I still stand by the annoyance of 'brand guidelines' when it comes to even mentioning it but, in all fairness, this is an annoyance when dealing with any sporting event of global magnitude. The corporate bigwigs have their share in anything as noble and simple as a competition to see who's the strongest/fastest/most agile etc. I'm surprised they haven't started getting marketing rights to Millfield School's sportsday.And I'm sure I'm not the only person who is writing exactly the same, that this Olympic Games has been 100% amazing. I did not grasp the enormity of having the Olympics in our own country and it wasn't until I saw the amazing journey of the torch in the build up that I started to get a tingle. But still I thought I could go through it without it impacting on my day-to-day life and that it wouldn't be "all that". I could not have been more wrong.
From the Armed Forces that came in last minute to add some much needed stability and professionalism to proceedings, to the thousands of volunteers who have given up time and money to be a part of this momentous fortnight, I take my hat off to you. To the participants of the opening ceremony and the understated, tongue in cheek but remarkably proud way Danny Boyle presented a history of Britain, I take my hat off to you. To the hundreds of athletes from Team GB that have trained their lives for these two weeks and who have succeeded or fallen short, I take my hat off to you. But the biggest hat dismount has to be saved for one set of professionals who sometimes misfire, but who always do things their way - The BBC.
Coverage of the Olympics has been nothing short of breath-taking and this is what we pay our licence fee for. We've had the most easy-to-use and comprehensive, all-encompassing online facilities so you can literally watch every second of every event at work. As I have been working a notice period, I have found this invaluable.
Then we've had the expert commentary. And by expert I don't mean Adrian Chiles jibbering away in his incoherent way, acting like a special needs pupil that has won a competition to be on telly. I don't mean Gareth Southgate and Andy Townsend who are, apparently experts in everything. And I don't mean Tinie Tempah or Lily Allen or whoever ITV are contractually obliged to showcase every 24 hours.
I mean, legend and multi-gold medal winning swimmer Ian Thorpe giving genuine analysis on the swimming; world-record holder and game-changer Michael Johnson for athletics; former British hopeful and former Tennis top 4 Tim Henman for tennis; Silver medal-winner Steve Cram commentating, gold-medal winner Denise Lewis punditting... the list goes on. I have found each opinion and emotion of these experts to be a genuine insight into the psyche and emotional state of the competing athletes. It has helped me understand what the athletes are going through and, in all honesty, it has helped me understand whether they are doing well or not. In terms of Jess Ennis' journey to gold, I had no idea whether her long jump was good or bad, or whether her shot put was below par. But with Denise Lewis walking me through it, I knew exactly what Jess needed to do and it therefore made me an expert for that two-day period.
Just something as simple as interviewing competitors within one minute of them completing their event meant we saw the emotion and elation/sadness first hand. We didn't see some polished PR machine, we saw tears of joy and pain. And I'm proud to say that, at times, I cried along with them. Crying at the reaction to winning the dressage as people praised a dancing horse that had no idea what it had done, was admittedly, a low point of the games for me. But I wouldn't take it back.People were quick to pull out the knives when it came to the BBC's coverage of the Diamond Jubilee but, as I wouldn't watch it if god him/herself had choreographed it, I can't comment. All I know is that no one does sport like the BBC. Yes, Sky were the first to market with super slow-mo, but they only used it to show a footballer spitting really really slowly. Yes ITV also exists. But no one captures sport and packages it in a way that makes it relevant, entertaining and informative like the BBC.
So when everyone is (quite rightly) praising the athletes, volunteers, armed forces, British public and overall organisers, please don't forget the professionals who have taken us from our sofas to each stroke of on oar, each turn of a pedal, each stride of a piston-like leg, each burst of a clay pigeon, each kick to a chest and punch to a face, each tear, each smile and every single medal Team GB has earned. Thank you BBC. Gold medal performance.
