Year in Review - Best Moments of 2012

(ATR) Around the Rings editorial staffers ring in the new year by revealing their favorite sporting moments of 2012...

Ed Hula

Even though my visit to Doha in March was due to a conference on sports security, with the city at thattime still in the race for the 2020 Olympics, I viewed the Qatari capital through the prism of a bid city.

This was the latest of more than a half-dozen visits to Doha through the years, the trips spurred inpart by Qatar’s frequent hosting of sports events and meetings, as well as a previous bid for the 2016Olympics.

Despite getting knocked-out early for both 2016 and 2020, Qatar still has grand ambitions to host theOlympics. After all, the tiny nation has already hosted the 2006 Asian Games and is on track to hold the2022 FIFA World Cup.

Challenges remain. Weather and timing of the Games looms largest. Filling the stadiums and arenas withlocals, as well as finding volunteers is another.

Hospitality is not an issue.

On my last night in Doha last March I ventured from my hotel to the neighboring Villaggio, anoutrageously huge mall that seems to be the town square downtown Doha is missing. Throngs of peoplebrowsed the chic stores and boutiques. Hundreds more sat at tables around an ice rink watching theflailing arms and wobbly legs of the novices on this improbable ice rink.

But besides soaking up the local color, I had come to eat some dinner. And the food court surroundingthe ice rink beckoned, although the majority of the choices were American fast food. Happily I founda spot serving Middle Eastern shwarma. I ordered a plate, a drink and handed my credit card to thecashier to pay for my $10 dinner.

But it was cash only. Not a problem I said, offering to head to a nearby cash point to withdraw theneeded dinar.

As I started to head that way, a tall Qatari dressed in gleaming white dishdasha, put down his family’stray of food and asked the cashier in Arabic how much I owed. He reached into his pocket and pulled outa couple of bills, handing them to over.

"You are a guest in my country, we are honored to have you," he said with a smile as he headed off.

I won’t say that the kindness of stranger convinced me that Doha is ready to host the Olympics.

But it does seem that Doha is ready to welcome the world.

Ed Hula III

London 2012 delivered fantastic sport. It could be argued that no other Olympics delivered as much sport with the quality that these Games did. However, my favorite moment was a personal one. Seeing Olympic Stadium complete, for the first time, while rounding a bend on the DLR easily marked my favorite moment of the year. London 2012 was the first Olympics I covered from bid until the end. Seeing the stadium with its distinctive wrap marked the culmination of years of work, turning the 2012 Olympics from an abstract idea into something real. At that moment, I realized this is what it takes to put an Olympic Games together from start to finish.

Matthew Grayson

Races are supposed to be competitive. 800m finals are supposed to be grueling. Gold medals are supposed to hard-fought. David Rudisha’ s record-shattering run at London 2012 was none of the above, yet somehow still the most electrifying moment of the Games – and for that matter, the year in sport.

I arrived at Olympic Stadium in the nick of time, dashing through the entrance for credentialed media, up a staircase or two and into the entryway of a section of seats reserved…well, not for credentialed media.

Perhaps that was for the best, though, as the experience needed some element of suspense. Whether I’d get booted from my perch among the ticket-holding masses before the Kenyan finished his two laps of the track turned out a much better race than the one unfolding below.

In less than a minute and 41 seconds, Rudisha obliterated the other seven runners, all of whom were in fact en route to personal bests, if not national or junior records for the 800m. Rudisha’s 1:40.91 was, however, a world record, smashing his own mark of 1:41.09 set in 2010. The Kenyan led from start to finish in what’s been called "the greatest 800m run ever" by The Wall Street Journal, "the performance of the Games" by LOCOG chair Sebastian Coe and now the best moment of 2012 by Around the Rings.

Christian Radnedge

It's a wonderful thing to sit in front of the computer debating which of the many moments of 2012 was my favorite. It was the perfect year to celebrate being British, and I reported at my first Olympics - my HOME Olympics. Words cannot possibly describe the elation, excitement and sheer ecstasy I felt while witnessing some of the moments that will be in history books and talked about for many years to come. Ennis, Farah, Wiggins, Bolt, Storey, Weir - they were all very special. But my favorite moment is one that did not actually take place in the capital.

It took place at the very tip of England, not far from Land's End, no less. It was a rather predictably wet English day in May when the Olympic Flame was due to arrive from Greece on the special BA 'Firefly'. I was standing among other members of the press in Culdrose airfield cold, wet and fastidiously checking the watch to confirm suspicions that the plane was running late. It had been a long drive for myself from London so I was also tired and in need of a rest, but suddenly the crowd piped up and I heard someone shout "I can see it!" I looked through the grey clouds, and shining through the English haze was a bright light coming in to land. The hairs on my neck stood to attention as I suddenly felt a wave of emotion come over me. The Olympic Flame, one of the only symbols left in the world in these dark times that you can look to to be inspired and strive to see the best in everyone was coming to my home and was about to spread its warmth over the next 70 days to my compatriots up and down the country.

When the plane touched the ground, the presenter screamed "The Olympic Flame has landed!" So had the exhiliration of the British people for the Games - and that just kept growing right up until that same flame gave its last breath as the glorious summer of British sport also came to an end. But that day in May will stay with me forever.

Written by ATR staff

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