My Olympics Review!

Most Impressive Performance - Jessica Ennis, after years of build up she delivered Gold emphatically, unfazed by the immense pressure of a home Olympics and media scrutiny. Also a mention to Andy Murray who played the best tennis of his life to win Gold, even sung the national anthem too!


Best Match - Women's Hockey - GB 5-3 South Korea - GB took a 3-1 lead into half-time but the Koreans pulled it back to 3-3 with 12 minutes to play. But in front of a packed crowd complete with England football Band, Georgie Twigg and Chloe Rogers gave GB the win in an epic match. Great to hear Barry Davies' commentary during the tournament too.


Brightest New Star - Laura Trott, The 20 year old took home 
two Gold medals, surprising herself in the process while seamlessly taking over the 'Queen of British Cycling' mantle from Victoria Pendleton.



Best Celebration -  Kate Copeland's exclaim of  "We've won the Olympics!" (2:45) was probably my highlight of the entire Olympics, that one moment of delight summed up feeling of victory.

Fitting Farewell - It was the final Olympics for Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Ben Ainslie and Katherine Grainger and they have been fantastic representatives for their country over the years.

Saddest Moment - Liu Xiang, after heartbreak on home soil in Beijing it was even harder to watch the Chinese superstar crash out with injury again, although it was great to hear that fellow athletes helped him over the line afterwards.

Special Mention - Luol Deng, Britain's highest paid sportsman faced immense pressure to skip the Olympics from employers the Chicago Bulls, after their star player Derrick Rose suffered injury at the end of last season. But after the UK gave him and his family asylum from a war-torn Sudan, Deng promised to play at the Olympics for a country that helped him so much.

Star of the Show - Mo Farah no doubt, witnessing him take his second Gold with 45,000 other people at Hyde Park was something I'll never forget. One of the most humble and genuine sports persons around and London 2012's hero.

Worst Part - The handling of tickets wasn't great, some of the extortionate prices exploited people's desire to witness a once in a lifetime event. Also giving away so many tickets to cooperate sponsors (some of whom didn't even bother turning up) seemed unfair on the British public who bore the majority of the cost for the games. Also a mention for the closing ceremony which was poorly received all round for it's cheap and uninspiring musical performances.

Best Interview- Another particular influential aspect of the games was the humility and joy of the British athletes who won medals, a sporting event devoid of arrogance or fame seeking was refreshing to witness. Samantha Murray who won a Silver medal in the Pentathlon used her post-event interview to inspire people ordinary people to achieve anything they want.

British Public - This may sound clichéd (I don't care!), but generally the public have been incredible and I can't remember a time when people were just generally so happy and united.  Seeing people still draped in Union Jack flags on a train station outside Wycombe at 1:30am on Saturday was memorable. The noise of the crowd at all the venues to was quite something too, even just through the TV.

Games Makers - 10,000 people gave up two weeks of their life to volunteer to help at the games, hats off to them!

Iconic Image - Had to get this in somehow!

BBC Coverage - Absolutely brilliant all round, pundits and presenters were informative and asked the right questions, the detailed coverage of every sport was exceptional and there were some great moments too (John Inverdale's tears and the Athletics' team jubilation). Gabby Logan made Olympics Tonight a must watch each day. Another reason why the license fee is justified, we are very lucky to live in a country with 24 simultaneous live streams with no adverts.
Only minor criticism was Clare Balding's feminist musings which had no place or value.

Critics - Proved completely wrong, yes the Olympics were expensive but money isn't everything and London  2012 managed to capture the imagination of a whole nation and the doubters were forced to eat their words.

Song - Bit of a pointless category I know but Elbow's Olympic Theme for the BBC deserves a mention, couldn't have written a more triumphant and powerful song to represent the games. Nice touch of the band to give all proceeds from sales to charity too.
Also Chariots of Fire and Gold by Spandau Ballet!

And it seems fitting to end with this brilliant video from Team GB. To quote Lord Coe " When our time came, we did it right. Britain, thank you".