Golden Olympic Mo-ment

Unquestionably the greatest individual achievement in the history of British athletics: Yesterday, 29-year old Mohamed Farah achieved an Olympic double – winning the Gold Medal in both the 10,000 metres and the 5,000 metres (only the seventh person ever to do so).

Mo Farah reacts to winning his second medal (Photo: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

“Arguably the best British runner of all time” – Lord (Sebastian) Coe.

“This is the greatest single moment in British Athletics in my lifetime; and it has been a privilege to be here to witness it” – Brendan Foster.

Personally speaking, I think anyone that plays the lottery is a complete fool; a victim of a very slick marketing campaign; has a very limited grasp of concepts such as probability and statistics; and more money than sense. However, to all those foolish, suggestible, mathematically illiterate and stupid people, I can only say a very big thank-you. I say this because I am quite certain that, without the National Lottery, this would not have happened.

The achievement of the National Lottery Great Britain is even more impressive when you consider the number of millions of people required to win a gold medal in each country:

I have watched more Olympic Games (on TV) than I care to remember but, even allowing for my national bias, surely you would agree that these have been the best Olympic Games ever…? I guess only time will tell… And if, by 2016, aviation has not been banned in order to help preserve a habitable planet, I guess we will only begin to know when the Olympic Carnival in Rio de Janeiro has been completed.