The End of a Fantastic Journey

The Olympic flame is extinguished, the Olympic flag has been handed to Rio de Janeiro and the athletes will soon leave London. Yet the games of the XXX Olympiad have exceeded all expectations, before the games there were worries over how London’s transport system would cope with the influx of tourists and athletes, there was also fear about whether or not Britain would get behind the games. With the games finally over, we all recognise the triumph they have been, everything went off seamlessly.

One thing that I’m really impressed with is the way in which the British public got behind the games, there was so much joy and passion in the media. Speaking with friends and family and from watching the television, most of us seemed glued to our TV screens for the sixteen days of competition. One of the reasons why the British public were so enthusiastic once the games began may partially be due to Team GB’s success. Great Britain has had the best Olympic Games since 1908; we are third in the medal table with an impressive 29 gold medals. 

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	USA	46	29	29	104
2	China	38	27	22	87
3	Great Britain	29	17	19	65
4	Russia	24	25	23	82
5	South Korea	13	8	7	28
6	Germany	11	19	14	44
7	France	11	11	12	34
8	Italy	8	9	11	28
9	Hungary	8	4	5	17
10	Australia	7	16	12	35

There have been some really memorable moments at London 2012, for most Brits the best will probably be “Super Saturday” when Team GB clinched an impressive six gold medals. The rowers at Eton Dorney and the cyclists in the velodrome gave Britain three gold medals in the morning. Beneath the watchful eyes of 80,000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium; long jumper Greg Rutherford, heptathlete Jessica Ennis and 10,000m runner Mo Farah all won gold medals to cap Britain’s most successful day since 1908. Many commentators are already calling it the greatest day in the history of British sport.

The games have also helped further the idea that the United Kingdom really is multi-cultural, and that it’s a good thing to. Mo Farah moved to Britain when he was only eight from Somalia and Jessica Ennis is of mixed race decent. Numerous other black and Asian athletes competed for Great Britain; the feeling of patriotism instilled by non-white athletes will surely better us as a society.

These games also made history, the 2012 Olympic Games are the first ones in which women were able to participate in an equal number of sports and every National Olympic Committee sent female athletes. London has been dubbed the “women’s games”.

The Olympics have had many other memorable moments, Usain Bolt is undoubtedly the international star of the Olympics having achieved gold in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay for the second Olympics running. Kirani James gave his country, Grenada, a reason to celebrate by winning the country’s first ever medal, and it was a gold! Michael Phelps also secured his place in history by becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time with an astonishing 22 medals, 18 of which are gold. David Rudisha’s record breaking performance in the 800m for Kenya wowed us all and Steven Kiprotich won Uganda’s first gold medal since 1972 in the men’s marathon.

I believe a special mention should be given to the BBC, recently the corporation has been receiving a lot of criticism, especially surrounding coverage of the Diamond Jubilee. Yet the BBC has proved that it’s worth the license fee, the coverage of the Olympics has been fantastic. At one point Clare Balding was trending on Twitter, many of the messages were calling her a national treasure and claiming that she should get an award for her contribution to sport.  

It’s not just Brits who have enjoyed the games; a group of foreign journalists have voted London 2012, the best Olympic Games ever. Athletes have also praised the British people for the hospitality they received during the games. Speaking in interview the Bolt and Blake personally thanked the people of Birmingham for their kindness and helpfulness (the pre-games Jamaican training camp was in Birmingham)

Although I am naturally very biased, I do believe these games have been the best is ever seen. Rio will find it difficult to follow, but I’m sure 2016 will be another phenomenal Olympic instalment.

Mo Farah and Usain Bolt exchange dance moves