Just how good will the Olympics be?

[mondatoo]

WOW, just WOW.

[claypole]

Just got in after what can only be described as the best sporting day of my life - ainec.  Feel very privileged to be there this evening - and very conscious many other blondes would want to be and I was one of the few who got lucky with tickets after much frenetic "refreshing" and late nights earlier in the week.  However, I know I am amongst friends here so I thought I'd share a few pieces of the evening.

Firstly - the volunteers, the police and the armed forces - just incredible and are playing a huge part in creating the most wonderful atmosphere....I'm not sure if they've been carefully selected, well trained or just an incredibly positive bunch of people.  They all greeted you with a smile, said goodnight when you left and answered any question like it was you helping them - just amazing.  Secondly - the organisation, if anyone dares suggest we can't organise an event of this scale again, they are plain mad.  The security clearance put BAA to shame - smooth, friendly and thorough; the food was pretty dam good, toilets immaculate and best of all a beer man or woman with a back pack on there whenever I needed one.

What can you say about the stadium and the fans that filled it?  Such a feel good factor from the minute I arrived, even after the somewhat poor start when we all thought Dai Greene had failed to make it through.  Spirits remained high and when Rutherford leaped out to 8.20m plus the whole stadium lifted - think many of us knew that first jump could win in what has been a poor season of long jumping.  At this point, I began to share my bets for the evening with the new friends I had made around me - which gave a little extra excitement altho it really didn't matter.  Jessica was immense, i thought the roof was going to come off when she took the lead in the final straight and also thought it couldn't get any better; I love Jess but I was wrong.  Greg held, gamble landed and gold number two (I did lose half a point ew on Tomlinson wtf

Enter Mo Farah - don't know how it looked on TV but I sensed he was pretty comfortable throughout the race; as cool, calm and collected as when he smashed the cube.  The noise in the stadium was deafening - and as he kicked on with 600m in to go the place went absolutely ballistic.  As you'll see from earlier in the thread (no aftertiming) was also the first leg of a double and with Shelly Ann and a treble with Usain - I put Trigg onto it early but doubt he listened.  Nice little bonus.

Then the highlight of the evening - as Mo did his lap of honour, the womens 100m was about to start - he has to take cover and dive in a funnel on the 3rd bend, I'm in row 5, two seats from the funnel - he's just stood there, very surreal.  He signed autographs, shook hands - then most impressively of all told us all to hush as the 100m was about to start - what a class act, totally selfless.  Got a few pics - I was shaking like a leaf but managed to get the words out "great race, congrats Mo" - he smiled and said thanks.  Never put a pic up here so don't know how but will dump on facebook.

Shelly Ann duly obliged in the 100m, didn't really care too much by this stage - however a nice little bonus. 

An impromptu rendition of "All you need is love" was very cool - due to the fact there was an appeal and Jess's medal ceremony was delayed, made the end to the evening very British before the final medal ceremony, a fitting end with Jess collecting her gold and the whole stadium erupting.

Like I say, very special day, some amazing memories and some inspirational performances - feel blessed to have been fortunate enough to be there...and hate to be sentimental but hope my old man was watching.

[Marky147]

 

Great post Shaun and I can only imagine how great a day it must have been m8. I only wish I hadn't been so apathetic about it all when the tickets were on sale. I'd have most likely been able to get top drawer tickets too which makes it even more annoying

I'm not an overly sentimental or emotional person on the whole. I got up this morning after a late one up in Stoke, was meant to go out on it again today and for some strange reason flicked the tube telly in the room on after I got out the shower.

Olympics was on so I thought I would watch a bit as it was early still. Over 10 hours later and I'm still sat in the garbage chair the Holiday Inn supplies in the rooms watching the smallest TV I have watched since I was about 10. Normally I would have flicked through the channels once, called a cab and been offski.....

I was locked on from the off and have to say I was shocked at myself getting choked up when they won each medal and again as they did their interviews. I'm pretty patriotic, but still I've never really gotten like that about many things other than Euro 96 when I was 15 and that was most likely enhanced by Cider

(Sober post too btw, the most toxic thing I've consumed today is Pepsi)

Surprised to see you getting the absolute world too [  ]

[tikay]

Tremendous report Shaun, thanks.

[kinboshi]

Just got in after what can only be described as the best sporting day of my life - ainec.  Feel very privileged to be there this evening - and very conscious many other blondes would want to be and I was one of the few who got lucky with tickets after much frenetic "refreshing" and late nights earlier in the week.  However, I know I am amongst friends here so I thought I'd share a few pieces of the evening.

