Olympic Alphabet - B is for....

... Bringing your Best (When it counts)

Most athletes or olympic hopefuls visualise their perfect olympics- putting out your very best performance. Standing on the podium with a gold medal and the National Anthem playing. But whether or not you end up with a medal- most olympians remember whether or not their olympics performance was the best it could be.

Those who did-

• Yu-Na Kim- smashed personal and olympic records with her performance in Vancouver to win by a landslide. Under all the pressure she delivered- hence the well earned reaction from her (and her coach, Brian)
• Nastia Liukin - Won the all around competition not just on the difficulty of all her skills - but by the fact that she performed each of her routines about as well as she ever had.
• Michael Phelps - 8 golds, 8 world records- can't get much better than that!
• And many many more!

Those who couldn't

• Carolina Kostner - buckled under the pressure at her home games in Turin and missed the chance to redeem herself four years later in Vancouver- will the third time be the charm?
• Cheng Fei- gave her all for the team, her brilliant floor routine securing China's team gold in gymnastics in Beijing- but when it came to doing it for herself in the individual finals- she fell short.
  
• Alicia Sacramone- may never forgive herself for her 2 falls in the Team final in Beijing- but she's started a successful comeback in search of olympic redemption!

.... B is also for Beth

The flag-carrier for GB gymnastics and inspiration to so many young gymnasts. Beth Tweddle showed that this wasn't just a sport for tweenagers and that it is possible to develop into a champion gymnast over time.

This year Beth became an MBE - Member of the order of the British Empire- a royal honour not usually bestowed on athletes until they return home, olympic medal in hand. However the award is given for 'services to sport' - something Beth has given in bundles!

Beth did not have her best performances in Beijing- narrowly missing the bars, floor and team finals. Hopefully London 2012 will be her time. With the rapid improvements of team GB gymnasts- its looking good!

By the way- if you have any better suggestions for the Olympic Alphabet- feel free to comment and propose them!