As the Olympic flame reached Hyde Park this evening for tonight’s massive evening celebration event in Hyde Park, Mayor of London Boris Johnson gave a grand, rousing speech (over chants of ‘Bor-is, Bor-is, Bor-is…’) to the 80,000 people that had gathered in the park.
LIGHT MY FIRE: 19-year-old Tyler Rix had the honour of lighting the cauldron in front of the 80,000-strong Hyde Park crowd.
CROWD OF THOUSANDS: 80,000 people had gathered in Hyde Park for tonight’s Torch Relay reception.
YOUNG AND OLD: Today’s final torchbearer, 19-year-old Tyler Rix, lit the cauldron before Boris Johnson made his seemingly impromptu, but brilliant, speech to the masses.
ALL EYES ON LONDON: On the eve of the Olympics Opening Ceremony, Mayor of London Boris Johnson delivered a rousing speech to the Hyde Park crowd.
VIEW FROM BEHIND: Boris Johnson tonight tweeted this photograph from backstage at the event.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this in all my life. The excitement is growing so much, I think the Geiger counter of Olympomania is going to go zoink – off the scale.
“People are coming from around the world, and they’re seeing us, and they’re seeing the greatest city on Earth, aren’t they?
“There are some people who are coming from around the world who don’t yet know about all the preparations we’ve done to get London ready in the last seven years, and I hear there’s a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we’re ready. […] Yes, we are. The venues are ready. The Stadium is ready. The Aquatics Centre is ready. The Velodrome is ready. The security is ready. The police are ready. The transport system is ready. And our Team GB athletes are ready, aren’t they?
“There’s going to be more gold, silver, bronze medals than you’d need to bail out Greece and Spain together. Let me ask you in conclusion: can we, final question, […] can we put on the greatest Olympic games that has ever been held? […] Are we worried about the weather? We’re not worried about the weather!
“Can we beat France? Yes we can! Can we beat Australia? Yes we can! Can we beat Germany? I think we can.
“Thank you very much everybody. Have a wonderful, wonderful London 2012. Thank you for all your support.”
— Boris Johnson (Mayor of London), speaking at Torch Relay Day 69 evening celebration event in Hyde Park, 26 July 2012
To have been in the crowd, like my friend Tess Warn was, would have been a wonderful way to spend Olympics eve. But people across the internet have been able to enjoy Boris’s ‘Olympomania’ speech, with one Twitter user
comparing the term to something that Twenty Twelve Head of Brand Siobhan Sharpe (played brilliantly by Jessica Hynes) may say.
http://twitter.com/aefmiddleton/status/228611652088627200
Don’t miss my full report of the day the Torch went through Maidenhead, and check out my 24 Hours To Go post from earlier. |