5 Judo
Two
people wearing pyjamas trying to grab hold of each other and tackle them to the
ground has never been so watchable. Great Britain had a disappointing start to
the Games in the judo competition, with high profile names like Euan Barton
failing to live up to expectations. But then that all changed as Gemma Gibbons
claimed a silver medal in an enthralling day of grappling. One of the great
aspects of sports like judo at the Olympics is that each weight category
completes its tournament in one day, making it incredibly easy to follow the
progress of stars like Gibbons. At first sight judo is a complicated sport, but
after a day watching it is incredibly easy to pick up the rules. Two
competitors try to bring the other to the ground to gain one of the three
scores; from the yuko, when your opponent is brought down but not flat out,
through the intermediary waz-ari, to the match-ending ippon, when you send your
opponent flat out onto the mat. All of this goes on while players, known as
judokas, try to avoid penalties, most commonly for passivity. The sport got off
to a slow start in terms of interest, but it is impossible not to be hooked.
4 Canoe slalom
When
doing an Open University style description of the 400m hurdles during the
athletics, Colin Jackson told us prophetically that 400m hurdles was “a 400m
running race, with the added complication of hurdles.” How profound. Canoe
slalom, then, is canoeing with the added complication of having to go through
gates. But it’s not that simple. First, competitors contend with the
artificially produced rapids. They are penalised for even touching any of the
gates, and must pass through each one in their correct order or otherwise incur
a devastating 50 second penalty (each run through the course takes about two
minutes). Then there are the ever entertaining “upstream” gates, where the
canoeists must pass the gate by, only to turn and go back through it. This, in
particular, requires incredible technique and strength, and performance through
these gates is usually the difference between contending for medals and making
up the numbers. As with judo, Britain got off to a slow start in this sport but
came good with both gold and silver in the men’s C2 or pairs event. It is
impossible to watch canoe slalom without swaying and straining with the
competitors, trying in vain to help them make the gate or get back upstream
despite being on the comfort of one’s own sofa.
3 Handball
Perhaps
the exposure of handball would have benefited from there being a competitive
Great British team. Unfortunately this was not the case. Of course, the name of
the sport leads to inevitable jokes about football. One observer commented how
the French handball team, which won the tournament, was so strong that Thierry
Henry couldn’t get a place in the squad. But when you actually sit down to
watch handball seriously, it is surprising at just how violent the sport is.
But what is more surprising is that the violence is just accepted. Fouls are
part of this game. Whereas footballers might roll around on the floor after a
tackle, and get angry at the perpetrator, in handball everybody just gets up
and starts again. Fouling even acts as a tactic, allowing the defence to
reorganise and repel the opposition’s attack more effectively. Then there is
the blatantly cruel way that penalties are taken. The penalty taker basically
gets to throw the ball at the goal from about five yards, impeded only by a
goalkeeper with minimal chance to stop it. That is not to say they never do;
the Hungary goalkeeper, in their quarter-final with Iceland, save a penalty at
head-height… with his foot. That save, with only seconds left, set up a Hungary
equaliser, sending the game into extra-time after which Hungary were
victorious. If I’m honest, I never really picked up the rules of handball. But
it is such a fast sport and an entertainingly violent yet somehow amiable one,
it became a must watch.
2 Taekwondo
Any
sport where the objective is to kick your opponent in the head is obviously
going to be a winner. In taekwondo, not only is this the case, but you get even
more credit for doing it with flare. A spinning kick to the head will garner
far more points than a regular flat-footed one. Jade Jones was undisputedly the
star of the sport for Great Britain, taking a gold medal with a series of
entertaining encounters. One of the beauties of taekwondo was that it could
move on so quickly. The point scoring system means various successful kicks get
different points, meaning a match can to-and-fro between the two competitors.
In one match involving bronze medallist Lutalo Muhammad, the score remained at 0-0
for five of the six minutes that the encounter takes, before bursting into life
and seeing Muhammad win 7-1. Jade Jones won her opening match after she opened
up such a large lead (14 points) that the match was stopped then and there. In
contrast, her final opponent from China came through her first round encounter
in sudden death after a cagey 0-0 in regulation. The classic exchanges in
taekwondo were those when the participants exchanged kicks rapidly. Naturally,
attempting a kick you also leave yourself open to attack which often led to
quick-fire back and forth attacks with both players accruing points. A very
fast-paced sport and an incredibly gripping one.
Great
Britain may have won 29 gold medals at London 2012. But the unsung heroes of
the whole event were none of these gold medallists, nor even any human being.
It was the impeccably trained horses of the equestrian events who stole the
show at Greenwich Park. Great Britain had major success in equestrian, with team
silver in the three-day eventing, team gold in both dressage and show-jumping,
and individual gold in dressage. Dressage was the most unlikely sport that
captivated the nation. Who would have thought a load of horses dancing around
would be entertaining? Yet somehow it was. It was never better than in the
final round, as Charlotte Dujardin confirmed her gold medal, when music was
added to the spectacle. Britain’s Laura Bechtolsheimer and her horse Mistral Højris
performed to a Lion King medley, while Dujardin and Valegro did their effort to
a medley of Great British music, from orchestral tunes like Land of Hope and
Glory, through crowd favourites like the Great Escape theme, to rock classics
like Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney & Wings. This was another example
where, after a short time watching, we felt like experts, picking out the minor
errors like we had been watching it all our lives. But for me the highlight was
three-day eventing, the true test of a horse’s adaptability and all-round
skill. Dressage, cross country and show-jumping, with incredibly designed
London-themed fences, with penalties for knocking them over or taking too long
to complete the course. It was enthralling from start to finish.
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