Wednesday 22 August 2012

Winner(s) of the Olympic Memories Alpha-H comp

It's time to announce the winner of the second part of my Alpha-H giveaway - the best Olympic memories comp (the winners to Part 1 were announced here). I really appreciated the effort you all went to in sharing your memories, so much so that I have decided to post them all here for you to read (if you are interested - if not, skip past the bullet points to see who the winner is).

  • My fave moment was the incredulous win by Steven Bradbury! It looked like the race was in the bag until that very last moment!
  • The Olympic moment that sticks in my mind was in 1996 I think, when an unfortunate diver messed up his dive and did a painful-looking bellyflop - the male Australian commentator exclaimed "Awww, right in the Jatz Crackers!"! It made me cringe but it was unexpected and hilarious and so very Australian!
  • My favourite Olympic memory is competing for Malta at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I have wanted to go to the Olympics since I was young and to get the experience was so surreal. I met so many fantastic people from all over the world and even had my birthday there! I love the Olympics because they bring the whole world together for a couple weeks. You don't have to be a world record holder to be there. It is all about participating. 
  • My favourite moment was actually in 1976, when I was only 6-7 years old. But I started Gymnastics when I was about 4 and still watch it every minute I can now, still so passionate about it. But when Nadia Comaneci scored the perfect 10 in the Montreal 1976 Olympics I became infatuated with her. My dream had been to follow in her footsteps, she inspired me and her story still does.
  • My favourite Olympic story is Sydney 2000 when princess Mary met prince Fredrick in a club and when she started dating him she did not know that he was a prince. Such a lovely love story a girl next door from Tasmania met a prince from Denmark in Sydney. I love the fact how princess Mary has transformed her looks , she is a natural beauty and inspires me a lot. The Olympics must be a special moment for them now as that's what brought them close and I am sure they are in London know embracing their anniversary .
  • My standout memory is when Canada won the Ice Hockey gold in Vancouver two years ago - I was living in Canada at the time and my BF and I were moving on the day of the final - not just across town, but 400kms! The whole day was scheduled around making sure we would be at the other end and be able to be in front of the TV to see the TV, we literally finished unpacking the truck in time to sit down and have a beer and watch the 3rd period and see Canada win!
  • You didn't mention if it could be winter Olympics or not.... so I'm going to go with my favorite Olympic moment that was in the winter Olympics. The classic Stephen Bradbury moment where he won the 1,000m speed skating in 2002 after the other competitors were all involved in a collision. It's just so classic to imagine how elated he would have been, to think an Australian could win a gold medal in speed skating. Not in his wildest dreams. It's kind of amazing - anything really is possible :)
  • My favourite Olympic moment is when any of the Australians win a medal, especially Gold medals or if they break a world record, it makes me feel proud to be Australian.
  • favourite Olympic moment would be Roy and HG's funny commentaries
  • My favourite Olympic moment is Nadia Comaneci scoring perfect 10s in the gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Although only 2 years old at the time, the replays during my youth as a gymnast have made this stick in my mind and it still gives me goosebumps.
  • My favourite Olympic memory is Eric the Eel, I'd forgotten about that until I watched the video!
  • I love that story of Eric the Eel. I remember watching it and thinking how great it was that everyone was cheering and supporting him. I also love the story of Steven Bradbury, who won gold in the speed skating because everyone else feel over. This changed the term 'buckley's chance' to 'Bradbury's chance' for a while.
    But I think my favourite Olympic memory was from 2000, when Roy & HG had their Olympic commentary show The Dump. Sport has never been so funny, and I wish they were part of every Olympic Games.
  • My favourite Olympic memory would have to be Nikki Webster at the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony, I have no real recollection of anything but! I was 8 and I had always wanted to be like her and sing at the Olympics! Although I will admit, now that the London Olympics are over, the Spice Girls were much much cooler with their personalised taxis in the closing ceremony!
  • My favourite Olympic moment was when Steven Bradbury won gold at the 1000m speed skating event at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He battled defeat and injury in previous years, but he persisted and his courage was inspiring.
  • I have to say the most memorable event for me, was watching the kiwi Mahe Drysdale race in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He is one of New Zealand's best single scull rowers and watching him struggle through the final heat was heart wrenching. He got very ill at the Olympic village and spent time at the village hospital. He was gaunt, exhausted and lost weight. He still won bronze and everyone was surprised he did that well. London 2012 was made even more special when he got the gold!
  • One of my favourite memories is of Keiren Perkens at the 96 Olympics winning gold for the second games in a row in such a grueling event. I was also blown away by Anna Meares in Beijing, to come back from breaking her neck to win silver was astounding then to back it up this year and beat her arch rival Victoria Pendleton who is the person that beat her in Beijing was fan-freaking-tastic. Oh and the look on Sally Pearsons face when she crossed the line and didn't know yet whether she'd won gold then her reaction was priceless. Just realised that I picked three QLDers =D
This one didn't qualify as it ended up being from the Commonwealth Games but I still thought that it was worth sharing!
  • Ive given this question a lot of thought and my favorite Olympic memory goes back a few years. I cant tell you what year it was but i think it was in the 90's...so yes a long time ago. An Irish boxer had won gold and for some reason they could not get the Irish Anthem to play so after several failed attempts this guy jumped up and grabbed a microphone and started to sing. He say the song "Danny Boy"...It was one of the most moving things at the time and i bet that Boxer always thinks of that moment whenever he hears that song. OK...my post above got me wondering exactly what year this was and i wondered if i could find a YouTube of it but it appears I've made an error and it was actually a commonwealth games and not Olympic.....

    As an amateur, McCullough participated in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea and was asked to carry the Irish flag because he was the youngest member of the team at 18 years old. He went on to win a silver medal for Ireland at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, The medal ceremony for his Commonwealth title was marked by an unusual incident. A technical problem with the public address system made it impossible to play the recording of the Northern Ireland anthem, Londonderry Air. The New Zealand official in charge of the sound, Bob Gibson, promptly took the microphone and sang the anthem unaccompanied, using the politically neutral lyrics to "Danny Boy",same tune
Some really great memories - thanks for sharing!

I have chosen Madeleine Scerri's answer as my favourite - this was her memory:

My favourite Olympic memory is competing for Malta at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I have wanted to go to the Olympics since I was young and to get the experience was so surreal. I met so many fantastic people from all over the world and even had my birthday there! I love the Olympics because they bring the whole world together for a couple weeks. You don't have to be a world record holder to be there. It is all about participating.

I was a medal presenter at the Sydney Olympics and that was a surreal experience so to actually compete must have been out of this world! Congrats Madeleine, you have won the Alpha-H Liquid Gold Perfecting Daywear!



There was actually another answer that really surprised me so I am going to award a runners up prize to sakina. I thought this response was a great take on the question:

My favourite Olympic story is Sydney 2000 when princess Mary met prince Fredrick in a club and when she started dating him she did not know that he was a prince. Such a lovely love story a girl next door from Tasmania met a prince from Denmark in Sydney. I love the fact how princess Mary has transformed her looks , she is a natural beauty and inspires me alot. The Olympics must be a special moment for them now as that's what brought them close and I am sure they are in London know embracing their anniversary.

Congrats sakina - you prize is a bottle of The Original Alpha-H Liquid Gold



Thanks once again everyone who entered! I will now contact the winners by email.

Just a heads up I am on the look out for some guest reviewers to trial some skincare ranges for me. That post should be up in the next few days so keep your eyes out for it.