And in the end, the optimistic forecasts of a great Olympics by British athletes proved to be spot on: in fact, less than two days before the end of the competitions, Great Britain has already crossed the finish line of 59 medals, winning 26 golds, a result never achieved since the first London Games of 1908, however, when there were only 22 Nations present and the tales of the time tell of rules and favors all addressed to the home athletes. Therefore, excluding that distant edition, the previous record was that of four years ago in Beijing with 47 medals, already 17 more than in Athens, numbers surpassed by the great success of these two weeks, which brought the Union Jack firmly in third place on the medal table, behind the USA and China (who, as expected, raced separately), also to the delight of the royal couple William and Kate, very often seen in the stands following the various disciplines indulging in wild cheering, but also to justify the approximately 320 million euros spent in recent years for everything related to the preparation of their athletes.
And to think that the adventure of the British expedition it certainly didn't start in the best way, with no gold and only three medals obtained in the first four days, a fact that had even led the English tabloid The Sun to implore the athletes by writing on its website: "We want a gold medal, in any sport and as soon as possible, please". In addition, word of mouth began to spread about a possible curse of Tutan Cameron, or the fact that Prime Minister David Cameron's presence in the stands brought bad luck to British athletes, even to the favourites, especially after the disappointments and failures of Tom Daley and his partner in synchronized diving and Mark Cavendish in the cycling event on the road, referring to his presence also in the last Wimbledon final, lost by Murray against Federer. But, fortunately for the British fans, only satisfaction and great performances came from then on.
The first gold medal came with women's rowing, thanks to the duo without Heather Stanning – Helen Glover, who put an end to the spasmodic wait of the press and fans after 5 days and 12 hours of passion (some English sites have also timed the minutes and seconds), on the same day Bradley Wiggins also achieved success in the cycling time trial, a race dominated by the winner of the last Tour de France and which also saw the third place of the other British Froome.
It was just right with cycling, but on the track, that Great Britain made a handful of medals, bringing home 7 golds out of the 10 up for grabs, plus a silver and a bronze (four years ago in Beijing the gold medals were always 7, but the podiums even 12), establishing three world records. In a velodrome that recorded a huge success with the public throughout the week of the races, on the last day it was also possible to pay homage to the home hero (and standard-bearer at the inaugural ceremony) Chris Hoy, who with his victory in keirin added another pearl to a legendary career. The Scottish cyclist, to whom the Queen conferred the title of Sir in 2009, with 6 Olympic golds, two won in this edition, overtook the other baronet Steve Redgrave (5 golds and a bronze), the rower who at the opening was the penultimate torch bearer, becoming the most successful British sportsman ever at the Olympics. Chris Hoy's female equivalent at these Games should have been Victoria Pendleton (2 Olympic golds, 9 world titles and 26 national titles), but her decades-old rivalry with Australia's Meares misled her in the sprint, her last race of her career, where she had to settle for silver, closing this adventure with "only" gold in keirin. However, twenty-year-old Laura Trott has already taken up her baton, winning two gold medals in three days (omnium and team pursuit), becoming the new star of the velodrome.
In the blaze of British victories in these trials to be noted two episodes that caused quite a few controversies. The first concerning the wheels of the home athletes' bikes, defined as special, if not rigged, by the French cycling federation, suspicious of the many tenths of a second gained by the British and by the fact that they immediately slipped them into the wheel covers as soon as they were finished using them. A discussion that risked becoming a diplomatic case so much so that the English premier David Cameron intervened inviting the French to behave more dignifiedly by accepting defeat, especially since all the bicycles of all the athletes, not just the British, were fitted with tubulars produced by a French house. The other controversy concerned the race won by the British team in the men's team sprint in a tense final against France, which gave the gold to Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny (a boy considered the new track phenomenon in his homeland) and Philip Hindes. The question revolved around a crash by the latter in the first qualifying round, a mistake made on purpose, as Hindes himself later candidly admitted. The cyclist explained that he crashed on purpose to take advantage of a loophole in the regulation, namely that in the event of an accident in the early stages of the race, the team involved can restart the race, and since Great Britain did not start very fast, Hindes decided to use this trick in agreement with comrades. Not exactly the pinnacle of fair play, but the judges let the home team get away with it.
