A Meme And Sporting Moments No. 20-5
Dec. 18th, 2009 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99Title of the first post each month:
January - My conscience is giving me trouble, new years and a fic
February - Scoreboard Update
March - What I've been doing
April - We meet again, Mr. Split Infinitive
May - Champions League
June - An Update
July - Musical PSA
August - Caribbean Carnival
September - Back From Germany
October - Fencing
November - Coventry Open
December - It's all the little things
It's mostly real life stuff and sport.
Sporting Moments
No tracksuits or running vests in sight, but still a significant sporting victory for Britain and especially for Lord Coe, the bid leader and schmoozer-in-chief who did so much to help London to make up lost ground after being placed third behind Paris and Madrid’s bids in an assessment a year earlier. It was a close finish — in the secret ballot of 115 International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, London won by four votes. In the hall in Singapore, the London delegates — David Beckham among them — danced with joy as Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, announced the result. In Trafalgar Square, thousands celebrated. Less than 24 hours later, terrorists killed 56 people on London transport and joy turned to sorrow.
The thing I remeber most about this, other than the absolute shock, was how quickly the whole thing of the bombings became a joke. We're talking within 24 hours it was 'well we knew the French weren't going to take it well, but this is a bit much'.
The Jamaican had one world record in his bag at the Olympic Games, but had his sights set on a more intimidating benchmark than the 100 metres. Michael Johnson’s world record for 200 metres of 19.32sec had stood for 12 years and the closest anyone had got to the American’s mark was to within 0.3sec. It was regarded as almost unbeatable, but Bolt, watched by Johnson, was determined to give it his best. Rounding the bend, he appeared to go into warp speed — no easing up, as he had done in the 100 metres final — and as he crossed the line it became apparent that he had broken the record by 0.02sec. In the stands, Johnson smiled and gave the thumbs-up.
That is because Mr. Johnson is a gentleman ;) I <3 Michael Johnson.
The manager of a self-storage company in Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, may not be recognised by all his customers as an Ashes winner, but he deserves as much credit as the Flintoffs and Vaughans of this world for England beating Australia four years ago. Pratt was a modest county pro, who hit one century for Durham, but was asked to be a substitute fielder during the Trent Bridge Test and had his moment of fame when Damien Martyn hit the ball to him at cover and called Ponting for a quick single. Pratt hit the stumps direct, running out the Australia captain, who responded with anger. The throw earned Pratt a place on the victory bus, but not an MBE.
And sometimes, miracles happen :)
Some may have noticed that many of the moments in this list feature Australians being beaten (and there are a couple more of those to come). Our Australian readers should take that as a compliment. But the sports moment of the past decade that got the eighth most votes from our writers was an achievement by a great Australian athlete at her home Olympic Games. Screamed on by a large crowd, Freeman, wearing a green and gold hoodie and with the hopes of a nation on her shoulders, came from behind down the last straight of the 400 metres to win what was Australia’s 100th gold medal in Olympic history. Freeman being of Aboriginal descent made the victory all the more poignant.
Everyone remembers this, the flash of the bulbs and the horrid looking running gear. What a run!
He told us that we should shoot him if he went anywhere near a boat after his fourth Olympic win in Atlanta in 1996. Fortunately, no one was trigger-minded. Redgrave’s effort in Sydney was remarkable not only because he was 38 years old but because he had become a diabetic and was finding training harder than ever. But no one doubted his determination and with a remarkable crew of Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster and James Cracknell around him, Great Britain won the gold medal by less than half a second from the Italy crew. A crowd of 22,000 was dominated by British supporters and the final piece of the memory is the sight of Pinsent clambering over Foster to hug Redgrave in the No 3 seat before toppling overboard and into the lake.
It was pretty amazing. I've never seen people get quite so mad over a rowing race.
Talk about leaving it late. Three minutes of stoppage time had been played and such Greeks as there were in the crowd at Old Trafford were whistling for the match to end when Teddy Sheringham was fouled outside the penalty area. Greece led 2-1 and if England could not get a draw they would have to qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals via a play-off against Ukraine. Up stepped Beckham. Like Jonny Wilkinson two years later, he had erred a few times during this game, missing with five free kicks. But this one was perfect. It curled over the wall and into the left-hand corner, precipitating Beckham-mania everywhere.
It tells you something about the goal that the moment I saw the player and the year, I knew exactly which goal it was. Spectacular goal, wonderful timing. Shame about the World Cup ;)
I'd also like to recommend another article from the Times, from Simon Barnes who is a great sports writer, and one of the best journalists working today in any field, summing up why he's not fed up with sport.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/simon_barnes/article6960801.ece
Final paragraph:
Sport is not only about good things, why should it be? Sport is rich, sport contains all manner of moods and emotions. But here are nine wonderful athletes and a half-decent manager, all of whom have filled my year with good things. Fed up with sport? Actually no. A person who is tired of sport is tired of life.
