Amazing!

The past day at the Olympics has been outstanding with a mix of inspiring talent and heart-pounding excitement. The highlight of the games for me so far was watching Simon Whitfield race to a silver medal in the triathlon. Jumping up and down in my living room I couldn't believe how he had come from behind the leaders and sprinted to the front looking like he might even have scored his second Olympic gold (Sydney). He was overcome by the German Jan Frodeno in the last few seconds, but his gritty performance was absolutely wonderful to watch. The triathlon is one of the most gruelling events and in my opinion the performances of those athletes are truly amazing.

Another highlight was the bronze medal win by Canadian hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. Not considered a favourite, she demonstrated determination and confidence in grabbing the medal from an extremely close field of finalists. During the entire race I kept my eyes on her and while most observers had been focussed on the leader American Lolo Jones as she faltered, I saw how close Lopes-Schliep was to medalling. You could see from her reaction following the race that she knew she was close - and a few minutes after analysis of the photo finish she was pronounced to have taken third. (I was jumping up and down watching once again :).

Alexandre Despatie in diving was also a joy to watch as he maintained second place throughout his six dives in the three-metre final and won silver against the tremendous and crowd-favourite Chinese divers He Chong (gold) and Qin Kai (bronze). This was his second Olympic silver (Athens) amid countless national and world titles. Despatie has always been beautiful to watch and it was great to see him succeed in Beijing - especially as he had come back from an injury earlier this year. I find diving to be one of the most impressive and yet stressful events to watch and am always blown away by the combination of athleticism and artistry.

There have been many outstanding moments over the past few days for many other athletes as well. The really fun instances are when we see the absolute thrill and delight of being there and competing well, such as the Russian women's pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva in beating her own world record to win gold, or to see Michael Phelps win his eight golds, or witnessing the rise of spectacular young runners Usain Bolt from Jamaica and Kenya's Asbel Kipruto Kiprop, or... The number continues to mount as the days progress and it's a pleasure to be able to watch these achievements unfold.