I've watched a fair bit of the Olympics and Paralympics on TV, and I love it. I've also seen several events live - equestrianism, time trial, paralympics football, tennis, athletics and track cycling.
IMHO, the live events are better, by several orders of magnitude.
The TV focuses on one event at a time and concentrates on winners and Brits.
Being there live allows you to watch and experience several things happening at once - the crowd, the coaches, the losers, the sheer emotion.
Some bits missing from the TV:
The reaction of people as they walk into the Olympic Park - the first point that they see the stadia, hear the noise and realise the scale of what's going on. The universal (and correct) reaction at that point is a universal "Holy Fuck!"
The crowd yelling itself bonkers as the losers cross the line - long, long after the TV has zoomed in on the medalists and the replays. A tiny one-legged girl from Cambodia was miles last in a sprint on Saturday night - I'll never, ever forget that. I have no idea who won.
The sharing of medals beyond the big two or three countries. Along with tens of thousands of others, I've stood to the anthems of Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Ukraine... and many more.
The little things: a referee tying a player's laces, the patience of officials when dealing with an intellectually disabled wheelchair shotputter, the waves of noise at the time trial, the families, the effort, the manners, the cheering when each Javelin train pulled into the station...
I wonder when the tickets for Rio go on sale?
