The fifth book in my challenge to ready 12 non-fiction books in 2013 is Making History at London 2012, 25 Iconic Moments of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
This time a year ago I was in the middle of putting together a supplement about the Games, and preparing coverage of the Olympic Torch relay. It's amazing to think that in the two months that followed, we saw some of the best sport ever played.
I got sent Making History at London 2012 last year, at the time of its release, but after a whirlwind summer where I felt like I lived and breathed the Games, I didn't read it. It's fitting to go back to it now, as we approach the first anniversary of the Games.
Edited by Brendan Gallagher, chief sports feature writer at The Daily Telegraph, Making History at London 2012 is a collection of essays by journalists (and the design principal for the Games) on a variety of subjects, from the bid for the 2012 Games to the opening ceremony to the construction of the park to an analysis of the great sport we saw.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games are touted as 'the greatest show on earth', and this book celebrates that. There are no mentions of any protests around the Games, and very few of the sporting failures. Instead, this book does what Brits so often don't do but learnt to during the Games - lauds our achievements as a nation (as well as praising a few international athletes). It's a one-sided look at the Games, but what a great side the writers picked.
As I read Tom Knight's recap of Danny Boyle's Olympic opening ceremony, Pat Rowley's account of how Team GB women's hockey captain Kate Walsh returned to the tournament after surgery on a fractured jaw, Craig Lord's piece on Michael Phelps' historic Games, and more, I felt the emotions of London 2012 coming back to me.
It was a truly glorious summer, where all of Britain got caught up in a sense of triumph and where we watched as a Games we all held niggling doubts about went off without a hitch. Not everything great about the Games is mentioned in Making History at London 2012, but with such a phenomenally successful Games (the best in history some would say), there was no way to include it all. Gallagher says in his introduction:
"There was just so much to take in, and there still is. As ever, the greatest challenge lies in deciding what to leave out."
What's included in this book is a great selection, and the rest will live on in our memories.
Pride, joy, wonder - they were all emotions that coursed through me as I watched the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games in the Olympic Stadium.
I was lucky enough to get a last-minute ticket to the show, and I'm so glad I did - it's an experience I hope never to forget.
From the moment I walked into the Stadium and was stunned by its size and the riot of colour that made up the stage for the main show to the moment I left, surrounded by a sea of people on a high from what they'd just seen, every moment was close to perfect (despite the cold).
Months ago, when it was announced the opening ceremony would be titled Enlightenment I met and briefly interviewed Jenny Sealey and Bradley Hemmings, co-artistic directors of the show.
Both of them said something that has stuck in my mind ever since - that they didn't want people to watch the show and go: "Wow, wasn't that an amazing show for a group of people with disabilities?" Instead, they wanted people to watch the show and go: "Wow, wasn't that an amazing show?"
Well, they succeeded, at least in my mind. I was stunned by the scenes I saw last night, from people flying in on umbrellas to the performers swinging dangerously back and forth on the sway poles to the performance of Spasticus Autisticus (a personal favourite moment) to Professor Stephen Hawking wowing the crowd with his words, challenging us to challenge our own preconceptions and to reach for the stars.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew many of the performers in the opening ceremony were disabled, but watching in the Stadium, where I could either look at the action as a whole in front of me or in bits on the television screen, I had little concept of which of the dancers or singers or actors had missing limbs or were deaf or partially sighted. To me, they all just looked like a group of phenomenally talented people.
Talent was found in abundance. I loved the performances of Spirit in Motion and Eternal Source of Light Divine, with the singers of each causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. As a keen reader, the sequence with all the books made me extremely happy, and seeing all the talented performers who took on aerial work for the show made me gasp.
Of course, at times Hemmings and Sealey's vision to enlighten people about disabled people couldn't be avoided, but it was always done well, and at times with great energy, as when performers took to the stage to sing Ian Dury's disability anthem Spasticus Autisticus.
No one watching can have been unaffected by what they saw, especially as thousands of athletes from 164 countries made their way round the Stadium, clearly ecstatic to be in front of such an enthusiatic crowd. Particularly moving was ParalympicsGB's entrance, when we all surged to our feet as one in the audience and cheered the team the whole way round, waving and clapping and hollering, and hoping we'd get a wave back.
