So as I have mentioned in the previous post, I had a whale of a time during the Olympic Games. Some of the achievements by the athletes really inspired and awed me. Here's some of my favourite moments from (mostly) swimming and diving events:
Swimming
Men's 1500m Freestyle
Team China's Sun Yang really impressed me when he broke the world record by 3 seconds! That's fucking impressive, and the fact that he almost had a false start (he did, but the judges did not penalise him because it wasn't his fault) at the beginning made it even more sweet a victory for him. Well done! His achievement would definitely inspire a generation of upcoming and present swimmers alike.
Sun Yang's record breaking was legendary!
Women's 4×100m Freestyle Relay
Team Australia's first gold in this Olympic Games! The highlight of this event was after learning they had won the gold, the last swimmer of the relay team climbed out of the pool to celebrate with her team mates, before she was indicated to leave the pool (For those of you who don't know, this is a swimming rule whereby swimmers can't climb out of the pool as they please -they need to go to the edge of the pool and get out using the staircase-and before the referee indicate them to do so). The team could have been disqualified for this mistake, but luckily they weren't!
Team Australia celebrating their victory like there's no other!
Women's 800m Freestyle
Team USA's Katie Ledecky showed the world that age doesn't matter in going for gold! She is 15 years of age. This was Katie's only event at the Olympics and she definitely did not disappoint herself and her team!
Katie Ledecky's only event and she took the gold!
Diving
Women's 10m Platform
How can I not love this event? Team Malaysia's very own Pandelela Rinong Pamg dived like there's no tomorrow and secured a medal for Malaysia! As a fellow Malaysian I am so proud of her performance at these Games! She ranked 2nd in the prelims, 5th in the semi-finals and 3rd in the finals - Malaysia's first women medalist at the Olympics and first medalist from diving. Well done! Watching her from the prelims up to winning the bronze was anxious and nerve wrecking as if I was really there at the Aquatics centre. The fact that she did a not-so-good opening dive during the finals (10th place after round 1) and climbed all the way to 3rd after the round 5 made it such an emotional moment for herself and her team mates and coach. I must also say Team China's Chen Roulin was in a league of her own throughout this event. She dived superbly well. Team Australia's Brittany Broben and Melissa Wu also did really well, especially in the semi-finals and finals. It was such a close call for Melissa and Pandelela for 3rd place!
Congrats, Brittany Broben, Chen Ruolin and Pandelela Pamg
Men's 3m Springboard
This was the first event in which China's gold rush in the diving events was broken! Team Russia's Ilya Zakharov was a legend that night. He proved to the world that the Chinese can be beaten. And I quote FINA "The Chinese can be beaten! Not because they flopped, but because someone else got better". Another inspiring moment, no? Also, Team GB's very own Chris Mears who secured 9th place made such an impressive final dive to be the first Brit diver ever to score above 100 points! Malaysia's Kee Nee became the first Malaysian ever to qualify into the finals for this event and placed 10th overall! I must say this was the most intense diving event I've ever watched! Every round of dive was so unpredictable.
Ilya Zakharov, Men's 3m Springboard champion
Men's 10m Platform
Another event in which the Chinese did not win the gold! It was such a fierce match between China's Qiu Bo and USA's David Boudia. In the end, it was David who grabbed the gold, marking USA's comeback after several years of Chinese domination in the diving pool. David amazed the audience when his performance improved tremendously from 18th place in the prelims (final diver to make the semi-finals cut) to 3rd in the semi-finals and to gold in the finals! Thomas Daley also made an impressive comeback in this event when he secured the bronze, winning GB's only medal for diving at these London Games. Despite making several mistakes during the prelims, he definitely performed with all his might during the semis and finals. Well done Tom Daley, you've done your country so proud! To the person who had sent him an insult and hate-tweet after the Men's 10m Platform synchro event, you should be ashamed of yourself, very ashamed.
David Boudia's well deserved gold victory! I think he's hugging his coach
Thomas Daley celebrate's his bronze medal victory
These young divers have made their mark at the London 2012 Games! Hoping to see more of them in future diving events and ready to be further impressed and awed by them!
Badminton
Men's Single Gold Medal Match
I did not actually watched the entire match between Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei and China's Lin Dan; I only saw the first round where Chong Wei beat Lin Dan, missed the second round because I went out for dinner, and followed the third round on the London 2012 website because, well I don't really have passion for badminton and therefore I didn't finish watching the match. However, Chong Wei has definitely inspired many when he gave in his all to try and secure Malaysia's first ever gold medal at the Olympics. Despite his heroic efforst, Lin Dan was the better player in the end, and Chong Wei had to settle for the silver. Chong Wei displayed excellent sportsmanship during these Games. The same cannot be said for most Malaysian fans though, who showed such an ugly and disgusting side when they condemned and criticized Lin Dan throughout and after the match. You can support your country without condemning others. There's so much more to sports than just winning medals. Shame on these people.
And that pretty much sums up some of the best moments from London 2012! These Games have definitely inspired a generation, or at the very least, I was.
Photos source from London 2012, the official Games website.
No comments:
Post a Comment