I have been following various events in the Olympic’s over the past week - I always watch the swimming without fail having been a keen competition swimmer myself in my teenage years. I actually was asked to swim for the the Australian swimming coach, Terry Gathercole,  when one of his ‘spotters’ saw me race one time but on the day of my trial swim for him he was ill and unable to attend my session.

I came so close to swimming at the Montreal Olympics – oh well…

My hero back then was undoubtedly the Australian swimming legend Shane Gould and watched her, when I was a small child, win five medals at the Munich Games. She really inspired me.

Swimming came easy to me and I always have been grateful that my parents took me along to my first swimming lesson when I was 18 months old – I never looked back after that. I marvel at the swimmers today and how the physiques of the competitive swimmers have changed with the new training techniques. But they look absolutely fantastic – especially the men.

One thing I never was good at was the running and field athletics though; I saw the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt break the world record this morning – 6 feet 5 inches tall and the longest stride most people have ever seen on an Olympic track. What an athlete. He held up his shoes after the race and I wondered just how important the right shoes must be for these runners – but I suspect he could run in his bare feet and he would still strike sparks off the ground.

Me? I would probably need a pair of those trendy new MBT shoes at the very least. Even then I would still need a rocket or two strapped to my legs to hurl me down the track. I’ll stick to the pool thanks…