[Sport] Olympics 2012 thoughts

The London 2012 summer Olympics have finished after two weeks of top quality sport. It’s a sad moment, as I’ve really enjoyed this Olympics. More so than Beijing, but I suspect that that’s in a large part down to the fact that I was in the right timezone, and could actually watch the events, rather than just the round-up shows every day. I’ve discovered a couple of new sports along the way, and want to share some of my thoughts on the event as a whole.

 The official logo is still pants. This one is much better.

There are 36 Olympic sports, and I’ve managed to watch at least 10 minutes of 26 of them! I’ve seen archery, athletics (both track and field), badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe slalom, canoe sprint, bmx, mountain biking, road cycling, track cycling, fencing, football, hockey, judo, rowing, shooting, swimming (both pool and open water), table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball and water polo. Some of them I’ve watched more than others obviously, but then some take more time than others. The swimming events were on for a whole week, and every evening when I got home from work I was putting the television on ready for the evening session at 7:30.

The 36 Olympic sports. Of course, each one has several subdivisions, and some (like athletics) actually

consist of many different sports. (Credit: vectoropensource.com)

The bmx, in contrast, took place over only three days, but I watched almost all of it. Full of drama, with come-from-behind wins, domination from the front, and crashes everywhere, it had me hooked and really dropped my productivity at work on the days that it was on! It’s one of the new sports that I’ve discovered this time around, and I’d love to see more in the future.

The other new sport I discovered is taekwondo, which I really enjoyed as well. At times it resembled dance, with the two fighters bouncing up and down on the balls of their feet, and trading probing kicks. Then the explosion would come, with fast, accurate kicks. Any sport that gives bonus marks for style has to be good!

It was also nice to see some hockey again. I rather like watching field hockey; the skill on display is mesmerising, and it’s a shame that it’s not on the television more often.

The men's BMX final. This sport is insane, but amazing to watch. (Credit: cyclingweekly.co.uk; photo by Phil O'Connor)

Some of the highlights from what I saw were Bradley Wiggins’ imperious display in the Time Trial, Chris Hoy’s grit and determination on full display to win his 6^th gold medal, Mo Farah’s carefully judged but wonderful to watch races, and  Michael Jamieson’s unexpected silver medal in the breaststroke. What a swim!

Then of course there were the big stars. Michael Phelps versus Ryan Lochte in the pool was billed as a big battle before the games, but it never really materialised, in the races I saw. Phelps seemed nervous, and under pressure, but once he won a medal he seemed to relax and start enjoying himself, putting on a show. Of course he didn’t have it all his own way this time; the finish of the 200m butterfly was nail-bitingly tense, and the domination shown by the French squad in the 4x100m freestyle was amazing.

Finally, there was Usain Bolt. Everyone was talking about him being vulnerable, out of shape, not in the right frame of mind. Everyone was asking who would beat him. But he pulled it out of the bag when it mattered, and in the end won both the 100m and 200m comfortably. Not as fast as in Beijing mind, but he didn’t need to be. Both were mesmerising races, and we even stopped the music quiz in the union so that everyone could watch the 200m final.

Usain Bolt does it again in the 100m final. (Credit: runblogrun.com; photo © copyright APP/Getty Images)

Only two years to wait until the winter Olympics and the Commonwealth Games! The latter are taking place in Glasgow, so hopefully I might be able to see some of them. Roll on 2014.