Well done to Team GB. The most succesful games for over 100 years - 19 Gold medals. Yes 19! In Atlanta 1996 we only won 1 Gold Medal.
The Olympics has been my favourite sporting event since Seoul 1988 - the first one I watched alot of. Foolishly I booked my summer holiday in April without checking the dates the Games were on. I ended up missing last the ten days. I was at work for the amazing Opening ceremony but was back home for the closing ceremony. Out of 19 British Gold Medals I saw only one live on television. Luckily it was the first one, Nicole Cooke's Gold in the road race. This Gold gave me the most pleasure. Nicole is a Welsh girl and has been a big star in Wales for at least the last five years. She was tipped to do well in Athens but crashed and could only finish 5th.
I watched the last hour of the Olympic race. It was raining buckets in Beijing. Awful conditions for a road race. It all came down to the last 250 metres. Rounding the last bend Nicole had slipped dramatically off the leading 3 riders. With only an uphill stretch to go it looked like her chances of a medal were over. I thought she had really blown it. Incredibly she dug deep and made up the gap and went on to forge ahead of the other riders to cross the line as the Olympic champion. Just awesome. Although the camera angle (head on) in the final straight was a joke as you couldn't tell who was in the lead. A terrible mistake by the tv broadcaster.
I did manage to keep upto date with the Beijing Olympic news while away by listening to Radio 5 live. It's not the same though is it?
Michael Phelps deserves a mention I suppose. So there it was. And Usain Bolt. He set a new World Record in the 200m - 19.30 seconds. 2 hundreths faster than Michael Johnson's old record. I remember that World Record in Atlanta 1996 like it was yesterday. A truly astonishing piece of sprinting. Michael Johnson has been one of my sporting heroes since. A peculiar upright style of sprinting that I've never seen since. And such a great guy as well. He does alot of work for BBC Sport and is always intelligent, articulate, passionate and insightful. A true legend. I can't say enough good things about him. So well done Usain for beating my hero's old record.
Thankfully the BBC Sport website has excellent video clips so I can watch all the highlights again.
My abiding memory of these Games well be Nicole Cooke's Gold. I must remember not to go on holiday for the next Olympic Games.
The Olympics has been my favourite sporting event since Seoul 1988 - the first one I watched alot of. Foolishly I booked my summer holiday in April without checking the dates the Games were on. I ended up missing last the ten days. I was at work for the amazing Opening ceremony but was back home for the closing ceremony. Out of 19 British Gold Medals I saw only one live on television. Luckily it was the first one, Nicole Cooke's Gold in the road race. This Gold gave me the most pleasure. Nicole is a Welsh girl and has been a big star in Wales for at least the last five years. She was tipped to do well in Athens but crashed and could only finish 5th.
I watched the last hour of the Olympic race. It was raining buckets in Beijing. Awful conditions for a road race. It all came down to the last 250 metres. Rounding the last bend Nicole had slipped dramatically off the leading 3 riders. With only an uphill stretch to go it looked like her chances of a medal were over. I thought she had really blown it. Incredibly she dug deep and made up the gap and went on to forge ahead of the other riders to cross the line as the Olympic champion. Just awesome. Although the camera angle (head on) in the final straight was a joke as you couldn't tell who was in the lead. A terrible mistake by the tv broadcaster.
I did manage to keep upto date with the Beijing Olympic news while away by listening to Radio 5 live. It's not the same though is it?
Michael Phelps deserves a mention I suppose. So there it was. And Usain Bolt. He set a new World Record in the 200m - 19.30 seconds. 2 hundreths faster than Michael Johnson's old record. I remember that World Record in Atlanta 1996 like it was yesterday. A truly astonishing piece of sprinting. Michael Johnson has been one of my sporting heroes since. A peculiar upright style of sprinting that I've never seen since. And such a great guy as well. He does alot of work for BBC Sport and is always intelligent, articulate, passionate and insightful. A true legend. I can't say enough good things about him. So well done Usain for beating my hero's old record.
Thankfully the BBC Sport website has excellent video clips so I can watch all the highlights again.
My abiding memory of these Games well be Nicole Cooke's Gold. I must remember not to go on holiday for the next Olympic Games.
