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London 2012 Olympics - Best Bits So Far...
I've been seeing a few Olympics posts on my f-list, and it reminded me that I need to do one of my own. There have been so many wonderful moments of the Games, too many to mention; but I think I can compress mine down to a shortlist of about ten.
So in reverse order, here are my favourite London 2012 moments (minus the Opening Ceremony) so far, complete with links and images. And no, it's not just full of Team GB Athletes, I was very unbiased. Almost. ;-) Let me know if any of them are your best bits as well! :-D
10. Kirani James (Grenada) - winning the country's first ever Olympic Gold medal at age 19 and ushering in a new generation of 400m runners. This was the first 400m final in like, 50 years that didn't feature a single American athlete. Instead, it was dominated by a bunch of Caribbean boys and a pair of twins from Belgium, Kevin & Jonathan Borlee (you can see them in the first picture). I love it! :-D And after the race, he swapped labels with South Africa's beloved bladerunner Oscar Pistorius, citing him as one of his inspirations to the sport. How amazing is that???
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9. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica) - winning the Women's 100m final and successfully defending her title from Beijing 2008. Seeing that diminutive figure blasting past all those tall bitches is just so darned cool. And she has such a winning (heh!) smile and a lovely attitude. Great race. :-)
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8. Manteo Mitchell (USA) - the only entry on my list who isn't actually a medal winner at all, but his place on my list is well-earned. Why? You may ask? Well, he only ran the second leg of the 4 x 100m Relay heat with a broken leg. A broken leg, people. I'll say it again: a Broken. Freaking. Leg. He may have damaged his athletic career for life, but he said he had to make sure his team qualified for the next round, and they did, so it was all worth it. That, my friends, is dedication to the job and teamwork at its very best. Even though I'm not American I want them to at least medal in the final, so that his great sacrifice will have a physical reward. And if they do win something, I hope they pick up an extra medal for him. :-)
ETA 12.08.12 - USA won Silver in the 4 x 100m relay!!! :-)
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7. Felix Sanchez (Dominican Republic) - for winning the Men's 400m hurdles at the grand old age of 34 and blubbering like a baby during the Medal Ceremony. He'd won Gold in Athens in 2004, but not in Beijing, so he had a lot to prove coming back eight years later. After the race, he unclipped a photo of his grandmother Lillian from inside his name label and said he'd wanted to run with her close to his heart and win for her. We could see just how much winning that race meant to him; he was bawling his eyes out, bless him.
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6. David Rudisha (Kenya) - for being the only Olympic athlete at London 2012 to set a New World Record. He ran the 800m finals and won with a record-breaking time of 1m, 40.91s. And the fact that he's so humble about his achievements just makes me like him all the more. What's even sweeter is the fact that his father Daniel Rudisha is himself a former Olympic silver medallist from the Kenyan 4 x 400m relay team in Mexico City in 1968, and his mother is a former 400m hurdler. It's all in the genes for this one, definitely. :-)
ETA 12.08.12 - The USA ladies set a new world record in the 4 x 100m relay, as did the Jamaican lads in the 4 x 100m relay. Still, Rudisha is the only individual athlete to set a new world record, and that certainly deserves recognition. Let's hear it for the gentle Maasai warrior!!!
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5. Chad le Clos (South Africa) - he actually shares this honour with the great Michael Phelps (whose title he won), and Daddy le Clos (aka Bert). Chad beat Phelps by a fingertip - no, a fingernail. And Daddy le Clos completely lost it. He literally bubbled over with joy and fatherly pride. He was pulled aside for an interview, but he couldn't focus on the questions at all. All he could say was, "Look at him! Unbelievable!! Unbelievable!!! Look at him!! He's my beautiful boy, I love him so much...just look at him!! He's bee-yoo-tiful!!! Look!!!" (...and look I did; the man's absolutely gorgeous. Those swimmers have the best bods. But I digress...) Michael Phelps was so gracious about coming second and was smiling and joking with Chad and showing him exactly how to hold the Gold medal up to get the best light of the camera. It was a great moment, and very encouraging from a silver-medallist/former-champion who's just lost his crown. I have a special beef with most silver medallists, because they tend to scowl during the medal ceremonies and glare enviously around the gold at the winner's neck, so this was a refreshing change. :-)
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4. Sir Chris Hoy (GBR) - Our greatest Olympian, with his 6th Gold medal at Olympics track cycling (he also has a Silver). The 36-year old Scold just pipped the title from the retired Sir Steve Redgrave, who won 5 Gold medals in rowing over 5 different Olympics before retiring after Beijing. Back on track - literally - Sir Chris's last win is indeed his swan song, as he plans to hang up his saddle after London 2012. But what win it was. Mama Hoy could barely stand to watch, poor woman. :-)
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3. Beth Tweddle (GBR) - At 27 years old, an age when most gymnasts are being put out to pasture, Beth Tweddle delivered the performance of her career to qualify in pole position for the Women's Uneven Bars with a staggering score of 16.133, well ahead of everybody else in the event. Uneven Bars is notoriously difficult for the best of gymasts who are usually wiry little munchkins. Beth is 5" 3' and has a real woman's body, so it's even more of a challenge for her to even compete. But not only does she compete, she excels, and I simply love it when stereotypes are broken. :-) Unfortunately she back-stepped on the dismount during the finals and got docked precious points, so she ended up with the Bronze and a score of 15.916. But in my opinion she had the most technically difficult and visually entertaining routine of the entire games. Well done, Beth!!!