There, my friends, is a man who gets it.
January - My conscience is giving me trouble, new years and a fic
February - Scoreboard Update
March - What I've been doing
April - We meet again, Mr. Split Infinitive
May - Champions League
June - An Update
July - Musical PSA
August - Caribbean Carnival
September - Back From Germany
October - Fencing
November - Coventry Open
December - It's all the little things
It's mostly real life stuff and sport.
Sporting Moments
No tracksuits or running vests in sight, but still a significant sporting victory for Britain and especially for Lord Coe, the bid leader and schmoozer-in-chief who did so much to help London to make up lost ground after being placed third behind Paris and Madrid’s bids in an assessment a year earlier. It was a close finish — in the secret ballot of 115 International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, London won by four votes. In the hall in Singapore, the London delegates — David Beckham among them — danced with joy as Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, announced the result. In Trafalgar Square, thousands celebrated. Less than 24 hours later, terrorists killed 56 people on London transport and joy turned to sorrow.
The thing I remeber most about this, other than the absolute shock, was how quickly the whole thing of the bombings became a joke. We're talking within 24 hours it was 'well we knew the French weren't going to take it well, but this is a bit much'.
The Jamaican had one world record in his bag at the Olympic Games, but had his sights set on a more intimidating benchmark than the 100 metres. Michael Johnson’s world record for 200 metres of 19.32sec had stood for 12 years and the closest anyone had got to the American’s mark was to within 0.3sec. It was regarded as almost unbeatable, but Bolt, watched by Johnson, was determined to give it his best. Rounding the bend, he appeared to go into warp speed — no easing up, as he had done in the 100 metres final — and as he crossed the line it became apparent that he had broken the record by 0.02sec. In the stands, Johnson smiled and gave the thumbs-up.
That is because Mr. Johnson is a gentleman ;) I <3 Michael Johnson.
The manager of a self-storage company in Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, may not be recognised by all his customers as an Ashes winner, but he deserves as much credit as the Flintoffs and Vaughans of this world for England beating Australia four years ago. Pratt was a modest county pro, who hit one century for Durham, but was asked to be a substitute fielder during the Trent Bridge Test and had his moment of fame when Damien Martyn hit the ball to him at cover and called Ponting for a quick single. Pratt hit the stumps direct, running out the Australia captain, who responded with anger. The throw earned Pratt a place on the victory bus, but not an MBE.
And sometimes, miracles happen :)
Some may have noticed that many of the moments in this list feature Australians being beaten (and there are a couple more of those to come). Our Australian readers should take that as a compliment. But the sports moment of the past decade that got the eighth most votes from our writers was an achievement by a great Australian athlete at her home Olympic Games. Screamed on by a large crowd, Freeman, wearing a green and gold hoodie and with the hopes of a nation on her shoulders, came from behind down the last straight of the 400 metres to win what was Australia’s 100th gold medal in Olympic history. Freeman being of Aboriginal descent made the victory all the more poignant.
Everyone remembers this, the flash of the bulbs and the horrid looking running gear. What a run!
He told us that we should shoot him if he went anywhere near a boat after his fourth Olympic win in Atlanta in 1996. Fortunately, no one was trigger-minded. Redgrave’s effort in Sydney was remarkable not only because he was 38 years old but because he had become a diabetic and was finding training harder than ever. But no one doubted his determination and with a remarkable crew of Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster and James Cracknell around him, Great Britain won the gold medal by less than half a second from the Italy crew. A crowd of 22,000 was dominated by British supporters and the final piece of the memory is the sight of Pinsent clambering over Foster to hug Redgrave in the No 3 seat before toppling overboard and into the lake.
It was pretty amazing. I've never seen people get quite so mad over a rowing race.
Talk about leaving it late. Three minutes of stoppage time had been played and such Greeks as there were in the crowd at Old Trafford were whistling for the match to end when Teddy Sheringham was fouled outside the penalty area. Greece led 2-1 and if England could not get a draw they would have to qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals via a play-off against Ukraine. Up stepped Beckham. Like Jonny Wilkinson two years later, he had erred a few times during this game, missing with five free kicks. But this one was perfect. It curled over the wall and into the left-hand corner, precipitating Beckham-mania everywhere.
It tells you something about the goal that the moment I saw the player and the year, I knew exactly which goal it was. Spectacular goal, wonderful timing. Shame about the World Cup ;)
I'd also like to recommend another article from the Times, from Simon Barnes who is a great sports writer, and one of the best journalists working today in any field, summing up why he's not fed up with sport.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/simon_barnes/article6960801.ece
Final paragraph:
Sport is not only about good things, why should it be? Sport is rich, sport contains all manner of moods and emotions. But here are nine wonderful athletes and a half-decent manager, all of whom have filled my year with good things. Fed up with sport? Actually no. A person who is tired of sport is tired of life.
There, my friends, is a man who gets it.
