As a Londoner, my view may be a little bit biased – London 2012 (the 30th Olympiad) A.K.A ‘The Friendly Games’ were MUCH better than Beijing 2008! The US ambassador to the UK went one step further saying that it was the ‘greatest Olympics ever’ I am sad that it is over, but all the fun begins again with 2.1 million Paralympics tickets already sold! Apparently the gold medals were the heaviest (400g) than at previous Olympics and Team GB were there to collect, winning 29 gold. It sounds cliché but there really are too many achievements to mention, so I will only skim the surface, as I am sure you watched it all for yourself!
After earlier disappointment and the loss of his father to brain cancer last year, 18 year-old Tom Daley collected a well-deserved diving bronze Medal.
Bradley Wiggins – the first Brit to win Tour de France in 109 years and the first man to win Tour de France and Olympic gold in the same year.
Nicola Adams – winning the first Olympic Women’s Boxing gold medal in history.
The continent of Africa did not disappoint with David Rudisha breaking the first world record of the 2012 Games. He has been dubbed ‘the greatest runner you’ve never heard of’ by Vanity Fair after breaking his OWN world record and becoming the first man ever to run 800m in under 1min 41sec – finishing in 1:40.91.
The marathon saw an east African 1,2,3 – Stephan Kiprotich (Uganda), Abel Kirui (Kenya) and Kipsang Kiprotich (Kenya).
Chad Le Clos (South African swimmer) – Gold, 200m butterfly
Meseret Defar (Ethiopia) – Gold 5000m
Tirunesh Dibaba – (Ethiopia) – Gold 10,000m retained her title
On the last Saturday of the games I was in Blackheath Park cheering on Mo Farrah in the 5,000m, eating some curry chicken & rice and peas (preparing myself for the 4x100m relay). Jamaica smashed the world record and Usain self-proclaimed ‘Living Legend’ Bolt achieved the double-treble. Everyone was excited, accept maybe, Carl Lewis who said in an interview, ‘countries like Jamaica do not have a random (drugs testing) program, so they can go months without being tested. I’m not saying they’ve done anything for certain. I don’t know’. Dick Pound, the former chief of WADA, echoed these views, stating that he is not happy with the way Jamaica tested its athletes. ‘Jamaica and other Caribbean islands don’t have independent anti-doping federations’. By the way Carl Lewis (an American athlete) tested positive three times for a stimulant before the 1988 Games but had the results overturned by American officials.
If drugs testing programs are not equal, then why not just have a central body that summons results from each country at specific times thought out the year? This sounds like a simple suggestion, so maybe there is a good reason why it has not been implemented. Anyway, the Bahamian 4x400m relay team snatched the gold from the Americans. The women’s 4x100m relay team did give the US something to shout about when they broke the world record that stood for 27 years (Carmelita Jeter is a machine)!
Throughout the games people have been wondering how some athletes can run so fast (I want to know why others can swim so far/fast. I want to be a fish like Michael Phelps lol). Well we now have the answer to the £1million question, answered eloquently by Yohan Blake: ‘Basically, we are not human, we dropped from space like Mr Bean. Mr Bean is not a normal guy, he makes jokes. We are not normal guys. We are from space, I am from Mars’. So there you have it; if you want to run fast you have to come from Mars (unless you are woman, in which case I guess you have to come from Venus?!)
The closing ceremony was OK, the Opening Ceremony was better. BoJo (Boris Johnson) obviously enjoyed it as he was getting jiggy to the Spice Girls! While the whole musical playlist was not to my personal taste, I did like Emeli sundae’s performances and the ‘We will Rock’ you rendition. It was also nice to see Fatboy Slim on the decks; but where was Leona Lewis? She’s from Hackney and didn’t turn up to rep’ her end! Even Kate Moss, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell came out to party. Next stop Braaaaazilllll!!
doubleaad : AdelinA
The Purpose Copywriter 
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