#L2012DAYS - Goodnight, & goodbye

Firstly, this is the last #L2012Days post as it is the last of my self-ordained twelve days of Olympic Christmas!  I want to thank everyone who has tuned in, read the posts, commented and shared across all channels.  I am extremely blessed to have real and virtual chums like you guys.

I have written a lot about the London Olympics for the past 18 months, and maybe come next July I will do a bit more to reflect, but now seems the right time to review one last time and move on to the challenges and promise of 2013 and beyond. 

Twenty years ago, in a council flat in Southend, I watched - on the telly - Rebollo light the Olympic cauldron in Barcelona.  My love affair with the Olympics began, and while it waned at times over the proceeding years, when 2005 and Singapore happened, a personal dream became a reality.  And so, from that maisonette by the seaside, two decades later I was sat in row 73 of the Olympic Stadium in E20, London.  The town I was born in.  I saw the cauldron lit before my own eyes.  And so the love affair started all over again.  Quite possibly for keeps.

Will I go to Rio?  I certainly hope so.  For now, the aim will be Glasgow in a little over 18 months..!

I want to thank the #2012Tweeps for all their help and support in getting tickets for the Games, and supporting me personally with my many scribbled endeavours.  In particular, the ‘brain-trust’: @Volshy, @2012Tweeps, @Matt_Shoreditch and @nmdouglas.

I also want to extend a personal thanks to the #2012Tweeps who directly helped me and friends/family secure tickets: @Hilts_uk, @CarolynB66, @Jamjaw, @KBKeane, @Moosola, @IamFlopIt, @PaddyJim, @QuickDrewster, @Matthew_Gabb, @IanDay2, @Schorty1.  And Conrad Readman - who’s gone, but will never be forgotten.

Finally, I want to thank anyone who’s ever read, shared, commented on any of my witterings.  And to all who have indulged my obsession.  Your input and encouragement has brought a some-time writer back from the very brink of extinction.  And if that isn’t legacy, then I don’t know what is.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year.  2012 will be a year never to be repeated.  And, let’s face it, 2013 is going to stink in comparison to it.  But to roll out that well-trailed line used in the summer from Dr. Seuss… “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

Citius, Altius, Fortius.  Until next time…


S.

#L2012DAYS - They were the happiest of times

One last video.  Little more to say than, it’s a montage - don’t quite have the silks of the Beeb but hopefully you will get the jist…

Watch, enjoy.  Citius, Altius, Fortius dear viewer…


S.

N.B. Piece includes an excerpt from “Salut D’Amour” performed by Julian Lloyd Webber, London Symphony Orchestra and STOMP, which featured in the London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony.  The audio is taken from the OST album without permissions - but used entirely for non-commercial purposes to reminiscence, remember and have a damn good sob.  If any issues, please let me know directly..!

#L2012DAYS - Phelps’ goes from second to immortality

The evening of 31 July 2012. Later on. Some time after Chad le Clos upset the apple cart.

See le Clos beat the Baltimore Bullet, Michael Phelps, in the Men’s 200m Butterly final to Gold. Settling for silver, Phelps equalled Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina’s record haul of 18 Olympic medals won. As part of the American men’s quartet competing in the 4x200m Freestyle relay final he had the chance to make amends. To win another Gold medal, to consign Latynina to history and become (at least statistically) the greatest Olympian ever.

Swimming the final leg, after some excellent work from his teammates (not least his heir apparent Ryan Lochte), Phelps dominated to the final. History was made here in the Aquatics Centre. History so many wanted to see. Michael Phelps has consistently been a model of excellence for swimming and the Olympic movement. He had earned this moment of accolade not least in will be his last Olympics.

Team USA won out in a time 6:59.70. Phelps would win more medals before London 2012 concluded to emphatically emboss his place his time. But on this night, everything changed. Even in defeat, this was Phelps’ moment.

Here we see him lead Team USA to victory, and the celebrations that followed.

