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babydee1I'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???
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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. :-)
****************************************************************************************************************************************
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!!!
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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!
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 03:33 am (UTC)I love all the moments you've mentioned. I think Rudisha's performance in particular stands up because he did something practically unprecedented - doing all the work himself and storming to a world record. And he pulled all but one of the other runners in the race to PBs as well.
ITA about the US relay runner. And he will get a medal (probably silver) if the US team doesn't mess up the exchanges in the finals - they do award them to folks who ran in the earlier rounds too.
I have so many other moments that I treasure too. Rowing of course - especially Canada's men's eights storming from behind for the silver. The fabulous performance of the British equestrian teams - two golds and a silver is unprecedented if you're not the Germans. Our women's football team - did you see anything of their semi-final with the invincible US? People are still buzzing about it. Don't be surprised to see Sinclair carrying our flag in the closing ceremonies.
I'm so sad it's nearly over.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 04:04 am (UTC)Honestly, it's between Sinclair and Rosie MacLennan for the closing ceremonies for me.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 03:58 am (UTC)#1a was watching Great Britain's celebration of winning gold and silver in canoeing. There's no video which is a shame... but there are these:
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02297/celebrate_2297185b.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/08/02/article-2182678-1458BBFD000005DC-926_634x417.jpg
And just for kicks: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120803094747-si-olympics-day-six-horizontal-gallery.jpg
So much win!
Canadian highlights for me are: our girls winning bronze in soccer, our solo gold medalist Rosie and our judo bronze medal winner whose name is failing me (he was no where near a favourite).
Update: Antoine Valois-Fortier is our judo medalist.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 03:19 pm (UTC)Always a pleasure, hun. :-) Chad was absolutely stunned by his victory, he couldn't believe he'd taken out the great Michael Phelps. And Michael was so gracious in defeat - smiling, laughing and supporting Chad all the way. Best attitude I've ever seen from a Silver medallist in any sports meet.
I want to adopt Papa le Clos, he is comedy GOLD. Did you see how embarassed he was when he saw his big belly on the monitor? Bless his cotton socks!!! :-D
Thanks so much for the canoeing and rowing images, they really capture the Olympic spirit. :-) Especially this one:
That leap in the air is to die for! :-D
"Canadian highlights for me are: our girls winning bronze in soccer, our solo gold medalist Rosie and our judo bronze medal winner whose name is failing me (he was no where near a favourite)."
Oh, I love it when the underdog/outsider pulls an upset and emerges victorious. Just goes to show that anything's possible - even in the Olympic games!
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 02:54 pm (UTC)I've had so many favourite moments I've lost count. I completely forgot about all the fantastic rowers and equestrians! Love the fact that Zara Phillips (the Queen's granddaughter) won a Silver Medal. It also amuses me that Zara, whilst descended from nobility, speaks with the rough accent of a South London gal. Brilliant! Something tells me One is not amused. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 06:40 pm (UTC)Looking forward to the closing ceremonies. The opening ceremony had the right mix of chaos and spectical. Very entertaining. Can't wait to see how they try to top it. It's strange though, after the opening, all I read was great press about it but yesterday I read an article that claimed people were saying the opening was "too British" to translate well to the world. Not sure what they were refering to. Just glad here in the US we've had a nice constant British pop culture invation to ensure we we were in on the fun. .
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 10:45 pm (UTC)The crowd really got behind her, and even though she didn't need to finish in first place in the 800m to get the gold, it was great to have that epic finish. Brilliant. :-D
It's been a wonderful two weeks, I can't believe it's almost at an end. :-(
"Looking forward to the closing ceremonies. The opening ceremony had the right mix of chaos and spectical. Very entertaining. Can't wait to see how they try to top it. It's strange though, after the opening, all I read was great press about it but yesterday I read an article that claimed people were saying the opening was "too British" to translate well to the world. Not sure what they were refering to."
Well, a lot of non-Brits at the office said that most of the pop culture references and shout-outs went right over their heads. I loved every second of it, but then this is my backyard so it was a real nostalgic trip down memory lane. ;-)
"Just glad here in the US we've had a nice constant British pop culture invation to ensure we we were in on the fun."
Trudat! :-)
no subject
Date: 2012-08-11 09:48 pm (UTC)Also the US Women's Gymnastics team winning gold in the team finals! And then Gabby Douglas winning Gold in the all around. Though I didn't even get to watch it cuz AFN sucks and they didn't show it at all.....but it was still awesome to know the girls won :)