Thursday, 13 August 2020

Those Magic Moments in full!

TOM

1. Best moments:

Impossible not to say the whole thing. It was all amazing, utterly transforming and completely transfixing. It was as if everything stopped for two wondrous weeks, where London worked as it should normally (wouldn't that be a fantastic legacy? Or happy side effect at least...), where people were lifted and united, and where we were all turned into obscure sports experts. There are the more specific 29 GB golden moments, but then all of _our_ medals were special. And how we celebrated them. If I'm going to pick one moment, though, it was the first bit of live action I saw: the men's cycle road race, from our vantage point in Richmond Park on a beautifully sunny first Saturday. Even though we knew it was all lost for GB when the peloton finally reached us, the exhilaration when they shot past was palpable. And set the scene perfectly for the next two weeks.

2. Favourite athlete you’d never heard of before:

Monteo Mitchell, Sarah Attar, Merve Aydin. Of course, I knew who all the GB medallists were before they podiumed. [I didn't.]

3. Favourite sportsman/sportswoman:

Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell, for loving it the most

4. Favourite performance:

Beth Tweddle

5. Favourite medal:

David Rudisha, 800m with a world record. Now that was something really impressive, in a fortnight of impressiveness.

6. Favourite Team GB medal:

Men's gymnastics team bronze. And Ennis for the women.

7. Favourite bit of punditry:

Cavendish for his elimination race explanation. All of Thorpe and Balding.

8. Favourite venue:

I didn't get to the Olympic Stadium, so Velodrome.

9. Favourite thing you witnessed live & direct (if any):

Women's snatch. Finally, I can say that. One thing ticked off the (schoolboys') bucket list.

10. Favourite stat (made up or real): Yorkshire outdoing Australia. And Germany.

11. Favourite Redgrave Hug:

Hoy.

12. Face of the Games:

Bolt.

13. Mathias Steiner Saharan award for Dust:

Gemma Gibbons

14. Your dustiest moments:

Started on Friday 27 July until Sunday 12 August. (Except maybe men's football).

15. Derek Redmond Limping award for Bravery:

See Q2.

16. Favourite Celebration:

Tom Daley's bronze and Jade Jones's gold.

17. One to watch in 2016: Tom Daley, Jade Jones, Patience & Bithell.

18. Best quote:

We're going to be on a stamp!

19. Villain:

Tory MP cock on Twitter
GB men footballers
People who changed the velodrome events (not that it mattered in the end)
Some of the rules enforcers (obviously only when it involved GB athletes at the receiving end)
Lineker

And in the meantime, what this greatest Olympics ever has taught me is that we should be getting more involved watching the up and coming athletes ahead of 2016. Maybe not everything but certainly national championships and international meets. Can Dreadlock Holiday Redux start collating a list of events so that we can see the likes of Peter Wilson at the next national shooting championships or the next Laura Trott at the GB cycling championships? The turnout for London2012 was amazing, helped by the fantastic organisers and volunteers. Surely the greatest legacy will be support of Olympic sports during Olympic down time - we can't all become Bradley Wiggins I'm afraid.

On that note, I recommend John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on iPlayer - listen quick as only available for a couple more days http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/radio/episode/b01m171v/ from 8 mins 50 seconds.

And can I remind everyone that while we're saving up for Rio2016, we've got the small matter of Glasgow2014 to get involved in?

WOODY

1. Best Moments: all the usual, mo, jenn, cycling etc - 2 particular moments though was the elimination race in the womens omnium (they should make this a medal event in its own right - bloody amazing..) and the pommel horse final for the men - so close, just a random rule stopping Louis' gold. I will never have a rude thing to say about Zara Philips either - having seen the size of the cross country events fences and ditches and the speed, she has serious cojones!

2. Favourite athlete never heard of before: Nandor Fazekas - hungarian handball player who in the quarterfinals saves a penalty with hungary 1 down and 12 seconds to go and then manages to get the ball back in play for them to score an equaliser ...... I was there!!! he then celebrates by doing a few splits in his area!!!

3. Favourite Sportspeople: Chris Hoy / Laura Trott /Jade Jones were my favourites

4. Favourite performance - Mo's 5,000 - just did not think he could do it again and the final lap was simply amazing. Also, the stanning/glover gold as this was our first and everyone was getting a bit nervous......

5. Favourite non-GB medal: - venezualan fencer - just went mental and is now a national hero as first gold in forever!

6. Favourite Team GB medal - thought the women's pursuit and the men's team gymnastics (coz we used to be rubbish at this...)

7. Favourite Punditry: Cav in velodrome, thorpe's outfits and the gymnastics commentator who on the last tumble of the men's team gymnastics, as it pauses, whispers " come on young man, nail it...." and kristian thomas then does so and he goes completely nuts

8. Venue - too many to choose from - went to the equestrian eventing in greenwich park and that was immense for the cross country bit

9. Stuff I saw: games of table tennis simultaneously at the excel and only 5 rows from the front - pretty amazing and the horses in the cross country, iceland-hjungary qaurterfinal (2 periods of extra time.....)

