Who should light the Olympic flame?

[ultragirl]

There was a great article in the Mail yesterday on Daley Thompson and the German giant who pushed Thompson to so much Glory, so for me I would love to see these two giants of athletics get the honour.

[sovietvest]

I thought the article by Redgrave was beneath him and it put Daley in the pole position to be chosen .. .. .. until he stupidly responded. Can't believe either will be chosen.

Never liked Redgrave. I hate him and Pinsent getting all sanctimonious regarding 'drug cheats'. Look at the odious character who trained them. Hypocrites.

And that stuff Redgrave wrote about Thompson not being good enough to compete in an individual event. His LA LJ would have earned him 5th in the final. With more focus on the event he would have been an 8.50 jumper.

(Meanwhile this just in: "The names posters assume on message can boards can affect their personality". This is based based upon an admittedly limited sample.. .. .. .. me. I post under my own name on TFN and am no way near this opinionated).

[2012girl]

Highly disrespectful of Redgrave to say that multi event athletes are jack of all trades, masters of none. JJK & Eunice Barber were good enough to be champions in the individual LJ so he's also completely wrong.

He's a pompous oaf who's recieved one too many lifetime achievement awards and it's gone to his head. You can't argue with the medal tally but he's also a complete and utter bore and it would be a very predictable choice

[Charlie Boy]

The trouble with Redgrave he seems to forget about his team mates. Whenever anyone gives him a compliment he never says I could not of done it without great team mates.

I fear he will be lighting the flame, Thompson would be my favourite talent, success and personality.

[ultragirl]

I agree soviet vest, Daley could have been an outstanding longjumper/sprinter and possibly a great 110hurdler to maybe even a top pole vaulter as he had the speed and strength in short like many multi eventers (Ennis 100h, Cluft L.J) they could have been champions in individual events. I especially like Daley because he is a peoples champion

[merito]

Ultragirl, Daley an all time great without doubt, in fact one of the greatest. However, potential great hurdler and top vaulter? Not on this planet!

[sovietvest]

Ultragirl, Daley an all time great without doubt, in fact one of the greatest. However, potential great hurdler and top vaulter? Not on this planet!

He jumped 5.10. How many PV sessions could he have completed each month? I'm with Ultragirl - he had a lot more potential

[ultragirl]

Thats what I was thinking S.V He ran the 100m in around 10.2 so with intensive hurdling coaching he might have been another Jackson/Jarret?

[trickstat]

Ultragirl, Daley an all time great without doubt, in fact one of the greatest. However, potential great hurdler and top vaulter? Not on this planet!

He jumped 5.10. How many PV sessions could he have completed each month? I'm with Ultragirl - he had a lot more potential

He actually vaulted 5.25.

[SteveK26]

Daley was an amazing sports talent. Probably would have been exceptional at football etc had he preferred to turn his hand to other sports. We were very lucky to have him, and I have great memories of sitting in stadia all over the world watching him, beginning in Montreal.
As far as Steve Redrave is concerned, I would like to doubt that his comments, (which I have not seen first-hand), were meant to be derogatory. Great sportsmen do not tend to deride others, (unless they think they are cheating). So I'm not going to join the ''bash Redgrave'' band wagon, and if he gets to light the flame, good on him. Team event or not, I don't know too many Olympians who have been winning gold for twenty years.

[trickstat]

Steve Redgrave has been well known to the British public since befor some of the British Olympic team were born. In that time, he hasn't exactly gained a reputation for being outspoken and controversial. Therefore, I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

[Geoff]

Sir Roger Bannister becomes huge favourite to light Olympic Flame

July 26 - British running legend Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, has become the overwhelming favourite to light the Olympic Flame at the London 2012 Opening Ceremony tomorrow night after a series of huge bets were placed on him to receive the prestigious honour.

http://www.insidethegames.biz/olympics/ ... mpic-flame

[ultragirl]

I don't think his performance (which some say the 4min mile was beaten to by another runner) is anywhere near the level of performance by Daley who broke wmore difficult world records than Bannister.

[SteveK26]

Whoever lights the flame will have to go some to compare with Ali in 1996.

Jubilee year.....perhaps Prince William might be the one?

[ultragirl]

The Olympic motto is faster, higher, stronger. Would Sir Steve like to tell us which of his 5 greater than Daley Olympians did all 3 of those?. His argument is plain idiotic. Yes he won 5 medals at 5 games but that simply isn't possible in many events where the requirements of the event and the ferocity of competition is such that your window of peak performance is too small. Daley may have won 3 golds if it wasn't for his pole breaking, in an event that relies on speed for so many disciplines and where the training is very likely to cause injury that in itself is phenomenal.

It is very gratifying to read BigGuts praising an athlete who did more than any other athlete without the aid of UKA and big money and a host of lily guilders following him around, this sort of puts all bigGuts comments about UKA into perspective, well done old chap, a real olympic admission of epic proportion

[AllanW]

Neat sidestep to get the youth to light the torch. Very very nice torch as well. Well done on that piece of engineering.

[jeremy1]

so much more imaginative way to get the flame lit with youngsters nominated by some great British athletes of the past. A great design and piece of engineering; so uch better than the sterile stuff going on for the last year about the most likely or worthy person to have the honour.