Hemmings and Sealey put together a brilliantly crafted show, which contained humour and anger and hope and beauty, and succeeded in Professor Hawking's mission to get us all to look at the stars. As we did, we said: "Wow, wasn't that an amazing show?"
So this summer will be filled with sport in London as the Olympics and Paralympics come to town. I've seen the Olympic Park in Stratford many times as I've driven or got the DLR past, but I've now been inside for a look round. Much of it is still a building site, as contractors work on landscaping, temporary venues and screens and a lot of other things, but with the main venues built it's pretty impressive.
Tours are done by bus, because there's still so much going on around the site that it's not safe to walk around unless you're wearing a hard hat, steel toe capped boots and a fluorescent jacket. I don't look good in any of those, so I stuck with the bus and our tour guide Layla, who works for the London Legacy Development Corportation, which will be in charge of the future of the Park (to be renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) once all the athletes have gone home and the strains of the national anthems have stopped sounding.
To enter the Olympic Park on the tours the bus goes through a small tunnel, and on coming out the other side there's a partial view of the Olympic Stadium, the most easy to recognise building in the park. When the park opens for the Games all the road signs you can see will be gone, as will the concrete slabs, and the grit on the floor will actually be landscaped - I'm not sure if it will be a hard surface or grass.
This is the ArcelorMittal Orbit, which will become a tourist attraction. What you see in this picture is pretty much what you'll get. For a long time I thought it was scaffolding, but this is the actual Orbit. Designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, the Orbit is the UK's tallest sculpture. Visitors will go up in a lift to the observation deck, which is the spaceship-like thing you can see. You should be able to see across much of London from the deck. Most visitors to the Orbit will have to walk down the 400 and something steps back to the bottom. I used to think the Orbit was pretty ugly, but the more I see it, I find myself warming to it.
A view of the Orbit, which stands at the entrance to the Park, and the Stadium together.
Past the Stadium is the Aquatic Centre, designed by Zaha Hadid. After the Stadium, it's probably going to the venue of the most watched events. If Michael Phelps reproduces his Beijing performance in London, the pool will be filled will the echoes of thousands of people's cheers. Hadid was inspired in her design by water, so the centre has lots of curved lines and the roof is shaped like a wave. It's difficult to see from the side but aerial views show the shape properly. Since I wasn't in a helicopter though, you'll have to use your imagination or search for professional pictures to see what I'm talking about.
Here's the Copper Box, which will be used for Olympic handball, goalball and for the fencing part of the modern pentathlon. It's surrounded by metal fencing at the moment as work is done on the surrounding area, but you can see the really cool public artwork just in front of it, spelling out the word run in huge letters which glint in the sun.
The Velodrome (above) is where Team GB is likely to win many of its medals, as our cyclists battle it out in a variety of disciplines. It's one of my favourite buildings on the site, I like the shape and look of it, with the bronze/gold cladding that goes around the edge, which you can see a close-up picture of above and to the left.
The Olympic Park, before becoming the Olympic Park, was largely home to factories and workshops, and much of the water was apparently contaminated. It's been cleaned up and lots of landscaping put in. This area will be among a number in the Park where people can relax between events, and will be expanded once the Games are over and before the Park reopens.
This is the press and broadcast centre (I think), which will house 20,000 media personnel from across the world who are covering the Games. It's an absolutely gigantic building, and later this year the London Legacy Development Corporation will announce who has won the contract for what will be done with it after the Games. The contenders are for it to become a fashion hub, a leisure hub or something to do with technology.
The below photo shows one of the numerous signs hanging around the Park, and is for the workers on site. In case you can't see it, it tells everyone on site to be considerate, be healthy, be safe and be proud while working.
There's lots on the Olympic site that I didn't get to see because of all the work being done still, so just before the tour finishes it goes round to the other side of the Stadium, which is across the water from Hackney Wick.
And so that's it, my tour of the Park complete. I should be going round again in a month or so, and I'm hoping there'll have been lots of changes, so keep an eye out for another photo post. In the meantime, here's a view of the Stadium and the Orbit from Pudding Mill Lane DLR station.
