The dust is settling on Beijing 2008 and our conquering heroes have all come home. Buckets full of medals and a boost to the countries moral.
In the lead up I wasn’t really bothered about the Olympics this time. The politics, human rights, polution, Tibet etc, etc, etc. All of which had dented my usual enthusiasm. Once competition was well and truely under way I was hooked as usual though. Now it’s all over I’m feeling what I suppose is withdrawal symptoms. There is hope though in the shape of the Para-Olympics that start on the 6th September.
I thought the Beebs coverage was excellent even if they did seem to only concentrate on events that had British participants. No Gary Lineker! Thank God for that.
There were obviously many magic moments but my personal favourites weren’t necessarily the actual performances. There were four moments that will always stay with me.
Matthias Steiner the weight lifter holding a photo of his wife and kissing it as he received his gold medal. Susann died as a result of a car accident the year before. She was only 22 years old. I’m not a softy but even I was moved by this. Well done big fella, she’d be very proud of you.
Michaela Breeze, the British weight lifter, for soldiering on when in pain from a back injury. “It’s an Olympics, pain’s irrelevant.” Guts, pure guts.
Bryony Shaw who won a bronze in the wind surfing. The after event interview was a pure gem. This girl was crying hysterically and was very close to sounding like a babbling idiot when out popped the line “I am so f***ing happy.” Cue BBC peeps running around in headless chicken mode apologising left, right and centre for the language. Priceless, absolutely priceless. Good job she didn’t win gold as I think the excitement may well have killed her.
Katherine Grainger, Annie Vernon, Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton, women’s quadruple sculls. They had gold snatched from their finger tips. The look in Katherine Grainger eyes after winning silver for the third time. The group hug that followed with Sir Steve Redgrave was a very moving moment.
There is a down side to all this though isn’t there?
The army of clones (women) present at medal ceremonies, and the opening and closing bashes, who were obviously selected because of their flawless looks. The young children with that forced ‘I’m smiling because I’ve been told to’ look. The way the proletariat were locked out of the Olympic park. Just what was wrong with letting these people in? OK they may not have had tickets to the stadiums/arenas but there was no valid reason to deny them access to the entire area.
Boris at the hand over, embarrassing to say the least.
I now know that the words “It’s a sell out” actually means the venue will only be half full, or is that half empty?
How do you square up the money spent on getting these medals with the needs of people who cannot get the drugs they need to combat cancer? Sort of changes things a bit when you take this into consideration doesn’t it? The country is basking in the glow of Olympic triumph while people are still subjected to the NHS post code lottery and NICEs’ mantra of value for money.
So it’s onward to London in 2012. Am I the only one who hates that logo?
PS. A shout out to all the whining Aussies, heh, owned! :roflmao:
