Absolutely. It is emotional to look back at this and see how we made the games ours that year. Same with the opening and closing ceremony. It was a fantastic time.
The nostalgia, the emotions, the memories, the pride, the success, the brilliance, the wonder, the best Olympic Games ever held and the greatest two weeks to ever to be British - it was perfect! If I could find a way to bottle all of this and inject it into my veins I would I never wanted it to end!
I spent my summer in London and it was possibly the best summer of my life. I was so inspired by so many people, not only in the Olympics but the Paralympics too, I met the Paralympics GB flag bearer, what an inspiration he is. It's fair to say this is the best country on earth. Proud to be British and to have hosted an amazing summer.
admit it when you saw this for the first time you knew then and there the Olympics was really coming to London and the UK This was are Olympics and we put a show on for the whole world Thank you 2012🏴🏴🏴🇬🇧🥇🥈🥉
2 games have gone since in 2 beautiful cities but I’m pretty sure life itself peaked in 2012 with these games and then it’s never been the same since. Perhaps it never will.
This was purely a magical time. After all the pessimism in the years leading up to our olympics it was soon forgotten and the whole country came together to support our athletes and for those three weeks everyone was optimistic in a way that wasn’t seen in the U.K. since the ‘90s. I feel so fortunate that I got to go to the Olympic park to watch the games (handball, fencing at the excel, and football). We set an example for the whole world in how to make an Olympic Games sustainable long-term and no other country has matched us since. I felt so proud to be a Brit during the games, I really wish that we’d bid again for another Olympic Games.
Just watched this again, eight years later. So inspiring, and such a wonderful time. That summer was just the happiest time for me, a new baby girl, watching the Olympic flame go past in Peckham just after I'd registered her birth and then enjoying the wonder of the games for a blissful month. London did us proud. Fast forward to today, and we are overcome with Covid 19 and another lockdown looming. The joy and the pain of life.
+Russell Bardin Me too, camped for the 1st week, back home to Scotland for the rowing and super sunday on tv, then back down for the 2nd week. Amazing atmosphere in London. Cool hearing the medal results on the tube n DLR on the way into town every morning. Felt like the centre of the world for a couple of weeks. No one does sport like the UK :) We need a World Cup now - hope they take it off Russia or quatar n give it to us
Just looking back at this advert for the first time in years, and I wish I hadn’t been so hasty on London 2012 at the time, because after looking back on the whole thing, I can say that London put the best games on ever in the modern history. The logo and font used for promotional material was the only problem with it. I can also say that London 2012 was the last Olympic Games in recent memory to not be filled with massive issues in some way or another. Sochi had a doping scandal, Rio had a tragic death near the end, Pyeongchang banned many countries from entering, and Tokyo was delayed by a whole year. With Beijing starting next week (for the Winter Games this time), I hope this one runs smoothly for the first time in a decade.
With Rio just a few weeks away, I had to come back to watch this. Absolutely amazing. I will never forget that feeling, even though temporary, of us being the centre of the universe. So proud to be a Londoner.
Firstly, this is stunning. So well put together. Secondly, I can't believe that so much time has passed from the event itself!!! Still pumps me up though.
amazing opening of the Olympics! this was also one reason why 2012 was a amazing year for me! im still amazed that this happened when I was 9 years old! im also British American
Just reminiscing with this... Loved the BBC coverage. I remember having 7 screens on at once at one point... No idea why, there's no way I could keep track of them all but it was bloody lovely.
I remember it like yesterday, Summer holiday in London and the vibe was so lit and life was good lol. The standout Olympians from that year, Andy Murray, Jessica Ennis and Michael Phelps.
Me too. Some years later, I realised that the oneness and goodness and joy and togetherness we felt then was a sub-part of what the Holy Spirit can offer while we remain on the Earth ... as a foretaste of the full majesty ofGod's love. And that we don't have to give up ever, so no withdrawal symptoms needed...
Watching this again has brought it all back. Goosebumps. What a theme. So proud to have had the Games in my back yard. The joy and feelgood factor around the country. I think we peaked as a nation then. Things went downhill fast once this and the Paras finished.
I wish the BBC, Channel 4, and Eurosport would use this music for every Olympics (Both Summer and Winter) to show how this is the undisputed greatest show on earth.
Absolutely love this. The hair stands up all over my body every time I hear and watch this. Scottish...yet extremely proud to be British. Hopefully we stay united and see this great spectacular event again.
I always love it when I can see creativity behind a piece. Here it is just marvelous, how the creators took the sports out of the stadium and yet they manage to have it present in the back or as a shadow. A wonderful fusion of sport, art, music and patriotism [in a good way]. And I am also a fan on elbow :)
Amazingly inspirational. The combination of music and images perfectly captures the excitement of the Games - athletes pushing the very boundaries of achievement. Makes me proud to be British but also proud to be part of the human race (and it's not often we get to say that).
