Well seven years in the making and the 2012 London Olympic games are finally here, the opening ceremony will take place at London's Olympic stadium tonight at 9pm and it's due to become quite possibly the biggest TV event in history as 1 billion people from around the world are expected to tune in and watch film Director Danny Boyle's £27 million spectacular. I will be one of those 1 billion, but you should remember that there is also a build up to the big event which starts from 7pm on BBC 1 when it will be revealed who is going to be lighting the Olympic flame, rumours circulating at the time of writing this are that maybe it could be David Beckham who will be kicking a flaming football into the cauldron, and that its possibly Muhammad Ali, either way it will be a brilliant spectacular. Personally I'd prefer David Beckham as I think he was a key part in helping bring the games to London, second to that he is the most famous sportsman from Great Britain, if not the entire world, yes there are massive names in Basketball, American Football, Formula 1, MotoGP, Tennis and any other sport you can think of but you mention the name David Beckham to anyone in the world and they will know who you are talking about.
Following the opening ceremony the games will begin and 10,000 athletes from 205 countries will commence with the greatest show on Earth, that is of course all of the non Football events. The Women's Football started on Wednesday night, and Thursday night saw the start of Men's Football, unfortunately I didn't catch to much of it but here are a couple of results. World and European champions Spain were defeated by Japan, favourites Brazil beat Egypt 3 - 2, before South Americans Uruguay were defeated by United Arab Emirates. Then the big event, a historical one actually. Team GB started their Olympic challenge at Old Trafford and faced sturdy opposition in Senegal, the game finished 1 - 1 with Liverpool's Craig Bellamy scoring for Team GB. I watched about ten minutes of the Uruguay game, and the last fifteen minutes of the Team GB game as well as watching Team GB play Brazil in a friendly warm up game last week. I have to agree with BBC Football pundit Robbie Savage that the best Team GB can hope for in this area of the Olympics is Bronze. I have no doubt that it will be Brazil and their superstar centre forward Naymar that walk away with the Gold medal, but it's not a fore gone conclusion by any means. Uruguay looked impressive in parts, with Newcastle United transfer target Gaston Ramirez looking particularly comfortable, Japan were no slouches and United Arab Emirates also appeared to be very well organised, so it should be good to watch.
Now 304 events is a lot to get through and like me you probably don't enjoy all of them, so I'm going to run through my favourites. Football would be near the top but as this is the Olympics it doesn't take priority for me, you may know that I'm also a massive fan of Cycling, Mark Cavendish and Tour De France winner Bradley Wiggins in particular, cycling will probably come top of the list for me and Great Britain get the ball rolling for their first Olympic gold on Saturday morning as Wiggins and Cavendish take to the road race around the Surrey hills before a sprint finish into London, we all know that Mark Cavendish is the fastest man on two wheels right now proved when he won the sprint finish on the Champs-Elysees last week for the fourth consecutive year. Hopefully Cavendish and Wiggins will see Great Britain off to a good start.
Second to the road cycling would be the Velodrome cycling, rowing and of course I can't wait to see Usain Bolt in the 100m sprint. We also have a lot of hope in the swimming and diving. I really can't wait for London 2012 to officially get under way. How about you? What's your favourite Olympic event? Do you have a favourite athlete? And I suppose most important off all who do you think should light the Olympic flame tonight?
It was the first time in 74 years that a British man has reached the final of Wimbledon, Fred Perry was our last champion in the Gentelman's singles category, now in 2012 it was the turn of Andy Murray, the 25 year old Scot has shown plenty promising signs in recent years reaching the final of two of Tennis' major championships. In 2008 he lost out to Roger Federer in the US Open Final, in 2010 he again faced Federer in the Australian Open final, 2011 saw him reach the final of the Australian Open once more only this time to be beaten by former world number one Novak Djokovic. This year Andy saw himself in the final again, only this time it was the final that he so dearly wanted to win, The Wimbledon Championship Tennis' biggest grass court competition. Along with everyone else in the UK I thought this is probably Andy's best chance, but the threat of Swiss superstar Roger Federer was still a big one. It was kind of bitter sweet for me as I wanted Murray to win but at the same time it was fantastic to see Roger Federer make history in winning his 17th Grand Slam Title. I'm a big fan of Tennis and I think I can go out and say that along with everyone else that yes, I want the British players to win but at the same time I enjoy the flair that the likes of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic bring to the game, they are exciting to watch and their names are the ones which immediately spring to mind when the game of Tennis is mentioned.
Andy Murray came through the Championship this year with relative ease, he had quite a tough draw, one which would have seen him meet Rafa Nadal had Jo-Wilfred Tsonga not put him out earlier in the week. Tsonga was the man who stood between Murray and this years final and Murray made sure that the big Frenchman would not stand in his way, he won the first two sets before losing the third and then stepped up a gear in the fourth to take the match three sets to one. Federer was the one with the trickier semi final as he had to beat Novak Djocovic the man who took his world number one crown. I fully expected Djokovic to come through the match and reach the final, however Federer showed that he may be 30 years old but he's not lost it as yet, he stepped up into top gear and swiped Djokovic aside with ease.
It was a good start for Murray in the opening set as he managed to break the serve of Federer in the very first game, that brilliant start saw him go on and win the first set, however Federer never looked worried and much like his semi final he found that little bit extra eventually beating Murray three sets to one in order to take his 7th Wimbledon championship equalling the record held by Pete Sampras. It was bitter sweet like I mentioned above as you felt heartily sorry for Andy Murray, yet at the same time watching Federer play with such fluency was abslutely brilliant. Federer is not one to give away his emotions at least until the game has finished when he's prone to collapse to the floor in celebration of his latest major championship, Federer plays with such ease that at times it's difficult to think that he even breaks a sweat, the game it would seem comes easy to him.
Like everyone in the country and probably most of the world I found Andy Murray's speech quite upsetting, for me I had to keep my emotions under control as we were at a family BBQ, luckily I had a bottle of Stella Artois to sink away the heartache. I've put the video below for you to see, tell me you didn't cry yourself after watching it.
It was a brilliant final and history was going to be made by whoever won, but at the end of the day even as an Englishman I have to admit that on Sunday July 8th 2012 Roger Federer showed the entire world that he is by far and away the greatest Tennis player of all time and on the day was just a little to good for Andy Murray who will always be compared to Tim Henman. Although he is a far superior Tennis player to his mate you can't help but compare. Tim Henman played in an era which was dominated by Pete Sampras, he retired and Federer stepped into the fold. Murray now plays in era where the top players in the world are all of similar standing, Murray would stand along side all of them as he has beaten them all before, the only difference is he hasn't done it in a Grand Slam final. I think he will win one eventually but I don't think he will enjoy quite the success that Federer, Nadal or Djokovic have.
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