The Olympic Games are often called the ‘greatest show on earth’. Athletes from all over the world converge at the Games to showcase the best of skills. Having an Olympic medal is considered the ultimate glory for any sportsperson. Held once in four years, Olympics puts on offer the best of sports action. It is one platform, where only the best thrives and wins. Legends are made while some are left heart-broken at the Olympic Games. In a recent podcast, former Manchester City star Micah Richards described an ‘incredible’ experience at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Richards was part of the Great Britain football team. Led by Ryan Giggs, the team also had Daniel Sturridge, Craig Bellamy, Aaron Ramsey among others. They could not go beyond the quarter-finals.
Richards told the Rest is Football podcast that apart from the sports action, there was unique experience for the athletes off the field too: “It was the party of all parties. You got all the different athletes, all sorts of different specimens in there.
“It’s what I imagine when you go to uni when you’re in halls and sharing a room, I was with Daniel Sturridge. We were there for three nights, we went training, come back to the village, them three nights we were up to 4am.
“You have different campuses, Team GB in one block, Brazil, France, all these countries, and there’s a massive big room full of condoms!
“It was like what, obviously promoting safe sex, and honest to god, I was on fire. I was on absolute fire, honestly. I was a little slimmer, a bit more ripped, bit more lean, it was summer time, walking around with my top off.
“There was multiple gold medals. one of the best times of my life, it was incredible.”
Meanwhile, the stadium that was the main site for the 1924 Paris Olympics is ready, a century later, to welcome hundreds of participants and tens of thousands of spectators for next year’s Summer Olympic Games in the French capital. The Yves-du-Manoir stadium, in the northwestern Paris suburb of Colombes, became on Monday the first sporting venue to be formally handed over by developers to local authorities ahead of the Games. It will host the competitions in field hockey, a sport which may not be the number one activity in France but has a huge following in northern Europe and Asia, in particular India.
The stadium was specially renovated for the 1924 Paris Games, when it hosted the opening ceremony, athletics and other sports ranging from equestrian to gymnastics.
With AFP inputs
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