10. Favourite stat - alastair brownlee's 10k time...... amazing

11. favourite redgrave hug - grainger

12. Face of the games - ennis

13. Mathias Stenier Saharan for dust - pendleton's keirin gold after being disqualified in the team sprint

14. Dustiest moment - so many! possibly Nicola Adams winning and then a bit later jade jones winning - both seriously hard and rather wonderful - loved the "will celebrate with nandos" from adams - also le clos's dad's total emotional meltdown on live telly

15. Derek redmond moment: the british javelin lady goldie sayers trying to throw with torn elbow ligaments (so torn that they had come off the bone.......)

16. One to Watch - KJT and new cyclist generation

17. Best celebration - tom daley and jade jones

18. Best Quote: anyone who did not say "it is unbelievable" when they won

19. Villain - gary lineker - you were awful.

BBC highlights programme, where were the highlights?? talking shite with old olympians does not count as highlights, Gabby!! Just because we can all get to see everything online does not mean that a good 90 minute run through at the end of the day should be changed into that rubbish we got !!!!!

UCI - firstly for changing the rules for not allowing more than 1 per country and second for the ruling against pendleton in the final when meares basically rode into her

MA BARTON

Best moments: The start of the drum sequence at the opening ceremony; arrival of the Olympic torch and the whole lighting sequence. Closing ceremony when torch was extinguished. Denise Lewis in the studio getting so excited at the 5000m final and climbing on her chair

Fav unknown athlete: Greg Rutherford; David Rudisha

Fav sportsman/woman: Rebecca Adlington; Jessica Ennis; Tom Daley; Usain Bolt

Fav performance: So many. Rebecca Adlington 800m; Tom Daley 10m dive; Grainger gold; everything at the velodrome; men’s triathlon; BMX races; mountain bike races

Fav medal: Rebecca Adlington bronze in 800m. She was so proud to have achieved that and quite rightly so and Tom Daley’s bronze for 10m dive

Fav Team GB medal: The boys gymnastic team. They accepted being bumped off silver with great dignity

Fav punditry: Clare Balding/Ian Thorpe in aquatics centre; Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis

Fav Redgrave hug: Grainger gold

Face of the games: Has to be Ennis or Daley

Mathias Steiner Saharan award for dust: Grainger; Ennis post race interviews

Dustiest moments: Raising of Olympic flag; Arrival of the torch into the stadium and then the lighting by the young athletes; every GB medal ceremony; LeClos’s dad after his son won gold

Derek Redmond Limping award for bravery: Goes to the GB female hockey player who got her jaw smashed and came back to play in another match having had it wired up.

One to watch in 2016: Johnson-Thompson; Laura Trott; Tom Daley

Things I’d rather not see: Women boxing!

SUSANNAH

1. Best moments: This is the same as for my dustiest moments really (filled this in back to front) but in summary, torch relay, torch entering the stadium, lapping the stadium and ultimately building the cauldron; all of the Team GB medals, particularly the ones which were a long time coming and/or multiple and/or career ending, e.g. Ennis, Farah, Grainger, Hoy, Pendleton. Jake Humphrey’s interview with Frank Skinner, comparing notes over what had made them cry and Jake saying: “the atmosphere in London is just incredible, call me dramatic but it really feels like this week the world has changed” AMAZING!!!! Being part of it, I was so proud to put my Games Maker uniform on each day and giving nearly 100 hours of my time, paying around £600 to interview, train and attend the whole thing felt like a privilege, something I will never forget.

2. Favourite athlete you’d never heard of before: I can’t remember life before the Olympics to be honest so I’m not sure who I hadn’t heard of before!

3. Favourite sportsman/sportswoman – Tough choice but for longevity I’ll go with Hoy for the boys then it’s Ennis for the girls for me.

4. Favourite performance – ah, so hard to pick but I’d say Grainger for her storming win, Ennis for her slamming of the Heptathlon and pretty much everything from the Veledrome! Oh and Farah, ah, ALL OF TEAM GB!!!!

5. Favourite medal - Non GB? All of Bolts, what a dude. Also David Boudia in the 10m Platfom Diving, mainly cos it WASN’T CHINA!!!

6. Favourite Team GB medal – ahh, so hard to pick just one! Hoy and Pendleton’s Keirin ones, Trott’s omnium one, both of Farah’s, Ennis’s and the double skulls girls, so unexpected Also, Tom Daley has to get a special mention, def the happiest Bronze Medal winner of the games, and deservedly so

7. Favourite bit of punditry- Clare Balding for me, absolute star. She so clearly loved every minute of it, her Twitter commentary along the way was ace too, she was as humunahed as we were. Also really liked Thorpe and HEARTED Cav, bless him, blates the only cyclist in Team GB without a medal?:(

8. Favourite venue – Gotta be the Olympic Stadium, walking in and feeling the warmth of the cauldron and the roar of the crowd for Team GB is something I will never forget. BT Live comes a close second for me though, amazing atmosphere every time, excellent use of confetti canons on the main screen at the point of every GB gold

