Well that’s another Olympics over. I love the Olympics. It’s so wonderful seeing different sports taking centre stage. Don’t get me wrong, I love football, rugby and golf, but there are so many other sports to enjoy.

This time I got really hooked on skeet shooting, kayak cross and sport climbing. Who knew they would be edge of the seat stuff!

Of course, my favourites are the equestrian disciplines. Ending the games with 2 Team Golds, a Team Bronze and 2 individual Bronzes shows how strong we are. Long may they continued to be celebrated at the games.

On reflection, I have a strange relationship with the Summer Olympics. In 2008 when the Bejing Games were on, I was signed off work with stress-related insomnia and severe anxiety. There was a lot of crying!

By 2012 and the London Games, I was Team GBs head cheerleader again as I led the internal campaign at Aviva to get everyone behind the games and Team GB. More cheering than crying this time.

On to 2016 and the Rio Games found me on the sofa again, this time with a broken finger. Yup you guessed it, back to lots of crying.

A global pandemic put pay to the 2020 Games! Can’t say I was in the best place in 2021 when the games actually took place. Back to struggling with anxiety and the new joy of depression! But at least I wasn’t injured eh?!?!

In fact, this is the first games in a very long time that I actually enjoyed. I’m in a good place mentally and physically. One thing is for sure, I will always Team GBs cheerleader. I’ve cried when people lost, I’ve cried when they won. I love hearing the back stories.

I will never get to the Olympics as a competitor. But I would love to go one day as a spectator. Might need to take lots of tissues with me though. So adieu Paris and the is for the memories…