The sheer volume of things that I could have written about in this last week is almost as big as the Chinese medal haul at the half way point in the Olympics. The thing is that I've spent all of the last 9 days watching sport on TV therefore I've found very little time for anything else. The greatest irony of the Olympics so far for me in fact has been that I feel inspired to go out and run and cycle, yet I've been sitting down for about 90% of the last week. I've missed nothing though and there is plenty of time for inspiration to carry me outside when the Olympics come to a sorry close next week.
As I said, there has been a lot for me to write about this week, with last night's excellence in the Olympic Stadium in London being the pinnacle of an awesome week of sport. I watched every heat and final in the swimming, I've not missed a single important rowing race, I've lapped up the cycling and I've enjoyed learning about so many sports that I knew little (or nothing) about this time last week. Veined through all of that has been something that I've heard people talk about but never actually felt myself - in fact I thought that it was just a turn of phrase. Everyone has claimed to felt tingles in their spine at some point in their life and I can now state that well over 10 events this week have done that to me. Whether it be the outburst of emotion from a British athlete or the national anthem, I've never witnessed so many moments that I've felt such pride, awe, inspiration etc.
As I said, there has been a lot for me to write about this week, with last night's excellence in the Olympic Stadium in London being the pinnacle of an awesome week of sport. I watched every heat and final in the swimming, I've not missed a single important rowing race, I've lapped up the cycling and I've enjoyed learning about so many sports that I knew little (or nothing) about this time last week. Veined through all of that has been something that I've heard people talk about but never actually felt myself - in fact I thought that it was just a turn of phrase. Everyone has claimed to felt tingles in their spine at some point in their life and I can now state that well over 10 events this week have done that to me. Whether it be the outburst of emotion from a British athlete or the national anthem, I've never witnessed so many moments that I've felt such pride, awe, inspiration etc.
Yes, that's right, I said that hearing the national anthem sent shivers down my spine - I wasn't just going to wash over that point. I've said it in a couple of Facebook statuses: I've felt very British this year and never more than that during these Olympics. I won't get into Scottish independence discussion here but if it does come to fruition then we'll lose those moments because they won't be ours anymore. Scottish athletes have done well (Andy Murray you beauty!) but last night Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah did something beautiful for the whole of Great Britain, not just Scotland.
Other highlights? Well watching Michael Phelps this week in his final Olympics has been truly awesome - it always is - and the whole swimming competition has been really exciting. I've really enjoyed watching the Brits compete in the Judo - pure emotion flowing from them all. The stories coming out of the rowing have really caught my attention and have produced some great TV moments - I think that was where my first 'spine-tingler' came from. The last one that I will mention (because I could write a book on the last week) is the action from the velodrome. Watching Team GB win and break a world-record pretty much every time they got on the track in the first few days has been fantastic and that, mixed with Bradley Wiggins' success during the week, has made me think about dusting down the old bike in the coming days - or at least when the Olympics is over!
Thanks for reading and I hope to comment on the Olympics some more in the coming days when I find a gap in the coverage - it'll be hard but I'll try my best.
Marti
