What were your favourite and least favourite NON-IRISH moments from London 2012?

Pisco Sour

What was your favourite moment from the Olympics and least favourite moment, excluding the Irish stuff of course?

Same question for the paralympics?

I'll go first:

Olympics:

Favourite: Allyson Felix winning gold in the women's 200m. Couldn't think of somebody who deserved a gold more than her. A supreme athlete, one who is 100% believable. Being in the stadium for it made it all the better.

Least Favourite: The women's 1500m was the sort of farce that puts so many people off such a great sport. Turkey have a horrid rep for doping and seeing them go 1-2, and being in the stadium for it, left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Paralympics:

Favourite: Glorious Pistorious in the 400 on the last day is close, as is Nataie du Toit and David Weir but the Aussie womens medley relay team winning gold by 0.03 seconds on the 2nd last day with 3 tenths seperating the first 4 was one of the great races you will see in any games. Honourable mention to Katherine Downie, member of that team who gave the most entertaining and enlightening interviews throughout the Games. Really brought a smile to the face.

Least Favourite: Having single and double amputees racing against each other. It's a bit of a farce. Also seeing some guys in the pool diving in while others have to start in the pool. Huge disadvantage for those who start in the pool.

dulpit

Mo Farrah is tops.
Opening & Closing ceremonies were class.
The weightlifting I watched in German whilst on holidays in Canaries.

Skid

Olympics:

I really enjoyed lots of the British performances (Murray, Wiggins, Farrah, The Brownlees, Ennis and more), but my favourite moment was David Rudisha of Kenya breaking the World Record in the 800 metres final. Amazing.

The Olympic Flame Cauldron was very disappointing. It should be a Beacon, visible from miles around, not sitting low down where it was. And after it was lit at the Opening Ceremony it had to be extinguished, moved and relit. Which defeats the whole purpose :mad:


Paralympics:

I have posted it before, but I could watch David Wetherill's amazing shot again and again

Worst Paralympic moment for me - Officials miscalculated the score in one of the Discus events, and ordered the Ukrainian Athlete to return her Gold Medal. Not good enough.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/sep/03/paralympics-2012-gold-medal-ukrainian

The 23-year-old admitted on Sunday she was "very, very angry" about losing her gold in the F35/36 class, after organisers announced the wrong medals had been awarded, and that those feelings had been behind her winning shot put gold two days later. Points rather than distance determined the final standings in the combined class event. The distances are converted into points to account for the different impairments of the athletes taking part.

All three athletes who received medals on Friday were asked to return them, with an appeal by the Ukrainian National Paralympic Committee for the original result to stand rejected by the jury of appeal.

Dan man

Olympics:

Favourite Moment:

Felix Sanchez recapturing his 400m hurdles crown and the emotional medal ceremony that followed.

Least Favourite Moment:

Women's 1,500m.....disappointed with the outcome of this race!!
Gutted at Liu Xiang's exit in the 110m hurdles heats too.

Dan man

Paralympics:

Favourite Moment:

Alex Zinardi, the racing driver who lost his legs in a crash a decade ago winning 2 golds in the hand-cycling. His charisma and "joie de vivre" persona made his victories even more special.

Least Favourite Moment:

The mix up in the women's F35/36 Discus whereby the wrong medals were given out.

Corruptedmorals

My favourite moment was Aliya Mustafina winning her 4th medal and becoming the most decorated gymnast of the games. Aliya blew the field away in 2010 when she became a senior. In 2011, she tore her ACL on a vault. It's among the worst injuries a gymnast can have, and has a HUGE recovery time. She was written off from being a top contender, and could not regain all her difficulty. One of her own coaches said she would get a bars medal and that was it, that 'her time was past'. She got bars gold, team silver, all-around bronze and floor bronze. And she is still not at the level she was at in 2010. She is only 17.


Worst moment was all of the tiebreaks. Gymnastics breaks all ties. There were 5 tiebreaks- 2 in mens, 3 in womens. It's insane, especially as other sports hand out multiple medals. Also the huge judging screw-up that meant that Ukraine thought they had a medal for 10 minutes and then were bumped to 4th. I didn't watch enough of any other sport really..

micar

Was in London for the Olympics. Was at the two triathlons, mens 20km walk, womens marathons and best of all Katie Taylors semi final.
There were all pretty amazing.
Happened to be Hyde Park when Murray won the Tennis. They had a big stage where some of the gold medalist showed off their medal.
Jessica Ennis came on and I am BIG fan of her. Was right up the front and got a lot of pics of her. Fine arse!!!!!
On way out of Hyde Park seen two guys out running with their GB Kit. It was the two Brownlee brothers (triathlon). No one knew who there were (it was a few days before their own race). Ran after them to get a photo. Looked at me quite oddly as I ran along then but told them I wanted a photo. Ran past them and turned around and they had caught up on me. Aggghhhhh!!!!Had to run on further and when I turned around, that said they'll slow down. Pure gents!!!!!. Took the pic, thanked them, shook their hands and wished them all the best.

Best moment - Jessica Ennis bum!!!!! Superb!!!!!!!

Worse Moment - it had to end!!!!

Silvio.Dante

Olympics..:

Highlights for me were the Opening Ceremony and Tom Daly's Bronze medal. I'm not one for following hype but after his dad passing last year and the abuse Tom received after the pairs competition, his medal was well deserved. Also his reaction of joy was something to behold when you consider the British rowers who were devestated at winning Silver...


Lowlight was the Men's 1500m debacle...:(


Paralympics...:

Highlight was the one legged Highjump. I'd never seen the like of it before and am still in complete awe. Amazing dedication.

Lowlight would probably be the Coldplay...:)

robinph

Best moment: being there.

Worst moment: the end.