Five Rings - 2/8

Blue - Eight badminton players have been sent home from the games after intentionally trying to lose games late in pool play in order to gain an apparently easier draw later in the tournament.  The punishment is very severe given the fact that there was no rule expressly outlawing such a strategy.  However, the athlete's oath taken on behalf of all competitors at the opening ceremony promises to compete '...in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams'. I don't think there's any question that those players were ignoring that oath, and as such don't really understand what it is to be Olympians.

Black -

Red - Tickets have been the biggest source of complaints about the whole London Games, I think.  First it was the ballot, where some people ended up with more tickets than they knew what to do with and most were left frustrated.  Then the unused tickets and empty seats which have blighted the past two Summer Olympics struck London.  Now there are tiny releases of spare seats which are triggering electronic bunfights and in practical terms mean a 25 minute wait to find that the seats you requested are no longer available, during which time all your second, third, fourth and seventeenth choices have gone too.  I spent a fruitless hour tilting at windmills tonight, not for the first time.

Gold - I'm still angry about the hidden Olympic flame.  Seb Coe has been very defensive when questioned, saying that "not a tourist attraction" and that LOCOG is following the example of the London games in 1948, when it was also kept inside the athletics stadium.  Just a thought, Lord Coe, but maybe the reason that was last done in 1948 is that someone had a better idea?  At that point scaffolding was probably rationed, or rooftop cauldrons of flame judged a risk for bombing raids.  Seb, you've misjudged the mood badly on this one.

Green - All home champions are to be commemorated in special edition stamps by the Royal Mail.  The Glover and Stanning one gets there faster than any of it's competitors, and the Bradley Wiggins stamp is equally valid in France.