This is Brilliant. Every time I hear it, the excitement of the London 2012 Olympics revels through my body. The Part at 01;18 actually send shivers down my spin, and then towards the end of it, tears do well. Brilliant Elbow - Release it!
So sad the Olympics are nearly over, it's been a completely breath-taking experience, well done to all of the athletes, no matter what sport you do, no matter what country you're from, no matter whether you won a medal or not, London 2012 has truly been beautiful :D
Ive gone cold...olympics show freedom and togetherness. just 8 years later those freedoms were taken away due to covid. From 2022 make every single day count.
The 2020 Summer Olympics starts, begins and opens on Friday 24th July 2020 and closes, ends and finishes on Sunday 23rd August 2020 and Olympic Torch Relay around Europe, UK & Ireland started, began and opened on Thursday 12th March 2020 and ending, finishing and closing on Friday 24th July 2020.👍☺😀😁
Every time I hear this I see Chris Hoy, his face covered by that reflective visor, raising both arms into the air and roaring as he pelted across the line in the Keirin, his last ever professional race. I see Mo Farah, Jess Ennis and Greg Rutherford standing shoulder to shoulder with their medals around their necks, draped in one massive Union Jack. Gemma Gibbons on the ground, punching the air and looking skyward, thanking her mother. Tom Daley‘s entire coaching team, with him on their shoulders, jumping into the pool in celebration. Andy Murray beating Nadal to gold almost 1 month to the day after losing to him in the Wimbledon final. Peter Wilson falling to his knees in tears of joy in the double trap. So many incredible memories of that summer. I have never felt so proud to be British as I did for those 16 days, and don’t imagine I ever will again
Come back to watch this for the build up for the Rio 2016 games. So proud of the games we put on in London, but can't wait to see what twist Rio will put on the Olympics! PS, BBC got this advert ABSOLUTELY spot on for the London games!
I remember just before it happened there was a general feeling amongst the people and media that London 2012 was going to be a just little bit sh&t. How far from the truth was that? and the Gb medal haul! Who could forget 4 August, 2012, the middle Saturday of the London Olympics, Great Britain won six gold medals, including three in athletics in the space of 48 minutes. SUPER SATURDAY! Oh, and Wiggo had just won the Tour De France!
How very wise of you. I live and work abroad and students came and said to me that they had seen the above in some way (before I had), and I did INDEED ask more in hope than expectation: "What did you think? Was it cheap and stupid?" or some such. They were shocked at me, because they told me it was wonderful... And they were right, and the whole thing was the same...
Elbow got to "First Steps" as the composing work coincided with the first steps of the young son of one of the singers... They felt it fit in with athletes too. The cartoon work came from an Australian who had moved to London, and was inspired by what he saw of the ever-changing city looking out of his window. But all starts with the clouded but bright sky, the mountains and the waters in a U-shaped valley. The clouds have silver linings. A fishing boat we see tied up at a jetty is seen moments later out on the water dispensing what seem to be nets, but then transform into the buoyed-up lanes that competitiors at aquatic events in the Games are to follow. This is a profound image and story readily seen as referencing the Disciples who were fisherfolk shown the way to become "fishers of men"... In another hilly area (not so close to London!) a lorry is seen laying out hurdles along a country road. The hurdles placed along our way. A container port (Tilbury?) is then shown, suggesting arrivals and departures of things contained, before - for unknown reasons - we shift to the blue corner of a boxing ring, around which red, white and blue ropes stretch. A fight or struggle or contest is to take place within the confines of Britain. 0:22 finally shows London and again we see the row of distant lights that we have already seen several times. The only known building is the Telecommunications Tower (ex Post Office Tower), but there are many chimneys on ordinary houses, as well as some spired creation of Victorian architecture. We move to opening shops, and the archetype of London tradition "Pie and Mash", next to "Photo Finish" which obviously makes sporting references. Then we see that sailing is taking place by the White Cliffs of Dover, diving into the same lake, weightlifting at the same port, running next to the Pie & Mash, boxing at the venue we have already seen. The gymnastics venue is Tate Modern, but meaning Bankside Power Station! Long jump is being jumped on a cliff coast near a lighthouse, Mountain-biking in rugged hills with exposed outcrops of rock. At 1:22, a London street with a gasometer at the end. A velodrome that is also a vast quarried hole. At 2:17, the Gherkin, St Paul's, Parliament (???) and the Shard, which are then all brought within the Stadium, along with the London Eye and other landmarks. And I've got tears in my eyes...
Leo said it all very well , we spent the summer glued to our tv and we were fortunate enough to go to Cardiff to see team GB play and also to the Olympic stadium to see one of the evening sessions of the Paralmypics which turned to be the jewel in the crown of the whole summer well done Great Britain !