9. Favourite thing you witnessed live & direct (if any) – Mo Farah’s 5k win from Hyde Park, EVERYone around us was up on their feet jumping and screaming for his entire last lap, INCREDIBLE atmosphere, likewise for the velodrome golds. Also taking the Hyatt boys to Hyde Park on Super Saturday and witnessing 3 golds in less than an hour at Eton Dorney with a red/white/blue confetti canon going off each time, Thomas Hyatt bouncing around: “WE’RE AT THE LIMPICS!!”; Unadulterated support for Cav and the team in the last few km of the Men’s Road Race, despite being 57 seconds behind at Fulham, it really felt like our cheers could help him get into medal position. Seeing Ennis break her record in the hurdles was pretty special too. Not quite live and direct but I missed my train home on Men’s Tennis Final day so was able to watch Murray storm to victory on my phone. As he played the last few points, I realised that there were loads of pockets of people around me huddled around phones and iPads doing the same as me. As he aced that last point, everyone cheered around me then the tanoy announced his gold and the whole station roared, amazing

10. Favourite stat (made up or real)- Andy Murray at his peak fitness can run the 400m in 49 seconds – Mo’s last 400 after 9600m run was 43 seconds.

11. Favourite Redgrave Hug – Grainger and the 2 silver boys he practically lifted out of the boat. Hoy of course too

12. Face of the Games: Mo Farah, particularly his expression as crossing the line and Tom Daley

13. Mathias Steiner Saharan award for Dust – gotta be Hoy for me, particularly when he was interviewed in the studio afterwards saying it was his allergies acting up whilst on the podium – LEGEND!

14. Your dustiest moments – oh god, the whole bloody thing, I felt hungover every day due to loss of fluids! Every Team GB gold and medal ceremony. The whole lighting of the torch by stars of the future then the nations coming together in one giant torch (choking as I write this). The rings coming together at the beginning of the ceremony, amazing. Chris Hoy winning his last medal, Jessica Ennis striding to victory in her last event. EVERY BBC montage throughout the event, particularly the one at the end in the build-up to the closing ceremony with Reggie Yates talking about the community spirit in London; and the one before the Opening Ceremony detailing the journey of the torch, HUMUNAHHH!

15. Derek Redmond Limping award for Bravery – she wasn’t limping per se but that Syrian (I think, some other repressed country maybe *ignorance face*) who was in the 800m I think it was. She came over a lap behind everyone else but was grinning the whole time then when being interviewed afterwards, she couldn’t stop grinning, she was so proud to be there representing her country, way gorge

Ed's note: it was Sarah Attar, the Californain Saudi

16. One to watch in 2016 Johnson Thompson in the heptathlon, Adam Gemili in the sprints – he’s no Bolt but considering he only started running in January this year, 3rd in the semi-final was pretty impressive! All the young veledrome cyclists, they were amazing! Tom Daley too. Is this limited to GB? If not, I’d put Blake in here too.

17. Best Celebration: Tom Daley and the double skulls girls. Andy Murray too, climbing into the crowd and saying afterwards, he’d always dreamed of doing that after watching his heroes do it when he was younger. Also, that lovely girl boxer who when asked what she would do to celebrate replied “Ah, I just wanna go to Nandos”, haha!

18. Best quote: girl from the double skulls “We won the Olympics” and Hoy’s mum in the audience of the Keirin after watching through split fingers as he crossed the line: “Thank god for that”; Mr De Clos as quoted by Lily Allen on Twitter allegedly said after De Clos beat Phelps: “Wow, that’s it, I can die happy now”

19. Villain: Japanese gymnasts in the Men’s Team event, that aussie bitch who pushed Pendleton, Farah’s mardy wife, Trevor Nelson in the Opening Ceremony – SHUT UP MAN. Twitter trolls.

CHRIS

1. Best moments: Too many! The general feelgood atmosphere around the place. Team GB medals, Daley being delighted with Bronze and being chucked in pool. The way we got excited about dressage etc etc.

2. Favourite athlete you’d never heard of before: German discus thrower. Celebrated Gold by ripping his shirt and doing a lap of honour including jumping the womens 100m hurdles down the wrong way in celebration.

3. Favourite sportsman/sportswoman - Chris Hoy. Just a legend. So humble with it too. Fantastic performance in keirin. Wiggo - just for being cool!

4. Favourite performance - All of Team GB in the velodrome 10 events, 7 gold, 1 silver (unfairly penalised too) and 1 bronze and a disqualification when would have won something! The ICF tried to change the rules to stop us being so dominant. Think again!

5. Favourite medal - Non GB? Jamaica 4 x100 relay men (coz I was there)

6. Favourite Team GB medal - Katherine Grainger and Ben Ainslie.

7. Favourite bit of punditry. Ian Thorpe. "Look... "

8. Favourite venue - All of them were brilliant but has to be Beach Volleyball. To be sitting there high in the stands and looking out with Big Ben to the right, Whitehall to the left, Buck House and St J's Park behind and the London Eye and Shard in front was special. As was Greenwich Park with the Cutty sark, Canary Wharf and the Royal Naval College laid out in front. All of them showed London off to be amazing.

9. Favourite thing you witnessed live & direct (if any) - Has to be Saturday night in the stadium. Mo Farah 5000m. Incredible noise. Incredible atmosphere. Everyone united in delight! Couldnt stop shaking afterwards.

10. Favourite stat (made up or real). Yorkshire winning more Golds than Australia! That we won more medals across more sports than anyone else (I think)

11. Favourite Redgrave Hug - Purchase and Hunter. Incredible tv to see the big man lifting Hunter out of the boat followed up by Invers in tears.

