- 16 Oct 08, 04:42 PM
As parades go, it was pleasant enough.
City boys wolf-whistled at Victoria Pendleton. Office girls took photos of Chris Hoy on their mobile phones and zoomed in on the triple-layered bling around his neck. Natasha Danvers-Smith warned autograph hunters to "watch out for the horse-poo" left by the mounted police escort.
What was missing, as the 12 floats rolled slowly from Mansion House through to Trafalgar Square, was the giddy-eyed Olympic fever which had gripped the nation back in the summer.
There might well have been good reasons why the parade had to be delayed until the middle of October - planning issues, traffic control, the busyness of the Queen's social diary - but it was hard to escape the feeling that the moment had passed.
London on a bright but chilly October morning is a very different place to smoggy Beijing at the height of summer, and a lot has changed since the gold rush in August.
The feelgood factor engendered by that record-breaking medal haul has been replaced the doom of financial meltdown and gloom of impending recession.
From Peking Duck to Chicken Licken in just two months. No wonder the mood was a little muted.
The athletes themselves were enjoying themselves. While no-one opted to play the Freddie Flintoff role - at least not until they'd arrived at Buckingham Palace - the Olympians and Paralympians waved cheerily at the mix of office workers, cycle couriers and confused tourists who lined the route.
Phillips Idowu looked happy in proximity to his silver medal, which certainly didn't happen in Beijing. Nicole Cooke waved with the tireless enthusiasm that only an endurance athlete could manage. Tim Brabants went post-modern and videoed people videoing him being videoed.
For Christine Ohuruogu, the day was testament to the life-changing power of a few short seconds of Olympic success - going from presenting a Mobo award at Wembley Arena to standing in Nelson's shadow in Trafalgar Square to tea with the Queen.
For the first time in weeks, a few bankers were even spotted smiling.
There was a lovely moment when the cavalcade inched past the Australian embassy, and the pavement suddenly became bereft of cheering punters for a short section.
A bronze medal for barefaced cheek also goes to the enterprising spiv seen selling St George's flags to the Japanese tourists who wanted to join in the fun. Probably a good job Hoy and Cooke were looking the other way.
But it was certainly not a celebration like those that followed the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and the Ashes in 2005.
No-one was cavorting in the Trafalgar Square fountains. The only schoolchildren who were allowed off lessons to come along for the day were Tom Daley and Eleanor Simmonds. Half-term's only just round the corner, too.
Maybe that's a good thing. Those other two parades were later seen as the hubristic reason for the respective teams' subsequent decline.
For everyone involved in Beijing, this was probably the moment that a line was drawn under their extraordinary exploits.
Rebecca Adlington, revealing she had been offered free burger and chips for life by the Yates pub renamed in her honour, said she felt less fit then she could ever remember. Hoy spoke wistfully of being able to finally return to the "day-job" in a couple of weeks.
A few miles east in Stratford, the steel structure of the Olympic stadium is now visible above ground.
For the athletes and those of us who watched their performances with delight, it's all about 2012 from now on in.
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So the BBC got caught right up in all the hype and were probably its main source.
Then they come out to say "now its all gone...I wonder why"
The Olympics this summer were nothing special...yes we did very well but at sports only few other nations give the same level of funding for.
Nothing to get too carried away about...which everyone did!
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Bit hard to consider it 'hubristic' for the team that won the World Cup to come back to huge fanfare isn't? The Ashes was embarrassing I agree, after all we'd just won a two-horse race for the first time in 18 years, but winning a World Cup deserves a huge parade, and I think the subsequent decline was due to age of key players rather than some laziness built from being feted.
Congrats to all the GB Olympians though, they were fantastic - and maybe the administrators who ensured they couldn't do this parade until October can be now found and eliminated long before they get their hands on messing up the London Olympics!
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Where can I get a photo of Ellie Simmonds being carried on the shoulders of two giants on to the podium today?
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Number 1.
"The Olympics this summer were nothing special...yes we did very well but at sports only few other nations give the same level of funding for.
