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Olympic Reflections
Having been on leave (to watch) during the Games and, therefore, unable to participate in the main discussion thread - and now going through withdrawal pangs I've considered some of my reflections of Beijing 2008:
Highs
Opening ceremony – shame the footprints were fake, but great drumming and the scroll gave it a rare beauty.
Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson in the women’s 400 Freestyle. You wait years for a women’s swimming medal to come along and then two come in the space of a gnat’s wossname. Jameson, Moorhouse and Davies go crazy (OK, I did a bit too).
The Men’s 4x100 freestyle relay. How the …… did Lezak produce that?
Adlington in the 800m Freestyle taking a great world record
Claire Balding unable to take her eyes off Jamie Staff’s thighs. She’s used to looking at horses, these were as powerful :eek:
The cycling team generally. The Mighty Hoy in particular
Super Saturday – all those GB medals, Phelps completing the 8, and Usian Bolt:eek: x1000
Super Sunday – yet more medals. Never though I’d see GB get one in gymnastics.
Terrific Tuesday – Christine Ohuruogu timing it perfectly (in more ways than one) and Usian Bolt again:eek: x2000.
The live reaction of Colin Jackson and Michael Johnson to some of the finals.
Getting excited about the Percy/Simpson final race in the sailing
David Price’s (Super Heavyweight) punch that caused his opponent to pull a muscle in his leg. You know you’ve been hit when that happens.
The 10K open water swimming. Awesome yet crazy. That’s on The Serpentine in 2012. Think I might pop along for a look.
The American “Redeem” team not just turning up and expecting to win. Instead they prepared properly, respected their opponents and……… won.
Tim Brabants – awesome race.
Bekele and Dibaba in the 5000m and 10000m races.
Oh, everything……..
Heartbreakers
The women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team – OK, the selectors made a poor gamble but the girls swam hard and were so gutted at the end.
Aaron Cooke in the taekwando – close to winning the semi then robbed of a medal. I hope some buxom female taekwando player gave him a big hug.
Kath Grainger in the women’s 4 – So close and yet…… As Steve Redgrave sadly put it “To get one silver is great, to get 3……..”
Shanaze Reade – one tough cookie who went for gold or nothing and lit a flame for BMX racing.
Emms and Robertson – if he hadn’t been injured recently who knows what might have been.
Liu Xiang’s attempt to compete – brave even to try and run.
The reaction of the guy who won the Super Heavyweight Weightlifting (his wife died in a car crash last year)
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear
Whoever decided to give a political slant to the BBC coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies.
The petulant ‘partner’ of Tom Daley. Even before his daft comments did he have to phone mummy during the event?
The Cuban taekwando player who you won’t see again.
The people who dropped cycling races from the programme to ‘accommodate’ BMX. There was no reason for this, and it didn’t happen in the swimming to accommodate the 10K.
Lisa Dobrisky – physically should have had a medal, possibly a gold, in the 1500m but ran an awful race then said she was ‘pleased’ with it. The number of times she could have moved into good positions but ducked back to the inside and got boxed showed her up – lucky Steve Ovett wasn't in the commentary point afterwards.
The media’s insistence on dragging out the missed test story whenever mentioning Christine Ohuruogo. Just cheap and nasty:mad:
The ugly ‘fight’ that got DeGale his boxing Gold.
The comments from certain Australians who couldn’t accept we were doing better than them
NBC’s manipulation of the medals table
Whatever happened to?
Australian cyclists
Cuban boxers
Boxers from the USA
Sprinters from the USA
All those people who were going to struggle in the smog
Top on the mic
Stephen Parry – humour, enthusiasm and knowledge.
Gary Herbert – get him a throat lozenge. My 2nd favourite commentary piece of the games “the British are coming……..THE BRITISH ARE COMING!!!!!”
Jameson & Moorhouse – they had a great time, didn’t they?
