Thread by @jamesgraysport

I am now back from #Beijing2022 and have had a proper sleep so feel ready to reflect. It's been an experience not many people will ever have had or get the chance to have, so it feels worth devoting a little thread of conclusions to it.

🧵

1. Bubbles are hard

I have a whole new respect and sympathy for sports people who have been bubbling round the world. After 2+ weeks, the monotony of even things you liked at the beginning becomes extremely tough. It is as much about the loss of control as the situation itself.

2. China ain't exactly snowy

Fake snow has become part of the Winter Olympics - thanks climate change - but this was the first 100 per cent fake snow Games, and Hebei province is a very dry place.

These were not the Green Games, they were the Brown Games.

(In fairness it did snow in Beijing one day and all the volunteers who seemed to mostly come from South China got very excited and built snowpeople.)

3. There is no shortage of great stories to tell

Bit niche, but I was gratified to see numbers online for all sorts of stories, and not just medal-winners. Olympians, particularly British winter ones, have usually had to sweat blood and tears to get there.

Farrell Treacy, who ended up getting to an Olympic final, caught Covid in January and was told he would not be going to Beijing, only for protocols to change and allow him to travel.

inews.co.uk/sport/olympics…

4. Journalism is a team game

One thing it took me years to learn is how your rivals are often your friends in sports journalism. All the other British journalists had been to Olympics before and you very much ended up running as a (knackered and grouchy) pack.

5. Eileen Gu will continue to fascinate

Expect to attract the trolls with this, but the American-Chinese superstar is going to set challenges for the CCP with her insistence on dual citizenship, technically illegal in China. More here👇

inews.co.uk/sport/olympics…

6. Ice is nice

There are 57 ice rinks in England, yet ice skating gets under £100k of Olympic funding.

Skating - be it figure, speed or short track - is terrific to watch and easily accessible for thousands. Could we not become a country of skating medallists?

7. Go watch figure skating live

I've never been a figure skating guy, but it is a sport that massively loses something on TV. The athleticism, power and speed of the people involved is off the charts.

Also, you might get the chance to watch Kamila Valieva, who is box office.

8. Roll on Paris

Hopefully, the people foolish enough to send me to Beijing will make the same mistake again and want to send me to Paris for the Summer Games in two years' time. And Milan in four. And LA in six.

I'm hooked.