How does Beijing rank?
 

How would you rank Beijing in terms of the Olympic Games that you've watched?

For me: Sydney > Beijing > Athens > Atlanta.

The convenient viewing times are probably a factor, but the Sydney games were brilliant in general IMO.

Atlanta just seemed wrong to me, even though I was young at the time. I understood that the Olympics were usually held in the great cities of the world and Atlanta (with all due respect) probably isn't even in the top 5 cities in the US.

Atlanta was my favourite. Beijing was a lot better then I thought it would be.

Beijing> Sydney> Atlanta> Athens

Though Sydney was a bencfhmark with it's superb anti-pollution conduct, Beijing was more wholesome, given there are hardly any controversies (doping etc) as compared to other games.

Yeah that's a fair point.

Tibet?
Internet censorship?
Replacing that little girl for a prettier one at the opening ceremony?
On second thoughts, would've been better had we never heard of Nikki Webster....

Also the age of the gymnast controversy, dealings with the press, fake opening ceremony, player kicking a ref etc. That said it was pretty good controversy wise and in most places the actual sporting acts dominated the headlines.

Sydney>Athens>Atlanta>Beijing.

the beijing games just seemed to 'fake' for me.

e.g. watching the triathlon and there's a group of chinese people all waving the flag in perfect time with each other while competitors run/rid past (as well as the aerial chopper).

BMX - a big sign in the background telling the crowd to cheer...ffs if you dont know when to cheer then why are you there?

The struggle for people to get tickets, over half the crowd at opening ceremony being security/police.

Replacing the girl during the opening ceremony.

The staged games for mine.

Yeah, I agree. As I've said before, Atlanta was awesome, staying up til 3/4am watching the Athletics, watching Roger Black win the silver in the 400 was awesome, even though we weren't much cop in those Olympics I watched pretty much the whole lot. Hardly watched any of Sydney because of the time zone and it being in september meaning I had just started Lower 6th, and Athens was okay but nothing special overall, Kelly Holmes & Matthew Pinsent aside :p

I also remember bits of Barcelona, that was decent

But yeah, Atlanta ftw. I remember thinking at the end of those Olympics that I would never enjoy another Olympics that much...it's true

Its odd. I remember Atlanta being decidedly average. Maybe its the fact it was held in Atlanta. Its like when Salt Lake City won the Winter Olympics hosting rights - it smelt, nay stank of bribery and corruption.

My favourite of recent years was Seoul. Los Angeles was abysmal with the absence of so many important athletes, whilst Seoul had controversy (Ben Johnson and Flo-Jo) and as I recall there was a US swimmer attempting 'The Phelps' of defeating Mark Spitz's seven gold record, only to lose out in the Butterfly (distance???) to some African dude that no one had ever heard of. Brilliant. Of course, Mark Todd won a 2nd gold for NZ.

Some guy called Steve Redgrave won a couple of medals at Seoul too.

Yeah, exactly.

It was the 100th anniversary of the first Modern Olympics, and they had the choice between Atlanta and...Athens.

Yeah, always thought it odd that they had it in Atlanta and not Athens considering the anniversary.


For mine: Beijing>Atlanta>Sydney>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Athens.

Sydney
Beijing
Atlanta

Daylight

Moonlight

Starlight

you get the idea

Athens

Rate Sydney just ahead of Beijing purely and simply because it was the first Olympics I really got into, and the fact that they were in Australia and we did so well in them. Beijing a close 2nd though.

Atlanta was ok, it was what grabbed my interest in the first place. Can still recall perkins' win from lane 8 so well. Athens, on the other hand, was so **** imo. The timezone difference obviously didn't help, but for me, there was really nothing memorable about it.

Remember really enjoying the Barcelona Olympics. Since then the Sydney and Beijing Olympics have been the standouts for me. Remember skipping so much uni during the Sydney Olympics it wasn't funny.

I think the vastly different time zones have a lot to do with one's enjoyment of the games.

Beijing > Atlanta >Seoul > Sydney > Barcelona > Athens

Have vague memories of Atlanta. Kawolski and Perkins the only ones I definitely remember. Did we even win any other medals?

Absolutely loved Sydney. Every second of it. Didn't move from the TV.

Watched a lot of Athens but I don't actually remember much of it at all. Remember a lot of footage of anchient Greek monuments and that was pretty cool.

Beijing seemed better than Athens but I didn't watch much this time around. Just the important swimming and running events with the odd game of basketball.