12. Face of the Games - Jess of course and she delivered. Super stuff

13. Mathias Steiner Saharan award for Dust - Gemma Gibbons on winning her semi final and mouthing I love you Mum to her mum that died 7 years ago

14. Your dustiest moments - When the rings came together at the Opening ceremony (seeing live at rehearsal did make me well up), Lighting of the torrch. In action: Kath Grainger finally winning Gold, Super Saturday Part 1, Mo on Super Saturday Part 2, Purchase and Hunter.

15. Derek Redmond Limping award for Bravery - American fella that broke his leg and carried on running in 4 x 400.

16. One to watch in 2016 - Cav back in the velodrome!

17. Best Celebration - Jade Jones flinging her head protector in the air when she won Gold. Pure unbridled joy.

18. Best quote: Slightly ditzy Kat Copeland on unexpectedly winning Lightweight Double Sculls. "We've won the Olympics. We're going to be on a stamp!"

19. Villain - The Commisaires in the Velodrome. Anna Mears for blatant push on Pendo! David Bond, BBC News Sport editor for being a dick.

ME

These do change a bit, but at the moment they are:

1. Best moments: All of it! In particular,

  • the look of blissful happiness & joy on the face of Grainger,
  • Mike Costello's commentary on the last few metres of the 5000m - "his face, a mask of pain",
  • Andy Murray hugging the random kid after thrashing Fed,
  • the radio commentary when Skelton knocked down the penultimate fence - quide liderally as the commentator uttered the word "GOLD",
  • the extraordinary drama of that 47 minutes on the middle Saturday,
  • Kirani James swapping his number with Oscar Pistorius,
  • the old man in Yorkshire who sent the Brownlees congratulatory letters & a tenner each,
  • the teenager from Guam who finished 13 minutes back in the 10km open water swim, then got a standing ovation which he couldn't see, as he'd lost his prescription goggles in the Serpentine!

2. Favourite athlete you’d never heard of before: David Rudisha - what a senasational 800m, the athletic performance of the games. Hoping for the 400m match up between him & Bolt!

3. Favourite sportsman/sportswoman - Sportswoman: The lovely Laura Trott - "I'm glad the crowd were roaring me home coz me legs were killing me"

Sportsman: Ben Ainslie for the absolute force of will he imposed on a regatta he was losing to scrape the Gold in the final race. Gargantuan.

4. Favourite performance - Being at Park Live to watch Trott win the Elimination race with the crowd getting into it was pretty special, but the Triathlon was amazing - only saw the last leg but Alistair Brownlee ran at an incredible pace to drop everyone else and get his brother into a medal winning position, even with the 15 second penalty.

5. Favourite medal - Non GB?

  • Being pipped in the lightweight 4s by the saffers, who had the first black rower to win a medal in their boat.
  • Another good one was the Guatemalan race walker who won their first ever medal, then used the platform as a plea for his nation's youth to stop the violence.
  • For schadenfreude, has to be Bauge's silvers - though should have been gold for the amount of whinging!

6. Favourite Team GB medal - Probably Katherine Grainger, but all the cyclists as well!

7. Favourite bit of punditry- Cav in the Velodrome was comedy gold.
"So Cav, can you explain the elimination race to us?"
"Well, it's a race and people get eliminated every few laps"

8. Favourite venue - Greenwich Park & Horseguards - what settings! In the Olympic Park, The Box that Rocks was very cosy as well.

9. Favourite thing you witnessed live & direct (if any) - Finale to the Pentathlon - the roar which greeted Sam Murray when she came into the arena in silver position on the final lap of the Modern Pentathlon - what must it have been like at the stadium!

Also the Korean bloke being tackled at the handball - you had to be there really but it was very funny.

10. Favourite stat (made up or real)-

  • Mo ran 50 laps of that track
  • Bolt did under 100 seconds of work all week
  • Brownlee's 10k was 90 seconds slower than Mo's, and he had slowed to a walk by the end
  • The Iranian weightlifter with the same number of letters in his surname as Phelps has Gold medals.

11. Favourite Redgrave Hug - So many! At the rowing, the consoling one for Purchase & Hunter and the celebratory one, on behalf of the nation, for Kath Grainger who barely escaped alive.

Away from the rowing, popping up in the mix zone to hug it out and pass on the mantle to Chris Hoy

12. Face of the Games Ennis & Farah - a superb stick in the eye for the haters!

13. Mathias Steiner Saharan award for Dust -

  • Obviously Gemma Gibbons, Tom Daley, Sarah Stevenson for doing what they did with recent and not so recent breavement to contend with.
  • Felix Sanchez sobbing his heart out on the podium,
  • a red eyed Hoy,
  • Pendleton's tears of joy that she was finally finished with the sport she'd been cursed to be so good at.
  • And poor old Nick Skelton - too stiff upper lipped himself for dust mind you, but one fence down in 5 rounds, but it was the last one, and the 4 clears didn't count, so he went from Gold to 4th.
  • Purchase & Hunter

14. Your dustiest moments -

  • That incredible torch-lighting
  • The boys in the 470 capsizing in celebration as they got silver, then jumping in to celebrate with the Aussie winners, while both sets of parents hugged on the headland
  • Walking into Olympic Park for the first & only time, and hearing a huge roar go up from the stadium - turned out a Brit had qualified for the discus final!
  • The commentary highlight reels, especially after the event!

