Great day of sport that culminated with the 800 meter and 200 meter in the stadium last night.

Tweet

Tweet

This morning it was time for another visit to the center of this wonderful, wonderful Olympic games.

Tweet

Out of all the venues I’ve seen in the last 10 days, the Beach Volleyball arena is without question the best. Right in the center of historic Whitehall, behind one stand is the Prime Ministers house on Downing Street, across the street is the  Banqueting House that dates to 1622.

I’ve no idea who came up with the concept when the bid document was being put together 7 or 8 years ago, but they got it absolutely right.

Tweet

Tonight we went to the EXCEL in London to watch the weightlifting. Going into this I’d been told it was really fun to watch live, I figured it just a lot of grunting and guys lifting poles with metal disks on each end.

So I went and was prepared to be a little cynical about the whole thing, but I’ve matured to the point  that I don’t snigger at the term “clean and jerk”. I was blown away by this. I see the tactics, how weights lifted are chosen, the skill of balancing close to three times your own bodyweight above your head is quite incredible. Add the noise of partisan crowd, world records being broken and the flowing testosterone and it makes for quite an event.

Tweet

So today was a big day, Dorney Lake and rowing in the morning, followed by the first evening of athletics at the Olympic Stadium. So what did I learn?

• Every Olympic volunteer seemed to love being part of this. Walking to the tube station after the athletics (11pm) every one I walked past (and there were legions of them) wished me a good night.
• Being there when GB wins a gold can be crossed off the “to-do” list. Watching Anna Watkins and  Katherine Granger dominate today was a special thing to witness. The place was rocking.
• Rower Allan Campbell is one of my new heroes. He gave everything today and could hardly walk after his bronze in the single sculls.
• The transport system in London was busy, but did not break down. I was told to leave 3 hours to get from Dorney to Stratford and the stadium. Don’t know if I got lucky, but did it in half that.
• The Olympic park is terrific, so much going on and the live section with the big TV screens should be a model for all future games.
• The worry has gone and London is embracing their games. The buzz is there, the events are sold out and the atmosphere in the city is outstanding.
• Jessica Ennis is the real deal. She stepped up tonight in the Heptathlon and ran a personal best in the 200M. The atmosphere in the stadium was absolutely electric, I don’t know how to describe it.
• Except for the football this games has been sold out.

Here are some pictures from today, so tired after a long day, time for bed.

Tweet

I feel confident saying that we are in a golden era for British sports (the England football team excepted), the Olympics were preceded by Bradley Wigins and Chris Froom standing 1-2 on the Tour de France podium, it was not that long ago that no British riders took part in the race.

Onto London, billions of pounds have been spent, stunning stadiums have been constructed, a rather deprived part of East London regenerated into an oversized playground that will leave a lasting legacy and triple the number of 50 meter pools in the city (really, London had one Olympic sized swimming pool) and show the world that the UK does appreciate sport beyond football.

This is a city that I still feel at home in, even though it’s 15 years since I lived here. I consider this my hometown Olympics and nothing was going to stop me missing them.

Last Friday the flame was lit and these games were declared open and the country stopped worrying about the bills, the security screw-ups and embraced these games. This is a country that knows how to throw a party, and this one seems to going very well.

While it will be spectacular to see if Usain Bolt will continue to dominate the sprints, or if Chris Hoy can deliver on the huge expectations, there is plenty of compelling drama is away from the headliners of world sport.

This morning I had no idea who Gemma Gibbons was, and I still have little idea how Judo is scored. But today I watched the 42^nd ranked woman in the world have the competition of her life, in her home city, and come away with silver. I may not have a great understanding of the sport itself, but I can appreciate the story as it unfolded throughout that afternoon.

This is why I find sport is so compelling.

I’m not sure if me being wide awake at 1:45 in the morning is because of the anticipation of joining the party, or jetlag. I suspect mostly the latter, but tomorrow is time to watch some rowing and then see if Jessica Ennis can meet the huge expectations placed on her.
Tweet

Related articles

• Gemma Gibbons Has Become Great Britain’s First Olympic Judo Medallist For 12 Years
• “I love you mum”: Team GB judo silver medallist Gemma Gibbons pays tribute to late mum

A responsible pet owner has many roles to play. The final, and unquestionably the hardest, is to say goodbye when the time comes. She was laying in my lap Saturday when I said goodbye to just about the best cat I’ve ever known.

It started with the green and pleasant land travelled past Blake’s dark satanic mills and ended up in the digital age. It’s got to be said that Danny Boyle’s attempt to share Britishness with the world in the Olympic opening ceremony was somewhat surreal and at times moving. Over all, it was rather well done.

Mixed up in the celebration of British music was some Bohemian Rhapsody, Shakespeare, quick burst of Sex Pistols, a little Mike Oldfield, Clash, Dizzy Rascal, colliery brass bands and of course Vangelis Chariots of fire made an appearance.

And then there at the end was Sir Paul…

There were distinctively British stories threaded throughout the evening. I’m not sure how much of it really translated, I got a lot of blank stares from American friends tonight at what I thought were wonderful moments.

The most emotional was during the opening act when the entire thing came to a halt for a moment, the silence broken only by a lone whistle and a call for the crowd to stand to remember the dead “wherever they are”.

At the end of the industrial revolution a forged ring lifted off the stadium floor to join four other rings floating into view to create the familiar logo with sparks raining from the sky against the night. Very, very spectacular.

Then we got the Queens arrival, typically overblown staged pieces. This time mixed with a decent dose of humour as James bond escorted her to the stadium after parachuting into the stadium from a helicopter overhead.

Danny Boyle talked of this being the story of Britishness and the recent history of the country. Knowing there was no way to compete with the Beijing opening ceremony he had the freedom to do something different, something distinctive and something that used the rich history of the country.

And using imagination and creativity by the boatload he did it. He told perhaps the most important story of the last thousand years, that of the industrial revolution and what it means to this green and pleasant land.

We had the parade of athletes, followed by the speeches and then the entry of the torch. Steve Redgrave is perhaps the ultimate British Olympian; he took the flame from David Beckham and into the stadium itself.

There has been massive speculation about who would light the flame, in the end it was done perfectly. Athletes of tomorrow, each sponsored by a British Olympic legend, lit the final cauldron.

Then it was Paul McCartney’s turn…