Olympics Day 14: Artistic merit

Aside from the usual finals in things like athletics, Friday was a day for the more artistic Olympic pursuits like rhythmic gymnastics, synchronised swimming and diving. The argument is whether these actually belong in a competition whose central slogan is "faster, higher, stronger". Of course, this same argument could apply to most of the team sports contested at Olympic level. And when I think about this logically, I start to wonder.

Tonight the poster boy for the London Olympics, Tom Daley, seemed to struggle with the pressure. At just 18, competing in his second Games, it's difficult to imaging how he's coping with the expectations of the entire nation. And it's also not surprising that he struggled with his dives tonight. At least he qualified for the final, so the nation can sleep easily tonight. Even as he plays each dive over and over again in his mind's eye.

Today I had a busy day but I hardly saw any of the action. Although I was reporting on the action from 7.45am to 6.45pm, I only watched bits of the diving on TV and that's about it. I missed all of the athletics, which I'll try to catch up with. I also took a trip into an unusually crowded West End this afternoon - people are really buzzing in London at the moment! The whole city is throbbing with positive vibes. It will be interesting to see how this plays out after the Paralympics end in a month's time.