Highlights/lowlights/memorable moments of London 2012: How was it for you?

[AragornElessar]

So many of my highlights have been mentioned, so that and the fact I'm still in a daze today that it's all over has my brain a bit blah today. But I will add my newest highlight that I saw on today's Toronto 6pm Newscast...

They were at Pearson covering the homecoming of the Athletes (Poor Dianna Matheson, who scored the Bronze Medal Winning Goal for our Soccer Team, she's so tiny it looked like she's been almost swallowed whole by the amount of the Media around her. ) and this little guy went up to Melissa Tancredi (kudos to her for getting down on her knees so she was able to look him straight in the eye) and in this little tiny voice asks her if her Bronze Medal's heavy.

She replies w/, "Well, if you really want to know...", reaches up, takes her Medal off and puts it around this little guy's neck. The look on that kid's face was priceless!!! Then she put her arm around him for a picture.

Now *that's* a Champion!!

[misskarne]

Got a few more:

Highlights:

- Zara Phillips in the eventing. Every time she appeared the crowd just went off.

- We saw some Taekwondo once!

- All the Mexicans who looked so happy when they won in the diving. Excuse my ignorance but I swear I've never seen Mexicans do so well in the diving before, it was pretty awesome.

- The brilliant smiles of the two Americans who were second and third behind Sally Pearson. They were just so happy to have got medals! It was infectious!

- There was an American runner, I can't for the life of me remember her name, she was in the 800 or 400, and she wore a red flower in her hair. That was just all kinds of cool!

- Sailing. Just sailing. But the best bit was after the 470 class (?)/49er class - when New Zealand got the silver - and our guys pulled up alongside the Kiwis after the finish and then one of our guys crash-tackled one of the Kiwi guys into the water while the other two on the boats were doing donuts in their boats. Just brilliant. Sums up the relationship between Australia and New Zealand perfectly - we want to beat the crap out of each other but when we're not doing that, we're bros.

- The Men's HB final! OMG!

Lowlights:

- Vinikourov winning the men's road race.

- The British cycling whinging - apparently it was Australia's fault they didn't do so great in the road race, and then apparently Anna Meares is the most evil person on earth because she beat Victoria Pendleton...

- Some of the BMX crashes were

- Matthew Mitcham not qualifying for the 10m final and then they showed him crying!

- That poor German diver, Wolfram, getting injured like that - ouch

- Knowing that there were probably a gazillion more highlights/lowlights and I didn't get to see them because of Channel 9's terrible broadcasting

[SpeedySucks]

Does NBC have the rights for Rio and Sochi? It seems that they have had the rights for decades.

NBC has the rights to the Olympics through 2020, and they've had the rights to every Summer Games since 1988.

[Sit_spin]

Was there anything outside of US athletes that impressed you?

Sorry, that's about all I saw. NBC's coverage pretty much focuses on US athletes. I did like watching Mo Farah, so that was a highlight. Also, Chad le Clos' dad's celebration was cool.

Actually, I was rather proud of myself for mentioning non-gymnastics or swimming athletes (not many, but a couple), since I generally don't like watching track.

[duane]

- The brilliant smiles of the two Americans who were second and third behind Sally Pearson. They were just so happy to have got medals! It was infectious!

Thanks for adding this one!

[MarieM]

I must add the french handball team winning the gold medal, twice in a row. I was just in heaven

[Yazmeen]

Got a few more: The brilliant smiles of the two Americans who were second and third behind Sally Pearson. They were just so happy to have got medals! It was infectious!

Thanks for this- the fact that these two didn't get much attention (aside from one interviewer baiting them as much as possible about...who else...LoLo Jones) really bugs me. Dawn and Kellie were amazing. This is a big reason why LoLo is one of my lowlights. Yes, that NYTimes article was too harsh, but some of it was on the money, and if you're going to promote yourself like a Kardashian before and during the Games, you should be able to handle it when things don't go as well as you'd like in the actual race. Not to mention the asshat media who decided that breathlessly following LoLo was more important than two US medals in an amazing race and overlooking the Mexican American who brilliantly pulled off a medal in the men's 1500. A sad statement about our celebrity-obsessed media and society.

[Lara]

I thought Michael Tinsley who placed second in the 400m hurdles to Felix Sanchez and beat both Javier Culson and Angelo Taylor was similarly shafted. You know Taylor would have gotten more attention as a silver medalist, and the medal ceremony barely showed a glimpse of him if that. Sanchez sobbing was certainly touching, but I'd have been upset if I was his family. Plus he probably should have been considered for the 400m relay after his performance.

