EIGHT: Best Olympic Moments

The world already knew about Usain Bolt prior to the 2008 games, as he was the current world record holder having smashed it a few months earlier. But it was Asafa Powell who was undoubtedly the starboy, having consistently bettered his world recording leading numbers.

As it turned out, it was Usain Bolt that ate them all and left no crumbs – and he could have gone even faster had he not started celebrating 10 meters from the line.

At the same games he would also obliterate Michael Johnson’s 200m record – only to do it all again in 2009. Bolt remains the world record holder and the fastest man of all time.

In 1988 I wanted to be three people: one was Ruud Gullit; one was Ben Johnson (we’ll get to this), and the other was Flo Jo.

How there hasn’t been a film about this extraordinary athlete is beyond me, as not only are her 100m and 200m records still valid but nobody has come close to the on-track presence, style, and pure camp theatre that Flo Jo provided. You didn’t need to like sport or athletics to watch her – she was pure box office!

Unfortunately Florence Griffith Joyner passed away at the ridiculously early age of 39, but her legend very much lives on – as do her records and her influence in style.

Ok, so let me clarify: I think I liked Ben Johnson mainly because my dad had convinced me that we could possibly be related through our Jamaican roots. That turned out to be false – which was handy, as Ben Johnson gold medal winner destroyed a world class field, including arguably the greatest of them all, the CircleZeroEight cover star Carl Lewis. But Johnson was later disqualified for taking banned substances. The great Carl Lewis was awarded the gold medal and Ben Johnson quietly exited in a Milli-Vanilli-handing-back-the-Grammy kind of way.

Ok so Whitney Houston wasn’t competing in the Olympics, but if she had, with this song – which turned out to be the soundtrack to the Games – she would have definitely broken records.

The video is a montage of athletes’ most powerful moments. It’s as emotional as it gets and encapsulates the 1980s drama, power, and America The Land of the Brave. If for some ridiculous reason you haven’t seen this video or heard this song, I suggest you go right now to YouTube and get on that emotional rollercoaster.

The first incarnation of the Dream Team will always be my favourite. It was the first time the biggest names in sport would come together and play as one. Jordan and Pippen, Magic Johnson (massively controversial due to his HIV diagnosis), and Larry Bird. Some young kid Shaquille O’Neal didn’t even make the draft. I always wonder how that worked out for him. I’m being silly, we all know what happened to Shaq… we also knew what was going to happen in this competition, with the Dream Team cruising to gold – the closest margin to victory in all the matches being 38 points. Also lets not forget the kit was banging, and I’ll never forget being able to match the trainer to the players. True star power!

So I feel like first people would go with Michael Phelps when we’re talking about swimming, but I’m throwing a curveball and going with a true child prodigy. Ian Thorpe – otherwise known as the Thorpedo – was a phenomenon, winning his first major title at the age of 14. His giant size 17 feet had commentators suggesting they were so big he used them as flippers.

In 2000 on home turf Thorpe participated in five events, winning gold and breaking the world record in three of them, and getting silver in the other two.

Thorpe didn’t actually take part in a huge number of events, which is probably one of the reasons why he doesn’t have the same tally as Phelps. But in terms of pure talent, he is one of the greatest.

Sally Gunnell against Sandra Farmer-Patrick had been billed as the big show in the 400m hurdles, and it didn’t disappoint. The last 100m was pure brilliant Olympic entertainment at its best.

Farmer-Patrick and Gunnell were head to head coming into the last stretch, and it was Gunnell who started to pull away. Pure strength and determination – and I might add a truly elegant running style. Farmer-Patrick tried but had no response. You couldn’t help but watch and feel inspired by someone who we had seen work so hard to get to the level she truly deserved.

Cathy Freeman had become the face of the Sydney Olympics – the weight of a nation was truly on her shoulders. It is hard to describe this race and give it the justice it truly deserves, so if you haven’t seen it please do check it out. It is guaranteed to give you goosebumps. Freeman – in what can only be described as the best running attire since Flo Jo, with a full head-to-toe bodysuit – would win the title, becoming the first Australian Aboriginal athlete to win a gold medal. A truly incredible and historic moment.