Until the Olympics started I didn't give them much thought, but watching the closing ceremony envoked feelings similar to the last day of the summer holidays.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of weeks for many reasons. The performance of the British athletes for one, but that wasn't the only reason seeing as they understandably didn't get a great deal of coverage on New Zealand television. The time zone worked so well for me here which helped. The main bulk of the competition was between 3pm and midnight NZ time so I was able to watch a lot of sport in two weeks.
My memory is appalling, so I thought I'd give myself a permanent record of the highs and lows of these Games with a series of Top 3s...
Top 3 Controversies* There were billions of sighs around the globe as cute little Lin Miaoke got up to sing in front of the world. It looked like she mimed, but that's fair enough given the enormous amount of pressure on shoulders so young. However, it was later revealed that it was not her voice doing the singing but that of mini gargoyle, Yang Peiyi. Now, I very much doubt that the watching world would have been of the opinion that the singing was beautiful but the face was munted. But the organisers didn't want to take that chance and put a pin up girl out in front of the cameras. It's one thing having some stupid boy at school tell you you're a minger but having that view endorsed by your country and reported around the world isn't going to do a great deal for her self esteem.
(pic: mirror.co.uk)
* There was something very democratic and unexpected about the Chinese decision to have three 'Protest Parks' in Beijing for the ordinary folk to express their grievances. As long as they applied for and received permission to do so. According to this article
HERE all 77 applications were either withdrawn or rejected. Spare a thought for
these two gutsy grannies who were rehoused after their homes were knocked down in the building of the Olympic venues, their persistant grumblings almost landed them with a year's hard labour.
* It must be very frustrating to train for four years and have your Olympic dream crushed by the opinion of judges. This is one of my main gripes about the validity of certain sports in the Olympics. In my opinion, an Olympic medal should be given to those who've bettered their opponents. Faster, higher, stronger and all that. However, I do feel amateur boxing and gymnastics have a place at the Olympics so I'm all over the show on this issue. The judging in the contact sports has been a big controversy of the Games and the few boxing and Taekwondo bouts I've seen certainly seem very dodgy when it comes to points awarded. It probably doesn't excuse Cuban Taekwondoist Angel Valodia Matos kicking the referee in the face in protest. He is facing a life ban from the Olympics and his sport isn't faring much better. After many judging controversies at this Games and the last it's facing the boot (in the face).
(pic reuters)
Top 3 Brits*
Rebecca Romero - she won a silver medal in Athens 4 years ago and a gold medal in Beijing. Impressive but not Top 3 material except that her silver medal was in rowing and her gold was in cycling. Winning the individual pursuit in a no lose situation for Great Britain made her the first British woman to win medals in different summer Olympic sports.
*
Rebecca Adlington - 2 Gold medals and a world record makes her the best British swimmer in 100 years. She edged out the field in the 400m free then destroyed the lot and a 19 year old world record to win her favoured event, the 800m free.
*
Ben Ainslie - more historical greatness as sailor Ainslie won gold at his third consecutive Olympics to become Britains greatest ever Olympic sailor. Maybe Team NZ should have given him the helm in the Americas cup! At the age of 31 Ainslie will probably be chasing down the likes of Pinsent and Redgrave.
Top 3 Kiwis*
Evers-Swindells - as the reigning Olympic champions, the rowing twins had had a nightmare couple of years of injury and poor performance but came through at the last to pip the German crew by 1/100th of a second in the double sculls. They were rewarded with gold, the job of carrying the flag at the closing ceremony (the only country to have 2 representatives) and no doubt many more meat adverts.
* Mahe Drysdale - single sculls World Champion, Mahe, had a rocky road to the Olympic final. Expected to represent New Zealand in Beijing, Mahe was made to race off against Rob Waddell after the latter (2000 Olympic champion) came out of retirement and beat Mahe in a club race. There was massive hype over the 3 race head-to-head Olympic trial and poised at 1-1, Waddell's long standing heart condition resurfaced and Drysdale eased to victory. His problems weren't over though as a virus during the Olympics lost him 4kg's in weight and affected his preparation and qualification races. He squeaked through to the final and put his all into building a lead but couldn't hold on unfortunately and collapsed after finishing 3rd.
* Nick Willis - Another bronze medal but given the competition from the East Africans, Willis finishing 3rd in one of the flagship events of the Games, the 1500m, was an outstanding achievement.
Top 3 Athletes
* Usain Bolt - 3 golds and 3 world records (one of them while jogging)
* Michael Phelps - 8 golds made even more remarkable
by his diet* Chris Hoy - track cycling's equivalent of the above two. He destroyed all-comers despite being Scottish.
Top 3 special mentions
* Matthias Steiner - 1 year on from the death of his wife in a car crash, this German weightlifter
held a picture of her up to the cameras along with his gold medal. His reaction after the winning lift was a great moment.
* BBC live text coverage - I needed constant info on how the Brits were doing and the BBC website provided it. With surprising quality too given their embarrassingly laddish speak on their internet cricket over-by-over coverage.
* Opening/Closing ceremonies - breathtaking.
Top 3 unexpected sports* BMX - races last about 35 seconds and it's all out carnage. Thrilling stuff.
* 10km swim - both male and female races had incredibly close finishes after a couple of hours in the water. All manner of underwater shenanigans too apparently which added spice.
* Gymnastics - I've never been a fan, and coupled with what I said earlier about sports that are decided by subjective human opinion, I was totally surprised by how much I enjoyed the gymnastics. The Chinese and American teams dished up some unbelievable physical feats that changed my view on the sport. I still probably won't watch it again till 2012 though.
Top 3 sports to get rid of* Walking
* Water dancing
* Any sport where the Olympics isn't the pinnacle of achievment - namely football, basketball and tennis.
Top 3 hair tearers (sub title: TVNZ coverage)* Events repeated in triplicate daily - for some reason whatever main event shown in full at around 4pm was then repeated, in full, in the early evening and then again at about 11pm. Why? Especially when...
* Some events got zero coverage - shooting, archery, modern pentahlon and often they were on at times when TV One was showing a basketball group game between Lithuania and Iran. Frustrating to say the least.
* Showing group games in full when other sports on - I just covered that. But it was VERY frustrating.
Top 3 comedy moments* Screens up for stricken weightlifter - we can laugh at this now the poor sod's injuries aren't career threatening. But it did have a look of a horse about to be put down. I won't put a link up for this, it's a family site.
* Toni Street's interview of Irish sprinter -
Flying the kiwi journalism flag (well worth a watch!)
*
Marc Willers BMX - one of my favourite BMX moments... about 1 minute into this clip. First he causes a big pile up by spinning round, he manages not to fall off then spins round and plows straight into one of the felled riders.
All in all, I loved every minute of the Games and am already looking forward to the next one. However, I don't want to think about that too much as I'll be 35. Wow.
If anyone still reads this site then please add comments of your favourite moments.
