Olympic Fever is Running Rampant in My House

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It's that time again, when the world's most gifted athletes proudly gather together to compete for illustrious gold medal as ambassadors for their country.  I can't believe it's been four years already.

Anticipation for the opening ceremony is palpable in my house. Hubby and Baby Girl have been counting down the days for MONTHS.

When the baby was in about 4th grade, and the Olympics were still fresh in her head, she thought she'd try out her gymnastics skills on the playground at recess. Needless to say, it didn't go so well. She used a bit of sand to powder her hands and proceeded to the monkey bars. Her hands slipped off the bars resulting in a less than graceful dismount. And a broken arm. The memory of meeting her and hubby at the Emergency Room still makes me shudder. Her poor little arm was propped on a pillow at her side, projecting at an angle an arm is NOT supposed to bend. At that moment, I wished I could have traded places with her. I would have gladly taken that broken arm in her place.

Oh yeah. The celebration...

Titled "Isles of Wonder", the Olympic Opening Ceremony is predicted to be viewed live by a worldwide TV audience of over a billion people. It's sure to be an exciting show. Danny Boyle, the Oscar-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire, and London resident, is responsible for tonight's festivities as the Artistic Director.

Pulling off an Olympics Opening ceremony is no easy feat. The $42.4 million show will feature 10,000 adult volunteers and 900 children. Can you imagine keeping reign on that many children? It makes my head spin to think about it.

2012 Olympic Medals

About the medals from the London 2012 website:

The medals have been designed by David Watkins, an established artist in the field of decorative art, and are in production at the Royal Mint headquarters in Llantrisant, South Wales.

The story behind the medal
The Olympic medals’ circular form is a metaphor for the world. The front of the medal always depicts the same imagery at the Summer Games – the Greek Goddess of Victory, Nike, stepping out of the depiction of the Parthenon to arrive in the Host City.

The design for the reverse features five symbolic elements:

- The curved background implies a bowl similar to the design of an amphitheatre.
- The core emblem is an architectural expression, a metaphor for the modern city, and is deliberately jewel-like.  
- The grid suggests both a pulling together and a sense of outreach – an image of radiating energy that represents the athletes’ efforts. 
- The River Thames in the background is a symbol for London and also suggests a fluttering baroque ribbon, adding a sense of celebration. 
- The square is the final balancing motif of the design, opposing the overall circularity of the design, emphasising its focus on the centre and reinforcing the sense of ‘place’ as in a map inset.

Medal specification
- The London 2012 Olympic medals weigh 375-400g, are 85mm in diameter and 7mm thick.
- The gold medal is made up of 92.5% silver and 1.34% gold, with the remainder copper (a minimum of 6g of gold).
- The silver medal is made up of 92.5% silver, with the remainder copper.
- The bronze medal is made up of 97.0% copper, 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin.
The precious ore for the medals has been supplied by London 2012 sponsor Rio Tinto and was mined at Kennecott Utah Copper Mine near Salt Lake City in America, as well as from the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia. For the small amount of non-precious elements that make up the bronze medals, the zinc was sourced from a mine in Australia as well as from recycled stock, while the tin originates from a mine in Cornwall.

What about you, will you be tuning in to the Opening Ceremony tonight? Do you have a favorite sport to watch? I thought gymnastics was my favorite but after looking at the schedule of events, I can't pick a favorite.

GO USA!!

Have a terrific weekend,
Angela