The London 2012 Olympics has just finished and what a
fantastic show it was! I must confess I
was completely uninterested in the whole thing until the games got under
way. Actually to be precise it was at
the opening ceremony when the sound of “Going underground” by the Jam came
booming out. The opening ceremony had me
feeling confused up until that point by from then on I enjoyed it.
The games themselves were great too. I celebrated every medal won by TeamGB, no
matter what the sport, even the Dressage.
What a performance from Bradley Wiggins added a gold to the Tour de
France he’d won only a couple of weeks earlier!! The middle Saturday was fantastic with the
under pressure Jess Ennis winning the Gold the country demanded and winning it
in style. Then Greg Rutherford won a
surprise gold in the long jump and looked like he couldn’t believe it either. The evening was completed when Mo Farah won
the 10000 metres and the sight of his wife & daughter running to greet him
brought a lump to my throat. One of my
friends missed all this because he was watching second rate football on the
other channel.
The undisputed king of the athletics stadium was Jamaican
Usain Bolt, whenever he ran the world stopped and for the second games in a row
he was unbeatable. GB dominated the
cycling, done bloody well in the rowing and equestrian events too. Lots of medals in boxing and a few more to our sailors. On the last Saturday Mo Farrah picked up a second
gold for 5000 metres, what a star!
There was lots of talk about being “proud to be British”
after all of this. I can understand this
but I don’t feel any more or less proud to be British because our TeamGB done
so well. I gained enjoyment from watching
people who had worked hard and trained for the last four years, reach the pinnacle
of their career in their own home Olympic games and share the experience with
all of us. I enjoyed it on a more personal
level rather than the extension of “TeamGB have done well therefore I must be
great too because I’m British”. However
one enjoyed it doesn’t matter though.
Our games were a success on every level, who could have predicted TeamGB
finishing third on the medal table?
It is much easier to feel proud of people like Jess Ennis,
Mo Farrah, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and so on than it is
the overpaid footballing thugs who will be all over our TV screens again very
soon. It’s also easier to feel affection
for all of our Olympic athletes than a certain mercenary cricketer who has been
in the headlines lately. The third and
final test begins at Lords tomorrow and I was glad to see KP has been left out
of the squad, I don’t think England had any choice even if it makes winning the
test to level the series that bit harder.
Maybe the improvement in morale will give England a boost but it’s hard
to see England defeating a very good South African team. We live in hope!!
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