15. Derek Redmond Limping award for Bravery -

  • Merve Aydin, the Turkish 800m runner, who limped around to finish on a sprained ankle.
  • I suppose the American - but I don't believe he had a properly broken leg!
  • Steiner himself for dropping the weights on himself when going for the big one.

16. One to watch in 2016 - Laura Trott in the cycling, Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the heptahlon

17. Best Celebration -

  • Hard to argue with Jade Jones flinging her head protector in the air when she won Gold.
  • Also liked the sailing boys,
  • Daley getting thrown in,
  • Bolt doing the Mobot,
  • the hurdling discus champion,
  • the canoeists all jumping in,
  • "we're going to be on a stamp"
  • Gold Postboxes
  • ...

18. Best quote: "Thanks Dad" - 5Live had a reporter with Pa Hoy, and they got him talking to Chris. He was so proud, and Chris's simple reply was just the bollocks. Fantastic - instant tears from Dads across the land!

19. Villain -

  • That cock of a Tory MP who tweeted his dislike of the opening ceremony because it was too multicultural,
  • Pedantic rules appliers - rules are rules and all that, but read the script first guys!
  • David Bond for his relentless negativity in the first few days.
  • KP for his attention-seeking idiocy!

Monday, 3 September 2012

Tom weighs in

1. Best moments:

Impossible not to say the whole thing. It was all amazing, utterly transforming and completely transfixing. It was as if everything stopped for two wondrous weeks, where London worked as it should normally (wouldn't that be a fantastic legacy? Or happy side effect at least...), where people were lifted and united, and where we were all turned into obscure sports experts. There are the more specific 29 GB golden moments, but then all of _our_ medals were special. And how we celebrated them. If I'm going to pick one moment, though, it was the first bit of live action I saw: the men's cycle road race, from our vantage point in Richmond Park on a beautifully sunny first Saturday. Even though we knew it was all lost for GB when the peloton finally reached us, the exhilaration when they shot past was palpable. And set the scene perfectly for the next two weeks.

2. Favourite athlete you’d never heard of before:

Monteo Mitchell, Sarah Attar, Merve Aydin. Of course, I knew who all the GB medallists were before they podiumed. [I didn't.]

3. Favourite sportsman/sportswoman:

Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell, for loving it the most

4. Favourite performance:

Beth Tweddle

5. Favourite medal:

David Rudisha, 800m with a world record. Now that was something really impressive, in a fortnight of impressiveness.

6. Favourite Team GB medal:

Men's gymnastics team bronze. And Ennis for the women.

7. Favourite bit of punditry:

Cavendish for his elimination race explanation. All of Thorpe and Balding.

8. Favourite venue:

I didn't get to the Olympic Stadium, so Velodrome.

9. Favourite thing you witnessed live & direct (if any):

Women's snatch. Finally, I can say that. One thing ticked off the (schoolboys') bucket list.

10. Favourite stat (made up or real): Yorkshire outdoing Australia. And Germany.

11. Favourite Redgrave Hug:

Hoy.

12. Face of the Games:

Bolt.

13. Mathias Steiner Saharan award for Dust:

Gemma Gibbons

14. Your dustiest moments:

Started on Friday 27 July until Sunday 12 August. (Except maybe men's football).

15. Derek Redmond Limping award for Bravery:

See Q2.

16. Favourite Celebration:

Tom Daley's bronze and Jade Jones's gold.

17. One to watch in 2016: Tom Daley, Jade Jones, Patience & Bithell.

18. Best quote:

We're going to be on a stamp!

19. Villain:

Tory MP cock on Twitter
GB men footballers
People who changed the velodrome events (not that it mattered in the end)
Some of the rules enforcers (obviously only when it involved GB athletes at the receiving end)
Lineker

And in the meantime, what this greatest Olympics ever has taught me is that we should be getting more involved watching the up and coming athletes ahead of 2016. Maybe not everything but certainly national championships and international meets. Can Dreadlock Holiday Redux start collating a list of events so that we can see the likes of Peter Wilson at the next national shooting championships or the next Laura Trott at the GB cycling championships? The turnout for London2012 was amazing, helped by the fantastic organisers and volunteers. Surely the greatest legacy will be support of Olympic sports during Olympic down time - we can't all become Bradley Wiggins I'm afraid.

On that note, I recommend John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme on iPlayer - listen quick as only available for a couple more days http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/radio/episode/b01m171v/ from 8 mins 50 seconds.

And can I remind everyone that while we're saving up for Rio2016, we've got the small matter of Glasgow2014 to get involved in?

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Woody Magic

1. Best Moments: all the usual, mo, jenn, cycling etc - 2 particular moments though was the elimination race in the womens omnium (they should make this a medal event in its own right - bloody amazing..) and the pommel horse final for the men - so close, just a random rule stopping Louis' gold. I will never have a rude thing to say about Zara Philips either - having seen the size of the cross country events fences and ditches and the speed, she has serious cojones!

