London 2012 Memories

What an absolutely enthralling couple of weeks of olympic sport we've had - naturally all the sweeter for us Brits with the success we've had ..... some medals coming as a surprise - others somewhat less so.

So, out of interest, may I ask forummers to share 5 memories from these games ?

I've not gone for obvious ones like Usain Bolts "double double", or Hoy/Wiggo & Co topping the all-time GB medal winners list, I'm sure they'd be on many peoples list - but here are my 5, in no particular order

1. Kirani James winning 400m for Grenada. The look of pleasure and pride at his achievement is beyond words.

2. Two women making history ......... Sarah Atter, the Saudi Arabian 800m runner just for being there, and Nicola Adams the first woman to win an olympic boxing medal. A mention to Jade Jones for her Taekwondo medal, she wouldn't have been first on anyones list of potential gold winners.

3.The GB mens gymnastic team. They surprised many with a medal ...... 4th or 5th was the highest most of us expected them to realistically achieve. A couple of individual medals was the icing on the cake.

4. Djobo Issaka, the rower from Niger who finished his heat almost 2 full minutes behind the winner. A true example of the embodiment of "what matters most is taking part." I for one won't mock him - I've a feeling that when he crossed the line, any of us posting here (with the exception of Big Dog), would p'raps be approaching the 3/4 mark, had we also been on the water.

5. The 800m final, one of the finest races in history - but will sadly be largely forgotten due to taking place the same evening as Usain Bolt winning the 200m. A world record for the winner, 6 other PB times, and the GB runner who finished last would have won gold with his time had he run it at Sydney Athens or Beijing.

So - what memories will live with you ?

To me it has been the best Olympics of all time. I cannot understand how people doubted London's ability to stage the games. All of the venues have been top class. No other in the world could have produced such historic settings, Lords, Wimbledon and Wembly being the prime examples. Horse Guards for the beach volleyball was an inspired choice.

Come on people ..... like most others who've posted on the games thread I was also distinctly underwhelmed by the closing ceremony - but considering the three threads on the games themselves are the thick end of 150 pages I can't believe nobody wants to share a few memories ......

Super Saturday- Great Britain athletes Ennis, Rutherford, and Farah all winning gold in the space of an hour, was incredible.

Then Mo Farah doubling up and winning the 5000 metres to go with the 10000. The roar as he made a charge in the last 200 metres of the 5000 was incredible, even just watching on TV.

Well, top of the list has to be actually being there, the stadium had a great atmosphere even for a morning heats session which I went to, can only imagine what it would have been like on one of the big athletics nights, and the same goes for the whole Olympic park.

Super Saturday with the three athletics golds and six in total has to be the highlight, also some of the unexpected British gold medals like the canoeing and taekwondo, and even when we had so much success it was great to see situations where bronzes could be celebrated as if they were golds, such as Tom Daley and the gymnastics team. Watching stars like Bolt and Rudisha as well as underdogs like "Issaka the Otter" sum up what the Olympics are all about!

Sally Pearson and Bolt for obvious reasons

Aus winning gold in the Mens K4 kayak - because it was unexpected and it was complete luck that I was channel hopping past it when it was so happened to catch it live.

The german thrower (discuss I think) who did the women's hurdles with a flag around his neck and then tried to nick a petal from the flame

Best Olympics ever?


Yes.

Best memories:

The Cauldron going up

Bolt getting Mo to swap trademark gestures.

Rebecca Adlington doing her damned best and completely conflicted afterwards in interviews.

The women in the Finnish boat (Elliott) talking through thir hopes and joys while the Russian protest was adjudged and struck out in the bronze medal sailoff

Jessica Ennis's smiles of utter relief on winning her gold.

Marisa Monte and Pele in the Closing Ceremony. Lighting it up. at last

And the enthusiasm of a remote family member volunteering in the main stadium, relating of the deeds of the Bolt, the Farah and the Ennis.

Can we go the worst part. The US pipping China for most gold after you've taken China into the AUS women's 4x100 relay.

