I thought it would be remiss of me to trawl this blog with post after post of endless Hanja and not mention the Olympic Games which just wrapped up in Beijing.
Scene from Beijing's closing ceremony
Truth be told – despite all the goings on this year before the Games commmenced, before the American stabbing, the funny business to do with the opening ceremony, the funny business to do with the hiring procedures of female volunteers, the funny business of having pre-pubescent 14 year olds winning gymnastics gold medals, and the impossibility of legal protests – Beijing actually did a great job and pulled off a wonderful and memorable Olympic games.
Michael Phelps - an unattractive bugger with a face you'd like to smack but you gotta give him credit, he sure can swim
Being in Korea I was feasted on a steady diet of any and every sport which contained a Korean competitor and as such had the pleasure watching hour after hour of Women’s Handball, Archery, Badminton, Female Weightlifting, Judo, Taekwondo and Table Tennis – truly breathtaking stuff! Luckily, by the time the second week had rolled over, most Korean competitors had competed their events so I was able to see a healthy dose of athletics amongst other sports.
The man of the Games would have to be Michael Phelps with his incredible eight gold medals. Though, on a personal note, I found Usain Bolt‘s performances more memorable not only because of his domination and the relative ease at which he won his three gold medals – but largely because I had the pleasure of seeing his three gold medals live which unfortunately wasn’t the case for me with Michael Phelps’ triumphs.
Usain Bolt cruises to victory in world record time in the mens 100 metre sprint
In the end, it seemed almost everyone was happy. The Chinese won the gold medal tally; the US, the overall tally; the Poms beat the Aussies; Australia beat Korea; the Koreans beat the Japanese; the Russians beat Georgia; and Afghanistan and East Timor – amongst others - won their first ever Olympic medals. Good stuff.
Bring on London. If Boris Johnson‘s speech is anything to go by, we’re in for a great time …
