Final Set of Rings

I was just reading a great column about the stories of the games on ESPN, and wanted to draw up my own little list.  So, one last set of Olympic rings, one for each of my top five stories of London 2012:

Blue - Bert Le Clos, a man more proud of his son than anyone I've ever seen

Black - Manteo Mitchell, the American runner who finished his leg of a 400 metre relay heat on a broken leg for the good of his team-mates.  The story of the team from the Bahamas beating the USA in the final was great, but sad if only for that fact that Mitchell had to settle for a silver medal after his extraordinary effort.

Red - Mo Farah.  Of course.  You'll remember I was quite keen for people to support him.  Being in the stadium, with a perfect view of the finish line no less, when Mo won his first gold and capped that insane 47 minutes of British athletics was the best moment of my life so far.  Nothing less.

Gold - Kath Grainger.  Three times a silver medal heartbreak and then back for gold, in front of a home crowd.  The Scot has laid down a definitive example for every athlete who fell short at these games.

Green - The Games Makers.  The great legacies of the second London Olympics, in 1948, was the volunteer programme.  This idea has been used by every host city since, but few can have seen quite such a collective effort as 2012.  Seeing a young volunteer standing half an hour away from a venue armed only with a pink hand, smiling and joking with twice the enjoyment of someone who actually had a seat for the games was one of the most inspirational sights of the whole fortnight.  Full marks to whoever let them write their own scripts too - the inventiveness and wit was an absolute joy.  How can we start a 'buy a Games Maker a pint' campaign?

My absolute favourite Games Maker story is that of 78 year-old Keith Parkinson, who volunteered as a schoolboy in 1948 and was back in uniform again this year in Greenwich Park.