Marathons. Both were fantastic. Indian athletes' performance, far better than Beijing despite not getting any gold.
Men's 800m was just brilliant.

The men's 800 - Rudisha went out by himself and did it all. The finest 800m WR to date.

1. Marathons - the course was great (helps that I spent 2 years getting off at Monument Tube to go to work!) and the performances outstanding - particularly the winners who both ran brilliant tactical races. It was great to see guys coming 20th celebrate their achievement.

2. Sally Pearson - OK she was favourite but she was utterly focused and professional in getting the gold. She never looked like not winning. Something that some of the Australian men should pay attention to.

3. Men superheavyweight weightlifting. 247kg above your head. Mental.

4. Felix Sanchez in winning the 400m hurdles and then taking the picture of his grandmother out (she passed just before the heats in Beijing where he was defending champion), putting it on the track and kissing it.



5. Can't go past Bolt but special mention to Mo.

OK - have to add Stuart O'Grady in the mens road race. Utterly brilliant ride. Shame he couldn't jag a medal.

To be honest I thought the Sanchez granny photo thing was a stunt. Great run, nevertheless.
Ennis, Pearson, Farah (& Bolt to a lesser extent) dealt with the pressure of external expectation brilliantly well.
Anna Meares is just one tough sheila.

A bit harsh.

I'm pretty sure the tears at the medal ceremony were genuine.

Whilst watching the closing ceremony last night, we couldn't help making the contrast between the two contrasting groups of participants.

1. The athletes - every interview I saw showed them to be genuinely nice people, gracious in victory, magnanimous in defeat, humble, and completely lacking in ego. Sure they were proud, but then again they had something to be proud about .... the sort of people we'd all love our children to emulate.

2. The singers/celebrities - so many of them the exact opposite - even the ones who've never been drug-addled fookwits have ego out of all proportion to their talent. Most would be even further up their own clackers if they weren't stuck at the shoulders. Not the sort of people we really want to see our kids growing up like ...

The likes of Russell Brand and Liam Gallagher are considered utter cock-jockeys the world over - unfortunately millions more kids will follow their example than that of Mo Farrah, Jess Ennis etc.

i dont think anyone will particularly remember what happened before alessandra ambrosio came on stage

Brilliant games, best I can remember, even tho the time zone meant I saw very little of the actual medals.

Only criticism I have is that the Marathon didn't end in the Stadium...

Rudisha.

Sub-10 100m.

Pistorus.

Inverdale crying when our silver rowers were in bits.

the finish of the women's triathlon

the Ugandan marathon winner

Rudisha

both 10 k swims - especially amazing swim from the Hungarian chick

One more (weird) one was Ben Ainslie staring back down the water in his pre-final race. Considering going back and sabotaging his Danish rival's air and water, after same rival had made an allegation of an infringement against him (Ainslie) that the big man was incensed about.

Eerie moment. A hunter's eye. Maybe not pleasant. But memorable.

Bolt in the 200 final. With his big cheetah's frame (no pun intended), huge wide shoulders tapering down, checking across for the Beast on his inside again and again, then checking the clock, while all the while racing like hell ... for once scared he might not win.

I liked Blake too, seems a good guy as well as a hell of a runner. Poor bugger. Maybe his time will come.

Helen and Heather winning although I didn't see it live.

Eventing team silver, although no individual medals. The German rider being Olympic, World and European champion simultaneously.

John Inverdale crying.

Showjumping team Gold. I wept. Such an achievement.

Super Saturday and Galen Rupp elbowing people out of Mo's way.

Laura Trott.

Seeing Wiggo smash the field.

Dressage team and individual gold. Charlotte Dujardin's freestyle performance, and then the bronze too.

Growing to expect a gold every day.

Beth Tweddle. Awesome.

Clare Balding being brilliant.

Freddie Mercury on the big screen in the closing ceremony. That tipped me over the edge. Sobbed for a good 10 minutes there.

Basically, you are still in love with Mr Bulsara after all these years!

Indeed. 17 years of adoration. Still makes me cry. Still always dead at the end of the day. Love that director for putting him in. Love the crowd for singing along.