Legacy

So the first week of the Olympics has been and gone, but what a week of excitement it's been.

I don't watch sport. I don't do sport. I may join in and watch the final few sets of an exciting Wimbledon's men's final. I have been known to leave the country during a boring cricket match, and I quite often have to resort to locking myself in the office at home on a Sunday when the Grand Prix is on the television.

This week however, the Olympics have seriously got in the way of my life. An afternoon habit has developed. Having done a good morning's work, the temptation to turn on the television around 1.30pm while having some lunch at home is almost irresistible and catch up with what we've been doing in the morning. By then it's almost time to go over to the velodrome. Unbelievably exciting, and then at the end of the week just as one thought one might get a respite on the Saturday, my whole evenings viewing of “Take Me Out" “Dr Who" and other such quality programming is thrown to the wind in order to watch the magnificent Jessica Ennis from Sheffield (I would just like to point out at this juncture that I am from Sheffield too) romp home to victory. Top that off with an unexpected victory from Greg Rutherford in the long jump, and the fantastic triumph of Mo Farah in the 10,000 m and I could barely contain myself.

I'm watching Olympics, Olympic highlights, Olympic review and whatever I can find. I'm even down to reviewing the presenters. Claire Balding - top dog. You can hardly a workout when she's reading from the autocue and she's just so enthusiastic about everything. Gabby Logan - close 2nd, stylish, cool, and brilliant in an interview as she always manages to include everybody in the team with her questions. In contrast the men are wilful and lazy. Gary Lineker, obviously made out of the same material as the rest of the Thunderbirds puppets and Jon Inverdale, a miserable moaner who needs to get in touch with his emotions, and very possibly, his feminine side.

We're going to the athletics next Saturday night and I'm incredibly excited about it. I'm not sure how I'll feel a week later, a month later, or 6 months later. I'm not sure whether I'll have any Olympic legacy at all. I'm sure I'll still be trying to get out of the way of the droning noise of the Mannheim circuit next time it's on, but hopefully I'll understand a little of the excitement that people get from watching it.

Perhaps that's all we can hope for as a legacy of these fantastic games. The memory of what we can achieve. I personally think it's hardly likely that the Olympic venues will be turned into anything that can benefit the community, unless several of them are knocked down and housing is built in their place. The fact that no future plan is in place for the Olympic stadium, however fabulous it is, is worrying.

Let's face it. They played the legacy card in order to win the games and what a fabulous month of joy they have brought us. If the only legacy is memory then so be it. It's not a bad one to have. But let's hope, let's just hope, that these games bring so much more.