The last day of the Rio Olympics and what a two weeks it has been. It started off quietly for team GB, like it did four years ago and we had to wait for the fifth day till the medals started pouring in and since then it has been non stop. We surpassed the tally of medals we achieved then and we are still just on the final day with more games to go.
When the BBC personality of the year is announced at the end of this year, I wonder who will win it. There are so many contenders.
Murray with his second Wimbledon win followed by his second gold medal and the first person to have ever achieved such a feat. However there were many such firsts. Nicola Adams who successfully retained her flyweight boxing gold and declared herself correctly as the most accomplished British amateur boxer ever. Charlotte Dujardin and Jade Jones who both successfully defended their gold medals in dressage and taekewando respectively. The golden couple Jason Kenny and Laura Trott who both added more gold medals to their collection so that Kenny equalled Chris Hoy’s tally of six gold medals ( who up till then had the most gold medals a British Olympian had achieved) and Laura Trott has 4 gold medals to her name and is the first British woman to achieve this. Then we have Katherine Grainger who has won a medal in each of the 5 Olympics she has competed in winning 4 silver and 1 gold medals. The list goes on -Laugher and Mears winning the first ever diving gold in the springboard synchronised event, Nick Skelton at 58, the oldest medalist at Rio won gold in showjumping, Sir Bradley Wiggins becoming the most decorated British Olympian after winning his eighth medal, Mo Farah’s double double winning back to back 5000 and 10,000m races making him the most decorated British athlete, Adam Peaty winning gold and beating his own world record in the the swimming breaststroke event, Max Whitlock winning two gold and a bronze in gymnastics, Amy Tinkler, the 16 year old who won a bronze for the gymnastics women’s floor event and the list goes on. Then we still have all the team events. Of note the women’s hockey team who beat the world champions ( Netherlands) against all odds, the cycling, rowing, sailing, dressage and relay teams in both athletics and swimming etc etc.
I have only mentioned British names, but there are more inspiring stories that I have read in the past two weeks.
It was also with such joy that I watched India’s Sindhu win her silver medal for badminton. Hopefully this will inspire a generation of youngsters in India who now know that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.
In this day and age when all we hear and read about in the news is about atrocities committed by people against each other in the name of religion it is heartwarming to see nations coming together to celebrate such joyful occasions. We will have to wait for another four years to watch the greatest show on earth again.
