 17th, 2004 at 2:33 pm reply
In TN, water peeney ke liye nahin hai, you expect to do white water rafting? kya re yogu, I was saddened by the plight of dried up kauveri..not a freakin drop. anyways, you are right, instead of diverting all our energy and attention in cricket, maybe we shud try making gili danda an olympic event and the sad part is someone else will get a medal for that.
Imagine in the land of Arjun and Ram, not a single medal in archery! Even the gene pool is screwed up.
August 17th, 2004 at 3:02 pm reply
I thought China is still at 10 Gole medals not eleven….
August 17th, 2004 at 6:40 pm reply
Alpha - We can’t use our excuse of not having enough water or food for a large population…by not promoting sports, are we really feeding people or supplying water? so why dig up excuses. But I agree on screwed up gene pool..just have to beat others at what we do best or else try to learn “their” sports quick.
Olympus - yup! you are right. but it won’t stay at 10 for long.