Several weeks/months in advance of the Olympics, there were the beginnings of problems looming. First, stories about the unhealthy quality of the water in the Seine. Even as of now, it is questionable whether water quality will be sufficient. Interestingly enough, the rain makes the water quality worse -- so the downpours yesterday very much hurt things.
Then there were stories about the Olympic Village being built without any air conditioning, because they wanted to be more environmentally friendly. Great. August in Paris is typically brutally hot. Apparently there was enough backlash from the various delegations that they have since decided to make 2,500 portable air conditioning units available for renting. Oh, so not only is that certainly more wasteful of both materials and energy, but the poorer countries are less likely to be able to afford the units. Brilliant.
And then there's the further attempt to be "eco-friendly" by reducing the amount of meat products at the Olympic Village. Apparently about 50% of the meals were intended to be vegetarian (I thought I had heard elsewhere 60% vegan), even though that is forcibly changing the eating habits of the competitors -- thoroughly inappropriate for them to do. Athletes, especially at such a high caliber as Olympians, have a very regimented diet. Sure, some of them are vegan, but plenty are not. Given the Olympic Village is intended to provide for all of the athletes' needs, so should keep THEM in mind with the catering, not their own environmentalist agenda. To boot, apparently there's a general shortage of food and what there is, is low quality, including raw meat. (In fact, it's even being reported as a complete outage of food.) You know it's really bad when the Brits bring in their own chef!
Transportation for the athletes is also especially trying. Despite the Olympic Village being less than 10 miles outside the city proper (7.5 miles to the swimming venue, anyway), it's taking 1-2 hours on the bus for the athletes to arrive. Some South Koreans moved from the village to make the travel better and more comfortable -- given how hot and crowded the buses are, too. Some athletes are also complaining about not being picked up by the scheduled bus.
Then there is the attack on the Paris high speed rail system that occurred early on the day of the Opening Ceremonies. I sure hope they not only get the various perpetrators, but are capable of preventing any further such disruptions.
Heck, even the Olympic Flag being raised at the beginning was done incorrectly -- it was hoisted upside down!
The Opening Ceremonies were so boring when I turned them on, I wound up turning them off after about 30-45 minutes. But, thankfully, I was advised the last half hour were truly special. I turned them back on right as the light show on the Eiffel Tower was starting. That was a brilliant spectacle to behold. And though the lighting of the Olympic cauldron was hailed by many of my friends as fabulous, I thought it underwhelming. And even more so upon discovering that, effectively, the Olympic Flame is already extinguished (unless they've kept it going on the torches). The not-quite-hot-air-balloon that has the cauldron at its base and will be floating (tethered) every evening during the Games... the effect of a flame is being mimicked by misting water and LED lights. There IS NO FLAME because they didn't want to use the amount of carbon-based fuel needed to keep the flame going for the duration.
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