[Flumpy]

Absolute anti-climactic bore,

I'm actually angry at how pee (Apparently the last word got censored ) poor the last half hour was.

[athleticsdad]

.

[BigGut]

It is very gratifying to read BigGuts praising an athlete who did more than any other athlete without the aid of UKA and big money and a host of lily guilders following him around, this sort of puts all bigGuts comments about UKA into perspective, well done old chap, a real olympic admission of epic proportion

You really are utterly pathetic. What the hell has the NGB got to do with my post. Of course Daley had no UKA input, they didn't exist until 10 years after his retirement. Of course he did it at a point where the sport was still amateur and as such money was not really as relevant. However that doesn't matter, you are just pathetically trying to twist every last post into being an attack on UKA, which just proves you are just a pathetic muppet.

[shivfan]

so much more imaginative way to get the flame lit with youngsters nominated by some great British athletes of the past. A great design and piece of engineering; so uch better than the sterile stuff going on for the last year about the most likely or worthy person to have the honour.

I agree with you there...I liked the choice of using athletes of tomorrow to light the cauldron.

[Flumpy]

THIS is how you light an Olympic cauldron.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crO2l-Im ... age#t=266s


This was absolutely perfect and more or less what I had dreamed of for years in the run up to the games.

Raelene Boyle to Betty Cuthbert to Dawn Fraser to Shirley Strickland to Shane Gould to Debbie Flintoff King to Cathy.

It makes me cry right from the very beginning........"Ladies and Gentlemen. Celebrating 100 years of women's participation in The Olympic Games, the Olympic flame carried by Betty Cuthbert and Raelene Boyle"

I want legends at my opening ceremony not a bunch of kids titting around, whilst I get a fleeting glance of the people who should have been involved sitting in the crowd.

Complete wasted opportunity.

[AllanW]

I want legends at my opening ceremony not a bunch of kids titting around, whilst I get a fleeting glance of the people who should have been involved sitting in the crowd.

Complete wasted opportunity.

With the greatest of respect, a wasted opportunity if you believe that part of the ceremony should have been used to burnish already bright reputations and confer honour on those who have already received so much. For me the organisers' choice was right because this Olympics has been positioned as the Games to stimulate youth engagement and build the future of sport; in that case it was a great choice. In my opinion.

This Games is about the future not so much about the past.

[trevorp]

I agree with Flump. It was grossly sentimental. I wonder if this was planned all along, or whether the organisers chickened out of choosing a 'name' because of the very public and unseemly discussions about the relative merits of the various candidates. I'm surprised (and disappointed) that Redgrave got as close as he did, given his reported remarks disparaging other competitors. Still, it could have been worse ...

Let's hope that lots of the legends we've mentioned are given prominent roles in the medal ceremonies (Mary Peters in the heptathlon, Mary Rand in the long jump, etc.)

[jeremy1]

The lighting of the flame was so much more imaginative with a far superior narrative than in Sydney but we know certain posters have a strange hang up about so called legends and certainly the Aussies.

The remarks about "kids titting around" is just about the juvenile level one might have expected from some quarters but someone obviously cannot get his head around the theme of the Ceremont from Danny Boyle; the basis of the Olympics involves the future as well as the past... youths, nominated by great Legends, doing the lighting of a brilliant modern cauldron was great.

Had several friends from abroad phoned today to say how outstanding they thought the Opening ceremony was and they did not mind that certain allusions passed them by... it was for the British public AFAIAC...


I have never seen or been present at any opening Ceremony in which every element was thrilling.


What is all the stuff about the name of the person who was to light the flame... such a boring, conservative view that it had to be a famous athlete doing what all the others do.

At least it was not so grandiose and totally OTT as the flame lighting in Beijing by someone no-one had ever heard of outside China.

[2012girl]

The commentary team often have to explain what various parts of an opening ceremony are supposed to symbolise, no matter which country is hosting it so I don't get any foreign grumbling about it going over their heads. I thought they did a great job.

In regards of lighting the flame....I could have lived without Beckham being involved, yet again. And it would have been nice if the 7 'legends' had been involved in the lap of the stadium. I didn't hear Shirley Robertson's name get a mention when they were making the announcements, and as you didn't get to see them properly I had to look up this morning who the 7th person was

[trickstat]

I agree with Flump. It was grossly sentimental.

And using legends from the past isn't?

[trevorp]

I agree with Flump. It was grossly sentimental.

And using legends from the past isn't?

Well, it all hinges on one's definition of sentimentality, but I favour recognising and celebrating actual achievement over indulging in 'I believe that children are the future' mush.

[Flumpy]

With the greatest of respect, a wasted opportunity if you believe that part of the ceremony should have been used to burnish already bright reputations and confer honour on those who have already received so much.

I do. That's EXACTLY what that part of the ceremony should be used for and I hardly think the likes of Anita Lonsbrough or Malcolm Cooper have been overly feted.

[Flumpy]

Let's hope that lots of the legends we've mentioned are given prominent roles in the medal ceremonies (Mary Peters in the heptathlon, Mary Rand in the long jump, etc.)

I doubt it. We'll just get Anita DeFrantz as usual

At every single champs I get annoyed when some IOC/IAAF bigwig or CEO of the sponsors giving the medals out when of course it should be past winners from the country staging it or at least other legends that are inevitably in the stadium.