These were a marvellous Olympics in a marvellous city’, said IOC boss Thomas Bach, and I agree with him! Hosting the games is a monumental undertaking and against all the other political, economic and social challenges that Brazil faces, Rio and all involved in the organisation and delivery of the games can be proud of what they achieved. I have often been disappointed for the people of Brazil when I have read and heard so many criticisms of the things that others have thought should be better or different. I know from my time travelling in the Navy that the Brazilian people are a fun people, generous, giving and humble – they will have wanted everyone to have had a great time and I am sure everyone did!
For Team GB it was an incredible games and with so many performance high spots it is impossible to single one out above the others. The fact that it was Britain’s most successful games for 108 years is probably enough said! We will all have our personal favourites though and I was especially inspired by Mo Farah, Max Whitlock (wow our gymnastics has come a long way!) our cyclists, and with show jumper Nick Skelton winning a gold at age 58, I felt especially good and realised I may not be finished yet!
I guess I felt a particular sense of achievement for the women’s hockey team. Maddie Hinch, whose amazing performance in goal confined hockey world champions Holland to the silver medal and lifted the gold for GB, is the daughter of a former Naval Physical Training Officer who I served with and who is a friend of mine. Over the years I have been aware of the huge amount of work she and the GB team have put in to get to this fantastic place. I have also seen how much Maddie’s family have supported her on the journey to the podium. Maddie commented that the medal had been 17 years in the making! This resonated with me in the context of our own performance trajectory. Our squad is fresh, exciting, committed and hungry. We all look forward to our own Rio challenge in 23 days time, yet by comparison to the successful hockey team we are still very much at the beginning of our development. We are still learning and building our knowledge about what it takes to win, what those small things are that make the difference and how we can consistently ensure we achieve them. Every time we play we gain a little more insight, a little more experience, and a great deal more hunger. As the team enter the final week of training before leaving for Rio they will be focused on the small things that can make the difference for us in Rio and I know we will be ready to take on the best.
Back to the Olympics and those best moments. It was great to see the rugby family now part of the games – the Fijians singing was a special moment – such a wonderful nation! And congratulations to Simon Amor and the GB team on winning the silver medal – a huge achievement. And I thought it particularly inspiring that the IOC should put together a group of 10 refugee athletes to compete for the first time under the IOC flag. In a troubled world it is these small but thoughtful acts that bring dignity and hope to humanity and trumps the negative elements – the drug scandals, corruption, the shameful arrogance of privilege that can if we let it engulf sport.
Finally, thank you to UK Sport and to the Lottery, they share so much of Team GB’s incredible performance. Now let’s get ready for our Games!
David Pond
