A Great Honour For Sir Steve

An uncountable amount of rowers – and non-rowers, who truly understand his incredible achievements – around the world were enormously pleased to see that it was Sir Steve who was chosen to carry the Flame into the Olympic Stadium at the Olympic opening yesterday evening. What a fantastic honour for him, but, also for the sport of rowing.

Of course, it was also very emotional for Sir Steve, he reveals in an article, but also a little disappointing (!). Read his blog post in the Daily Telegraph here.

It was touching that Sir Steve handed the Flame over to some young athletes in a gesture to inspire the next generation to carry on the Olympic idea. There is, however, another side to what it meant to not have an ‘old’ Olympic champion light the Olympic Flame, here.

Then, the opening ceremony in pictures.

Fire And Water

One of the Olympic Torches.

Tim Koch reports from Henley-on-Thames:

Tuesday 10 July, day fifty-three of the Olympic Torch Relay around the UK, saw the turn of Henley-on-Thames, the town that staged the 1908 and 1948 Olympic Regattas, to host the event. Naturally, the river, rowing and rowers played a big part part and HTBS was there. The morning’s activities started with seven lucky Oxfordshire people carrying ‘their’ torch through the town. The torch itself is not handed on but the flame is. Outside of the River and Rowing Museum the torch held by Sir Steve Redgrave was lit and he then carried it in an eight crewed by two young rowers from each of the three local clubs. They were Maddy Wynn-Jones and James Mills from Henley R.C, Johnny Jackson and Natasha Harris-White from Upper Thames and, from Leander, Oli Collinson and Brendan Edwards. A security man made up the eight – though I am sure that Sir Steve can look after himself. Garry Herbert, the man who steered the Searles to victory in Barcelona in 1992, was the cox. The boat then rowed down through Henley Bridge to Leander where an honour guard of past Leander Olympians saw the torch ashore.

The Olympic Flame is rowed from the RRM to L.C.

The old boy at 5 was not putting down much work.

The local newspaper, the Henley Standard rapidly produced a splendid online video of the morning’s events. My only criticism is that they give publicity to another idiot pulling a stunt, here.

The Wokingham Times also produced a nice filmed report, here.

Leander Club

At Leander, a large banner proclaimed ‘99 olympic medals and counting’. In an article in yesterday’s the Guardian, the appropriately named Jon Henley wrote:

“There are entire sporting nations – Brazil, South Africa, Portugal, New Zealand – that cannot boast as many Olympic medals as can the members of this club [Leander]; a staggering 99 of them, including 13 from Beijing alone. And since Leander is supplying nearly half the 48-strong GB rowing squad, 2012 will certainly see the club’s 100th, quite possibly its 110th.”

The Olympic Flame is on a 70-day relay involving 8,000 torchbearers covering 8,000 miles.

The Olympic Torch

In 1952, an eight from Malmö Rowing Club, in the south of Sweden, picked up the Olympic torch in the habour of Malmö and rowed the flame on the canal in to the club house. From there it was further transported to Helsinki.

For the Olympic Games in London next year, the Olympic torch will be transported on an 8,000-mile (12,874 km) tour around Great Britain. The flame will also arrive to Henley-on-Thames on 10 July, the local newspaper the Henley Standard mentions in an article. Thereafter, it will be rowed from the River and Rowing Museum to Reading, and then go on a journey around England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and outlying islands. “The relay will conclude with the flame travelling along the River Thames to reach the Olympic Stadium on July 27,” the newspaper writes.

The names of the rowers who are taking it to Reading have not yet been publicized. Of course, the town of Henley has a great Olympic tradition, being the host of two previous Olympic regattas in 1908 and 1948. The River and Rowing Museum is celebrating the Olympics and Paralympic Games with an exhibition called “The Perfect Rower — 100 Years of Racing for Glory”. Read the whole article in the Henley Standard here.

For the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, the Olympic torch was fetched in the habour of Malmö by an eight from my rowing club, Malmö Roddklubb. The oarsmen elegantly rowed into the canal and to the club house, where it was picked up by the local canoe club. When I began rowing in the club, the older members, whether they had been in the crew or not, still talked with pride of carrying the Olympic flame – a great honour for the club, indeed.