Regular readers will have noticed that I’ve been a bit quiet lately, no posts for a couple of weeks and hardly any tweets at all. For a fortnight it seems like I fell off the edge of the world. Except of course I didn’t, I simply joined most of the UK in being utterly transfixed by the Olympics. I’m a big fan of the Olympics, I love the competition, seeing the hard work of athletes being rewarded after years of training, watching sport I normally wouldn’t and the whole idea of the world coming together. I am a sentimental fool and cry buckets every time the Olympics come around and this time I was lucky enough to actually be there for four sessions. I can now strike one item off my own personal bucket list and can say “I was at the Olympics”.
Everyone in the country seems to have been swept up in Olympic fever, the Gamesmaker volunteers summed up the best of British and for a couple of weeks Britain genuinely has seemed like a nicer place with less anger and cynicism.
In honour of these wonderful Games, please allow me the indulgence of giving you my Top Ten Moments of London 2012:
10. A Horse Dancing to The Lion King
I’ve always watched the showjumping elements of the equestrian competition but not dressage. I can’t pretend to understand what was going on but the sight of bronze medal winner Laura Bechtolsheimer and her beautiful horse Mistral Hojris dancing to The Lion King was absolutely spellbinding. I don’t know why it moved me to tears but it did.
9. Katherine Grainger Wins Gold At Last
Olympic silver is nothing to be ashamed of, in fact it’s pretty amazing but it seemed such a shame for rower Katherine Grainger who had won silver at the last three Olympics but never gold. It was a case of always the bridesmaid – but this was the year that Kath finally took gold and it was fantastic to see.
8. Greg Rutherford wins Gold
All gold medals are special but there’s something a little bit more magical about the ones that come out of nowhere. The middle Saturday was always going to be good with Jess Ennis leading the Heptathlon and Mo Farah favourite for the 10,000 metres but in the middle of it all a complete unknown from Milton Keynes whipped the crowd into a frenzy and surprised us all by winning gold in the long jump. It was great.
7. The Murray Hug
Just 28 days previously we had watched Andy Murray lose to Roger Federer in his first ever Wimbledon final. People who believed he was nothing but a dour Scot were won over with his tearful interview at the end of the match. After soundly thrashing Federer in straight sets Murray jumped over the crowd to hug his family and support team, as he headed back down to the court a little boy asked him for a hug and Murray obliged. Who said he has no emotions?
6. Chad’s Dad
One of the surprise moments of the swimming competition was South African Chad le Clos beating the great Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly. Clare Balding managed to interview his dad in the immediate aftermath of the result and his excitement and pride was overwhelming. I think this was the first moment of competition which moved me to tears.
5. Sarah Attar and the Olympic Audience
This was the first games where every single nation competing had female athletes and for some it had been more of a struggle than others. Saudi Arabia was extremely resistant to change and rumours persisted that they had deliberately chosen weak competitors to prove a point. That didn’t matter to Sarah Attar who came in last in her 800m heat, or to the crowd who roared her home. This was an historic moment and the enthusiastic crowd who had been so supportive of British athletes at every event knew it.
4. Tom wins a medal
For the past 5 years the entire country has watched Tom Daley grow up in the full glare of the media spotlight. Representing the UK in Beijing he came a creditable 7th in the solo competition and 8th in the synchronised. He spoke publicly about being bullied, then saw his beloved father die of cancer just last year. After coming 4th in the synchronised event this year he was subjected to some pretty horrible abuse on Twitter. We watched as he won bronze in the individual 10m platform final and cheered as he and his team-mates celebrated by jumping into the pool and having a bloody good time.
3. Mo-mentous
Well, if all the newspapers can come up with cheesy puns why can’t I? Mo Farah, a Somali refugee who came to Britain at the age of 8, this year he became the story of London 2012 winning both the 10,000m and 5,000m races. His daughter running onto the track to give him a massive hug was a real tear-jerking moment and his angry retort to a journalist who had the gall to ask him if he would have preferred to represent Somalia was perfect. You can be born in a different country and represent the UK with pride and honour and Mo did that beautifully.
2. The BBC
We’ve all complained about the Beeb, and their Diamond Jubilee coverage wasn’t as good as we had hoped but boy did they make up for that. 24 HD Channels covering the Olympics, a range of well-informed commentators, some great pundits and a genuine love of what was happening all combined to make this the BBC’s best moment in years. Special praise must go to Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe and the brilliant, brilliant Clare Balding who has become the nation’s favourite broadcaster over the past two weeks.
1. Good Evening Mr Bond
I admit it, I was scared of what the Opening Ceremony might be like. All interpretative dance, supermodels and god-awful Brit Pop – in fact the closing ceremony was what I feared the opening ceremony would be. But Danny Boyle produced an amazing spectacle and the perfect opening to the Games. It was totally bonkers and I’m not sure that viewers from other nations would have fully got it, but we Brits did. The best moment had to be the Bond scene, we saw Daniel Craig stalking the corridors of Buckingham Palace with corgis at his feet. We saw him approach a silver-haired lady and my heart sank a little, it was going to be that dreadful impersonator but when the Queen turned round and said “Good Evening Mr Bond” that was the moment everyone knew – these games were going to be great. We won at Opening Ceremonies and no other country would ever be able to match us. Rio – the challenge is well and truly on.
There were so many great moments I could easily have come up with a top 50 including Beth Tweddle, Chris Hoy, Jessica Ennis, Usain Bolt, the triathlon, witnessing Phelps’s final race, the fencer who refused to leave the field of play after a controversial decision – this really was a classic Games. And yes, as soon as the London 2012 Olympic Games DVD