Olympic Fever

If you'd told me a week ago that the next the topic to inspire me to get on here and actually write something would be the Olympics, I would have called you a liar. But here I am, completely swept away by the infectious excitement, emotion and passion of the incredible athletes I sit watching do more exercise in ten minutes, than I've done in my life. I have to admit, before the games I was a bit of an Olympic cynic. I've never really enjoyed watching or playing sport; often only encountering professional sport in the form of football in a pub surrounded by people shouting obscenities at a screen while I stared on blankly. I'd always considered the Olympics the biggest and most expensive sport event, but it is so much more than that. Guys...

It's sport, and I'm loving it 

I am truly loving it! Ok, the fact that while expressing my love for the game I am inadvertently using the slogan of the healthy sports event's biggest sponsor ("ba ba ba ba baaa") reminds me of some of the problems I have with the economic organisation of the games. But, all problems with the attempted ownership of words aside, it has to be said in: I am loving the London Olympics 2012, and have never felt more glad to live in London than I do right now. 

Cute kid carrying a British flag in front of the Big Screen, conveniently adding some patriotism to my photo

I've loved sitting on the grass in front of our local big screen and jumping to my feet with thousands of people when the unbelievable Usain Bolt crossed the finish line, getting his second Olympics 100m gold medal and holding onto the title. I've cheered on Team GB in events I've never seen before and learnt that two of the lifts in weightlifting are called the "clean and jerk" and the "snatch". I've cried watching Britain's Mo Farah win the  men's 10,000m, crossing the finish line  with style after twenty-five, TWENTY-FIVE, laps around the track. My favourite moment of the games so far has to be the grace and humility shown by Grenadian Kirani James when, after winning the 400m men's semi-finals, he swapped names with South African Oscar Pistorius, explaining in his post-win interviews that: 

"He’s [Pistorius] an inspiration for all of us. What he does takes a lot of courage, just a lot of confidence. He’s very special to our sport. He’s a great individual and it’s time we see him like that and not anything else."

Kirani James and Oscar Pistorius, after the Men's 400m Semi-Finals (05/08/2012)

Speaking of Kirani James, my Grenadian heritage means that I am RIDICULOUSLY excited for the 400m men's finals this evening. Kirani is set to bring us home our first ever Olympic medal, and I have complete faith it's gonna be gold. 

These games seem to have united the entire city, the entire country: cheering on Team GB and whatever other countries make up our cities cultural heritage. My initial Olympic Cynicism has completed disappeared in the face of the passion and accomplishment that the games celebrate. And regarding the criticisms about the costs/corporations involved in the games, a comment made on twitter by an excellent poet I met at university sums up how I feel: 

I think human joy and human achievement is always worth investing in. # andthatsthat

- Hattie Grunewald, Twitter 04/08/2012