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!

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