Farewell Olympics, Welcome Back Me

Hello again all. I can't even remember the last time I wrote a blog, have been very busy. Anyway I felt I had to come back now to write some stuff about the Olympics. Also with the new football season imminent (Does anybody actually know/care the Community Shield is today?) I shall be writing a piece on Liverpool just to set the wheels in motion.
So the past two weeks I have basically done nothing else but watch Olympic Sport. I was listening to the radio in my primary school classroom when London were awarded these games & ever since then I wanted to be part of it in some way. Well last Sunday I got my wish when I went to the Olympic Park to watch some Hockey. It was truly a great day out and the atmosphere everywhere was just amazing. I shall go into more detail later in the week when I write a piece about Olympic legacy

It has also helped that Team GB have had an amazing games. It needed Bradley "Wiggo" Wiggins to get things going in the Gold Medal department but since then it has been a gold rush with sporting achievement happening all over the place. The only sport we were really rubbish in was Swimming. I don't care what Rebecca Adlington says a silver & 2 bronzes in the pool is not good enough for a sport that received £25 million funding for this Olympic cycle. Michael Jamieson is the exception in the pool, he had a great meet! Also in Athletics wouldn't it really be nice if we could run a relay properly!

Anyway without further ado here are my top 10 Olympic moments from London 2012 :~)

Honourable Mentions
Helen Glover & Heather Stanning: Won Team GBs first gold but slightly fell under the radar afterwards

Basketball Team USA: Been sensational at times but what else would you expect from NBA All Stars?

Missy Franklin: 4 golds in the pool at 17 years old at a time when her native Aurora, Colorado is still reeling from the tragic events last month

Laura Trott: Double Olympic Champion & the new Queen of British Track Cycling. Also take over the mantle from Victoria Pendleton of being the hottest athlete in Team GB ;)

All gold winning Team GB athletes that are not in the main list

10: Andy Murray wins gold at Wimbledon Revenge is a dish best served cold! After the heartbreak of losing to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final last month, Murray put that all behind him to blitz Federer in all aspects on Centre Court. His celebrations afterwards showed how much this meant to this. Now he must use this to push on & finally end that wait for his elusive Grand Slam. If he keeps up the form he showed in the Olympic Tournament, it might just come at the upcoming US Open. But make no mistake Federer will want revenge after being denied the only thing he has never won so nothing will be easy.

9: Robert Harting's Celebration: For sheer comedy factor this was absolutely fantastic, a discus thrower jumping some hurdles to celebrate Olympic glory. Just brilliant!

8: Fourth Time Lucky for Katherine Grainger: 3 previous Olympics. 3 previous silvers. All that is now forgotten as Katherine Grainger finally achieved her dream of Olympic Rowing glory after winning the Womens Double Sculls with Anna Watkins. From the verge of quitting after Beijing heartbreak to Olympic gold in London, it was truly as she coined it "The Peoples Medal".



7: Allez Wiggo in "Wherever we are": He was already a national hero after becoming the first British man to win the Tour de France, but that wasn't enough for Bradley Wiggins. After trying in vain to get Mark Cavendish to a sprint finish in the Mens road race just a few days earlier, he somehow produced a display of power, speed and sheer brilliance to take the Gold medal in the time trial. His interview afterwards was just classic. "The crowd was fantastic in wherever we are" & "It was great to get the Gold Medal at this castle" when it was a palace! If he doesn't win Sports Personality of the Year this year then there's something wrong. If he don't win perhaps he'll do what he said on the Tour de France podium, "We're just going to draw the Raffle tickets now"! Legend. A knighthood will surely follow, or even perhaps he will become Lord Wiggo of Sideburns ;)

6: Victoria Pendleton winning the Keirin: Queen Victoria wanted 3 gold medal in her final Olympics before retirement. She only got 1 but what a brilliant one it was, defeating her great rival Anna Meares to get the gold. It would be Meares who had the last laugh, by defeating Pendleton in the Womens Individual Sprint. It was actually somewhat fitting that if Pendleton wasn't going to get the gold in her final race, then it was Meares that beat her to the gold. Their rivalry has been nothing short of epic and will be remembered soon enough as one of sports great rivalries with that  traditional feel. Britain vs Australia going toe to toe every single time.

