The XXX Olympiad kicked off in London last night. The opening ceremonies featured a lavish portrayal of significant events that happened through out the history of the United Kingdom. Danny Boyle, best known for directing Slumdog Millionaire, directed the performance.
The performance featured historical events such as the Industrial Revolution and World War I. Other elements of British culture highlighted through out included British literature with references and characters from famous works such as Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and even Harry Potter.
British music and pop culture were prominent as well with odes to the punk era and music from iconic British bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Queen and The Beatles.
The most ridiculous part of the ceremony was when two people jumped out of a helicopter into Olympic stadium posing as the Queen Elizabeth and James Bond. The analysis of the opening ceremonies is this simple. Beijing was way cooler.
Getting to some day one results. America got on the board with their first medal of the games in archery. The American team took the silver medal to the Italians after the Italian archer scored 10 points on his final shot to beat the Americans by one.
The US women’s basketball team hit the hardwood against Croatia. The US kept the Croatians at an arms length for most of the game before cleaning up their sloppy play and asserting their dominance in the 4th quarter to cruse to an 81-56 victory. Tina Charles had a team high 14 points and 10 rebounds coming off the bench. Candice Parker also registered a double-double off the bench with 11 points and 13 boards.
From the hardwood to the pitch, the US women’s soccer team was in action today as they put a beating on Colombia 3-0. The US controlled the game from start to finish, allowing the Colombians only a single shot on goal. The goal scorers for the US were Megan Rapione (33’), Abby Wambach (74’) and Carli Lloyd (77’).
Sticking with the theme of domination Ryan Lochte continued to assert himself as the best swimmer in the world after earning the US its first gold medal of the games in runaway fashion. Lochte won the 400-meter individual medley in a time of 4:05.18, 3.68 seconds ahead of second place, Brazilian Thiago Pereira and 4.10 seconds ahead of the fourth place finisher Michael Phelps.
