British can be grumpy moaners. All is for a good reason. In the country, where by statistics sunny days are only 17% of the total per annum, the lack of sunshine can get a koala moaning, not that koalas are very cheerful by nature anyway.
But it appeared that Olympics have completely overridden the mood of the nation, bringing in the positive vibes and Olympic T-shirts, flags, accessories and facepainting colouring the typically grey crowd and bringing smiles on the faces of random passer-byers.
One of the discoveries for me was the volunteering concept of these Games. 70,000 volunteers performed their duties with smile on the faces and made these games what they are. For free! And that did not only included the attendance during the Games snapping the chance to see the greatest athletes, but also hours of training when every no-show at work was a drawdown on the annual leave account.
Olympic torch is going through Kew
Olympic torch is going through Kew
Olympic torch is going through Kew
204 countries took part in twenty-six sports scheduled in 303 Olympic events. Despite the rather complex ticketing on-line system 7.4 million people visited Olympic venues, of which 2.5 million went to the Olympic park resulting in that every one of 10,500 Olympic athletes was cheered by about 705 people on average. Impressive!
The history was being made while the millions were watching. Usain Bolt declared himself greatest athlete of all time after defending the three sprint golds he won in Beijing four years ago. Michael Phelps headed for retirement with a record 18 golds and 22 Olympic medals in total after these Games.
Women marathon
Men marathon
The youngest medalist was 15 year old mexican Alejandra Orozco Loza who won silver in diving, whilst the oldest was Mark Todd from New Zeaand who at age of 56 years old won bronze medal in equestrian.
21 world records some of which proved that men can (PAY ATTENTION NOW) pedal 750m in 42.6sec, lift combined weight of 418kg; run 800m in 1m 40.91sec and swim 1,500m in 14m 31.02sec; and women can pedal 500m in 32.422sec, lift 333kg combined weight, run 4 x100m in 40.82sec and race walk 20km in 1hr 25min and 2sec.
Lovely British weather at beach volleyball semi-finals
Beach volleyball semi-finals
Tallest athlete was Zhaoxu Zhang from China, 2.19m (7ft 2in) and weight 110kg (17st 5lbs), who was competing in basketball. The heaviest athlete was Carl Myerscough from team GB competing in men's discus throw, and the shortest and lightest athlete was Azuka Teramoto 1.36m (4ft 6in) and 30kg (4st 10lbs) from Japan who was competing in artistic gymnastics.
The last time I was so physically close to the Olympic Games was in summer 1980 when Russia hosted the Olympic Games in Moscow. I should probably mention that it actually happened when my mum was about eight month pregnant with me. So I didn't really get a chance to see much, if anything at all.
These Games became the first when females athletes from Saudi Arabia had a chance to compete. They were cheered by the crowds who gathered to watch the events in front of the giant screens around London and at homes.
Whilst China and USA dominated in the majority of the events, Russia followed Great Britain and took the fully-respected 4th place in the medal table with total of 82 medals of which 24 were gold.
The Olympic factor created a legacy of athletes and fans getting engaged during the Games, with at least 25 people proposing inside the Olympic park, of which one was team GB gold medal rower Pete Reed who proposed to his German girlfriend Frauke Oltmanns. Tom Holt asked Elfi Czinegeova to marry him in front of 15,000 crowd at the beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade.
Different, amazing, breathtaking ... We really enjoyed being a part of this global event and will keep the tickets and souvenirs as a memory for ourselves and our little son who cheered Mo Farah running for his second gold chanting Go-go-go!
