One Year to Go

Well kids, it's official.  The Olympic year has begun.  Exactly one year from today (almost to the minute if you consider the time difference and the time of this post) will be the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.  An Olympic Opening Ceremony is one of those once-in-a-lifetime events, and each is truly special in its own way.  After all the pomp and circumstance, there are always two great mysteries at the end of the Opening Ceremony.  What's the cauldron going to look like, and who's going to be the final torchbearer?  Other than the fact that it's going to be somebody British, we won't know the answer to the latter until a year from now.  But in a country that has such a great Olympic tradition, there are plenty of worthy candidates.

I think one of the favorites for the honor will be Sir Steve Redgrave.  A rower, Redgrave is hailed as Britain's greatest Olympian.  He's one of only four athletes to win gold medals at five successive Games.  After winning the coxed four in Los Angeles, Redgrave three-peated in the coxless pair (1988 with Andy Holmes, 1992-96 with Matthew Pinsent).  He and Holmes also won the bronze in the coxed pair in Seoul.  Redgrave then capped his Olympic career by rowing on Britan's victorious coxless four in Sydney.  In addition, he won a total of 12 medals (nine gold) at the World Championships.

Another candidate is somebody who very well could be competing in London: sailor Ben Ainslie.  If he does, Ainslie has a chance of joining Redgrave as a medalist in five straight Olympics.  He took the silver in the Laser class in Atlanta, then won the gold in that event in Sydney.  In 2004, Ainslie switched to the larger Finn class boat, and he's the two-time defending Olympic champion in that event.  After his gold medal in Beijing, Ainslie was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

If they want to have a woman light the cauldron, Virginia Wade would be an appropriate choice.  As everyone knows, Wimbledon is the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.  As everyone knows, the pressure on Andy Murray to win it every year is immense.  No British man has won Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.  Why am I bringing all this up?  Because the last British woman to win Wimbledon was Virginia Wade in 1977, which also happened to be Wimbledon's centennial year.  She also won the first US Open (in 1968) and 10 Grand Slam doubles titles, but that Wimbledon championship defined her career (and rightfully so).

A British athlete that has a chance to make quite a splash (literally) in London is swimmer Rebecca Adlington.  Adlington won gold medals in the 400 and 800 meter freestyle events in Beijing, breaking the 19-year-old world record in the latter.  With that, she became the first British swimmer to win Olympic gold in 20 years, the first British woman to win gold since 1960, and the first Brit to win multiple gold medals in swimming since London hosted for the first time.  In 1908!  Adlington's currently competing in the World Championships in Shanghai, and she should be favored again in both events in London.

Since Great Britain is perhaps the world's best-known monarchy (maybe you heard about that family wedding they had back in April), there will definitely be a royal presence at the Opening Ceremony.  As the head of state, the Queen will officially open the Games.  Wouldn't it be cool if a few minutes later, her daughter, Princess Anne (a former Olympian), capped the Ceremony by lighting the Olympic cauldron?  The Princess Royal was an accomplished equestrian competitor in her day, winning a European championship in 1971 and competing in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.  Her daughter, Zara Phillips, has a chance to make the British equestrian team for the London Games.

But the sport in which Great Britian has had its most Olympic success is track & field, which is why I think that's the sport the final torchbearer will come from.  Sir Sebastian Coe, a four-time Olympic medalist, would be a candidate if he wasn't organizing the entire London Games.  There's Linford Christie, who won silver in the 100 meters in Seoul, then won the gold in Barcelona (and at the 1993 World Championships).  Kelly Holmes is a three-time Olympic medalist, including her impressive double gold medal performace in the 800 and 1500 in Athens.  I think a serious candidate will be Daley Thompson.  Thompson twice won the Olympic decathlon (1980-84), and he set the world record in the grueling 10-event competition four times.

However, my choice has remained the same since London was awarded the 2012 Olympics six years ago.  He never won an Olympic medal, but is revered worldwide for being the first to achieve a sporting milestone that was once considered impossible.  On May 6, 1954, he ran a mile in less than four minutes.  Sir Roger Bannister then retired from track to pursue a medical career.  He had a long and distinguised medical career, but will forever be remembered for the four-minute mile.  It was truly one of the greatest sporting achievements of the 20th Century.

Any of the other candidates I mentioned have merit, and they're all worty of entering the discussion.  But the decision should be easy.  There's only one right choice as to who should get the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron one year from now in London: Sir Roger Bannister.