It was a bitter start. Heck, it was bitter before it even started. There was ridicule what with the utterly random logo. There was anger. Rage. Apathy. Every single emotion possible from every Londoner and beyond, on the subject of the London 2012 Olympics.
I myself have to put myself in the bitter and apathy camps. If they had an overlap somewhere in the middle. It was mostly due to the whole ticketing debacle. Further attempts gave me no tickets and then the rules changed! I stamped my feet, crossed my arms and vowed to not be bothered about the London 2012 Olympics.
As time grew nearer, I stuck to my guns. Spurred on by the apparent chaos the event was going to cause London and surrounding areas. Then there was the official song by Muse! Oh what a fricking awful song from a band who I dearly love. This person here was not a happy bunny.
But something funny happened while watching the opening ceremony. The cynicism began to fade. Don’t worry, it was still there. Just faded. Replaced by a hope that perhaps this won’t be so bad. That perhaps I might actually enjoy watching some of the sports.
Somehow, I managed to miss these fireworks. It was those hours battling to stay awake as my knowledge of world geography was tested.
Guess what? I did. It took, ohhh, a day maybe to get into the swing of the Olympics. Soon the TV was on with some random sport on it whatever time of day. Anything from archery to gymnastics via swimming and judo.
I don’t remember actively rooting for Team GB. That was where my cynicism remained rooted. I never for once thought that just because it’s a home games will there be any more medals. Well, I was wrong. Turns out home games matters a heck of a lot. But still. I rooted for all sorts of random. Often the under dogs. Or just rooted for all participants. I admit, there was a big part of me that did get very proud of Team GB as they climbed their way up the medals table.
All of the medal winners in Team GB.
Yes, I did root for Usain Bolt. It’s hard not to. Yes, he might come off as a bit arrogant. But you can’t say he’s not a great athlete. He’s also made the 100m sprint fun again. He’s brought a lot of fun back into athletics. It’s no longer an overly serious affair. I even remembered to root for my favourite pole vaulter – Yelena Isinbayeva!
I planted myself on the sofa for the closing ceremony. Expecting something along the standards of the opening. Sadly, I was disappointed. The mish-mash of artists, songs and bands just did nothing for me. It got boring. However, sniping about it on Twitter helped alleviate the boredom! It was amusing to see how many other people had the same thoughts!
Photo from here
My highlight from the closing ceremony? The little snippet of Rio. In my mind, while watching the performance, I was wondering if I should start planning a 2 week trip to Rio for the next Olympic games. Oh and Boris Johnson, Ed Miliband and David Cameron all doing their best dad dancing.
Boris Johnson, Ed Miliband and David Cameron all doing their very best dad dancing to the Spice Girls.
Now it’s all over and London’s back to normal. The Olympic lanes on the road to work this morning were mysteriously (Not to mention quickly.) rubbed out. Yes, I regret not getting tickets. But I’m one of the millions that tried and wasn’t lucky enough I guess. Or just didn’t try hard enough. That’ll be that obstinate cynicism in me.
Glad you got into the spirit. I was watching the Olympics on TV non-stop for the first week. Then the second week I hardly watched it at all. The Track & Field shit just bores me to no end. After the cheesy/lame opening ceremony, I didn’t bother with the closing ceremony. How could it have been worse?!
Track and field is where it’s at for me. Well, usually. Got a bit bored this time. Though… dude who broke his leg while running and still carried on? LEGEND!
The closing ceremony was just a horrible mish-mash of British music. Most of wish I felt ashamed of. It looked like I was peering through the window of someone else’s party. Eric Idle said “shit” on live TV though. That was something.
I had a bit of an epic whinge about the closing ceremony on facebook. The closing ceremony was a let down compared to the opening (Eric Idle just about saved it). Overall I enjoyed the games and will probably watch the paralympics on channel 4. As for Rio, it’ll be interesting to see if they can pull off the World Cup (2014) and the Olympics in such a short time frame. If anything Rio knows how to party!
Rio does know how to party. I can imagine they’d just party off any mis-haps that might happen. Just because that’s how they roll!
Loved the fact that the NBC commentator needed to tell American audience that that wasn’t actually Batman and Robin ….
I’m so sad to have missed the closing ceremony b/c the spice girls got rave reviews! LOL. Glad you turned positive for the Olympics even if you didn’t get to go. I like the cool seat of my sofa anyways ;).
I admit, they were pretty good. Surprisingly good. Though I found it funny that they looked like 5 solo artists rather than a band.
Ya, I was rooting for Bolt, too. How can you not, right? I didn’t watch the full closing ceremony. I really wanted to watch Spice Girls, but ended up watching Fat Boy Slim (love him), Russell Brand, and Oasis (another love…can’t believe they actual sang together).
All in all, it was a great olympics. I think London did a great job hosting it. It’s always nice to be sucked into it.
Fat Boy Slim did well. He brought the energy up again. Though would have much preferred The Chemical Brothers to have appeared.
We had a great Olympics! Sad it’s all over. Except I am now thinking about getting tickets for the Paralympics.
As for the closing ceremonies, my vote goes to the octopus.
The octopus was very cool. Fatboy Slim did manage to bring the energy up again but why oh why were those One Direction people there?! I had gone this far not hearing them, not knowing what they look like and was quite content with that.
As the host nation, good to see UK did so well in the medal race! I think it may have been a case of British athletes inspiring other British athletes, at least what I heard Andy Murray say about positive vibes, and his run to the gold.
The Olympic song by Muse was not great. The new track “Winner” by Pet Shop Boys was decent, I thought.
Not heard the Pet Shop Boys one yet. May give it a listen.
It was great to see Team GB’s medals slowly build up. Well, once they got going, they did very well indeed! Think you’re right about the athletes inspiring each other.