LONDON – I wrote my Best & Worst of the London Olympics in Sunday’s paper but it was very general. It wasn’t personal. I have my own personal favorites that I’ve listed below.
1. Missy Franklin. I met her at the Colorado State Swimming Championships in February just to introduce myself and say she’ll be seeing my ugly mug a lot over the next six months. And she did.
I remember telling myself in the winter not to write any medal predictions. Good Lord, she was 16. No need to put pressure on her. Just trumpet the accomplishment if she makes the Olympic team.
I guess I even underestimated her. She bit off more than any American woman swimmer in Olympic history – a record seven events – and medaled in five of them, four being gold with four American records.
And all the time she charmed the world’s media with her smile, jokes and grace, even in defeat. Her parents talked in perfect two-paragraph anecdotes.
Here’s hoping she doesn’t go pro before she picks a college. I can’t picture this social magnet swimming six hours a day alone.
I have no inside knowledge on this whatsoever but if I had to pick where she’ll go to college it’ll be California. Head coach Teri McKeever was the Olympic women’s coach and received major praise from all her swimmers about the camaraderie she built during training camps in Knoxville, Tenn., and Vichy, France, and then again in London.
The reason Franklin is swimming in college is the camaraderie. Unfortunately for Jack Bauerle at Georgia and Dave Salo at USC, the other two main choices, Franklin hasn’t seen them in action. She saw McKeever every day.
Plus, her parents can fly direct to Oakland and see her regularly.
2. Usain Bolt’s 200 meters win. I went to track and field twice. The second time came on Bolt’s 200 night. It wasn’t so much the victory. I knew he’d win and so did the 80,000 other people attending.
It was the reaction. Imagine a stadium as loud as Mile High Stadium in the ‘80s all cheering for one man in a race that lasts 20 seconds. You have an idea of what the Olympic Stadium sounded like that night.
And our Olympics writer, John Meyer, who’s covered every sport under the globe, said Saturday night when Great Britain’s Mo Farah won the 5,000 to go with his 10,000, it was the loudest he’d ever heard a sports stadium.
3. Anna Meares victory over Victoria Pendleton in the women’s sprint. The velodrome was cycling’s equivalent to the Olympic Stadium. It only seats 6,000 but every seat is on top of the track and Pendleton is Great Britain’s pinup girl, the defending Olympic champion who models cosmetics.
Meares of Australia walked into a snakepit for a best two-out-of-three final. With the place exploding, urging, praying for Pendleton to bring home the gold, Meares remained cool as a shark and out smarted her in the second heat for the win.
It was the gutsiest performance I saw in the Olympics.
4. Cycling venues. Road cycling is real tough to cover. Road closures make a walk to the finish feel like the Appalachian Trail. But the sites for Olympic road cycling were gorgeous.
The site of the road race, Box Hill, is a small, leafy suburb with a hill full of switchbacks. It reminded me of an England you read about in romance novels. Cute little houses with flower boxes hanging from windows. Narrow, two-lane roads totally in the shade. Country inns with outdoor seating.
I also made a note to spend a couple nights during my next London visit in Hampton Court, also in Surrey County. The site of the time trial finish has a charming central square that straddles the River Thames and lined with outdoor cafes.
5. Gastro pubs. I have a food column going in the Wednesday Denver Post about the rise of London’s pub food. When I first came to London in the ‘70s and ‘80s, prisoners in isolated confinement wouldn’t eat pub fare.
Today, many pubs have replaced bangers and mash with venison and confit duck leg. High-end wines are available. You could take a date out for a pub meal without being called cheap or drunk.
I went to a place Saturday night called The Horseshoe in the fashionable Hampstead neighborhood, not far from Arsenal’s Emeritus Stadium. I had a terrific fish off the coast of Cornwall called a Cornish plaice that was lightly grilled and covered with button mushrooms.
The best was a dessert called an Eton Mess. Invented at Eton College, where they should know better, it’s basically a big pile of fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries in a messy glob of meringue.
A very sweet way to end my Olympics.