My love-hate affair with the Olympic Stadium, one year on

I love the Olympic Stadium: the sheer majesty of the arena, and the fact that Britain has something approaching its very own sporting citadel. It stands as proof positive that the country is capable of building high-profile arenas on time, and on budget, after the shambles that was, and is, Wembley Stadium.

Full house | A year on from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic Stadium remains a truly special place, but one fraught with problems and contradictions. (Image | CBBC)

I love the sense of reverence you can feel from people as they make their way to the stadium. An intangible feeling of being part of something that is bigger than themselves.

I love the piquant aroma of positivity that seems to emerge from the place, like a perfume counter, making all that are in it feel a little more optimistic about life.

Is LeBron James the best male athlete in the world?

LeBron James’ ability to improve on his near perfect stats every season continues to confound NBA fans and pundits alike (Image | Getty)

“King James” is somewhat of a fitting name for Miami Heat All-Star LeBron James given his recent string of performances. He is blowing the NBA apart, revolutionising what the people conceive possible on the basketball court.

He has always been the prodigy of the NBA – the one – in the Neo sense, but since he finally won his first title last year he has been metaphorically stopping bullets. After cruising through the opening months of the season, James has begun to turn up the heat.

We must stop the hero worship

People love stories, particularly tales of greatness, and a major reason as to why the London 2012 Olympic Games held such thrall in Britain was the daily accounts of athletes finding the best of themselves.

Enn-chanting | Jessica Ennis storms to first place in the 200m, part of her heptathlon triumph at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Image | Evening Standard)

We had yarns of the woman who grabbed her last chance of glory, Katherine Grainger; the chosen one adored by her public, Jessica Ennis; or the wounded king that ruthlessly crushed those who would usurp him, Usain Bolt. They were the legends of our time, not just athletes.

The phenomenon of the sporting egotist

Ego | Cristiano Ronaldo is widely regarded as the most arrogant professional sportsman. (Image | Cristiano Ronaldo.org)

As William Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage“. Many of the most fascinating stories in sport come from the athletes who view their profession as exactly that – a stage for them to display their talents.

Personally, I do not subscribe to the maxim that says sport is entertainment, especially when justifying its more oleaginous aspects.

I have always viewed it as an athletic contest between either individuals or a group of people to determine which is superior. The fact that this happens to be something that is engrossing is a happy coincidence, nothing else.

London 2012 has shown the importance of the Olympic Games

A golden occasion | While Team GB set the nation’s sporting passions aflame, the effect of the London 2012 Olympic Games went far beyond the Olympic Park. (Image | Radio Times)

After the wondrous Olympic Games in London, I expect to already be preaching to the congregation with this piece. However, what has happened in Britain over the past few weeks ought to be repeated. This is despite the fact that for so long, the prospect of the greatest show on Earth reaching these shores was met with indifference.

The pessimism and apathy had begun to dissipate as the opening ceremony drew closer. Then a political gaffe from Mitt Romney only expedited this, failing to realise that like one’s family members, you can listen to the complaints, but under no circumstances join in. It almost makes me want to see him become America’s next president simply in order to observe the manner in which any future visit to Downing Street would pan out. The country still approached the beginning of the Games with a tangible sense of trepidation. Everyone had witnessed China host a stunning, albeit somewhat clinical, opening in 2008. So how would Britain compare?

Bolt stays among the gods at London 2012

Blink and you’ll miss it | Usain Bolt clearly had a point to prove when he won both the 100m and 200m at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Image | TalkSPORT)

As Usain Bolt crossed the line in first in the 200m, cementing his status as the greatest sprinter of all time, the doubts and whispers about him and his chances disappeared into the London ether. Bolt, however, didn’t forget these. It must be said that, prior to the London 2012 Olympic Games, he had hardly enjoyed a successful season.

The 25-year-old began by running a slow (for him) 10.04 seconds in the a 100m meet at Ostrava, before being defeated in both the 100m and 200m by team mate and friend Yohan Blake at the Jamaican trials. Bolt has often mentioned that Blake trains harder than him, hence his moniker, “the beast”. Following Bolt’s epochal success in Beijing four years ago, had he taken his eye off the ball? Was there someone ready to make a Henry Bolingbroke style claim for Bolt’s throne?

The 100m and other Olympic rivalries

The world’s fastest man | Usain Bolt dominated the Beijing 2008 Olympics in a show of speed unparalleled in the history of the modern Olympic Games. (Image | New York Times)

While the Olympics is often the setting for breathtaking dominance (Jesse Owens in 1936, Mark Spitz in 1974, Carl Lewis in 1984 plus Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps in 2008), there is nothing like a great sporting rivalry. Watching one great athlete in action is a treat, but seeing them competing against an equal makes for compelling sport. Excellence is a special thing. Excellence combined with drama creates must-see television. Bolt, for example, is a sight to behold when in full flow. However, knowing that there is a realistic chance that he will not win gold adds a delicious frisson to the 100m.

Make no mistake, hanging the gold medal around Bolt’s neck at this stage is foolhardy. The form sprinter is not the reigning Olympic champion – it is his friend and team mate, Yohan Blake. Those who claimed that Blake’s victory in last year’s World Championships should come with an asterisk have been made to appear rather silly over the past 12 months.

Bomb scare mars Olympic Stadium opening

For all its beauty and wonder, does the Olympic Park hold a fatal security flaw?

This weekend saw the BUCS Championships come to the Olympic Park in Stratford, and athletes from across the country compete against each other in the same stadium where Usain Bolt will hope to smash his own world record 100m time. However, 24 hours before audiences were absent mindedly marvelling at the centrepiece of the complex, and looking ahead to the Games themselves, a worker, aided and abetted by The Sun newspaper, was smuggling a fake bomb into the Olympic Park.

In a stunt designed to expose flaws in the security that has been organised at tremendous expense for London 2012, photographs were taken of the “bomb” and a video uploaded demonstrating the ease with which the worker was able to pass through security checkpoints with what could have been an explosive device.