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2. Nicola Adams (GBR) - for making Olympic history in the right place and at the right time by winning the first ever Gold Medal in women's boxing. A great moment for humanity and womenfolk the world over...and to think it all started with a 12-year old child tagging along to the gym with her mum, and whilst Mum was in aerobics class she wandered off and ambled into the boxing ring. The rest, as they say, is history. Why it's taken them so long to include women's boxing in the Olympics, I'll never know. But you can bet if it was Women's Jelly-Wrestling, they'd have been all over it. ;-)
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2. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - O. M. G. You guys?!? This woman is a freaking running machine. 10,000m and she finished like the champion that she is. If you haven't seen her finish, please click on the link and feast your eyes, because it's absolutely sublime. She tore down the home straight in a streak of a sprint and completely obliterated everybody else on that track, successfully defending her Beijing Gold and making everyone else look distinctly average. Can you imagine running 9,600m and still being strong enough to run a final 400m in 62 seconds?!? Absolutely untouchable. I can watch her winning clip on a loop. As I type this, she just won the Bronze in the 5,000m finals (the 10,000m really took it's toll on her, she led until the final 100m).
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1. Jessica Ennis (GBR), Greg Rutherford (GBR) and Mo Farah (GBR) - a three-for-one winning spot befitting of the three Great British athletes who won Gold medals in the Women's Heptathlon, Men's Long Jump and Men's 10,000m race respectively in the space of about 44 minutes on the first night of athletics in the Olympic stadium. I screamed myself hoarse, but it was so worth it. What a moment to be British!!!
But the real crowning moment for me was the phenomenal celebration of the BBC Pundits in the studio when the third of these Medals was won. They completely lost their sh*t.
Behold three Olympic greats - Colin Jackson, Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis - having a complete and utter fanboy (and girl) moment. EPIC WIN. :-D
PS: gotta love the totally composed white boy in the corner covering his ears. :-P
ETA 12.08.12 - Mo Farah pushed hard and won the Men's 5,000m race as well, and - would you believe it - they lost it All. Over. Again. With Denise almost flashing her knickers to the entire nation at the end of the clip. ;-)
*smiles and shakes head* :-)
Hope you all liked it!
So in reverse order, here are my favourite London 2012 moments (minus the Opening Ceremony) so far, complete with links and images. And no, it's not just full of Team GB Athletes, I was very unbiased. Almost. ;-) Let me know if any of them are your best bits as well! :-D
10. Kirani James (Grenada) - winning the country's first ever Olympic Gold medal at age 19 and ushering in a new generation of 400m runners. This was the first 400m final in like, 50 years that didn't feature a single American athlete. Instead, it was dominated by a bunch of Caribbean boys and a pair of twins from Belgium, Kevin & Jonathan Borlee (you can see them in the first picture). I love it! :-D And after the race, he swapped labels with South Africa's beloved bladerunner Oscar Pistorius, citing him as one of his inspirations to the sport. How amazing is that???
****************************************************************************************************************************************
9. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica) - winning the Women's 100m final and successfully defending her title from Beijing 2008. Seeing that diminutive figure blasting past all those tall bitches is just so darned cool. And she has such a winning (heh!) smile and a lovely attitude. Great race. :-)
****************************************************************************************************************************************
8. Manteo Mitchell (USA) - the only entry on my list who isn't actually a medal winner at all, but his place on my list is well-earned. Why? You may ask? Well, he only ran the second leg of the 4 x 100m Relay heat with a broken leg. A broken leg, people. I'll say it again: a Broken. Freaking. Leg. He may have damaged his athletic career for life, but he said he had to make sure his team qualified for the next round, and they did, so it was all worth it. That, my friends, is dedication to the job and teamwork at its very best. Even though I'm not American I want them to at least medal in the final, so that his great sacrifice will have a physical reward. And if they do win something, I hope they pick up an extra medal for him. :-)
ETA 12.08.12 - USA won Silver in the 4 x 100m relay!!! :-)
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7. Felix Sanchez (Dominican Republic) - for winning the Men's 400m hurdles at the grand old age of 34 and blubbering like a baby during the Medal Ceremony. He'd won Gold in Athens in 2004, but not in Beijing, so he had a lot to prove coming back eight years later. After the race, he unclipped a photo of his grandmother Lillian from inside his name label and said he'd wanted to run with her close to his heart and win for her. We could see just how much winning that race meant to him; he was bawling his eyes out, bless him.