Best commentary line: Hugh Porter as Chris Hoy beats a Frenchman in the sprint semi-final:
“It’s lucky the Frenchman had his helmet strapped on tight. Otherwise Hoy came past him so fast he’d have sucked it off!” – ohhhh Matron.
General views:
Re ‘Kamikaze’ the Aussie BMX guy. What do you reckon his parents thoughtwhen he told them about the name change. I bet his dad thought along the lines of “pillock”.
Rebecca Adlington’s nose – must be an advantage…..:D
Hopefully Tom Daley will not change due to the pressures of fame.
They get rather carried away at the fencing, don’t they?
All those people who accused Paula Radcliffe of being soft, in it only for the money, and a coward after Athens can shut up.
Re some of the judging: Home countries always get the benefit (2012 please:cool:). An Italian boxer (actually, the coach of the 2008 super heavyweight Gold medallist) said, when he fought in the LA games of 1984 “The only way to beat an American boxer is to knock him out. If he’s standing at the end of the fight he will get the decision!”
That being said – taekwando is apparently introducing an electronic scoring system after recent events.
Bring on 2012
Hoping for UK Judo to finally deliver at the Olympics what it does at World Championships.
The ‘fighting’ sports could produce a decent haul overall.
Hoy and Pendleton should still be there, Cooke and Wiggins at their peak, Reade older, stronger and wiser and the young cyclist look damn good too. A home velodrome/BMX track, road race course........ medals please.
Rowers are hungry, success is ingrained and heard today the the great coach Jurgen Grobler is staying on.
Swimming is looking strong too - a number who came to Beijing for experience made finals and did well, some winning medals. And they say there are more in the camp.
I predict Paula Radcliffe to maintain fitness in the run up to the Games and blow the field away in her final race.
More medals than Beijing and a great, fun games - most of the moaners have a sudden change of heart and claim they were supportive all along
Highs
Opening ceremony – shame the footprints were fake, but great drumming and the scroll gave it a rare beauty.
Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson in the women’s 400 Freestyle. You wait years for a women’s swimming medal to come along and then two come in the space of a gnat’s wossname. Jameson, Moorhouse and Davies go crazy (OK, I did a bit too).
The Men’s 4x100 freestyle relay. How the …… did Lezak produce that?
Adlington in the 800m Freestyle taking a great world record
Claire Balding unable to take her eyes off Jamie Staff’s thighs. She’s used to looking at horses, these were as powerful :eek:
The cycling team generally. The Mighty Hoy in particular
Super Saturday – all those GB medals, Phelps completing the 8, and Usian Bolt:eek: x1000
Super Sunday – yet more medals. Never though I’d see GB get one in gymnastics.
Terrific Tuesday – Christine Ohuruogu timing it perfectly (in more ways than one) and Usian Bolt again:eek: x2000.
The live reaction of Colin Jackson and Michael Johnson to some of the finals.
Getting excited about the Percy/Simpson final race in the sailing
David Price’s (Super Heavyweight) punch that caused his opponent to pull a muscle in his leg. You know you’ve been hit when that happens.
The 10K open water swimming. Awesome yet crazy. That’s on The Serpentine in 2012. Think I might pop along for a look.
The American “Redeem” team not just turning up and expecting to win. Instead they prepared properly, respected their opponents and……… won.
Tim Brabants – awesome race.
Bekele and Dibaba in the 5000m and 10000m races.
Oh, everything……..
Heartbreakers
The women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team – OK, the selectors made a poor gamble but the girls swam hard and were so gutted at the end.
Aaron Cooke in the taekwando – close to winning the semi then robbed of a medal. I hope some buxom female taekwando player gave him a big hug.
Kath Grainger in the women’s 4 – So close and yet…… As Steve Redgrave sadly put it “To get one silver is great, to get 3……..”
Shanaze Reade – one tough cookie who went for gold or nothing and lit a flame for BMX racing.
Emms and Robertson – if he hadn’t been injured recently who knows what might have been.
Liu Xiang’s attempt to compete – brave even to try and run.