Nothing to get too carried away about...which everyone did!"
I bet you're a right laugh at a party old misery guts!
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What a negative spin on a great day...
Finally we have a set of sports men to be truly proud of and to give us some national pride and this is how you cover it...
Your point of view on the parade doesn?t match the people I spoke too today and neither does it tally up with the TV pictures.
You point to the fact that ?No-one was cavorting in the Trafalgar Square fountains?. No doubt if they had, your headline would of read ?hooligans ruin parade?. Anything for a negative spin right ?
More poor, negative, spun journalism from the BBC.
No doubt we can expect more upbeat journalism as we approach the London games as you tell us just how wrong we are getting it ?
While you lot in the media and the sort of person who appear on Question Time moan moan and moan, the rest of us are actually VERY excited about the London 2012 and can not wait for it. No matter how people like you will no doubt put it down.
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They were excellent role models (rather than heroes) for young kids to look up to if they can into sport (ok not everyone likes PE etc) .
Yes some events can be limited in terms of countries competing but you still have to beat them by hard work and making best use of the money.
My only fear is that by 2012 people will be so deflated and concerned about the rising costs to their taxes that the Olympic feel good factor will not be there.
I hope the press don't hype/put too much pressure on these guys like they do with the main sports in this country.
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I'm still on a post-Olympic buzz, I recall the games every time I hit the gym...but I remember seeing the parade advertised yesterday, right next to a headline about England's upcoming world cup qualifier. My mind was on British qualification for future sporting events, rather than celebration of a recent one.
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Who supped your pint?
What a miserable, negative shower of people seem to be working for the BBC at the moment. Are they putting something in the water?
You lot don't need lessons on how to spoil a party, you've cultivated it to a fine art. Grumpy old gits.
When the interviewer asked Chris Hoy what he fely about the possibility of money being cut for the 2012 Olympics I don't know how he didn't get a smack.
Think I'll switch off the TV and stick to Radio 2 in future, at least I get a laugh there.
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Those tracksuits are so scruffy. That's all I noticed. I recognised maybe half a dozen of the competitors.
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#1 and 2,
Your comments are a disgrace. Saying that we "did well is some sport" is one the biggest understatements I've ever heard, and what you don't realise is the improvement Great Britain have made in the Worlds Premier sporting event in the last decade- in the 1996 Olympics we won 1 gold medal. This is down to the government putting in more effort to give opportunities to the talented and when they deliver and are crowned the best at what they do in the world you just come up with comments like that!?
And #2, the Ashes is the World Cup of cricket- ask any true English or Australian cricket fan and they will agree- the Cricket World Cup is a farce as was shown in the West Indies last year.
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Wow, chill out people. BBC was only giving his opinion on the event - and you can hardly say the BBC are being negative as thy hyped up this parade relentlessely for the last week.
As it happens I have to agree with him in spirit. You could see from the TV pictures that the streets weren't exactly heaving and Trafalgar Square was about 2/3 as full as it was for the handing over ceremony (if I was Chris Hoy I'd be gutted I couldn't pull more of a crowd than the cast of We Will Rock You!). So I'm not sure it's fair to dig into the Beeb on this one. The athletes deserved it and it's great everyone had a good time; don't tell me you wouldn't have preffered it to happen a month ago though?
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On the one hand people criticise the Beeb for hyping/promoting the events yesterday. Then it comes, and one journo gives his point of view, and people criticise him. You really can't win, can you?
I'd agree - part of the reason the parade seemed lacklustre/not as packed out as other parades was because the moment was gone. People have lost the warm glow that surrounded those heady days of August and the 'Super Saturday' wins. People are worrying about other issues, and have other things to think about. Children are back at school, and they are the ones who really add the sparkle to the party (you only have to look at the younger Olympians/Paralympians to see that).
Overall, whilst we cheer the athletes and celebrate their success, a combination of bad timing (why was it on a Thursday; and if it had to be a week day, why not half term?) and economic issues, meant that people weren't as happy as they might have been. And that's a shame, but something the organisers will have to go away and think about.
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