I caught the last 20 minutes . . . she was in a class of her own, truly inspirational. I too feel terribly sorry for her that the last two Olympics proved beyond her. There's always 2012, but it's a long shot given that new talent will emerge between now and then.
I then watched the breathless finish to the F1 championship from Interlagos.
That was an altogether more tense and in the end bizarre affair, Hamilton taking the World Championship (the youngest driver ever to do so) by a single point thanks to another driver (Glock) staying out in the rain on slick tyres. Massa crossed the line as world champion only for Hamilton to slide past Glock on the penultimate corner to claim the 4 points he needed to win.
If I'm honest I don't care for forumla 1, partly because of the pheonomenal sums teams needs to compete (Mclaren survived a 100 million dollar penalty last year) but mostly because it's ruled over by a Grey-haired Oompah Lumpah who seems to run things according to which side of the bed he climbs out on. The political nonsense that almost cost Hamilton the title bordered on farce, revealing the sports' bare-faced ass-kissing patronage of Ferrari and making itself a laughing stock amongst fans of a genuine and fair contest.
The scenes tonight of the Ferrari mechanics and assorted appended glitterati celebrating wildly only to be told by a man in a red fireproof suit, live on television, that Hamilton had passed Glock to snatch the title really have to be seen to be believed. They reminded me (inevitably) of Lauthar Matteaus's face as he watched, freshly applauded off the field at the Camp Nou, his superior (for 89 minutes at least) Bayern Munich team mates hand the European Cup to the Rowdies.
His look of slack-jawed disbelief will stay with me to the grave.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
The Future Starts Yesterday
