OK well a change from the usual reviews, this time I'm looking at the London 2012 Olympics, which yesterday came to a close, as Great Britain's largest city played host to the biggest games on the planet.
So starting with the end (makes a change!) the Olympic games had a massive closing ceremony, which was in a similar vein to the opening one (except this time Danny Boyle was not involved) with the usual razamatazz of a lot of dancers dancing the sound of popular songs, such as Madness's "our house", Blur's "Parklife" (except Blur didn't show), Pet Shop Boys "West end girls". In fact Madness and the Pet Shop Boys actually turned up performing the songs live, with Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys wearing one of the most ridiculous outfits I've ever seen! There were also performances from George Michael, the Spice Girls and the rock band Elbow, as well as Ray Davies (from the Kinks), and Liam Gallagher (glad I missed that one!), and The Who doing "My generation" (clearly the most decent thing on the bill here!) who closed out the ceremony with fireworks going off and confetti flying everywhee. Other performances also included Eric Idle doing a version of "Always look on the bright side of life" and a cringeworthy performance of "I am the walrus" from Russell Brand, who sang it sitting on top of a psychedelic bus. Ughhhh!!!
As for the other parts of the ceremony that were nothing to do with the music, we had Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, hand over the Olympic flag to the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes. After this there was a display from a group of Rio dancers, and we also the stadium light up green and yellow to resemble the colours of their flag. Also a whole host of athletes from different countries took stage with their different nationalities flags, and we see the final medals being handed out, on this occassion they went to the medalists in the men's marathon, which was run on the final day, the gold medal going to Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda.
And in regards to the Olympic games themselves, well it was a tremendous success for Great Britain, who recorded 65 medals in all over 16 different sports, with 29 of them being gold medals, 17 silver and 19 bronze. This must easily rank as Great Britain's most successful Olympics to date, and obviously as they were the hosting nation the athletes no doubt would feel inspired to win for their country. And after a slow start Great Britain soon gathered momentum throughout the games, which started with the rowing team of the two Heathers Glover and Stanning, who won the first gold, in the women's pair. And plenty more gold medals followed including two golds for Sir Chris Hoy, who won the men's team sprint and keirin events, and Laura Trott who won her first two gold medals in the ladies team pursuit and omnium events. Other events saw some first time records as well, such as Nicola Adams, who won the gold medal for the women's flyweight in boxing, and Luke Campbell who won the gold for the men's bantamweight. Team GB also won medals in other events such as the Equestrian (or show jumping), Taekwondo, sailing, shooting and canoeing. There were some notable victories in the bronze medal bracket with Tom Daley, winning his first Olympic mdeal for the men's 10m platform diving, and for the first time in about 100 years, GB won two silvers and a bronze in the men's and women's gymnastics.
However one of the most historic wins for team GB was Mo Farah, who won the men's 10,000 metres and the men's 5,000 metres events. This saw Great Britain's first ever victory in the men's 10,000 metres event, and it also saw Mo take the podium doing his Mo-bot dance in celebration (which apparently was suggested to him by someone to do the "M" from the YMCA dance!). In fact there is a much seen photo of Mo's reaction when he won the 5,000 metre event, as he gave a look of shock and delight. And this was parodied as Mo Farah was superimposed in the famous painting by the artist, Edvard Munch, "The Scream", in which he replaced the famous image of the figure holding their face in shock, which was quite funny, although I wonder what Mo made of it! ;-)
And of course another historical victory, which I've already said more than enough about, was in the tennis with Andy Murray winning his first ever Olympic gold medal, after he defeated Roger Federer in straight sets. Andy by winning the medal became the first ever British tennis player to have won an Olympic gold medal since Josiah Richie back in 1908. So I think it was safe to say that the Muzza was pretty inspired by all the success the Brits were having around him, and just maybe this could finally lead to him winning the majors, and he has at last got that monkey off his back (as well as Roger Federer!) in trying to win a big title.
Onto other victories, from different countries, well there were aplenty, but some of the most notables ones involved a certain Jamaican fella by the name of Usain Bolt, who was the defending champion at the men's 100m and 200m events. This time Bolt, came through again in ease as the top man, as he successfully defended his titles, proving that he is without a doubt the fastest man alive. Also even more impressively as the Jamaican team ran in the 4 x 100 metre relay event, they also again managed to win the gold medal and even broke their own world record from 2008 in Beijing of 37.04 with a Guinness calling 36.84. So this once again saw the Bolter defend his team's title from 2008, and it reaffirmed his status as one of the greatest athletes in history, so a big well done to the guy, although it has to be said, he is a bit of a poser! ;-)
As for the leaderboard well in the end it was the USA who were triumphant as they surged ahead with a remarkable 104 medal tally, 46 of them being golds, and 29 each for silver and bronze. And among their victories there were plenty in the swimming with 16 golds, 9 in athletics, and 3 in tennis, most notably Serena Williams won her first ever Olympic gold medal in the final against Maria Sharapova, whereas the Bryan brothers won the men's doubles and the Williams sisters the ladies doubles. And in 2nd place there was China who came away with 87 medals in all, with 38 golds, 27 silver and 22 bronze, in which they excelled in sports such as badminton, diving and weightlifting (and yup I've spelt that right!).
Sooooooo that's it for the Olympic games of 2012 from London, it was a very enjoyable two weeks and there has been plenty of excitement and some terrific wins for Great Britain, whom I'm sure they can be proud of the great efforts of their athletes. And its a pity in a way that its over as TV will now be that bit more crap without them on anymore.
But anyway on that note I'll leave it there.
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