What did you make of the Olympic torch relay?

It was in Durham yesterday, the streets were packed full of people eagerly awaiting some chump running past with it held aloft.

I just don't get it personally. What is all the fuss about? Why are people excited about seeing someone running by with it held aloft?

I think you'll find that the average person is not that bothered about the Olympics and certainly not about the torch. The BBC are telling us that we are all excited and how the games are going to be fantastic. Sorry but I don't think so. It's all just another London Fest. This torch thing is to try and make people outside London feel as though they are involved.

When the torch gets a bit nearer London expect to see David Beckham with a big grin on the telly. That man has had his day. Let some young lad or girl have a chance in the limelight for a change.

I'm very excited for the Olympics, i love it. My excitement isn't more because it's in London tbh, i just love the occasion.

absolutely loads of people watched the torch at the castle here, I didn't bother seeing it off or anything like that, it is a bit silly but i don't see any harm in it, it's just people getting in on a bit of an occasion so they can say "i was there" etc etc.

I don't understand the fuss and the traffic the day it come round Bolton was a fooking joke.

Must agree with yesbut about Beckham. Not only will he have a silly grin (a bit like Stan Laurel but without the hat) but he will be telling us how great it's going to be for the whole country.

Not only that he will be in the Team GB football team (regardless of form).

Not only that he will be captain.

Not only that I think Lord Smug of Smugsville will give him the job of leading the entire British team into the stadium carrying the flag. How sick making is that.

Someone asked me last week was I going to go and watch the torch relay? I said I wasn't interested. They said to me "Its a once in a life time experience". So is having a shit out of a window but it doesn't mean I want to go and do that does it?

It's a pretty inoffensive thing to complain about if it's not your bag, Michael. I don't know why you're describing a torch bearer as a chump, most of them are people who have been nominated by their local community; good people.

I don't have a strong opinion about the torch relay itself but I love the Olympics and can't wait. With the English football season out of the way for a while I can enjoy the Olympics, the Euros, the Tour de France, the cricket and the rugby league, but the Olympics is special.

largehat wrote:I don't know why you're describing a torch bearer as a chump, most of them are people who have been nominated by their local community; good people.

I get that, but why Will.I.Am, he's not even British.

It's a joke. I love the Athletics bit of the Olympics, the rest I couldn't care less about.

I don't mind it to be honest, as said above the people who have carried it are good people who have put something back into their community, but yes how Will.I.Am got to do it I will never know.

The olympics I quite enjoy some of it but just like the england team it's been built up way too much IMO, you can't go anywhere without seeing an advertisment for it or some competition to win tickets for it.

I'm not sure how some people can get so excited about it in all honesty, half the people in london will have never heard of some of the events.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

largehat wrote:I don't know why you're describing a torch bearer as a chump, most of them are people who have been nominated by their local community; good people.

I get that, but why Will.I.Am, he's not even British.

It's a joke. I love the Athletics bit of the Olympics, the rest I couldn't care less about.

Trying to add a bit of celebrity to it i suspect and a cynical plug for his flagging show "the voice" at the time.

sad that someone had to miss out carrying it for that.

I didn't see it live, even though it passed within 30mtrs of our house.

But looked on youtube, looked like there was a good turn out in Westhoughton.

There are only certain events that I make a point of watching in the Olympics and unfortunately, the Olympic Torch relay isn't one of them.

Banks of the Croal wrote:I didn't see it live, even though it passed within 30mtrs of our house.

But looked on youtube, looked like there was a good turn out in Westhoughton.

They were just there because they'd never seen fire yet.

TheHateCamel wrote:

Banks of the Croal wrote:I didn't see it live, even though it passed within 30mtrs of our house.

But looked on youtube, looked like there was a good turn out in Westhoughton.

They were just there because they'd never seen fire yet.

They have, they're just not to sure what to do with it.

I got roped in to watching the torch relay in Bury today, this was it going down Rochdale Road.



It was a bit underwhelming I must admit.

i also got roped into watching the torch yesterday and really didn't see what all the fuss was about. some people were creaming their knickers.

Copied from Wiki -
The Olympic Flame is a symbol of the Olympic Games.^[1] Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics^{[citation needed]}. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam,^{[citation needed]} and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since.

In contrast to the Olympic flame proper, the torch relay of modern times which transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the games had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the controversial 1936 Berlin Olympics.^[2]

So really it's just carrying on

what Hitler and the Nazis started.

yesbutno wrote:
So really it's just carrying on
[/td][/tr][/table]what Hitler and the Nazis started.

Well, yes, but no.

No, just yes.

Where is the torch today? I must know.