Michael Phelps – Well Eye Never

Following on from my in-depth review of our spectacular opening ceremony, I’m now going to take an extensive look back at the big sporting moments from the London 2012 Olympics, as I continue to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

I’ve been rewatching the highlights on the BBC’s Blu-ray box set of the Games, which splits the coverage across the middle 3 discs, hosted by Sue Barker and featuring lots of other presenters and commentators from the original broadcasts. Considering they had so much to choose from, I think they did a very good job picking out a lot of the most important and memorable achievements, as it is a very extensive compilation. There will always be a few things that people are disappointed that they missed out, it would be impossible to please everyone.

The BBC’s animated title sequence, showing lots of different sports in action, is a wonderful introduction to it all, accompanied by a fantastic tune called First Steps by Elbow (with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and NovaVox Gospel Choir), that gets increasingly epic as it progresses. It was released as a charity single in aid of Children In Need & Sport Relief, and there’s an interesting video online about the making of the tune and the title sequence, which gives a nice insight into how it all came together.

Naturally the focus of the BBC’s Blu-ray set, and my personal interest, is on Team GB, who did exceptionally well. They were clearly driven on to great success by virtue of being in front of hugely supportive home crowds, which enhanced their already amazing talents. But there are several big names from other nations who get a mentionalong the way as well.

So, for this post, here are the many athletes and results that stand out for me from the first 8 days of the Games, finishing on the now legendary Super Saturday. I’ve linked to various BBC articles throughout, some of which include clips from their TV coverage (which are only available to UK viewers), along with some items of interest from other sites. I’ve also created an Olympics playlist on Youtube that’s full of highlights, including a lot of footage from the official Olympics Youtube channel with their own commentators, along with interview footage and other random but relevant clips, so feel free to look through that as well. I hope you enjoy!