2. Favourite athlete never heard of before: Nandor Fazekas - hungarian handball player who in the quarterfinals saves a penalty with hungary 1 down and 12 seconds to go and then manages to get the ball back in play for them to score an equaliser ...... I was there!!! he then celebrates by doing a few splits in his area!!!

3. Favourite Sportspeople: Chris Hoy / Laura Trott /Jade Jones were my favourites

4. Favourite performance - Mo's 5,000 - just did not think he could do it again and the final lap was simply amazing. Also, the stanning/glover gold as this was our first and everyone was getting a bit nervous......

5. Favourite non-GB medal: - venezualan fencer - just went mental and is now a national hero as first gold in forever!

6. Favourite Team GB medal - thought the women's pursuit and the men's team gymnastics (coz we used to be rubbish at this...)

7. Favourite Punditry: Cav in velodrome, thorpe's outfits and the gymnastics commentator who on the last tumble of the men's team gymnastics, as it pauses, whispers " come on young man, nail it...." and kristian thomas then does so and he goes completely nuts

8. Venue - too many to choose from - went to the equestrian eventing in greenwich park and that was immense for the cross country bit

9. Stuff I saw: games of table tennis simultaneously at the excel and only 5 rows from the front - pretty amazing and the horses in the cross country, iceland-hjungary qaurterfinal (2 periods of extra time.....)

10. Favourite stat - alastair brownlee's 10k time...... amazing

11. favourite redgrave hug - grainger

12. Face of the games - ennis

13. Mathias Stenier Saharan for dust - pendleton's keirin gold after being disqualified in the team sprint

14. Dustiest moment - so many! possibly Nicola Adams winning and then a bit later jade jones winning - both seriously hard and rather wonderful - loved the "will celebrate with nandos" from adams - also le clos's dad's total emotional meltdown on live telly

15. Derek redmond moment: the british javelin lady goldie sayers trying to throw with torn elbow ligaments (so torn that they had come off the bone.......)

16. One to Watch - KJT and new cyclist generation

17. Best celebration - tom daley and jade jones

18. Best Quote: anyone who did not say "it is unbelievable" when they won

19. Villain - gary lineker - you were awful.

BBC highlights programme, where were the highlights?? talking shite with old olympians does not count as highlights, Gabby!! Just because we can all get to see everything online does not mean that a good 90 minute run through at the end of the day should be changed into that rubbish we got !!!!!

UCI - firstly for changing the rules for not allowing more than 1 per country and second for the ruling against pendleton in the final when meares basically rode into her

Ma Barton's Magic Moments

Lo’s Magic Moments

Best moments: The start of the drum sequence at the opening ceremony; arrival of the Olympic torch and the whole lighting sequence. Closing ceremony when torch was extinguished. Denise Lewis in the studio getting so excited at the 5000m final and climbing on her chair

Fav unknown athlete: Greg Rutherford; David Rudisha

Fav sportsman/woman: Rebecca Adlington; Jessica Ennis; Tom Daley; Usain Bolt

Fav performance: So many. Rebecca Adlington 800m; Tom Daley 10m dive; Grainger gold; everything at the velodrome; men’s triathlon; BMX races; mountain bike races

Fav medal: Rebecca Adlington bronze in 800m. She was so proud to have achieved that and quite rightly so and Tom Daley’s bronze for 10m dive

Fav Team GB medal: The boys gymnastic team. They accepted being bumped off silver with great dignity

Fav punditry: Clare Balding/Ian Thorpe in aquatics centre; Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis

Fav Redgrave hug: Grainger gold

Face of the games: Has to be Ennis or Daley

Mathias Steiner Saharan award for dust: Grainger; Ennis post race interviews

Dustiest moments: Raising of Olympic flag; Arrival of the torch into the stadium and then the lighting by the young athletes; every GB medal ceremony; LeClos’s dad after his son won gold

Derek Redmond Limping award for bravery: Goes to the GB female hockey player who got her jaw smashed and came back to play in another match having had it wired up.

One to watch in 2016: Johnson-Thompson; Laura Trott; Tom Daley

Things I’d rather not see: Women boxing!

Seb's Top 50

Read all about them

Sunday, 26 August 2012

A volunteer speaks...

1. Best moments: This is the same as for my dustiest moments really (filled this in back to front) but in summary, torch relay, torch entering the stadium, lapping the stadium and ultimately building the cauldron; all of the Team GB medals, particularly the ones which were a long time coming and/or multiple and/or career ending, e.g. Ennis, Farah, Grainger, Hoy, Pendleton. Jake Humphrey’s interview with Frank Skinner, comparing notes over what had made them cry and Jake saying: “the atmosphere in London is just incredible, call me dramatic but it really feels like this week the world has changed” AMAZING!!!! Being part of it, I was so proud to put my Games Maker uniform on each day and giving nearly 100 hours of my time, paying around £600 to interview, train and attend the whole thing felt like a privilege, something I will never forget.

2. Favourite athlete you’d never heard of before: I can’t remember life before the Olympics to be honest so I’m not sure who I hadn’t heard of before!

3. Favourite sportsman/sportswoman – Tough choice but for longevity I’ll go with Hoy for the boys then it’s Ennis for the girls for me.

4. Favourite performance – ah, so hard to pick but I’d say Grainger for her storming win, Ennis for her slamming of the Heptathlon and pretty much everything from the Veledrome! Oh and Farah, ah, ALL OF TEAM GB!!!!

