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What was everybody's favourite Olympics?
My theory is that you get less interested in the Olympics as you get older. I vaguely remember Montreal, mainly for the opening ceremony with all the flags. My mum had bought me the Ladybird Book of Flags, so I was scanning the screen to see if there were any I recognised, and remember being hugely proud that I was able to recognise Brazil before the commentator said 'this is Brazil'!
First one I remember sport from is Moscow. A lot of the focus was Ovett v Coe, I was definitely an Ovett fan because he just seemed cooler, I found Coe pretty annoying tbh. So I was well happy that Ovett won the first race (800m) but annoyingly, Coe won the second, more glamorous one (1500m).
Another thing I remember was gymnastics. I don't know anything about the sport, but I remember there was some controversy with Nadia Comanech's scoring - the Russians had marked her artificially low to help some Russian. And it kicked off royally - the whole hall was booing and started chanting 'Nadia, Nadia'. I didn't know much about the politics of it, but looking back, it was probably a load of Russians being rebellious, not liking the fact that the authorities were rigging the competition against a Romanian who was clearly superior to all their country's contestants. I was just ten, and liked the fact that such a genteel sport as gymnastics was degenerating into such 'aggro'!
84 in LA was the best, when my interest peaked. It was so glamorous and so American! (I feel differently now, but when I was 14, America in general and California in particular had a kind of cachet about it... I think it was watching endless TJ Hooker that did it!)
Weirdly, I read that after Montreal's financial disaster in 76, it was decided that the 84 games should to go to Iran, because with the oil, they were the only country who could pay for it. But then the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah and banned competitive sport (78-9), and Los Angeles was offered it after Jimmy Carter said they could have some costs underwritten by federal government. Didn't do him a lot of good, Reagan was President by the time the Games came, but the American economy was doing better, so most of the money came through private sponsorship anyway (I think it was the first time we saw slogans like 'SUCH AND SUCH - OFFICIAL SUPPLIER OF STUFF TO THE 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES'.)
The actual sport was great, Zola Budd tripping Mary Decker, Daley Thomson winning gold and taking the p*** out of everyone at his press conferences, Coe (who I still found annoying) lost to a Brazilian in the 800m, Carl Lewis winning four golds, I was so Olympic mad at this point I even watched the show jumping on the final day!
88 was rubbish because all the stuff was on at about 7am (South Korea was hours ahead, ruined the 2002 WC as well), and then when we found out about Ben Johnson it became a case of 'what's the point of watching this, they're all on drugs anyway?' I didn't take much interest in Olympics after that, apart from the football tournaments that got better once people like Klinsmann and Caniggia were allowed to compete. I think it became an under 23 competition or something like that.
Can't say I'm too enthusiastic about the London Games with all the problems the UK has at the moment, it just feels like an added one.
My theory is that you get less interested in the Olympics as you get older. I vaguely remember Montreal, mainly for the opening ceremony with all the flags. My mum had bought me the Ladybird Book of Flags, so I was scanning the screen to see if there were any I recognised, and remember being hugely proud that I was able to recognise Brazil before the commentator said 'this is Brazil'!
First one I remember sport from is Moscow. A lot of the focus was Ovett v Coe, I was definitely an Ovett fan because he just seemed cooler, I found Coe pretty annoying tbh. So I was well happy that Ovett won the first race (800m) but annoyingly, Coe won the second, more glamorous one (1500m).
Another thing I remember was gymnastics. I don't know anything about the sport, but I remember there was some controversy with Nadia Comanech's scoring - the Russians had marked her artificially low to help some Russian. And it kicked off royally - the whole hall was booing and started chanting 'Nadia, Nadia'. I didn't know much about the politics of it, but looking back, it was probably a load of Russians being rebellious, not liking the fact that the authorities were rigging the competition against a Romanian who was clearly superior to all their country's contestants. I was just ten, and liked the fact that such a genteel sport as gymnastics was degenerating into such 'aggro'!
84 in LA was the best, when my interest peaked. It was so glamorous and so American! (I feel differently now, but when I was 14, America in general and California in particular had a kind of cachet about it... I think it was watching endless TJ Hooker that did it!)
Weirdly, I read that after Montreal's financial disaster in 76, it was decided that the 84 games should to go to Iran, because with the oil, they were the only country who could pay for it. But then the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah and banned competitive sport (78-9), and Los Angeles was offered it after Jimmy Carter said they could have some costs underwritten by federal government. Didn't do him a lot of good, Reagan was President by the time the Games came, but the American economy was doing better, so most of the money came through private sponsorship anyway (I think it was the first time we saw slogans like 'SUCH AND SUCH - OFFICIAL SUPPLIER OF STUFF TO THE 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES'.)
The actual sport was great, Zola Budd tripping Mary Decker, Daley Thomson winning gold and taking the p*** out of everyone at his press conferences, Coe (who I still found annoying) lost to a Brazilian in the 800m, Carl Lewis winning four golds, I was so Olympic mad at this point I even watched the show jumping on the final day!
88 was rubbish because all the stuff was on at about 7am (South Korea was hours ahead, ruined the 2002 WC as well), and then when we found out about Ben Johnson it became a case of 'what's the point of watching this, they're all on drugs anyway?' I didn't take much interest in Olympics after that, apart from the football tournaments that got better once people like Klinsmann and Caniggia were allowed to compete. I think it became an under 23 competition or something like that.
Can't say I'm too enthusiastic about the London Games with all the problems the UK has at the moment, it just feels like an added one.
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