This is for everyone (II)

When the boat Collective Spirit was launched on May 7th this year, fashioned as it was from ordinary objects donated by 1000 people, it was a reminder of the aspiration that this Olympic year should bring people together in ways never before imagined. The Torch Relay was part of the same aspiration- bringing 8000 runners and thousands of crowds together from every walk of life. The BBC’s Olympic trailer, which may have “mythed the point” in some ways, nonetheless captured the sense that this was to be a truly shared experience. On Friday night, Danny Boyle declared spectacularly that “this is for everyone” in everything from pyrotechnics to costume choices.

Now that the games are under way, it is time to test out whether these aspirations are actually realised.  I watched yesterday’s Men’s Cycle Race on a communal television in a hospital waiting room with the sound barely audible. As Bradley Wiggins crossed the finish line I was joined by a Jamaican family, a man in a galabeya and a Philllipino nurse, amongst others. When the moment came, all whooped and said “we’ve done it”. This was a moment of togetherness that no-one could have stage-managed better if they had tried.

Hours later, after fighting through huge crowds on station platforms and walking home on account of Olympic buses not running down the cycle route, I met a young man at the bus stop. After hearing that there would be no buses for the next two hours, and that he would have to walk the three miles or so home on a hot evening he smiled and said: “never mind – its worth it because we got the gold, didn’t we?”

Collective Spirit indeed…