Not sure about the Latin grammar, but there you go. I have scribed some mumbling carping about LOCOG and the “Olympic Family” and the general bloated and often corrupt corporate culture that goes with it before, and I remain of that view. On the other hand, I have no problem with athletic excellence and courage and pure souls competing. Of course I have been in large measure seduced by the Games. That was inevitable, and quite proper.

On the whole, I feel Britain has done a very creditable job in hosting the Games. We do have a skill in providing organization and a bit of spectacle. And there have been some moments of competition which did by varying degrees raise the hair on the back of my neck or even force a tear. They are not necessarily the moments of greatest success and glory. Bolt in the 100 and 200 meters finals for example was extraordinary but did not move me as such.

This is my list of personal “wow” moments when I felt that chill of awe and excitement, and which will stay with me for a long time. And some boo moments to go with them.

Boo!

• Dancing NHS nurses and an opening ceremony that featured children being traumatized by goblins. Shami Chakrabarti carrying the Olympic flag. Oh, please! Why not Abu Qatada while you are at it, Danny?
• Empty seats, thanks to the “Olympic Family”, who can’t be bothered to turn up and watch

Wow!

• Cycling. In the team road race, the riders in glittering colours snaking through the Surrey hills and Richmond Park viewed from a helicopter. Massed crowds cheered them on, and England was resplendent at its most beautiful.
• More road cycling. Bradley Wiggins was awesome, but I was more moved by a pretty slip of a girl Lizzie Armitstead giving it her all up to the finish line in the pouring rain and getting silver on the women’s road race.
• Adlington winning bronze with sheer guts in a time which was faster than her gold four years ago.

Boo!

• Tom Daley being abused by a troll on Twitter.

Wow!

• Watching Michael Phelps win a gold and become the most successful Olympian of all time

Boo!

• In the Badminton, four pairs trying to lose in order to get a better draw in the next round.

Wow!

• Rowing. Well done all crews, especially the machine like men’s coxless fours for retaining gold in the Blue Riband, the ultimate prize. Superb.  But, for my personal “wow” factor ones that will stay with me; these. Gold for Grainger and Watkins imperiously winning in the women’s pair in imperious form (reducing your scribe to tears). Bronze for the men’s VIII, because I recall what it is like to be so nearly, nearly there and the ultimate pain they must have gone through. Winning washes away pain. For these guys, third is hell. And gold again in the women’s double sculls for Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking. Copeland is delightfully goofy, and her “Have We Won The Gold Then?” face full of shock, surprise and joy and innocence at the end of the race was brilliant, perhaps the defining picture of a British Games. Because the delightful Copeland is almost the exact opposite of the joyless professional drug cheat winner, except that she is a winner.
• And the Eton Dorney Roar! The noise as the crews came in front of the grandstands in about the last 500 meters was visceral, joyous, thunderous, wild, passionate, joyful fitting companion to the excellence of the crews. It was the people who were making the Games. Time and time again it is the sheer volume and quality of noise from the crowd that has left me in awe and moved, because you can’t fake it.

Boo!

• Yet More rowing. The men’s lightweight four miss out on gold by about 0.2 of a second when the lane should have been re-allocated.

Wow!

• “Super Thursday” It all really started to crank up for Britain on “Super Thursday”. I came out of work and turned on the radio to hear commentary on some boxing, as a British heavyweight overcame the Mongolian favourite. The hugely knowledgeable boxing journalist Steve Bunce almost totally “lost it” with delight and praise, and took me with him. And once again the noise, a terrific, guttural, physical wall of noise as the crowd went crazy, crazy, crazy!
• And suddenly it ALL went crazy. In short succession as I drone home a Brit bagged a gold in the shotgun, and Britain was in the lead in the C2 slalom, and the last run down was another British boat. Britain won silver and gold, and once again the crowd were going absolutely mental with excitement, carrying me with them. In the car I yelled and punched the air!
• This continued in the evening with a crescendo as there was an incredible climax to the men’s gymnastics winning bronze in an extraordinary contest with the last routine of the day. I thought my radio was going to explode.
• It went on and on. Now Hoy & Co were going like an express train in the Velodrome and winning gold in a total blitz. More utter hysteria. Is this crowd really British? Where are these super human, passionate, almost demonic supporters come from? Not from staid, dull old Britain surely!