Two medals that made the British particularly rejoice were those obtained by Andy Murray in tennis and by Zara Phillips in the team equestrian competition. As for the Scottish tennis player, he managed to avenge the defeat in the last Wimbledon in the final against Federer, winning the gold medal in the singles tournament clearly beating the Swiss champion, who arrived in the last act perhaps tired from the epic battle in the semifinal with the Argentinian Del Potro. For Murray, even if he can't be considered a slam, it was about breaking the spell of never having won a major tournament, of having won a gold that Great Britain had been missing for as much as 104 years, but above all of having won on the Wimbledon courts after the last Briton had been Fred Perry back in 1936. To Murray, who, despite having admitted several times that he doesn't like the British and England, when he plays on those courts treated as the idol of the house, she narrowly missed out on the double, having lost the mixed doubles final with compatriot Robson against Mirny-Azarenka of Belarus, but still brought home another medal (silver) , while the adventure in men's doubles with his less famous brother, Jamie, ended immediately.
For the thirty-one-year-old granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth, Zara Phillips, however, it was a real fairy tale, with silver in the full equestrian team competition which made her the first royal exponent to win an Olympic medal, while the first to participate in an edition of the Games had been her mother Anna. The three cousins William, Kate and Harry had also come to cheer on the stands for the Windsor house rider, as well as more than fifty thousand cheering people. A few days later a gold medal also arrived for British riding, this time in the dressage event.
Another feat that made the fans across the Channel exult and excite was that of the sailor Ben Ainslie, able, in the last test of his great career, to win the fourth consecutive gold in the Finn class, reaching myths like “fellow Dane Elvstrom, discus thrower Al Oerter and Carl Lewis. To the four gold medals, however, the Englishman is able to add a silver won in 1996, which makes him the most medal-winning sailor of all time.
Once the competitions of the athletics disciplines began, then, other medals arrived for the British team, but for sure the magical evening was that of August 4, when three gold medals arrived in the space of a couple of hours. The architects of this great enterprise were sexy Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon, complete with a world record in the 100 meters, Greg Rutherford in the long jump and Mo Farah in the 10000m. These three successes were also portrayed as symbols of Britain's multi-ethnicity, with a black woman (Ennis), a white man (Rutherford) and an African (Mo Farah) sending eighty thousand people under the same banner into raptures. In particular, the personal story of Farah is striking: born in Somalia, escaped from the civil war when he was a child with his father and brothers, after a difficult start in the new country, he became one of the most loved and popular British athletes, a symbol of unity and integration between peoples and religions.
Another good story to tell was that of the Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonny, 24 and 22 years old, finished respectively first and third at the end of the three triathlon events (swimming, cycling, running). The two boys, who in their thoughts on the eve would have liked to cross the finish line hand in hand (something that the Olympic committee forbade a priori) instead arrived thirty seconds apart, divided by the Spaniard Javier Gomez. The image that will remain most impressed is that of Alistair (the winner) who, overwhelmed by the fatigue of the three tests, lying down awaits Jonny immediately after the finish, who, once he has reached the finish line, is embraced by his older brother, but also exhausted he faints and has to be taken to the hospital for a checkup, fortunately without consequences.
In this triumphal edition for the athletes of the Union Jack, the first ever gold in the history of the Games for women's boxing, awarded to Nicole Adams, the first medal (bronze) won in history by gymnasts and also a sensational brace in the C2 of the canoe slalom.
Up to now the latest medals (but probably the loot is not finished yet) that have gone to increase the British medal collection are the two still arrived this morning from the men's canoe (one gold and one bronze) and the four conquered on Friday: a silver in the men's sailing pair, two bronzes, one in taekwondo and one in boxing, in addition to the bronze obtained by the women's national field hockey team. The latter, in addition to the male colleagues who are playing for third place against Australia today, are the only ones who have given joy to the home fans as regards team sports tournaments: in fact, both for men and for women's volleyball, basketball and water polo it was a real bloodbath, with beatings one after the other and last places in the various elimination rounds sadly occupied by almost all these British teams. In the two football tournaments, things went slightly better, but in any case both teams failed to go beyond the quarter-finals, with the men's team in particular never convincing, mainly committed to silencing the controversies arising from the refusal of Welsh Giggs and Bellamy to sing the anthem, plus all the talk of the absences of the two home idols David Beckham and Gareth Bale.
Going back to the first week featured from the swimming competitions, even there there were more disappointments than smiles, with the British group crushed by the excessive power of the American and Chinese swimmers and with the English champion Rebecca Adlington who failed to realize the hopes of the eve.
At the end of this overview of the triumphs and defeats of these two weeks, a veil of sadness descends at the news of the death of Conrad Readman, a 49-year-old English gentleman passionate about all sports, who became famous because he had taken two weeks off and had bought tickets for every day of London competitions, nicknamed for this “Olympic Superfan”. Every day he followed his beloved athletes of all specialties with extraordinary perseverance and passion, but, unfortunately, while he was at the Velodrome to watch the exploits of the various Hoys and Pendletons, he suffered a heart attack and for this unfortunate fan there was no it was nothing to do. What is certain, however, is that he had already won his special medal…