Firstly - the volunteers, the police and the armed forces - just incredible and are playing a huge part in creating the most wonderful atmosphere....I'm not sure if they've been carefully selected, well trained or just an incredibly positive bunch of people.  They all greeted you with a smile, said goodnight when you left and answered any question like it was you helping them - just amazing.  Secondly - the organisation, if anyone dares suggest we can't organise an event of this scale again, they are plain mad.  The security clearance put BAA to shame - smooth, friendly and thorough; the food was pretty dam good, toilets immaculate and best of all a beer man or woman with a back pack on there whenever I needed one.

What can you say about the stadium and the fans that filled it?  Such a feel good factor from the minute I arrived, even after the somewhat poor start when we all thought Dai Greene had failed to make it through.  Spirits remained high and when Rutherford leaped out to 8.20m plus the whole stadium lifted - think many of us knew that first jump could win in what has been a poor season of long jumping.  At this point, I began to share my bets for the evening with the new friends I had made around me - which gave a little extra excitement altho it really didn't matter.  Jessica was immense, i thought the roof was going to come off when she took the lead in the final straight and also thought it couldn't get any better; I love Jess but I was wrong.  Greg held, gamble landed and gold number two (I did lose half a point ew on Tomlinson wtf

Enter Mo Farah - don't know how it looked on TV but I sensed he was pretty comfortable throughout the race; as cool, calm and collected as when he smashed the cube.  The noise in the stadium was deafening - and as he kicked on with 600m in to go the place went absolutely ballistic.  As you'll see from earlier in the thread (no aftertiming) was also the first leg of a double and with Shelly Ann and a treble with Usain - I put Trigg onto it early but doubt he listened.  Nice little bonus.

Then the highlight of the evening - as Mo did his lap of honour, the womens 100m was about to start - he has to take cover and dive in a funnel on the 3rd bend, I'm in row 5, two seats from the funnel - he's just stood there, very surreal.  He signed autographs, shook hands - then most impressively of all told us all to hush as the 100m was about to start - what a class act, totally selfless.  Got a few pics - I was shaking like a leaf but managed to get the words out "great race, congrats Mo" - he smiled and said thanks.  Never put a pic up here so don't know how but will dump on facebook.

Shelly Ann duly obliged in the 100m, didn't really care too much by this stage - however a nice little bonus. 

An impromptu rendition of "All you need is love" was very cool - due to the fact there was an appeal and Jess's medal ceremony was delayed, made the end to the evening very British before the final medal ceremony, a fitting end with Jess collecting her gold and the whole stadium erupting.

Like I say, very special day, some amazing memories and some inspirational performances - feel blessed to have been fortunate enough to be there...and hate to be sentimental but hope my old man was watching.

Great post.

Glad it was as special as it was. A few friends who managed to get tickets for that session said it was one of the best days of their lives. Atmosphere sounded incredible, and brilliant to see those three win gold.

Email me any photos and I'll post them up here.

[kinboshi]

Oh, and I want to buy some stamps!

[Jon MW]

Mens Team Foiil at the moment, I have no idea if we're contenders for the whole thing but we seem to be doing well at the moment against Egypt.

And it actually looks a lot more like proper sword fighting than the fencing I saw earlier (probably because both sides aren't as good)

The only thing that disappoints me is that the team fencing just involves a series of 1 on 1's whereas it would obviously be much better if they were just all fighting at the same time

[DaveShoelace]

Just got in after what can only be described as the best sporting day of my life - ainec.  Feel very privileged to be there this evening - and very conscious many other blondes would want to be and I was one of the few who got lucky with tickets after much frenetic "refreshing" and late nights earlier in the week.  However, I know I am amongst friends here so I thought I'd share a few pieces of the evening.

Firstly - the volunteers, the police and the armed forces - just incredible and are playing a huge part in creating the most wonderful atmosphere....I'm not sure if they've been carefully selected, well trained or just an incredibly positive bunch of people.  They all greeted you with a smile, said goodnight when you left and answered any question like it was you helping them - just amazing.  Secondly - the organisation, if anyone dares suggest we can't organise an event of this scale again, they are plain mad.  The security clearance put BAA to shame - smooth, friendly and thorough; the food was pretty dam good, toilets immaculate and best of all a beer man or woman with a back pack on there whenever I needed one.