*************************************************************************************************************************************************
6. David Rudisha (Kenya) - for being the only Olympic athlete at London 2012 to set a New World Record. He ran the 800m finals and won with a record-breaking time of 1m, 40.91s. And the fact that he's so humble about his achievements just makes me like him all the more. What's even sweeter is the fact that his father Daniel Rudisha is himself a former Olympic silver medallist from the Kenyan 4 x 400m relay team in Mexico City in 1968, and his mother is a former 400m hurdler. It's all in the genes for this one, definitely. :-)
ETA 12.08.12 - The USA ladies set a new world record in the 4 x 100m relay, as did the Jamaican lads in the 4 x 100m relay. Still, Rudisha is the only individual athlete to set a new world record, and that certainly deserves recognition. Let's hear it for the gentle Maasai warrior!!!
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5. Chad le Clos (South Africa) - he actually shares this honour with the great Michael Phelps (whose title he won), and Daddy le Clos (aka Bert). Chad beat Phelps by a fingertip - no, a fingernail. And Daddy le Clos completely lost it. He literally bubbled over with joy and fatherly pride. He was pulled aside for an interview, but he couldn't focus on the questions at all. All he could say was, "Look at him! Unbelievable!! Unbelievable!!! Look at him!! He's my beautiful boy, I love him so much...just look at him!! He's bee-yoo-tiful!!! Look!!!" (...and look I did; the man's absolutely gorgeous. Those swimmers have the best bods. But I digress...) Michael Phelps was so gracious about coming second and was smiling and joking with Chad and showing him exactly how to hold the Gold medal up to get the best light of the camera. It was a great moment, and very encouraging from a silver-medallist/former-champion who's just lost his crown. I have a special beef with most silver medallists, because they tend to scowl during the medal ceremonies and glare enviously around the gold at the winner's neck, so this was a refreshing change. :-)
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4. Sir Chris Hoy (GBR) - Our greatest Olympian, with his 6th Gold medal at Olympics track cycling (he also has a Silver). The 36-year old Scold just pipped the title from the retired Sir Steve Redgrave, who won 5 Gold medals in rowing over 5 different Olympics before retiring after Beijing. Back on track - literally - Sir Chris's last win is indeed his swan song, as he plans to hang up his saddle after London 2012. But what win it was. Mama Hoy could barely stand to watch, poor woman. :-)
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3. Beth Tweddle (GBR) - At 27 years old, an age when most gymnasts are being put out to pasture, Beth Tweddle delivered the performance of her career to qualify in pole position for the Women's Uneven Bars with a staggering score of 16.133, well ahead of everybody else in the event. Uneven Bars is notoriously difficult for the best of gymasts who are usually wiry little munchkins. Beth is 5" 3' and has a real woman's body, so it's even more of a challenge for her to even compete. But not only does she compete, she excels, and I simply love it when stereotypes are broken. :-) Unfortunately she back-stepped on the dismount during the finals and got docked precious points, so she ended up with the Bronze and a score of 15.916. But in my opinion she had the most technically difficult and visually entertaining routine of the entire games. Well done, Beth!!!
****************************************************************************************************************************************
2. Nicola Adams (GBR) - for making Olympic history in the right place and at the right time by winning the first ever Gold Medal in women's boxing. A great moment for humanity and womenfolk the world over...and to think it all started with a 12-year old child tagging along to the gym with her mum, and whilst Mum was in aerobics class she wandered off and ambled into the boxing ring. The rest, as they say, is history. Why it's taken them so long to include women's boxing in the Olympics, I'll never know. But you can bet if it was Women's Jelly-Wrestling, they'd have been all over it. ;-)
****************************************************************************************************************************************
2. Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) - O. M. G. You guys?!? This woman is a freaking running machine. 10,000m and she finished like the champion that she is. If you haven't seen her finish, please click on the link and feast your eyes, because it's absolutely sublime. She tore down the home straight in a streak of a sprint and completely obliterated everybody else on that track, successfully defending her Beijing Gold and making everyone else look distinctly average. Can you imagine running 9,600m and still being strong enough to run a final 400m in 62 seconds?!? Absolutely untouchable. I can watch her winning clip on a loop. As I type this, she just won the Bronze in the 5,000m finals (the 10,000m really took it's toll on her, she led until the final 100m).
****************************************************************************************************************************************
1. Jessica Ennis (GBR), Greg Rutherford (GBR) and Mo Farah (GBR) - a three-for-one winning spot befitting of the three Great British athletes who won Gold medals in the Women's Heptathlon, Men's Long Jump and Men's 10,000m race respectively in the space of about 44 minutes on the first night of athletics in the Olympic stadium. I screamed myself hoarse, but it was so worth it. What a moment to be British!!!
But the real crowning moment for me was the phenomenal celebration of the BBC Pundits in the studio when the third of these Medals was won. They completely lost their sh*t.
Behold three Olympic greats - Colin Jackson, Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis - having a complete and utter fanboy (and girl) moment. EPIC WIN. :-D
PS: gotta love the totally composed white boy in the corner covering his ears. :-P
ETA 12.08.12 - Mo Farah pushed hard and won the Men's 5,000m race as well, and - would you believe it - they lost it All. Over. Again. With Denise almost flashing her knickers to the entire nation at the end of the clip. ;-)
*smiles and shakes head* :-)
Hope you all liked it!