And so to the year 2000 – the first year of the new century. Or the last year of the old century, depending on how you look at it. More importantly for me, it was the first year that I had a proper job. This was a new interruption to my Olympic viewing, but I managed to work round it.
At the start of the games, I was in Uxbridge for the induction week of my new job. Every morning, I would try watch as much of the live action as I could before leaving my B&B. In the evening, I would rush home to catch up on the day’s highlights. The following week, I was back in Glasgow with some self-paced training to keep me occupied. This meant that I was able to work from home, with the opportunity to sneak off to the TV whenever a key event was about to take place.
One particular final that I remember switching on for was the super heavyweight boxing. I have to confess that boxing is something of a guilty pleasure of mine. When I think about it rationally, the idea of getting pleasure from watching two men trying to inflict minor brain damage on each other is quite disturbing, but there is something quite enthralling about a competitive fight. To an extent, amateur boxing (which features in the Olympics) takes some of the danger and guilt away with its head-guards and point-scoring system.
So it was that I was caught up in the excitement as Audley Harrison progressed through the rounds. He was a charismatic character with a larger-than-life personality (which no mean feat considering a life-sized Audley Harrison is 6′5″ and over 17 stones). In the final, his opponent from Kazakhstan was no match and Harrison won Britain’s first boxing gold in the top weight division since 1920. Since turning professional, his career has not reached the heights expected of him, but for that moment he was a national hero.
