18 August 2016

Winners

The Brownlee brothers today - Alistair with the flag of Yorkshire
Yorkshire is doing well in The Rio Olympics. So far, we have won more medals than Brazil. New Zealand, Canada or Jamaica for example. This afternoon, without actually travelling to Brazil,  I watched Yorkshire brothers -  Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee win gold and silver in the triathlon. It was a gruelling event requiring guts as well as natural ability... but eventually I manged to lever myself off the sofa. As Alistair approached the finishing line, he grabbed not one but  two flags from a generous spectator. Of course, one of the flags was the national union jack. The other one - light blue with a white rose in the centre - was the flag of Yorkshire. It was great to see Alistair proudly declaring his Yorkshire heritage.

And even  while I have been typing this blogpost, I have watched another Yorkshire athlete - flyweight Nicola Adams -  heading for the gold medal match in women's boxing. Raised in Leeds, smiley Nicola, the gold medallist in 2012, never forgets her Yorkshire roots.
No doubt there are more Yorkshire medals to come as we seek to better our medal haul at the London Olympics - where we finished twelfth overall just behind Japan and Australia but above The Netherlands, Jamaica and Ukraine. If only Yorkshire was a country in its own right...
Nicola Adams in Rio today.

17 comments:

  1. Nicola Adams seems to be such a lovely young woman. She was a guest on "The Graham Norton Show" a while back.

    I'm loving the Olympics and will be having to deal with withdrawal symptoms when it all comes to an end in a couple of days' time. I've become addicted and have been watching as much as I can...and that's been a lot!

    Congratulations to your Yorkshire mates. They've done themselves proud. :)

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    1. Have Australia won any medals Lee? I haven't checked. Aussies are supposed to be quite good at lager drinking and wrestling koala bears.

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    3. http://rio2016.olympics.com.au/medal-tally

      Medal tally as at 11.50 am Friday,19th August.

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    4. Ho! Ho! That was like visiting the zoo and poking the tiger with a stick! GRRRRR!

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  2. Go Yorkshire! Congrats to your locals.
    \
    The high school hurdler from my area didn't qualify for the 100m final, but she's got a bright future. Perhaps I'll blog more about this. I've been tossing an Olympics post around in my head, but I doubt I'll have the time.

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    1. Have you been tossing the unwritten Olympic post around like a shot or a discus?

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  3. It's great to see some locals make good. Now I've got to ask my wife if she knows about the Yorkshire flag.

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    1. You should order one and give it to the micro manager for her birthday - along with a flagpole to put up at the front of your house.

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  4. I've not watched even one second of TV coverage of the Olympics so far, but it is nice to hear of Yorkshire's successful athletes. Of other countries, I've only heard stuff on the news; this or that athlete were banned for doping - none from Yorkshire, though!
    Now, if someone would make me a skirt of bright blue fabric with white Yorkshire roses, I'd proudly wear it as Your Ambassador :-D

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    1. Such a skirt would look brilliant. May I also suggest Yorkshire flag bed sheets, towels and wallpaper. This would add a stylish touch to your apartment.

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  5. All you need to do is organise a Yorkshirexit and you will have 4 years to set up for the next Olympic Games.

    Alphie

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    1. You mean a Yexit? Yes. I would certainly vote "Leave" this time round.

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    2. Ha! "Yexit." That's ALL we need. I wonder how far we can splinter the UK into micro-states? Could West Hampstead stand on its own? And then we could re-join the EU! Hmmm...food for thought.

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  6. It was a joy to watch the Brownlee brothers cross the finishing line wasn't it.

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    1. It was wonderful and they seem such lovely lads too.

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  7. Freedom for Rutland I say.

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