I attended my first Olympic event yesterday, and it was a great experience - got kick-arse seats (row 9) and it was a good game, despite the loss for Australia.  Here’s some photos taken with my 450D, 17-85 IS lens.  If I had my 70-200L IS on me they would be even bigger and sharper, but you can’t win them all sadly - I’m lugging too much as it is.

Australia played well against Argentina but Argentina had many more shots at goal, it was inevitable they would convert one eventually, still - Australia put up a very good fight against the worlds best team. The Serbia vs Ivory Coast game was an exciting game with a goal in the first 3 minutes, and two in the last 4 and much intensity from the players. 

Lisandro López and Brett Holman
 

Australia defends a corner - click for bigger version (I will upload a cool sequence of Australia defending a free kick when I get a chance to photoshop it a bit)

 
The Stadium

Ivory Coast plays with intensity 

Ivory Coast defends a corner, click for bigger version

Australia is down but not out, but we have to win our next match and have favourable results in the other matches (which fortunately, at least in the Serbia vs Ivory Coast match, we did). Argentina will win Group A most likely which means I will see them in the quarter finals on the 16th.

how sad.  Roy and HG have always been a highlight of the games - I thought I would be missing them here in China but it seems everyone is :(

now it’s a ghost town.

Anticipation was building all day in Beijing, a spring in everyone’s step. It’s a foggy (smoggy) day, visibility isn’t the worst it has been for the last two weeks, but also far from the best.  On the TV though the night looks black, not sure if that had to be forced :)  By 8pm, the streets are absolutely empty.  After attempting to go to a bar in Ho Hai, and finding they were closed as there were to be some fireworks there, we jump in a cab and head to the nearest “big screen”.

Workers Stadium, Sanlitun area, big screen.  Heaps of people watching it, majority Chinese (same as everything here really) but a sizable foreign contingent as well.

Watching the opening ceremony 

We all watch the opening ceremony performance.  Heaps of people plus a lot of cabbies (who with the busses are the only vehicles on the road) have stopped to watch it with us.  Spectacular performance - I’m sure you watched it to :)

The Chinese crowd cheers when the military goose-steps the flag, which was certainly done with precision - but a few foreigners found the cheering amusing.

Greece comes out - “raaar”

A billion other countries parade past - lets get to the big ones already!

 
The crowd waits, occupying itself with photographing each other

Crowds cheer for China to come out (they don’t)

Japan comes out - “boo, *laughs*, booooo” (although I notice that all the athletes are waving Chinese flags as well as their own)

Hong Kong comes out - “yeey”

UK comes out

USA comes out - “U. S. A, U. S. A”

Flag waving

The American fans proved a hit with the locals 

China comes out - “aaaaaaAAAAAAAA”, no wait, it’s Turkey, “aaaaaaww :(”

Some olympic official appears with a handful of special addition newspapers covering the performance.  In a matter of seconds he is mobbed and the pile of newspapers is ripped from his hands.  I try to grab one but am left holding some old discarded newspaper instead :(  Later much more appear and are handed out in a slightly more orderly fashion, although I wasn’t close enough to grab one.

The bottle collectors are going about their work, seemingly oblivious to the national awaking happening on the screen in front of them - only interested in the goldmine of bottles being left everywhere.

New Zealand comes out - silence :P

Aodaliya (Australia) comes out - “woooo, raaaaaarh!”

China comes out - “CHINA, CHINA, CHINA”.  I join in the cheering - hard not to!

The Chinese go crazy for Yao Lin

After the fireworks race to a cab.  Trouble getting home as had to wait for the Bush motorcade - so many identical vehicles, presumably to hide which one he is in.

I take back everything bad I have said about mobile phone cameras.  While they are currently no substitute for stand-alone point-and-shoot cameras (let alone DSLR’s), there are some shots only they can take, and for that, they are useful.