London 2012

I had a chance to visit the Paralympics this week and I have to say my attitudes changed significantly whilst I was there and also by watching the events on the Television. 

The Olympics themselves were an absolutely amazing spectacle, for months if not years we had been getting the drip, drip from LOCOG about how fantastic the games would be. I always knew they would be special but I was totally blown away by the power and emotion of the event and about how they changed the mood of the country. Every time I think of this I get tears in my eyes and I do not understand why so I cannot put it into words, I think it is the pride of being British and of the entire world looking at us and saying “wow! you did a good job, but I can’t be sure it is not something else. I was glued to the TV for two weeks and I will always remember where I was for “The Golden Hour” when Team GB won 3 track and field events in 45 minutes and the action in the velodrome where quite simply we are the best team in the world.  I had deliberately not tried to buy  any tickets to the Olympics as I did not like the requirement to purchase tickets using a VISA card.in truth maybe it was also partly driven by a lack of desire on my part to actually be there. During the Olympics however my objections softened and I found myself purchasing tickets for the family to a Paralympic track and field session in the Olympic stadium. In truth I think I was driven by the desire to see the facilities and the Olympic park before they were closed down and to try to imagine what the atmosphere was like during the events, a belated attempt to say “I was there”. Don’t get me wrong I had and immense sense of respect and admiration for the competitors after all they had had to overcome immense challenges just to get to the point where they could start training to be an athlete but I was not expecting a particularly high standard of sport. By the end of the Olympics the Paralympics had sold all 2.5 Million tickets available the most ever for the event. I had assumed that the capacity of the Olympic stadium was going to be cut back but when our tickets were delivered they were high in the stadium, “fantastic” I was thinking wasn’t it great that we had managed to sell out an 80,000 seat stadium for a disabled sports event. Then I started to see the events on the TV, this was not a disabled sports event this was an athletics meeting. The competitors were athletes in every sense of the word and the drama of the event was every bit as great as the Olympics and the standard of competition every bit as high. Actually being in the Olympic Stadium and seeing the long jump competitors jumping over 7 metres on blades and often with only one arm was jaw dropping. I can saw “we were there” to see medal presentations to Oscar Pistorius and David Weir, the latter received a cheer from the crowd the like I have not heard before and the crowd collectively singing the British National Anthem  was very emotional and loud!. You could not appreciate the noise of the crowd until you left the stadium and felt your ears still ringing. 

Getting back to my original point about my change in attitude, I became transfixed by the quality of the sport and forgot the disabilities the athletes have, the 100 metres sprint final contested by Jonnie Peacock and Oscar Pistorius was an electrifying 10.9 seconds of drama. The London 2012 games have changed me and I am immensely proud of the LOCOG team who put them together, immensely proud of my country and in awe of the competitors. My hope is that the2012 strap line of “inspiring a generation” encourages a change to “role models in a nation sick and tired of glamour models and reality shows” to quote Cole Moreton from the Sunday Telegraph.