We Won’t Forget You London, Never Ever
Thursday, August 23, 2012
It's been a long four years after the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008. From then onwards all eyes were on London, the city to host the 30th Olympic Games. It's been really a long journey for every one of us after the Beijing Olympics. It was also a new opportunity for many of the athletes to bring out their best despite the Beijing Olympics. So they have been practicing for the past 4 years. Each and every one participating in the Olympics has one common dream, the Gold Medal. Though it's not possible for everyone, yet they all try their level best.
London Olympics was also great to watch like that of Beijing. But this gave a totally different experience for us too, even though we could witness it only through the TV. The facilities they had arranged for the events, the way they conducted those etc. were all really interesting. As whole of the world was looking forward to London, they cannot handle that big event very lightly. They planted thousands of trees in the city in order to reduce the amount of its existing pollution and so the place would look much greener. They also knew that the people coming from outside would also like this.
The 17 day Olympic Games was really interesting to watch, from the very Opening Ceremony till the Closing Ceremony. Even though we were only able to watch the games through the TV, we can truly feel the spirit of the game and we automatically start cheering for them.
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I was in 6th STD when the Beijing Olympics was going on. At that time, I wasn't much concerned about Olympics and I didn't know much of the Indians and other foreigners taking part in those. And also I didn't even mind to spend my time in front of the TV watching those games. But this time it wasn't the same, it was totally different. I used to watch many games in which World-class players used to compete and especially those games in which Indians took part.
We know that there are many famous and skillful players in a variety of sports all around the world. It's during the Olympic Games were we can see all of them together. And from July 27th - August 12th, London exactly became what it had to be. The whole city was filled with athletes from all over the world. As they usually perform superb, it's obvious that they'll be performing well in the Olympics. And it's the same in this Olympics too. London Olympics 2012 had many bright performers, some who did their best as expected while some who stunned everyone by giving extra-ordinary performances when not expected. And so there were many magical moments in this Olympics.
So far, London Olympics 2012 was the most successful Olympics for India. India scored a total of 6 medals in this London Olympics. This is too a new record for India.
There were 6 Indians [4 men and 2 women] who made it up to the medals and thereby our National Flag was pulled into heights for 6 times. Those 6 Indians were:-
1) Gagan Narang:- He was the man who started the medal hunt of India in London. He shot the Bronze Medal in the 10m Air Rifle event and gifted India its first medal in the London Olympics.
He was also the 2010 Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist. Four years back in Beijing, Abhinav Bhindra shot the Gold Medal in this same event itself.
2) Vijay Kumar:- He was the man who gifted the second medal for India. Again it came from the shooting range. In the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event, he shot the Silver Medal and gifted India a different colored medal than Narang's. He was too a commonwealth Gold Medalist.
3) Saina Nehwal:- We Indians had a true belief in Saina Nehwal that she would either bring the Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal when she comes back to India. Even though the Commonwealth Gold Medalist couldn't pass the Semi- finals, she however qualified for the Bronze Medal match. In that match, her Chinese opponent got an injury and she didn't have any other option but to quit that match. Thus Saina won the Bronze Medal. Even though she didn't play and win that match, she truly deserved one of those medals.
4) C. H. Mary Kom:- This was for the first time when Women's Boxing was included in the Olympics. She became the first women to punch and get the Bronze Medal for this event in the Olympic history. The 5 time World Champion lost her Semi- finals to Britain's Nichola Adams who then became the first woman to win the Gold Medal for Women's Boxing.
5) Yogeshwar Dutt:- The 2010 Commonwealth Gold Medalist won the 5th medal for India in the second last day of the London Olympics in the 60kg Freestyle Wrestling. That day he had to compete for 5 matches and ended up with the Bronze Medal. In his Bronze Medal match, he had to compete with a North Korean guy. He won the match by doing an extraordinary leg-lock when he caught hold of his opponent's 2 legs and thus grabbed the Bronze Medal.
6) Sushil Kumar:- In my personal opinion, his matches were the most interesting to watch. In the road to his finals, he defeated the Beijing Olympics Gold Medalist [Turkey], former World Champion [Uzbekistan] and another World Champion [Kazakhstan]. However he lost the finals to the Asian Champion [Japan] and won the Silver Medal in the 66kg Freestyle Wrestling. He also attained a new record. He became the first Indian individual to win medals in back to back Olympic Games.
30 new records were set in this Olympics. Besides these, there were many others who scored medals and became the superheroes of the London Olympics. They are:-
1) Michael Phelps [USA]:- Before itself, he said that London Olympics would be his last one. And he ended up his Olympic career in style. In London he swam and won 4 Gold and 2 Silver. Four years back in Beijing, he won 8 Gold Medals out of the 8 events he took part. Now he holds the record of having won a total of 22 Olympic medals [18 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze].
2) Missy Franklin [USA]:- The 17- year old teenage girl, also known as 'Lady Phelps' is one of the rising star for the American Swimming. In her maiden Olympics, she swam and won 4 Gold and 1 Bronze. Even though Michael Phelps gets retired, we can hope so that she can replace him.
3) Usain Bolt [Jamaica]:- In London, he won Gold Medals in 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay. He became the first athlete to retain the Gold Medal in the Men's 100m after Carl Lewis [USA] and also in the 200m. He also holds the record for winning Triple Gold in back to back Olympic Games.
4) Mohamed Farah [Great Britain]:- The Somalian born, British national became the first British athlete to win Gold Medals in 5,000m and 10,000m. He is also the seventh athlete to get this achievement.
5) Serena Williams [USA]:- In the London Olympics, she won 2 Gold Medals in Tennis. One in the Women's Singles and the other along with her sister, Venus Williams in the Women's Doubles.
6) Andy Murray [Great Britain]:- Even though he just won 1 Gold and 1 Silver, he had a real special moment in this Olympics. One month before the London Olympics, in the Wimbledon final, he had to play with Roger Federer [Switzerland]. But Murray lost that match. Then again in the Men's Tennis final of Olympics, it was again Roger Federer and Andy Murray. But this time he made his revenge and grabbed the Gold Medal in front of his home crowd in that Stadium where the Wimbledon final took place.
7) Oscar Pistorius [South Africa]:- He is commonly known as 'Bla
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