Olympic Review: Rowing and Cycling

by Lizzie

I really loved the sit down sports at the Olympics. In fact, so did the athletes it seemed to be our biggest medal haul. Everyone was saying at the time "the British Olympians are great at sitting down sports".

Anyway, my point is, I really enjoyed the cycling and rowing. I didn't think I would ever come across these two coins so was pleased to finally get them in my change in recent weeks.

The rowing coin (designed by David Podmore) is a bit dodgy quite frankly. What's all that weird text about "Excellence, friendship, fair play, friendship, respect, excellence, fair play"? Okay we get it, it's about team work, but isn't any team sport? I'd prefer to have seen the slogan "there's no 'I' in team". The boat's nice though isn't it? 

The cycling coin is brilliant (designed by Theo Crutchley-Mack). I love the clean lines and the impression of speed the image manages to convey. It's what I like to call "a good coin". Isn't Bradley Wiggins brilliant? And Chris Hoy! Laura Trott's gold. And Victoria Pendleton going into retirement... I loved watching Chris Hoy deliver his emotional interview after he had won his final gold. Then they brought out the Redgrave to congratulate him, who had till that point held the record for the most decorated Olympian of all time [I could have made this up, I'm note sure. Perhaps more research was in order!].

The rowing was on a similar emotionally evocative par with the cycling. So many highs and lows and every race I watched was really quite thrilling. Particularly the men's cox-less doubles which really was heart-wrenching to watch the interview after the race followed by the women's cox-less doubles. What a wonderful televisual moment that was. It was really great to see the women do so well in this for the first time.

In all, 12 medals were awarded for to GB for cycling and 9 for rowing.