olympics

a surge of national pride went through me yesterday morning.
its is talked about in terms of you will remember where you were when .......
like most people that will be easy for me to do - i was in my flat listening to it on the radio.
just like four years ago i was in my flat watching sir steve win his fifth gold.

i caught the very end of cracknell, pinsentt and the other two blokes (well who is going to remember them ? but for the sake of it all ed coode and steve williams) did the job and won gold. i am not a rowing fan so know little about the sport. there had been a lot of talk in the run up to this event about the upsets, arguments and tooing and frooing as to who were going to make up the 4 who rowed on saturday. one of the guys who was supposed to row, alax partridge, was being interviewed throughout the week as the team rowed. it was somehow sad and wonderful to hear him talk about it - knowing that his chance for glory was not going to come this year but wanting his his team, training partners and friends to win.
alex was online as the 4 won and it was a poignant moment, made even more so by the fact that all the rowers seemed genuinely concerned about him (they had named the boat after him), and they expected him to be rowing with them for gold at the beijing olympics in 2008.

i will confess to having a tear in my eye as i listened. partly because of the one left behind, partly because of pinsent's achievement of winning 4 golds in 4 olympics, and partly because of national pride.

what is even more amazing is that as we win gold medals in all these less than fashionable events you just know that their achievements will be soon forgotten by the majority of us as they are not football players, cricketers, runners in the athletics...... which is a shame.
the other thing about what they have done is the way they talk about it the hard work, the gearing up for this one event that takes place every 4 years, the hours of training the dedication, the sacrifice. and i can't help but think that is the difference between them and the rest of us - it isn't always the talent and skills to do the task but the dedication and the motivation to actually see it through no matter what the costs are.

i raise my virtual hat to messers cracknell, coode, pinsent and williams long may you enjoy the glory.

now lets hope paula wins.