Beijing In Review

Well after 16 days of intense competition we have seen many memorable moments. Here are my top highs (and lows!) of the Games of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing.

Top 5 highlights
1 - Michael Phelps - Obviously a toss up between Phelps and Bolt, Phelps gets the nod for becoming the greatest Olympian of all time. Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals at one games went out the window, as did Carl Lewis's 9 all time Gold. Phelps now sits at the top of the mountain with 8 and 13 respectively. His come from behind win to take gold in the 100m Butterfly and tie Spitz at 7 was the moment of the games!
2 - Usain Bolt - The greatest sprinting performance in any Olympic games. Ran 9.69 pulling up to arrogantly win the 100m, then put it all on the line to break the seemingly untouchable world record of Michael Johnson in the 200m. Capped it all off by leading his beloved Jamaica to yet another world record in the Men's 4 x 100m relay.
3 - Stephen Hooker - Hooker became Australia's first field gold medallist in 60 years with a heart-stopping performance to win the Men's Pole Vault. At 5.80, 5.85, and 5.90 he cleared the bar at his third attempt to snatch the gold. Breaking the Olympic record at 5.96 to end the competition was the icing on the cake.
4 - Matthew Mitcham - Mitcham produced the greatest dive in Olympic history, scoring a whopping 112 points to steal the last gold medal of the diving programme from the Chinese. It was one of the upsets of the games and was Australia's first male gold medal in diving since 1928. 5 - Matthias Steiner - In the final lift of the entire weightlifting program, Steiner lifted 10kg more than he ever had before to win the gold medal, just over a year after he had lost his wife in a tragic accident. If ever there was an Olympic moment ordained from the heavens this was it.

Honourable mentions - Fabian Cancellara, Grant Hackett, Stephanie Rice, the Aussie Men's Coxless Pairs, and Ken Wallace

The Lowlights
1 - Channel 7's TV Coverage - Disgraceful! Coverage was woeful from start to finish with probably less than 10 per cent of sports shown live. Took ad-breaks halfway through the action and had an appalling set of commentators outside Bruce McAverny and Phil Ligget.
2 - Kookaburrua's - The most heartless bunch of men to pull on the green and gold. Looked invincible in their pool games and after taking a 2-0 lead halfway through their semi-final capitulated like a deck of cards. Should have been a lock for the gold but instead choked their way to bronze.
3 - Liesel Jones - Bruce called her arguably the greatest breastroker of all time but she is arguably the most overrated swimmer of all time. One individual gold medal now from 6 attempts. Even managed to lose an event in which she held the 9 fastest swims all time in because she 'forgot to breath'. Pathetic!
4 - Liu Xiang - was broken mentally and possibly physically before even taking the blocks. And after 1 false start from his rival he was off to the depths of the birds nest leaving a nations dreams shattered. On the morning of Day 10, China joined the world becoming the latest of many nations to live, breath, and in this case die...sport.
5 - Men's 1500m Freestyle - An all time great in Grant Hackett was beaten into silver by a Tunisian who had been outed for drugs already in his career and produced a collective 16 seconds worth of personal best in the heat and the final to steal the gold. If he later turns out to test positive, the Olympics will have been robbed of one of its all time great moments.

See you in London in four years!