Well its over, and we will all have our memories of what made the London Olympics memorable. For some it will be simply that they were there either as a volunteer, a spectator or even a participant. For most of us I guess we will have consumed the Olympics by watching the television coverage.
The need for immediacy has seen athletes asked that favourite question of pundits "How do you feel" when they were barely able to speak for exhaustion, and on occasion we have seen levels of self blame and doubt that were hard to watch as they apologised to all who had supported them. The sense of failure was almost palpable.
There were of course the triumphant moments on the finishing line and the podium when the medals were awarded. which brings me to my main observation. How many times over the past two weeks have we seen the outpouring of emotion accompanied with tears? It doeesn't seem to matter what gender the athlete was; they just let the tears flow.
If the London Olympics has been a chance to bust myths such as the Tube won't run, it will rain all the time or even it will all grind to an inept halt ; then surely the one myth that has gone is that we (the British) are a repressed race of individuals who cannot show emotion. It becomes all the more paradoxical when you recall that just about a year ago a great deal of emotion was being expressed in parts of the capital but mainly of anger and perhaps frustration.
So are we now more comfortable with showing how we feel?
As we enter the Post-Olympic period and others will try and harness all this good feeling for various ends perhaps we can remember that summer of 2012 when Britain found it was OK to show how you feel and even share that moment with strangers.
