A Generation Inspired

What an amazing four weeks of exceptional sport we have witnessed as a nation.

It was a long seven years of tedious planning and hard work to get the London 2012 games to take center stage and now they are over with a blink of an eye. We had to overcome a few hurdles with G4S security not fulfilling their promises and the estimated costs kept rising whilst in the middle of a recession. 

Was there even any need for us to be worried? 

I don’t think so. Yes it was a huge risk spending the public money on staging the Olympic and Paralympic games, but look how successful it was. Finishing with 185 medals overall for Great Britain is a huge achievement and improvement since Beijing. 

All the worries seemed to be forgotten about as soon as Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony got underway. The pride and passion shone through straight away, it was a celebration of our past inspiring our next generation. 

This passion never stopped, the roar of enthusiasm from the crowds spurring on our athletes was incredible – definitely spine tingling moments. Not even the five-day wait for our first gold medal put a dampener on things, it eventually came for rowers Helen Glover and Heather Stanning at Eton Dorney.  

We witnessed a lot of unforgettable sporting moments, names we had never heard of shone through which was fantastic and fresh to see; Greg Rutherford won gold in the long jump and 19 year old Paralympian Jonnie Peacock beat the man of the race Oscar Pistorius in the T44 mens 100m to receive gold. 

London 2012 has showcased that we will not view disability in the same way again. The Paralympics always seems to be overshadowed by the Olympics, but after finishing with 120 medals they have changed the way we see the sport for the better. 

It was also a stage for the international athletes to stand up as well and what no better way to do this than beat the machine of the pool Michael Phelps to get gold in the 200m Butterfly, such a proud moment and magnificent achievement for South African Chad Le Clos. 

I have to say that there would not have been a more organized and successful games without the 70,000 staff and volunteers ‘games makers’ who gave up their time for free to make our games memorable. What a fantastic job they did!

Its small things like that which makes people remember what a proud nation we have. 

However the Government promised us a legacy, but will this follow through? These games were to ‘Inspire a Generation’ and this has been achieved, young children have new sporting heroes and want to be like them. It all starts at schools and sports club being backed; too many have had to close due to cuts. If they keep their promise we could continue this amazing achievement our athletes have produced in years to come. 

For London and Great Britain we have put on a spectacular show, this is just the beginning of something special for us. 

Twitter- @alice_stoker