London 2012 started for me in the Summer of 1988. I was 16 years old and lucky enough to be a current Scottish International at Basketball.
My passion for basketball was huge, playing 30 hours a week some weeks, but I was always disappointed that there was no exposure to my beloved game on TV in the UK. This changed in 1988 with the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. I fell in love with the first week of the Olympics with all the “minority” sports which never get any exposure but who’s athletes, to me, had as much validity to anybody who competed in sport professionally. From then on I was hooked on the Olympics and the 4 year cycle – through Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and finally London.
I can recount in my mind significant episodes from all of those Olympic Games as I watched in wonder at the TV of the feats and dramas that unfolded.
When a bid came together for the 2012 Olympic Games, I guess I was a skeptical as most but secretly just desperate for the UK to be positive and to win the Games. I followed the bid process really carefully, I remember watching when the Olympic delegation came to travel on a javelin train from London to Stratford to show how easy the transport links could be made and finally, I watched live as the outcome of the bid was announced in Singapore.
It seemed to me that every single camera in the room was trained on the table for Paris, which was the hot favourite to win, except for 1. When the result was announced as London 95% of the room was entirely still as one set of tables with the London delegation went completely mental and 1 guy sat in front of his TV went completely mental! I immediately went off to tell my wife that I wanted to take my children to the Olympics.
I continued to go on about the Olympics on and off for the next 7 years and when it finally came around it clashed horrendously with a huge ITI implant meeting in London. As I tried to work out the logistics of running from Olympic venues to ITI venues my wife Alison took me aside and said ‘you have promised your kids for 7 years that you are going to take them to the Olympics’
I never went to the ITI.