This morning in the shower I caught sight of the countdown clock that's been in there for the past 18 months or so. There was the '1' looking back at me! I squeed right there in the shower! I can't think of anything in my life that I have been more excited about for as long as I have been excited about the London Olympics.
 |
| One day! One day! (This photo was taken tonight. Well, who takes their phone to the shower and takes a photo?!) |
I mentioned way back in 2005 about how I found out London won the bid on the way to Ruth's wedding. Well, seven years later and we're here!
I love the Olympics. When I think about it, I suppose I was always going to. They have the history, they have the sport, they have the 'national event'. All box tickers for me! And I was even born on the day Duncan Goodhew won a gold medal in the Moscow Olympics. It's like it was written in the stars!
In 1988, I remember colouring in South Korea flags in school. I remember me and my friends wanting to be Flo Jo and the disgust that Ben Johnston would cheat. I remember seeing Daley Thomspon's pole break during a vault, although of course I had no idea then what that really meant, despite Des Lynham's best efforts to explain it.
I remember watching Sally Gunnell, Linford Christie, Chris Boardman, the Searle brothers with Garry Herbert and Redgrave and Pinsent win gold medals in 1992. I remember fighting back the tears as Derek Redmond finished his race with his dad after he tore his hamstring.
In 1996 I sat up most of the night watching the action from Atlanta live, slept-in in the morning to do it all the next day. And that was in GB&NI's disappointing Olympics. Since 2000 and the start of lottery funding GB & NI have really had something to shout about at the Games and I've celebrated Team GB's successes in Sydney, Athens and Beijing.
But I've equally been enthralled at the fortunes of a Kazakstan weightlifter or a Vietnamese archer. Pierre de Coubertin said what was important in life was to have fought well. So when a weightlifter tries to beat his personal best in the clean and jerk, or an archer tries to get an arrow in the gold, that doesn't happen without four years of training, commitment and sacrifices. That's where the fight happens. We're mere spectators in the final act of four years' work. Sometimes there's triumph, sometimes not, but I can't help but be captivated by that.
So you see, I would have loved this summer even if Paris, or another city, had come out on top in the vote. But this is an Olympics in my home country and I'm going to see the some of the athletes live and in the flesh that I've only seen on TV or followed on Twitter! That P4 girl colouring her South Korean flag never imagined that she would ever get the chance to go see an Olympic Games.
I get that some people aren't as excited as I am, and to those people I ask what was beyond your wildest dream as a kid? And what have you waited seven years for, with eager excitement, once you knew it was scheduled to happen?
Tell you what, you can come back to me in 2019 and tell me sure.