[sweetsparky]

Some hihgliths:

- Bolt x 1000, the competition and all charisma displayed

I had some guests at home and we went to dinner out the night of 100m final (heresy, I know ) so we are in the restaurant and suddenly people (mostly men) run from the tables to watch the TV that was in the bar part of the place, close to the street door, fastest 30 m I´ve seen from people who didn´t want to run away without paying

_Rudisha, OMG what a world record

- Mo Farah

- Félix Sánchez winning (yes!), kissing his grandmother photo and then crying more than a "Magdalena" at the podium

- Alysson Felix winning Wheeee!

- Phelps breaking OLympics medal records

_Mireia Belmonte winning silver in the 800 m freestyle, awesome last 150 swimming

- Tomás González Sepúlveda, moustachelicious and great performance ever for Chile

- Spanish ladies saving the Spain medals results, especially teams, like waterpolo and handball.

- bittersweet: Federer not winning the gold fragile: Murray winning the gold precisely at Wimbledon

- Wow Serena Williams


I was really sorry for Ferrer/López losing their tight doubles SF cause I wasn´t expecting them to be able to defeat Gasquet/Llodra (yeah, for them, two of my favs French players ever), and fourth place is always hurtful

I knew it would happen, but Spanish athletism was (mostly) terrible, and its future doesn´t look better.

[Hindernisse]

Highlights:

Getting to watch a lot of the events due to sick leave (though fever was no fun) and Olympics in almost my timezone
Parachuting at the openining ceremony
NTV+ coverage and Iolanda Chen's commentary of athletics
FSU Olympic coverage
Chad le Clos winning 200m fly
Evegeny Korotishkin getting silver in 100m fly at the age of 29 and sharing the podium with two Olympic champions
Russian Ladies Gymnastics team and Aliya Mustafina in particular
Tatiana Petrova-Arkhipova winning bronze in women's marathon
Super Saturday at the Olympic Stadium - what a night for Britain
Viktoria Azarenka and Max Mirniy winning mixed doubles gold
Maria Sharapova and Vika Azarenka being on ladies' singles podium
Andy Murray winning men's singles (though I am a HUGE Federer fan)
Usain Bolt Is there a chance I'll see him at Worlds in Moscow next year?
Alysson Felix - what a beautiful runner!
Russia's 8 gold medals on track and field
Russian volleyball team Epic!
Tom Daley winning a medal after all the immense pressure he'd been under

Lows:

Not getting a chance to see it live :sigh:
Missing a lot from opening and closing ceremonies because of the time difference (but thanks for the youtube Official Olympic Channel I'll catch up)
Swimming was pretty dull
Sharapova being helpless in the final against Serena
Federer not getting gold and Golden Slam
Komova's vault in AA which pretty much costed her a gold medal and her lacklaster performance in apparatus finals
Having to completely miss the happennings of the last three days of Games due to personal commitments

Judging by what I saw on TV and the net, these were glorious Games!! I already miss London 2012!

[Braulio]

for Mexico!!! Wheeeee and Manzano in the 1500m too

Thank you Poths

But well, though Manzano was born in Mexico he competes for the US, still it was great to see him taking a medal

[riveredge]

highlights:

The entire US swimming team - US's dominance at the pool!
Felix finally getting an individual gold
David Boudia winning diving gold - completely unexpected after almost didn't qualify for the finals
USA Women's Basketball team - forget about the men, 5 CONSECUTIVE gold medals with no media hype and the lack of respect from the media
Bolt winning 100 m
The Korean Archery team - breaking a World record from day 1 and then eventually winning gold
Russia beating Brazil in 5 sets in Men's volleyball - after down by 2 sets and 2 match points, it was an amazing comeback!
Misty and Walsh - 3 CONSECUTIVE gold medals, nuff' said

Lows:

The whole fencing controversy between Shin A-Lam of Korea and Germany's Britta Heidemann - tragic!
Manipulation in Badminton
US Women's volleyball team - Poor Logan Tom

[AYS]

Loved, loved the swimming events, and watching the culmination of Phelps' career and the beginning of Missy Franklin's Olympic career.
Boudia winning gold and seeing Daley celebrate his bronze.
Allyson Felix getting her gold.
Kerry and Misty 3-peat.
Aly Raisman proving herself with 2 golds and a bronze (and almost a medal in the AA) despite the criticisms.
MO FARAH! Both of his races! My daughters and I were on vacation this past week and every time we needed to run to catch a bus or a show time or whatever, we would say "Mo Farah, make like Mo Farah"!

