So the Olympic Games in Rio has just started, with all the attendant controversy about athletic enhancement.  It takes me back to the Olympics in London four years ago.

 

The 2012 Olympics were amazing.  I am not a huge sports fan, but I will remember the Olympics until the day I die, and not just for the sport.  The main site for the Olympics was an ex-industrial site in Stratford, London E15 (thinking back now, I struggle to think what it was like pre-Olympics, although I have a photograph somewhere, and I’ve lived over that way for a long time).

The opening ceremony was directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting fame, to name only one).  Most of us Londoners were pretty impressed.

A highlight of the games was that Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia entered female athletes for the first time.   Female boxing was admitted as a sport for the first time, which meant that every sport had female competitors.  Yay for London 2012.

Transport for London built the cable car across the Thames between Greenwich Peninsula and Royal Docks (which was a very under-developed area before the games) to make travel between venues easier.  It is called the Emirates Air Line, because of the sponsorship.

Something that made the games stand out were the Games Makers.  They were a team of (in the region of) 70,000 volunteers who helped everyone (visitors, athletes, etc) to make their way aroud the venues.  They were amazing the whole way through, with some of them even handing out sweets to visitors.  I know we should never accept sweets from strangers, but when it’s a chocolate…. Lol.

The Olympics was followed by the Paralympics, which was renowned as a success for the athletes involved, and the number of countries who put forward paralymians.  And the number of medals Britain won.  (Sorry if that’s not very sporting but it was good for us Brits.)

 

I was fortunate enough to attend the winners’ parade.  It was amazing.  All these people who had worked so hard to get themselves to their peak of fitness and bring home the goods.  Oh yes, the 2012 Olympics were good.  Here’s hoping that Rio is just as good.

© Susan Shirley 2016