Unless you have been living on another planet for the last
few years you will of course know that today the games of the XXX Olympiad
begin in London.
It amazed me that it was seven years ago when the nation
held its collective breath as, at a little podium in Singapore, our fate was
announced. Used to being the perennial also ran I found it hard to imagine that
Britain would scoop this ultimate prize, much as I wanted it to. I distinctly
remember the wait. I was at Whirlowbrook Hall in Sheffield taking part in a
consultation day for the Library Management Software company that provided the
system my library used. (my how my life
has changed... but that’s a post for another time!) We didn’t have access to TV or radio but the
technical manager running the day had a WAP enabled phone – quite the rarity in
those days and definitely experimental (for which substitute flaky)
technology. The signal was patchy out at
the hall but we did manage to get that we were down to the last two contenders.
At which point we ceased to get any signal at all. As he frantically pushed
buttons on the phone trying to get it to release the essentially information we
heard a loud cheer from the halls kitchens. “Have we got it?” “We must have, otherwise why would they be
cheering?” ... the start of grins until someone said “But what if the kitchen staff
is French?” A scout was rapidly dispatched who was able to come back with the
happy news that the kitchen staff were indeed good Yorkshire folk and the games
were ours. I am not sure what else we managed to achieve with the library
management system that day but I know that I spent it in a happy haze that the
Olympics were coming to the city I loved.
Since then my world and the world I live in has changed
monumentally. Just the day following we were dragged to a different, darker
reality with those dreadful scenes of the 7/7 bombs. A bloody and destroyed
bus, its top pealed back like a tin can, becoming the dominant image that
shoved the jubilant scenes of the day before to the back of the cupboard. Then
a massive global recession that has left so many questioning whether holding
the games here is the sensible thing to do, spending so much money when many
are struggling to make ends meet.
But we are here, and despite what the detractors and moaners
might have us believe, we are essentially ready. The eyes of the world we be
upon us and I believe that we will not be found wanting. The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius,
Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger"
and certainly the competitors will be straining for this with
every fibre of their being..... but what of the rest of us who struggle to run
for the bus in the morning let alone run for Olympic glory? What can the Olympics be for us?
Well call me naive and a dreamer if you like but that I
think there is something magical that every four years the world unites behind
a single event. Yes it's a competition
and so there will be winners and losers in the classic competitive sense of the
word... but to my mind it’s more than
that. For at each games an Olympic truce is signed up to by all the competing
nations. Dating back to the ancient games this was originally a practical step
to ensure safe passage of all athletes to the games. Now it may be seen as
nothing more than a hollow gesture – after all do we really think the Taliban
are going to stop firing on foreign troops because they both nations have teams
in the games, or that North and South Korea are going to become close friends
for the next three weeks. Of course
not... but was it does do is set a standard, an ideal, a dream if you like,
that such a thing might just be possible. We all love an underdog, the Olympic games
proves that more than most – who can forget Eddie the Eagle on the ski jump or
Eric the Eel swimming farther than he had ever done in the slowest Olympic time
recorded. Was that pointless, no for it allowed others to dream that maybe,
just maybe they could get to the games themselves. So to with the truce – dare we
let ourselves dream that one day real peace may be possible, that one day all
nations of the world will be able to join together harmoniously as a living embodiment
of the Olympic rings? We may never strive to be faster than Usain Bolt but we can strive to be
stronger than the forces of evil and aim higher than that which we see before
us. Now that’s an Olympic dream I believe we can achieve.
