Jess and Greg were great and Mo Farah's race was the greatest bit of live sport I've ever watched. Hairs on the back of your neck don't even come close to the feeling everyone had up and down the country when he hit the front still with 400m to go.
Everyday we've seen wall to wall coverage of athletes achieving unimaginable feats of athleticism or - as they put it - letting their team and their country down under the shear weight of expectation that comes with 4 years of training for one single first round heat.
Having watched the first week's events, it turns out we're pretty handy at a lot of sports that are still effectively minority activities nationwide and in the large part ignored by school curriculums.
But it's not just the talent of our athletes that's impressive, it's the way they conduct themselves. They're humble. When was the last time that word appeared in a sentence alongside the name of a premiership footballer? Many of these athletes are supported by lottery funding, some have other jobs and all are making the ultimate sacrifice over four long years for their moment to shine.
This two weeks is the ultimate shop window for these sports. The beauty of the Olympics is that it's greater than the sum of it's parts. Minority sports will go back to being minority sports by October and only the most impressive of gold medal hauls will live on in the memory. So it feels all the more important to take advantage of this window of opportunity and encourage adults as well as kids to try something new. Yesterday's Times newspaper carried a small column on trying cycling, boxing, volleyball and hockey. Each obviously have their own organisations and 'give it a go' programs and while that's right for those that really seek it out, it doesn't feel like it's made easy enough for the majority of people.
Here's what i'd do...
- Find our answer to 'Jamie Oliver' to become a highly vocal sporting figurehead in lobbying the government - backed by the media - over broader (and more competitive) sporting opportunities in schools. And get a debate happening this year.
- Post games, run an Olympic led comms push around getting into these sports, utilising the current 2012 website that everyone is familiar with to maximise enquiries before disseminating to individual sporting bodies
- Harness the spirit of volunteering and club ethos to provide opportunities for activity all over the country
- Pressure official sponsors into investing in equipment to aid local clubs as part of the legacy
- Focus on kids but don't exclude adults, if recent statistics are anything to go by, they're almost in greater need of exercise and making it fun is more likely to make participation happen
- And finally, do it quickly. It feels like we have until the end of the Paralympics before the euphoria starts to recede and our new found love of volleyball goes into hibernation for another 4 years
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