orangeman

Portugal looking very...informal.

Norway turned their crazy curling pants into jackets for the Summer Games.

Ireland's flag bearer is a boxer named Paddy. Because of course.

Oooooooooooooohhhh, Indonesia.

Loving all the colourful uniforms. Really getting me in the mood for the Olympics (like I wasn't already!).

Nice reception from the crowd. CBC shows our women's soccer team doing their own parade in Sao Paulo.

Ok, I love those tricycles leading the countries in. Very original.

Parade of nations!

God I love Brazil. I visited last year and after I returned home (I was living in Korea at the time) I went into a depression for a few weeks. It was like a hangover. So much energy and passion. Gorgeous, too. And not just the scenery.

Frankly, I would have been happy if they held the ceremony down at the beach with dancers and Sugar Loaf and Cristo in the background. Personally, the parade of nations is my favourite part of every OC.

I just read something that said that the budget is much, much less than London (and of course Beijing). I'm glad. It was getting a little crazy. I'm glad to see something a little more down to earth and sincere.

And so it begins!

Yeah, but with Canada's luck...

Seems like Canada has had a lot of tough draws so far at these Olympics. Bad luck. Now watch De Grasse get a first round heat with Bolt, Gatlin and Gay.

5-3 with time still left? Oghenekaro with 4 goals? Is this football or (ice) hockey?

You're right, LA would welcome it. Thanks for your input.

Right. But like I said, I thought there had to be specific conditions rather than just an ocean. I admit, I don't know much about surfing but I have been to Busan quite a bit. People surf there, but it's nothing like Hawaii or other places that hold regular competitions.

I have a question though: How can every host city include surfing? Doesn't that depend on geography? For example, if Paris hosts in 2024 how will they accommodate surfing? Same with Tokyo, I guess (at least it's on the coast). I don't think it's like sailing which can be done in any ocean. Doesn't surfing require specific conditions, and that's why their competitions are in locales like Hawaii and California?

Sorry, anyone who says baseball/softball is not popular around the world really means it's not popular in Europe. It's extremely popular in the Americas and East Asia (Japan, Korea and China). I think that probably makes it more popular than several team sports already included, who only have European medal threats, along with the USA. Softball just had their world championships in Canada and 31 countries participated, including ones from Kenya and Uganda. I prefer the idea of rotating sports depending on the host city. Baseball/softball makes sense in Japan, but it probably wouldn't have in London. Baseball fields are expensive so I wouldn't expect every host city to build them. It's easier to build venues, or just re-use them, for the smaller events.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but not only was Canada's goal today the quickest in Olympic history, but the red card in the 19th minute was also the quickest red card in Olympic history. We may not break the records in the pool or on the track, but Canada gets its name into the record books somehow!

I'm glad baseball/softball is back as a fan. I don't mind the other sports, although sports climbing is...odd. Maybe I just don't know enough. And there's probably enough combat sports already. I just think they need to pare down some existing events. As much as I like to watch swimming, is there really a need for 94 (or whatever) races? Any event where the same people win medals over and over again can be reduced, imo. It just pads the American (and Aussie) medal totals. IFor as many medals it hands out it's not really a global sport. But I know it's popular with audiences so it'll stay as is. And don't get me started on table tennis, which like swimming is just there to pad China's medal count. Squash is much more global and should be in the Olympics before TT. Anyway, hopefully the other new sports will allow smaller and/or new countries to participate more.

And I was thinking a tie was the best case scenario. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but as long as they don't take Zimbabwe too lightly, they should get to the playoff round, possibly in a pretty good position.

WooHoo!

SINCLAIR!!!!!!!! CAPTAIN FANTASTIC!!!!