It seems like after a rather shaky start, Team GB is doing rather well in the medal tables. At the time of writing, we are fourth overall with six golds, six silvers and six bronze. One ahead of France, who only have five silvers. Ha! Take that, garlic munchers!
It must be hoped that this medal count will increase further. The sports in the first week of competition have not really favoured us and they aren't generally speaking things we excel in. Tom Daley and Rebecca Adlington aside, we haven't had a decent swimmer in decades, cycling has only recently come to the fore and as for gymnastics, well the bronze medal the other night is the first in that discipline for 100 years. Badminton, table tennis etc? The odd success but nothing consistent. Not really our sort of thing. We got our first gold medal this time in shooting, which to me is more of a country pursuit that involves killing innocent animals for fun or food, rather than a sport. A sport is something that makes you hot and sweaty isn't it, usually involving something roughly spherical or a pair of trainers? As far as I can see, shooting does neither of those things. Need I say more?
Today, of course, sees the start of the track and field athletics and the water sports, in particular sailing, are only just coming to their final stages where we are in with a good shout. We must stand a good chance of several medals in athletics across a whole range of disciplines. Whilst we probably don't have a cat in hell's chance of beating the Yanks, who have such a massive population base with such broad ethnicity that they have runners, weight lifters, gymnasts and the lot, we ought to be able to catch up the Chinese who have walked it in week one but never do well in all the second week stuff and we definitely ought to be able to beat the French. Our lives won't be worth living if we don't, and they'll never let us forget it.
Not being a sporty sort, I haven't really been that interested in the Olympics in the run up and got heartily sick of it being rammed down my throat by the media, but now it's here and there is more of an atmosphere I am enjoying watching the odd hour or two. Last night I sat in front of it and designed my pantomime set! I couldn't sit and watch it all day, but a short burst now and then to keep in touch with what is happening is OK. And you don't actually need to watch it all day - there are such long gaps between heats and events that the Beeb have time to replay and revisit ad infinitum. With 24 channels of Olympic sport, there is a lot of filler being given airtime.
This week might, I suppose, be quite exciting and I have never been averse to a bit of patriotic flag waving. Just a bloody shame our national anthem isn't a little more stirring. Rule Brittania or Land of Hope and Glory would be much more satisfying to sing along to, don't you think?
I have always loved the Olympics where you can watch so many diverse sports in such a short, confined space of time. Being over here, rather than over there, has also insulated me from all the pre-Olympic hype. Personally, I think if you can't watch the track cycling without getting emotionally stirred up, you probably need to check yourself for a pulse.
ReplyDelete