ETA: I'll also add that I really enjoyed seeing all of the great moments for the British athletes and crowds. Although I am a Federer fan and would have loved to see him win the gold, Murray's win was a great story, as were so many of the other British medals, and even just hearing the roars that went up for the British athletes in general.

There weren't any real lowlights for me, except the usual NBC manipulation during their primetime coverage, making people stay up past their bedtimes to see the most popular events.

[Eden]

Job well done for London Olympic organizers, that was one of the interesting Oly games!

Sadly, Israel didn't medal in those games but hopefuly it wil in Rio 2016.

I was moved by the following post Oly story from Zofia Noceti-Klepacka of Poland. Zofia, an Olympic windsurfer, who won a bronze medal on the last day of the competition, decided to auction her medal for her neigbours' ill girl.

Here is the story.

[AragornElessar]

Job well done for London Olympic organizers, that was one of the interesting Oly games!

Sadly, Israel didn't medal in those games but hopefuly it wil in Rio 2016.

I was moved by the following post Oly story from Zofia Noceti-Klepacka of Poland. Zofia, an Olympic windsurfer, who won a bronze medal on the last day of the competition, decided to auction her medal for her neigbours' ill girl.

Here is the story.

I heard about this the day she returned to Poland and I'll repeat what I said about the way our Ladies Soccer Player treated that little boy at Pearson on Monday...

Now *that's* a Champion!!

I think I can finally put together my highlights and lows...

Super Saturday for the British in Athletics. What an amazing hour that was and I'll never forget the interview w/the Long Jumper just after the competition w/the guy from TSN. He was describing his last jump and goes..."I looked up at the big screen and saw I was the Olympic Champion." He literally came up short like he'd been shocked, then repeated in a dazed voice, "I'm the Olympic Champion..." All he could do after that was giggle like a little girl. It was great!!

Mo Farah and his Double Gold. Nuff said!!

My girls doing Canadian Gymnastics proud and finishing an unexpected and surprising Fifth in the Team Event. I said to my Parents after the Q Rounds, "Okay, they got what they wanted and what their goal was. Team Finals, plus one in the AA and two in Vault Finals which is just icing on the cake. The pressure's off now and I have a funny feeling they could surprise some people now."

And they did!!

Our Silver Medals in both Mens and Womens Eights in Rowing. So proud of them for different reasons. This was the first medal in the Womens event in a generation and clearly states that on the Womens side of things in Rowing, Canada is BACK!! W/the guys, after finishing last in their heat and having to fight just to make the Final, to win that Silver was on the same level as a Gold. The next four years will be interesting, as I think we're about to see a real changeover on the Womens side of things just judging from the interview the Team did w/Brian Williams. However, w/the coach they've got and the set up he's got, I think things are in good hands.

Adam vanK's Silver in Kayak and then about twenty minutes later Mark Oldershaw's Bronze in Canoe. Not only was it the first Medal for his Family *and* also won in London where his Grandfather competed in Canoe at the last London Games, but his reaction on finding out he had indeed won that Bronze? My favourite of the Games.

Rosie's Gold of course!! I'd been following the World Cup circuit over at CBC Sports, so knew Rosie'd been having a great Season leading into the Games. What a performance though!!

Alex Departie...Yes, it wasn't the Olympics he'd dreamed of, but after what he'd been through w/his accident a month and a half before the Games? His being there and competiting was a victory in itself.

Emilie Heymans making History w/Jennifer Abel. What a way to end her Olympic career and what an Olympic career too.

Bolt and all of it. I love his cockiness and the stuff he does afterwards, because while yes it's cocky, it's a fun cocky and w/out that arrogance we've come to expect from a Sprinter. Also my respect for him has just skyrocketed thanks to the feature pieces CTV did on how he's using his fame and money to help out his hometown and make things better for them. You've got respect the man for that alone.

Our surprise Bronze from Derrick Droulin in High Jump and the coming out party for Damien Warrnier in Decathlon. Those were both lovely to watch and know there's hopefully more to come from the both of them.