#L2012DAYS - London’s Games of belief

Disbelief. It can be a such a negative emotion, and yet be so evocative of a feeling that you’ve been somewhere you weren’t meant to be. These are the last days of 2012, yet the memories of the last 365 will live in the hearts and minds of people around the world thanks to events in some small corner of East London.

It has been some 90 days since the end of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. I was fortunate recently to attend the new Olympic Park tours that go some way to explain and bring to life the evolution, post-Games, of the legacy being delivered in Stratford. It was a bittersweet trip down Memory Lane. The Park itself is barely recognisable from its pomp in the summer. Whole venues and attractions have long been flattened and removed. There are no insignias to be found. The winter cold has brought a bleakness to what will be the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the New Year. The London Olympic Games of 2012, the city’s unprecedented third stint hosting, is well and truly over.

And yet, as someone who attended 40-odd sessions across the Olympics and Paralympics, letting go of that spirit that has shaped London 2012 has proved hard. As an unashamed supporter of the Games and the broader Olympic movement, it has been galling to see so many of our press and thought-leaders attempt to unseat the efforts of a great many in delivering this most enormous festival of sport. Their actions nearly sent a nation into a paralysis of fear and loathing. That as a nation we had no right to stage such an event; that history showed we would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. That London 2012 would give us the biggest headache in modern times. It is their disbelief that the greatest joy can be derived from. Those of us who attended the Olympics and Paralympics, or watched on TV, proved that far from being a spent force Britain mattered. It was relevant. And we could deliver and then some.

It was a privilege to be part of London 2012 as a spectator, to see the incredible effort made in creating arenas and fields of dreams. And yet, the Park tour made you appreciate the ingenuity of the engineers and designers of the sprawling complex. These Games were a marker for the future. No more can a host nation justify building structures in the name of vanity - London has shown it is possible to make an urban landscape work in your favour. The success alone of Beach Volleyball at Horse Guards Parade and the Equestrian events in Greenwich Park highlighted this.

As the days become shorter, so those memories begin to dwindle a little. Life was always going to move on, particularly in a city like London. Being a truly global stage means there will never be too much of a lull. And yet I, like so many, hanker for those days as we counted-down to the Games. To remember the feeling of immense joy back in July 2005 when Lord Coe and his team achieved the impossible in Singapore.

I kick myself now for not paying more attention in those formulative years after the announcement, seeing how plans came to fruition and how decaying wasteland in E20 would become the epicentre of the universe for a few weeks. That frisson of excitement which accompanied announcements for logos and mascots can’t be replicated. And as for the moment when tickets went up for sale for the first time…

Whilst not being the only one by any stretch, I was truly blessed to have attended London 2012 in the capacity I did. I saw all the ceremonies, from the joy of Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening, to Coldplay’s dramatic conclusion to the Paralympics. I was there to see Phelps make history, Bolt affirm his greatness and Hoy further his legend. And yet, ‘Thriller Thursday’ from the Paralympics was perhaps the greatest night in my summer. The dazzling brilliance of David Weir and Jonnie Peacock rocked all 80000 in attendance to their core.

I didn’t think I’d be able to get over the depression that settled once normality set in, which in the end was silly talk. As the year draws to a close, the opportunity to reflect and take-in events of the past year is welcome. I look forward to consuming all the recap shows, DVDs and books that are coming out in time for Christmas.

I was very fortunate to chronicle a lot of my time at the Olympics and Paralympics for Yahoo! and The Fanhub. At a very personal level, to combine two pleasures (writing and sport) made this a year I will never forget.

And so, in the end, it comes down to where I started. Disbelief. I can’t believe London won. I can’t believe so many people doubted the organisers. I can’t believe the Games were as good as they were. And I can’t believe I attended as much as I did; that I witnessed so much sporting history in such a short space of time. Let no one doubt the power of the Olympic movement - the force it can be for good. A generation was inspired this summer, be in no doubt of that.

Much more than that however, let London 2012’s epitaph be this: never doubt the greatness of Britain.

Written originally for the Yahoo! Contributor Network.