5: The Mens Team Sprint winning Gold in World Record Time: Phillip Hindes, Jason Kenny & Sir Chris Hoy. Within a minute they had stormed around the track, beaten the French, broke the World Record & sent the crowd in the Velodrome delirious. It was an outstanding show of power & speed, highlighting the dominance that the British team have exerted in the Velodrome. What's that about magic wheels? ;)  

4. Michael Phelps: He's a bit good isn't he? After one bad race where he finished fourth, it was Gold/Silver all the way afterwards. It was great to see him show respect & kindness to Chad Le Clos who beat him in the 200m butterfly. Phelps would take centre stage by the end of that night though by being part of the winning 4x200m freestyle relay team which made him the most successful Olympian ever in terms of medals. Now going into retirement he finished with 22 Olympic Medals 18 Gold 2 Silver & 2 Bronze. This is to go with the 26 World Championship golds he has won. It's simple. In the pool, he is the greatest!


3. Sir Chris Hoy becoming greatest British Olympian: It looked like it was going to be a anti-climax. The German rider had overtaken Sir Chris on the back straight of the final lap of the Keirin Final. Fortunately the German couldn't get a bike length in front having to take the longer route around the final corner giving Hoy the chance to use a final burst of power to win his 6th gold medal overtaking Sir Steve Redgrave's total of 5. It was truly a feelgood moment afterwards that the British team gave him a guard of honour as he returned to middle of the velodrome with the crowd going wild. Just brilliant. Arise Lord Hoy of the Velodrome!

2: Usain Bolt: What can you say about this man that nobody else has said? There was doubt before these Olympics began whether he was fully fit or if the self proclaimed "Beast" Yohan Blake who beat Bolt at the Jamaican Trials would go and do the job himself. Why did we ever doubt Bolt? He wasn't as sensational as he was in Beijing but he wasn't too far off. An Olympic Record to win the 100m. Equaling Michael Johnson's old world record to win the 200m. Then to cap it off running the anchor leg in the 4x100m relay setting a new world record in the process. He is the best athlete in the world and his words, not mine "a living legend". Now he shall probably take a few weeks off, eat some chicken nuggets and go party until 5am with the Swedish Handball team ;)

1. Two Super Saturdays for Team GB: Number 1. Two Saturdays. One got 3 golds. One got 6. August 4th: 1st off Sophie Hosking & Katherine Copeland win womens lightweight Double Sculls. Then almost straight after GB win the Mens Coxless Four a discipline we have now won for the past four Olympic games. In the afternoon, at the Velodrome the Womens Pursuit Team win gold in a new world record time. And then between 9 & 10pm three more gold in the greatest hour ever for British Athletics. First Jessica Ennis wins the heptathlon with a new British Record. Literally a few minutes later, Greg Rutherford wins the long jump. So to cap it all off Mo Farah wins the 10,000m, 80,000 fans going crazy, tvs across the country being screamed at in joy, it was the most amazing day which even though I was only watching on TV was proud to be part of.

Then 12th August: In the morning Ed Mckeever becomes the inaugural Olympic Champion at K1 200m at the Canoe/Kayak Sprinting. Then Mo Farah becomes the double Olympic champion by winning the 5000m. At the Excel around an hour later Luke Campbell became Britain's first bantamweight boxing champion since 1908. Finally, although it wasn't a gold, Tom Daley put his personal heartache twitter abuse & disappointment from the 10m synchro event behind by finishing 3rd in the Mens 10m Platform, thus winning Britain's only 7th medal in the diving discipline. He did all he could of, he got a medal & now he can go to Rio in 2016 & probably have a more realistic chance of getting gold. Two saturdays. Two days that Great Britain were at their sporting best!

  







So there you go. The Greatest Show on Earth is coming to an end. Stay tuned as tomorrow I shall be looking a bit more at the Olympic legacy & how it affects me in particular.

Thanks for reading see you soon :)