Into Geek: Laughing at London 2012 #2

Hello everyone! I am still alive and still obsessed with the Olympics. Hopefully I’ll do a sort of life update/ review of the games post on Sunday but for now here’s the second half of me looking at the funnier side of the Olympics!

I think we should start BIG with this one. The heaviest Olympian at the games was seen at the heavyweight Judo. His name is Ricardo Blas Jr, he represents Guam and weighs 34st 5lb (about 216kg). That makes him 10 stone heavier than anyone else competing in London and in fact he ways seven stone more than the entire Japanese women’s gymnastics team.

_{We shouldn’t really laugh should we? But that guy is hilariously massive.}

Obviously weight is a very important part of weightlifting but that includes the weight of the athletes. When two competitors life identical weight in an identical time, it is decided on the athlete’s weight with the lighter person winning. Russia Apti Aukhadov lost to Poland’s Adrian Zielinski because he weighed 130g more 9about 4 and a half ounces). That works out as about half a mug of tea. Aukhadov had had a cup of tea that morning and this cost him the gold medal. Losing due to a cup of tea must be extremely frustrating.

Still, at least Aukhadov didn’t take losing too badly. Australian rower Josh Booth was part of the Men’s Eight team which finished in a disappointing sixth place. Booth took it badly and decided to get drunk. Then he went on a bit of a rampage and smashed two local shop windows, causing around £1000 worth of damage and getting him a one way ticket back home. I don’t think Booth will look back at London 2012 with particularly fond memories.

Let’s move on from the losers to the winners. As we discovered in part one, some winning athletes just don’t want to be parted from their medals. Fencing champion Ruben Limardo, part of the Venezuelan team, took his new gold medal home on the Tube and happily posed for photos as he did so. Now that is cool.

^{Now that is showing off…}

Winning medals must be pretty exciting but discus gold medal winner Robert Harting, of Germany, took celebrations to a new level. He ripped off his shirt and did the traditional victory lap. Towards the end of this he discovered that the hurdles were still out so he decided to clear them, and did so with a surprisingly good technique for a discus thrower. That is how you celebrate.

^{I hope Germany make this into a stamp…}

Perhaps the best moment of the games so far was the legend that is Usain Bolt winning the 100m by a mile. He also chose to celebrate and was pictured with some of the Swedish Women’s Handball team at 3:45 in the morning. Good on him I say.

Apparently sprinting isn’t Bolt’s only forte though. He is desperate to play for Manchester United and really wants a trial. He said this: People think I am joking. But if Alex Ferguson called me up and said, 'OK let's do this, come and have a trial', it would be impossible for me to say no.I would not take up the challenge if I didn't think I was good enough. I am a very accomplished player and know I could make a difference. I would be the fastest player in the team — but I can play as well."

Another hero of these games is swimmer Michael Phelps. But you kind of lose a little of your respect for him when you hear he said that he pees in the pool. "I think everybody pees in the pool," the 18-time gold medallist said ."It's kind of a normal thing to do with swimmers. You know, when we're in the water for two hours we don't really get out, you know, to pee. We just go whenever we're on the wall. Chlorine kills it so it's not bad." That is pretty horrible Mike.

Perhaps my favourite thing in the Olympics though has been the Keirin, part of the track cycling. A man on a motorised-cycle leads the racers for two and a half laps before letting them sprint to the finish. But it’s an old man that rides the bike (it’s called a Dearny) and it looks ridiculous…