Boo!

• The delightful “Queen” Victoria Pendleton and partner get disqualified, for some alleged infringement. I suspect sabotage, and the French. But the next day she goes like a train and wins gold!   Then an Australian, a very bad person in my book, leans on her and gets her win cancelled because of some minor infringement. I sense a conspiracy.

Wow!

• “Queen Vic” retires and breaks down in tears. Your scribe joins in. Again. *Sigh*
• Super Thursday morphed into Super Saturday. After a quiet day for Team GB, three gold medals in a 40 minute blitz. And perhaps the stand out moment of the Games. Jessica Ennis, a tiny, bonny straight talking girl next door from Sheffield somehow leads in the heptathlon – a true Olympic event. Realistically she only needs to run a safe race in the 800 meters to win. Just jog round, and make sure she has no injuries. So she goes out like a rocket, storming ahead. She is young, she is leading the field in the Olympic Games in her home country, 80,000 people rise to salute her and a wall of flash lights from cameras and roars from the crowd threatens to engulf her. What would that experience be like? The field catch her but she fights back to win. I am in awe.

Boo!

• “Olympic tennis” and Grumpy Andy gets the gold. As you have probably guessed, I am not a fan of either. Come on Federer!

Wow!

• Yet more cycling, almost too much to say. The delightfully sweet girl next door, a slender reed with an engine like a nuclear power plant called Laura Trott wins my heart and the small matter of two golds, at age 20. She giggles through interviews and brightens my day. She has a will like  steel and a smile like sunshine.
• And of course, Sir Chris Hoy again. Seemingly making a tactical error in the men’s Keirin, but with half a lap to go in an act of supreme power and sheer will he pulls through to win. Can we knight you twice? On Twitter someone calls its spot on with a very short and sweet tweet: “Hoy. Boom.” Quite.

Boo!

• Whoever defaced the post box painted gold in honour of Jessica Ennis. Welcome to Sheffield.

Wow!

• Dancing Horses! An odd one this, a bit left field. But somehow very memorable. The elite, remote sport of dressage becomes from nowhere something like a national obsession for a day. I missed it mostly, but it was amazing to watch my Twitter time line fill up with more and more dramatic and startled observations about “The Dancing Horses”. Because the beautiful horses and the rather sexy toffs who ride them are doing what sport at its best always does, becoming a thing of beauty which you may not understand, but is nevertheless compelling. One tweet from a cynical serial “ranter” read: “I have just spent 2 hours entranced by dancing horses ridden by posh nobs. I am overwhelmed!  What is happening to me?” What indeed! But when I finally get to see the gold winning routine by Charlotte Dujardin riding the quite gorgeous Valegro, you can see why. Especially with its cunning use of “British” music like Land of Hope and Glory. Pity she didn’t get the “Dambusters” theme in, but there we go. Can’t have everything.
• David Rudisha winning the 800 meters final in a world record time. Watching Rudisha run is and extraordinary experience. He is not a machine like Bolt, but a thing of great beauty. It may seem strange to describe the way a man runs as a thing of beauty, but it is. It is flowing, smooth, balletic, seemingly effortless, powerful and totally graceful. He radiates quiet joy as he runs. He is the most beautiful athlete I have ever seen.
• And finally, women’s boxing. In back to back fights Britain’s Nicola Adams and Ireland’s Katie Taylor win golds in hugely accomplished and professional performances, as the Anglo Irish crowd fuelled by adrenalin, nationalism and Guinness and pundit Steve Bunce (him again) goes absolutely delirious and threatens to lift the roof. Then a tiny girl from Wales goes and wins gold in the Taekwondo. Delirium.

And that really was that. It’s party time now for the athletes, and they can get to work using up the 100,000 condoms which LOCOG have thoughtfully supplied. As is well known the Olympic Games always degenerates into a gigantic and seedy shag fest. So, we can all put away our “feel good factor” for a while. Back to work, oh units of economic production! The Games are over. Now, satisfied, we must pay our Lords and Masters their taxes! You didn’t expect the cynicism button to be turned off completely, did you?