The reaction of the guy who won the Super Heavyweight Weightlifting (his wife died in a car crash last year)
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear
Whoever decided to give a political slant to the BBC coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies.
The petulant ‘partner’ of Tom Daley. Even before his daft comments did he have to phone mummy during the event?
The Cuban taekwando player who you won’t see again.
The people who dropped cycling races from the programme to ‘accommodate’ BMX. There was no reason for this, and it didn’t happen in the swimming to accommodate the 10K.
Lisa Dobrisky – physically should have had a medal, possibly a gold, in the 1500m but ran an awful race then said she was ‘pleased’ with it. The number of times she could have moved into good positions but ducked back to the inside and got boxed showed her up – lucky Steve Ovett wasn't in the commentary point afterwards.
The media’s insistence on dragging out the missed test story whenever mentioning Christine Ohuruogo. Just cheap and nasty:mad:
The ugly ‘fight’ that got DeGale his boxing Gold.
The comments from certain Australians who couldn’t accept we were doing better than them
NBC’s manipulation of the medals table
Whatever happened to?
Australian cyclists
Cuban boxers
Boxers from the USA
Sprinters from the USA
All those people who were going to struggle in the smog
Top on the mic
Stephen Parry – humour, enthusiasm and knowledge.
Gary Herbert – get him a throat lozenge. My 2nd favourite commentary piece of the games “the British are coming……..THE BRITISH ARE COMING!!!!!”
Jameson & Moorhouse – they had a great time, didn’t they?
Best commentary line: Hugh Porter as Chris Hoy beats a Frenchman in the sprint semi-final:
“It’s lucky the Frenchman had his helmet strapped on tight. Otherwise Hoy came past him so fast he’d have sucked it off!” – ohhhh Matron.
General views:
Re ‘Kamikaze’ the Aussie BMX guy. What do you reckon his parents thoughtwhen he told them about the name change. I bet his dad thought along the lines of “pillock”.
Rebecca Adlington’s nose – must be an advantage…..:D
Hopefully Tom Daley will not change due to the pressures of fame.
They get rather carried away at the fencing, don’t they?
All those people who accused Paula Radcliffe of being soft, in it only for the money, and a coward after Athens can shut up.
Re some of the judging: Home countries always get the benefit (2012 please:cool:). An Italian boxer (actually, the coach of the 2008 super heavyweight Gold medallist) said, when he fought in the LA games of 1984 “The only way to beat an American boxer is to knock him out. If he’s standing at the end of the fight he will get the decision!”
That being said – taekwando is apparently introducing an electronic scoring system after recent events.
Bring on 2012
Hoping for UK Judo to finally deliver at the Olympics what it does at World Championships.
The ‘fighting’ sports could produce a decent haul overall.
Hoy and Pendleton should still be there, Cooke and Wiggins at their peak, Reade older, stronger and wiser and the young cyclist look damn good too. A home velodrome/BMX track, road race course........ medals please.
Rowers are hungry, success is ingrained and heard today the the great coach Jurgen Grobler is staying on.
Swimming is looking strong too - a number who came to Beijing for experience made finals and did well, some winning medals. And they say there are more in the camp.
I predict Paula Radcliffe to maintain fitness in the run up to the Games and blow the field away in her final race.
More medals than Beijing and a great, fun games - most of the moaners have a sudden change of heart and claim they were supportive all along
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Comments
Shame you missed the forum, 'cos that was the highlight of the whole two weeks...........:D
My Highs.......
The cycling team........having followed the sport for 10 years and seen the rise of GB from nowhere to world beaters I'm so pleased that they dominated the Games. After dominating the last World Championships it would have been such an anti-climax if they'd 'only' won 2 or 3 Golds.
Rebecca Adlington - I'm not interested in swimming and I didn't even watch the events, but the aftermath........what a terrific girl she is. I might watch swimming next time
Usain Bolt of course.........definitely the star of the show.
Canoeing ..........who'd have thought it. canoeing ?.........:eek:
I'll have a think on the other categories...........