It’s hard to avoid the Olympics, it’s become a huge part of life in 2012 whether you’re excited or not. I’m not a big fan of sports, which is evident by the complete lack of anything related to the topic on this blog, but I have a personal affinity for the Olympics. (Cue overlong retelling of a memory that serves very little purpose to the subject in hand…)

4 years ago I was waiting to go into my first year of A Level, so had the longest Summer break I’d ever had. Once July rolled around, and I’d played through Metal Gear Solid 4 five times in a row (It came out on the same day as my final French exam), I needed something to occupy me. It was the first Olympics where I was old enough to appreciate what was happening and after getting into the hype of things I was on for a brilliant few weeks of events.

Two days in I was hooked, the time difference forcing me to adopt an awkward sleeping pattern. My TV would turn itself on at 5.30am, so I would wake up to the swimming for the first few mornings. I would keep watching until the events ended, and go back to sleep around 11am for a few hours. I may as well have been on Beijing time my day completely revolved around watching people I had never heard of competing against each other in sports I had never thought I would enjoy watching.

The swimming was an early favourite of mine, mainly due to the brilliant commentators who seemed genuinely into every race. Wooping whenever someone broke a record it was easy to be so enthusiastic about it when the commentators were genuinely excited. Badminton was an obvious one for me to watch, but Canoeing and Kayaking? The slalom events were thrilling to watch and given that I had never watched anything like it before I was totally into it. The cycling was a joy to watch mainly because the GB team were winning just about every race. The Athletics were the easiest to get into though, my Dad telling me about everyone who stood a chance. Seeing Usain Bolt score the world record was a moment to remember, rounding out the first time I had properly got invested in a sporting event.

It took until the end for me to realise the reason I got so into it, I wanted to get involved. I’m the sort of person who ‘says’ things, but doesn’t really ‘do’ things, there’s a reason I’m sat in front of my laptop writing about the Olympics rather than getting involved in sport. I had this jealously/admiration for these athletes who had dedicated their life to being the best they could be, the elation on someone’s face as they make it to the final of their event being as evident as those picking up the medals. Obviously I’m not saying that my life would have been better had I got involved in sport, it’s just that watching that year’s Olympics was the first time I felt inspired to ‘do’ something for once.

Of course, that makes it sound like I wasn’t doing anything at that time in my life. In fact I had just started writing for my first games website, had passed Grade 6 Violin and was about to take my Grade 7 Tap. It was easy to forget that while the Olympics are the high point for so many sporting disciplines, it doesn’t mean I can’t push myself in other areas and get a similar rewarding satisfaction.

Much like everything I write on here, that evolved into something entirely different to what I originally planed it to be, but that’s what I get for just diving straight into an article with the draft headline of (Olympics/Sport and things). I’m so excited for this year’s Olympics, especially for the night of Athletics my Dad and I have tickets to, and I’ve decided to write as much as I can about my time spent with such a big event in the sports calender. It’s interesting to come from a background of knowing absolutely nothing 4 years ago to the position I’m in now. To keep things in the style of my other articles though, I’m going to pick a song each day that reflects the goings on of that day to set the mood. I’ll be back on Friday night with a ‘review’ of sorts on the opening ceremony.

In answer to that question in the title, the Olympics will definitely be taking over my life again in 2012. (Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall is my choice for music because it’s sure to be the soundtrack to most of the BBCs coverage.)