Gildas the Monk     

Peter MacFarlane
August 13, 2012 at 11:35

There’s something wrong about two girls bashing seven bells out of each
others. Nothing to do with whether they’re decorative or not, it just feels
wrong.

Why so hard on Andy Murray? He finally managed to beat the supercilious RF
machine, good for him.

And why no mention of Laura Trott? I must be one of millions of guys who
were disappointed to discover that she already has a boyfriend…

Enjoyed every minute of it btw!

JuliaM August 12,
2012 at 19:12

Excellent post, Gildas!

And yes, the defining moment for me (apart from Her Maj skydiving into the
Stadium with 007, of course) was the women’s rowing, and that ‘Oh, where’s
everyone else..? We’re in front? WE’VE WON!!!’

Mark in Mayenne
August 14, 2012 at 19:41

Yes to this. What a pair!!

Saul August 14, 2012 at 22:23

I don’t recall Jordan competing.

Singlane Acts of
Tyranny August 12, 2012 at 19:10

Free to do what you want of course, but women’s boxing? Ugh.

Worse than watching lesbian tennis.

Ancient + Tattered
Airman August 12, 2012 at 20:54

Agreed. A most unfeminine pastime and a perfectly un-necessary event that
panders to the lowbrows.

Mudplugger
August 12, 2012 at 22:39

The IOC missed an opportunity when they came under pressure to ‘correct’
the fact that boxing was the only olympic sport in which women were not
allowed to compete.

Rather than jerking the knee to the feminists, they should have seized
the chance and removed all boxing from the Olympics on the grounds that a
contest based on two people trying to bludgeon each other senseless can no
longer be considered acceptable. If the ‘legacy’ from 2012 is that millions
of kids, now including girls, start thinking it’s OK to beat the living shit
out of each other, that’s hardly something of which one could ever be
proud.

That is not to decry any ‘athletic skills’ of current boxers but rather
to suggest that their efforts would be better applied to activities which
did not feature raw and inhuman brutality as their key attribute.

Robert the
Biker August 13, 2012 at 07:42

Trying to formulate the rules of Lesbian tennis here *Boggle*

gladiolys August 13, 2012 at 08:12

Yes. Because women are purely decorative, aren’t they?

Single Acts of
Tyranny August 13, 2012 at 11:04

Not at all, but funded sports suggest an audience. Thus make the
product attractive. Sharapova or Navratilova? I know which was more
successful and which I’d rather watch.

gladiolys
August 13, 2012 at 11:40

The most skilful, athletic, determined and graceful, I’m
guessing.

Single Acts of
Tyranny August 13, 2012 at
17:48

mmm…. possibly not.

Perhaps the more aesthetically charming and female looking.

Thor2Hammer
August 13, 2012 at 19:51

I’m waiting for true equality – Let men do Synchronised Swimming &
‘Rhythmic Gymnastics’ if they want to.

gladiolys
August 13, 2012 at 23:16

I agree.

Simon Cooke August
12, 2012 at 15:19

I was at a little launch party recently where a young girl, having rowed
with her mum, was sat on a chair performing a monumental sulk.

The best thing about these Olympics is seeing those proclaiming “it’ll be a
disaster”, “everything will go wrong”, “we won’t win anything” and “all a
waste of money” look more and lore like that girl. in the midst of a national
fun fest they stand there, arms folded, faces like thunder mutting about any
little scrap of problem, every last vetige of grump mined to maintain their
vast po-faced performance.

I’ve loved much of the event (although I really don’t get the hype over one
lad in the diving) – watching Dibaba run away from the best ever women’s 10K
field, yelling my head off at Mo Farah – twice – as he ran the last lap of a
distance race faster than you and I could ever have managed from a fresh
start.

But watching two Bradford Grammar School boys get gold and bronze in the
triathlon – lads my son studied with – that was special.