5. Favourite medal - Non GB? All of Bolts, what a dude. Also David Boudia in the 10m Platfom Diving, mainly cos it WASN’T CHINA!!!

6. Favourite Team GB medal – ahh, so hard to pick just one! Hoy and Pendleton’s Keirin ones, Trott’s omnium one, both of Farah’s, Ennis’s and the double skulls girls, so unexpected Also, Tom Daley has to get a special mention, def the happiest Bronze Medal winner of the games, and deservedly so

7. Favourite bit of punditry- Clare Balding for me, absolute star. She so clearly loved every minute of it, her Twitter commentary along the way was ace too, she was as humunahed as we were. Also really liked Thorpe and HEARTED Cav, bless him, blates the only cyclist in Team GB without a medal?:(

8. Favourite venue – Gotta be the Olympic Stadium, walking in and feeling the warmth of the cauldron and the roar of the crowd for Team GB is something I will never forget. BT Live comes a close second for me though, amazing atmosphere every time, excellent use of confetti canons on the main screen at the point of every GB gold

9. Favourite thing you witnessed live & direct (if any) – Mo Farah’s 5k win from Hyde Park, EVERYone around us was up on their feet jumping and screaming for his entire last lap, INCREDIBLE atmosphere, likewise for the velodrome golds. Also taking the Hyatt boys to Hyde Park on Super Saturday and witnessing 3 golds in less than an hour at Eton Dorney with a red/white/blue confetti canon going off each time, Thomas Hyatt bouncing around: “WE’RE AT THE LIMPICS!!”; Unadulterated support for Cav and the team in the last few km of the Men’s Road Race, despite being 57 seconds behind at Fulham, it really felt like our cheers could help him get into medal position. Seeing Ennis break her record in the hurdles was pretty special too. Not quite live and direct but I missed my train home on Men’s Tennis Final day so was able to watch Murray storm to victory on my phone. As he played the last few points, I realised that there were loads of pockets of people around me huddled around phones and iPads doing the same as me. As he aced that last point, everyone cheered around me then the tanoy announced his gold and the whole station roared, amazing

10. Favourite stat (made up or real)- Andy Murray at his peak fitness can run the 400m in 49 seconds – Mo’s last 400 after 9600m run was 43 seconds.

11. Favourite Redgrave Hug – Grainger and the 2 silver boys he practically lifted out of the boat. Hoy of course too

12. Face of the Games: Mo Farah, particularly his expression as crossing the line and Tom Daley

13. Mathias Steiner Saharan award for Dust – gotta be Hoy for me, particularly when he was interviewed in the studio afterwards saying it was his allergies acting up whilst on the podium – LEGEND!

14. Your dustiest moments – oh god, the whole bloody thing, I felt hungover every day due to loss of fluids! Every Team GB gold and medal ceremony. The whole lighting of the torch by stars of the future then the nations coming together in one giant torch (choking as I write this). The rings coming together at the beginning of the ceremony, amazing. Chris Hoy winning his last medal, Jessica Ennis striding to victory in her last event. EVERY BBC montage throughout the event, particularly the one at the end in the build-up to the closing ceremony with Reggie Yates talking about the community spirit in London; and the one before the Opening Ceremony detailing the journey of the torch, HUMUNAHHH!

15. Derek Redmond Limping award for Bravery – she wasn’t limping per se but that Syrian (I think, some other repressed country maybe *ignorance face*) who was in the 800m I think it was. She came over a lap behind everyone else but was grinning the whole time then when being interviewed afterwards, she couldn’t stop grinning, she was so proud to be there representing her country, way gorge

Ed's note: it was Sarah Attar, the Californain Saudi

16. One to watch in 2016 Johnson Thompson in the heptathlon, Adam Gemili in the sprints – he’s no Bolt but considering he only started running in January this year, 3rd in the semi-final was pretty impressive! All the young veledrome cyclists, they were amazing! Tom Daley too. Is this limited to GB? If not, I’d put Blake in here too.

17. Best Celebration: Tom Daley and the double skulls girls. Andy Murray too, climbing into the crowd and saying afterwards, he’d always dreamed of doing that after watching his heroes do it when he was younger. Also, that lovely girl boxer who when asked what she would do to celebrate replied “Ah, I just wanna go to Nandos”, haha!

18. Best quote: girl from the double skulls “We won the Olympics” and Hoy’s mum in the audience of the Keirin after watching through split fingers as he crossed the line: “Thank god for that”; Mr De Clos as quoted by Lily Allen on Twitter allegedly said after De Clos beat Phelps: “Wow, that’s it, I can die happy now”

19. Villain: Japanese gymnasts in the Men’s Team event, that aussie bitch who pushed Pendleton, Farah’s mardy wife, Trevor Nelson in the Opening Ceremony – SHUT UP MAN. Twitter trolls.