What can you say about the stadium and the fans that filled it?  Such a feel good factor from the minute I arrived, even after the somewhat poor start when we all thought Dai Greene had failed to make it through.  Spirits remained high and when Rutherford leaped out to 8.20m plus the whole stadium lifted - think many of us knew that first jump could win in what has been a poor season of long jumping.  At this point, I began to share my bets for the evening with the new friends I had made around me - which gave a little extra excitement altho it really didn't matter.  Jessica was immense, i thought the roof was going to come off when she took the lead in the final straight and also thought it couldn't get any better; I love Jess but I was wrong.  Greg held, gamble landed and gold number two (I did lose half a point ew on Tomlinson wtf

Enter Mo Farah - don't know how it looked on TV but I sensed he was pretty comfortable throughout the race; as cool, calm and collected as when he smashed the cube.  The noise in the stadium was deafening - and as he kicked on with 600m in to go the place went absolutely ballistic.  As you'll see from earlier in the thread (no aftertiming) was also the first leg of a double and with Shelly Ann and a treble with Usain - I put Trigg onto it early but doubt he listened.  Nice little bonus.

Then the highlight of the evening - as Mo did his lap of honour, the womens 100m was about to start - he has to take cover and dive in a funnel on the 3rd bend, I'm in row 5, two seats from the funnel - he's just stood there, very surreal.  He signed autographs, shook hands - then most impressively of all told us all to hush as the 100m was about to start - what a class act, totally selfless.  Got a few pics - I was shaking like a leaf but managed to get the words out "great race, congrats Mo" - he smiled and said thanks.  Never put a pic up here so don't know how but will dump on facebook.

Shelly Ann duly obliged in the 100m, didn't really care too much by this stage - however a nice little bonus. 

An impromptu rendition of "All you need is love" was very cool - due to the fact there was an appeal and Jess's medal ceremony was delayed, made the end to the evening very British before the final medal ceremony, a fitting end with Jess collecting her gold and the whole stadium erupting.

Like I say, very special day, some amazing memories and some inspirational performances - feel blessed to have been fortunate enough to be there...and hate to be sentimental but hope my old man was watching.

You lucky sod.

I echo the sentiments about volunteers, squaddies, and the organisation. I also wish my Dad could have seen that yesterday, particularly Mo, he loved the long distance events.

Think I will explode if Murray gets the double today.

[Jon MW]

Mens Team Foiil at the moment, I have no idea if we're contenders for the whole thing but we seem to be doing well at the moment against Egypt.

And it actually looks a lot more like proper sword fighting than the fencing I saw earlier (probably because both sides aren't as good)

The only thing that disappoints me is that the team fencing just involves a series of 1 on 1's whereas it would obviously be much better if they were just all fighting at the same time

1/4 finals starts at 10:30 - but we're playing the no 1 seeds so this will probably answer the question about whether we're genuine contenders.

The commentator mentioned at one point that one way they bring kids into fencing is a game where they do just have one team versus another all at the same time - so obviously that needs to be extended up to the Olympic level

[technolog]

Just got in after what can only be described as the best sporting day of my life - ainec.  Feel very privileged to be there this evening - and very conscious many other blondes would want to be and I was one of the few who got lucky with tickets after much frenetic "refreshing" and late nights earlier in the week.  However, I know I am amongst friends here so I thought I'd share a few pieces of the evening.

You lucky, lucky man - congratulations!

[Tonji]

claypole, thanks for the wonderful report, what fantastic memories you will have of that historic day.

[TightEnd]

This is brilliant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19134764

[toddswain]

This is brilliant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19134764

Soo good !!

[gouty]

I had a great night last night working in the bookies. Had the games on the spare big screen after Hamilton was abandoned and all the punters cheered on Jess.

Anyway the last dog race w as 922 but I still got a dozen guys in there with 20 laps to go in the 10k. I sent one next door to the shop for 13 cold Red Stripe stubbies put the shutter down and we all sat in the shop with a beer and cheered Mo to a man. What a laugh!

Does anyone else have a little cry at some of these golds? Or am I just a big pussy? My wife just pisses herself when I do a little weep. Come on Team GB.

[Graham C]

I had a great night last night working in the bookies. Had the games on the spare big screen after Hamilton was abandoned and all the punters cheered on Jess.

Anyway the last dog race w as 922 but I still got a dozen guys in there with 20 laps to go in the 10k. I sent one next door to the shop for 13 cold Red Stripe stubbies put the shutter down and we all sat in the shop with a beer and cheered Mo to a man. What a laugh!

Does anyone else have a little cry at some of these golds? Or am I just a big pussy? My wife just pisses herself when I do a little weep. Come on Team GB.

Yes and same, plus my daughter ribs me for it too although to be be fair a seem to have a tear and lots of stuff.  It's my hormones since my girl was born!