Corsair August 12, 2012 at 14:41

Rūta Meilutytė blubbing through her own gold medal ceremony. I hope she
wins many more
And I agree that the expression on Katherine Copeland’s face was priceless.
Katie Taylor’s too, though I was struck by the flash of friendship and
congratulation on the face of Sofya Ochigava as well. I liked seeing Zara
Phillips getting a medeal from her mother, too

lanky August 12, 2012 at 14:02

you’ve forgotten all about the Paralympics which starts at the end of the
month!! (but demoted to Channel4)

so has the BBC it seems as they have promoted vigorously the ‘memorabilia
website’ that is selling off olympic treasures …………..

let’s see if David Cameron attends everyday as he has done the ‘proper
version’

macheath August
12, 2012 at 11:53

Well rambled, Gildas!

I agree that even the staunchest Olympic deniers must have found some good
in there somewhere; my favourite spectacle was Denise Lewis jumping up and
down in her decidedly unsuitable wedge sandals – closely followed by Colin
Jackson’s excited shout of “Here comes what’s-his-name!” during the
100m – and John Inverdale’s dry remark afterwards; “That’s why we don’t
have you commentating on the race”.

I’m not sure I agree about the dressage, mesmerising though it is; if you
want to see such things, you can watch them at horsey events around the
country – or, if you’re really keen, the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, but
I don’t think dressage – or any other equestrian sport – belongs in the
‘faster, higher, stronger’ Olympics. Eventers and top dressage horses are a
bit like supercars – and cost about the same; the rider gets the credit, but
the horse is the key.

(And at the other end of the spectrum, I can’t see the point of Olympic BMX
either; it’s something kids do in urban parks.)

Woman on a
Raft August 13, 2012 at 09:12

That Valegro, I hear he’s going solo. His manager says the girl is
holding him back.

Engineer August 12, 2012 at 11:27

Funniest moment – not actually heard during the Olympic coverage, but
whilst listening to Jonathan Agnew relating his Archery commentary experiences
at Lord’s on TMS. His tone of voice when describing entering the Long Room in
the famous old pavilion and finding, of all things, a Coke vending machine was
absolutely priceless. It conjoured a vision of Bateman cartoon, with the
portraits of Sir Len Hutton, Sir Don Bradman and all staring down with
eye-popping shock, horror and contempt at this uncouth interloper.

A Coke vending machine? In the Long Room? Civilisation has ended…

gladiolys August 12, 2012 at 10:50

Re: The Sheffield postbox of Jessica Ennis. Hardly defaced: the graffiti
read “Go Jess”. I’d call that unbridled (if somewhat poorly placed)
enthusiasm. The Royal Mail over-reacted by calling it vandalism/defacement –
or have we reached the stage where only the state can celebrate its
individuals achievements and the state dictates how? All it need to do was
paint the thing out.

Thor2Hammer
August 13, 2012 at 19:45

Post box vandalism? Just to keep a sense of balance –
\\A man has been
arrested after painting a Hampshire Royal Mail post box gold in honour of
Olympic sailor Ben Ainslie. Rob Smith, 51, said he painted the post box in
Lymington, where the gold medallist lives, in the early hours.\\
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-19227277

gladiolys
August 13, 2012 at 23:16

Agreed. Pathetic over-reaction. Looks like he used bronze paint instead
of gold, though.

ivan August 12, 2012 at 10:16

Sorry for the cold water but next week starts the decay of some over priced
buildings just like the millennium dome.

The only place I can think of that actually did anything with the remains
of the olympics was Barcelona – at least thy actually improved their
infrastructure.

Lilith August 12, 2012 at 10:06

The sailing was totally nail biting too.

Lilith August 12, 2012 at 10:04

I concur Gildas. I found myself watching the Adams match and thinking “This
is fantastically exciting; but I hate boxing!?” and being utterly thrilled by
her win. I did wonder, when I saw the dancing horses, why there isn’t sheep
dog trialling but then my imagination took off and I visualised chinese
training camps and rejected collies and thought better of it. You haven’t
mentioned the Circus Skills either, which were mesmerising and more balletic
than I recall from my youth.