The word sport, in my book (it’s a dictionary) is considered a swear word. I am the fastest runner in the opposite direction to the gym, and a gold medallist in being first to the pub after work, but any actual organised sport makes me shudder. I don’t like anything that I have to do in a team, because I don’t want to disappoint the rest of the crew by dropping the bat or not hitting the ball, and when forced to take part in tennis on the Kinect in the office during the Olympics, even the automated commentary speculated on how bad ‘player 2’ was. That’s me folks!
So I wasn’t excited about the Olympics. I adopted a traditional British approach. Whinging about the sheer amount of tourists that would descend on the capital and hamper my journey to work , and bemoaning that food prices had soared to capitalise on hungry foreigners.
When a tourist coughs on the Tube and doesn’t put their hand over their mouth
But then I watched the Olympic ceremony with my American cousins, and a patriotic sports fan emerged like a butterfly from a chrysalis, having transformed from that grumpy caterpillar. I did find it a little odd (Beijing had thousands of drummers, we had sheep, some beds that lit up and at one point, E.T) but how awesome was it?! I felt proud to be eccentrically British, despite the rain and the cold, and embrace my tea drinking, jolly good fellow heritage. Although I know none of you ‘got’ Dizzee Rascal, but that’s OK.
And now? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a clue about the rules of any of these sports that I’m watching, but I kept one eye on the Equestrian events while at work yesterday, and my heart was in my mouth as I watched the men’s synchronised diving, and slightly teary as they scored a fourth.
- When Mitt Romney starts bitching about London.
I clapped and cheered when we got our first gold today, and thought how fantastic Hampton Court looked as we grabbed our second. Now I’m sitting watching the men’s gymnastics, and I gather the point of this one is to stay on the horse as long as possible, do a handstand and then jump off without falling face first into the sand. And look at those arms!!
In the words of Boris Johnson,”The excitement is growing so much I think the Geiger counter of Olympo-mania is going to go ‘zoink’ off the scale.”
Who’d have thought, I’m a sports fan after all!?
What’s your favourite Olympic sport?
