Silver is apparently the new gold

Well so said an interior designer in the Homewares store I was in yesterday.

“I went to a Trade show in Sydney last weekend”, she squealed with excitement,  “and I can tell you silver will be big on the home decorating front for years time to come.  It’s definitely the new gold.”

In candlesticks and serving platters maybe but even the Australian Olympic athletes seem to be under the impression that silver medals are the new gold too.

You see after eight days of competition we have little gold to speak of but are right up there on the silver medal tally. Along with Russia, China and the USA. It will be the first time since the 1976 games that we have walked away from the swimming pool without an individual gold medal. 

Shock. Horror. Great Britain, New Zealand and even Kazakhstan are way ahead of us. I am not sitting on the couch yelling Aussie, Aussie, Aussie oi, oi oi but kneeling on the floor crying Aussie, Aussie, Aussie wah, wah wah.

So in an effort to be more sportsmanlike, I would like to congratulate those countries ahead of us on the gold medal table…and there are a lot ……18 to be precise. And a big shout out to the USA who are hanging on to the leader board by one gold medal over China, and to the host nation, Great Britain, for some amazing and spirited performances.

And France - who knew you could be so stylish and so sporty!

I have been unashamedly glued to the TV. I am very competitive. In fact I could easily win a Gold Medal  – for sitting on the couch for extended periods of time yelling at the TV. However, with each Olympics I am inspired to move more.  And now I have found a new sport I am keen to try. I want to take up tossing a ball over a net on a beach even though I may actually be better suited to tossing people around the floor - for reasons I will explain later.

And as you would expect, after so much Olympic viewing I do have a few highlights and lowlights to share. 

The Opening Ceremony

Well done Great Britain. Your athletes uniforms may have looked like Elvis impersonator cast offs but Danny Boyle sure put on a classy and fun opening Ceremony. Queen Elizabeth and Bond were just fantastic as was Rowan Atkinson hilarious. And I loved the fact that talented young athletes who are not yet household names got to light the cauldron. The only lowlight for me came in the shape of a Beatle. And at the risk of sounding sacrilegious, Sir Paul McCartney, I think it’s time to retire…. flogging a dead horse I think it’s called. Yes, I said it. 

The Twitter Games

Isn’t it amazing how much trouble can be started in 140 characters or less. This is the first social media Olympics. A Greek athlete was expelled from the Games for something she tweeted. Then Police had to arrest people in the UK and US for threats sent via Twitter to athletes. Rupert Murdoch thinks the athletes should just toughen up. As he points out, he has received hundreds of death threats since joining Twitter but he doesn't run to the police. Personally, I would like to know why elite athletes are up half the night tweeting and facebooking their fans, friends and family.

A level playing field

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei had been the only three countries that had never fielded female Olympians in their teams. With all three now including women, these are the first Olympics in which every competing nation, 205, is represented by female competitors. That is a triumph. Now all Saudi Arabia has to do is give women the keys to the car as they are still banned from driving there.

Different shapes

With so much exposed flesh running around you cannot help but admire all the different body shapes.  I am loving what running on sand must do for your body because beach volley ball players have great figures. With those skimpy uniforms you cannot help but notice. Just ask all those men who have filled the stands with each game. I also have been spell bound by the rowing. The athletes  are so long and lean. However, to give us more well padded people hope that we could just walk from our couch straight into Olympic competition, meet  Ricardo Blas Junior a 218k judo player from  Guam.  He was defeated in the second round by someone half his size but skill comes in all shapes and sizes. 

Sportsperson of the Decade

The United States swimmer Michael Phelps. There are no words really but there would not be one person in the entire world who could not given him a standing ovation for what he has achieved. 21 gold medals across three Olympics.  Personally I think his biggest feat is consuming 12,000 calories a day for that many years. Like how?

Best sport of the Games so far

Everyone loves an Olympic underdog (no, I am not talking about Australia here). We all know that large countries spend millions on their athletes to bring home Gold medals. However, think about the small nations who have nothing - no money, resources, training  etc but who still participate in the Games. Meet Hamadou Djibo Issaka, a 35-year old from Niger. He keeps smiling even though he keeps coming last in the rowing.  Four months ago he had never been in a boat.  He won a place at the Games courtesy of a wild card from the IOC ‘in the spirit of universal representation’. His experience until then consisted of watching rowing on television. To be fair, there isn’t much call for rowers in Niger. More than 80 per cent of the country is Sahara desert; there is no coastline, no flat-water lakes, no rowing clubs and no specialist rowing boats. Much of his training was done in a traditional fishing boat.

The fastest man on Earth

Will it be Usain Bolt of Jamaica who wins the 100m final? He is accomplished. Not only is he a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist but he has also been learning Spanish. Why? Because he believes most of the really 'hot' women athletes speak Spanish. Nice to see him so focused on the competition, perhaps just not the right competition. Time will tell.

So onwards we go for the next week of competition.    And a final word to the Australian Olympic Team. Silver is only the new gold in interior decorating NOT Olympic competition. Now that we have that clear. Go on. Get on with it!

News Flash: There is a silver lining apparently. I just found out that the Gold Medals are in fact made of 93% silver, 6% copper and 1% gold.  So there is not much of a difference between the medals after all….maybe our athletes are on to something….no need to exert yourself.....I am only counting silver medals from hereon in. 

So, for those of you who have watched the Games, what are some of your highlights?   And don’t worry I do not take this competition thing too seriously, it’s just sport right? Besides, did you know the world’s richest woman lives here (perhaps she could pay to have those silver medals dipped in gold and we could pretend, lol).