That unbelievable and amazing Ladies Soccer Semi Final between us and the US. Even though the bad calls did put a real damper on it, it was still one of the best Soccer/Football matches I have ever watched and a turning point for the Program here in Canada. Then after all that happened, for the girls to pull off that win against France to win the Bronze...They got what they wanted. They got to see the Flag go up. I was a mess during that Medal Ceremony due to that.

The entire Swimming meet. Loved it all, but especially Brent Hayden's long awaited Bronze. Another time I had tears in my eyes.

The Men's Tennis Gold Medal Game. As much as I'd loved to have seen Roger get his Golden Slam, to see Andy finally break through and to do it at Wimbledon was pretty special.

Speaking of Wimbledon...Major kudos for them getting that place, especially the courts, looking so good in such a short amount of time. That was one of my worries, but they pulled it off and then some!!

Canada's performance overall. Yes, we only got the one Gold Medal, but looking at the entire Medal haul, we did amazingly awesome!! I honestly didn't think we'd do *that* well, as so many Sponsors have now ditched the COC w/Vancouver being over and done w/. Congratulations to the entire Team!! You all did good!!

The Men's Volleyball Gold Medal Game...Holy WOW!! What an incredable match!!

Watching Team GB make Britain proud and then some. I well remember that feeling from two years ago.

The Opening Ceremonies, but especially HM becoming the latest Bond girl. One of the few times I would loved to be able to see the look on my face...LOL!!

These were amazing Games and a huge Well Done to all who pulled it off!! Congratulationd London!!

My lows will have to come a bit later.

[SHARPIE]

Haha was just thinking of a random highlight, texting a friend:

'Bloody hell, I love the Olympics- I am watching a horse dance to 'The Nutcracker' '

Then: 'OMG and now one is dancing to 'Land Of Hope And Glory'

Her reply:

'OK Shaz, you have either been out on a very boozy lunch or taking mind altering drugs, please stop it now!"

[poths]

Some hihgliths:

- Bolt x 1000, the competition and all charisma displayed

I had some guests at home and we went to dinner out the night of 100m final (heresy, I know ) so we are in the restaurant and suddenly people (mostly men) run from the tables to watch the TV that was in the bar part of the place, close to the street door, fastest 30 m I´ve seen from people who didn´t want to run away without paying

_Rudisha, OMG what a world record

- Mo Farah

- Félix Sánchez winning (yes!), kissing his grandmother photo and then crying more than a "Magdalena" at the podium

- Alysson Felix winning Wheeee!

- Phelps breaking OLympics medal records

_Mireia Belmonte winning silver in the 800 m freestyle, awesome last 150 swimming

- Tomás González Sepúlveda, moustachelicious and great performance ever for Chile

- Spanish ladies saving the Spain medals results, especially teams, like waterpolo and handball.

- bittersweet: Federer not winning the gold fragile: Murray winning the gold precisely at Wimbledon

- Wow Serena Williams


I was really sorry for Ferrer/López losing their tight doubles SF cause I wasn´t expecting them to be able to defeat Gasquet/Llodra (yeah, for them, two of my favs French players ever), and fourth place is always hurtful

Agree with all of these

I knew it would happen, but Spanish athletism was (mostly) terrible, and its future doesn´t look better.

It was a little sad to see after such an excellent European championships only 2 years ago ....Ruth Beitia was brill, I was gutted she couldn't hang on to a medal, American gal is only a wet day in the sport, how rude of her to medal in her first year out! Figure skating it is NOT!

As for the future? Spain had a really solid team at Junior worlds, in the wonderful Barca stadium. Peleteiro in the triple jump is but very talented, and I loved Salas the pole vaulter, he was able to respond under pressure. It's also promising that they are doing well in TECHNICAL events, technical athletes tend to have longer more consistent careers, particularly jumpers AND they are very rarely hit by drug scandals

[SHARPIE]

Victoria Pendleton is still whinging

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...ationship.html

LOL at the comments, people are really not impressed with her for the main.

[Lorac]

Victoria Pendleton is still whinging

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...ationship.html

LOL at the comments, people are really not impressed with her for the main.

What a diva . Thank goodness she has retired though I have a horrible feeling she may start to be a TV analyst and so we won't be rid of her!!! Love how the majority of the comments are in a similar vein - just shut up Victoria and get on with your life for goodness sake!!

[millyskate]

She really has a gift for rubbing people up the wrong way. Very difficult to root for her...