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

My magic moments

These do change a bit, but at the moment they are:

1. Best moments: All of it! In particular,

  • the look of blissful happiness & joy on the face of Grainger,
  • Mike Costello's commentary on the last few metres of the 5000m - "his face, a mask of pain",
  • Andy Murray hugging the random kid after thrashing Fed,
  • the radio commentary when Skelton knocked down the penultimate fence - quide liderally as the commentator uttered the word "GOLD",
  • the extraordinary drama of that 47 minutes on the middle Saturday,
  • Kirani James swapping his number with Oscar Pistorius,
  • the old man in Yorkshire who sent the Brownlees congratulatory letters & a tenner each,
  • the teenager from Guam who finished 13 minutes back in the 10km open water swim, then got a standing ovation which he couldn't see, as he'd lost his prescription goggles in the Serpentine!

2. Favourite athlete you’d never heard of before: David Rudisha - what a senasational 800m, the athletic performance of the games. Hoping for the 400m match up between him & Bolt!

3. Favourite sportsman/sportswoman - Sportswoman: The lovely Laura Trott - "I'm glad the crowd were roaring me home coz me legs were killing me"

Sportsman: Ben Ainslie for the absolute force of will he imposed on a regatta he was losing to scrape the Gold in the final race. Gargantuan.

4. Favourite performance - Being at Park Live to watch Trott win the Elimination race with the crowd getting into it was pretty special, but the Triathlon was amazing - only saw the last leg but Alistair Brownlee ran at an incredible pace to drop everyone else and get his brother into a medal winning position, even with the 15 second penalty.

5. Favourite medal - Non GB?

  • Being pipped in the lightweight 4s by the saffers, who had the first black rower to win a medal in their boat.
  • Another good one was the Guatemalan race walker who won their first ever medal, then used the platform as a plea for his nation's youth to stop the violence.
  • For schadenfreude, has to be Bauge's silvers - though should have been gold for the amount of whinging!

6. Favourite Team GB medal - Probably Katherine Grainger, but all the cyclists as well!

7. Favourite bit of punditry- Cav in the Velodrome was comedy gold.
"So Cav, can you explain the elimination race to us?"
"Well, it's a race and people get eliminated every few laps"

8. Favourite venue - Greenwich Park & Horseguards - what settings! In the Olympic Park, The Box that Rocks was very cosy as well.

9. Favourite thing you witnessed live & direct (if any) - Finale to the Pentathlon - the roar which greeted Sam Murray when she came into the arena in silver position on the final lap of the Modern Pentathlon - what must it have been like at the stadium!

Also the Korean bloke being tackled at the handball - you had to be there really but it was very funny.

10. Favourite stat (made up or real)-

  • Mo ran 50 laps of that track
  • Bolt did under 100 seconds of work all week
  • Brownlee's 10k was 90 seconds slower than Mo's, and he had slowed to a walk by the end
  • The Iranian weightlifter with the same number of letters in his surname as Phelps has Gold medals.

11. Favourite Redgrave Hug - So many! At the rowing, the consoling one for Purchase & Hunter and the celebratory one, on behalf of the nation, for Kath Grainger who barely escaped alive.

Away from the rowing, popping up in the mix zone to hug it out and pass on the mantle to Chris Hoy

12. Face of the Games Ennis & Farah - a superb stick in the eye for the haters!

13. Mathias Steiner Saharan award for Dust -

  • Obviously Gemma Gibbons, Tom Daley, Sarah Stevenson for doing what they did with recent and not so recent breavement to contend with.
  • Felix Sanchez sobbing his heart out on the podium,
  • a red eyed Hoy,
  • Pendleton's tears of joy that she was finally finished with the sport she'd been cursed to be so good at.
  • And poor old Nick Skelton - too stiff upper lipped himself for dust mind you, but one fence down in 5 rounds, but it was the last one, and the 4 clears didn't count, so he went from Gold to 4th.
  • Purchase & Hunter

14. Your dustiest moments -

  • That incredible torch-lighting
  • The boys in the 470 capsizing in celebration as they got silver, then jumping in to celebrate with the Aussie winners, while both sets of parents hugged on the headland
  • Walking into Olympic Park for the first & only time, and hearing a huge roar go up from the stadium - turned out a Brit had qualified for the discus final!
  • The commentary highlight reels, especially after the event!

15. Derek Redmond Limping award for Bravery -

  • Merve Aydin, the Turkish 800m runner, who limped around to finish on a sprained ankle.
  • I suppose the American - but I don't believe he had a properly broken leg!
  • Steiner himself for dropping the weights on himself when going for the big one.

16. One to watch in 2016 - Laura Trott in the cycling, Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the heptahlon

17. Best Celebration -

  • Hard to argue with Jade Jones flinging her head protector in the air when she won Gold.
  • Also liked the sailing boys,
  • Daley getting thrown in,
  • Bolt doing the Mobot,
  • the hurdling discus champion,
  • the canoeists all jumping in,
  • "we're going to be on a stamp"
  • Gold Postboxes
  • ...

18. Best quote: "Thanks Dad" - 5Live had a reporter with Pa Hoy, and they got him talking to Chris. He was so proud, and Chris's simple reply was just the bollocks. Fantastic - instant tears from Dads across the land!

19. Villain -

  • That cock of a Tory MP who tweeted his dislike of the opening ceremony because it was too multicultural,
  • Pedantic rules appliers - rules are rules and all that, but read the script first guys!
  • David Bond for his relentless negativity in the first few days.
  • KP for his attention-seeking idiocy!