Some Olympics highlights
1. Great Britain's Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, brothers who train together, finishing 1st and 3rd in the men's triathlon. I'd never even heard of them before - obviously I haven't been following the sport at all - but now I think I'll become a bit of a groupie. Fortunately the internet makes that easy.
They thought it would be a nice idea to dead heat for first, but were sternly warned that wouldn't be allowed. Alistair: "It's a shame. I think it's absolutely in the spirit of Olympic ideals to cross the line together." As it turned out, Javier Gomez from Spain took the silver medal. In a 2011 race, Alistair slowed down and waited for his brother to catch up so they could run the last part together.
Jonathan said he realised he could be an Olympian when Alistair competed at Beijing and he thought "It doesn’t take a special person to qualify for the Olympics - he’s just my brother."
Alistair's time for the 10km final leg was 29:07, only a minute and a half behind the men's track 10,000m winner's time, and one second behind the second-best British 10,000m runner. This was after a 1.5km swim, a 43km cycle, and walking the last few metres of the race with a flag.
2. Galen Rupp from the US finishing second to his training partner and good friend Mo Farah (UK, originally from Somalia) in the men's 10,000m. It's exciting to see a white guy up there with the Africans after so many years of being completely outclassed. Rupp after the race: "It's still a little weird seeing Great Britain and the United States on the medal stand after a distance race!" He gave a lot of credit to Farah in his press conference, saying that he got the better deal out of their relationship by getting to train with the best in the world, and mentioning that Farah had given him advice in the middle of the race.
3. The Ethiopian and Kenyan runners in the women's 5,000m, who went straight to the back and seemed to say to the rest of the field, "Knock yourselves out. We'll just wait back here and then stamp our authority over you when the time is right."
4. The dressage individual gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin, and several other riders, electing to wear a safety helmet instead of a top hat. Also, the age range of the competitors: from 19 to 71! I'm not actually much of a fan of most horse sports, but I do like the fact that men and women compete against each other, and age isn't necessarily much of a barrier.
5. The end of the women's triathlon, which unlike the men's was a real race to the finish. Australia's Erin Densham finished third.
6. Belgian identical twins Jonathan and Kevin Borlee finishing within 0.02 seconds of each other in the 400m final.
7. Sally Pearson saying to the American reporter who asked her about her faith: "I'm not a hugely religious person so I can't really go there!"
They thought it would be a nice idea to dead heat for first, but were sternly warned that wouldn't be allowed. Alistair: "It's a shame. I think it's absolutely in the spirit of Olympic ideals to cross the line together." As it turned out, Javier Gomez from Spain took the silver medal. In a 2011 race, Alistair slowed down and waited for his brother to catch up so they could run the last part together.
Jonathan said he realised he could be an Olympian when Alistair competed at Beijing and he thought "It doesn’t take a special person to qualify for the Olympics - he’s just my brother."
Alistair's time for the 10km final leg was 29:07, only a minute and a half behind the men's track 10,000m winner's time, and one second behind the second-best British 10,000m runner. This was after a 1.5km swim, a 43km cycle, and walking the last few metres of the race with a flag.
2. Galen Rupp from the US finishing second to his training partner and good friend Mo Farah (UK, originally from Somalia) in the men's 10,000m. It's exciting to see a white guy up there with the Africans after so many years of being completely outclassed. Rupp after the race: "It's still a little weird seeing Great Britain and the United States on the medal stand after a distance race!" He gave a lot of credit to Farah in his press conference, saying that he got the better deal out of their relationship by getting to train with the best in the world, and mentioning that Farah had given him advice in the middle of the race.
3. The Ethiopian and Kenyan runners in the women's 5,000m, who went straight to the back and seemed to say to the rest of the field, "Knock yourselves out. We'll just wait back here and then stamp our authority over you when the time is right."
4. The dressage individual gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin, and several other riders, electing to wear a safety helmet instead of a top hat. Also, the age range of the competitors: from 19 to 71! I'm not actually much of a fan of most horse sports, but I do like the fact that men and women compete against each other, and age isn't necessarily much of a barrier.
5. The end of the women's triathlon, which unlike the men's was a real race to the finish. Australia's Erin Densham finished third.
6. Belgian identical twins Jonathan and Kevin Borlee finishing within 0.02 seconds of each other in the 400m final.
7. Sally Pearson saying to the American reporter who asked her about her faith: "I'm not a hugely religious person so I can't really go there!"