We at the Wide World of Sports are pleased to offer an open thread for the first day of the London Olympics, for people to chat about what's happening in one of the biggest sporting events in the world.
I've always loved the Olympics... there's something about people coming together to compete for the pure love of sport that really inspires me. I know there's a lot of money there, particularly with NBC and the Eeevil Corporate Sponsors, and I know that any event that involves numerous multimillionaire NBA players sporting (or covering) their athletic-shoe sponsors isn't really "pure" anything, but for the love of Pete, when the hell else does anyone care about things like archery, competitive rowing, and badminton who isn't personally involved in those sports?
We're going to see people get a moment in the sun who never get any other moments in the sun, despite being the very best on the planet at what they do, competing not for money but simply to prove to themselves that they're the best, and to bring glory to their countries, the people they acknowledge as their own. That's a hell of a thing.
Inspiring Olympic Thought of the Day:
The Schedule
Saturday's schedule is already going to feature the distribution of some hardware:
Cycling:
Men's Road Race (5:00AM EDT)
Shooting:
Women's 10m Air Rifle (40 shots) (6:00AM EDT)
Men's 10m Air Pistol (60 Shots) (10:30AM EDT)
Judo:
Women's Extra Lightweight Bronze match (9:03AM EDT) and Final (11:00AM EDT)
Men's Extra Lightweight Bronze match (9:04AM EDT) and Final (11:10AM EDT)
Weightlifting:
Women's under 48kg, Group A (10:30AM EDT)
Archery:
Men's Team Bronze match (12:33PM EDT) and Final (1:01PM EDT)
Fencing:
Women's Individual Foil Bronze match (2:10PM EDT) and Final (2:40PM EDT)
Swimming:
Men's 400m Freestyle (2:49PM EDT)
Women's 400m Individual Medley (3:09PM EDT)
Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay (3:40PM EDT)
Other highlights include the USA women's basketball team taking on Croatia in their first game of the Games, and a veritable truckload of swimming.
I'll probably have more to say after today's events are done, and I'm definitely looking for people to post open Olympics threads throughout the rest of the London experience in case I forget or get too busy.
Because things start in the morning London time—which is way-the-hell-too-early-thirty in the morning even here in the Eastern US, and even worse in the West—I can schedule your diary to publish when the events start.
Any volunteers?