Olympic Oblivion to Olympics Obsession

I have never been a fan of watching sport and I’ve never been a particularly sporty person either.

Other than the odd World Cup football match featuring England and little bit of Formula One Grand Prix every few years, the only sport I’ve ever watched on tv, is horse racing. I’m actually quite into horse racing and bet on the Scoop6 most Saturdays. This began when I got a job a few years back as a bar and waiting supervisor at Hereford, Worcester, Chepstow, Cheltenham and Bath racecourses. It’s pretty hard to work at racecourses every day without developing an interest in it.

The best part of horse racing is the atmosphere; the roar of the crowd, the thundering of hooves and the vibration of the ground beneath you. When the crowd start screaming names of different horses and jumping up and down, I get goosebumps. It’s electric. And the feeling of a win is even better of you have a few pounds on it.

So with my limited sporting interest, it was no great surprise that I had no interest in the Olympics. In fact I think I even mentioned of Facebook that I was fed up of hearing about it, before it had even started.

But then hubby switched on the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony.

I don’t know what I’d been expecting, probably just a singer or two. A concert similar to that of the Queens Jubilee perhaps? I was not expecting a grand show, let alone one to the immense scale that the opening ceremony was. Despite having to quiz hubby on parts of British history that I never studied at school, I was utterly captivated.

I found parts of it very dark and depressing, especially the industrial revolution.

Having a lot of experience of hospitals myself, particularly as a child, I found the scenes featuring Great Ormand Street Hospital and the NHS quite emotional. Both dark and uplifting with I feel reflects the tragedy of people who don’t get better from their illnesses, and the relief of the people who do.

I loved the energy of the Dizzee Rascal scenes and the beauty of the Emile Sande part. I especially loved this, knowing that a friend of mine, who taught the University of Gloucestershire street dance team, was one of the dancers. He is actually the most amazing dancer I’ve ever known (oh to be that flexible!).

By the end of the Opening Ceremony, I was not only awestruck, but feeling proud to be British. I’m not the sort of person that would stand and sing the national anthem, but despite the cold weather, I do love this country. Even so, the “Proud to be British” feeling was quite new to me. Not only this, but I was now feeling curious and open minded about The London Olympics.

I groaned the next morning when, as suspected, hubby switched the Olympics straight on as soon as we got up. But then I started watching it. I was utterly gripped.

From that day to this, we have had the Olympics on the television from 10am-10pm every day and me and the girls have sat in front of it, most of the day. I feel quite priveleged that I saw Britains first four gold medals, as they happened.

I have become utterly obsessed with the Rowing. That has been my absolute favourite… And how fantastically did Team GB do?!

I have loved watching the gymnastics. In particular, Kristian Thomas and Dan Purvis who are simply spectacular gymnasts.

I’ve also watched shooting, athletics, beach volleyball, sailing and a smattering of other sports I’ve never watched before. Including a very keen eye on the swimming and cycling.

Second only to the Rowing, I’ve been the most gripped on the Triathlon, which I have watched every second of. Alistair Brownlee WALKING across the finish line in gold medal position is just phenomenal. Britains first gold medal in an Olympic triathlon no less; and to have his brother Jonathan Brownlee win the bronze medal just behind him (AFTER a 15 second time penalty)… I just can’t imagine the emotion those guys must be feeling right now.

I have gone from being totally oblivious about the London 2012 Olympics, to being completely obsessed with it!

So much so, that hubby, Bunny, the twins and I, are heading to London on Friday in the hope of getting into Hyde Park to watch the Swimming Marathon… Watch this space!

🙂 xxx