 |
| Orion Group |
Britain opened its Olympics with a royal entrance like no other. London greeted the world in a celebration of Old England
that was stunning, imaginative, whimsical, and dramatic. Cheeky, too, with a stand-in for Queen Elizabeth II parachuting into
Olympic Stadium, accompanied by James Bond, no less. Brit director Danny Boyle masterminded the festivities. As for the top-
secret torch-lighter(s): Seven teenage British athletes got the honor.
Much of the opening ceremony was an encyclopedic review of British music history, from a 1918 Broadway standard adopted by
the West Ham soccer team to The Who's "My Generation" to "Bohemian Rhapsody," by still another Queen. The evening started
with fighter jets streaming red, white, and blue smoke and roaring over the stadium, packed with a buzzing crowd of 60,000
people. An explosion of fireworks against the London skyline and Paul McCartney's singalong ("Hey Jude" was one) wrapped
things up.
Best sports
They have won the most medals in xoxing, athletics and swimming but only Khotso Mokoena could muster a silver medal in the
long jump in Beijing 2008 Star performers
World champion 800m runner Caster Semenya was so dominant in the 2010 season that the IAAF thought it was appropriate to
subject her to a gender test, to prove she did not have an unfair competitive advantage. She is a strong medal contender, and
will hope to follow in the tradition of medal winning South African runners, including Josia Thugwane, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and
Daphne Robb-Hasenjager. Most of the focus of the South African squad will be on Oscar Pistorius. Affectionately nicknamed as
'Blade Runner' the double amputee has been selected to run in the 400m and the 4x 400m and in doing so will become the first
double amputee ever to compete at the games. Chad Le Clos will compete in four swimming disciplines and is the Commonwealthchampion over the 200m Butterfly. Fellow swimmer In 2008, amputee Natalie du Toit made history by competing in the open water
10km swim, in which she came 16th.
No comments:
Post a Comment