This happens every four years. I start thinking I probably won’t watch very much of the Olympics, then two days later I’ve watched archery, diving, canoe slalom and some table tennis, the latter being the only one of those four that I have an ongoing interest in and watch at other times.
Take mountain biking. I forget what day the final was on but I think it was near the beginning. I turned it on because I’d read that the defending champion was a Brit – Tom Pidcock. Unsurprisingly, I was unfamiliar with his work.
Pidcock gets a puncture, but wins
Almost immediately after I turned the TV on, Pidcock, who was leading, got a puncture and when he resumed his race he was 40 seconds behind. He hauled his way back, then he overtook Koretzky from France and was leading again. Then Koretzky overtook. Then Pidcock retook the lead. Then Koretzky did the same. With one final audacious bit of overtaking around a tree, Pidcock nipped in front and won. It was thrilling.
As an Andy Murray fan, I watched him in the doubles. I expected he and his partner, Dan Evans, to lose in the first round, which would signal the end of Andy’s professional tennis career. In their first match against Japan, they had five match points against them in the final set tie-break. I called out to my wife to come and watch the last rites. But this is Andy Murray, yeah? The Brits battled their way back to parity, then won the last two points. They went ballistic. I did, too.
This is not only the joy of the Olympics but also the joy of virtually every Andy Murray match.
I like a bit of athletics, so I watched some early heats of all the various distances. Keely Hodgkinson was favourite for the 800 metres. Before the race, there was some footage of teenage Keely as her running career began to blossom. I love all this stuff. In less than two minutes’ time she could be an Olympic champion, but this was the time to reflect on all the monumental hard work and dedication, not just by Keely but also by her family and friends and coaches at all different levels, that had gone into this moment. And every other competitor had a similar story.
Gold for Keely Hodgkinson
The gun fired, Keely moved swiftly into the position she wanted to be in. The other runners jostled around her, like workers around the queen, but Keely remained calm and in control – and I’m aware that there was a lot more going on than merely calmness and control. Then as they approached the last 100 metres and another runner appeared alongside her, Keely kicked, and it was spectacular. She won comfortably. Steve Cram called it: “Gold for Keely Hodgkinson. Gold for Great Britain. Gold for being brilliant.”
I watched the next Murray/Evans match. Again, they were match points down. Again, they turned it around and progressed. Again, we all went ballistic.
Randomly, I watched some teenagers skateboarding. It was unexpectedly mesmerising watching them go up and down and up and down and along a bit, then up and down and up and down and flipping over and occasionally falling over.
Is this the Keirin or the Omnium?
I watched some cycling. It’s something Team GB had been good at for a number of games so we’ve all become experts in the Keirin, the Omnium and the Madison. I’m joking. I still haven’t got a clue what they all were but I loved watching the participants whizz round the track. The most entertaining was the one where they compete to go as slowly as possible, teasing each other, and suddenly, blam, they’re off. I watched Emma Finucane win one of her three medals at the age of 21. She looked so happy with herself and, frankly, so she should be.
Then there is Murray and Evans’ next match. They get pretty much hammered by the American pairing and just like that, Andy Murray is an ex-tennis player.
There’s also taekwondo, a sport I couldn’t follow with a scoring system I couldn’t fathom. I had to rely on the commentator to tell me the Brit, Caden Cunningham, missed out on the gold medal by a whisker. As did Katrina Johnson-Thompson a couple of days earlier. Sport can be brutal.
And the sport climbing. The rhythmic gymnastics. The breaking. It sounded like they were making them up.
But they weren’t. People all over the world have been doing these sports for years – well, maybe not the teenage skateboarders – getting up at the crack of dawn, practising routines over and over and over again, to reach a point where they can try to realise their dreams of Olympic glory.
They are, every one of them, awesome.
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