london 2012

Although the London 2012 Olympic Games have now finished, there are certain moments that people will never forget. Here we pick our six most memorable moments of the Games (with a slight British bias of course!). Click on the titles of each moment to watch them:
 

After two weeks of glorious, unforgettable sporting action, London 2012 came to an end last night with a Closing Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium. Some of the biggest musicians in the world joined together to present a collection of some of the best-known British music, as the athletes danced in the stadium and the responsibility was passed on to Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Last Weekend of Sport

However, before all the closing party, there was one last weekend of Olympic sport to enjoy. Team GB made sure they went out with a bang, claiming another four gold medals over the weekend. Luke Campbell and Anthony Joshua both took boxing golds, whilst Ed McKeever won the kayak 200m sprint. However, it was Mo Farah who grabbed most of the headlines, adding the 5,000m gold to the one he won for the 10,000m. It was the first time a Brit had ever completed this unique Olympic double, and firmly placed Farah as one of the stand out performers for Britain at the Games.

All this was amongst Usain Bolt taking another gold medal and setting another world record, as his Jamaican team strolled to the men's 4x100m relay. Bolt celebrated with Mo Farah afterwards, both copying the other's famous celebratory pose:

Whilst Usain Bolt was getting all the plaudits last night after his second gold medal of the Olympics, perhaps there was a runner more deserving of credit who ran earlier in the day.

Manteo Mitchell from the United Sates was half way though his leg of the men's 4x400m relay heats when he felt a snap in his leg. As Mitchell himself explains:

"As soon as I took the first step past the 200m mark, I felt it break. I heard it. I even put out a little war cry but the crowd was so loud you couldn't hear it. I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half."

However, instead of pulling up injured and not finishing the race (something I don't think anyone could have blamed him for), he decided to carry on:

"I didn't want to let the three guys or the team down, so I just ran on it. It hurt so bad. I'm pretty amazed that I still split close to 45 seconds on a broken leg."

So, not only did Mitchell finish his lap, he finished it in a quick time, and amazingly the US went on to qualify for the final as the second fastest team at London 2012. An x-ray after the race revealed that he had indeed broken the fibula bone in his left leg.

Whilst the Olympics is obviously all about hard work, individual skill and moments of glory, bits of it can still be pretty funny. Here we have a round-up of the five funniest photos of London 2012 so far.  

German diver Sascha Klein is clearly trying really hard in the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park (above).

After four days of near misses and disappointing performances, Team GB finally claimed their first gold medal yesterday. And, just like buses in London, you wait for ages and then two come along at once.

Gold in the Rowing

First to break Britain's duck were rowing pair Helen Glover and Heather Stanning. They set out as favourites, but with the weight of expectation from a whole nation they were under huge pressure. However, almost from the start it was clear they were feeling good, and just 250m into the 2000m race, they were miles ahead of their rivals. They carried it on and comfortably won Britain its first gold medal of the London 2012 Games, also becoming the first British female rowers to ever win an Olympic gold. After the race, Helen Glover revealed:

"We kidded ourselves that there was no pressure. The last thing we said to each other was 'it's just for us, it's just for us', but it was for the whole of the team and the whole of the country. Now we've finished we can say there was pressure; there was expectation. It's just brilliant. I hope the crowd really enjoyed today."

Meanwhile, Heather Stanning is already planning to return to her day job- in the army: